What it maps
One workflow at a time. Pick the workflow that touches your most expensive moment (revenue, retention, delivery, hiring) and map it end to end. Then look for friction.
The eight columns
- Trigger. What event starts this workflow?
- Owner. One name. Not a team.
- Input. What information or asset does this step need?
- Decision. What judgment is required at this step?
- Handoff. Who receives the output next?
- Output. What artifact does this step produce?
- Data source. Where does the data come from and where does it go?
- Feedback loop. How does this step learn it succeeded or failed?
Friction points to flag
- Steps with two owners or no owner.
- Inputs that exist in someone's head.
- Decisions that wait on data the owner can't pull alone.
- Handoffs that lose context.
- Outputs nobody downstream actually uses.
- Data sources that conflict with each other.
- Feedback loops that don't close.
AI opportunity areas
After the map is honest, the AI opportunities surface themselves: summarize the input, route the work, draft the artifact, prepare the decision packet, capture the record, close the feedback loop. Most workflows yield three to seven concrete opportunities.
How Fascia Labs uses this
Every Workflow Intelligence engagement produces friction maps for the two or three workflows that most shape the business — usually inbound to delivery, delivery to retention, and the weekly operating decision loop.