Notes from the studio
Short pieces on the work itself: which part of a manual process is worth automating, what makes reading documents dependable, and where a person should still make the call. No case studies, because there are none to report yet.
Everything written so far
These are notes on the work rather than articles about the industry. Each one takes a single decision that comes up in this kind of project — which step of a manual process is worth automating first, what makes reading a document dependable enough to act on, why comparing two price lists is slow even though the comparison itself is trivial — and sets out how it is answered here. They describe processes the studio has been asked about and systems it has built, not client engagements, because there are none to report yet.
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5 min
How to automate manual processes, step by step
Six steps in the order that works, and the three mistakes that undo most projects.
Read it -
4 min
Manual process examples: five that are worth automating
Five concrete examples, and a quick way to tell which ones are worth the effort.
Read it -
6 min
Reading documents reliably, and when not to
Extraction is easy to demonstrate and hard to trust. The difference is what happens to the rows it is unsure about.
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4 min
What to automate first in a manual process
The step people complain about is rarely the step worth automating first.
Read it -
5 min
Why a supplier price list takes two days to check
Most of the file is identical to last quarter. That is exactly what makes it slow.
Read it
Bring the process behind the reading
If one of these describes something your team does every week, describe it and the reply will say whether it is a fit, what scoping involves and where the limits are.