5 min read

Process mapping

Understanding your workflow to create transformative solutions.

A process map is a planning and management tool that describes the flow of work, outlining the individual steps within a process, identifying task owners and detailing expected timelines. It is useful for understanding and documenting how a process works, identifying inefficiencies, and finding opportunities for improvement. It provides a clear and concise overview of the process, allowing stakeholders to analyze and streamline it effectively. Once complete, a process map will show:
  • The steps of a business process.
  • The sequence in which these steps take place.
  • The individuals and teams responsible for each step.

Map before you build

Coda is the ultimate blank slate. You can build something to meet the needs of pretty much any workflow. Because it is so flexible, it is essential to have a crystal clear understanding of what you need it to do before you begin to build. While mapping out a process is an extra step in the building process, investing the time and energy to get aligned in the beginning pays dividends in time and efficiency down the line:
  • Save time rebuilding: If you jump into building a solution in Coda without fully understanding the parameters of the problem, new requirements you hadn’t considered will inevitably appear as you start to build. Some changes are easy, while others can fundamentally change the way you will need to structure your doc. By fully aligning on what needs to be built before starting, you can build the right way, the first time.
  • Serve more stakeholders: Mapping out a process means checking in with every team that touches a process. When you invest the time to fully understand the ways of working and needs of all contributors, you can build a transformative solution that works for everyone.
  • Improve stale processes: When mapping, you can take the opportunity to reflect on how things are done on your team. What is working? What can be improved? Your new Coda solution doesn't have to serve the old way you did things.

The workbook

While there are many ways to process map, we offer a workbook that walks your team through mapping out any process from end to end. When done correctly, process mapping should be challenging; expect to invest time. Smaller processes may be mapped in as little as 30 minutes, while larger, cross functional processes can take days to fully flush out. Our workbook is designed to extract the level of detail needed to create a Coda doc that serves stakeholders and improves your processes. By the end of this workbook, you will have a written and clear understanding of the following aspects of the process:
  • Who does what, when?
  • What information/data is involved and who should have access to it.
  • How and when information is used/modified.
  • Who needs to be notified of what, and when.
  • What reports will be generated.


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