There’s no shortage of advice telling you which AI tool to buy. This toolkit does the opposite. It helps you start where you actually are — your real process, your real data, the stuff that’s slow or breaking — so that by the time you’re looking at tools, you already know what you need. It’s the same method Grace uses with every client, whether the answer turns out to be a simple automation, a custom build, or “let’s wait six months.”
From the Helia Library article The “Right” Tech Decision, based on our Coffee Chat with Grace Kim.
What’s Inside
- The Inside-Out Map — The core exercise. Map one process start to finish, note what tech runs each step, mark what should stay human on purpose, and put a number on where it’s costing you. Everything else builds on this.
- Build, Buy, or Wait — Once you know your friction and what it’s costing, this walks you through what to do about it — build custom, buy off the shelf, lean on something already inside your tools, or actively wait. The questions that don’t go stale when the tools change.
- Where Are You on the Spectrum — A quick self-check on tech adoption, from “no thank you” to “all in” — plus how to actively wait-and-see, so you’re watching for the one capability you need instead of drowning in everything that’s coming.
If you want help
Grace Kim is an independent data and AI consultant who helps mission-driven teams make the right technology decisions — starting from your real friction, not the firehose — and then actually put them to work in how your team operates. She does the process mapping, the automations, and the custom builds, and she keeps everything usable and grounded in the tools you already have.
She’s a good fit if:
- Feel the pressure to “do something with AI” and want a grounded, inside-out place to start
- Have a specific pain point and want to know whether it’s worth fixing — and what worth spending money on
- Are weighing build vs. buy and want someone who’ll tell you the truth
- Have sensitive data and need it handled with real care
Connect with Grace!
Not sure Grace‘s the right fit? Talk to Helia directly!
About Grace Kim
Grace Kim is an independent data and AI consultant who came to this work the long way — through a PhD in earth science and years at NASA studying satellite data, asking big questions about how systems actually work. She left big consulting to make that kind of thinking available to organizations that could never afford a five-person tech team. (She also took our entire interview with a cat steadily clawing at a power cable in the background, which felt exactly right for someone whose whole philosophy is meeting the real world where it actually is.
Work with Grace
