The S.T.A.R.S. method
A method in five phases named after us.
Study, Transform, Automate, Refine, Scale. We do not start from “what can we automate”, but from “how should this company work if we designed it today from scratch”.
Study
Understanding how it really works
We do not start from technology, we start from the company: people, handoffs, ownership, tools, bottlenecks. Not how it should work on paper: how it works on a Monday morning.
- Interviews with the people doing the work, not only those running it
- A map of how you work today
- Where time and capacity are being lost
What comes out of this phaseA shared picture of how the company works today.
Transform
Redesign before digitising
- 1Can we remove it?
- 2Can we simplify it?
- 3Can we standardise it?
- 4Only then: automate it.
Before building anything, every workflow goes through four questions in order: can we remove it, simplify it, standardise it, and only then automate it. Automating a broken workflow just runs it faster, still broken.
- Tasks removed, not automated
- Fewer steps and dependencies
- Workflows made predictable
What comes out of this phaseThe design of how it should work, before a line of code is written.
Automate
Technology where it creates leverage
Only now do we pick the tools: custom software, CRM, ERP, integrations, AI. The problem comes first, and it determines the technology.
- Architecture decided before the build
- Integration with the systems already in use
- Milestone releases, with some value already live
What comes out of this phaseThe system running, on real people and real data.
Refine
Measure and correct
A system is not finished when it goes live: that is when we start having real data on how it behaves. We measure usage, timings, errors and margins, and correct.
- Real adoption, not just logins
- Timings and errors against the baseline
- Fixes where it still resists
What comes out of this phaseNumbers on what actually changed compared to before.
Scale
Turning efficiency into capacity
The goal is not to save a few hours, it is to create capacity. An organisation becomes scalable when it can raise volume and revenue without raising cost, headcount and complexity in the same proportion.
- Same headcount, more volume handled
- Less dependence on individuals
- The cycle starts again on the next system
What comes out of this phaseMore capacity without more structure.
The method is the same for everyone, the solution is not. You start from the first phase, and you can stop at any level.