In Practice

01 // What it is

A working session, not a pitch

In Practice is a video series from The Heed Report. Each episode is a live working session that maps how a specific AI tool would actually integrate into the workflow of a specific role — not in theory, not in marketing, but in the kind of practical detail that lets a viewer make a real decision about adoption.

The format exists because the AI tools market is mid-transition. Early adopters have spent the last three years figuring this out in public. The early majority is now arriving, and the early majority needs something different than what's currently available. They don't need pitches. They don't need think pieces. They need to see someone in their role, with their constraints, walking through what it actually looks like to bring a tool into their week — including the friction nobody mentions in the sales call.

That's what In Practice shows.

02 // The room

Four seats at the table

Each session has four seats:

The founder of the tool. They speak to what the product is built for, the philosophy behind it, and where it's going. Not a pitch — a vision statement, in the company of people who will push back.

A support or technical person from the company. They handle the questions the founder shouldn't be answering: what onboarding actually looks like, where teams get stuck, what the realistic rollout timeline is, what edge cases break the product. They're the honesty valve.

A current customer. A real practitioner using the tool in production. They show their actual workflow, what the tool replaced, what changed in their week, what they wish was different. They're the proof that the founder's vision survives contact with reality.

A non-user practitioner in the same role. Someone who doesn't currently use the tool but whose job is the one the tool is built for. They walk through their current workflow live, and the rest of the room helps them see where the tool would fit, what it would change, and what it would cost — not just in money, but in time, change management, and the unspoken work between the visible steps.

The non-user is the audience proxy. If they leave the session with a realistic mental model of what adoption would mean for them, the session worked. If they don't, it didn't.

03 // What gets published

Two places, two purposes

Each session lives in two places. The video is on YouTube, where it can be discovered, embedded, and shared. The durable archive is here on The Heed Report, on a dedicated page for each episode, which includes:

• — The full video
• — A short editor's note from me on what the session surfaced
• — Attributed pull quotes with timestamps linking back to the YouTube moment
• — A list of every tool mentioned, cross-linked to its full review in The Heed Report's tool coverage
• — A cleaned transcript of the conversation

The episode page is the version that lasts. The video is the version that travels.

04 // Editorial principle

The line, and why it's there

In Practice features AI tools whose builders treat the humans in the target role as collaborators, not as costs to be eliminated. Every useful AI tool removes some tasks — that's the point of the technology. The editorial line isn't about which tasks get automated. It's about whether the tool's thesis assumes the role still exists and the people in it become more capable, or whether the tool's thesis is that the role itself should disappear. The first kind of tool gets a session here. The second kind can still be covered in The Heed Report's written reporting, but it won't be featured in this format.

This is a position. It's deliberate. The Heed Report covers the AI tools landscape because the people doing the work need honest reporting on what's available. In Practice goes a step further and uses its production effort to amplify the tools that are doing right by the humans in the role. Founders building toward a future where their target role doesn't exist will still get a fair article. They won't get a session.

05 // Cadence

One session per month

One session per month, tied to the publication of each new monthly edition of The Heed Report. The library grows slowly and deliberately. Quality over volume.

06 // How to participate

The door is open

In Practice is curated, but the door is open.

If you're a founder of a tool that fits the editorial principle and you'd want your product featured, you can reach out.

If you're a customer of an AI tool with a workflow worth showing, and you'd be willing to walk through it on camera, you can reach out.

If you're a practitioner in a specific role — sales, marketing, customer success, engineering, design, operations, finance, HR — and you're trying to figure out how AI fits your work, you can reach out. The non-user seat is the most important one in every session, and the right person for it is rarely the most obvious one.

Not every reach-out becomes a session. But the format depends on people who care about doing this well, and the way to find those people is to leave the door open.

Contact: jordan@takingheed.com