# How to pick your first automation project: a four-question filter

URL: https://mechaneforge.tech/blog/how-to-pick-your-first-automation-project/
Published: 2026-10-15
By: Mechane Forge

> Pick a first automation that is frequent, has clear rules, uses data you can already access, and is cheap to get wrong. Score each candidate from 0 to 2 on those four questions. Anything scoring seven or eight is a strong first project. Lead intake, invoice capture and support triage usually qualify.

The first automation sets the tone for everything that follows. Pick a flashy, ambiguous process and the project drags on, people lose faith and the budget disappears. Pick a boring, frequent, well-understood one and you get a quick win and a team that asks for more.


## What are the four questions to ask?

1. Is it frequent? A task done a few times a year will never repay the effort. Look for work that happens daily or weekly.
2. Are the rules clear? If two experienced people would handle the same case differently, automate later. If they would handle it the same way, automate now.
3. Is the data accessible? The inputs should already live in systems with an API, an export or a predictable email format.
4. Is a mistake cheap? Start where an error is easily caught and reversed. Keep money movement and legal commitments behind a human approval.


## How do you score candidate processes?

List five to ten candidate processes and score each question from 0 to 2. Anything scoring seven or eight is a strong first project. Anything below five should wait.

| Candidate | Frequent | Clear rules | Data ready | Cheap mistakes | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Routing new enquiries | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
| Chasing overdue invoices | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Drafting contract clauses | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |


## Which first projects usually work?

- Lead and enquiry intake: classify, enrich, route and draft a reply.
- Invoice and document capture: extract fields, match against purchase orders, post to accounting.
- Support triage: detect intent and urgency, suggest an answer, assign to the right person.
- Report assembly: pull numbers from several tools into one weekly summary.


## What happens when automation cannot handle a case?

No automation handles every case. Decide up front what happens when it cannot: route to a person, with the context attached. The exception path is where trust is won or lost.

Want a second opinion on your shortlist? Try our [automation readiness check](https://mechaneforge.tech/tools/readiness) or [get in touch](https://mechaneforge.tech/contact).