March 17, 2022

How to capture a business process – Step 7

When you’re designing a process, bear in mind the reason you are doing it.

All the processes in your business are part of a system – your unique system – for making and keeping promises for the people you serve:

More importantly, design it so that the person executed can see this context, and act accordingly.   Otherwise, you’ll find yourselves missing the point completely.

The answer is to not think of it as a ‘process’ at all, but as a musical score.   A score describes what notes to play in what order.   Not because ‘that’s the way to do it’, but to evoke a desired emotional response in the listener.  That’s why a score will often contain words as well as musical notes – that give hints on how to play, not just what to play.

The ‘process’ is the floor.  The context is where the magic happens.

March 11, 2022

Never done

Another thing to keep in mind as you design your Customer Experience Score:

You’re never done.

You will be wrong sometimes, you will be right more often, but you will never be finished.

Because there is no right answer.

Only the best answer for now.

That’s what makes it human, sustainable and uniquely beautiful.

March 9, 2022

Untangling

One of the hardest things to get your head around when you first start thinking about your Customer Experience Score, is working out how what you do splits into different activities.   When you’ve always done a bunch of tasks together, it can be hard to see how they don’t necessarily belong together in your Score.

Why does this matter?

Because the last thing you want your people to have to do is to ask themselves the equivalent of  “Hang on, do I play this note or skip it?” every time they play your music.

A musical score doesn’t usually contain optional notes.  You play what you see.   You want your Score to work the same way.

Good questions to ask yourself to disentangle tasks and place them sensibly in your Score are:

“Does this Activity get repeated for the same client?”

“If so, do I do this task every time I do this activity?”   If not, it probably belongs somewhere else, either as a step in another Activity or as an Activity in its own right.

“Where could I put it that would mean it does happen every time?”  Often that’s the next Activity along in the process.

Let’s look at a simple example, setting up a new client.

When I set up a new client, I create a folder for them on my storage system.   That folder contains general information about the client that is going to be useful however many times I work with them in future.

So, my ‘Set Up Client’ activity will involve creating that folder, then populating it with the information I want to keep for that client.

Whenever I start a new project, I set up a subfolder inside the client’s folder to hold information that’s specific to this project.

The only reason I’m setting up a new client is because I’m doing a project with them.  So, at first glance it would be tempting to include setting up the project stuff as part of the ‘Set Up Client’ activity.

But what happens if we do a second project with this client?  Does the person (who is not me) playing this Score start at Set Up Client and repeat unnecessary tasks?   Or have to check whether they have been done already before they carry them out?

It would be better to have a separate ‘Set Up Project’ activity that includes the tasks that apply to setting up each and every project, and restrict ‘Set Up Client’ to only those tasks that are relevant to it.

Now, as a player, I can move from ‘Set Up Client’ to ‘Set Up Project’ seamlessly for the first project, and repeat from ‘Set Up Project’ if we work together again.

I don’t have to think about it, I can just play the notes, without getting into a tangle.