Draw the process before you pick a model.
This is the worksheet I start every engagement with. If you know the process, it takes about fifteen minutes. What you type stays in your browser unless you send it to me.
- 01
Start from the process
Not from the model. Pick one process you know end to end and write its steps the way it runs today, including where the work sits waiting for someone.
- 02
Give each step the right element
There are only three. Most steps are obvious once you ask what the input looks like and what the step decides.
- Agent when the input is messy: emails, PDFs, calls, screenshots, any language
- Code when the answer is fixed: rules, lookups, routing, a calculation
- Person when the step commits you: a price, a date, a payment
- 03
Keep the gate
A person stays on every decision that commits you to a customer. Everything else runs like an operation: a queue, checks, retries, and a clear route to a person when something is stuck.
Five to seven steps, one choice each
Write what happens, who does it today, and what it waits for. Then pick who should do it.
A light box is a person doing the work. A hollow box is an agent, a mono box is plain code, a dashed box is a wait. Cyan is a decision that stays with a person.
Send me the map. I'll tell you where the agent goes.
Twenty minutes, on a call or by email, and no charge. You get my honest read on which steps an agent can take today, which need a person, and what it would take to run. If agents are the wrong answer for this process, I will say that too.
Or open it in your own mail app