Module 1
Seeing the process: what a legal process is, why map it and how much detail to draw
Every piece of legal work that is done more than once is a process, whether or not anyone has drawn it. A contract is requested, checked, negotiated and signed; a client is taken on; a data request is answered; a file is closed. The steps exist, the people exist and the delays exist, but they live in habit and in people’s heads, so they are hard to improve. Process mapping is the plain skill of making the process visible. This module teaches you what counts as a process, why a map is worth drawing, the simple frame that keeps a map honest, how much detail to draw and how to find out what really happens, which is usually not what the manual says.
Hover over an idea to light up what it connects to, click it for its definition, minimum requirements, an example and the usual trap, press Play to watch the map build step by step, or trace a short case through it.
Simplified teaching map, in general terms. Check the law where you work. On a small screen, scroll the map sideways.
By the end of this module you can
- Recognise a process and tell it from a one-off task or a rule.
- Say why a map is worth drawing and what it is for.
- Frame a process with five questions before drawing anything.
- Choose the right level of detail for the question you need to answer.
- Find out what really happens, not only what should happen.
Part 1. The lecture
What counts as a process
A process is a repeatable series of steps that turns something that comes in (a request, a document, a question) into something that goes out (an approved contract, a signed engagement letter, a reply to a data subject). It has a trigger that starts it, people who do the steps, and someone who receives the result.
Three things are easily confused with a process. A one-off task happens once and is not worth mapping. A rule says what must be true (“contracts above a threshold need a director’s signature”) but not how the work flows. A policy states an intention. A process is where rules and policies meet real people on a real Tuesday, and it is the process, not the rule, that decides how long the work takes.
| Legal process | Trigger | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Contract approval | A business user asks for a contract. | A signed contract and a record of who approved it. |
| Client onboarding | A prospective client says yes. | A signed engagement letter, completed checks and an opened file. |
| Subject access request | An individual asks for their personal data. | A complete reply within the legal deadline. |
| Board resolution | A decision is needed by the board. | A signed, filed and recorded resolution. |
| Matter closing | The work is finished. | A closed file, a final bill and archived documents. |
A quick test
Ask: will it happen again, and does it pass between people or steps? If yes to both, it is a process worth looking at. If it will not happen again, it is a task. If it states what must be true without saying how the work flows, it is a rule.
Why draw a map at all
A map is not a deliverable for its own sake. It is a tool for asking questions, and its value is in the conversation that drawing it provokes. People who have worked side by side for years often discover, when they draw the process together, that they each believed in a different one.
- A shared picture. The lawyer, the assistant and the business user agree on what happens before they argue about what to change.
- Finding the waste. Waiting, rework, duplicated checks and unclear handoffs show up when they are written down in order.
- A base for design. You cannot design a better process without knowing the present one, and you cannot show an improvement without a before.
- Training and consistency. A new colleague can learn from a map, and two colleagues can be shown where they do the same thing differently.
- Evidence for control. Regulators and auditors increasingly ask how a decision was made. A map, with the rules attached, is the beginning of an answer.
A map can also do harm. A beautiful chart that no one uses, or that describes a process that exists only on paper, gives false comfort. The remedy is to keep every map tied to a question: what are we trying to find out or decide?
Five questions before you draw
Before you draw a single box, write down the frame. A simple and widely used form is supplier, input, process, output, customer. It forces you to fix the edges of what you are looking at.
| Part | The question | Example: contract approval |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier | Who or what provides the input? | A sales manager. |
| Input | What arrives to start the work? | A request with the draft contract and the deal details. |
| Process | What is done, in broad terms? | Check, review, negotiate, approve, sign. |
| Output | What leaves the process? | A signed contract, filed and recorded. |
| Customer | Who receives it and judges it? | The sales manager and, later, the finance team. |
Two extra items complete the frame. Write down the owner, the one person who can change the process, and the measures: how long it takes, how often it must be redone and how the customer feels about it. If you cannot name an owner, you have found your first problem.
Setting the boundary
Decide where the process starts and ends, and write it down. “From the moment the business user sends the request to the moment the signed contract is filed” is a boundary. “Contracts” is not.
Many projects fail because the edges move halfway through. Agree them first, and note what you are deliberately leaving out.
How much detail
A map can be drawn at several levels. The right level is the one that answers your question and no more.
| Level | What it shows | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Five to seven main stages in one line. | To agree the scope and to show the whole journey to a sponsor. |
| Detailed map | Every step, who does it and where it passes to someone else. | To find delays, rework and unclear handoffs. |
| Instruction | Exactly how to do one step, with screens and examples. | To train people and to write a template or a rule. |
- Start at the overview. If you cannot draw the whole process in seven boxes, you do not yet understand its shape.
- Go deeper only where the trouble is. Do not draw every step of a smooth stage.
- Keep each map to one page. A map you cannot read in a minute will not be read.
Resist the temptation to draw everything because it is easy to draw. The amount of detail should follow the question. If the question is “where does the time go?”, the detail should be around waiting and handoffs, not around how a lawyer reads a clause.
What really happens
There are always at least three versions of a process: the one in the manual, the one that people say they follow and the one that is actually followed. Maps built from the manual or from an interview with a manager show the first or the second. To see the third you must look at real cases.
- Pick real cases. Choose six to ten recent matters, including a fast one, a slow one and one that went wrong.
- Trace each from the first message to the last. Use emails, the document history and calendar entries, and note the dates.
- Ask the people who did the work, one at a time, to walk you through a case. Ask them what they did next and why, not what the process says.
- Watch the work if you can. Workarounds and informal checks show up only when you see them.
- Compare the cases. Where they differ is where the process is unclear, or where people are making judgements the map does not show.
Ask about the exceptions
“What happens when the request is incomplete?” “What if the approver is on leave?” “What if the other side changes the deal?”
Exceptions are where processes are hardest, where the delays hide and where an automated tool most often breaks. A map that shows only the happy path is a half-map.
Draw the as-is map first, as it really is, even if it embarrasses someone. Only then draw the to-be map, the better process you are designing. Designing before understanding is the commonest mistake in process work.
Part 2. Lab: Is It a Process?
Put each item in the right category: a process, a one-off task or a rule.
Situation 1 of 6
Every new client must be screened for conflicts before any work starts.
Where does this belong?
Part 3. Lab: How Much Detail?
Choose the level of map that answers each question.
Situation 1 of 3
The general counsel wants to know, in one slide, what the whole contract journey looks like before agreeing to a project.
Which map?
Part 4. Check your understanding
Ten questions drawn from a larger pool. Sign in to have your score saved towards your certificate.
You have finished the free module
Here is what you can do now, and where the course goes next
Module 1 gave you
- Recognise a process and tell it from a one-off task or a rule.
- Say why a map is worth drawing and what it is for.
- Frame a process with five questions before drawing anything.
- Choose the right level of detail for the question you need to answer.
- Find out what really happens, not only what should happen.
Next, 6 more modules and a capstone
- Module 2: Drawing the map: steps, people, decisions, handoffs and waitingYou will learn to use the few building blocks that a legal process map needs.
- Module 3: Finding the problems: bottlenecks, rework, waiting and root causesYou will learn to recognise the six kinds of waste in legal work.
- Module 4: From rules to decisions: reading a rule as logicYou will learn to break a rule into facts, conditions and outcomes.
- Module 5: Building and testing decision trees: completeness, paths and test casesYou will learn to write a tree in the plain text format.
- Module 6: Decision tables, exceptions and precedence: when rules collide
- Module 7: Designing the new process: intake, triage, routing, visibility and service levels
- Capstone: Capstone: redesign client onboarding at a small firm
Each module has its own practice labs and a graded quiz, and a Certificate of Completion follows when you pass them all. The whole course is $15 once, or included in an All-Access Membership.
Two Ways In
Introductory PriceProcess Mapping and Decision Design: buy it on its own, or get it with All-Access
Unlock all of Process Mapping and Decision Design on its own with a one-time purchase, or get it as part of an All-Access Membership, which also covers every course and the other paid tools. A member never needs to buy it separately.
This is an early, introductory price for a brand-new product — it’s expected to rise as we add more content. Buy now and it’s yours at today’s rate, forever.
No account needed: you pay, and we email you a one-click sign-in.
All-Access is $19.99 a month or $149 a year, and covers every course and most tools, this one included. Create a free account to subscribe.
Look first, then buy. Free previews on every product page. Secure payment by Stripe. Pay once, keep it forever. Details
See what is included in All-Access →Not ready to buy? Create a free account to save your quiz scores and your place in this course, and to get the printable reports from the practice rooms.
General education on process design, using invented organisations, policies and figures. It is not legal advice. Rules in the examples are illustrations: a real policy or statute must be read from its source, and any decision logic built from it should be checked by a lawyer.
Teaching? Share this with your class
Free to use in class. The free parts open for everyone, no account needed.