Jan Mikoláš
Practical guide
How to identify what to automate first in a company
Your first automation should not be the biggest. It should safely save repeated work and show results.
First, the short version
What makes a good automation candidate?
Automation lets a system handle repeated, predictable work. People can then focus on decisions that need experience, context, or responsibility.
The best first task is usually frequent, regular, and bounded. For example: copying an order from a form into accounting, creating a report, or checking a missing value. An API often lets tools exchange data without manual copying.
Get ready
What you need
You do not need a perfect spreadsheet. A short list of real team tasks is enough.
- Three to ten repeated tasks that people do every day or week.
- An approximate number of repetitions and time per run. An estimate is enough.
- A description of the input, result, and person who checks it is correct today.
- Information about where the data comes from and whether another system can provide it safely.
Steps 1 to 3
Choose the first automation without guessing
Focus on one simple improvement you can verify quickly. Simplify a complex process before you automate it.
1. List repeated work
- For one week, observe what the team keeps copying, checking, or sending. Ask about a specific recent case, not a general opinion.
- For each task, write the trigger, input, decision, and result. This separates a process from a single screen.
- Mark tasks where a mistake costs money, delays a customer, or makes the team search in several places.
- Do not automate an exception that happens once a year. First remove a frequent manual routine.
2. Rank ideas by benefit and risk
- Give each idea simple points: how often it repeats, time taken, errors created, and how difficult it is to undo.
- Start with work that is frequent and has a small cost of error. For example, preparing a report, not automatically sending a payment.
- When a process is confusing, agree on one way of doing it first. Automation only makes an unclear workflow faster.
- Name an owner: someone who understands the result and can confirm the automation actually helps.
3. Build a small, safe pilot
- Start in draft mode: the system prepares data and a person checks it before it is sent.
- When connecting tools, use their API and store only necessary data. Do not keep access keys in a spreadsheet or source code.
- Record when the automation ran, which input it used, and how it ended. Without a record, a mistake is hard to find.
- Prepare a simple manual path for an outage. People must be able to finish the work without the automation.
Step 4
Measure whether the first automation helps
A feeling matters, but add two or three simple numbers. They tell you whether to continue.
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Compare time before and after
Measure several ordinary cases. Include time spent checking and correcting, not only how long the script takes to finish.
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Check the error rate
Choose a sample of results and compare it with the source data. Automation should reduce errors, not merely move them elsewhere.
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Ask the person who did the work
After a few days, ask whether the new process freed time and whether they have a clear way to report a problem.
If something goes wrong
Common problems
You automate the largest pain all at once
Split it into smaller parts and choose a first step with clear input and output. A smaller pilot gives faster feedback and puts operations at less risk.
People do not trust the automation
Let them confirm results at first. Show processing history and give them a simple way to fix an incorrect draft.
The script only copies bad data faster
Check required values before sending and clearly mark what is missing. Automatic processing without validation can multiply a mistake.
It is unclear whether the project paid off
Before launch, record the baseline time, case count, and errors. After a month, compare the same metrics.
Done
Your first automation has a clear direction.
Expand it only once it works on ordinary cases and the team understands it. Then choose the next small task in the same way.