Pick Home, Code or Autopilot for a real piece of work
This is a draft
The steps below were written but have not yet been performed end to end on every tenant type, and the time is planned rather than measured with a stopwatch. Treat timings and the failure list as provisional. Interfaces and licence flags change. What that means
After this you will be able to
Choose Home (Chat or Cowork), Code or Autopilot for one real piece of work, and say why.
Skip this if you already route work deliberately across Chat, Cowork, Code and Autopilot and can explain the choice to a colleague.
Before you start. Without looking: what is the difference between asking for a quick draft and handing over a multi-step deliverable?
Which tool when starts with “what am I accomplishing?”, not with the product name. MOCA uses that question across Microsoft 365. The same habit applies to Copilot Home, Code and Autopilot.
If you cannot name the outcome in one sentence, you are not ready to pick a capability.
Read the short map on which tool when if you have not already.
What you need
- One real piece of work from your week (not a toy example).
- The inventory from lesson 01, or five minutes to check what you can open.
- Access only to what your organisation already allows.
The steps
- Write one sentence that names the outcome. Example: “A two-page brief my manager can edit by Thursday.” Not: “Use Copilot.”A sentence with a deliverable, an audience, and a time.
- Decide: is this a quick answer or first draft (Chat), a multi-step deliverable (Cowork), a small tool you will reuse (Code), or recurring work that should continue without you (Autopilot)?One primary choice written down. If two feel possible, pick the smaller one first.
- Check the map: does your tenant actually offer that capability today? If not, choose the next best available surface and note the gap.Choice marked available or blocked.
- Run a safe version of the task on an allowed surface — or write the prompt and boundaries you would use when it is allowed. Do not put confidential content into a tool your policy forbids.Either a result you can show, or a written brief ready for when access exists.
Try this one first
Take tomorrow’s most annoying recurring task. Name the outcome in one sentence, then force a single choice: Chat · Cowork · Code · Autopilot · none yet.
“None yet” is a valid answer when policy or preview access blocks you. The skill is the decision, not forcing a click.
If it goes wrong
You pick Autopilot for a two-minute lookup. That is Chat. Escalating autonomy without need spends credits and attention.
You want Code because it sounds impressive. If a shared document or a Chat draft finishes the job, stay there.
Cowork or Autopilot is off in your tenant. Stay on Chat or in-app Copilot, and take the gap to IT. Do not invent a personal workaround with work data.
Do today
Put your one-sentence outcome and your chosen capability in a note you can find next week. If you ran the task, keep the result beside it.
Where else this works. The same “outcome first, tool second” habit applies to Teams versus email, and to every new agent you are offered.
Did this work? If it did not, say what happened — hello@howtobedigital.com
Every failure anybody sends in ends up in the section above.
Checked by a person · not auto-published
Published 27 September 2026 · Last checked 27 September 2026
Draft — steps not yet timed on every licence type — quality bar
Re-check window: 60 days for Copilot lessons
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