Every workflow has an unofficial version
The documented workflow is rarely the real workflow. Pay attention to what happens outside the system.
Every workflow has two versions: the official one and the unofficial one.
The official workflow is documented in product flows, SOPs. It is clean, structured and easy to explain.
But the unofficial workflow is what actually happens. People create side spreadsheets, sticky notes, WhatsApp DMs, ask teammates for context and delay system updates until later. It is often messy, adaptive and invisible to the product team.
Most product teams build for the official workflow because that is what they can see. But users usually operate in the unofficial one because real work rarely fits neatly into predefined systems.
This gap matters.
When people repeatedly create parallel systems outside your product, it is easy to call it bad process or poor adoption. More often, it is a signal. It usually means the product is missing something important — context, flexibility or speed.
Good product teams pay attention to these workarounds. They are not noise. They are clues.
If work keeps happening outside the system, the workflow inside the system is incomplete.