You will produce a complete paper or whiteboard diagram of one automation before you open any tool.
Mei Ling runs enquiries at a tuition centre in Tampines (an invented example). Before she opens any automation tool, she draws the whole enquiry workflow on one sheet of paper, from the moment a parent submits the form to the moment a teacher has a reminder to call back.
People who give up on automation tools usually give up halfway through a build, with six browser tabs open and no memory of which field went where. The tool is rarely to blame. They started building before deciding what they were building. A drawing is the cheapest place to find a mistake, and the exercise takes about twenty minutes.
You need a large sheet of paper, a whiteboard or a blank slide, and a pen in two colours if you have them. The second colour is for format notes. Bring your notes from three earlier lessons:
the trigger and action list from Lesson 2.1, "Triggers, actions and the steps between them" the mapping table from Lesson 2.2 the formatting notes from Lesson 2.3, "Format dates, names and numbers on the way through"
A drawing tool is fine, but don't spend time making the diagram look good. A rough diagram you finish is more use than a neat one you abandon. The method has five steps (Steps 1 to 5), and you check the result against a short list at the end.
Step 1: draw the two ends first. On the far left, draw a box with the trigger in plain words, such as "New enquiry form response". On the far right, draw a box with the final result, such as "Parent has confirmation, teacher has call-back reminder, row in sheet". With both ends fixed, the diagram can't drift, and you know where it starts and what "done" looks like.
Step 2: fill the middle. Add one box for each action, left to right in the order they run, and join them with arrows. Each box names the app and the verb, for example "Sheet: add row", "Email: send confirmation" or "Tasks: create reminder". If you draw an action that isn't on your list from Lesson 2.1, stop and ask whether it belongs. It may be a missing step that drawing has shown you, or an old habit that Lesson 1.2, "Fix the process before you automate it", already removed.
Step 3 gives the diagram most of its value. On each arrow, write the fields that pass along it. The name of the next app alone won't help you when you build. In the enquiry example, the arrow from the trigger to "Sheet: add row" carries response ID, timestamp, parent name, email, phone, level and message. The arrow to "Email: send confirmation" carries name, email and level. The arrow to the reminder carries response ID, name, phone and the date two days from now.
When a field changes format on the way, write the new format beside it in your second colour: phone as +65 and eight digits, for instance, or date as 7 March 2025. Then check each field on each arrow and find the box it came from. A gap is a field you can't trace back to an earlier box. Circle every one you find.
Step 4: go along the diagram from left to right and mark the three kinds of point where the flow can change course.
A filter is a point where a run might stop. Draw a small gate symbol and write the condition next to it, such as "stop if staff test or message empty". A branch is a point where the flow splits into separate paths. Draw the split and label each path; in the enquiry example, "primary" goes one way, "secondary" goes another, and "level blank" goes to a person. A human point is a place where someone has to look at something or approve it before the flow carries on. Draw a small person, or a box with "check" written in it.
A simple enquiry flow may need no human points. Any flow that involves payments, AI-drafted replies to customers or deleting records should have at least one. Module 7 covers how to build human points properly.
Mei Ling's trigger box reads "New enquiry form response". It carries response ID, timestamp, name, email, phone, level and message into a filter that stops staff tests and empty messages. Responses that get through go to "Sheet: add row" with all seven fields. On that arrow she noted that phone is reformatted and the timestamp is converted to Singapore time.
After the sheet, the flow branches on level into three paths. Primary goes to "Email: send primary confirmation", carrying name, email and the primary timetable text. Secondary goes to "Email: send secondary confirmation", carrying the secondary timetable. Level blank goes to "Notify Mei Ling to check", carrying the response ID. The three paths join again at "Tasks: create call-back reminder", which receives response ID, name, phone and a due date two days ahead. Her result box sits on the far right.
She circled one gap. The reminder needed the teacher's name, and no earlier step produced it. She closed the gap by adding a column to the sheet that matches each level to a teacher, and a lookup step just before the reminder.
Step 5 is the two-minute test. Explain your diagram to a colleague, a friend or anyone patient, and point at each box and arrow as you talk. If they can follow you and ask a sensible question at the end, the diagram has enough detail to build from. If you catch yourself saying "and then somehow" at any point, mark that spot, because the next gap is there.
Finally, check the diagram against the list for a finished diagram. It has a trigger box and a result box, every action in order with its app and verb, fields written on every arrow, formats noted wherever they change, and every filter, branch and human checkpoint marked. No circled gaps are left, or each one that remains has a note saying how you will close it.
Now draw yours. When it passes the two-minute test, photograph it and keep it with your course notes, because module 4 builds directly from it.
Draw the full workflow for your chosen task, including fields, filters and branches, and photograph it for your course notes.
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