644. Zsigmond Fajth, Gridd: Smart Templates for the AI Era

Show Notes: Zsigmond Fajth is a McKinsey alum and co-founder of Gridd, a company that provides templates for the AI era, specifically for consultants. Zsigmond explains that Gridd is designed for independent consultants, leveraging his experience at McKinsey where he modernized client communication tools. Introducing Gridd Zsigmond mentions the creation of McKinsey's PowerPoint toolbar and the Pyramid add-in, which helped consultants create interactive presentations. He discusses the transition from traditional templates to AI-driven templates, aiming to serve a broader audience beyond McKinsey. Gridd's AI Templates Zsigmond describes Gridd's AI templates as having flexible layouts that auto-expand as content is added, solving issues with static PowerPoint templates. The templates include embedded AI prompts that can be copied and pasted into various AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot. He explains that the templates are designed to accommodate content in a format that can be easily integrated into the AI tools.  Gridd's Basic Setup Zsigmond demonstrates both the flexible layouts and the integration with AI tools. He shows the template library, which includes 260 templates covering various use cases like boxes, matrices, process flows, funnels, pyramids, and charts. The templates are designed to look like best practice consulting charts, with 60 charts being traditional Microsoft charts and the rest in a special format. Gridd's Special Formats Zsigmond highlights the special format, which includes elements like tables with blue boxes and sub-headers, typical of consulting slides. Gridd has a variety of templates, including frameworks, text, shapes, and quantitative info charts like column charts, bar charts, and waterfall charts.   Adding Rows Gridd's Flexible Layouts Zsigmond demonstrates how to insert a new page with a Gridd element, add columns or rows, and resize elements to maintain alignment. The flexible layouts allow for quick edits without manual alignment, saving time and effort. He shows how to add additional levels to a pyramid framework and delete levels as needed, making it easy to adjust the structure. The auto-expanding capability saves templates by allowing them to accommodate more content without creating multiple versions. Expanding Copy and Paste  Gridd Integration with AI Tools Zsigmond explains the process of using Gridd's custom prompts with AI tools like ChatGPT to generate content for the templates. The custom prompts include instructions on the layout and content format, ensuring the AI generates content that fits the template. Rearranging Columns Generating and Integrating Prompts Zsigmond demonstrates how to copy the prompt, paste it into ChatGPT, and specify the source of information to generate an executive summary.  Using AI Prompt The generated content is then copied and pasted back into the Gridd template, which formats it automatically.  Paste Prompt in ChatGPT Zsigmond contrasts Gridd's approach with traditional templates, which overdetermine output or require manual edits that are time-consuming. Paste into Gridd Gridd's approach allows for quick algorithmic edits, making it faster and more reliable to add or modify content than always using AI. The built-in prompts ensure consistent output and reduce the need for long and token-intensive layout generation. Zsigmond demonstrates how to modify existing templates to specify dimensions and content, making it easier to generate accurate and detailed pages. Gridd Pricing Packages Zsigmond outlines the pricing packages for Grid templates, including a free trial, an essentials package, and a full template package. The free trial includes the add-in and 23 templates, allowing users to test the tool without commitment. The essentials package, priced at $69, includes 60 layouts and is available with lifetime access. The full package, priced at $269, includes 260 layouts and 60 charts, also with lifetime access. All packages come with a 30 days satisfaction guarantee. Zsigmond mentions a launch promotion offering 33% off for Unleashed listeners, bringing the prices down to $49 for the essentials and $169 for the full package.  Promo code: UNLEASHED Timestamps: 02:42: Overview of Gridd's AI Templates  04:16: Demonstration of Gridd's Template Library 08:02: Editing and Customizing Templates in Gridd  13:02: Integration with AI Tools for Content Generation 22:55: Advantages of Gridd's Approach  23:09: Pricing and Availability of Gridd Templates Links: Gridd website: www.griddtemplates.com This episode on Umbrex: https://umbrex.com/unleashed/episode-644-zsigmond-fajth-gridd-smart-templates-for-the-ai-era/ Unleashed is produced by Umbrex, which has a mission of connecting independent management consultants with one another, creating opportunities for members to meet, build relationships, and share lessons learned. Learn more at www.umbrex.com. *AI generated timestamps and show notes.