Automation Process Builder

Document your automation. Get an automation manual.

Walk through 8 questions. We'll map the steps, recommend the tools, and write your starter prompts.

Start building → Not sure what to automate? Break down your function →

Break your function into workflows

Pick your role. We'll list the 6–10 distinct workflows that usually sit inside it — so you can pick one specific workflow to take through the builder, instead of trying to "automate marketing." Decomposition framework adapted from Nate Jones.

What's your role or function?

Paste the prompt below into any general-purpose AI assistant. It will walk you through naming your function, then return 6–10 candidate workflows. Pick one, return here, and enter it as your task in Step 1.

Prompt adapted from Nate Jones — Workflow Decomposer.

You are a workflow analyst who specializes in decomposing business functions into their constituent workflows. You do not give AI strategy advice. You produce structured workflow inventories that other people use to make investment decisions.

Ask me to name the department, function, or role I want to decompose. Use this exact phrasing: "What department, function, or role do you want to break into individual workflows? Give me the name and a sentence or two about your company so I can tailor the decomposition."

Wait for my response. If I give a vague or abstract answer (e.g., "our operations" or "the back office" without specifics), ask these three clarifying questions, one message at a time:
- "What does this team or function produce — what are its outputs that other people in the company or your customers depend on?"
- "Who are the 2-3 types of people doing this work today?"
- "What triggers the work — what events, requests, or schedules cause this team to act?"

If after these three questions I still cannot provide enough specificity, say: "I don't have enough to decompose this into real workflows yet. The next step isn't decomposition — it's a process-discovery conversation with the people who do this work. Get 2-3 of them in a room and ask: what do you actually do each week, and what triggers each task?" Then stop.

Once you have a clear function, department, or role with enough context, decompose it into 6-10 distinct workflows. Each workflow must be a specific, recurring unit of work — not a department name, not a job responsibility, not a software category.

For each workflow, provide:
- Name: A plain-English verb phrase (e.g., "Match incoming invoices to purchase orders," not "Invoice processing")
- Inputs: What data, documents, requests, or triggers start this workflow
- Outputs: What this workflow produces — a decision, a document, a routed item, a notification, a record
- Owner: The role (not person) who is responsible for the quality of this output today
- Exception path: What happens when the workflow hits a case it can't handle routinely — where does it go, who decides, and what's at stake

After listing all workflows, add a brief note identifying which workflows seem most similar (potential consolidation) and which seem most different from the rest (likely need different investment motions).

Guardrails:
- Only use information I provide. Do not invent workflows based on assumptions about my company.
- If I name a common function (e.g., "accounts receivable"), you may suggest typical workflows for that function, but explicitly ask me to confirm, remove, or add workflows based on how my company actually operates.
- Do not collapse distinct workflows into one because they sound related.
- Do not expand beyond 10 workflows. If the function is large, pick the 8-10 most distinct and note what you left out.
- If I give you a single workflow rather than a department or function, tell me: "This looks like it's already at workflow level. Take it back to the Demand AI Studio builder and enter it as your task in Step 1."

Do not include recommendations about whether to automate, build, buy, hire, or wait. The output is the decomposition only.

Step 1 of 9

What is this task?

Give the task a name and describe what it does in practice.

Task name

Give this task a specific name — what exactly does it do? 'Report' is too vague. Try something like 'Weekly HubSpot Pipeline Summary.'

Task description

Describe what actually happens when you do this task. Include the tools you use and what you do with the data.

What triggers it?

Tell us how and when this task gets started.

How does this task get started?

Select how this task gets started.

What does it need to start?

List every system this automation reads data from once it's triggered. These are data sources, not additional triggers — the trigger is one thing.

Add at least one data source and select its tool.

What are the steps?

Add each step between the trigger and the final output. One action per step — be specific.

Add at least 2 steps. Most tasks have 3–6 discrete steps — what comes before and after?

When you've added all the steps, click Next → to describe the final output.

What does it produce?

Specify the output format, where it lands, and who receives it.

Output format

Select the output format.

Where does it go?

Describe where the output lands — be specific.

Who receives or acts on it? (optional)

What does "done well" look like?

Define success in specific, observable terms.

How do you know this task was done correctly? Describe what good looks like in specific, observable terms.

This needs to be specific enough that someone else could check it. What would you actually look at to know it worked?

How often does this run?

Tell us the cadence.

How often does this task need to run?

Select how often this task runs.

What's the cost if it goes wrong?

Understanding the failure risk helps us calibrate your automation advice.

What happens if this automation fails or produces a wrong result?

Select the consequence level if this automation fails.

Shape of the work.

Three quick reads that tell your playbook whether to automate, build a workflow, buy, hire, or wait. Adapted from Nate Jones' Build, Buy, Hire, or Wait framework.

How tied is this work to your company's data, standards, customers, or way of doing things?

Pick a score from 1 to 5.

How well do existing tools or services already solve this off the shelf?

Pick a score from 1 to 5.

How likely is it that base AI capabilities will absorb this work in the next 12–18 months?

Pick a score from 1 to 5.

If everything's in the middle, the playbook can't give you a strong routing recommendation. Look at the work again — most tasks have at least one dimension that's clearly high or low.

Your automation manual is ready.

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Your Automation Manual

Dimensional Verdict — Should you automate this?

Framework adapted from Nate Jones — Build, Buy, Hire, or Wait matrix.

Task

Trigger

Inputs Required

Process Steps

Output

Success Criteria

Operational Details

Process Steps — Detail

Evaluations

Next Steps

Map each "fully routine" step to an automation platform
For each "fully judgment" step, decide: keep human in the loop, or use AI with review
Identify the first step to automate — build it this week
Set up error alerting so failures don't go unnoticed
Do one test run manually before going live