You can spend years in the corporate world. Endless steering committee meetings. Office politics. And still miss the fundamental truth about getting things done.
A good workflow is the backbone of any operation. Whether you're running a 70-person agency or a solo consultancy. I learned this the hard way.
I used to think workflows were a "nice to have." Something you documented when you had spare time. Spoiler: you never have spare time. And undocumented processes? They break. Usually at 2 AM. Usually when you're on vacation.
Here's how I actually build workflows that work.
1. Document What Exists First
Before you automate anything, you need to understand what you're working with. And I mean really understand it.
I've watched people skip this step countless times. They get excited about a new tool, start building, and three weeks later realize they automated the wrong thing. Don't be that person.
Map Every Step
Act like an investigator. What triggers the process? What are the states—Pending, In Progress, Done? What moves something from one state to the next?
Here's the thing most people miss: conditional paths. When does the process branch? What criteria trigger that branch? If you can't answer these questions, you don't understand the process yet.
Break It Down
Take a hard look at what you're dealing with. Is this one giant workflow, or is it actually three smaller ones chained together?
If you can break it apart, do it. Find the piece with the lowest effort and highest value. Start there. Build momentum. Prove the concept works before tackling the hard stuff.
Define Inputs and Outputs
Every step needs clear inputs and outputs. What goes in? What comes out? If Step A produces something Step B needs, write it down.
Also: who owns each step? Who needs to know when it's done? I've seen workflows fail because nobody knew who was supposed to do what. Or worse, everyone got notified about everything and stopped paying attention entirely.
Plan for Failure
This is where most people screw up. They design for the happy path and pray nothing goes wrong.
Things go wrong. Always.
Identify every point where the process could fail. What happens when it does? You need an answer before it happens, not while you're scrambling to fix production at midnight.
Get Honest Feedback
Talk to the people actually using the process. What frustrates them? What takes too long? What makes them want to throw their laptop out the window?
Sometimes the fix is automation. Sometimes it's just a better process. Sometimes the whole thing needs to be scrapped. You won't know until you ask.
Measure the Baseline
This is your leverage. How long does the current process take? What volume can it handle?
Without these numbers, you can't prove your new system is better. And trust me, someone will ask.
2. Explore Your Options
After you understand the current process, resist the urge to immediately build something. I know, it's hard. You want to fix things. But slow down.
Look at Multiple Solutions
I've made the mistake of marrying the first tool I found. Thought Salesforce was the only path for years. Then I discovered Monday.com's API and realized I'd been overcomplicating everything.
Look at 2-3 options minimum. Force yourself to explore alternatives. The best solution might be something you haven't heard of yet.
Do a Real Cost-Benefit Analysis
And I mean real. Not just "this tool costs $50/month."
Implementation difficulty matters. Don't add complexity to save a few bucks. Get something working first. Optimize later.
Time to market matters. A perfect solution that takes a year to deploy loses to a good-enough solution deployed next month. Every time.
Tech stack matters. If the solution requires learning a new programming language for marginal gains, it's probably not worth it. I'm a big fan of low-code platforms like Make.com for exactly this reason. Path of least resistance.
3. Prioritize Ruthlessly
You've got your solution picked out. Now you need a plan. Here's how I think about sequencing.
Dependencies First
What has to happen before anything else can happen? These are your must-dos. Do them first. No exceptions.
Business Value Second
Which pieces deliver the most measurable impact? Revenue? Cost savings? Time saved? These should be high on the list.
Quick Wins Third
Find the easy stuff. The low-risk items you can validate fast.
This isn't about being lazy. It's strategic. Early wins build momentum. They prove the concept works. They keep stakeholders happy and projects funded. I've seen too many ambitious automation projects die because they tried to boil the ocean before proving they could heat a cup of water.
In the next article, I'll use this framework to build an AI-powered automated content generation system. Follow along to see how it works in practice.