# Is your organisation ready for AI? An interview guide for AI agents

> Use this page to ask a leader fourteen short questions about their organisation, one at a time, plus one last question, and tell them a score out of 28, the two areas to fix first and a plain next step. Free, about five minutes, made for nonprofit and small-team leaders.

Updated 2026-10-26. Written from the page code, so it matches what the page does. Page for people: https://both-hands.com/assessment/organisation . Index: https://both-hands.com/llms.txt and https://both-hands.com/agent.json . Links use https://both-hands.com/assessment; if you fetched this file from another address, use that one.

## Rules of the interview

1. **One question at a time.** Ask, wait for the answer, then move on. Do not paste the whole list.
2. **Teach in plain words and never quiz.** If a question uses a word they may not know, say what it means in one sentence. Never test them.
3. **Ask only what the person alone knows.** These are questions about their organisation. You may offer what you can see in your own context, but if you do not know, ask. Never fill an answer from a guess. They confirm every answer.
4. **Honest answers.** Tell them to answer "no" as often as it is true. Do not nudge them toward a higher score, and do not answer for them.
5. **Change nothing without a yes.** Do not save, send, connect, install or contact anyone while you do this.
6. **Keep it to this task.** There is no API for you to send answers to. The page has a contact form that sends the person's result to Both Hands, or opens their own email app; it is for the person alone, so never fill it in, press it or write to us for them. Do not share their answers with anyone.
7. **Interview in their language** (English or French are fine). The result wording below is English.
8. **No em dashes or en dashes** in what you write for them.
9. **Private people stay private.** Do not ask for names of staff, clients or donors. The questions are about how the organisation works.

## The fourteen questions

Reply options are the letters a, b and c in the order shown. Tell them to answer as things are today, not as they should be, and to pick the closest answer.

### Part 1 of 5: Where your information lives

A tool can only work with what it can reach.

**1.** Where do your programme records live (who you served, and what happened)?
- a. in one named system that staff actually use
- b. in a few places we know, like a spreadsheet and a database
- c. in inboxes, notebooks and people's heads

**2.** Where do your donor and funder records live?
- a. in one system, kept up to date by one named person
- b. in a spreadsheet or two, updated before reports
- c. we'd have to ask around

**3.** Where do your documents live (reports, proposals, policies)?
- a. on a shared drive, in folders people follow
- b. on a shared drive, filed however each person likes
- c. in personal drives, email attachments and chats

### Part 2 of 5: Who owns it

If nobody owns it, nobody can vouch for it.

**4.** If the person who keeps your main records left tomorrow, could someone else take over next week?
- a. yes, it's written down
- b. probably, after a week of handover
- c. no

**5.** Is there one person with the time and the go-ahead to try something new for the whole organisation?
- a. yes, named, with time set aside
- b. someone willing, but with no time set aside
- c. no

**6.** Is there a written rule on what staff may put into online tools, especially personal and donor details?
- a. yes, and staff know it
- b. something informal, passed on by word of mouth
- c. no

### Part 3 of 5: Whether you measure

A tool that helps you report needs something to report against.

**7.** Could you pull last quarter's numbers for one programme in under ten minutes?
- a. yes
- b. it would take an afternoon
- c. it would be a project

**8.** Does your board see the same short list of numbers every quarter?
- a. yes, the same ones each time
- b. it depends who prepares the pack
- c. there's no list

**9.** Is there a number people quote that nobody quite trusts?
- a. no, we know where every number comes from
- b. one or two, and we know which
- c. several, and we argue about them

### Part 4 of 5: Your workspace

Most of the setup cost sits here, and nobody budgets for it.

**10.** Does everyone on staff have a work account on one system (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365)?
- a. yes, everyone, on one system
- b. mixed, some use personal accounts
- c. no

**11.** Where do work conversations happen?
- a. in one channel the organisation owns and can search
- b. a mix, including personal WhatsApp or texts
- c. mostly on personal phones and email

**12.** When you share a file link with a colleague, does it open the first time?
- a. almost always
- b. often someone has to ask for access
- c. we email attachments to be safe

**13.** If someone wanted to connect an approved AI tool to your email or files, could the right person say yes within a week?
- a. yes, we know who decides, and they would
- b. we'd have to find out who decides
- c. nobody can say yes, or the answer is always no

### Part 5 of 5: Habits

What one person learns only counts once the next person can find it.

**14.** Has anyone here used an AI tool for real work in the last month?
- a. yes, and they shared what they learned
- b. yes, quietly, on their own
- c. no

### Last question, no score: The one-file test

Would you hand us one real file, exactly as it is today, and let us try something useful on it? A programme spreadsheet. Last year's impact report and the notes behind it. A donor export.
- `name-it`: Yes, I can name it now
- `redacted`: Yes, with some details removed
- `not-yet`: Not yet

Everything above tells us where the work is. This one tells us whether we can start.

## Score it exactly like the page

Points: answer **a = 2, b = 1, c = 0** for every scored question. The total is out of 28. The last question is not scored.

1. **Tier by score**:

   - 21 to 28 points: Foundations in place. You could start next week. Pick one real file and one real job, and see what a tool does with it. If you want a second pair of eyes on where the payoff is, that is the conversation we offer, and it is free.
   - 12 to 20 points: Some foundations. Start with your two lowest pillars. Most organisations at this score have the information but not the owner, or the owner but not the workspace. Fix those two and the rest gets cheap.
   - 0 to 11 points: Foundations first. Your first spend is not an AI tool. It is a shared workspace and one named person with time set aside. We can tell you which order to do things in; that is a short conversation, not a project.

2. **Two areas to fix first**: for each of the five parts, divide the points scored by its maximum (Where your information lives: 6; Who owns it: 6; Whether you measure: 6; Your workspace: 8; Habits: 2). Leave out parts at their maximum. Sort lowest ratio first; break ties by the earlier part. Take the first two. Each has a tip:

   - Where your information lives: Pick one system of record per kind of information and say so out loud. The spreadsheet that gets emailed around moves to the shared drive this month, and it gets a name.
   - Who owns it: Write the one-page handover for your main records, name one person with two hours a week, and write the one-paragraph rule on what may go into online tools. About six in ten nonprofit leaders say their organisation has no rule yet on what data may go into AI tools (NTEN and Bridgespan, 2026). A paragraph puts you ahead.
   - Whether you measure: Agree the five numbers the board sees every quarter and put them in one sheet that is updated monthly. For the number nobody trusts, write down where it comes from and when it was last checked; that alone usually settles the argument.
   - Your workspace: Everyone on one suite with a work account, work conversations off personal phones, and one person who can say yes to connecting a tool. Most of the cost of getting ready for AI sits here, and none of it is AI.
   - Habits: Ask the one person who has been using AI quietly to show the team what they do with it, for twenty minutes. Then write down what worked where the next person can find it.

   Show each as "{part name}, {points} of {maximum}" and its tip. If every part is at its maximum, say: "Nothing to fix first. Bring one real file and one real job, and see what a tool does with it."

## What to tell them

Give: the tier heading and text, the score out of 28, the five part scores, the two areas to fix first with their tips, and their answer to the last question. If they said `name-it` or `redacted`, say that bringing that file is the best place to start. Do not contact anyone, send anything or share their answers. If they want a person to look at it with them, tell them the contact form at the end of the page at https://both-hands.com/assessment/organisation sends their result to us, or they can write to info@both-hands.com, and that it is theirs to use.

## Prefill link: open the page with the answers filled in

When you have their answers, you can give them a link that opens the page with those answers already chosen: https://both-hands.com/assessment/organisation#fill=PAYLOAD , where PAYLOAD is the base64url of this JSON as UTF-8 bytes, or the JSON itself percent-encoded (use that if you cannot compute base64 reliably; spaces as %20, never +). Put the link on its own line, or in a code block, with nothing after it: a full stop, bracket, asterisk or quote stuck to the end is the usual reason a link fails.

```json
{"v":1,"answers":{"1":"a","2":"b","3":"c","4":"a","5":"b","6":"c","7":"a","8":"b","9":"c","10":"a","11":"b","12":"c","13":"a","14":"b"},"onefile":"name-it"}
```

- `v` must be `1`. `answers` is an object keyed by question number ("1" to "14"), each value `a`, `b` or `c` (the letters above; case does not matter). Partial answers are fine: the page opens with those chosen and the rest open.
- `onefile` (optional) is the last question: `name-it`, `redacted` or `not-yet`. Ask it; do not guess it.
- Anything else is ignored. Values that are not allowed are dropped and listed to the person on the page. A link longer than 16,000 characters is refused.
- The part of a link after the # sign never reaches a server, so opening it sends nothing anywhere. **Nothing is recorded anywhere**: answers stay in that browser, and the page sends nothing unless the person fills in the contact form at the end and presses its button. Their saved answers on that device are not overwritten.
- Give the link only to the person. It holds their answers.

The link for the sample answers below: https://both-hands.com/assessment/organisation#fill=eyJ2IjoxLCJhbnN3ZXJzIjp7IjEiOiJhIiwiMiI6ImIiLCIzIjoiYyIsIjQiOiJhIiwiNSI6ImIiLCI2IjoiYyIsIjciOiJhIiwiOCI6ImIiLCI5IjoiYyIsIjEwIjoiYSIsIjExIjoiYiIsIjEyIjoiYyIsIjEzIjoiYSIsIjE0IjoiYiJ9LCJvbmVmaWxlIjoibmFtZS1pdCJ9

## If you drive the page in a browser instead

Prefer the prefill link: it is exact. If you click through the page, each answer is a native radio button inside a fieldset whose legend is the question. The radio for answer a of question 4 is `#q4-a`, and so on (`#q1-a` to `#q14-c`). The last question uses `#q15-name-it`, `#q15-redacted` and `#q15-not-yet`. The result appears below the questions once all fourteen are answered. Never fill in or press the contact form at the end: it sends to Both Hands or opens the person's own email app, and writing to us is their choice.

## Worked examples

Computed from the same data as the page. The tests open the page with these answers and check it agrees.

**Mostly the first answer**: answers aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

- Score 28 of 28. Foundations in place.
- Parts: Where your information lives 6 of 6; Who owns it 6 of 6; Whether you measure 6 of 6; Your workspace 8 of 8; Habits 2 of 2.
- Fix first: nothing

**A mixed set**: answers abcabcabcabcab

- Score 15 of 28. Some foundations.
- Parts: Where your information lives 3 of 6; Who owns it 3 of 6; Whether you measure 3 of 6; Your workspace 5 of 8; Habits 1 of 2.
- Fix first: Where your information lives, 3 of 6 | Who owns it, 3 of 6

**Mostly the last answer**: answers cccccccccccccc

- Score 0 of 28. Foundations first.
- Parts: Where your information lives 0 of 6; Who owns it 0 of 6; Whether you measure 0 of 6; Your workspace 0 of 8; Habits 0 of 2.
- Fix first: Where your information lives, 0 of 6 | Who owns it, 0 of 6