Project Intelligence Challenge

By planCoo · September 2026

We are developing a new way to practise project work in planCoo: the Project Intelligence Challenge.

We created it as an engaging training framework for schools and universities, while also serving as a practical icebreaker for workshops and professional team sessions.

The idea is simple. AI creates a realistic project assignment together with a series of updates that can be introduced during the exercise. These updates may include new requests, meeting notes, delays, unexpected events, conflicting information, and details that may or may not be important.

A teacher or facilitator decides when each update is released, and participants work in small teams to build, review, and adjust their project plans as the challenge unfolds.

Learning Through Realistic Project Work

The Project Intelligence Challenge takes place inside the same planCoo environment that organizations use for real projects.

Each team creates a project, organizes activities, assigns responsibilities, defines milestones, and builds a timeline. There is no simplified student version or separate game interface. Participants learn by working directly with the same planning and collaboration tools they can later use in real projects.

The goal is not simply to complete a task. It is to experience how teams organize themselves, share responsibilities, interpret information, and make decisions together.

Optional Level 0: Learning the Platform

For groups that are completely new to planCoo, facilitators can begin with an optional Level 0 before the main challenge starts.

In this introductory exercise, participants are shown a completed project plan for a limited amount of time. Teams must then recreate the plan inside planCoo as accurately and quickly as possible.

If needed, teams may request another look at the original plan, but each additional view results in a time penalty.

At first, the exercise appears to be a simple memory challenge. Participants quickly discover something more important: no individual can keep track of everything.

Some team members focus on milestones. Others track activities, timelines, dependencies, or project details. Without being instructed to do so, teams naturally begin dividing responsibilities and coordinating their work.

Level 0 therefore introduces both the platform and one of the most important lessons in project work: understanding who is responsible for what while maintaining a shared understanding of the overall plan.

How the Challenge Works

Once the challenge begins, AI generates a complete project scenario that includes:

• An initial project assignment
• Background information and objectives
• A sequence of updates and events
• Optional distractions or ambiguous information
• Different levels of difficulty

The facilitator remains in control throughout the session and decides when updates are introduced.

Some challenges focus primarily on project planning and sequencing. More advanced challenges may include changing requirements, resource constraints, conflicting information, risks, or stakeholder requests that force teams to reassess their plans.

A typical session follows these steps:

1. The facilitator creates a shared challenge area.
2. Participants are organized into teams.
3. Optional: teams complete Level 0.
4. AI generates the project scenario.
5. Teams build their initial plans.
6. Updates are introduced throughout the exercise.
7. Teams evaluate the impact and modify their plans when necessary.
8. Each team presents its final solution and explains its decisions.

What Teams Learn

The challenge helps participants practise a range of practical skills.

Project Planning

Teams learn how to transform a project description into a structured and realistic plan by identifying activities, milestones, timelines, and dependencies.

Prioritisation

Not every piece of information requires action. Participants learn to distinguish between critical information and background noise.

Managing Change

Real projects rarely unfold exactly as planned. Teams learn how to assess the impact of new developments and adapt when necessary.

Ownership and Delegation

Participants quickly discover that no single person can follow every activity, milestone, dependency, and update. Teams must divide responsibilities, establish ownership, and coordinate their efforts while maintaining a shared view of the project.

Collaboration

Because each team works within a shared environment, participants experience both the benefits and challenges of collective decision-making.

Explaining Decisions

At the end of the challenge, teams present and defend their choices, reinforcing that successful project work depends as much on reasoning and judgement as it does on execution.

For Schools and Universities

Teachers can create a shared area in planCoo where students work in smaller teams and build their own version of the project.

Every team starts with the same assignment and receives the same updates, yet their final plans often differ.

One team may revise the timeline. Another may redistribute responsibilities. A third may decide that the new information does not require changes at all.

These differences become valuable learning opportunities.

At the end of the session, teams compare their approaches and discuss questions such as:

• What information did you consider most important?
• What changes did you make?
• Which information did you choose to ignore?
• Which risks did you identify?
• How did you divide responsibilities?
• Is your final plan realistic and understandable?
• What would you do differently next time?

Because the challenge rarely has a single correct answer, students learn not only from their own decisions but also from the perspectives of others.

For Workshops and Professional Teams

The same format works equally well in professional environments.

Instead of listening to a presentation about project management or collaboration, participants experience it directly through a realistic scenario.

The challenge can be used for:

• Project management training
• Team building
• Partner workshops
• Consortium preparation
• Onboarding of new project participants
• Student exercises and teacher training

The exercise often reveals communication patterns, decision-making habits, and coordination challenges that would otherwise remain invisible.

A Practical Introduction to planCoo

Collaboration platforms are difficult to understand through presentations alone.

People often need a realistic situation in which to use a platform before they appreciate its value.

The Project Intelligence Challenge provides that experience. Participants are not clicking through features for the sake of learning software. They are solving a problem, discussing priorities, sharing ownership, and building a project together.

By the end of the exercise, teams leave with both a completed project plan and practical experience using planCoo.

Why the Challenge Belongs in planCoo

Many project tools focus primarily on tasks and deadlines within a single team.

planCoo is designed for collaboration across organizations, universities, companies, public institutions, consortiums, and partner networks.

The challenge reflects that reality.

Participants learn that successful projects are not only about managing tasks. They are also about coordinating people, aligning responsibilities, interpreting information, and maintaining a shared understanding across organizational boundaries.

A Challenge With No Single Answer

One of the most important aspects of the Project Intelligence Challenge is that AI does not provide the solution.

It creates the situation.

Participants must interpret what happens and decide how to respond.

Even when receiving identical information, different teams often arrive at different conclusions. One team may prioritize speed. Another may focus on risk reduction. A third may emphasize communication, stakeholder engagement, or quality.

The discussion that follows is often as valuable as the exercise itself, helping participants understand why different decisions were made and what can be learned from alternative approaches.

The Final Question

After the presentations, facilitators can leave participants with one simple question:

Throughout this challenge, every update arrived in one place, at the same time, in a shared format, and was visible to everyone. What would have happened if the same information had instead arrived through emails, chat messages, meeting notes, phone calls, and verbal conversations?

That contrast is the point.

When information becomes fragmented, teams gradually develop different versions of reality. Plans diverge, ownership becomes personal rather than shared, and collaboration becomes more difficult.

The Project Intelligence Challenge makes the alternative tangible: a shared plan, a shared feed, and shared information that helps people build joint ownership and maintain a common understanding of the project.

Currently in Preview

The Project Intelligence Challenge is currently in preview, and we will share more information as testing continues.

If you are interested in trying the challenge with a class, university, partner network, or professional workshop, please contact us through plancoo.com.