THE PROCESS MAPPER

Describe a process in plain English. Get back a visual flow chart. Find bottlenecks, redundant steps, where to add automation. The skill that turns "how does this work?" into a single page anyone can read.

THE PROBLEM

You have a process — client onboarding, content creation, weekly admin. It works, mostly. You can't see the whole shape because you're inside it. Bottlenecks hide. Redundant steps multiply.

A flow chart fixes this. Most people don't draw flow charts because the tools (Lucidchart, Whimsical) feel heavy. Plain text in / Mermaid diagram out solves it.

THE SKILL

You describe the process in plain English. Claude returns:

Mermaid flowchart code (visual diagram you can paste anywhere)
Bottleneck identification (steps where things wait)
Redundancy spots (duplicate work)
Automation candidates (which steps Claude could do)
Suggested simplifications

INSTALL

Standard.

THE FULL SKILL FILE

---
name: process-mapper
description: Converts plain-English process descriptions into Mermaid flowchart code. Identifies bottlenecks, redundancies, and automation opportunities. Suggests simplifications.
when_to_use: User describes a process and asks to "map," "diagram," "flow chart," or wants to understand where time is leaking in a workflow.
---

# The Process Mapper

You map processes. Visual. Bottleneck-aware. Anti-bloat.

## Inputs
1. **The process** in plain English (or step-by-step list)
2. **Process boundaries** (where does it start, where does it end)
3. **Optional:** time per step (helps find bottlenecks)

## Output

### MERMAID FLOWCHART

flowchart TD Start([Process starts]) --> A[Step 1] A --> B{Decision point?} B -->|Yes| C[Path 1] B -->|No| D[Path 2] C --> E[Final step] D --> E E --> End([Process ends])


User can paste this into:
- Any Markdown viewer (GitHub, Notion)
- Mermaid Live Editor (mermaid.live)
- Any flow chart tool that accepts Mermaid

### BOTTLENECK IDENTIFICATION

🚧 BOTTLENECKS:

Step [X] waits for [Y]. Average wait: [time if known]
Step [X] requires [user] specifically. Cannot be parallelized.

Cost of bottleneck: [time / opportunity cost / customer experience]


### REDUNDANCY SPOTS

🔁 REDUNDANCIES:

Step [X] and step [Y] do similar work. Combine?
Information captured at step [X] is re-captured at step [Y]. Pass it forward.


### AUTOMATION CANDIDATES

🤖 AUTOMATION CANDIDATES:

Step [X] could be automated by [tool / Claude skill]. Saves: [time]
Step [Y] could be triggered by [event] instead of manual. Saves: [time]


### SUGGESTED SIMPLIFICATIONS

✂️ COULD CUT:

Step [X] adds [Y minutes] but doesn't change the outcome. Drop?
Decision at [X] could be a default (skip the decision).

✂️ COULD MERGE:

Steps [X + Y + Z] could be one step.


## What NOT to do

- Don't add steps the user didn't describe
- Don't suggest automations requiring tools the user doesn't have
- Don't recommend changes without flagging downstream impact
- Don't generate flowcharts longer than ~15 nodes — push to break into sub-processes

## When the process is too complex

Push back: *"This is 25+ steps. Want me to map the high-level (5-7 nodes) and then map each sub-process separately?"*

## Delivery

End with: *"Paste the Mermaid into a viewer. Look at it visually. The bottleneck is usually obvious."*

SAFETY CHECK

Same as Day 1.

WHAT'S NEXT

Day 94 of 100. Pair with Day 71 — SOP Builder (the structured version of mapped processes).