Learnya Academy
Lesson 1 of 10 · 9 min

Start from the team’s real work

Observe the work before choosing what to automate, the first step of the WorkStreams cycle.

ObjectiveBy the end of this lesson, you will be able to analyse a team’s work and draw from it a task map validated by the people who do those tasks.

A good assistant does not start from a technology idea. It starts from real work, done by real people, with its pain points and constraints. The first step of the WorkStreams cycle, activity analysis, means looking at what the team really does, and not only at what the procedure describes.

What to observe

  • The tasks repeated every week, with the time they take.
  • The moments when people wait for information, a sign-off or a document.
  • The errors that keep coming back and what they cost.
  • The know-how held by a single person.
  • What colleagues enjoy doing and do not want to delegate.

The last point matters as much as the others. An automation that takes away the part of someone’s job they enjoy will be worked around. An automation that takes away the chore will be adopted.

Running the analysis with Learnya

Learnya can help you structure this observation. Gather concrete material: a few typical emails, a procedure, the notes from an interview with a colleague. Ask for a task map, then discuss it with the team.

Try it in LearnyaBased on the three attached interviews with colleagues from customer service, list the tasks they describe. For each one, give the frequency, the estimated time, the tools used and the pain points mentioned. Do not fill in what is not said, mark it “to check”. Try in Learnya
  1. Create a project called “Activity analysis” and invite the colleagues concerned.
  2. Add the interviews, procedures and examples you collected to the project.
  3. If the interviews were recorded, ask for their transcription in a conversation of the project.
  4. Ask for the task map with a request like the one above.
  5. Share the resulting table and have it corrected by the people who do the work.
An activity analysis project, with its interviews, its members and its conversations.