Whether you're compiling code or making breakfast, it can be modeled as a repeatable process. Understanding the elements of production — inputs, outputs, timing, limiting steps, quality controls, variability — lets you create and improve the machinery needed to fulfill your goals. Aim to achieve high quality results in less time with least waste.
If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing. — W. Edwards Deming
Write down processes, take measures and then iterate. Speed of iteration beats the quality of iteration. The difference between good and great is often an extra round of revision. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. You cannot improve what you cannot explain.
There are three kinds of processes.
- There's a kind of process that makes things that were previously impossible to do, possible.
- Then there's a kind of process that makes something that was previously possible significantly simpler.
- And then there's everything else. E.g: telling people to behave slightly different from what common sense tells them to do without making any impact.
You can optimize processes through experiments, removing barriers, adding incentives, or using technology.
When designing a process, look for these properties:
- Algorithmic. So you don't need to think about choices. This reduces mental overhead and anxiety (The Paradox of Choice).
- A way to reduce choices is self binding (like Ulysses did). Limiting our actions in the future will reduce the choices we'll need to do.
- Flexible. Make if fluid enough to keep up with changes. Loopholes will be abused if the process can't change quickly enough to fix itself.
- Low Friction. Simple processes are easier to understand and apply. Trivial inconveniences usually have more implications than it seems.
- Short [[Feedback Loops]]. Show the results as soon as you can.
- [[Idempotence|Idempotent]] processes are easy to manage
A process takes an input to produce an output. A group of processes can be view as a System.
The only purpose of good process is to produce good outcomes. A process is not good unless it produces good outcomes.
You cannot judge the process by a single outcome. Only a long run of outcomes tell you anything about the process. Consequently, once you know what the process is like, any single outcome from that process adds nothing to your knowledge about the process.