Mission 1
Establishing a Foundation for Automation Success
If your team recently inherited an automation program or your organization has restructured due to acquisition, divestiture or post-pandemic reorganization, this mission is designed for you. Start here to find and deliver quick wins while building a strong foundation for ongoing success.
Launching an automation program can feel overwhelming. There are a few core elements to focus on that make a program successful: clear goals and objectives, effective governance, robust change management, strong technical capabilities, a collaborative culture, and commitment to continuous improvement. How, and in what order, will you tackle these fundamentals from Day 1? Mission 1 provides turn-by-turn guidance to help you lay a strong foundation for automation program success.
Most organizations in the quick-start phase struggle with use case identification, delivery execution, and ensuring they have the right staff in place, trained up with the right skills, and aligned to overall program goals. That's why we've focused Mission 1 content on:
- Determining specific, achievable goals and gaining a clear understanding of where your team is headed and how they'll measure success
- Crafting a short "elevator pitch" deck that outlines your program vision, goals, initial roadmap, and how to engage with your team
- Establishing a simple intake method for new automation ideas
- Identifying the first "low stakes" use cases to give hands-on experience to your developers
- Plugging your team members into role-based training courses
- Creating repeatable templates for both process and solution design documents
- Establishing documentation standards for each stage of the automation lifecycle
- Creating a persona-based skills roadmap for your team members to mature in automation competency over time
Take the Pathfinder Assessment to evaluate where you are on the automation journey and get actionable next steps to grow. Or, learn more about Pathfinder Mission Control.
- Mission 2: Expanding your Program through Evangelism and Engagement
- Mission 3: Streamlining Automation Development and Delivery
- Mission 4: Scaling Your Team for Success
- Mission 5: Optimizing the Ideation Pipeline
- Mission 6: Expanding through Citizen Development
- Mission 7: Hyperscaling Across the Enterprise
Embarking on your automation journey can be daunting, but we're here to help. In Mission 1, we'll guide you through setting a solid foundation that enables you to deliver tangible results quickly. You'll gain the confidence and knowledge to avoid the most common pitfalls and overcome obstacles. As you're getting started, time is of the essence, so we've curated a set of actions to fast-track your automation program, build momentum, and demonstrate the value of intelligent automation within your organization.
As you start to build your automation program, focus on these key components that make automation programs successful:
Opportunity intake and process discovery
Use case assessment
Pipeline management and opportunity prioritization
Automation design