Process Mapping Remotely Part 3

Okay, so we’re up to part three of process mapping when your team is working remotely.

So what’s next?

We’ve looked at why we need to process map, particularly at this time of working in isolation or without key personnel in place, as well as the software and hardware we need to effectively facilitate your remote process mapping sessions. Now I want to talk about the actual approach to the process of mapping remotely. This kind of approach applies regardless of whether you’re working remotely or not, but I’ll put some context to mapping remotely.

Identify the gaps

When you start, the first thing you need to do is identify the gaps in your team’s knowledge. Have a proactive, moderated discussion to identify what your burning platform is. You want everybody to be in agreement as to what the processes are that take place within your business.

Your teams will definitely need to be understanding the voice of your customer, and their critical customer requirements. Keep in mind customers can be internal, not just external. It might be that one department within your business engages in a process to provide a product or service, to another department. That’s the customer-supplier relationship.

Listen to the voice of customer

With this in mind, establish whether having your customer on your conference call will facilitate a greater understanding of voice of customer and better form some of this information. Even better, why not have an interview-style discussion with the customer, with the rest of the team just listening in, to get a deep understanding of the customer’s needs and wants.

Understand the process

I quite often use the SIPOC method. This acronym stands for supply-input-process-output-customer. SIPOC provides a great 30,000-foot view of understanding that will help you to define your voice of customer. It’s a particularly effective tool for large interdepartmental processes. This method will assist you in defining the boundaries of a process; where they begin and end, or just some sequence steps within a portion of the process you are mapping.

Remote tools

In a face to face environment, you’d use a physical tool such as post-it notes to map your process. Remotely, you will use colour boxes and handwrite on a virtual whiteboard in a program like Notability Or OneNote. Have each team member who’s on the call give feedback and comment, one at a time and live. Can they identify the tools they use in the process like checklists and so on that get used at certain points within the process? The identification of these tools is the beginning of the creation of a shared folder of standardised tools used to support each process.

Well alright! We’re near to completion of this how-to of process mapping remotely with your team. In the last part, I will continue with the final steps.

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Respect,

Daniel.