Editor’s note: This is one of a collection of posts that describes the products or processes that we run or believe in here at Invisible. This post describes why Invisible believes it is necessary to develop processes for different products and services.
Thursday, 12 October 2017
Processes organize work.
What is a process? A process is how we organize work. Processes are superior to projects, because processes are repeatable. Repetition lets us efficiently automate work. That’s why we’re 3 to 6 times cheaper than our competition, with a larger and more powerful offering.
Why are processes superior? Without a process architecture, execution defaults to task-by-task project management. In a project mindset, every task is a new problem, to be solved for the first time. But in a process mindset, you should never have to solve the same problem twice.
Do processes improve? Every process is a product. It gets versioned, upgraded and networked with other processes over time. So there are network effects: every client benefits from every other client, as feedback drives us to create new processes and upgrade existing ones.
How do we build processes? Any digital work that can be turned into a set of instructions should become a process. If you let us watch you work, we will write down the instructions for you. Or, if you’d prefer, you can delegate the instructions by text or video call.
How do we upgrade processes? Processes begin in simple list format as Rundowns. They are upgraded into Taskbooks, Workbooks, Queuebooks and Playbooks — as instructions become more advanced. These formats allow our agents to write machine-readable business logic — with loops, conditionals, and edge cases — without any code. This allows us to add new “features” easily, instantly, without any software.
What can’t be turned into a process? Anything that can’t be turned into a set of repeatable instructions, executed as a digital task: so, anything that involves creativity, decision-making, technical skill or advanced judgement.
How are processes categorized? Processes are categorized by Primes. The Processes Index categorizes processes into two stacks: one for Individuals and one for Teams. Each stack contains sets of primes.
Why is this revolutionary? We’ve solved the consultant’s dilemma: work for one client is difficult to re-use for another client. This means that, if you let us watch you work, we can automate 20 to 60% of your work for an insanely low price.
