Workflow Automation Suite
Built a governed commissioning workflow that creates capacity, improves quality, and moves contract processing from days to minutes.
I automate to improve the operating system around creative work. The test is whether a workflow creates meaningful leverage, earns adoption, protects quality, and leaves the team with a process it can govern and improve.
The problem
Guidebook commissioning had accumulated manual transfers across folders, fee calculations, Asana forms, contracts, and payment systems. Editors entered the same information in multiple places, each handoff created a chance for error, and administrative work displaced the editorial judgment that only people could provide.
The operating philosophy
I began with workflow research: doing commissioning work directly, interviewing editors and partner teams, and mapping where information was duplicated or delayed. The answer was a single-entry flow in which the right data moves through the right approvals and outputs with clear ownership.
The commissioning workflow connects project setup, fee calculation, payment requisitions, contracts, tax-classification lookup, and e-signature steps. AI-assisted development helped accelerate prototypes, but adoption, documentation, review, and governance made the work operationally useful.
How I measure leverage
The clearest instrumented result is 170+ hours of annual commissioning-workflow capacity. The work itself changed too: contract processing moved from days to minutes, repeated data entry was reduced, and editors gained time for planning, quality control, and contributor relationships.
What changed
- A single-entry commissioning workflow reduced manual data transmission across forms, contracts, and payment systems
- Contract processing moved from days to minutes through a streamlined e-signature process
- Workflow design emphasized adoption, documentation, and maintenance so the team could run it without me
- Automation became a repeatable way to identify leverage while preserving quality and accountability
- The approach created capacity across a publishing operation supporting 230+ guidebooks and illustrated travel books annually