People Process Technology — Where to Start?
People, Processes, and Technology (PPT) is the framework that consulting companies widely use to drive success in any company. People in the software industry refer to this framework as the “people, process, and tools” triad.
It’s a way of looking at your business and breaking things into three categories: people, process, and technology. Why? Because at the end of the day, those are the only three elements that make up your business — the people who work there, the processes you use to run it efficiently (such as systems and software), and the technology you use to support your employees and customers.
If you can identify how each of these elements is working well (or not-so-well) for your company, you’ll have a better idea of what to keep doing (and what to stop doing).
PPT framework is amongst those ideas that are old but gold. It has stood the test of time. So to be successful, we don’t need to find a new concept but stick to what works, stick to the timeless ideas.
This framework originated from Harold Leavitt’s 1964 paper “Applied Organization Change in Industry,” where process means a combination of Structure and Tasks. Structure is how the groups of people are organized and tasks are what those groups do.
The manufacturing industry disguises them as the 4M concept: Man (People), Method (Process), Machine (Technology), and Material.
People and Process = Chicken and Egg
The standard argument for this framework is that people are more important than processes or technology. This is because people are the ones that implement the processes and use the technology. If they don’t buy into your “process” or “technology,” it will fail miserably and won’t satisfy its purpose. However, I have worked in teams with highly competent people and state-of-the-art technologies, but we aren’t moving fast enough to meet our growth because of inefficient processes.
Over time, I find that process is the hardest to get right, and it is usually underrated at the beginning. In my opinion, process should stand shoulder to shoulder with people, and perhaps technology will just stand just behind. So arguing which one is more important than the other is like figuring out the chicken and egg problem.
It’s true that people create processes and use technology. But how could we organize people without knowing what our process is? How many people will we need to hire, what do they do, and how to measure their success?
Many companies fail to scale because of inefficient processes. They have a great product or service, but they cannot deliver it consistently because the way they do things is not linear, well communicated, and documented enough.
It’s a different kind of people that start the process map
We will indeed need people to design the first process. But it’s a different kind of people. It’s a group of experts or innovators in the field who can bootstrap the process that lays the foundation for scaling. The people that the framework usually refers to are the people that will later run the process, evolve the products, and grow the company.
The words experts and innovators are essential here. When you are stuck with a new process or technology problem, it’s not the question of how you can learn these processes or implement these technologies; it’s the question of Who you can find to help realize these plans. In other words, they may be the leaders who found the company. Their vision and the high-level picture of getting there have to be in place. People from the job market can’t easily do that task.
I like people and respect how much human beings can achieve. At the same time, people are complex. I have worked with managers who think throwing people into a problem will solve it. It doesn’t seem to work that simply. Parkinson’s law implies that throwing people into a late project makes it later. Instead, when you are stuck with a problem that has a human resource problem, look into the process first. Sometimes, a simple re-org (without firing people) can synergize the whole company differently.
So to me, process is the most fundamental piece because you don’t need many people to create a high-level process map. We need a few; it’s you, me, it’s the company’s founder, the innovator, or the process owner. I agree that we are all people, but that’s not the point. The point is that without investing in Process thinking, we shouldn’t start throwing people into the problems.
If we decide to start with the process, how do we start?
Try to answer these questions:
- What are my critical processes? Critical processes are processes that add value to your products
- How can I make my process as linear as possible? The linear process breaks inter-dependency and defines clear sub-process ownership
- How can I make the handover points between sub-process clear and binary (yes or no and not maybe) through well-defined inputs and outputs?
- How can I make each sub-process repeatable and their outcome reproducible?
Then, look at how we can put a person, a team, or a department to take care of each subprocess. That’s where people will shine. And along the way, we bring in technology that can automate and scale a sub-process. Then, when the technology is mature enough, we can automate the whole process.
When writing here, I realize that you need people to answer all these Process questions. Therefore, I attempt to list down the more baby steps
- First, we need experts or innovators
- This expert can help set up the high-level process (question 1 and 2 above)
- We build the team that builds and operates the low-level process (question 3 and 4 above)
- Use technology to automate and optimize the process, then up-level People
What about when technology is the core business?
When technology is the core business, you are innovating some new technology that has never existed. However, you still need to run a company with sales, HR, marketing, production, R&D, etc. So technology isn’t still the most important for success. Think about it, maybe ultimately sales is the most important after all. It doesn’t matter how cool the technology is; you can’t make sales, and the game will be over soon.
The technology’s role in this framework is to automate and augment the established process with precise inputs and outputs. To automate a single sub-process is much easier than automating the whole business with a complex relationship. Ask any company that wants to implement ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and ask how they must establish their process before bringing on the tech.
Technologies are so much easier to search for and implement these days. With a few clicks of a button, you can design your online store, add payment, generate shipping labels, have a hiring portal, outsource the legal department, etc. The cost options are just a Google search away.
Finally, I want to conclude this article with a well-though illustration from Christopher Penn on the relationship between the three pillars:
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