Field notes
On-site visits
A visit is not a tour of the building. It is several days of sitting where the applications already sit.
The custom page most hosts ask for before they commission work is this one: what actually happens when we arrive. The short answer is that we take the chair you offer, we do not tidy your trays, and we leave a map that the people on the floor have already corrected.
Before the first morning
You receive a one-page note listing who is coming, which application type we will follow, and which closed files we hope to sample. Please circulate it. Fear of inspection makes people hide piles; we are not inspectors, and a hidden pile is a hole in the journey.
If the site is outside greater Hobart we confirm travel the week before. Regional Tasmania often means an early ferry or a long drive; we do not ask your counter to open early on our account.
Arrival
We come at the hour the public already comes, because that is when lodgement behaves like itself. Introductions happen on the floor, not in a glass room. The host names us to the people who stamp and carry. We are shown the tea room, the toilets, and the cabinet whose key lives in a pocket.
What we need access to
- The counter or mail slit where applications enter
- The numbering point and the completeness check, even if those are the same elbow of a desk
- The trays, windowsills, and trolleys where folders rest
- A sample of closed files of the same type, agreed in writing
- Twenty minutes with each person who regularly touches that type, at a time they choose
We do not need network logins. We do not photograph applicant names. If a file is in dispute, it stays in the cabinet.
How long we sit
An Application Journey Audit usually needs several full days in the first fortnight, then shorter appearances while the map is drawn. An intake review may be two or three consecutive days at the counter. We eat when the office eats. We do not hover at closing time unless the late tray is part of the story.
What we leave
A pencil map goes up before we leave the last visit day. Staff correct the arrows. A cleaner copy follows within a week, with the debrief. We take away our pencils and our notes. Originals stay with you.
Mainland and multi-site work
Hobart is home. We visit the rest of Tasmania as a matter of course. Mainland rooms are possible when a host can open the registry and when travel is booked in the quote. We will not map three campuses in a week; the journey of an application is local, and rushing it produces a chart nobody trusts.
When you are ready to put a chair out, write to the practice.