[Template] Process Refactor Toolkit

Your Workflow / Process Refactor Toolkit

As I share my story about process drift, how growing teams end up with a patchwork of rituals that no longer serve them, I’m sharing a set of templates and tools you can use to audit, redesign, and refactor your team’s rituals before they become blockers.

Why Process Templates Matter

Process problems are invisible until they're not. During busy periods, teams work around broken workflows and adapt to inefficient rituals. But during peacetime, you feel the true cost: onboarding takes longer, cross-team collaboration creates friction, and simple questions like "how do we review work?" become complicated.

These templates solve three core challenges:

1. Making the invisible visible - Most teams can't improve processes they haven't clearly mapped

2. Creating systematic change - Random process tweaks often make things worse, not better

3. Building team ownership - The best process changes come from teams designing their own improvements

The difference between teams that evolve their processes thoughtfully and teams that just accumulate process debt? Having structured approaches to workflow redesign.

That's why I've created a set of practical templates to help you audit, redesign, and improve your team's working methods during these precious calm periods.

These are yours to use, adapt, and share with your team:

1. Critique Redesign Worksheet

👉 Access the Google Doc

Critiques are the most common practice for the design team. Here is a structured guide for redesigning design critique sessions.

How to use it:

• Print or duplicate the worksheet and bring it to your next critique.

• Have presenters define 2–3 specific questions they want answered.

• Use the What / Why / How feedback format to keep input focused.

• Close each item with clear decisions (recorded live in the doc).

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2. Process Refactor Canvas

👉 Download the canvas (PDF)

A workshop-ready canvas to help teams systematically map and improve processes.

How to use it:

• Gather your team for a 90–120 minute workshop.

• Map the Current State in the top left (who does what, with what tools).

• Move to Pain Points in the top right—everyone adds sticky notes.

• Define Success Criteria in the center (“what good looks like”).

• Use the bottom half to design small experiments and an implementation plan.

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3. DesignOps Maintenance Audit Checklist

👉 Access the checklist (Google Doc)

A comprehensive checklist from the first post in this series. Includes a section specifically for workflow and ritual assessment, perfect for identifying which processes need refactoring.

How to use it:

• Run the audit quarterly (ideally during slower periods).

• Flag workflows where answers aren’t clear or consistent.

• Prioritize these for deeper work using the Process Refactor Canvas.

4. Team Ritual Audit App.

For teams who want to go further, I am working on the Team Ritual Audit App. It is a lightweight tool for tracking the health of your rituals across:

• Meetings (agenda clarity, time use, right people in the room)

• Decision-Making (ownership, conflict resolution, stability)

• Handoffs (criteria, completeness, preventing rework)

• Adaptability (pivot speed, resilience, communication)

Run it quarterly to spot drift and keep your team aligned.

Why This Matters

Most teams don’t fail because of talent. They fail because of misaligned or stale processes.

• These templates give you a starting point.

• The paid content (step-by-step guides + app walkthrough) shows you how to make them stick.