Automate the process, not the workaround

Requests for automation usually arrive already shaped as a solution: "we need a workflow that copies this field when someone updates that other field." The useful question is why the copy is needed at all.

Ask three questions first

1. 01What decision does this step support, and who makes it?
2. 02Why does the data need to exist in two places?
3. 03What happens today when the step is skipped?

Where automation genuinely pays

• Repeated steps with a stable, well-understood rule.
• Lifecycle transitions that should never depend on someone remembering.
• Communication triggered by a real event rather than a guess.

When the underlying process is right, automation becomes boring in the best way: predictable, explainable and easy to change.