“Creating the space to think of the bigger things”
A strategic designer’s perspective on automation
STCK Director Steve Graham recently sat down for a chat with rapidMATION CEO Shaun Leisegang to talk about how automation and strategic design fit when making a difference in an organisation, how they differ and complement each other.
The conversation covered a range of areas, so we’ve grabbed a couple of highlights from Steve’s thoughts.
Why automation is so valuable for organisations right now
Hear Steve talk about why automation is so valuable for organisations right now from a strategic design point of view.
Thinking holistically about the challenge – what’s driving a need to improve or automate processes?
When thinking about finding better ways to run processes, Steve said it’s worth looking both at the user experience and the broader environment. Taking a macro view might shed further light on what’s driving an organisation’s process challenges. Steve recommended asking a few questions to help understand whether you need to look beyond process dysfunction:
What external forces like political, economic and so on impact the way an organisation currently operates?
Are there dynamics affecting the organisation that drive certain types of dysfunction?
Is the challenge the thing we should solve right now, or is it a symptom of a broader issue?
Getting immediate value while setting your sights on a longer transformation journey
If you do need to address a broader issue, and that’s going to take some time, Steve said automation can act as the first step to help relieve pain points quickly and build trust in the coming change.
“It’s all about being able to help take some of that pain away so you can create the space to think of the bigger things.”
Steve suggested running through a quick checklist to sense-check whether you can get cracking on an automation play right away:
Can we reduce some of the pain and use automation as a pressure valve for organisations and how they operate?
Once we know what should be automated and what should be streamlined, and we know what the return on investment should be, we should just go straight into automation.
We don’t need to redesign it all - it’s broadly right or it’s 80% of the way there - so let’s not spend on doing bespoke things for that part.
That’s not all Steve and Shaun spoke about, so don’t forget to check out the full conversation here.