Worth Doing, Worth Automating

If it’s worth doing repeatedly,
It’s worth automating.
or
If the value is worth the manual effort,
It’s worth the cost of a permanent solution.
If you’ve already committed to the cost of repeated manual effort,
Then committing a portion of that cost to _remove_ the manual effort should be a no brainer.
You win twice.
You’re reducing the cost to produce the same value;
And you’re freeing up valuable humans to work on something else.

…and if you have put a continuous discovery process in place (if you’re looking for the duct tape), this becomes a virtuous cycle or (dare I say) a flywheel:
Your consultants apply duct tape (they plug gaps in your product)
They identify the duct tape (product discovery)
You replace the duct tape with a permanent solution (features and functionality)
The consultants move on to the next piece of duct tape (continuous improvement)
And it’s not just round and round; it’s up and up.
Eventually, your consultants are solving higher order problems, and gaining experience not otherwise attainable.
You’re not just plugging and removing gaps, you’re maturing your Services team into a true consultancy.
Sooner than you think, they’re affecting transformational change.
Your overall value to the customer then becomes exponential and strategic.
And the customer paid for the entire thing.
An ever-improving value offering (subsidized by your customer)
Or expensive duct tape.
That’s the choice you’re making, when you decide where to place your Services org.

Summary

An exploration of the Duct Tape Principle, illustrating how continuous discovery and improvement can transform professional services from gap-filling to strategic value creation through systematic problem-solving and automation.

Key Points

• Repeated manual efforts should be automated or permanently solved
• Continuous discovery creates a virtuous improvement cycle
• Professional services can evolve from gap-filling to transformational change
• Value creation becomes exponential through systematic problem-solving
• Organizational placement determines service team’s potential impact