Do you need to be an ex-consultant to succeed in BizOps?
BizOps teams at many companies are filled with former consultants.
Hiring managers often filter for candidates with consulting backgrounds as a screening mechanism. In fact, a quick look at some recent BizOps job postings shows that for many BizOps roles, consulting experience is an explicit requirement — not just listed in the job description, but often the first or second bullet.
But do you really need consulting experience in order to succeed in a BizOps role? Why are consultants so heavily sought after in BizOps?
BizOps often operates as an “internal consulting” team. So even though there are behaviors that consultants should leave behind, it makes sense that consultants might be well-suited for the role.
In full disclosure, all 7 of my BizOps team members at Zendesk were former consultants — it wasn’t intentional but probably also not a coincidence. And I’ve written about why it’s easy to use “consultant” as a shortcut in hiring.
But what if we broke that shortcut down, into the qualifications and experience that “consulting” represents?
There are 3 key areas where consulting gives you great training:
- Solving problems efficiently
- Thriving in ambiguous situations
- Optimizing customer satisfaction
Solving problems efficiently
Consulting projects are nonstop problem-solving adventures. You’re solving the problems you were brought in to solve. Plus the ones that come up unexpectedly. Also the ones that haven’t happened yet. Within a few years, you hit the 10,000 hours mark of problem solving practice.
But it’s not just the quantity of the problems that’s important. Consulting firms arm you with structured and rigorous approaches to the work. The goal is to solve this barrage of problems as quickly and effectively as possible.
You’re taught frameworks. You’re given a methodology. You’re provided with tools and templates that have been tested. You’re asked to propose a business case or work up a SWOT analysis. You learn that there’s no decision in life that a 2x2 matrix can’t solve. Consultants are given a grad school-level education in all of these approaches.
People often make fun of the fact that consultants are overly structured and love their frameworks. But it does help you to quickly assess a problem, determine a solution, and clearly articulate it.
What if you’re not a consultant?
You can learn about standard frameworks for things like root cause analysis (e.g. 5 Why’s, Pareto, Fishbone) or how to write a great business case. You don’t need to be able to recite Porter’s Five Forces (believe me, this will not endear you to anyone). But familiarity with the concepts and structure will help.
Consider how your existing experiences already fit this model. Be able to explain your standard approach to a problem. Give an example of when you were asked to solve one problem but you identified the root cause as something else. Describe how you successfully recommended a solution among competing options.
Thriving in ambiguous situations
The best thing and the worst thing about being a consultant is that you are constantly thrown into new situations, for which you often have limited or no experience, and are told to “just figure it out.” Once you get past the stress, it turns out to be a very valuable career skill.
Each project you’re on involves: A new client. New stakeholders. New manager. New coworkers. Often new industry or new subject matter. Sometimes, new city.
And how much time you have to adapt? At rates of $300+ per hour, you’re expected to show value immediately, if not sooner.
As a result, consultants become skilled at:
- Learning rapidly and asking pointed, clarifying questions
- Leveraging resources available to them
- Being flexible and jumping in to play whatever role is needed
- Building a growth mindset, working through challenges and confusion
Consultants sometimes talk about how they like to “bring order to chaos.” A key first step is to be unafraid of chaos, and to get comfortable weeding through new information to understand what matters. Customers want to quickly get to the bottom line of why something is happening and what the solution is.
What if you’re not a consultant?
Many roles deal with ambiguity, not just consultants. Demonstrate your ability to operate with vague or limited information. How have you made decisions without all the information you needed? How do you determine the minimum information you need?
You can increase your learning agility by trying new experiences and taking on new challenges. Learn how to recalibrate when things don’t work out as expected. Reflect on outcomes and look for patterns. Ask for feedback, focusing on how you can grow and improve rather than focusing on criticism. Be prepared to pivot to Plan B if needed.
Optimizing customer satisfaction
I’ve written about the importance of a customer mindset, which is about focusing on how to best serve your customer. In consulting, you have formal contracted clients who you bill for services. In BizOps, your customers are the internal company teams you serve — Sales, Product, Finance, etc. The arrangement may be less formal, but the principles of serving your customer are the same.
So much of success in consulting is based on customer satisfaction. Are they happy with what you delivered? Do they want to extend your contract? Will they be a reference for future projects?
As a result, consultants learn to excel at stakeholder management. You map stakeholders to assess the landscape and analyze their needs. You’re trained in frameworks like Social Styles to understand how different leaders work. You manage expectations through frequent communications. You learn to address difficult conversations head-on.
What if you’re not a consultant?
Strong communication skills are key, so make sure that yours are strong. Demonstrate experience communicating throughout a project: setting expectations at the beginning, clearly communicating status throughout, and confirming outcomes met the need.
There are lots of great frameworks to learn more about different working styles and personalities: Social Styles, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, CliftonStrengths, Learning Styles, the list goes on. While the details can be insightful, the larger point here is understanding how people work differently from you, and how to accommodate those differences. Listen to the people working around you and learn to speak their language.
Articulate your approach to quickly building rapport with cross-functional business partners. Give examples of when a customer was unhappy but you were able to fix the situation. Describe how you’ve managed business partners who didn’t know what they wanted or continually “moved the goalposts.”
Conclusion
Because of the training that consultants receive, it is an easy shortcut in BizOps hiring to look for former consultants. But it’s not that consulting experience is a requirement; it’s the skills behind it that are required. If you can demonstrate your skills and experience in those key areas, you can absolutely succeed in BizOps.
