The Pre-Automation Checklist
Most AI projects don't fail because of the AI. They fail because someone automated a broken process and made the mess faster. This free playbook gives you the 8 questions we ask at the start of every Flowtion engagement. Work through them honestly. If you get stuck, that's useful information. It tells you exactly where to focus before you invest in tools.
Download this playbook
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What you'll learn
Every week, a business somewhere spends $30K, $50K, sometimes more on AI tools. The tools work exactly as advertised. But three months later, the team is frustrated, the systems are half-abandoned, and leadership is wondering what went wrong.
The answer is almost always the same: they automated before they understood.
The workflow had gaps, unclear handoffs, inconsistent steps, and undocumented decisions. AI didn't create those problems. It accelerated them.
This checklist covers the 8 questions that separate AI projects that stick from the ones that quietly get abandoned.
The 8 Questions
- Can you draw the current workflow?
- Where are the handoffs?
- What decisions happen inside this process?
- What's the actual cost of the current process?
- Who owns this process?
- What are the exceptions?
- Is your data clean enough?
- What does success look like, specifically?
For each question, the playbook gives you context on why it matters, a red flag that tells you something is wrong, and a specific action step you can take this week.
How the scoring works
Once you've worked through all 8, score yourself on each: Clear, Fuzzy, or Blind spot.
Mostly Clear? You're ready to automate. Start with your highest-impact, lowest-risk process.
Mostly Fuzzy? You're close. Spend a week documenting what's actually happening before you invest in tools.
Any Blind Spots? These are your priorities. Every blind spot is a place where automation will create confusion, not clarity. Fix these first. The tools can wait.
Most businesses score Fuzzy or Blind spot on at least half of these. That's normal. The mistake isn't having gaps. It's automating before you've found them.
