Find what is worth automating, with figures and sources
An automation proposal is won on volumes and durations. TellMeHow identifies repetitive tasks and re-keying role by role, estimates them with their sources, and ranks them by impact and effort.
By type of firm
What an agency sells
An automation agency sells time saved: workflows, integrations between tools, and scripts that remove a manual task. To propose the right projects, it first has to know where the time goes, which means watching people work. The client’s leadership knows the big pain points, but rarely the volumes or the detail of each task. Without those facts, the proposal rests on assumptions the client can challenge.
What slows discovery down
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Tasks too ordinary to mention
Copying an amount from a PDF into software, renaming files, chasing by email: actions repeated dozens of times a day rarely come up in a standard interview.
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Volumes based on guesswork
Without frequency or time per task, the promised savings remain the agency’s estimate. The client takes longer to sign, or negotiates the scope down.
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Costly discovery before the proposal
Interviewing every role takes days the agency struggles to bill. The temptation is to propose the most visible automation rather than the most useful one.
From discovery to a fact-based proposal
Discovery becomes a structured step, run in parallel with everyone involved.
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1
Configure the automation method
You start from the automation audit method template and add your opportunity categories (tool integration, workflow, task removal, training) and your prioritization grid.
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2
Have people show their repetitive tasks
The AI interviewer asks people to describe, then show, their day-to-day tasks. It asks for frequencies and durations (“roughly how many per week?”) and confirms the key figures.
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Estimate and prioritize
The analysis flags re-keying, pain points, and volumes, then proposes opportunities with an estimated saving in hours per month, a range, a visible calculation, and an estimated effort. An imported source can confirm or contradict participants’ estimates.
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Deliver and price
The client receives a navigable deliverable with an impact/effort matrix, under your brand. You base your proposal on the findings and their evidence, and export opportunities as CSV or JSON.
Example: a 60-person accounting firm
Illustrative example, not a client case.- Audited company
- Accounting firm, 60 employees, two offices, around 900 client files, ahead of a project to automate production work.
- Populations interviewed
- Staff accountants Payroll team Administrative assistants Legal team
- Guide topics
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- Collecting documents from clients
- Bookkeeping and bank reconciliation
- Preparing payslips
- Chasing and corresponding with clients
- Tools and files used to track client files
- Show me
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Show me how you process incoming receipts
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Show me how you track missing documents
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Example findings
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Volume
Roughly 250 to 400 reminders for missing documents per month, sent one by one from the mailbox, according to five staff accountants.
Validated recaps, staff accountants 1 to 5 -
Re-keying
Payroll inputs received by email are copied into the payroll software from a spreadsheet each client provides, in a different format every time.
Pinned screenshot, payroll 2 · 14:09 -
Pain point
Receipts uploaded by clients are renamed by hand before filing, taking two to three minutes per batch according to the team.
Audio clip, administrative assistant 1 · 05:33
What the agency delivers
- An inventory of repetitive tasks and re-keying, process by process.
- Estimated volumes and durations, each with its range and sources.
- An impact/effort matrix of opportunities, using your categories and scoring grid.
- A factual basis for your proposals, which the client can check finding by finding.
Common questions from automation agencies
Does TellMeHow require a specific automation platform?
No. The TellMeHow output is neutral: opportunity categories come from your method, and opportunities export as CSV or JSON. You recommend the tools you know best.
How are savings estimated?
Each opportunity in TellMeHow carries an estimated saving in hours per month, shown as a range with the calculation visible, along with an estimated effort. It is linked to the findings that justify it, which are in turn linked to their evidence.
Can we add quantitative data to the interviews?
Yes. TellMeHow accepts artifacts (exports, spreadsheets) and structured imports in a documented exchange format, such as message volumes measured by another tool. The analysis compares them with participants’ estimates and can propose a follow-up when they diverge.
Does the AI interviewer suggest solutions during the interview?
No. By default, the TellMeHow AI interviewer does not judge, advise, or suggest solutions, so it does not steer the participant’s account. The firm’s method can change this behavior with an explicit instruction.
The features involved
- Screen sharing The AI interviewer asks “show me” and sees the shared screen, where the work actually happens.
- Cross-analysis Every interview cross-checked into sourced findings, with contradictions and follow-ups to resolve them.
- Cost tracking The AI usage of every engagement, visible as it happens, with caps and alerts.
Other use cases
- Quality and compliance The gap between written procedure and actual practice, documented with time-stamped evidence.
- IT and internal teams The same tool, for internal audits: real application usage, pain points, and shadow applications.
- Organizational consulting An organizational diagnosis informed by every employee, with a process map that shows its sources.
See a complete audit in thirty minutes.
A voice interview with screen sharing, the process map it produces, the deliverable the sponsor reads: on a demo engagement, with your questions.