Why l started this blog

As touched upon in the about me page, I have moved from a very structured, process-driven and mature industry - Banking, to the new and exciting universe of start-ups.

And where my previous roles were specifically defined - I knew exactly (not always in reality I have to confess, but at least on paper) what I had to do, and how my performance would be measured, my first Operations role was a bit fuzzy.

Ops roles tend to be hard to define...

Don't get me wrong, this is exactly what drew me to it! I wanted to be involved in all sides of the company and to have as much impact on its growth and development as I could. And that's what I got, but that means, especially in an early-stage company, that roles aren't defined as the most important thing is to get stuff done, not who's done it.

4 years later, after having been the 1st and only Ops person, then building a small Ops team and now having moved to a COO role, covering more than "pure operations", my role remains somehow undefined as opposed to a CFO or CTO role.

What adds to it, is that the COO role - but this is also true for a Head of Operations position or any Ops role really - will have a different remit from one company to the other.

... which makes them harder to benchmark or to prepare to

When I first started in the jobs, I tried to prepare for what I was getting into. I typed Operations on Amazon, I didn't get a lot of results. I settled on 2 books:

• ​How to be a Chief Operating Officer by Jennifer Geary​
• ​Operations Management For Dummies​

While these were better than nothing, I can't say they helped me get ready for what my job would be much.

More importantly, I was struck by how little content there was out there for Ops people. My partner is an Engineer, and he knows exactly where to turn to for resources, whether meet-ups, books, blogs or tweets. Why doesn't the same things exist for Ops? Remember we are in early 2018 here.

Since then, more resources have appeared online. A quick google search will show that most of them are more recent than 2018 😅
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A helpful set of communities have also sprung and potentially deserve a dedicated blog article - coming soon!
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Momentum is slowly building up and it finally feels like it might be time for Ops people to be put in the spotlight. This blog is part of that. It's the blog I wish I had found when first started on the job. It's the blog that makes you feel less alone in the struggles you are facing because others have been there. It's the blog that shines a light on the hidden side of start-ups, Ops.