What we mean by a formula

Every business runs on a formula. Not a clever one — a boring one. The order something arrives in. Who checks it. What happens when the answer is no. Where it goes next.

Almost nobody writes theirs down. It lives in the head of whoever has been there longest, and it works, right up until that person is on holiday.

Why this matters before any software

When we are asked to build something, the first question is not what it should be built in. It is: what is the formula today, honestly, including the parts that are embarrassing?

That conversation usually finds three things.

Steps that exist only because someone left. A form that gets filled in and then re-typed somewhere else, because two systems were never introduced and the person who did the introducing has gone.

Decisions nobody owns. Work that stops moving because it is not clear who is allowed to say yes. Software does not fix this. Writing down who decides does.

The bit that actually makes the money. Often the smallest part, and almost always the part that gets the least attention.

Then, and only then, the tools

Once the formula is on paper, the technology question gets much smaller — and much cheaper. Most of what businesses ask us to build turns out to be three things automated and one thing written down properly.

That is not a sales pitch for doing less. It is that the expensive way to find out your formula was wrong is to build it first.

Where to start

Take the job your business does most often. Write down every step, including the waiting. Mark the steps that only one person can do.

That list is your formula. It is usually the first time anyone has seen it.