10 Questions to Ask When You Design or Redesign a Process

Toni owned a successful commercial insurance brokerage focused on serving clients with 250–500 employees. She was the lead salesperson for her firm, supported by a reliable team. Recognizing that anything that freed up more time for sales would drive growth, Toni launched “Project Toni” — a dedicated, company-wide initiative to incrementally remove herself from the renewal process.

Renewal processes were core to the business, but they consumed months of Toni’s time each year. Her goal? Systematize and streamline renewals so thoroughly that her team could handle them independently — without sacrificing quality.

Toni knew that for her team to take over confidently, she’d need to refine and upgrade the company’s internal systems — building structure and safeguards that ensured nothing slipped through the cracks.

Here are 10 questions to help you redesign and upgrade your internal systems:

1. How can we reduce the steps in this process?
2. How can we combine steps to make it simpler to follow?
3. Can we repurpose an existing system or tool to save time or improve results?
4. How can we speed up this process or any of its steps?
5. How can we automate this process (or any part of it)?
6. How can we semi-automate this process (or any part of it)?
7. How can we template this process (or any part of it)?
8. How can we lower the cost of doing this process without reducing the value of the output?
9. What small changes can we make to increase the value of the output?
10. Who else in the world has a similar process or tool we can learn from?

Whether you’re stepping out of a core role or simply refining operations, asking these questions can help uncover efficiencies, improve quality, and build scalable systems that free up your time for high-impact work.