Typical examples
- Approval flow redesign
- Branch rollout tooling
- Program MIS
- Departmental workflow
- Internal staff tool
- Multi-location operational standardization
- Exception-heavy process support
- Service workflow redesign
Operational Discovery
This discovery type helps teams clarify the current process, design the future process, identify operational gaps, define ownership, and prepare for adoption.
Use this when
- The work is internal or operational
- Multiple roles participate in the same process
- Approvals, handoffs, and exception paths are important
- A department, branch network, or program needs a common workflow
- Current-state and future-state process clarity are required
- Adoption depends on training, role clarity, or operational ownership
Key questions
- Who starts the process?
- Who reviews, approves, rejects, or escalates?
- What are the normal paths and exception paths?
- Where does the current process break?
- Which steps are manual, duplicated, unclear, or delayed?
- Which roles need access, visibility, or control?
- Are there location, branch, department, or team-level variations?
- What must be standardized and what can remain flexible?
- What training, communication, or change support is needed?
- Who will own the process after launch?
Expected outputs
- Current-state process map
- Future-state process map
- Role and responsibility matrix
- Approval and exception rules
- Branch/location variation notes
- Business rules
- Adoption and rollout risks
- MVP workflow scope
- Training and communication notes
- Open question and decision log
Watch out
Do not treat a messy process as a simple feature request. If the team skips process discovery, the product may automate confusion instead of solving the actual operational problem.