Platform Walkthrough: From Login to First Plan

This guide walks you through every step from creating your account to launching your first strategic planning engagement. By the end, you will have an organization set up, your client team invited, and a plan ready for facilitation.

---

Step 1: Create Your Account

Navigate to the registration page and create your consultant account.

Required Information

• Email address — use your professional email; this becomes your login
• First and last name — displayed to clients you collaborate with
• Password — minimum 8 characters
• Phone number (optional) — for account recovery

After registration, you will be directed to create or join an organization.

Step 2: Create the Client Organization

Each client engagement lives inside its own organization. You will create one organization per client.

1. From the organization list page, click Create Organization
2. Enter the organization name (e.g., "Acme Corporation")
3. You are automatically assigned the Owner role

After creation, you can configure additional details on the Organization Details page:

• Description — brief overview of the business
• Industry — selecting an industry auto-provisions relevant external data sources
• Mission and Vision statements — if the client already has these
• Current Challenges — high-level context for Living Company AI
• Primary Go-to-Market and Distribution Channels

Tip: Set the industry early. This triggers automatic provisioning of industry-relevant news sources, benchmarks, and competitive intelligence feeds that enrich Living Company AI's analysis.

Step 3: Invite the Client Team

Strategic planning works best with the right people in the room. Invite the client's leadership team before your first session.

How to Send Invitations

1. Go to the Organization page
2. Click Invite Members
3. Enter the person's email address and select a role
4. Click Send Invitation

Invitations expire after 7 days. You can resend expired invitations, which generates a fresh link.

Choosing the Right Role

Role	Best For	Can Do
Admin	Client CEO or project sponsor	Full access: edit plans, manage members, configure org
Consultant	Fellow consultants on the engagement	Edit plans, invite members and observers, run Living Company AI agents
Member	Leadership team participants	View and edit plans, contribute insights and data
Observer	Board members, stakeholders who need visibility	View-only access to plans and dashboards

Recommended setup: Make the client's CEO or project sponsor an Admin. Give participating executives Member access. Add yourself and any co-consultants as Consultant role. Use Observer for board members or stakeholders who should see progress but not edit.

Step 4: Populate Organization Context

Before starting the plan, enter as much organizational data as you have. The more context Living Company AI has, the sharper its analysis will be.

Navigate to Organization Details to access the context tabs:

Tab	What to Enter	Priority
Organization Chart	Key employees with titles, departments, and responsibilities	High
Products & Services	Product lines with revenue contribution and market share	High
Competitors	Key competitors with strengths, weaknesses, and recent moves	High
Key Customers	Customer segments with needs, pain points, and buying criteria	High
Financial Statements	2-3 years of income statements, balance sheets	Medium
Business Processes	Core and support processes with performance data	Medium
Partnerships	Strategic alliances, key vendors, supplier relationships	Low
Market Context	TAM/SAM/SOM, market position, growth trends	Medium
Culture & Capabilities	Cultural traits, organizational capabilities	Low

See the Organization Context Setup Guide for detailed instructions on each tab.

Step 5: Create a Strategic Plan

1. From the dashboard, click New Plan
2. Give the plan a name (e.g., "FY2027 Strategic Plan" or "Q3 Strategy Refresh")
3. The plan opens in the Planning Chatbot, starting in the LEARN phase

Step 6: Navigate the Planning Interface

The planning page has three panels:

Left Panel: Phase Navigation

Four phase buttons — LEARN, FOCUS, ALIGN, EXECUTE — each with a progress bar. Click any phase to switch. You can move backward freely. Moving forward shows a banner listing any open items in the current phase, but it does not block you.

Center Panel: Chat Interface

This is where the strategic conversation happens. Type messages to Living Company AI, which responds with Socratic questions, analysis, and challenges. Living Company AI automatically captures insights, priorities, gap statements, and other strategic elements from the conversation.

Right Panel: Three Tabs

• Guide — shows the current phase description, suggested questions, progress checklist, and contextual prompts
• Canvas — displays everything captured so far: insights, competitive focus, winning proposition, priorities, gap statements, and leadership message
• Org Data — quick reference to the organization context, with a data completeness indicator and links to add missing data

Step 7: Navigate to the Execution Dashboard

Once the plan has priorities and gap statements, the execution dashboard becomes available.

• From the planning page: The Guide tab shows an "Execution Dashboard" bridge with a link when the plan is ready
• From the header: The "Implementation Dashboard" link appears once a plan exists
• Direct URL: /strategy/<plan_id>

The execution dashboard is where strategy becomes action: KPIs, milestones, action items, risk tracking, SOP generation, and workflow chains.

---

Quick Reference: Key URLs

Page	URL
Dashboard (home)	/app
Organization list	/organizations
Organization details	/organizations/<org_id>/details
Planning chatbot	/planning/<plan_id>
Execution dashboard	/strategy/<plan_id>
SOP Wiki	/dashboard/<plan_id>/sop-wiki
Resource library	/resources

You are now ready to run your first engagement. Proceed to the Organization Context Setup Guide to learn how to maximize the data foundation before your first planning session.