How it works

Follow one sentence.

Every figure in Portal starts as something a person said. Here is one sentence from a cold store clerk, followed all the way from the clerk’s mouth to a measured result.

A pork plant with a trading desk in Lleida. 24 people. It buys carcasses from four plants, bones them and sells the cuts to Italy and France.

An example company. The figures are illustrative.

1Said07:40
It starts with what a person says.
Between two trucks, the clerk at the cold store writes one sentence about booking pallets in. No form to fill in, no workshop, nobody with a clipboard. Just how the work is done, in the clerk’s own words.
Everything that follows on this page comes from that sentence and the few answers after it.
Every pallet that comes in, I check the temperature log, write the number on the sheet and type it into Excel at the end of the day.
Cold store clerk, 07:40
2Asked
Claude asks what the map needs, and no more.
At most four short questions, each one after a number or a thing that goes wrong. Here three were enough: how many, how long, what goes wrong. The answers stay in the clerk’s words.
The conversation is the clerk’s alone. Colleagues and managers never read the chat. They see only what changed on the map.
Every pallet that comes in, I check the temperature log, write the number on the sheet and type it into Excel at the end of the day.
Cold store clerk, 07:40
ClaudeHow many pallets on a normal day?
Forty. Sixty on Mondays.
ClaudeHow long for one, the checking and the typing together?
Two minutes at the dock, one more for the typing.
ClaudeWhat goes wrong?
Numbers get swapped. We only find out at the stock count.
This conversation is the clerk’s alone. Others see only what changed on the map.
3Lifted
The clerk’s own phrases lift out.
Portal does not paraphrase. The words that name a record, a step or a problem are taken exactly as they were said: temperature log, type it into Excel, numbers get swapped, at the stock count.
Anyone reading the map later can follow a step back to the sentence it came from.
Every pallet that comes in, I check the temperature log, write the number on the sheet and type it into Excel at the end of the day.
Cold store clerk, 07:40
ClaudeWhat goes wrong?
Numbers get swapped. We only find out at the stock count.
- “temperature log”a record
- “type it into Excel”a step and a system
- “numbers get swapped”what goes wrong
- “at the stock count”where it shows
4Mapped
The map changes, and every figure says where it came from.
On Booking in, Check the pallet gets its time. A step nobody had written down, Type pallets into Excel, appears. The swapped numbers are pinned to it as what goes wrong.
Each figure carries its source. The clerk said forty pallets, and last month’s delivery notes, counted, agree. The working days are a guess, and look like one until someone checks.
Cold storeBooking in
Receive the trucknot timed yet
Check the pallet2 minsaid“temperature log”
Type pallets into Excelnew1 minsaid“type it into Excel”Goes wrong“numbers get swapped”“at the stock count”
Pallets on a normal daylast month’s delivery notes
40counted
On Mondays
60said
Working days a year
~305a guess
Every figure says where it came from
said
counted
measured
a guess
5Added up
Three minutes a pallet is about 610 hours a year.
40 pallets, 3 minutes each, about 305 working days. Small times on many pallets become a figure an owner can weigh against a price.
The work bar shows who does those hours today: people by hand, people with tools, and tools on their own. Here tools do 12% of the work.
40pallets ×3 min×~305days
about610hours a year
a guess The working days are still a guess, so the total says “about”.
Who does those hours today
Today 19 MarchTools 12%
After a week of corrections.
- Tools
- People with tools
- People by hand
6Ranked
The idea goes where its hours put it.
The cold store clerk suggests an idea: scan pallets at the dock. Portal links it to the two steps it would change, Check the pallet and Type pallets into Excel, and works out what it gives back: about 430 hours a year, for 6 developer-days of work.
Against every other idea in the company, it ranks first. Not because it is the most exciting, but because of the hours.
Idea recorded
Scan pallets at the dock
Changes Check the pallet and Type pallets into Excel. 430 h a year back, 6 d of work.
1. Every idea in the companyA year backEffort
2. 1Scan pallets at the dockHours a year back: 430 hEffort in developer-days: 6 d
3. 2Carrier quotes in one messageHours a year back: 300 hEffort in developer-days: 9 d
4. 3Invoice straight from the CMRHours a year back: 260 hEffort in developer-days: 12 d
5. 4Cutting plan from open ordersHours a year back: 210 hEffort in developer-days: 20 d (a guess)
6. 5Stock count on a phoneHours a year back: 150 hEffort in developer-days: 10 d (a guess)
7. 6Price list from stockHours a year back: 120 hEffort in developer-days: 8 d
8. 7Certificates checklistHours a year back: 90 hEffort in developer-days: 3 d
9. 8Credit cover alertHours a year back: 40 hEffort in developer-days: 2 d
7Shipped and measured
When it ships, the same steps are measured again.
The work bar on its dates: before, today, with planned ideas, then shipped and measured. Planned hours are brass. They turn green only when the steps have been timed again after the change, not when someone says it worked.
The work stays. 430 of its 610 hours a year are now done by a scanner instead of a person with a pen.
Before 12 MarchTools 8%
The first draft, as the clerk described it.
Today 19 MarchTools 12%
After a week of corrections.
With planned ideas 2 AprilPlanned 70%
Scan pallets at the dock: 430 of the 610 hours would move to tools.
Shipped and measured 18 SeptemberTools 82%
The same steps, timed again after the change.
- Tools
- Planned
- People with tools
- People by hand

Every pallet that comes in, I check the temperature log, write the number on the sheet and type it into Excel at the end of the day.

Cold store clerk, 07:40

ClaudeHow many pallets on a normal day?: Forty. Sixty on Mondays.
ClaudeHow long for one, the checking and the typing together?: Two minutes at the dock, one more for the typing.
ClaudeWhat goes wrong?: Numbers get swapped. We only find out at the stock count.

This conversation is the clerk’s alone. Others see only what changed on the map.

Cold storeBooking in

Receive the trucknot timed yet
Check the pallet2 minsaid“temperature log”a record
Type pallets into Excelnew1 minsaid“type it into Excel”a step and a systemGoes wrong“numbers get swapped”what goes wrong“at the stock count”where it shows

Pallets on a normal daylast month’s delivery notes: 40counted
On Mondays: 60said
Working days a year: ~305a guess

Every figure says where it came from

said
counted
measured
a guess

40pallets ×3 min×~305days

about610hours a year

Today 19 MarchTools 12%

After a week of corrections.

Tools
People with tools
People by hand

Idea recorded

Scan pallets at the dock

Changes Check the pallet and Type pallets into Excel. 430 h a year back, 6 d of work.

Every idea in the companyA year backEffort
1Scan pallets at the dockHours a year back: 430 hEffort in developer-days: 6 d
2Carrier quotes in one messageHours a year back: 300 hEffort in developer-days: 9 d
3Invoice straight from the CMRHours a year back: 260 hEffort in developer-days: 12 d
4Cutting plan from open ordersHours a year back: 210 hEffort in developer-days: 20 d (a guess)
5Stock count on a phoneHours a year back: 150 hEffort in developer-days: 10 d (a guess)
6Price list from stockHours a year back: 120 hEffort in developer-days: 8 d
7Certificates checklistHours a year back: 90 hEffort in developer-days: 3 d
8Credit cover alertHours a year back: 40 hEffort in developer-days: 2 d

Before 12 MarchTools 8%

The first draft, as the clerk described it.

With planned ideas 2 AprilPlanned 70%

Scan pallets at the dock: 430 of the 610 hours would move to tools.

Shipped and measured 18 SeptemberTools 82%

The same steps, timed again after the change.

Tools
Planned
People with tools
People by hand

Said
Asked
Lifted
Mapped
Added up
Ranked
Shipped and measured

01 — Your first month

From one call to the first decision.

The sentence above is one of hundreds. This is how they gather into a map of the whole company, and what you can do with it once they have.

Day one
One call becomes a draft.
You tell us what the company does, in your own words. By the evening there is a first draft of the map: 6 areas, 15 processes, every one marked as a draft until someone who does the work has looked at it.
1. Buying
2. Boning room
3. Cold store
4. Sales
5. Transport and papers
6. Finance
6 areas · 15 processes · all marked as a draft
Week one
People correct it in their own words.
Each person gets a link to the part of the map they know. They say what is wrong, what is missing and how long things take. Five minutes each, between other work. The draft firms up a step at a time.
Check the palletnot timed yet
Two minutes at the dock.
Check the pallet2 min said
A correction, in the clerk’s words, becomes a time with a source.
Weeks two to four
One shared truth.
Who does what, which systems each step touches, where the hours go, and which steps only one person knows how to do. For the first time the company can see itself, and argue with the same page.
“Only one of us knows the credit limits.”
Check credit coveronly one person knows this step
The map shows where the company depends on one head.
Month one
The first decision.
A ranked list of what to build next, by the hours a year each idea gives back, with the effort beside it. You choose what to fund knowing what it returns, and how you will check.
1. IdeaA year backEffort
2. 1Scan pallets at the dockHours a year back: 430 hEffort in developer-days: 6 d
3. 2Carrier quotes in one messageHours a year back: 300 hEffort in developer-days: 9 d
4. 3Invoice straight from the CMRHours a year back: 260 hEffort in developer-days: 12 d
Every day after
Ask it from Claude.
The map stays current because people keep correcting it. Anyone with access can ask it a question in plain words and get an answer that says where each figure came from.
If we did one thing in the cold store this year, what should it be?
Owner, on a Tuesday
Claude, from the map
Scan pallets at the dock. Booking in takes about 610 hours a year of people’s time, and this idea would give back about 430 of them for around 6 developer-days. It is first on the Roadmap.
It changes two steps. Check the pallet becomes a scan, and Type pallets into Excel goes, along with the swapped numbers the clerk says you only find at the stock count.
The two and one minute times were said by the clerk. The forty pallets a day are counted from last month’s delivery notes. The 305 working days are still a guess.

02 — What it asks of your people

Five minutes, in their own words.

Nobody learns a notation or sits through a workshop. People say how their part of the work is done, the way they would tell a new colleague.

1Typed
a few lines in a box, between two trucks
Every pallet that comes in, I check the temperature log, write the number on the sheet and type it into Excel at the end of the day.
Cold store clerk, 07:40
2Pasted from a call
a transcript from a call you were having anyway
Carrier quotes come by phone, email and WhatsApp.
Transport, from a call
3Spoken
a voice note on the way in
The cutting plan is on the whiteboard by six.
Boning room foreman, a voice note

5minutes a person, at a moment that suits the work, not a day out of it.

What they say stays theirs: others see the step that changed, never the conversation. And what they say is shown as said, until a count or a measurement backs it up.

It starts with one call.

Tell us what your company does. The call becomes the first draft of your map, usually the same day.

Start with one call

One sentence, in seven stations

It starts with what a person says.

Claude asks what the map needs, and no more.

The clerk’s own phrases lift out.

The map changes, and every figure says where it came from.

Three minutes a pallet is about 610 hours a year.

The idea goes where its hours put it.

When it ships, the same steps are measured again.

One call becomes a draft.

People correct it in their own words.

One shared truth.

The first decision.

Ask it from Claude.

It starts with one call.