Module 02: Understanding Business Processes

Here's something that'll save you months of frustration: most businesses can't accurately describe their own processes.

Ask a small business owner how they handle customer onboarding and they'll say "oh, it's pretty straightforward." Then you spend an hour mapping it and discover 14 steps, three different tools, two people involved, a spreadsheet that hasn't been updated since 2023, and a critical step that exists only in one employee's head.

This is normal. Businesses build processes organically — someone starts doing something, it works, it becomes "the way we do things," and nobody ever steps back to look at the whole picture. Your job as a workflow consultant is to be that outside perspective.

Ren Takahashi audited a 12-person marketing agency and found they were spending 8 hours per week manually transferring data between HubSpot, Google Sheets, and Slack. Nobody had noticed because three different people each did their part and assumed the others' parts were necessary. Ren built one Make automation that eliminated all 8 hours. The agency owner literally said, "How did we not see this?"

They didn't see it because they were inside it. You'll see it because you're not.

The Process Mapping Framework

Every business process has five components. Learn to identify all five and you'll see automation opportunities everywhere:

1. Trigger — What starts the process?
An email arrives. A form is submitted. A calendar event fires. A sale is made. Tuesday happens.

2. Inputs — What information is needed?
Customer data, order details, documents, approvals, reference information.

3. Steps — What happens, in what order, by whom?
This is the meat. Map every step, including the ones people think are too small to mention. "Oh, I also copy the tracking number into a spreadsheet" — that's a step, and it's probably automatable.

4. Decisions — Where are the if/then moments?
"If the order is over £500, it needs manager approval." "If the client is in the US, use this template." Decisions are where processes branch, and they're often where bottlenecks live.

5. Outputs — What's produced at the end?
An email sent. A report generated. A record updated. A notification triggered.

How to Map a Process

Step 1: Interview (30-60 minutes)
Talk to the person who actually does the work — not their manager. Ask:

• Walk me through this from start to finish


• What's the most annoying part?


• Where do things get stuck?


• What do you do when something goes wrong?


• How long does each step take?

Record the conversation (with permission). You'll miss things in real-time.

Step 2: Document (30-45 minutes)
Turn the interview into a visual process map. Use a simple flowchart — nothing fancy. Tools: Miro, Whimsical, or even a Google Doc with numbered steps and arrows.

Step 3: Validate (15 minutes)
Send the process map back to the person and ask: "Did I get this right? What did I miss?" They'll always spot something.

Step 4: Analyse (30 minutes)
For each step, ask:

• Is this step necessary? (Sometimes the answer is no — just eliminate it)


• Is this step repetitive? (Automation candidate)


• Does this step require human judgment? (Keep it human, but maybe AI-assisted)


• Is there a tool that already does this? (Integration opportunity)

Common Process Categories

These are the processes almost every SME has that are ripe for automation:

• Lead management: inquiry → qualification → follow-up → CRM entry


• Customer onboarding: contract signed → welcome email → account setup → first delivery


• Invoice processing: service delivered → invoice created → sent → followed up → reconciled


• Content production: idea → draft → review → publish → distribute


• Reporting: data collected → compiled → analysed → formatted → distributed


• Hiring: job posted → applications screened → interviews scheduled → offers sent

Each of these is a project waiting to happen.

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