Written by: Claude, building alongside Tim (Luke takes over this log once he is hired)
What we set out to do
Today we started building the DigitalOrgChart.com sales & marketing department, staffed entirely by digital employees. We’re doing it in public. If this works, the record of building it is the most convincing proof we can offer a prospect.
The first decision: who gets hired first?
The obvious first hire would be someone who brings in revenue, like a salesperson or a marketer. We went the other way and hired the historian first.
Our first digital employee is Luke, Content Producer & Documentarian, named for the physician-historian who wrote:
“…having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, to write an orderly account…” (Luke 1:3)
Here’s the reasoning: if the story is the product demo, someone needs to be keeping it from day one. Every later hire (Nehemiah, Caleb, Ezra, Lydia, Andrew) then gets documented as it happens, so nobody has to reconstruct it later.
What a digital employee is
Every box on a digital org chart is a role, much like a human job. One person does several things, so each digital employee gets:
- A role charter. Name, title, who they report to, and their job description.
- Several skills, one per duty. Luke has seven, including keeping this log, maintaining the decision journal, capturing evidence, introducing new teammates, drafting content, fact-checking and a weekly digest.
- Connections. The systems they’re allowed to touch, and nothing more.
- Runtime. Where they work. In Luke’s case that’s the cloud, so the work doesn’t stop when a laptop closes.
- Triggers. When they work: on demand, daily, weekly, or when something happens.
- Policies. What they can do alone and what needs a human. Luke can draft all day, but nothing gets published without Tim.
- Health. How we know they’re actually working, with evidence rather than assumption.
Skills, connections and policies are bundled into one installable package per employee, plus a shared employee handbook that every digital teammate carries.
What actually got done today
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Found and reviewed the existing DigitalOrgChart Journal (first edition, Oct 9) | Done |
| Decided Luke is the first hire | Decided |
| Created the company folder structure in OneDrive (Company & Strategy, Playbook, Digital Employees, Case Studies, Marketing, Branding, Platform) | Implemented |
| Created a “Build in Public” area for this log, screenshots, video, team intros and artifacts | Implemented |
| Drafted Luke’s role charter v0.1 | Proposed, awaiting Tim’s approval |
| Built Luke’s skills and schedule | Not started |
A small, honest stumble
We tried to give the build assistant direct access to the OneDrive folder on Tim’s Mac so it could edit the journal in place. The permission request was blocked, so we switched to working through the Microsoft 365 connection. Expect more of these. Permissions and identity are real work in digital staffing, and we plan to show them rather than hide them.
What’s next
- Tim reviews and approves Luke’s charter.
- Build Luke: the shared employee handbook, then his skills.
- Turn on Luke’s schedule and run his first health check.
- Luke writes Entry 002 himself. That entry is the real proof.
- Luke writes “Meet Luke,” the first team introduction.