How dem dey use am
Seven shape of work
No be seven industries — na seven shapes. Most businesses go see demself inside three or four of dis ones at once, and na di point be dat: di same engine dey run di invoice, di newsletter, di nightly export and di alert wey suppose reach three hundred people before six for morning.
E-commerce and orders
Order to invoice to shipping notice. Abandoned baskets wey come back. Stock warnings before shelf empty. Returns wey start demself. And di reconciliation wey nobody wan do by hand on di first of di month.
Learn moreMarketing and content
Brief go turn to copy, di copy go get licensed picture, di post go go out on schedule, di numbers go come back, and di monthly report go write itself from di numbers no be from person memory.
Learn moreBack-office and operations
Di nightly reconciliation. Di document wey suppose reach four systems. Di approval wey don dey sit with somebody since Tuesday. Every task wey now na person, spreadsheet and reminder.
Learn moreReference data and enrichment
Thirty-four million rows of public reference data as one step: validate address, resolve place to coordinates and timezone, check currency before e reach your accounts package.
Learn moreEvent dem, alert dem and monitorin
Start workflow because something happen for di world no be inside your database. Severe weather warning. Festival wey dem announce. Provider outage. Earthquake.
Learn moreMedia and assets
Royalty-free foto, video and audio from eleven providers, wey dem import with di licence and attribution join am, dem drop am inside wetin di workflow dey produce.
Learn moreAgency and client work
One workflow, wey dem build once, run am for thirty clients with thirty sets of credentials — and monthly report wey each of dem fit read without make dem call phone come explain am.
Learn moreNone of di ones above?
Den go read di engine instead. Di shapes wey dey up there na patterns wey we dey see often, no be list of wetin dem allow; di product na sequence of steps and di steps no send wetin industry you dey.
Learn moreWetin all dis ones get in common
Every single one of dem na task wey somebody dey do by hand now, on schedule, in a way wey totally mechanical but no quite mechanical reach to don write am as software. Di invoice always dey come from di order, but no be always di same shape. Di alert always dey go to di crew leads, but no be always di same crew leads.
Dat gap — mechanical, but with judgment call inside — na exactly where workflow wey get small AI steps inside dey beat both person and script. Di person dey expensive and dey sleep at four for morning. Di script no fit read unstructured supplier e-mail. Workflow dey do di mechanical parts for free and dey spend small small money on di two steps wey need to think.
- ⚡Something happenA webhook, a schedule, an event for di world, a file appear.
- 2Dem gather factsFrom your systems, from reference data, from di thing wey fire.
- ?A decisionA rule where rule dey enough; a model where e really no dey enough.
- 4Dem do somethingWrite am, send am, book am, charge am, file am, publish am.
- 5Dem write am downSo dat in six weeks somebody fit find out wetin happen.
Di same engine, seven shape demMost people dey run four of dem
Seven shapes of work. Every single one of dem na somebody Tuesday.
Where to even start, honestly
No start with di biggest thing. Start with di task wey you dey do every week wey dey annoy you, and wey nobody go notice if dem do am at four for morning instead of nine. Describe am in one sentence, spend twenty minutes set di workflow up, simulate am two times, and switch am on.
Di second one go take ten minutes, because by den you go don know wetin a step look like. Di fourth one na where people usually go realise say dem don stop to think of dis one as a tool and don start to think of am as di place wey di work dey happen.
A warning wey worth to read: no automate process wey you never decide on. Workflow dey make bad process faster and more consistent, and consistency na exactly wetin bad process no need. If two people for office dey do di same job differently and both of dem sure say dem dey right, dat na conversation to get before you build anything.