💭 in your head · nothing to type
You just ran your first pipeline — the first runner has finished their leg and is reaching back with the baton.
Hold that handoff moment in your head: runner one (you) accelerates, arm stretched behind — runner two (automation) takes it without breaking stride. A clean exchange loses no speed. A fumble and the baton hits the track.
Run your launch in your head: where did the handoff land clean? And where did you have to slow down and pick the baton up off the ground?
💭 in your head · nothing to type
Picture an archaeologist who just opened the first layer: under the turf — shards, coins, char. The first dig never answers every question — it shows you where to go deeper.
Look at your pipeline the way they look at that first trench: what artifacts came up? Which shard whispers "there was a whole vessel here once" — hinting at richer automation just beneath the surface?
The next version of your pipeline is the next excavation cut. What do you put in it?
| Task type | Automatable | Pipeline example |
|---|---|---|
| Information gathering | Easy | URL → summary → file |
| Content analysis | Easy | Text → insights → report |
| Draft emails | Medium | Email → context → draft |
| Data processing | Medium | Table → analysis → viz |
| Meetings | Medium | Audio → transcript → tasks |
| Decision-making | Hard | Needs a human |
Once the manual pipeline works: