u/MariettBilg

I help coordinate volunteers for a food rescue organization.

New colunteers complete a form, attend orientaion, send docs, join whatsapp, choose a location and shadow someone before their first shift.

The process works but one coordinator tracks most of it manually. We mapped the steps and found 9 separate messages before someone can start.

what parts of volunteer onboarding have you automated without making the experience impresonal? We're small so we don't need enterprise software. We mainly need fewer handoffs.

Started doing this on the last 2 engagements and it's saved me from a couple of bad storylines. Before I build any structure, i dump every symptom the client named into a map, then group until the branches stop overlapping.

The value isnt the map, it's that i find out fast which branch has no evidence under it. On a supply chain project the whole culture branch had exactly 1 anecdote from one VP, and the ops branch had 4 data pulls. Easy call which one leads.

My business partner thinks it's a wasted morning and just wants the pyramid. He's not entirely wrong, it does slow day one down.

Does anyone else map before they structure, or is that just me avoiding powerpoint (as my partner puts it)?