Filling the seats

For you only

The invite is not a calendar block, it is a small sales job, and each role buys something different. When you invite them, sell the seat, not the format. One line each:

To the PM: "You have been arguing for the demo-call onboarding for a month. Build it Thursday and put it in front of five users by four o'clock."

To sales or marketing: "You keep telling us what customers say. Come build what you think they mean. No code, the AI does the typing."

To the subject matter expert: "You are the only person who knows how this actually works. I want that in the room, not summarised in a slide."

To the developer: "No, you cannot bring your IDE. Come see what the tools do, and keep us honest about what is real."

To the sceptic, and do invite one: "Come to kill the idea. If it survives you and five users, it deserves the quarter."

Pairing is a design decision. Plan the pairs the week before, and pair people who do not normally work together. A salesperson next to a designer will argue, and that argument is productive. Announce pairs on the day as a done thing, cheerfully, and let one swap happen if the chemistry is truly off. Do not let the room self-sort into the pairs that already eat lunch together, because those pairs build the product they already agreed on in the lunches.

PRO TIPS

• Overinvite by one or two. Someone always drops the morning of, and seven people still make three teams and a spare judge.
• If a team of two must become three, make it the team with the heaviest domain expert, not the loudest personality.
• Keep a one-line waitlist. "Next one, you are first in" costs nothing and builds the queue for run two.

Sources: "How to run the build hours", productbuildday.com/resources, 2026.