A list of questions and checks to help you see if you should automate a process or not.
I've had a lot of people asking for this.
This is just what I use.
1st half are open-ended questions for exploration
2nd half are rankings for prioritization.
Hope this helps you!
1. Do I understand what I am automating?
Often times we think we are automating a process, but instead, we may be automating a destructive pattern.
Do it manually for a few weeks.
Dont perpetuate bad actions.
Go through the learning as a person, automate what you learned.
Example:
If you are filtering people for hire, and you automate right off the bat, you may automate based on the wrong criteria.
Its better to filter manually, do some calls, have some interviews, and adjust the process a bit until you are automating the right thing.
2. What do I gain?
Automating, just to automate is not useful. It just creates another system to maintain without any upside.
Each automation adds to the complexity of your business process. As complexity increases, so does areas for breakage and unintended consequences.
3. What do I lose?
Every automation results in loss.
Proximity to the process.
You may miss a "regime shift" as things change.
You may lose closeness to your customers and personal interaction.
You miss an understanding of your operation as it grows or changes.
4. What learning will I miss?
Related to the above. When you do something manually, you auto-adjust based on changes.
When automated, the environment, rules, practices, culture, or something else slowly moves over time.
You won't be there to learn and adjust.
Have a plan.
-- If after all of this you still wish to automate, move to prioritizing and filtering your ideas and potential projects --
For this I focus on
Impact
Strategy
Risk
Cost
Return
1. What is the impact?
- What operational function is being affected
- How much of a difference/impact will this make for stakeholders? (employees, customers, suppliers)
- What is the targeted outcome for the stakeholders? (otherwise, you won't know if its working or not)
2. Does it align with the Strategy?
Every company should have a few targetted strategic outcomes they are working towards?
If the automation doesn't further these, it could be a distraction. Rank how well it fits in with the few strategic objectives you have.
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When looking at streamlining the operations of your SMB, consider this scale on where the most value can be added.
Different functions allow more upside than others, so to really increase
Its hard for a company or group of people to work together, if everyone is unclear, not in agreement, confused, or not in the know on:
How the company delivers value.
This is not about what the value is or why... its about how do we, as a company get this to our customers.
The idea of Value Delivery is crucial, and many leaders 1. assume every knows 2. assume when they spoke, everyone heard the same thing 3. assume they don't need to know
This is so wrong. You NEED ever single person understanding how the operations are setup
Why are incentives here and not there?
Why do we hire faster in that area?
It seems all the tech is built in that division?
Is there a reason the employee manual is more lenient with them?
Issues in finance, HR, operations, and IT - but all because of operational misalignment