How to automate your job in 5 easy steps
There are so many reasons to automate your workflows! If you haven’t already, check out our blog post 8 benefits of automation to learn what they are. Otherwise, get started building with the guide below.
1 – Make a list of your automation-eligible tasks.
So many tasks are perfect candidates for automation. Start by making a list of your responsibilities and frequent tasks. Then use the checklist below to identify the best candidates for automation.
For this example, we will use a customer service operations task. For this task, you must review customer support inquiries for your company’s new app and then submit bugs to the development team. Despite being a repeated, formulaic process, you’re doing it manually. Because of this, you sometimes miss tickets or forget to respond to customers. You’re only human!
2 – Identify which app(s) you use and their data sources.
For each task, identify which app(s) you use and what information you either enter manually or receive from that app. Once complete, you’ll be able to quickly identify opportunities for automation.
Here’s the example for our customer service task:
Customer support inquiries are entered in a Google Form (output in a Google Sheet).
You copy and paste the responses labeled ‘Report A Bug’ into Monday.com, your company’s project management tool, for the development team.
You write the customer an email in GMail thanking them for reporting the bug.
3 – Map out the workflow.
Next, you’ll map out the workflow of the task and identify the triggers and actions for each step. Organize it into a flowchart or table and begin to write your conditional formulas. Don’t worry, they can be simple if/then statements. No math required!
Here’s an example flowchart for our bug-reporting task:
With this framework, you are now speaking the same language as every automation tool you will encounter!
4 – Choose the right automation tool.
In many cases, you don’t need to find new tools to automate your workflows. Many apps you’re already using have tooling called ‘Integrations’ or ‘Automations’ (often identified by this symbol: 🔗) that can help you connect directly to other apps. This is worth exploring before you look at 3rd party tools.
If your existing apps don’t support automations, that’s no problem! There are a number of 3rd party tools in the marketplace that are extremely robust. Many, like Zapier, even have AI chatbots to guide you through Step 2 & 3 above.
5 – Build and test your workflows.
With your framework in place and your tech stack identified, it’s time to build! Here are a few rules of to live by when building your first (or five-hundredth) automation:
Work on one automation at a time and test that it works as expected before starting to build another.
Run the automation in a controlled environment when possible.
For example, use dummy data instead of testing on real customer or vendor data.
Once you’ve validated the process, you can turn the automation on with the real data, in the real environment.
Collect feedback from stakeholders before and during implementation. This can help you craft the automation to meet the needs of the wider team.
Document the process and the apps you used so that other team members can duplicate the process or make adjustments.
Happy Automating!