Every few weeks someone shows me an automation that took days to build and saves ten minutes a month. Or a flow that sends the same message three times because nobody checked the process behind it. Automating a broken process gets you the same mess, faster.
I build systems for programmes and communities, so I automate a lot. I also say no to a lot of automation. Here is how I decide.
Automate the repeat, keep the relationship
Good candidates for automation have three things in common. They happen often, they follow the same steps every time, and a mistake is easy to spot and fix.
- Session reminders to a cohort.
- Adding a new participant to the tracker after they apply.
- Pulling attendance numbers into the monthly report.
- Sending a receipt after an M-Pesa donation.
Poor candidates need judgement or trust. A founder who has gone quiet for two weeks needs a call from a person. A partner who is unhappy needs a conversation. A learner who is about to drop out needs someone who cares. When I ran the community for ALX's virtual assistant cohort 14, the reminders were automatic. The calls to learners who were falling behind were mine.
Four questions before you automate anything
- Does the process run the same way every time? If people handle it differently each time, write the process down and agree on it first.
- How often does it happen? Something that runs twice a year rarely needs a robot.
- What does a mistake cost? A wrong reminder is cheap. A wrong payment or a wrong message to a funder is expensive. The higher the cost, the more checks you need.
- Who owns it when it breaks? Every automation breaks eventually. If nobody owns it, it fails quietly for weeks before anyone notices.
Common mistakes
Automating before the process is clear
If you cannot write the steps on one page, you are not ready. I always write the SOP first and run it by hand for a couple of weeks. The automation then copies a process that already works.
Building for the rare case
Teams spend days automating the unusual case and leave the common one manual. Look at what happens most often and start there.
Hiding the work from people
When an automation runs in the background with no record, nobody trusts it. Make every automated step leave a trace: a row in the tracker, a message in a channel or a line in a log.
Forgetting the people on the other side
Participants, partners and donors notice when every message feels like a machine. Keep the automated messages short and clear, and let people reply to a human.
A simple way to start
- List every task your team repeats in a month.
- Mark how often each happens and how long it takes.
- Circle the ones that follow the same steps every time.
- Automate the biggest circled task first, then run it for two weeks before touching the next.
What I automate first in a small team
For most small teams and programmes, the order is: reminders, form-to-tracker entry, payment receipts and the recurring report. Each one saves time every week, follows the same steps every time and is easy to check.
Questions teams ask me
Which tools do you use?
For simple flows, Google Workspace and scheduling tools cover a lot. When a flow touches payments, many users or data that has to stay correct, I build it into a proper system with a database, so it can be tested and trusted.
How do we know an automation is still working?
Give it an owner and a weekly check. A simple count, such as reminders sent this week or receipts issued, tells you quickly when something has stopped.
For programmes, the five workflows I automate first are a good place to start. If you want a second pair of eyes on your list, send it to me.
