Intellectual Frontiers

Put a Number on What a Change Does to One Unit of Work

The Business Workflow Unit Economics Worksheet

Use this when you need to put a number on what a workflow change does to the cost and value of one unit of work. Worked in “Unit Economics Is Part of the User Experience.”

The Business Workflow Unit Economics Worksheet for one workflow.

Line Before After

Unit of work

Volume per month

Time per unit, by role

Loaded cost per minute, by role

Revenue or value captured per unit

Error rate

Cost per error

Downstream work created per unit, and by whom

Net per unit

Net per month

Fill the “by role” rows with one line per role. Most bad trades show up there: seconds saved for an expensive role, minutes added for a cheaper one, and a net per unit that got worse while the screen got faster.