4 Steps to Start Building Operations
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After a decade of building operations for various businesses, I can say that although each journey is unique, there are some common approaches to getting started.
I’ve jotted down my top four steps to helping businesses begin to build their operations. If you are lost in operational chaos, start here to get things moving. Then once you have a foundation, you can continue evolving it from there.
1️⃣ Identify Pain Points
Pain points are the parts of your business that hurt. Sometimes it’s only an annoyance, other times, the problem is a serious business risk. The first step in building your operations is gathering your team together and writing all of them down. Every. Single. One. Don’t leave any pain point rock unturned.
Once articulate, review them as a team and discuss. Ask questions about the pain points everyone feels. Align on what people are seeing in their day-to-day work that you might not be. This begins the process of transparency and alignment that is vital to building any healthy operations.
2️⃣ Define the Goals
Once you’ve brain dumped all of your pain points, then you’ve got to define your goals as a business. What do you want to achieve this year? What about in the next two years? What is the greater vision for the business? Think big so you know what you are building your operations to actually do.
Without goals, operations doesn’t have a north star. Yes, you technically could build operations without goals. I have. But I found that you end up building processes, hiring a team, and implementing technology that doesn’t fit into the larger picture. It ends up in sunk cost and wasted time. Do yourself the favor and know what you are working to build today for a greater tomorrow.
3️⃣ Prioritize Initiatives
Now with your pain points written down, and your goals defined, you can start to prioritize what initiatives to tackle. There are lots of approaches to this, but typically you start with any initiatives that are risk and compliance issues. Theses are non-negotiable changes you have to make from a legal standpoint. Usually they are boring and tangly, but you will sleep better at night knowing these are taken care of.
Once those issues are addressed, rank your remaining pain points in order of necessity towards achieving your annual goals. Then hash out, as a team, the support needed to tackle those initiative and put a timeline towards each. This is the first stage in getting visibility into what you are going to do before you do it.
4️⃣ Operations Whack-a-Mole
Then it’s time to actually dive into building your operations. At this point, I would love to say “Just follow your plan and check those boxes!”, but the truth is, in operations, shit happens. Your days will distract you from those priorities with fires to put out or team issues to address— What I like to call the Operations Whack-A-Mole.
The hard, but important part, is to constantly get you and your team back on track. This can be through weekly or daily check ins, a project management tracker, or a dashboard to help show your progress. In fact, you could do all of the above!
Also remember to celebrate each win and be kind when you or a team member falls on your face. Operations is about resilience and grit. Keep coming back to the plan and take one step at a time.
👉 Wrap Up
Building successful operations is an exciting journey. It’s not a linear ride, but that’s what makes it fun, especially for operators who love a challenge. Let me know how what stuck with you or other tips you’ve used to start building your own operations.