What should you hand over first?

Start with the recurring interruption

When the list is long, it is tempting to hand everything over at once. The inbox, the quotes, the calendar, the paperwork. It sounds like a fresh start. It also makes it harder to see whether anything has actually improved.

A better first question is smaller: which piece of work keeps coming back, and what would a good result look like?

That could be preparing a follow-up after every quote. It could be recording incoming requests against a project. It could be organising one type of document. The right starting point has a recognisable beginning and a finish you can check.

Choose something you can describe

Try explaining the process to someone who has never worked in your business. What arrives? Where do you find the information? What do you do with it? How do you know you are finished?

If the answer is “it depends”, write down what it depends on. Some decisions may need to stay with you. That does not make the whole process unsuitable; it helps define where the assistant should stop and ask.

• Trigger: a quote has been sent and needs a follow-up.
• Context: the customer, proposal and previous conversation.
• Proposed action: a draft message that fits the situation.
• Review: the right person checks the recipient and wording.
• Outcome: the approved message is sent and the result is recorded.

Look for a manageable boundary

“Manage our sales” is a broad ambition. “Prepare a follow-up for quotes that match these rules” is a process you can inspect. It is easier to identify which information is needed, where approval belongs and what might go wrong.

Start with one team, one company or one document type if that keeps the first version understandable. A pilot does not need to cover every unusual case. It does need a clear way to flag anything outside its scope.

Work that depends on missing records, changing unwritten rules or several disconnected accounts may need preparation first. Discovering that early is useful: it tells you what must be clarified before automation can help.

Decide what you will measure

Before the pilot, write down how the task works today. Count a few examples and note the steps you take. Record the time spent if that is a useful measure, but also consider how often work is missed or needs correcting.

Then agree what success means for the pilot. That might be every incoming request becoming a visible task, fewer documents needing to be refiled, or proposed follow-ups containing the right customer context.

A completed-task count alone does not tell the whole story. A task that is regularly marked done but still needs fixing has not been meaningfully handed over.

Use the pilot to find the next step

Review a small set of real outcomes. Which requests were straightforward? Where did someone need to clarify the company, correct a record or change a proposed action? Those exceptions are useful input for the next version.

Only then decide whether to expand. The next improvement might be another workflow. It might be a clearer intake question or a better approval screen. Build around what you learn, rather than assuming more automation is always the answer.

That is how we approach an AskMace pilot: begin with the work you want off your plate, then agree a scope that can be configured and tested.