Requirements, authority, and approval design when a travel and tourism startup implements Robo Claw
Once the target business is decided, concretize the target region, facilities, experience products, classification of reservation, customer, itinerary, location, price, and inventory data, read/write permissions, customer transmissions, external SaaS and local business collaboration, human approval, responsibility sharing among a small team, and KPIs.
The purpose of the Refine STEP is to document the target operations in terms of 'who will automate what, to what extent, and under whose approval.' In particular, clarify at this stage the approval conditions for reservation changes/cancellations, rate and inventory updates, customer communications, refunds/compensations, the involvement of safety officers in itinerary safety decisions, and the division of responsibilities among members with concurrent roles. If this remains unclear and you proceed to the Pilot, design rework may occur in later processes.
Who This Is For
Who This Is For
Targeted at executives, reservation managers, and CS managers who decided on the target operations in the Discover STEP.
What You'll Decide
What You'll Decide in This Step
In the Refine STEP, document the target regions, facilities, experience products, scope of operations, data handled, connected external SaaS, read/write permissions, approval conditions, division of responsibilities in small teams, and KPIs, and translate them into requirements that can be validated in Build & Validate.
Industry Challenges
Issues unique to travel and tourism startups
The concept of authority is not organized.
Because of the small number of people, there are many cases where it is not clearly documented who can approve what.
Approval rules for reservation and rate updates are not yet established
In many cases, the rules for who approves reservation changes or rate updates have not been explicitly documented.
Roles among members with multiple duties are ambiguous.
Operations are sometimes conducted without clear role divisions for reservation handling, product planning, and CS staff.
Behavior on re-execution (prevention of double execution/duplicate reservations) has not been considered
In some cases, the design does not consider whether re-executing the same process could cause duplicate updates to reservation information, duplicate bookings, or duplicate transmissions to customers.
Method
Implementation Steps
1. Organize As-Is/To-Be
We organize by comparing the current business flow with the business flow aimed for after the introduction of Robo Claw.
2. Define the target region, facility, experience product, and operations
Clearly define the scope of the target regions, facilities, experience products, and operations.
3. Design Agents, Skills, and Tools
Design the roles of Agents required for the target operations, the Skills for business procedures, and the scope of Tools that handle reservation management and PMS operations.
4. Define the Tool Policy
Define as a Policy the actions that Tools are allowed to perform (read/write, Allow/Deny). Reservation confirmation and actual charge updates are set to Deny.
5. Design permissions for reservation, customer, itinerary, location, pricing, and inventory information
Design who can view or update these pieces of information and to what extent.
6. Design customer transmission, external SaaS, and collaboration with local operators
Design the approval conditions for sending to customers and the scope of data exchange for each connected external SaaS and local operator.
7. Define approval, safety officer confirmation, and responsibility allocation among a small number of members
Define approvers for reservation changes/cancellations, pricing and inventory updates, refund decisions, the safety officer confirmation process related to itinerary safety decisions, and responsibility allocation among concurrent members.
8. Define Secrets, Logs, Duplicate Execution Prevention, and KPIs
Define management methods for SaaS API keys, operation logs to be stored, design to prevent erroneous updates or duplicate bookings upon re-execution, and effectiveness measurement KPIs.
Data & Systems
Data and Systems Used
Human-in-the-loop
Where Human Approval Is Required
- Clearly define the final approver for reservation changes and cancellations by role
- Clearly define the final approver for pricing and inventory updates by role
- Clearly define the final decision-maker (CS manager) for refunds and compensation
- Clearly define the approver for communications sent to customers
- Obtain confirmation from the safety officer regarding safety assessments of itineraries
- Even in a small team, assign a verifier for granting permissions to external SaaS and local service providers
Measurement
KPI
In the Refine STEP, define candidate KPIs to be verified in Build & Validate
Target standard for reservation inquiry classification time
Target time required for inquiry classification
Lead time until approval
Time required from draft creation to human approval
Number of detected permission deviations
Number of detected operations exceeding the defined permission scope
Checklist
Requirements definition checklist
- Document the applicable regions, facilities, experience products, and tasks (including tasks that are included and not included)
- Input data and outputs (classification proposals, summaries, drafts) are defined
- Confirmed the connection and connectivity status with the reservation management, PMS, and experience reservation platforms
- Access rights for reading and writing are defined separately
- Defined approval conditions and approvers for reservation changes, cancellations, and pricing/inventory updates
- Defined approval conditions and approvers for customer communications and refund/compensation decisions
- Defined the process for the safety officer to confirm safety assessments of itineraries
- Defined operations that assume verification with official information for responses related to passports, visas, and entry requirements
- The division of duties among members with multiple roles is defined.
- Design considered to prevent double updates, duplicate reservations, and duplicate communications upon re-execution (idempotency)
- The scope and retention period of operation logs are defined.
- KPIs used for effect measurement are defined
Pitfalls
Common Pitfalls
Postpone authority design.
If you try to adjust permissions after starting operations, it can cause significant rework when deployed across multiple facilities and regions.
Proceed with the approver unclear
If approvers are not designated as roles rather than individuals, operations may stop when members are changed.
Blur the boundary with safety decisions.
Unless you explicitly deny the confirmation of reservations and production fee updates in the Tool Policy, there is a risk of granting unintended write permissions.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Which department should lead the requirement definition?
It is recommended that the person in charge of the relevant business and management jointly lead, and if involved in travel safety decisions, include the safety officer, and if external transmission is involved, include the CS officer.
How detailed should authority design be?
At a minimum, clarify the read/write scope at the business unit level and the approvers for reservation changes, fee updates, refunds, and compensation. The level of detail should be adjusted according to the risk of the relevant business.
What is idempotency?
This refers to the property that executing the same process multiple times does not change the result or cause double reflection. It is important for retries during communication errors and preventing duplicate reservations.
Shall we organize requirements, authorities, and approval design together?
The scope of target operations, SaaS permissions, approval flows, and responsibility allocation can be concretized through consultations with the official LP.