Ask HN:How do you audit your team's 'black box' workflows?
Hi HN,
I'm obsessed with a problem in many high-stakes industries (insurance, fintech, logistics): the core operational work is a complete 'black box'.
Take insurance claims as a prime example. Right now, managers can see the outcome (a claim was paid $5,000), but they have zero visibility into how the adjuster arrived at that number. This lack of a "flight recorder" creates massive, tangible problems:
Financial Leaks: Small, repeated errors in how adjusters apply policy rules inside the software can lead to millions in overpayments.
Efficiency Gaps: The best adjusters might be 2x faster than average, but it's impossible to capture their specific techniques to train the rest of the team.
Compliance Nightmares: During an audit, you can't prove the standard operating procedure was followed click-by-click.
This seems like a huge, unsolved operational risk that is being managed mostly by spreadsheets and hope.
So, for managers in operations, compliance, or QA:
How do you get visibility into these critical digital workflows right now?
When a costly error is found, how do you perform a post-mortem to prevent it from happening again?
Are you just resigned to managing by the final numbers and not knowing how the work actually gets done?
I'd be fascinated to hear any stories or frustrations.