Johnathan Lightfoot Portfolio — 2K26

Section Teaching & Community

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04 / Teaching & Community

I teach automation as a working discipline.

The method is outcome-first: determine the result that must be achieved, then work backward to the workflow, the tools, the controls and the skills required. The emphasis is on understanding why a workflow works rather than reproducing an example that happens to run — because a student who cannot explain a workflow is not ready to maintain it.

Cover of the instructor guide for an eight-week hands-on automation programme, naming its four themes: trigger, logic, APIs and AI, and output.
n8n Foundations — Instructor GuideEight-week cohort · Bulletproof Automations
A workbook page listing five learning objectives, then a table defining condition, IF node, operator, switch node, fallback route and merge node in plain language.
Learning objectives & key termsClass 5 workbook, page 2
Workbook cover showing the shape of the class build — intake, IF, switch, merge — above the line: workflows become genuinely useful when they can make decisions, and a decision path that has never been tested should be treated as broken.
Class 5 — Logic & BranchingStudent workbook

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Teach

01 Teach

Direct instruction — cohorts, curriculum, workshops.

n8n Foundations — Beginner Cohort

For
Absolute beginners, no prior programming experience · limited to 25
Form
Eight live build-along sessions, Saturdays 11:30–13:00 GMT, 11 July – 29 August 2026 · free, part of the Automation Builder Training Pathway

Getting Started · Triggers and Data · Connecting Apps · Working with APIs · Logic & Branching · Error Handling · AI-Powered Automation · Capstone.

Workbooks, instructor guides and a portfolio system

For
Students and self-directed learners
Form
Per-class student workbooks and instructor guides, hands-on build steps, worksheets, common-mistake tables, exit tickets, a README template and a capstone rubric

Every learner leaves each week with proof of work: an exported workflow, screenshots, and notes a non-technical person can follow.

AI Security Foundation exam preparation

For
Certification candidates
Form
Flashcards, quizzes, progress tracking and a study planner

Working knowledge of AI risk management and the NIST AI RMF that survives the exam room.

Adjunct Professor

For
College students
Form
Formal classroom instruction

Howard Community College. Formal teaching alongside a career of training users, teams, clients and practitioners.

Enable

02 Enable

Tools and resources that let other people build without him.

n8n Ambassador — Ghana

For
The n8n community in Ghana
Form
Events, instruction and practical education

A growing local community of automation builders with somewhere to start and someone to ask.

API learning materials

For
Developers and automation builders
Form
Documentation, integration paths and a published community node

Able to use the data in their own work without writing the integration from scratch.

Self-hosting and automation QA methodology

For
Teams running their own automation infrastructure
Form
Reference lab, operational tooling and testing standards

Able to run, upgrade, back up and restore a platform they own.

Community technology built for handover

For
Ministries and community organizations
Form
Study and teaching platforms designed to be operated by their users

A system the community runs itself, rather than a dependency on its builder.

Portfolio-building guidance

For
Emerging automation developers
Form
Direct guidance and portfolio requirements

Work that is genuinely their own and stands up to being asked about.

Share

03 Share

Public thinking.

Published Microsoft author

For
Practitioners learning SharePoint
Form
Three titles for Microsoft Press, 2010–2013

The earliest evidence of a recurring theme: taking complex technology and making it usable by ordinary practitioners.

Video

For
People working in and entering technology
Form
Including AI Unveiled: Insights from a 30-Year IT Veteran

Perspective from someone who has watched technology succeed and fail for three decades.

Field Notes

For
Builders earlier in their careers
Form
Long-form writing on this site

The lessons of the career arc, written for someone about to face the same thing.

Microsoft Press 2010

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Plain & Simple

With Chris Beckett

ISBN 978-0-7356-4228-7

Microsoft Press 2011

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out

Contributor, with Errin O’Connor · Penelope Coventry · Troy Lanphier · Michael Doyle · Thomas Resing

ISBN 978-0-7356-2724-6

Microsoft Press 2013

Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Plain & Simple

With Michelle Lopez · Scott Metker

ISBN 978-0-7356-6700-6

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Mentorship

I keep some time for people earlier in their careers. If that is you, write to me. johnathan@bulletproofautomations.com