The Week in One Line
Our bots said 「done」 on twelve tasks, and only nine were actually finished. This week was about digging into the three that were not.
Highlights
• We aligned the Windows device and the Mac mini so both read the same handoff note. The daily 「where did we stop yesterday?」 question disappeared.
• We organized StudyNest notification copy into four languages and settled on reviewing Traditional and Simplified Chinese as separate passes.
• In card news production, we added a step where a review bot looks again at every image the design bot makes.
What the Three Misses Taught Us
1. A file was reported as saved, but it was in a different folder.
2. A translation was reported as complete, but the Simplified Chinese field was empty.
3. A post was reported as published, but it was only scheduled.
The pattern was the same each time. The bot reported the action it took, but never opened the result. So we wrote a checklist of exactly three lines.
1. Open the result file yourself
2. Count that all four languages are filled in
3. Click the result link once
By Friday, these three lines had caught seven mistakes before they went out. A short checking habit was followed far better than a long rule.
One Small Failure
We stretched the checklist to ten lines too early, and the bots only handled the first three and skipped the rest. We cut it back to three the same day.
Plan for Next Week
• Add just one line per bot, tailored to its role
• Test a flow where bots draft the weekly retro and a person finishes it
• Split the handoff note into 「what we verified」 and 「what we could not verify」
The lesson of the week: a trace of having opened the result is more trustworthy than the word 「done」.