missionEN

Build your first Workspace Studio flow

Pick one small task you repeat every week, and let a flow do it for you.

Le contexte

BRIEFING

Everybody in the organisation already has Workspace Studio. It is not the most powerful automation tool, and it is not meant to be: it is meant to be easy. That is why we start there.

In this mission you build one flow that is useful to you or to your team, using only Google tools: Gmail, Drive, Sheets, Docs, Calendar, Chat and Gemini. It does not need to go into production. What counts is that you built an automation, that you can explain it, and that you know where it got stuck.

Your flow is the starting point of what comes next. At the next group session, every flow is presented on the same sheet, and the places where they got stuck show us what to build with the other tools.

OBJECTIVES

Mission brief and checklist

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build one working flow in Workspace Studio that saves you or your team time, and to bring its flow sheet to the next group session.

The mission is complete when…

Your flow has run at least once on a real case, not only in a test.
It uses at least one « Check if » step, so the flow decides something instead of just moving things.
A colleague can read it and understand what it does without you explaining it.
Your flow sheet is filled in: starter, data, steps, result, and where it got stuck.

Going further

Share the flow with a colleague who has the same task, and ask them to use it for a week.
Add a Gemini step (« Summarize », « Extract », « Decide » or « Ask Gemini ») so the flow understands the content, not only the sender or the file name.
Write down the step you wanted but could not find. That is often the most useful line of the sheet.

STEPS

The mission is broken down into progressive steps.

1
List three small tasks you do every week that start with an email, a file or a date. Keep the most boring one: that is your flow.
2
Write the flow sheet before you build anything: what starts it, what data it uses, the steps in order, and what you get at the end.
3
In Workspace Studio, create the flow from a blank page, or start from a template and change it until it does your task.
4
Add a « Check if » step where the flow needs to decide (is it from this sender, does it contain a file, is it about this topic).
5
Test it on a real case. Look at the activity log to see each step that ran.
6
Fix what went wrong, then let it run for a few days.
7
Complete your flow sheet, including where it got stuck, and bring it to the next group session.

Le kit prêt à l'emploi

Documentation & Template

Prerequisites

None. You only need access to Workspace Studio with your work account.

Documentation

Workspace Studio guide to starters and steps: https://support.google.com/workspace-studio/table/17176961
Ideas to start with, from the first group session:
- Triage your inbox: label, star or archive emails from a given sender or about a given topic, and notify you only when it matters.
- Save attachments: when an email from a given sender arrives with a file, put the file in the right Drive folder and notify you.
- Log in a sheet: add a row to a Google Sheet for every request, invoice or registration received by email.
- Research an unknown company: when an email arrives from a company you do not know, run a Deep Research on it and send yourself a short summary.
Keep it simple: a flow that others can read is worth more than a clever flow that only you understand.
Third-party apps (Slack, HubSpot and others) depend on what your administrator has enabled. Start with Google tools only.

Template to duplicate / Content to use

Copy this flow sheet into a doc, fill it in, and bring it to the next group session.

CODE

FLOW SHEET
Name of the flow:
Who it is for (me, my team):
Starter (what makes it run):
Data it uses (email, file, sheet, calendar...):
Steps, in order:
  1.
  2.
  3.
Result (what I get at the end):
Time saved per week (estimate):
Where it got stuck (the step I wanted but could not find, the tool it could not reach):