What an automation should do before it gets clever
The strongest automations start by making a boring promise: nothing gets lost, duplicated, or left without an owner.
The first question in an automation project is often, “What can we make it do?” A better question is, “What failure can we make impossible?”
Useful automation is usually not dramatic. It makes sure every enquiry is recorded once, every task has an owner, every reminder is sent at the right time, and every exception has somewhere visible to go.
Earn complexity
Before adding judgement, write down the straight-through path. What enters the system? What should happen every time? What evidence proves it happened? Where does a human take over when the input is incomplete or unusual?
If you cannot answer all four for your own process yet, that is where to start, not the clever part.
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