A forward deployed engineering pilot. Each week, Aaron's team embeds with a different function for a dedicated Tinker Time day, rapidly identifying and prototyping high-impact AI use cases. One function per week. Five functions. Prove the model, then scale it.
Tinker Time is Alto's innovation format: step away from routine, build something new, ship by end of day. This pilot extends that model into a weekly rotation across five functional teams.
Aaron's team embeds directly with each function, identifies their highest-friction workflows, and rapidly prototypes AI-powered solutions. Starting with Ops, Legal/Compliance, and Finance to prove the model, then expanding company-wide.
One dedicated day per function per week. Exec nominates 2 participants. They bring 5 big problems. We build.
5 functions over ~5 weeks proves the repeatable pattern. Success means we rerun with new participants and expand company-wide.
"No idea is too small, odd, or ambitious to try. A failed prototype is still a success if we learned something."
Each function gets one dedicated Tinker Time day per week. 2 participants per group, 5 big problems each.
| Function | Participants | Focus areas |
|---|---|---|
| Legal & Compliance | 2 nominees | Contract review, regulatory tracking, compliance reporting, policy maintenance, audit prep |
| Support | 2 nominees | Ticket triage, knowledge base, response drafting, escalation routing, SLA tracking |
| Success | 2 nominees | Client onboarding, health scoring, renewal workflows, QBR prep, churn signals |
| Finance (FinOps) | 2 nominees | Reconciliation, expense categorization, reporting, forecasting, vendor payments |
| RevOps | 2 nominees | Pipeline hygiene, lead routing, commission calcs, CRM data quality, funnel reporting |
Monday April 14. Exec call. Each leader nominates 2 participants and submits a list of repetitive tasks with weekly time estimates.
Aaron assesses submitted tasks. First Tinker Time sessions begin. April 17 and April 21 are the initial dates on the board.
All 5 functions complete their Tinker Time day. MVPs tested, feedback collected, outcomes documented.
Evaluate pilot results. Successful use cases go to production. Model repeats with new participants or expands to new functions.
Each exec nominates up to 2 participants from their team and submits:
• List of repetitive, time-consuming tasks
• Estimated weekly hours spent on each
• Any known dependencies or blockers
• A working prototype or proof of concept
• Clear assessment: time saved, accuracy, scalability
• Documentation of what worked, what didn't
• A potential launch window for production use
Each function gets a dedicated Slack channel for ongoing automation discovery:
Past Tinker Time experiments that became real tools:
Tinker Time is where curiosity meets creativity. Now it deploys across every function.