A repeatable way of working.
The trigger, the source of record, the steps, the file name, the delivery rule, the fallbacks and the limits for a job she will be asked to run again. Change the method here and every future run changes with it.
Teammate substrate / Playbooks
She writes them herselfRevised as the job changesLoaded when the work calls for one
She writes down how the job is done.
A playbook is an internal SOP for a job that comes back: where the work starts, the steps in order, what the file is called, where it gets filed, how it is returned, and where the teammate has to stop. Roan wrote the two below himself, after a user asked him for flood maps often enough that doing it from scratch each time stopped making sense. The tenth request now comes back the same as the first.
Playbooks and memory
One holds the method. One holds the facts.
Factual context carried forward.
The atomic things she has learned: which folder this client wants documents in, who signs off on what, what the last decision was and why. Facts about your company, held separately from any one procedure.
Playbooks come with the teammate. They are part of how she learns a role and repeats it, so there is nothing extra for your team to buy, run or maintain.
On demand
She carries the index and pulls the procedure.
A short list of what she knows how to do stays in front of her at all times. When a request matches one of those triggers, the full procedure loads for that job — so a teammate can hold a hundred playbooks without carrying a hundred playbooks into every conversation.
Anatomy of a playbook
Six things a playbook has to pin down.
Steps alone leave the expensive parts open. A playbook that works also fixes where the work starts, what the finished file is called, where it lands, who gets it back and on which channel, and the point where the teammate has to hand the question to a person.
Name the moment it applies.
The request or condition that should pull these instructions in. Get it right and she reaches for the playbook without being told to.
Choose the source of record.
Where the work has to begin, and which sources are authoritative enough to put your name on the result.
Capture the repeatable sequence.
The actions in order, the fallback when a source is down, and the point where she stops and hands it to a person.
Make the artifact findable.
One stable file name, so anyone can tell what a document is from the folder listing without opening it.
Finish the whole handoff.
Where the finished file gets filed, and every channel the person who asked expects to see it come back on.
Say what the work cannot establish.
What this work cannot settle, which record actually controls, and when a specialist has to take it from here.
In practice / Roan
One request from a user became two playbooks.
Roan works construction for a real-estate developer. Site diligence kept asking for the same two documents, so he wrote the procedure for both, including the part everyone forgets: produce the artifact, file it in the project folder, and return it on every channel it was asked for.
TriggerSomeone asks for a flood map or flood zone for a property.
- Source
- Official FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
- Steps
- In Chrome, find the parcel, frame the map, generate the FIRMette PDF, then record the zone, panel, effective date and any applicable base flood elevation.
- Naming
FEMA FIRMette - [Street Address, City ST].pdf- Filing + delivery
- File it in the appropriate Dropbox project folder, attach it to the original email thread, and return it on the text thread too.
- Limit
- The map is preliminary diligence, not a survey. Flag close boundaries for specialist confirmation and report the map's effective date.
TriggerSomeone asks for a zoning map or zoning district for a property.
- Source
- First identify the local jurisdiction. Use its official GIS viewer or map of record; zoning has no single national source.
- Steps
- In Chrome, locate the parcel, enable the zoning layer, frame adjacent zoning, export the map, and record the district, overlays, jurisdiction and map date.
- Naming
Zoning Map - [Street Address, City ST].pdf- Filing + delivery
- File it in the appropriate Dropbox project folder, attach it to the original email thread, and return it on the text thread too.
- Limit
- A GIS designation is a starting point. Confirm material decisions against the jurisdiction's controlling ordinance or map; prepare a handoff when the source requires a phone call.
The compounding effect
Figure it out once. Keep it.
When the source moves, the ordinance changes or you want the file somewhere else, she edits the playbook and the next run picks it up. The work you spent teaching her stays taught, and nobody has to remember to re-teach it.