Process clarity
Before you automate it, map the handoffs
Follow one request from arrival to completion. Find where responsibility changes hands and what information must follow.
October 3, 2026 · 3 min read
- Trigger
- Information
- Owner
- Next action
If a step is missing, pause and verify before continuing.
Start with one real journey
Choose a recent enquiry and walk through it with the people who handled it. Record what arrived, where it was saved, who took over and how that person knew it was their turn. Include the email, phone call or conversation outside the usual tools. Separate what actually happened from the process the team intended to follow.
Make the transfer of responsibility explicit
For each handoff, name the trigger, required information, receiving person and next action. Agree how the receiving person acknowledges the work and what counts as complete. For example, a request can be assigned while a quote still waits for a required site-access detail. Giving the request an owner does not mean it is ready to quote.
Include the awkward cases
Try a missing required detail, a duplicate request and an absent colleague. Decide who reviews each exception, where waiting work stays visible and what allows it to resume. Ask another team member to follow the map without extra explanation. If the next step is unclear, first improve the checklist, responsibility or field in the existing tool.
Keep a usable working copy
Use fictional or appropriately redacted examples when sharing the map for discussion. Leave out passwords, payment details and customer information that is not needed. Record who maintains the map and when it was checked against the real process. Keep a documented manual route during a trial, with one record of work completed so a restart does not repeat it.
Try this: complete “When ___ arrives, ___ checks it, ___ confirms responsibility, and the next action is ___.” Then test what happens when one required detail is missing.
A practical checklist to adapt to your workflow. Examples are fictional.
General educational guidance; not a substitute for a project-specific privacy, security or legal review.