When exposed to ultra-intense X-radiation sources such as Free-Electron Lasers (FELs) the innermost electronic shell can efficiently be emptied creating a transient hollow atom or molecule. Understanding the femtosecond dynamics of such systems is fundamental to achieving atomic resolution in flash diffraction imaging of non-crystallized complex biological samples. We demonstrate the capacity of a correlation method called “partial covariance mapping” to probe the electron dynamics of neon atoms exposed to intense 8 fs pulses of 1062 eV photons. A complete picture of ionization processes competing in hollow atom formation and decay is visualised with unprecedented ease and the map reveals hitherto unobserved non-linear sequences of photoionization and Auger events. The technique is particularly well suited to the high counting rate inherent in FEL experiments.