Business Operations Reads and Insights — Part 3

Honey Patel
Jul 22, 2017 · 6 min read

I found some more interesting articles on Business Operations. I love it because I still strongly feel that there is a lot of ground to cover in terms of resources and framework for Business Operations. So, each article helps fill the gap. All these articles are by Dan Yoo who was a Chief Operating Officer at NerdWallet.

First, “Why BizOps Is the Hottest Team in Tech” by Dan Yoo. I love this article because it highlights the different hats BizOps plays at different companies in Silicon Valley. Here are some highlights:

That’s BizOps — a decision-support mechanism that helps with everything from optimizing day-to-day options to carrying out high-priority initiatives to tackling the most important strategic questions.

At Dropbox, the Business Strategy and Operations team focuses on the company’s most important business priorities: unlocking new growth, driving alignment on strategy and building foundational infrastructure, says Sirish Chandrasekaran, who heads the group.

The BizOps team at online payments company Stripe is focused these days on defining the product development cycle, taking feedback from customers and translating that into engineering priorities, says Brian Sze, who heads the team.

There’s no “typical” day for a BizOps professional. Team members may shadow co-workers, interview outside experts, develop skills like Python and SQL proficiency, analyze data, lead a brainstorming session, write up a strategic plan, design and monitor pilot projects, conduct postmortems on projects, formulate and monitor key performance indicators, synthesize best practices, interview candidates — or just block off time to think about how to break immense challenges down into manageable chunks.

Having BizOps people embedded with different groups helps ensure that they are informed and have the trust of the managers they’re working with…The mark of success when you’re a BizOps person is being the first person a general manager calls when she has the time to think through an issue. “It’s really being the right-hand person to a business leader,” says Andrea Leewong, who worked in consulting before becoming the first member of NerdWallet’s BizOps team.

Second, “Want in on BizOps? Here’s How” by Dan Yoo. Highlights:

BizOps coordinates and aligns operations and strategy across an enterprise, helping executives focus on hitting goals and planning where their business units need to go. For professionals, BizOps offers a view into all corners of a business, along with the opportunity to carry projects from conception to implementation, take on new challenges and have a major impact on the company’s future.

Setting the tone: The first few BizOps hires are critical, because they establish the caliber of people you expect on your team. In these days of LinkedIn updates and other social media channels, these kinds of signals spread quickly. Also, your first hires will establish the culture and personality of the team, setting the tone for the type of work it should do and how it will do it.

Team-Building Strategy: The first is intelligence. We need people who can grasp complicated and often ambiguous issues, find the real drivers that may be hiding below the surface and explain complex problems in an understandable way. They must be able to think both strategically and tactically, devise and execute an action plan that breaks problems down into digestible chunks, and define and measure key performance indicators….Our hires have degrees from top-tier universities, plus at least two years of experience, generally in consulting, investment banking, venture capital or a BizOps-type role at another tech firm…. Consulting and finance are good places to find BizOps professionals, because these fields draw top graduates who are smart, driven, analytical and detail-oriented, says Bill Beer, a partner at the executive search firm Daversa Partners.

Where BizOps Can Take You: The exposure that BizOps professionals get to the operations and management of teams puts them in a great position to lead one. “Essentially, my role is training me to be a general manager,” Tedford says. For people who aren’t sure which area interests them, BizOps can provide exposure to everything a company does… And BizOps offers a great path to a high-level executive role. It gives you a complete picture of the scope of a company’s operations, and it provides access to senior leadership.

Third, “How BizOps Adapts to You and Your Company” by Dan Yoo. Highlights:

BizOps doesn’t have a single definition that applies the same in every organization…. That flexibility is one of the prime virtues of BizOps. Companies can adjust their team’s function based on their size, phase of development and inclination.

Stripe: “Business Operations was literally anything that was not coding the product,” he says. “At first, everyone did everything. We were just sort of trying to pour water on fires.”… That started with sales, which grew into account management, defining customer segments and thinking about strategy. As the team grew, people started self-selecting into specialties, both in terms of function (such as sales and account management) and verticals (like marketplace, e-commerce and subscriptions). At Stripe, BizOps team members take projects from design through execution — and even beyond.

Dropbox: The Business Strategy and Operations group at Dropbox initially focused on filling gaps between business functions — just getting necessary stuff done, says Sirish Chandrasekaran, head of the group. As the company grew, though, it built out its business infrastructure and closed those gaps…. Dropbox reformulated Business Strategy and Operations into four teams: Strategy, BizOps (which is building out core business processes for the company), Sales Ops, and Business Tools. The company also moved business and product analytics out into specific teams. … People with experience in business, management consulting or finance who are willing to roll up their sleeves and gain firsthand insight into the operations of business and product teams, and who can bring an independent perspective, yet collaborate effectively with business leaders.

LinkedIn: BizOps first focused on supporting monetizing business units. Then we added analytics, corporate strategy and support for nearly every part of the company. LinkedIn has a centralized BizOps team, with members assigned to work with specific groups. BizOps serves as the objective voice that looks out for the best interests of the company as a whole, and helps ensure that the strategies of individual units and the overall company align. BizOps professionals at LinkedIn think up ideas and then carry them out.

NerdWallet: When I came to NerdWallet, I brought along the idea of maintaining a centralized BizOps team with members embedded in different groups. Centralization allows team members to share best practices, keep their focus on the company as a whole and maintain the objectivity of their advice to group leaders. But placing BizOps Nerds (what we call employees) with a specific team gives them deeper knowledge of how that team works. It also builds trust…. We also need people who are OK with a certain level of ambiguity, because we’re still figuring things out every day. That’s a big part of the allure for many professionals. The decisions we’re making now will have a huge impact on the future of NerdWallet… Our company’s mission is to dig into all corners of personal finance. Combined with BizOps’ mandate to tackle issues from high-level strategy to daily operations, that makes our team a great place for versatile people seeking a challenge.

What Kind of Team Do You Need?: How a company goes about building its BizOps team is partly a function of its life stage. Many young companies follow a path similar to Stripe’s, using BizOps to start up and build out all non-engineering functions. As those functions mature, BizOps can refine its focus. Startups also can integrate BizOps into a company’s DNA and set team members to work helping build its foundations.

Established businesses are also launching BizOps teams. They’ll need to integrate BizOps into their existing operations, and their teams’ missions may have more to do with fine-tuning processes or keeping an eye on the strategic horizon.

Business Operations

Ideas and insights, stories, and resources for building and managing a business operations function.We are always looking for unique perspectives, stories, and resources. If you work in business operations and are open to sharing your story or contributing, connect withu us.

Honey Patel

Written by

Business Operations

Ideas and insights, stories, and resources for building and managing a business operations function.We are always looking for unique perspectives, stories, and resources. If you work in business operations and are open to sharing your story or contributing, connect withu us.

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