Nico Röpnack · February 27, 2026 · 7 min read
On February 26, 2026, we demonstrated live what happens when Claude AI accesses Smartsheet data directly: via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the new interface that connects AI models with external data sources. The result: 38 questions in 30 minutes, 4 dashboards in real time, one question every 47 seconds. No PowerPoint, no script, all live.
Questions in 30 Minutes
Lighthouse Consulting Webinar, February 26, 2026
What is MCP?
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open interface that allows AI models such as Claude to access external data sources directly: Smartsheet, databases, APIs. Instead of copying data manually, Claude reads Smartsheet data live and creates dashboards, analyses, and forecasts in seconds. The webinar demonstrated exactly that.
The format
Coffee to Go:
Micro-learning in 30 minutes
Most webinars follow a simple pattern: welcome, presentation, Q&A, everyone leaves. We deliberately did the opposite: we connected Claude AI to Smartsheet live via MCP (Model Context Protocol) and generated dashboards, analyses, and forecasts in real time. If you would like to benefit from such practical demonstrations on a regular basis, you can find all the dates in Lighthouse Consulting's webinar overview.
Format 01
30 minutes total length
3 min intro, 25 min live demo, 2 min Q&A. No buffer. No filler. Every minute counts.
Format 02
Live demo without script
No PowerPoint. No prepared script. Everything live, everything real, everything in real time before the eyes of the participants.
Format 03
4 dashboards in 25 minutes
Four complete, interactive dashboards. Built live. The result: 38 questions from the audience, one every 47 seconds.
The figures
Record Engagement:
What the metrics show
Live participants
Questions answered
Countries represented
Attendance Rate
78 registrations, 36 participants live, almost all stayed for the entire 30 minutes.
The dashboards
What we built:
4 dashboards in 25 minutes
Live. Without preparation. With real data from Smartsheet.
Dashboard 01
Project Kanban Board (2 minutes)
“Here is my project portfolio dataset from Smartsheet. Please analyze it thoroughly and create an interactive dashboard with KPIs and charts.”
Result: A complete Kanban board with all 25 projects. Status indicators. Budget traffic lights. Resource utilization. The reaction in the chat: "OMG... That's amazing."
Dashboard 01: Project Kanban Board, built live in 2 minutes
Dashboard 02
Top 3 Project Managers by Savings (90 seconds)
"Who are the top 3 project managers in terms of savings?"
Result: A leaderboard. Szabolcs Toth in first place with savings of €439,133 across 14 projects.
Dashboard 02: Top 3 Project Managers by Savings
Dashboard 03
Executive Portfolio Dashboard (3 minutes)
Create an executive dashboard with charts for status, budget, risks, and timeline.
Result: 6 different visualizations. Donut charts, bar charts, timeline, risk traffic lights, resource utilization, project list. All interactive.
Dashboard 03: Executive Portfolio Dashboard with 6 visualizations
Dashboard 04
Budget variance analysis (2 minutes)
Analyze budget variances and show me which projects deviate most from the plan.
Result: A traffic light system. Green: within budget. Yellow: slightly over budget. Red: critical. Immediate action possible for every management level.
The questions
What the participants
really wanted to know
38 questions. All answered. Here are the five that were asked most frequently.
“Does Claude store my Smartsheet data?”
No. With Claude Team or Claude Enterprise, data is not used for training. No storage. No training. SOC 2 Type II certified.
“Can I embed this in Smartsheet?”
Yes, via Web Content Widget. Claude-generated HTML dashboards can be embedded directly. With Published Sheets, the data is live.
“Does this also work with thousands of lines?”
Yes. Tested with 5,000+ lines. Performance remains good. Recommendation: pre-filter before transfer for even better results.
"Is it really that simple?"
Yes. Two minutes from description to finished dashboard. No code. No specialist knowledge. Just a clear prompt.
“Where is Claude's boundary?”
For complex nested formulas. With 5 nested IF statements, Claude sometimes needs 2-3 iterations. For 90% of use cases, it works on the first try.
The findings
What We've Learned:
3 Insights from 38 Questions
Finding 01
Questions arise during the demonstration
Minutes 15 to 25 saw the highest concentration of questions in the entire webinar. Not at the end. Not in the Q&A. Right in the middle of the action.
Finding 02
People want to see the process
Live demos beat finished presentations. It's not the result that's convincing. It's the journey to get there. The real-time creation.
Finding 03
Mistakes build trust
Claude once positioned a chart incorrectly. We corrected it live. That created more trust than a perfect demo ever could have.
Prompt progression
16 Steps:
From Data to Strategy
The complete prompt sequence from the webinar: from initial analysis to strategic partner.
Phase 1: Initial contact
“Here is my project portfolio dataset from Smartsheet. Please analyze it completely and create an interactive HTML dashboard with key KPIs, charts, and a summary table.”
Phase 2: Visual refinement
Add a bar chart comparing planned cost vs. actual cost for every project. Highlight projects where actual cost exceeded the budget in red.
“Add interactive filter buttons.”
Phase 3: Deepening analytics
Who are the top 3 project managers by total savings generated?
Perform a correlation analysis and visualize it as a scatter plot.
Phase 4: Activate AI consulting
Predict the likely actual cost for a new project with a planned cost of $150,000.
“Act as my strategic advisor. Give me 3 concrete recommendations.”
Phase 5: Create Kanban view
Create an interactive Kanban board with columns: Backlog, In Progress, Review, Done.
Phase 6: Anti-Hallucination Loop (Gamechanger)
Please explain exactly how you calculated the risk score.
Challenge your own analysis. What assumptions could be wrong?
Prompt 16 is the moment when Claude becomes a thinking partner.
Next steps
Upcoming webinars:
March and April 2026
March 2026
Automate project plans with Claude
From idea to structured project plan: how Claude takes care of planning and documentation.
March 2026
Control Center Deep Dive
Understanding the Smartsheet Control Center: Enterprise-level portfolio management.
April 2026
Data privacy & AI for regulated industries
GDPR, SOC 2, regulated industries: what AI deployment really means in practice.
Next step
Experience for yourself what can be achieved in 30 minutes
Request the recording or book a personal demo to test Claude and Smartsheet in your own environment.
