21: Evaluation Inc.
In the last email (subject: Measurement Inc.), we discussed how workflows give us an objective way of measuring performance.
But how does one measure the performance of someone using a workflow?
With a workflow of course!!
This is about to get meta, so hold onto your hats...
One of the coolest things about guided workflows is you can use them for anything. So, let's go back to our salesperson example.
Let's imagine we've built a conditional workflow (conditional because it's triggered by a new customer enquiry). The workflow guides the salesperson through all of the steps needed to prepare for a product demo with a potential customer.
We'll call it the Pre-demo preparation workflow.
Now, the final step within the Pre-demo preparation workflow is to send their manager the outputs - this might be an agenda for the demo, the functionality the salesperson plans to showcase and a list of responses to potential objections.
And not only would they send them the outputs, they’d also send them a link to a workflow that helps the manager evaluate their outputs (or ideally, if the tech enables it, that step would be automated).
Let’s call this the Pre-demo preparation evaluation workflow.
And this evaluation workflow would show the manager exactly how to evaluate the salesperson's outputs.
This might include a checklist:
Does the agenda reflect the customer's needs?
Are they showing relevant functionality?
Have likely objections been considered?
It may also include:
Examples of strong and weak preparation
Guidance on what good looks like
Techniques for giving feedback on common issues
This would be especially useful for a new manager. The workflow wouldn’t just tell them what to evaluate - it would help them evaluate it too.
And the manager would still use their judgement. But instead of relying on instinct or experience, they'd evaluate the work against the same predefined criteria every time.
The salesperson has a workflow for doing the work.
The manager has a workflow for evaluating it.
And because they're connected, performance evaluation becomes visible, consistent and fair.
Yours,
- Ant
PS. Quick side note. Both the salesperson and manager may eventually learn how to do these tasks without relying on the support provided in the workflow. But learning is a byproduct, rather than the goal. Just like using Google Maps to do the same journey more than once, we may eventually learn the routes by heart.
