Workflow
Where does the week go, and does a person need to be doing this?
Four people, every Monday
"We need another person for the reporting" usually means four people are already copying the same numbers between three systems, every Monday, by hand.
One integration, a small connection that carries data from one system to the next, passes the numbers along instead. Nobody's job goes; the copying does, and Monday comes back. Mondays have been waiting for this.
Integration. The systems pass the numbers to each other. The four people keep their jobs, and get their Monday back.
Ship on a Friday
Most teams have a rule against changing anything on a Friday, because the last time they did, the checkout broke over the weekend and nobody noticed until Monday.
Tests that click through the site like a person would, end-to-end tests to a tester, run on every change and find the broken step before a shopper does. Then Friday is just another day, and Saturday is yours again.
End-to-end test. A script that uses the site the way a person would, start to finish, on every change.
What Workflow covers
Automation
The jobs a machine should do: copying, checking, reconciling, reacting.
AI in the workflow
Agents and assistants that sit inside the tools your team already opens every morning.
Testing and quality
Tests that click through your site like a person would, every time someone ships. So your team can ship on a Friday, and nobody finds the broken checkout on Saturday.
- end-to-end · visual regression · monitoring
Internal tools
The small app that replaces the spreadsheet everybody is scared to sort.
Process, priorities and handover
Deciding what to build first, and what not to build at all. Then writing it down and walking your team through it, so they can run it after I leave, and actually want to.
Where the week goes
Every team has work that repeats: the same report, the same check, the same copy and paste. None of it takes long. Together it takes days, which is a lot of days to spend as a very expensive clipboard.
This is one team's week. Watch what happens as the repeating parts are handed to something that doesn't mind doing them, and never asks for the good mug.
One team's 40-hour week: 7 hours copying between systems, 4 on the weekly report, 5 checking the site still works, and 5 chasing approvals. Handing those to an integration, a scheduled report, automated tests and a workflow with reminders gives back 21 hours a week, leaving 19 for the work they were hired for. The numbers are illustrative.
The numbers are illustrative; the shape is common.
Writing on workflow
All of it
Who I have worked with
A few of the brands I have worked with, directly or through their agencies.
Where does your team's week go?
Tell me what you can see going wrong, or what you'd like to be possible. You don't need the technical name for it. I have plenty, and I'm happy to share.
Contact
Tell me what the problem is. You don't need the technical name for it: working that out is part of the job. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so. I reply myself, from Hobart, which is ahead of most of the world (by time zone, and in several other ways I am too modest to list).
- or call
- Book a call
- or code
- github.com/neobadger
Sent. Thank you. It is on its way to me in Hobart, and nobody else reads it. I reply in person, after I have read it properly, which sometimes means twice.