Steps

Trigger / start state

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Step-by-step sequence

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Done / completion state

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People

Role per step

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Backup / who covers outages

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Who approves exceptions

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Tools

Primary systems

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Shadow tools (texts, notes, shared drives)

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Where data is re-entered

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Data

Inputs required at start

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Fields updated mid-flow

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Source of truth for status

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Decisions

Routine decisions

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Exceptions only a person can make

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Decision latency

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Handoffs

Handoff moments

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What must be true at handoff

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What gets lost or delayed

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Exceptions

Common exceptions

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Failure modes under volume

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Workarounds people use today

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Ownership

End-to-end owner

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Where ownership is unclear

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Who can change the process

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Dependencies

Upstream inputs this flow waits on

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External vendors or partners in the path

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Systems or people that freeze work when unavailable

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What would you keep if you redesigned this from scratch tomorrow?

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Capacity

• ☐ We turn away or delay work we would otherwise want
• ☐ Peak weeks require overtime or emergency hiring
• ☐ Service quality dips when volume rises
• ☐ The bottleneck is admin coordination, not craft skill

Bottleneck

• ☐ One role or system gates every other step
• ☐ Work piles in a queue waiting on a person or file
• ☐ Status is only known by asking someone
• ☐ A single shared inbox or board is the choke point

Duplication

• ☐ The same facts are entered in two or more places
• ☐ Customers restate information the company already has
• ☐ Reports are rebuilt by hand each week
• ☐ Multiple spreadsheets claim to be “the list”

Owner dependence

• ☐ Exceptions default to the owner’s phone or inbox
• ☐ Important relationships only move when the owner is present
• ☐ Delegation fails because rules live in one head
• ☐ A week without the owner slows the whole company

Revenue leakage

• ☐ Leads or quotes age without a clear owner
• ☐ Completed work waits days to become an invoice
• ☐ Follow-up, renewals, or collections are inconsistent
• ☐ Service failures create rework or lost referrals

Fragility

• ☐ Critical knowledge lives in one inbox, spreadsheet, or person
• ☐ No documented path for the top five exceptions
• ☐ A tool outage would freeze cash or dispatch
• ☐ New hires take months to learn “how we really do it”