Value Stream Mapping
See how work flows. Choose what to improve.
Use your notes to map how a service reaches the people it is meant to help. AI asks the questions and organizes the answers. Your team checks the map and chooses what to change.
Understand & improve · Guide · Templates · Prompt · Skill
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Map how the work happens today, choose one pilot and keep the longer-term ideal separate.
Copy the prompt for a quick guided conversation. For the full review with editable templates, download the review kit and attach START-HERE.md in your chat.
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Read the instructions being copied
Help me review how work flows before we choose tools or automation. Start with my context. Explain value stream mapping briefly, then ask up to three focused questions at a time. Establish who receives value, what result they need, what offers serve them and who funds and delivers them. If there are several workflows, show a high-level overview and let our team choose one before going deeper. Follow one real, redacted example through that workflow. Show work, waiting, handoffs, information, exceptions and rework. Separate working time from elapsed time. Keep missing measurements unknown. Label what is observed, reported, assumed, proposed or unknown. Ask the people doing the work to validate the map. Do not invent steps, savings, clinical benefits or a root cause from incomplete notes. Help us choose one improvement, which might mean removing a step, changing a handoff, using an existing tool, preserving a human interaction, or collecting evidence first. Automation is optional. Keep today's process, the next feasible pilot and the longer-term ideal separate. For an agreed pilot, record an owner, baseline, measure, review date and stop/adapt criteria. Finish with decisions, unknowns and the next useful question. Use plain language. We decide what to change. Do not publish or alter any live system.
See what the review could produce.
An equipment-repair team wants to know why jobs take so long. Before buying another tool, they need to find out where the time goes.
See the provisional map and next test
Equipment repair: map the wait before choosing a fix
Illustrative exercise only. This is not a client engagement or an observed improvement. All team statements below belong to this fictional scenario; timings remain unknown.
Scope and selected stream
The team offers equipment repairs to local businesses. The customer needs working equipment returned; the customer pays for the repair. The team chooses request received → repaired equipment returned for review. This choice is part of the scenario, not a decision the skill makes for a client.
Provisional current map
Request → check details → prepare quote → wait for customer approval → book repair → repair and check → return equipment
If information is missing, the coordinator asks the customer and returns to the details check. If approval changes the scope, the quote goes back for revision. These reported routes still need checking with the people doing the work.
| Step | Information and handoff | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|
| Receive and check request | Coordinator needs the fault description and contact details. Missing information goes back to the customer. | Reported in the scenario; completeness and delay unknown. |
| Prepare quote and request approval | Technician supplies scope; coordinator sends the quote to the customer. | Reported; working time and revision rate unknown. |
| Wait for approval | Customer’s answer allows booking or triggers a revised quote. | Team suspects a delay here; duration and cause unmeasured. |
| Book, repair and check | Approved scope passes to the repair team; required quality checks remain. | Capacity, queue time and rework unknown. |
| Return equipment | Coordinator confirms handover with the customer. | Reported; delivery time and customer outcome unverified. |
Evidence to collect
Follow five jobs as an initial observation sample. Record request, complete-information, quote, approval, repair and return times; note exceptions and revisions. Track active work separately from elapsed time. Five jobs are a starting point, not proof of a typical pattern.
Ask the team whether the map is recognizable and which steps are missing. Until then, label it provisional; team validation pending.
Current, next test and longer-term ideal
- Current: the team reports waiting for approval. The map does not yet establish that this is the main constraint.
- Next test: observe the five jobs before choosing a process change. A proposed owner and review date remain unassigned until the team agrees them. Use records it already keeps where possible.
- Longer-term ideal: the customer receives enough information to decide, and approved work reaches the repair team without reconstructing the request. Tools are undecided.
Decision and next question
Collect evidence first. Do not buy automation on the strength of an assumed delay. Keep required quality checks and consider whether a change would shift work onto customers or technicians.
Next question: Who can trace those jobs with us, and when can the team review what we learn? After that review, choose a bounded change with a baseline, measure, owner and stop/adapt criteria. No savings or improvement have been demonstrated here.
What you bring, get and decide
Your context in. A working review out.
Start with an overview. Go deeper once your team has chosen a workflow.
| You bring | The skill helps draft | Your team decides |
|---|---|---|
| Offers, audiences and rough notes | An overview of who you serve, what they need and how the work connects. | Which workflow to examine first. |
| One recent example of that work | A provisional map of steps, handoffs, waiting and missing evidence. | Whether the map matches reality and what needs checking. |
| Evidence and practical constraints | Improvement options and a pilot outline with a measure and review date. | What to test, who owns it and when to review the result. |
No workflow chosen yet? The review stops at the overview and helps you make that choice.
What is value stream mapping?
It follows a customer need through to a finished result, including the work, waiting, handoffs and rework along the way. You map what happens today, then decide what a better flow could look like.
When to use it
Use it before redesigning a service, writing an SOP or choosing automation. It works best when a consultant or team can speak with the people doing the work.
What still needs you
The skill cannot observe your business, prove a bottleneck from incomplete notes or make a clinical decision. It organizes what you provide and keeps unanswered questions visible.
What to bring
- Start with what you know
- A rough description, meeting notes or a redacted example. Name who benefits and what a finished result looks like.
- Bring in the people doing the work
- They can explain the exceptions, correct the map and help check the timings. A consultant can facilitate; a team can use the same questions on its own.
- No prerequisite skills
- Existing process notes and timestamps help, but you can start without them. Missing evidence becomes something to collect, not a number for AI to guess.
Use material your organization permits you to share with the AI service. Keep personal records and confidential client details out of public examples.
See the five review steps
If an organization has several offers, map the audiences and outcomes first. Keep the workflows separate. The team chooses one before the review goes deeper.
Understand the offers
Who receives the benefit? Who pays or funds it? What must remain true about access, quality and human support?
Follow one piece of work
Once a stream is chosen, trace a recent example from start to finish. Capture the information, handoffs, active work, waiting and repeated work.
Check the picture with the team
Label what was observed, what someone reported and what is still unknown. Ask the people involved to correct the map.
Choose an improvement to test
Compare options against the whole customer journey. Removing a step or changing a handoff might help more than new software.
Return to what happened
Agree an owner, a measure and a review date. Check the result and the effect on other people before changing the routine.
Installation & files
The complete kit includes the chat starter, editable Markdown worksheets, installation instructions and the reusable skill. Keep your client notes in a separate file.
Read the skill before installing- Complete review kitZIP
Unzip this first. Start with START-HERE.md, then choose chat or skill setup.
- Chat starterMarkdown
The full method and templates in one file. Attach it to a chat, or paste its contents.
- Editable worksheetsMarkdown
Offers, workflow, evidence, current/pilot/ideal comparison and an improvement experiment.
- Claude / Codex skillZIP
For reusable installation. Instructions and templates only; no scripts or account connections.
Choose your setup
ChatGPT or Claude · no installation
Attach START-HERE.md to a new chat and add your redacted context. If file upload is unavailable, paste the contents. This guides that conversation; it does not install a persistent skill.
Use the attached Value Stream Mapping guide. Read my context and ask the first questions. Keep separate workflows high-level until we choose one.
Claude · reusable skill
Upload the smaller skill ZIP in Customize → Skills and enable it. Code execution and file creation must be enabled; organization policies may control access.
Use the value-stream-mapping skill. Here is the context for our review…
Claude Code · project skill
Unzip the skill and copy its whole folder into your project’s .claude/skills directory. Keep its resource files and licence. Open a new project session.
.claude/skills/value-stream-mapping/SKILL.md/value-stream-mapping
Codex · project skill
Unzip the skill and copy its whole folder into your project’s .agents/skills directory. Keep its resource files and licence. Start a new session in that project.
.agents/skills/value-stream-mapping/SKILL.mdUse $value-stream-mapping to review this workflow with me.
Expect questions that use your context. If the AI invents the process or chooses a platform before understanding the work, ask it to return to the unanswered questions.
Full installation instructions and troubleshooting