Which job goes first
The first job to automate is one a person already repeats, where the inputs already exist as files or messages, and where a wrong result is obvious to the person who checks it.
If you pay for a chat tool nobody opens while that same job still runs in Excel and WhatsApp, the tool was bought before the job was named.
| Test | Ready to try | Leave it |
|---|---|---|
| Example | A file, thread, or row from last week | Only a story about the work |
| Person | A named person checks the result | Everyone assumes someone else did |
| Mistake | A wrong draft is caught before it is sent | A wrong send costs a customer or a payment |
| Repeats | Someone did it again last week | Nobody can say when it last happened |
A job you can see
Two people can each think the other checked a follow-up, and the mistake sits there. So the first thing I ask is who looks at the result every time. My method article goes through that before it gets to tools.
Good first jobs look ordinary. Replies that use the same facts. A monthly pack rebuilt from files that already arrive. A brief assembled from notes the team already wrote. The finance case is a group that rebuilt those monthly files by hand.
Jobs to leave alone at the start
Leave alone the work where a wrong answer costs a customer, a payment, or a hire, until a person is still the one who sends it. Also leave alone anything you cannot point at: no recent example, no file, no message thread. Automating a story about the work just builds a story.
Buying a tool because a neighbour bought one is the other trap. Part of the hour with me is what to leave alone and what to buy off the shelf. If the answer is "leave it alone", I tell you that.
Steps
- List the jobs someone repeated last week.
- Cross off any job you cannot point at with a file or a message.
- Cross off any job where a wrong answer can go out with nobody checking.
- Take the one that remains. If more than one is left, book the hour and we rank them on your files.
Questions
What should a small business automate first?
One repeated job with inputs you can point at, and a person who already checks the result.
Should every task be automated?
No. Leave alone anything where a wrong answer costs a customer, a payment, or a hire with nobody checking, and anything you cannot point at with a file or a message.
What if the job only exists as a story about the work?
Leave it. With no recent file or thread there is nothing to try the tool on, and automating a story builds a story.
What does the finance case show?
A group rebuilding monthly files by hand from files that already arrived. That is the shape of a good first job: repeated, with inputs that exist.
Related
Sources
Want this worked out on your own business? Book the hour, AED 750.