Manualate before you automate

Technies and managers everywhere, remember to manualate before you automate

What? 

The Lean Startup term "manualate" or "manual-ating" is the opposite of "auto-mating".

The idea is to perform the steps manually as a way to validate two important assumptions that might lead you to want to automate.

First, you need to verify that someone wants to pay you for whatever it is you are automating. Test this by using manual labor to do the work behind a thin and cheap to implement veneer of front end UI. Think the Wizard of Oz, ie, "pay no attention to man behind the screen."

Second, you need to verify that the processes you want to automate actually work and are optimized. Test this by manual tracking metrics on the steps and adjusting those steps to optimize the outcome. You will find that its much easier to optimize a manual process, ie, a checklist of steps, than it is to revise a process that has been automated in software. Easier, faster, cheaper, and with less push back from everyone involved.

Manualating is your secret weapon as it helps you build the right solution fastest and with the least amount of resources.

And sometimes you learn that you should not built it at all. That saves lots of money and time!

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