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Topic Cluster

Operations

'Operations’ is a shorthand for ‘factors involved in effective operations’, which is one of the three legs of triad mental model of business expertise. If you don’t know what that is, read this page first.

Operations is a broad topic. Good businesspeople tend to have a firm grasp of the operational details of their firm, though the forms of this grasp can vary widely. This is probably obvious to you: there are many aspects of operational excellence, and the details are often specific to an industry or company. Commoncog’s approach here is eclectic: we sample from a wide range of ideas, with the caveat that our treatment should be differentiated or useful.

Series and Guides

The two big Commoncog publications under this topic are:

  • Becoming Data Driven in Business — a series looking into the ideas and methods of Statistical Process Control, which provide a foundation for a highly effective approach to data in business.
  • The Starter Manager Guide — a free, short guide for novice managers, designed to get you up to speed within six to eight months.

Notable Articles

Some notable Commoncog pieces in the Operations topic cluster:

Focus

Focus in business means a particular, slightly odd thing: you can ignore everything apart from the highest priority thing and still turn out ok.

Org Design

Many people talk about org design as a discipline (or use it as management consulting synonym for ‘restructuring’), but few attempt to talk about the expertise of org design.

Cash Strapped Hiring

How do you hire when you don’t have money?

  • What Good, Cash-Strapped Hiring Looks Like — All cash strapped operators who take their hiring seriously eventually converge on an identical process.
  • Inverting the Cash Strapped Hiring Process —  If every competent bootstrapped or cash-strapped operator develops something that looks like the ’generalise cash strapped hiring process’, you can invert it to identify companies that aren’t that competent at hiring.

Taste in Product Development

What is product taste and what does it look like?

Misc

A grab bag of other articles:

'Operations’ is a shorthand for ‘factors involved in effective operations’, which is one of the three legs of triad mental model of business expertise. If you don’t know what that is, read this page first.

Operations is a broad topic. Good businesspeople tend to have a firm grasp of the operational details of their firm, though the forms of this grasp can vary widely. This is probably obvious to you: there are many aspects of operational excellence, and the details are often specific to an industry or company. Commoncog’s approach here is eclectic: we sample from a wide range of ideas, with the caveat that our treatment should be differentiated or useful.

Series and Guides

The two big Commoncog publications under this topic are:

  • Becoming Data Driven in Business — a series looking into the ideas and methods of Statistical Process Control, which provide a foundation for a highly effective approach to data in business.
  • The Starter Manager Guide — a free, short guide for novice managers, designed to get you up to speed within six to eight months.

Notable Articles

Some notable Commoncog pieces in the Operations topic cluster:

Focus

Focus in business means a particular, slightly odd thing:

This topic overview was last updated .

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Articles //  Page 3

Feature image for Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think

Goodhart's Law Isn't as Useful as You Might Think

Goodhart's Law is useless. It tells you about a phenomenon, but it doesn't tell you how to solve it. We look at how organisations actually prevent Goodhart's Law, and illustrate this with Amazon's Weekly Business Review as an example.

Feature image for The Disaffected PhD Skunkworks: A Story About Process Improvement

The Disaffected PhD Skunkworks: A Story About Process Improvement

A concrete story of positive process improvement, deep from the trenches of early customer service at Amazon.

Feature image for Process Improvement is Trickier Than You Think

Process Improvement is Trickier Than You Think

Most companies skimp on process improvement. But the surprising thing is that they do so not because they're bad or lazy — but because there are system dynamics that prevent them from doing so. We take a look at what those are.

 Members only
Feature image for You Aren't Learning If You Don't Close the Loops

You Aren't Learning If You Don't Close the Loops

Every experimentation and iteration loop looks the same, but the vast majority of folk in business don't seem to have the discipline to execute till the end. Why this is, and why it's hard.

Feature image for Focus Doesn't Mean Doing One Thing at a Time

Focus Doesn't Mean Doing One Thing at a Time

Focus may be about saying no to good ideas, but it certainly doesn't mean doing one thing at a time. This is what focus looks like at an organisational level, told through the story of a business turnaround and the Marine Corps approach to war.

 Members only
Feature image for Focus Is Saying No To Good Ideas

Focus Is Saying No To Good Ideas

Several stories about one of the hardest maxims to put to practice in business.

Feature image for Putting Amazon’s PR/FAQ to Practice

Putting Amazon’s PR/FAQ to Practice

What it's like putting Amazon's famed Working Backwards process to practice in a small company context, and what was surprising and difficult about it.

Feature image for Inverting the Cash Strapped Hiring Process

Inverting the Cash Strapped Hiring Process

If everyone competent iterates their way to the same kind of hiring process, then you can probably use that process as a smell test when you're evaluating companies.

 Members only
Feature image for What Good, Cash-Strapped Hiring Looks Like

What Good, Cash-Strapped Hiring Looks Like

Bootstrapped operators who take their hiring seriously all eventually end up designing a system with the same fundamental approach. Here's how you can do it too.

Feature image for Operating On The Spectrum Of The Rule of Law

Operating On The Spectrum Of The Rule of Law

In countries with weak institutions, how things should work is often different from how things actually work. A reminder of what that feels like at the ground level.

 Members only
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