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In a quiet, sunlit office, Charles Bohannan, our newly appointed Editor in Chief for handling our blog with the Promptmater community writers, settled into a discussion with Dave.
The meeting had sprawled over several topics concerning our ambitious project, but there was one portion deemed particularly enlightening to send to you in this email.
The focus was on refining our publishing process, specifically automating the content transfer from Notion to Webflow, promising a sleeker, more efficient workflow.
Charles leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled, a thoughtful look crossing his features. Across from him, Dave Talas adjusted his glasses, his laptop open to a complex flowchart. The air was charged with the potential of ideas not yet fully formed.
Charles: "By the way, I'm actually transitioning from prompt engineering to automation. Could you give me an example of a great automation?"
Dave: "Are we talking about this specific use case or just in general?"
Charles: "Start general, then we can pivot to a specific use case. I jotted something down here. Can we make an automation for what we're doing right now?"
Dave chuckled, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Funny you should ask. I'm actually in the middle of recording this part of the course. Are you familiar with the Make platform?"
Charles: "I've been following your course on it."
Dave nodded, clicking through to another screen. "Okay, in that case, let's dive into an example. I’m going to mess around in my playground here. Imagine an automation that watches database items in Notion. We can connect to whatever Notion database we're using.
Whenever there’s a new item in the Notion Database, it could create a new item for a Webflow collection, say, the Promptmaster Blog, and here’s where it gets interesting.
This automation could push information from a Notion database to an unpublished blog post. You'd map the title, the text, all the essential elements."
Charles: "So, in the Notion database, each column or row could represent all the text, right?"
Dave: "Exactly. If the text needs to be drafted, it drafts. Imagine drafting your blog post in plain text, inputting it into Notion, and as soon as you do, it publishes it as a draft."
Charles: "I see, I see. And stepping back, how do you approach creating these automations? Are you thinking, 'I have this cumbersome business process I want to streamline?'"
Dave: "Precisely. One key question I always ask is whether the task is even worth automating. Is it repetitive, or just a one-off? If it's repetitive, that's a candidate for automation. If it's a one-off but involves heavy data processing, maybe a script that runs once could handle it."
Charles: "What am I doing repetitively, right?"
Dave: "Yes, and consider this: an automation doesn’t necessarily need AI. Take for example an automation that uploads every file from incoming emails to a Google Drive folder if the email contains the word 'invoice'. It’s simple yet effective. It runs daily, automatically uploading invoices for the accounting team."
Charles: "I see. That's basically paperless automation."
Dave: "Exactly. And if there's anything that isn’t an invoice, like a non-PDF file, my next automation will delete it. I haven't gotten to building that part yet, but I will.
Dave: "So when I think about automations, I start by mapping out the steps involved in the process. What’s the input, and what’s the desired output?"
Dave: "For instance, the input could be something as simple as an idea for an Instagram post."
Dave: "The clearer you can articulate the steps involved, the more effectively you can build the automation. This is where adopting a first principles thinking approach and employing the Socratic questioning method really shine. They enable you or your client to dig deep into the process. Ask questions like, ‘Which software do you open first? What do you do next? Why does this information flow in this particular order?’"
Charles: "Mmm."
Dave: "Once you grasp the first principles behind the workflow, you can start to see how to automate it. In every company there are multiple departments and within each department, there are multiple workflows and within each workflow, there are multiple tasks.
So you need to think about it bottom up. Which tasks can I automate the fastest or where is the lowest hanging fruit that if I automate that then I can save up 10 hours of a person's week?
Imagine if you manage to implement one such automation weekly. By the end of the year, you’ll have developed 52 automations, each performing one task exceptionally well."
As Dave outlined the strategic approach to automation, Charles nodded, the implications of such efficiency gains dawning on him. This wasn't just about technology; it was about fundamentally rethinking how work could be done smarter, not harder.
Charles: "I get that. Seriously, what you've said in the last few minutes—though they might not contain buzzwords—are excellent insights for a blog post. You're really making automation sound accessible and practical."
Dave smiled warmly, his eyes reflecting a seasoned wisdom. "Thanks, Charles. I'll send this transcript over, and we can work on turning it into something readable for everyone."
Charles: "That’d be great. And mentioning Socratic questioning—I spent quite some time on that back in the day, sitting around reading Plato and Nietzsche with my peers. It’s amazing how those ancient techniques still apply."
Dave leaned back, nodding appreciatively. "Exactly, Charles. It’s all about the fundamentals, isn’t it?"
As the conversation drew to a close, both men knew they had not only clarified a technical process but also touched on something timeless—the power of asking the right questions.
Dave has since sent the AI-generated transcript into ChatGPT, and written this entire email about it.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Best,
Dave
P.S: Here are a few ways we can help you level up.
#1: Take our new 2024 Prompt Engineering course pre-order and get lifetime access to our community. Pre-order price until April 30th.
#2: Book a consultation and get your questions answered.
#3: Just respond to this email with a question you have and we'll get back to you.
