PROCESS

Here is How to Build

Design

System

Three kinds of process

Once every process is on the map, the next move is to sort them. Every box is one of three kinds, and one question decides which: who is this process for? A process that serves the customer directly, delivering what the customer pays for, is a core process. A process that serves other processes, keeping them supplied with money, systems, people and information, is a support process. A process that serves the company as a whole, setting where it is going and checking that it gets there, is a management process. The first discipline called these the processes that steer the company; from here on, this book calls them management processes.

The core kind is the narrowest. A company has one core process for each core business it runs, as the Core volume shows: one if its whole business is a single thing it sells, more only if it truly runs more than one business. Everything else on the map is support or management, however large it is and however close to the customer it sits. Most boxes on most maps turn out to be support, and that is not a fault. It is what a company looks like when one or two flows deliver its business and the rest make those flows possible.

Every box gets exactly one kind. A box that seems to be two kinds at once is usually two processes sharing a name, and the map from the previous discipline should split it. Sorting is quick once the question is asked honestly, but it is not a formality. The kind a process is given decides how it is designed, how it is judged and how much attention it receives, so a wrong kind leads to a wrong design.

The highest possible standard is to sort every box on the map into exactly one kind by asking who it is for (the customer, other processes or the company as a whole), to keep the core kind to one process for each core business, and to split any box that seems to be two kinds at once.

Key Takeaway: Every process on the map is one of three kinds, decided by one question: who is it for? Core processes serve the customer directly, delivering what the customer pays for. Support processes serve other processes, supplying money, systems, people and information. Management processes serve the company as a whole, setting direction and checking that it is reached. A company has one core process for each core business, so most boxes are support or management. Every box gets exactly one kind, because the kind decides how it is designed and judged.

Every process is one of three kinds, decided by who it is for: the customer, other processes, or the company as a whole.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · System · Discipline 4: Three Kinds · Section: Three kinds of process

MarvinPro | October 2026

marvinpro.com

Each kind is judged differently

The three kinds are not only labels. Each is designed and judged by a different measure, and confusing the measures is one of the most common ways good processes go wrong. A core process is judged by what the customer receives: whether they get what they paid for, when they expected it, in the shape they were promised. It is designed first and designed around the customer, because everything else on the map exists to make it work.

A support process is judged by how well it serves the processes that rely on it. Its customers are inside the company, and what they need is reliability, timing and a fair cost: payments collected when the core needs them, systems that stay up, people trained before the work arrives. A support process is designed around the needs of the processes it serves. Judge it by customer measures and it chases the wrong goals; judge it by cost alone and it saves money by starving the core.

A management process is judged by whether the company is heading the right way and whether its processes keep their promises. It does not run every day the way the core does. It runs in cycles (a plan each year, a review each quarter, a check when something changes) and it should stay light, setting direction and testing results rather than doing the work itself. A management process that drifts into the daily work of other processes stops managing and starts getting in the way.

The highest possible standard is to design and judge each process by the measure of its kind: the core by what the customer receives, support by how well it serves the processes that rely on it, and management by the direction it sets and the promises it checks, never borrowing one kind's measure for another.

Key Takeaway: Each kind has its own measure. The core is judged by what the customer receives, and is designed first and around the customer. Support is judged by how well it serves the processes that rely on it: reliability, timing and a fair cost. Management is judged by the direction it sets and whether processes keep their promises; it runs in cycles and stays light. Confusing the measures is a common failure: support chasing customer goals, support starving the core to save money, management drifting into daily work.

Judge every process by the measure of its kind: the core by the customer, support by the processes it serves, management by the direction it holds.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · System · Discipline 4: Three Kinds · Section: Each kind is judged differently

MarvinPro | October 2026

marvinpro.com

Kind is a role, not a rank

Calling a process support does not make it less important. A failed payment process stops the core as surely as a broken delivery step; a support process that falters can bring the whole company to a halt. The kind says what a process is for, not how much it matters. Support processes deserve the same care in design as the core. They are designed for a different customer, not with less attention.

Kind is also read from a frame, and on this map the frame is the company. The team that collects payments may well call its process its core, and from where it stands that is true: the relativity this book has met before, where a process that is support from a wider frame is core from a narrower one. Core's discussion of the frame covers that in full. On the company's map, each box is sorted by what it does for the company, whatever its own team calls it.

One more distinction keeps the book's words apart. The kinds say what a process is for; the volumes of the Design domain say at which height it is designed. Core is both a kind and the volume that designs that kind of process. Sub-processes are not a kind at all: they are parts inside a process, and processes of every kind have them. A support process is a whole process with its own box on the map; a sub-process is a part inside one. The two are never the same thing.

The highest possible standard is to treat kind as a role rather than a rank, designing support and management processes with the same care as the core, sorting each box by what it does for the company rather than by what its own team calls it, and keeping the kinds of process clearly apart from the parts inside them.

Key Takeaway: Support is not second place: a failed support process can stop the core, so the kind says what a process is for, not how much it matters. Kind is read from the company's frame; a team may call its own process core, which is true from a narrower frame, but on the company's map each box is sorted by what it does for the company. Kinds and volumes are different things: Core is both a kind and the volume that designs it, sub-processes are parts found inside processes of every kind, and a support process is never a sub-process.

Kind is a role, not a rank: support is designed with the same care as the core, only for a different customer.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · System · Discipline 4: Three Kinds · Section: Kind is a role, not a rank

MarvinPro | October 2026

marvinpro.com

A real example

When the software company first sorted its eight boxes, it put three of them in the core: sell subscriptions, provide subscriptions and support customers. All three faced the customer, and all three felt central. But facing the customer is not the test. The question is who each process is for, and what the customer actually pays for.

Provide subscriptions stayed core. It is the flow that delivers what the customer pays for (software that runs, licensed, for as long as it is paid for), and the company has one core business, so it has one core process. Sell subscriptions moved to support. It talks to customers every day and brings in the revenue, but the customer does not pay to be sold to; selling wins the customer and hands them on to the core, so it serves the core. Support customers moved to support as well. It too talks to customers every day, but it exists because the core sometimes falters, as the Core volume says of the communication around a fix.

The rest sorted quickly. Collect payments, run IT and develop people are support: they serve other processes with money, systems and people. Plan the business and govern the company are management: they set the company's direction and check that its processes keep their promises. The final map had one core, five support processes and two management processes. Nothing on it had been made less important. But the company could now see which flow its whole business rested on, and design everything else around it.

Three boxes faced the customer, but only one delivered what the customer pays for; the company's map ended with one core, five support and two management processes.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · System · Discipline 4: Three Kinds · A real example

MarvinPro | October 2026

marvinpro.com

Three Kinds

Every process on the map is one of three kinds, decided by who it is for. Core processes serve the customer directly, delivering what the customer pays for. Support processes serve other processes. Management processes serve the company as a whole, setting direction and checking that it is reached. A company has one core process for each core business, so most boxes are support or management, and every box gets exactly one kind.

Each kind is designed and judged by its own measure. The core is judged by what the customer receives and is designed first. Support is judged by how well it serves the processes that rely on it. Management is judged by the direction it sets and the promises it checks, running in cycles and staying light. Borrowing one kind's measure for another is a common way for a good process to go wrong.

And kind is a role, not a rank. A failed support process can stop the core, so support deserves the same care, only for a different customer. Each box is sorted from the company's frame, whatever its own team calls it. And the kinds are kept apart from the volumes and the parts: Core is both a kind and the volume that designs it, sub-processes are parts inside processes of every kind, and a support process is never a sub-process. Sorted this way, the map shows which flow the whole business rests on, and how everything else serves it.

Sort every process by who it is for (core, support or management) and design and judge each by the measure of its kind.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · System · Discipline 4: Three Kinds · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | October 2026

marvinpro.com

Think Simple.