Before You Fix the Process, Find the Friction

When a project stalls or a process breaks down, most teams go into reaction mode.

They add a new tool. They schedule another meeting. They try to fix symptoms without understanding the system.

But sustainable improvement comes from diagnosing what’s really going wrong, not just patching the visible problem.

At Willow + Form Co., we use structured discovery sessions to trace operational friction to its source.

What Is Discovery

Discovery is not a brainstorm or an audit. It’s a structured review of how work actually gets done across tools, people, and processes. We look at workflows, decision paths, tech tools, and communications to identify where things stall, duplicate, or get dropped.

We’re not here to point fingers. We’re here to ask questions.

The Root Cause Mindset

Root cause analysis is essential to building better systems. As Harvard Business Review points out in Are You Solving the Right Problems?, leaders often focus on what’s easy to measure instead of what actually drives improvement. In operations, that might mean addressing a missed launch by adding project tracking, when the real issue is unclear ownership or missing SOPs. Often, the issue isn’t the people or even the tools. It’s the system.

As quality management pioneer W. Edwards Deming put it, “A bad system will beat a good person every time.”

We work with clients to identify:

• Where workflows diverge from expectations

• Who is making decisions, and how

• What tools are creating confusion instead of clarity

• How documentation is (or isn’t) being used

Turning Discovery into Action

Once the true landscape is mapped, we co-create the systems that support better execution. That often includes:

• SOPs and playbooks

• SharePoint, Notion, or Airtable workspaces

• Project workflows designed around actual capacity

• Launch calendars and project dashboards

• Intake and prioritization tools that prevent chaos from spreading

• Templates and trackers built to support how your team thinks and works

Everything we build is rooted in what your team actually needs—not what the software default suggests.

If It Feels Hard, It Might Be the System

Even great teams can’t thrive in broken systems. If you’re experiencing slowdowns, misalignment, or duplicated work, there’s likely friction worth finding.

Sources

Harvard Business Review: Are You Solving the Right Problems?

W. Edwards Deming: Deming Quotes