The document discusses balancing automation and human interactions in IT service management. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of both human agents and automation for various ITSM tasks like ticket management and customer support. While automation can improve scale, consistency and availability, it lacks empathy and critical thinking. Conversely, human agents are better at tasks requiring empathy, creativity and insight gathering but do not scale as effectively. The document advocates for striking a balance between automation and human agents to leverage the strengths of both, and provides suggestions for how to thoughtfully approach automation.

1. I, Robot. I, Human.
How to Balance Automation and Human Interactions in ITSM
PAWEL MAZUR | PRODUCT MANAGER | SPARTEZ
MARIA HEIJ | SUPPORT & TEST MANAGER | REFINED | @MARIAHEIJ

2. Bond, Anna Bond
9am - 5pm
Likes challenges
Hates follow ups
VPN & Wifi
Easy answers
Knows by heart
Responds quickly
Drive Recovery
Fun challenges
Hands-on work
Variation
Follow ups
Still need help?
Boring task
Does not bring joy
Meet Service Desk Agent: Anna

3. SWOT
Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats

4. Build trust
Insight gathering
Creative solutions
Context
Pivoting based on
emotions
Manual follow up
Scales linearly
Missed deadlines
Limited to working
hours
Learning by doing
Easy to adapt
Read between lines
Identify quick wins
Can turn a frown
upside down
Single person
dependency
Receiver
misinterpretation
Clashing
Humans
S W O T

5. Build trust
Insight gathering
Creative solutions
Context
Pivoting based on
emotions
Manual follow up
Scales linearly
Missed deadlines
Limited to working
hours
Learning by doing
Easy to adapt
Read between lines
Identify quick wins
Can turn a frown
upside down
Single person
dependency
Receiver
misinterpretation
Clashing
Humans
S W O T

6. Build trust
Insight gathering
Creative solutions
Context
Pivoting based on
emotions
Manual follow up
Scales linearly
Missed deadlines
Limited to working
hours
Learning by doing
Easy to adapt
Read between lines
Identify quick wins
Can turn a frown
upside down
Single person
dependency
Receiver
misinterpretation
Clashing
Humans
S W O T

7. Build trust
Insight gathering
Creative solutions
Context
Pivoting based on
emotions
Manual follow up
Scales linearly
Missed deadlines
Limited to working
hours
Learning by doing
Easy to adapt
Read between lines
Identify quick wins
Can turn a frown
upside down
Single person
dependency
Receiver
misinterpretation
Clashing
Humans
S W O T

8. Ticket management
Repetitive tasks
Does as you specify
Mass reach
Consistency
Needs to be set up
Lack of empathy
Legacy at day one
Lacks critical thinking
Misinterpretation
Scale, scale, scale!
Gathering data
Automatic
categorization
24/7 availability
Frees up other
resources
System outage
Complex
configuration
Mistakes are
multiplied
Small errors
Automation
S W O T

9. Ticket management
Repetitive task
Does as you specify
Mass reach
Consistency
Needs to be set up
Lack of empathy
Legacy at day one
Lacks critical thinking
Misinterpretation
Scale, scale, scale!
Gathering data
Automatic
categorization
24/7 availability
Frees up other
resources
System outage
Complex
configuration
Mistakes are
multiplied
Small errors
Automation
S W O T

10. Ticket management
Repetitive task
Does as you specify
Mass reach
Consistency
Needs to be set up
Lack of empathy
Legacy at day one
Lacks critical thinking
Misinterpretation
Scale, scale, scale!
Gathering data
Automatic
categorization
24/7 availability
Frees up other
resources
System outage
Complex
configuration
Mistakes are
multiplied
Small errors
Automation
S W O T

11. Ticket management
Repetitive task
Does as you specify
Mass reach
Consistency
Needs to be set up
Lack of empathy
Legacy at day one
Lacks critical thinking
Misinterpretation
Scale, scale, scale!
Gathering data
Automatic
categorization
24/7 availability
Frees up other
resources
System outage
Complex
configuration
Mistakes are
multiplied
Small errors
Automation
S W O T

12. First impressions of
your support
First few minutes of customer contact
are crucial. They can dictate if you are
successful or not.

13. S
W
O
T
S
W
O
T
HUMAN AUTOMATION
Quality
Time
Resolution
Missing it
Timely
Unresolved
Scaling
FSOS

14. Unsatisfied customers
Automation maintenance
Configuration complexity
Lack of feedback
Data is not trustworthy
Missed customer follow ups
Inefficient use of resources
Bored support agents
Breached SLAs
Bloated support teams
NOT ENOUGH
AUTOMATION
TOO MUCH
AUTOMATION

15. Approaching Automation
What to consider when automating

16. Approaching
Automation
Try out
Avoid
Keep in mind
Identify problem areas
Start small, then scale
Document and continuously test automated
processes

17. Try out
Avoid
Keep in mind
Wasted potential of your team
“The automation works - don’t touch it"
approach
Approaching
Automation

18. Try out
Avoid
Keep in mind
Resolving automation vs. human error
Automation setup & maintenance
Missing out on customer insight
Approaching
Automation

19. Use the
power of
your agents

20. KB
Shape usage
Please only use circles, rectangles, and
rounded rectangles to call attention to a
particular part of a screenshot, for the
sake of consistency.
Anna’s
Solution
On demand
Partly
automated
Follow up
automation

21. Shape usage
Please only use circles, rectangles, and
rounded rectangles to call attention to a
particular part of a screenshot, for the
sake of consistency.
Anna’s
Solution
KB
On demand
Partly
automated
Follow up
automation

22. Shape usage
Please only use circles, rectangles, and
rounded rectangles to call attention to a
particular part of a screenshot, for the
sake of consistency.
Anna’s
Solution
KB
On demand
Partly
automated
Follow up
automation

23. KB
On demand
Partly
automated
Follow up
automation
Shape usage
Please only use circles, rectangles, and
rounded rectangles to call attention to a
particular part of a screenshot, for the
sake of consistency.
Anna’s
Solution

24. Strike a
balance
There is no silver bullet
Your team is your greatest
asset
One size fits all

25. Thank you!
PAWEL MAZUR | PRODUCT MANAGER | SPARTEZ
MARIA HEIJ | SUPPORT & TEST MANAGER | REFINED | @MARIAHEIJ