What to prepare before you hire someone to automate a workflow

Automation projects go well or badly mostly before anyone builds anything. A team that arrives with one clear task, its rules and its access gets a sharper quote and a faster start. Here is what to have ready, in one page.

The checklist, in order

1. InputOne taskRepeated, and easy to describe.
2. RuleIts rulesWhat happens today, step by step.
3. AI stepThe messy partWhere reading or writing is involved.
4. PersonAn ownerOne person who says yes or no.
5. OutputA measureThe number you will compare after.

1. One task, not a wish list. Pick the job that repeats every week and that people dislike. “Follow up every new lead” is a task. “Improve our sales process” is not yet one.
2. Write down what happens today. Step by step, as if for a new hire: who does what, in which tool, in what order. Include the odd cases (“if the lead is a partner, skip step three”). This is most of the specification.
3. Mark the messy part. Some steps are rules; some need judgement or language, such as reading an email or drafting a reply. Marking them shows where AI may help and where a plain rule is enough.
4. List your tools and who can grant access. CRM, forms, chat, spreadsheets, email. For each, note who can create an account or an API key for the project. Waiting for access is a common cause of delay.
5. Name one owner. One person on your side answers questions and approves the result. A project with three owners has none.
6. Decide what a person must always approve. Prices, promises, anything a customer reads as a commitment. Say so up front.
7. Choose one measure and note it before you start. Minutes per task, or mistakes per week. Without a starting number you cannot say later whether it worked.
8. Set the data rules. What must never be pasted into an AI tool (customer contact details, prices, contracts), and where records are allowed to live.

What you do not need yet

• A finished specification. Rough notes on one page are enough for the first call.
• A tool decision. A good project can start from the tools you already pay for.
• A big budget line. Start with the smallest version that does the one task.

Ask about, too

Who maintains it afterwards, what happens when a step fails, and how you would switch it off. A plain answer to each is a good sign.

Where this shows up

Hoàng Huy Đức describes the work as the automation layer under marketing and sales: lead scoring and routing, CRM pipelines and telesales workflows (LinkedIn, September 2026). See the services for how a first project is scoped.