What does an Operations leader do?
And what do we really mean by “Operations”?
Classic question for anyone with “ops” in their title: Product Ops, Engineering Ops, Marketing Ops… [insert function here] + Ops. Over the past several years, it seems to have become more of a trendy appendage that few are able to explain.
Let’s start with the fact that most if not all operations people are more generalist than specialist, even if their role seems to indicate that they are in fact specialized within another function (eg. Sales Ops or Marketing Ops). Of course industry, company maturity, and the specific needs of your organization can play a factor here too. Given their broad scope, I tend to bucket operations roles into one of two categories:
Operations used to supplement an existing function, typically as staff augmentation used to take on maintenance and/or recurring processes
Operations deployed to identify and resolve inefficiencies and create scalable processes
Many companies use some combination of both types but I would argue that the more successful companies long-term are leaning in more on #2. The former is often reactive to the limitations of other functions using operations people to fill in the gaps of existing teams where the latter promotes a proactive culture centered around solving the most important problems within an organization. For example, in a (1) environment as a ProdOps manager I might find myself running customer feedback sessions and collating findings for the Product Managers on my team. In a (2) environment, I would be identifying what is preventing PMs from reaching out to customers themselves and removing the barriers to these conversations so that it’s less tedious to PMs and non-intrusive to customers.
Personally, I have a strong bias for operations to exist in a capacity where we are constantly trying to put ourselves out of a job. With that context, the below list is one I’ve used for interviewing candidates for Operations leadership positions as I find these are the core tenets of every Ops role:
Get Shit Done attitude: Efficiently executes via whatever project management flow necessary and can rally others around them to do so as well; ability to make decisions quickly
Organized planner: Able to create structure via company planning, roadmapping, OKR/goal setting across multiple levels
Inquisitive generalist with a knack for problem solving: Asks difficult questions; uses systems thinking techniques to identify and resolve impediments
Scrappy with the ability to pivot and learn quickly: Savvy enough to pick up new tools, processes, and frameworks
Analytical sensemaker: Leverages data to identify gaps and/or tell a story
Good communicator who can establish organizational buy-in: Feedback loops, documentation, executive communication
Able to build relationships based on trust and transparency: Coaches other leaders and ICs to be more effective in their roles
Thoughts? What other traits have you seen in these roles and what do you think makes an effective Operations leader?
