Let’s take that HR onboarding process example and dive deeper into how Business Process Mapping (BPM) helps a Product Manager estimate epics, plan sprints, and manage deliverables.

🧩 WHY BPM Helps in Product Management

BPM helps Product Managers by:

1. Clarifying requirements

2. Breaking down complex workflows into manageable parts

3. Identifying dependencies and bottlenecks early

4. Improving estimation accuracy for epics and user stories

5. Aligning stakeholders and teams visually

📘 EXAMPLE: HR Onboarding Tool (Process Mapping → Epics)

Let’s say you’re building a feature set for HR onboarding in your BPM tool.

🎯 GOAL: Help HR streamline employee onboarding

Here’s the mapped process:

1. New hire fills out welcome forms

2. HR verifies documents

3. IT sets up laptop and software

4. Manager assigns onboarding tasks

5. Employee completes onboarding tasks

6. Feedback loop (HR collects feedback)

📐 HOW THIS TRANSLATES TO EPIC ESTIMATION

🔍 Step 1: Use BPM to Identify Workflows

You map out the process visually (like the chart above) and see each process block as a potential feature or interaction point.

🧱 Step 2: Translate Workflows into Epics

Each of these becomes an epic, which you can then break into user stories and tasks.

📅 HOW IT HELPS IN PLANNING

With the BPM chart:

• You visually prioritize the process blocks that are core vs. nice-to-have.

• You sequence work based on dependencies (e.g., can’t test feedback module until onboarding tasks exist).

• You identify integrations early (e.g., IT automation may need access to external systems).

• You bring clarity to stakeholders, aligning engineering, design, and business.

✅ HOW IT AFFECTS DELIVERABLES

Because BPM gives visual clarity, you can:

• Set clear deliverables per sprint or milestone (e.g., "Sprint 2 = Complete Manager Dashboard").

• Ensure that your deliverables map to real user needs.

• Avoid scope creep—each part of the flow is defined and tracked.

🚀 Real-World Benefit for a PM

Without BPM:

• You might get vague requirements like “automate onboarding”.

• You’re estimating in the dark, missing blockers.

• Features don’t align well with how people actually work.

With BPM:

• You see the process, not just the feature.

• Estimations are more accurate because each block is scoped.

• You plan more confidently and track deliverables with clarity.