Grounded content generation.

Turn a blank slate into a working draft with referenced content — sourced from a document you supply, not from the model's general knowledge.

1. Put the summary in OneDrive or SharePoint. Copilot in PowerPoint references cloud-stored files. A copy on your desktop will not be found.
2. Open a new, blank presentation. Then open the Copilot pane.
3. Paste the prompt and reference the file. Type / to attach it by name, or name it in the prompt exactly as it is saved.
4. Check the references, not just the slides. Open the summary alongside the deck and confirm the four findings and the open questions came from the document — and that nothing was added.

Create a presentation from the Project Northstar Consumer Research Summary. Use the four headline findings as the slide outline, and format the messaging & the language at a Marketing Director audience. Add a slide at the end covering only the open questions listed in the document. Do not add questions that are not in it.

Reflection: The document lists exactly three open questions. Did your final slide contain three — or did a plausible fourth appear? Grounding is a claim you should verify, not assume.

Template-based creation.

Same source, same audience, same outline — but now Copilot has a template to work from. Move from generic output to a polished, on-brand asset.

1. Save both files to OneDrive or SharePoint. Copilot needs to reach the template as well as the source document.
2. Start a new presentation and open Copilot. Start a fresh conversation so scenario 1 does not colour the result.
3. Paste the prompt, referencing both files. The summary is the content; the template is the style guide.
4. Put the two decks side by side. Identical content brief, materially different artifact. That gap is the point of the scenario.

Create a presentation from the Project Northstar Consumer Research Summary while also using the attached template as a style guide for layouts, style, graphics, color scheme, themes and other relevant design components. Use the four headline findings as the slide outline, and format the messaging & language at a Marketing Director audience. Add a slide at the end covering only the open questions listed in the document. Do not add questions that are not in it.

Reflection: The Zava template carries 36 layouts. Did Copilot reach for the right ones — section headers, large-number, quote — or default to title-and-bullets in brand colours? On-brand and well-designed are not the same achievement.

Brand Kits — what, why, how, who.

A Brand Kit holds your organization's design system so Copilot can restyle an existing deck to brand, rather than you rebuilding it slide by slide.

1. Open the deck from scenario 1. The generic one, before the template was involved — that contrast is what makes the restyle legible.
2. Confirm which Brand Kit you have available. The lab demonstrates the Zava kit; in your own tenant, use the kit your brand team publishes.
3. Run the prompt. Watch the restyle land across every slide rather than only the one you are looking at.
4. Audit the result. Check the slides that were hardest to style — tables, charts, and anything with an image behind text.

Modify and redesign this presentation by applying the Zava brand kit to this presentation. Restyle every slides in this deck to match the style guides, themes, colors, fonts, layout, logos, graphics, etc. from the brand kit.

Reflection: A Brand Kit changes who does brand enforcement. If restyling is one prompt, what is the reviewer for?

PowerPoint Skills.

Skills are reusable instructions you save once and run on demand — the standards you apply to every deck, encoded so they no longer depend on you remembering to apply them.

Tips & tricks

• Encode the check you repeat, not the one you did once. If you have never run it twice, it is a prompt, not a Skill.
• Define what “done” looks like. A Skill with vague success criteria produces vague edits, and you will not notice until a customer does.
• Keep the scope to a single job. Narrow Skills compose well; one Skill that tries to do everything fails in ways that are hard to diagnose.
• Test it against a deck you know is wrong. If it does not catch the problem you planted, the instruction is not specific enough yet.
• Name it for the outcome, so a colleague who did not write it knows when to reach for it.

Engagement moment: Name one review step you perform on every deck and never write down. That is your first Skill.

Inbox prioritization.

You define what matters. Copilot flags it as it arrives — and shows you the reasoning behind each flag.

1. Open the prioritization settings for Copilot in Outlook. Find where you state your own criteria.
2. Enter your instructions. Use the example below as the shape, but replace the specifics with people and topics that are genuinely yours.
3. Read the reasoning on a flagged message, not just the flag. The explanation is where you find out whether your criteria said what you meant.
4. Correct the criteria, not the individual flags. If something was wrongly prioritized, the instruction is what needs editing.

Treat anything from my manager or from [agency name] as high priority
Prioritize messages that include campaign launch dates or media buy approvals

Reflection: Read the reasoning on one flagged message. Would you have accepted that explanation from a chief of staff? If not, the criteria need work — not the feature.

Govern your calendar.

State your working rules once, then ask for time instead of hunting for it.

1. Open your Copilot calendar preferences or instructions in Outlook.
2. Add the standing rules below. Adjust the subject-line keywords to ones your organization actually uses.
3. Then stop searching for time. Ask for it, using the second prompt.
4. Check what the rules did after a day or two. Do that before adding more — standing rules act while you are not watching.

Automatically delete canceled meetings from my calendar.
Automatically accept meetings with "Customer Briefing" in the subject if my calendar is free.
Automatically follow meetings with "Office Hours" in the subject.
Automatically decline meetings that conflict with an existing event on my calendar.

Find me an hour of focus time every day next week, in the morning if possible

Reflection: Which of these four rules describes a decision you were already making by hand every week?

De-clutter the messy inbox.

Copilot-assisted analysis and guidance for organizing your inbox. Let AI automate the outcomes; you steer the goals.

1. Ask for a structure before you build one. Run the first prompt and read the proposal against how you actually work.
2. Constrain the proposal. Note that the prompt states a preference — shallow, one sub-folder at most. Say what you want, or you will get someone else's filing system.
3. Then automate one outcome. The second prompt creates a folder and a rule that routes into it.

Look at my recent emails and suggest a folder structure that would organize it. I don't really like overly nested folder structures and would rather keep it at a folder or 1 sub-folder level max

First, create a folder titled "Scheduled Prompt Runs". After the folder is created, create a rule that moves messages with "Your scheduled prompt is complete" in the Subject line into that newly created folder

Reflection: Copilot proposed the structure; you approved it. Which of those two is the part that actually needed a human?

Build your executive triage assistant.

A collaborative build — making Copilot work on your behalf, so a crisp update arrives on schedule, every morning.

1. Run it manually first. Never schedule a prompt you have not read the output of. Run it once, now, and judge the result.
2. Tune the priority list. Add the people, customers, and commitments specific to your role; remove the categories that produce noise for you.
3. Then schedule it. Have it run each morning, so it is waiting before your first meeting rather than after it.
4. Let scenario 3's rule file it. The completed run lands under “Your scheduled prompt is complete” and routes straight into the folder you already created.

Act as my executive morning triage assistant. Review my Outlook emails, Teams chats, meeting invitations, and Microsoft To Do/Planner tasks from yesterday afternoon through now.

Prioritize:
- Items received after business hours yesterday that may require my attention today.
- Messages, emails, meeting invites, or tasks that have not received a response from me.
- Requests, action items, approvals, customer commitments, blockers, escalations, and follow-ups assigned to me or implied as my responsibility.
- Any outstanding communications from my manager, leadership, customers, account teams, or frequent collaborators.
- Calendar events occurring today that require preparation, pre-reads, deliverables, or follow-up actions.
- Items marked important, urgent, time-sensitive, or with approaching deadlines.

End with a Top 5 Priorities for Today ranked by urgency and business impact.

Reflection: Compare the Top 5 to what you actually did that day. Where they differ, the interesting question is which list was right.