Getting Started

Riff helps teams make better business decisions, faster, with clearer thinking and less friction. A pilot lets you test this safely: no integrations, real decisions and clear data on whether Riff actually improves how work gets done.

While we craft a pilot that works for your company specifically, this guide gives you an overview of our approach.

Step 1. IT & security alignment

We start by aligning with IT and risk teams.

At this stage:

• No integrations with ERP, SharePoint, or finance systems

• No automated data ingestion

• Teams start fresh and provide context directly in Riff

This keeps the pilot low-risk while still showing real value.

What we cover upfront:

• Exactly what Riff does (and does not do)

• Where data is stored and how it’s protected

• SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 compliance

• User access, permissions and auditability

Step 2. Confirm Pilot participants

We recommend starting with department leads.

Typical pilot group:

• Department leads

• Each lead nominates one or two team members

• 10–30 users total

Alternatively you could choose one department but often there's better data when you look across more than one team.

3. Communicate with participants (first 4 weeks)

Each participant brings two real pieces of work into Riff:

1. One idea or initiative: A new project, change, or opportunity they’re considering.

2. One spend or justification request: Something that would normally live in a PDF, deck, or email chain.

Using Riff, they:

• Provide their thinking and context

• Strengthen that thinking with AI trained like FP&A

• Produce a clear, decision-ready output

• Share a link to that document with their manager for feedback

No templates to download. No formatting. Just structured thinking and clear fit for purpose justifications.

4. User feedback & adoption

If people don’t use it, nothing else matters.

We focus on practical feedback:

• Was this easier than your current templates or PDFs?

• Did it save time?

• Was the output higher quality or easier to approve?

• Would people choose to use it again?

We have plenty of guidance on the questions to ask and how to approach this, check out more guidance here.

We step through the following with your Riff evaluation leadership team:

• Usage and adoption patterns

• Qualitative feedback from participants

• Where Riff helped and where it didn’t

This stage determines whether Riff earns the right to go further.

5. Implementing the approval flow

If the pilot shows people can and will use it, we introduce Riff as part of your approval process.

You can start simply:

• Users specify who needs to approve by adding their email

• Approvers join directly in the same decision thread

• All context, discussion, and outcomes stay in one place

Or move to a more structured setup:

• Preloaded approval rules

• Clear thresholds based on decision type and value

• Less back-and-forth and less ambiguity for teams

6. Company-specific context & tools

Once approvals are working, we tailor Riff to how your business actually evaluates decisions.

Together, we map:

• How you calculate payback, ROI, or NPV

• What your organisation considers a “strong” business case

• Existing templates or internal frameworks you want reflected

• Activity or cost-to-produce data you want Riff to reference

• Key company facts (e.g. pricing, headcount, operating model)

• How justifications should be evaluated and challenged

This gives Riff the right context so:

• Agents guide employees using your standards

• Outputs look and feel consistent across teams

• Decision quality improves without more process

7. Rollout & change management

Rolling out Riff is as much about people as it is about technology.

We support adoption with:

• A rollout webinar tailored to your teams

• Practical guidance on day-to-day use (including mobile)

• Access to our support professionals to answer real questions in context

For teams in Australia, a Riff FP&A professional/success manager can join on-site to support rollout.

8. Fortnightly check-ins & ongoing support

We meet fortnightly with the internal owner to:

• Review usage and adoption metrics

• Gather feedback from teams

• Prioritise feature requests and customisation

• Refine workflows as needs evolve

We also offer services support:

• FP&A professionals can join any Riff thread

• Help with complex or high-stakes business cases

• Training and support as your use of Riff matures

We’ll keep checking in until Riff is embedded and running smoothly or until you’re sick of us.