U Can · Open series

Should This Be Automated?

Bring me the process everyone keeps working around. I’ll help figure out what technology is actually for.

The problem comes before the technology.

Send one frustrating process. Each ruling will ask what should be automated, what should stay human, what needs to change first, and what the smallest useful solution might be.

Submit a process

Illustrative ruling · Operations

“We manually pull data from five different reports every week to build the same spreadsheet.”

ANONYMIZED · SUBMITTED FOR THE SERIES

A classic case of busy work. The data is available, the steps are repeatable, and the value is in the insight, not the copy-paste.

Assist it

Use automation to pull and prepare the data, then keep a human in the loop to sanity-check and interpret the results.

A folder character considering four paths labeled Automate it, Assist it, Fix it first, and Leave it human
01

Automate it

Repetitive, rules-based work that is consistent enough to hand off.

02

Assist it

Technology can prepare, recommend, or surface context, but a person should decide.

03

Fix it first

The underlying workflow is too inconsistent, unclear, or dependent on rescue.

04

Leave it human

Judgment, trust, or unusual circumstances are the real work.

What’s the thing everyone keeps working around?

Tell me what happens, who touches it, how often it happens, what makes it painful, and what you have already tried.

Please leave out student, client, customer, patient, personnel, or other confidential or identifying information.

Send a process by email

First ruling coming soon

The archive will grow from real problems.

LinkedIn is where the questions begin. U Can is where the reasoning stays.

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