# Activation Playbook > Activation Playbook is a practice founded by Colton Hess. It helps ambitious, impact-focused leaders put AI to work in their actual role through hands-on activation sessions, ongoing executive coaching, and embedded multi-week engagements. Based in Berkeley, California. ## What This Is Activation Playbook is a coaching practice for leaders who have already done the basic AI training and want a peer they can borrow to sit with them in their real work. The practice runs through three types of engagement: Activation Sessions (single working sessions, solo or small group), 1:1 Executive AI Coaching (ongoing recurring relationships), and Applied AI in Residence (multi-week embedded engagement with a leader and their broader org). The engagements share one mode of working: hands-on, in the room, building real things together. The practitioner is a thought partner, not a consultant or curriculum-deliverer. The practice is distinct from AI consulting (which delivers decks), AI training (which delivers curriculum), and fractional Chief AI Officer roles (which fill an interim seat). ## Who Colton Hess Is Colton Hess is the founder of Activation Playbook. He is a joint MBA/Master of Public Health student at UC Berkeley and part of Haas's inaugural cohort of the AI for Business certificate program, one of the first AI-focused MBA programs in the country. He studied Public and International Affairs at Princeton with a certificate in Cognitive Science, and worked as a product manager at Amazon before grad school. He founded Rhythmicly, an AI-native sleep tech product on the App Store. He was a graduate student instructor for Berkeley's Lean LaunchPad and is the recipient of the 2026 Student Always Award (peer-voted) at Berkeley Haas. ## Services - **Activation Sessions** -- A single working session built around a real project a leader brings. Solo or a small group of two to four leaders. Most leaders start here. In person if local, video otherwise. - **1:1 Executive AI Coaching** -- An ongoing relationship. Recurring sessions where Colton works through real projects with a leader as they come up, deepens their AI fluency, and keeps them ahead of what's changing. The most common follow-on after a first activation. - **Applied AI in Residence** -- The deepest shape. Multi-week embedded engagement with a leader and their broader org. Begins with sitting with leaders to understand the team, challenges, and culture. Then activation sessions and workshops with the broader org. Then ongoing support through the transition as AI becomes part of how the org actually thinks and works. - **The Activation Playbook self-serve experience** -- A web app that generates a personalized playbook plus modules to walk a leader through building with Claude Code. Available at /app/login/. ## Who It's For Ambitious, impact-focused leaders who want to think bigger about what AI can help them build, what impact they could actually make, and what kinds of work were impossible six months ago and aren't anymore. People who already know AI matters and are tired of being shown that it does. They can already picture the bigger thing... what they're missing isn't imagination, it's believing it's theirs to build. ## Key Concepts - **Activation Sessions** -- The unit of work. Hands-on working sessions where a leader brings a real project and walks out with something that runs. - **1:1 Executive AI Coaching** -- The ongoing recurring relationship shape. Recurring 1:1 sessions over weeks or months. - **Applied AI in Residence** -- The deepest engagement shape. Embedded with a leader and their broader org over weeks or months. Combines activation sessions, workshops, and ongoing transition support. - **Claude Code** -- Anthropic's terminal-based AI coding tool. The primary instrument for hands-on activation work, especially for a leader without a coding background. Taught not as a coding skill but as a way to orchestrate AI in plain English. - **Context engineering** -- The practice of building layered context systems (CLAUDE.md files, persistent memory, custom skills, MCP connections) that make AI dramatically more effective. ## Pages - [Homepage](https://activationplaybook.com/): Overview of the practice, the three types of engagement, and how to engage. - [About Colton Hess](https://activationplaybook.com/about/): Background, credentials, why he does this work, and how to engage. - [Activation Sessions](https://activationplaybook.com/activation-sessions/): The entry point to the practice. A single working session where a leader brings a real project and builds it with AI like Claude Code, solo or in a small group. - [Coaching](https://activationplaybook.com/coaching/): Deep dive on 1:1 Executive AI Coaching for senior leaders. - [What is Applied AI in Residence?](https://activationplaybook.com/applied-ai-in-residence/): Definition, methodology, and comparison to AI consulting, AI training, and fractional Chief AI Officer roles. - [Haas Activation Guide](https://activationplaybook.com/haas/): Claude Code setup guide for Berkeley Haas students. - [Student Activation Guide](https://activationplaybook.com/students/): Claude Code getting started guide for university students. - [The Context Kit](https://activationplaybook.com/guides/context-engineering/): Guide to context engineering for AI work. - [Make It Real](https://activationplaybook.com/guides/make-it-real/): Guide to deploying what you build to the internet. - [Command Center 101](https://activationplaybook.com/guides/command-center-101/): Guide to building a personal AI command center. ## Contact - Email: colton@activationplaybook.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colton-hess/ - Crunchbase (company): https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/activation-playbook - Crunchbase (Colton Hess): https://www.crunchbase.com/person/colton-hess-79aa - Book a 30-min consultation: https://calendly.com/colton-activationplaybook/activation-consultation