Workshop

Build an Agentic Knowledge Base

Vicky Zhao

ex-Google/LEK, AI x PKM + frameworks

Cécile Marion

Ex-National Grid, Strategic Acceleration

Help your AI use what you already know

You’re starting a new project, and you know you’ve thought through part of it before. But the useful notes are scattered, and your AI needs you to explain the background again.

In this workshop, we’ll get your AI to work for you, not the other way around.

First, you’ll get clear on what to delegate and what needs your judgment, so you can stop second-guessing and feel in control of your work. Then you’ll build a knowledge base that helps your agent find relevant context, use your ideas and follow your standards.

By the end of the day, you will:

  • Know where to focus your energy, and which work AI can help you take on.

  • Put your knowledge to work, so your past thinking gives your next project a head start.

  • Have your agent help organize and maintain your knowledge base, so keeping it useful becomes part of doing your work.

You’ll get prompts, downloadable agent skills and setup templates, and put them to work with one real project during the workshop.

What you’ll learn

How to get your AI to do more, and better work for you, by setting up a knowledge base (in your desktop folder or in Obsidian).

  • Facing a blank deck? Your agent can use past slides and presentation frameworks to create a flow and structure for you.

  • Worried about Q&A? Draw on meeting transcripts and past notes to address likely questions in the slides and prepare your answers.

  • Walk in feeling prepared. Presentations are one example. In the workshop, you’ll build around a real project you choose.

  • Look at where your best hours go, which parts need your judgment, and where AI could help you get moving.

  • Identify opportunities to use what you already know instead of gathering and explaining the background again.

  • Leave with a clear mind and a one-page map of work to protect, support or start.

  • Set up a home for your knowledge and thinking, on your desktop folder or in Obsidian.

  • Have your agent organize notes, examples and standards into a structure it can navigate, with a knowledge map and instructions.

  • Leave with an agentic knowledge base maintained by your agent. It'll let your AI agent take on more work that meet your standards.

Workshop agenda

  • Cécile: Decide what deserves your best hours, and where AI should step in.

    [Nov 16, 9–10:30am Pacific] Map your projects and priorities, choose one place for AI support, and identify the judgment you’ll keep. Reflection, paired discussion and Q&A.

  • break + gather context for your build

    Take a break. Catch up on work with renewed clarity on what AI should (and shouldn't) take on. Then get ready to build your agentic knowledge base with Vicky with your scattered notes and docs.

  • Vicky: Build your agent’s memory and put it to work

    [Nov 16, 3–4:30pm Pacific] We'll go step by step to build your knowledge base with supplied prompts, skills and templates. Organize, structure, and grow it with your agent. Hands on build plus Q&A.

Learn directly from Vicky & Cécile

Vicky Zhao

Vicky Zhao

Helping professionals build AI systems around their judgment and frameworks

Cécile Marion

Cécile Marion

I help you decide where to put your best energy when everything feels important

See all products from Vicky

Who this workshop is for

  • You use AI, but juggling projects and scattered context leaves you unsure where it can help—and which work needs your judgment.

  • You want to use your notes, ideas and experience, but don’t know how to build a knowledge base without another system to maintain.

Prerequisites

  • Session 1: Thinking time + a messy list of projects

    Set aside undisturbed time to reflect with Cécile. Bring a rough list of the projects you’re working on.

  • Session 2: AI agent + a desktop folder (or Obsidian)

    You just need your agent and a folder. Use Obsidian if you want more connected notes! (Obsidian set up lessons available in workshop portal)

  • Willingness to think, experiment, and ask questions!

    Everything will be hands on, so come to think and experiment together.

What's included

Live sessions

Learn directly from Vicky Zhao & Cécile Marion in a real-time, interactive format.

Your AI knowledge base

A source folder, a knowledge map and agent instructions, built from your notes, examples and standards. Test how your agent finds and uses them, so it can draw on your thinking without repeated briefing.

Your knowledge base starter kit

You won’t be starting from scratch. Download templates, skills and agent instructions to help your AI organize, connect and use your knowledge. We’ll put them to work with your own notes during the workshop, so you leave with a working knowledge base you can keep growing.

Your 1-page map of where AI can help

Leave Cécile's session with a one-page map of where your best hours go today, a clear view of the work that's worth doing yourself vs the work you want AI to get involved in, and the one place where AI could make the biggest difference.

Your knowledge put to work

Choose a method you can teach, an original argument or a tailored proposal. Develop its first version from your knowledge, check it against your sources, and practice using the saved context for a related question.

2 live sessions with Cécile and Vicky

Join 2 interactive 90-minute sessions with reflection, paired discussion, practical building and Q&A. Bring relevant material to Vicky’s session. You don’t need to have completed Cécile’s work map to build.

Bonus: Zettelkasten Fundamentals

Continue developing your knowledge base with this optional course. Learn how to capture ideas, connect notes, and use AI to surface connections you can explore in your own work.

Maven Guarantee

Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.

Free resource

Make Your AI Agent Think Critically: 3 md files + sub-agent cover image

Make Your AI Agent Think Critically: 3 md files + sub-agent

3 markdown files that give your AI agent better judgement

You'll create a simple 3-file system that gives your AI agent clear rules for better thinking and execution.

Spawn a reviewer sub-agent to notice & fix output issues

You'll add a reusable reviewer that audits outputs against your rules and catches weak evidence or skipped assumptions.

Turn your judgment into reusable frameworks

You’ll build a system for stronger memos, analysis, writing, decisions, and quality-critical workflows.

Testimonials

  • Vicky demystifies AI. Information about AI piles up and overwhelms me. Where do you start? Who do you follow? Who do you learn from? True to her philosophy, Vicky distills it to the essentials.

    Testimonial author image

    Daniel Ng

    Director, NDTV Technical Operations

  • I've digested a lot of content but nothing has been as straight forward and eased the speed of implementation as the way Vicky has set up these learnings. Very digestible and easy to use.

    Testimonial author image

    Corey

    Account Executive

  • You don't need to be technical. You need to be curious.

    Testimonial author image

    Yvonne Yam

    Change Facilitator and Executive Coach

Build the foundation for AI to use what you know

For your knowledge base to save you time, your agent needs to know where to look, how your ideas connect and which standards to follow. Setting up that architecture is the foundational work that makes your notes useful when you ask AI for help.

You’ll leave with a structure you can build on as your knowledge grows. The next task your agent does will draw on thinking you’ve already done, with less manual searching, repeated explanation and never-ending corrections from you.

Your knowledge base starter kit + Zettelkasten Fundamentals

You don’t need to organize every note or design the perfect system before you start. You’ll get the tools to begin with one project, plus a course to help you keep building.

Get started with your downloadable starter kit.

Templates, agent skills and instructions give you a starting structure. We’ll use them with your own notes during the workshop, so you can get your knowledge base working without figuring out the setup alone.

Keep building with Zettelkasten Fundamentals.

This bonus self-paced course shows you how to turn simple note-taking into a way to develop your ideas. Learn to capture what you’re learning, connect it with what you already know, and build on those connections. Your knowledge base can grow into a collection of intellectual assets: ideas, arguments and frameworks you can draw on in your work.

Both are included with the workshop, with lifetime access so you can return to them as your knowledge grows.

Join us on November 16 to set up the fundamental layer of your AI workflow.

Frequently asked questions

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8 days left to enroll

Nov 16—Nov 17
·

12–7:30pm EST

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