How Runpoint runs boot camps

A one-hour, hands-on session that gets one or two curious people doing their real job in Claude Code. This page is the guide for running one.

1What it is, and why we do it

• Goal: move one or two people from about 30% to about 90% of what AI can do for their job.
• Format:
  • A 1-hour first session, then a follow-up about a week later.
  • After that, async help plus a check-in or two over about a month.
  • The hour forces us to compress it, and more than an hour overwhelms people.
• Where it fits: usually part of discovery, not a separate project. One person who gets 10x better is the proof the rest of the company notices.
• The tool is Claude Code in the Claude desktop app. Tell them up front: there's no coding involved, the name is just bad.

2The feel

• Keep it light. Don't build it up. Do one, and if it flops, do another. Messy is fine.
• They drive. It's their screen and their clicks. We direct and hand them prompts.
• Move fast, high level to low level and back. Bouncing around is expected. That's okay.
• Skip what they already know. Open with "stop me if you know this."
• Teach in 30 seconds, only when it shows up on screen. Context windows, CLAUDE.md and skills get a sentence each, right when they come up.
• Show that rough is fine. Ramble a prompt out loud. It doesn't need to be pretty.
• Unblock live. If IT blocks something, have Claude draft the IT email right there.
• Claude teaches Claude. When nobody knows the answer, ask Claude. It's the best way to learn it.

There's nothing to learn really. It's getting the access problem solved.

3Who to pick

• 1–2 people, 3 at most. Big workshops and office hours were lukewarm: you solve 2 problems, not 20.
• Operationally savvy, AI-curious linchpins. Curiosity matters more than technical skill. Starting from zero is fine.
• Don't put someone in a session with their boss the first time. People share less.
• Go one or two at a time, even when leadership wants the whole company. Two of six converted is a great start.

4Before the session (where speed comes from)

Access problems are what eat the hour. A blocked session can leave 15 useful minutes out of 60. Fix them before you book.

• Run the systems access check early.
  • Send one combined access email covering email, files, CRM and time tracking.
  • Admin consent for things like SharePoint can take up to 2 weeks.
• Minimum setup:
  • Claude desktop installed on a per-seat plan. Start at $100/month and move to $200 when they hit limits; we want them hitting limits.
  • Use per-seat plans, not API tokens. People don't get hooked on token billing.
• Send the setup list ahead of time:
  • Claude desktop.
  • Claude in Chrome. We forgot this once, so don't skip it.
  • Their connectors.
  • A voice-dictation app.
• Ask them to connect each system themselves ("help me connect to SharePoint") and tell us what broke. Failures are fine; finding them is the point.
• Check their plan and machine:
  • Team and Enterprise plans may lack computer use.
  • Admins can block Cowork, and Windows policy can block installs.
  • If they're on Windows, know the Windows steps yourself.
• Prepare 3–5 candidate workflows for that person, with prompts already written. Send them by email or in a doc; long prompts break in the Zoom chat. Present them as ideas, not a script.

5Run of show: 60 minutes

Choose the first project well. Use a workflow they already do every week, such as a report, a pipeline check or a handover packet. Don't start with something abstract like "build a to-do app."

6What we cover

• Claude Code in the desktop app. It's more powerful than Chat or Cowork because it can reach their computer and their systems.
• Projects are folders. Ongoing work lives in a folder; "This Computer" sessions are throwaway.
• Connectors: email, files, CRM and so on. Where a system has no connector (an ERP or time tracking, for example), use Claude in Chrome, then add API access as a follow-up.
• One session per task. Finish a thread and close it. Avoid one giant thread that runs forever.
• Context windows: 30 seconds. Long sessions get worse, so start fresh.
• CLAUDE.md: global ("I'm the CFO, not a developer") and per project.
• Skills: a pre-baked prompt, run with a slash command. Turn something they've done before into one.
• Pinned sessions and scheduled automations for work that repeats.
• Voice. Everyone who tries dictation ends up keeping it.

7Typical sticking points

8Who does what

• Lead: sets the pace, picks the exercise, and unblocks.
• Coordinator:
  • Runs the access check, scheduling and the use-case list for each person.
  • Asks the time-baseline question during the session.
  • Owns the follow-ups.
• Ride-along (optional): adds practical tips and catches what got skipped. Every session has at least one senior Runpoint person in it.

9After the session

• Follow-up in about a week: what they learned, liked and disliked. Then turn something they did into a skill.
• Write down every blocker so the next participant at that client doesn't hit it.
• Track wins with the time-baseline question and name the people who become champions. Their wins are the case for the bigger project.

10Don't

• Lecture, or run a slide deck.
• Run it as a big workshop or webinar.
• Hand over the setup instructions and leave them to it. People need a hand.
• Make it a big, high-stakes event.
• Let a newly confident user build their own CRM. Real systems still need engineers.