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Course: Translating Workflows to Airtable
Learn how to map workflows and build Airtable apps to streamline processes for
different stakeholders and automate tasks for efficiency.
Course: Translating Workflows to Airtable
Lesson: An Example of a Workflow Map
Lesson: An Example of your Workflow Performed In-App
Lesson: An Example of a Workflow Map
Hello! In this video, we’ll introduce you to the concept of workflow mapping.
This video will
1. Define the term ‘Workflow’ as used in the context of Airtable building
2. Outline the importance of workflow mapping
3. And show an example of a workflow map
The word workflow can mean different things to different companies and teams, so to
make sure we are all on the same page, here is Airtable’s workflow definition:
A workflow is a predictable and ordered collection of data, rules, roles, resources, and
ultimately outcomes.
Put simply, it's the sequence of steps your team will take in order to meet your goal. The
larger your organization, the more moving parts, and the more data you have, the more
complex your workflow.
A workflow is different from a set of tasks. For example, your to-do list, because unlike a
simple task list, a workflow is a repeatable process that needs to be accomplished in a
specific order.
Here’s an example of a workflow map for an IT ticketing process for an office. This one is
divided into swim-lanes by the person performing the action: we have an office worker,
an IT coordinator and an IT technician.
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To make it easier, let’s say one of our office workers is Jack, our IT coordinator is Bailey
and one of our IT techs is Felicia.
It kicks off with Jack submitting an IT ticket. This notifies Bailey who assigns a technician,
Felicia, to the ticket.
Once the issue is resolved, Felicia will write resolution notes and close the ticket. Jack will
be notified that their ticket has been closed and prompted to give feedback on Felicia’s
work. Felicia will receive this feedback and it will also feature in a report alongside
information on SLA breaches for Bailey to review and present to other business partners.
The more robust and well-defined your workflow is, the likelier you are to be successful
with Airtable.
Airtable builders can build pretty much whatever app they want in Airtable, but without a
clear strategy for how it should be used by end users, and how it will benefit them in their
everyday life, the smaller the likelihood is of successful adoption.
The better defined and optimized a workflow is, the more successful the Airtable app will
be.
We’ll go more in-depth on how to map a workflow in our builder-specific course, but
Airtable also offers Implementation Services which includes both in-house services and
an accredited partner network.
Speak to your Account Executive for more information if you’d like to explore your options
in this area.
Thanks for watching!
Lesson: An Example of your Workflow Performed In-App
Hi there. In this video, we’ll take the workflow map we created in our previous video and
show you how it would be performed in an app.
This video will:
1. Showy you an Airtable app built to achieve the requirements of a workflow map
2. Reveal how steps in the workflow map translate to interface pages with the right
permission settings and layouts chosen
3. Demonstrate how automations play a role in all the steps that require notification
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Let's look at the app. In the workspace, we have filtered by interfaces only and see four
interfaces. Each of these help our end users perform a part of the workflow.
Jack, our office worker, has access to the one called get support. Bailey, our IT
coordinator, has access to IT ticket coordination and reports. Felicia, our IT technician,
has access to the one called my tickets.
Let's click into get support and see what this interface offers. On this page, Jack can
submit a new ticket.
Let's go through this as Jack. He'll fill in his name here and the equipment that he needs
support with. The form is filtered to only show the equipment belonging to the current
user so that users don't accidentally submit a ticket for the wrong piece of equipment.
He'll give this a priority and a problem description. You'll notice that the date of
submission and status are grayed out. These are prefilled values that Jack is not allowed
to change as a submitter. They help ensure the ticket is given the right information for
faster processing.
Jack also has this page called 'My Tickets' where he can track all his tickets.
As builders, we have fulfilled the first step in our workflow map: Submit IT Ticket. Let's
move on to step number two: Assign Ticket.
We've created an automation that sends Bailey, the IT coordinator, a Slack message
notifying them of the new submission and a link that takes them to their interface called IT
Ticket Coordination.
Here's a page called Ticket Assignment where they can see all tickets that need to be
assigned. Bailey can assign an IT technician to the ticket and see who has the best
availability. In this case, that is Felicia Reyes.
Now that the ticket has been assigned, Jack will receive an update on this. Jack is also
notified on Slack through an automation that we've set up.
Once the ticket is assigned, the IT assignee will be notified and asked to solve the issue.
Felicia receives a Slack notification with a link to the ticket. This lives in the interface that
only the IT technicians can access called My Tickets.
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Felicia can now review the details and change the status to 'In Progress' to indicate that
she is actively working on the ticket.
The next step is for the IT technician to write resolution notes.
Felicia can do this here, and we've given her the added option to use AI to help write
resolution notes to the submitter. This can be edited, and once Felicia is happy, she can
tick this box to indicate that the message is ready for the submitter.
The next step is for Felicia to close the ticket, which she can do by clicking this button.
This action should trigger a notification to the submitter—and we have another
automation to take care of this.
Jack receives a Slack notification with the resolution notes and a link to the ticket where it
can be reviewed. Jack rates the service, and this has fulfilled the step for giving
feedback.
Which brings us to Felicia's final step of reviewing that feedback. Felicia receives a Slack
notification letting her know that she's received a new rating and a link to her dashboard.
The dashboard is part of Felicia's interface and gives her an overview of her tickets,
including her overall rating. She can click into the overall rating to see individual ratings.
The workflow map also has a step called ‘Review Report’ for the IT coordinator.
Bailey has access to an interface called Reports where they can see a bunch of data on
how their team is doing, including average rating across the entire team, and Jack's
recent rating instantly feeds into this. They can see the total number of tickets and the
average rating, but also just the high priority tickets and the overall rating for those.
Tickets where the SLA was breached have a lower rating, which is not surprising.
Bailey can also see division of equipment by category, ticket amount by equipment
category, and ticket volume by month.
And with that, we have made an app that makes it possible for our different end users to
perform different parts of the workflow in the same app, but with distinct interfaces that
only the right people can access, all using the same underlying data.
Thanks for watching!
