In preview now: Project Intelligence Challenge

By planCoo · September 2026

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

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 customer requests, meeting notes, delays, changes, unexpected events, and information that may or may not be important.

A teacher or facilitator decides when each update is shared. The participants work in small teams and use the new information to create and adjust their project plans.

At the end of the challenge, each team presents its plan and explains the choices it made.

The AI creates the challenge, but it does not create the final answer. Different teams may reach different conclusions. The most important part is that participants can explain their priorities, decisions, and project structure.

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 the work, assigns responsibilities, and builds a plan using activities, milestones, and timelines. New information is shared through the normal project feed, and teams must decide whether their plans need to change.

There is no separate student version or simplified game interface. This is intentional.

Participants learn by working with the same planning and collaboration features they can later use in real projects. The exercise therefore teaches both project skills and practical use of planCoo — a Collaborative Ecosystem Platform (CEP).

What participants learn

The challenge helps participants practise several important skills.

Project planning

Teams learn how to turn a project description into a clear and realistic plan. They must identify the main activities, decide what should happen first, and understand how different parts of the project depend on each other.

Prioritisation

Not every new piece of information should change the plan. Participants must decide what is important, what can wait, and what may be unnecessary.

Handling change

Real projects rarely follow the original plan exactly. New requests, delays, and unexpected events can appear at any time. Teams must consider the consequences and adjust their plans when needed.

Collaboration

Each team works together on one shared project. Participants must discuss priorities, divide responsibilities, and agree on how to respond when new information arrives.

Explaining decisions

At the end of the challenge, teams present their plans and explain why they made certain choices. This helps participants understand that good project work is not only about creating a plan. It is also about being able to explain and defend the thinking behind it.

Using a real project platform

Participants learn how to use planCoo while completing the exercise. They gain practical experience with project planning, communication, responsibilities, milestones, and progress tracking.

AI creates the scenario while the teacher leads the session

The teacher does not need to write the entire assignment from the beginning.

AI creates a complete project scenario that includes:

• The initial project assignment
• The information teams need to get started
• A sequence of numbered updates
• Changes and unexpected events
• Optional information that creates uncertainty or tests prioritisation

The teacher or facilitator remains in control throughout the session.

Updates can be shared quickly during a single lesson, spread across two school hours, or introduced over several days. This makes it possible to adapt the challenge to different subjects, age groups, and available time.

The teacher can also choose the level of difficulty. A simple challenge may focus on planning and sequencing. A more advanced challenge may include changing requirements, limited resources, conflicting information, or updates that should not affect the project plan.

For schools and universities

A teacher can create a shared area in planCoo for the class. Students are then divided into small teams, and each team creates its own version of the project. See also planCoo for Universities.

All teams begin with the same assignment. The teacher shares the updates one at a time, and the teams decide how to respond.

One team may change its timeline. Another may adjust responsibilities. A third may decide that the new information does not require any changes.

At the end of the session, the class compares the different plans. The teams can discuss questions such as:

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

There does not need to be one correct answer. The purpose is to compare different approaches and help students explain the reasoning behind their decisions.

For workshops and partner activities

The same format can be used in professional workshops.

Participants are divided into small groups and receive the same project scenario. Each group creates a plan in planCoo. The facilitator then shares new information during the session.

The groups must discuss the update, decide whether it matters, and make any necessary changes to their projects.

At the end, each group presents its plan and explains how it responded to the new information.

This creates an engaging introduction to project work and cross-organizational collaboration. Instead of only listening to a presentation, participants work together and produce a real project plan.

The challenge can therefore be used for:

• Project management training
• Team building
• Partner workshops
• Consortium preparation
• Student exercises
• Teacher training
• Introduction to planCoo
• Onboarding for new project participants

How a session works

A typical session may follow these steps:

1. The teacher or facilitator creates a shared area for the challenge.
2. AI generates the project assignment and all planned updates.
3. Participants are divided into small teams.
4. Each team creates a project and starts building its plan.
5. The facilitator shares the first update in the project feed.
6. Teams discuss the new information and decide whether to change their plans.
7. Additional updates are shared during the session.
8. Teams adjust activities, milestones, responsibilities, and timelines when needed.
9. Each team presents its final plan.
10. The group discusses the different choices and lessons learned.

The challenge can be completed in one lesson, two school hours, a full workshop, or several shorter sessions.

A practical introduction to planCoo

Project platforms can be difficult to understand through an ordinary presentation. People often need to use a platform in a realistic situation before they understand its value.

The Project Intelligence Challenge gives participants a clear reason to use planCoo. They are not simply clicking through features. They are solving a problem, discussing choices, responding to changes, and building something together.

This also makes the challenge a practical form of onboarding. Schools receive a structured learning activity. Workshop leaders receive an engaging group exercise. Participants leave with a completed project plan and experience they can use in future projects.

Why the challenge belongs in planCoo

Traditional project tools often focus on work inside one team or organization. planCoo is designed for collaboration involving multiple teams, organizations, universities, companies, schools, public institutions, and external partners.

The Project Intelligence Challenge reflects this reality.

Participants learn that project work is not only about tasks and deadlines. It is also about people, organizations, responsibilities, communication, changing information, and shared decisions.

The challenge introduces participants to the idea behind a Collaborative Ecosystem Platform, or CEP. This is a platform that helps people and organizations plan, communicate, and work together across organizational boundaries.

A challenge with no single answer

One of the most important ideas is that AI does not provide the final solution.

AI creates the situation. The participants must interpret it.

Teams may create different plans even when they receive exactly the same information. One team may focus on speed. Another may focus on risk. A third may prioritize communication or quality.

The final discussion helps participants understand why these differences appear and what they can learn from each other. The goal is not to find the one perfect plan. The goal is to create a plan that is clear, realistic, and supported by good reasoning.

The final question

After the presentations, leave teams with one closing question:

Every update in this challenge arrived in one place — planCoo — from the same source, in a shared format, when the facilitator chose to release it. What would have happened if each update had arrived separately: by email, chat, meeting notes, and verbal messages, at different times, in different formats?

That contrast is the point. When information is scattered, teams do not share the same picture of the project. Plans diverge quietly. Ownership becomes personal instead of joint. Work falls into silos.

The Project Intelligence Challenge makes the alternative tangible: a shared plan, a shared feed, and shared updates — so people can build joint ownership of the plan and reduce the silos that appear when everyone tracks their own version of the truth.

In preview now

The Project Intelligence Challenge is currently in preview. We will share more information as testing continues. If you are interested in trying it with a class, university, partner network, or professional workshop, please contact us through plancoo.com.