We send out feedback requests to new blog subscribers so we know what kind of content to write that will be the most useful. Sometimes, the answers surprise us.
In particular, I often get responses that give me insight into how our customers plan and create their processes: one reader plans out their processes in a spreadsheet because columns make it easy to build the steps out. Another said they analyze a Trello board of tasks and lists to make sense of how a successful project was executed, then write a process to recreate those steps.
In this post, I am going to go through four methods you can use to document processes accurately, quickly, and naturally. If you want a reusable starting point, pair these methods with a business process documentation template so each process captures the same basics: trigger, owner, steps, evidence, exceptions, and review cadence.
- The minimum viable process
- Turning an archived Trello board into a process
- Mapping a process in a spreadsheet
- Turning a screencast into a process
Let’s look at each method in detail.
Method #1: The minimum viable process
This is the method we recommend to absolute beginners, and it can be especially useful to prompt you to just start.
Our sales and customer success teams work directly with customers, hearing about both good and bad methods of process management.
One particular customer we spoke to was stuck in a process paradox: he had a big batch of Word documents that needed tidying, updating, and turning into formal Process Street workflows for his organization. But he also had a problem: he did not want to make the switch to Process Street before he had all of his documents transferred over. Sometimes a task can seem too big to start, and that stops us ever making the progress we need to make to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Dedicating time and money exclusively for process creation is often too much to ask for smaller businesses, though. Enterprises create processes in bursts, working for months at a time to write full playbooks. Not everyone has this privilege, which often means processes do not get created at all, and your business does not get a chance to grow because it is bogged down in inefficiencies.
The solution? Work on your processes iteratively.
- Choose the highest value process. Use the 80/20 principle to find which 20% of your processes generate 80% of business value.
- Do it.
- Write down a simple description of each task involved.
- Move on to the next process.
Over time, with only a little bit of extra effort, you have created the first stage of your processes. The next time you revisit the process draft, add more detail to the steps that need clearing up, until you and your team can run the process from the workflow itself.
It is like software development. Do not try to build the entire product before you release it. If you wait until everything is perfect, you lose out on the feedback you need to create a great process. The same goes for you if you sit on your processes and wait until everything is perfect.
Get one process done in 30 minutes, then add a bit of content to it each time you execute it. Launch it when it is the roughest process that works well enough, and optimize it over time.
Click here to read a more detailed explanation of this method, including examples.
Method #2: Analyze a Trello board and turn a project into a recurring process
For every big project, teams often make a Trello board with lists and cards to represent the tasks and stages of the project. For example, when we launched a microsite called Inside SaaS Sales, we did not have a process written for creating a microsite with a developer, so we had to come up with one from scratch.
By picking apart the Trello board we used, we could replicate and improve upon our process and use the knowledge we already gained to make work smoother next time.
From that board alone, without delving into the comments or checklists, we could see tasks that needed listing for the next time this process was run:
- Install Google Analytics
- Write Product Hunt description
- Back up theme
- Create favicon
- Test on mobile
- Provide WordPress logins
- Save Sketch and AI files on cloud for team to access
Then, going into the checklists inside the cards, you can see more detail of ad-hoc tasks that were assigned late to finish up. These are the tasks that should be surfaced early to avoid the closing rush, like:
- Use “Brought to you by Process Street” in the site footer
- SEO optimize tags
- Check text wrap does not cut words in half
The screenshots attached to the cards can also become relevant walkthrough images or notes you add to the process for next time.
Armed with your task list, activity feed, supporting images, and instructions, you can easily turn the project into a reusable workflow in Process Street. Docs can hold the governed procedure, while Ops runs the work with owners, due dates, approvals, automations, and audit trails.
For big, detailed Trello boards, you might want to try a Trello export to mine your process manually. To do this, use Trello’s export options, then use the columns to decode the task names.
You could say that these methods are a manual form of process mining. Process mining involves logging the activity of process participants, analyzing it, and generating a process map. Modern process mining tools can automate discovery from system logs, but businesses of any size can still recreate the effect manually by starting from real, not imagined, work.
Method #3: Map the process out in a spreadsheet first
Nowadays, spreadsheets have become a vital and comfortable part of almost everyone’s business software stack. Spreadsheets are great for collecting and analyzing data, but when it comes to their usefulness for creating collaborative recurring processes, that is another question.
While you probably will not want to run and track your processes in Excel, you might want to use its logical layout to map out a process before you create a more detailed version.
The persistent columns of a spreadsheet make it obvious which details are required to build a process from each task. A Google Sheets version of a blog post production process, for example, can show step order, task name, owner, notes, system links, and status.
If you already manage your processes in spreadsheets, it is simple to set them up in Process Street. Select the task column, paste it into your workflow task list, then add the information from the remaining columns into the expanded view of each task.
You can add assignees inside Process Street, and form fields such as URL, dropdown, short text, multiple select, and single select are natively supported to make it easier to centralize and automate company data, saving your employees time.
Method #4: Record a screencast and watch it back for reference
The best way to capture the process as it is being naturally executed is with a screencast. Mac computers support screen recording through the built-in Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player, and Windows computers have built-in recording options such as Snipping Tool and Xbox Game Bar.
In this post, we go through our favorite method, which allows the screencaster to automatically upload their recording to Google Drive and share a link with their team.
With a screencast recording to hand, you can easily take screenshots, type down the activity, and create a rough process outline that you can go back and elaborate upon.
This method is an extension of method #1, the minimum viable process. But instead of noting down steps as you go through, you are working from a screencast. This lets you pause, rewind, screenshot, and get a better picture of the process.
It helps if the screencast also has a voiceover so the note-taker can make sense of different stages of the task. AI-assisted transcripts and summaries can speed up the first draft, but a human still needs to validate scope, ownership, edge cases, and what evidence should be collected.
Better yet, you can even add the screencast to the process inside Process Street so the user can refer back and improve the process if they are unclear.
Process creation isn’t scary
The biggest problem businesses have is that they do not think they will have time to make a real impact documenting their processes. They think it will get half completed and end up wasting time. The truth is, it needs doing. Businesses with managed, documented processes are more likely to finish projects successfully, so holding back sets you up for repeated failure.
Use a textpad, use a spreadsheet, mine a project board, record a screencast, or get started directly in Process Street. However you do it, spend 30 minutes documenting a common process and build your library out from there.
Process Street is a Compliance Operations Platform for turning documented procedures into automated, auditable workflows. Docs gives teams a governed place for process knowledge. Ops runs the work with owners, due dates, form fields, approvals, automations, and audit trails. Built-in AI helps teams draft, monitor, and improve workflows without turning process management into another manual project.
How do you create processes? Do you have any tips you would like to add to this article? Let me know in the comments.