SOPs & Process Docs

The reason most SOPs don't get used is that they're harder to follow than figuring it out from scratch. Either they're so vague they're useless ("handle client inquiries professionally") or so rigid they break the moment something updates ("click the third button from the left on page 4"). Good SOPs live in the middle — specific enough to execute, flexible enough to survive change. Written for a smart person who's never done this before, not for an expert and not for an idiot.

The extraction is where most documentation fails, because the person who knows the process can't articulate it cleanly — the steps have become automatic and feel obvious. The skill works through a structured interview in three phases. Phase one identifies the process: name it specifically, define the audience, find the trigger, define the end state. Phase two walks through the work: narrate the process as if doing it right now, surface every decision point, list every tool, name where it usually goes wrong, capture the tribal knowledge ("what do you wish you'd known the first time"). Phase three covers context: frequency and exceptions.

The output structure is fixed. Header block with version, owner, audience, trigger, end state, estimated time, tools needed. Numbered steps with one action per step. If/then decision blocks for branches. Inline warning and tip callouts for non-obvious knowledge. Section checklists because people skip steps and checklists catch the skips. An exception table for the known weird cases. Linked resources for every template and tool mentioned. Revision history so the doc doesn't quietly become fiction.

You get the SOP in your preferred format — Notion structure, Google Doc, markdown, plain checklist for simple linear processes, or a video script outline if the work is genuinely better shown than written. The complexity guide matches detail level to process type: a 5-step weekly task gets a checklist, a 20-step client onboarding gets full SOP with branches, an annual audit prep gets maximum detail because nobody remembers it from last year. And every output ends with the same instruction — have someone follow it without your help. Every question they ask is a gap in the doc.