You understand the value of process mining—it gives you visibility into real process behavior, reveals inefficiencies, and helps identify opportunities for improvement or automation. But here’s the catch: you can’t do it alone.
Most process engineers, analysts, and data scientists don’t have the authority to greenlight a new initiative like process mining. What you can do is spark curiosity and build a compelling case. The first step? You need your manager to sign off on your initiative to start with process mining. Let’s formulate some question to ask your manager to raise awareness. Here are three strategic questions you can bring to your manager to initiate a productive conversation about the potential of process mining.
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“Do we have full visibility into how our processes actually run—versus how they’re designed to run?”
This question plants a powerful seed. Most organizations believe they understand their processes because they’ve documented them. But process mining shows that real-world execution often tells a very different story. It highlights the common disconnect between process design and process reality. While most organizations have documented procedures, they rarely reflect how work actually gets done on the ground—especially in complex environments where systems, departments, or geographies interact.
💡 Why it works: It highlights a gap between perception and reality, opening the door to a conversation about hidden inefficiencies, workarounds, or non-compliance that might be going unnoticed.
Process mining provides a data-driven reality check, using system event logs to show the actual flow of activities. By asking this question, you're inviting leadership to consider: Are we really managing our processes, or just assuming we are?
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“How do we currently measure the impact and total cost of our process inefficiencies?”
Inefficiencies aren’t always visible—and they’re rarely free. Whether it’s delays, rework, or manual handoffs, these inefficiencies quietly erode performance. Managers are usually focused on increasing performance, lowering cost, improving speed and quality, and increasing customer satisfaction. But not all process problems are visible.
💡 Why it works: This question introduces the idea that the business could be losing money or missing targets due to unseen issues—and that process mining could help quantify and address them.
Process mining helps quantify these inefficiencies using objective data. This question reframes process mining not as a “nice-to-have,” but as a business-critical enabler for cost reduction and operational excellence. This question encourages a deeper look at the hidden cost of inefficiencies, which often go unnoticed because they’re baked into "how we’ve always done things."
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“How do we measure bottlenecks and process deviations and turn this into improvement initiatives?”
This reframes process mining as a decision-support tool, not just a diagnostic method. It’s not just about identifying problems; it’s about enabling smarter, faster decisions. Most organizations have limited resources for improvement initiatives. This question shifts the conversation toward evidence-based prioritization—how visibility into process behavior can help focus efforts where they matter most.
💡 Why it works: Managers care about prioritization and ROI. This question connects process mining directly to their strategic goals—improvement with evidence.
With process mining, you can visualize the impact of changes in real time, making improvement initiatives more targeted, measurable, and faster to implement. This question links process mining directly to strategic decision-making.
Bringing It All Together
Your goal isn’t to pitch a full-blown transformation—it’s to open a door. These questions are designed to do just that: raise awareness, create curiosity, and pave the way for a low-risk, high-impact pilot project. Once your manager starts asking, “Can we actually do this?”, you’re on your way.
Want to strengthen your case even further? Download our whitepaper How Process Mining and Business Analytics Unlock Consistent ROI for CI Initiatives and show the proven impact behind your proposal.