Write down how a process really runs, before the person who knows it leaves
Sit with the person who runs the process, then give Claude your notes or the transcript. It writes the process as it really runs, step by step with who does what, and lists the bottlenecks it noticed on the way.
FullQualityWhen you need it
Set it up5 steps
Open the Claude desktop app and sign in with the Claude account you use for work. On a personal Free, Pro or Max plan, chats can be used for training unless you switch off SettingsPrivacyHelp improve Claude.
No account yet? Ask your manager.
Where things are in Claude
- CustomizeConnectors In Claude's left sidebar: connect your email and files.
- /schedule Type it in a new Cowork task to run a prompt on a schedule.
- Scheduled In Claude's left sidebar: what runs, to pause or change it.
- Sit with the person who knows the process for 30 to 60 minutes and have them walk you through the last real case, start to finish. Take notes, or record it with their OK and keep the transcript.
- If you have a procedure template, or an old procedure for this process, put it in a Processes folder inside your Operations folder.
- Connect Google Drive under CustomizeConnectors. Keep this workflow's files in one Drive folder called Operations.
- Open Cowork, paste the prompt and attach your notes or the transcript, with the forms and sheets the process uses if you have them.
- Give the draft to the person to correct, and ask them the open questions while they are still here.
Set this up on your computer: the Claude desktop app runs it.
The prompt
- Write down the process in the notes or transcript I attached, as it really runs today. If there is a template in the Processes folder inside my Operations folder, follow its layout. Write it as a Google Doc in the Processes folder inside my Operations folder.
- 1. Start with what the process is for, what starts it (an order, a date, a request) and what it delivers at the end.
- 2. Write every step in order, one action per step, with the role that does it (planner, shift lead, buyer), not the person's name, and the form, sheet, program screen or document it uses or produces. Add a short table with one row per step and one column per role, so the handoffs show.
- 3. Keep the person's rules of thumb and checks in their own words ("if the customer is in a hurry, we..."), at the step where each applies. Add what goes wrong and what they do then, and how long a step takes where the notes say.
- 4. If there is an old procedure for this process, list where today's practice differs from it. Do not decide which one is right.
- 5. Under the process, separately, list the bottlenecks you noticed: waiting, handoffs that go back and forth, the same data typed twice, approvals that change nothing, rework. For each, name the step, what the notes say about it, and one question to test it. Do not redesign the process.
- 6. End with every gap as a question to ask the person, in the order of the steps.
- Use only what the notes say. Where a step, a role or a value is unclear, write [CHECK: what] instead of guessing.
What you get
A process document with every step, role, form and rule of thumb, the gaps as questions to ask while the person is still here, and a short list of bottlenecks.
Learn how
Get this workflow for your team
Two minutes each: everyone gets a plan of ready workflows like this one, inside your company's rules.
Your manager sees progress and hours. Never what Claude reads or writes.
FirstPrompt's workflow library adapts parts of Anthropic's knowledge-work-plugins (Apache-2.0), rewritten by FirstPrompt. Source and licence