Mieszko PilchOperations & automation
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Leadership & business value

Which idea is worth doing first?

There is usually more work people want automated than there is time to build it. I compare the benefit, effort and risk before choosing what comes next.

What was getting in the way

At one point, I was reviewing a pipeline of around 20 automation and reporting ideas. We had limited time to deliver them, so we needed to choose where to start.

What I contributed

I ran the discovery and request process, assessed feasibility and set priorities. For work we agreed to do, I wrote requirements, acceptance criteria and rollout plans. I also built prototypes and automations myself.

How I approached it

  1. Watch how the work is done before estimating the time saved.
  2. Count the manual review that will still be needed.
  3. Compare the benefit with the work and risk involved in building it.
  4. Talk through the choices with the people affected.
  5. Check the result after rollout and adjust the priorities.

What changed

My current estimate is 400–500 hours of manual work saved each week across recruitment, payroll, quality checks and allocation. This includes automations I built and the allocation improvements I helped design.

API and Python checks account for 100+ hours of that weekly total.

The prioritisation work gave us a way to compare requests and agree what to work on first.

Try it yourself

Have a go.

Rank the ideas by time saved, payback or risk. You can edit the estimates and see the order change.

The next thing to build

Example data

Rank by estimated weekly hours freed after remaining review work.

Scheduled data checks

Change the assumptions ↓

Frequent checks with a clear exception path.

3.1 h released each week3.9 weeks to recover build effort

Allocation support ranks first on capacity released. This is one view of the trade-off. Feasibility, quality and adoption still belong in the decision.

Capacity = (manual − review) × weekly frequency / 60. Payback = build hours / weekly capacity. No cash saving is implied.