183: Preparing for an OPs Resource in Your Design Firm

Systems & Strategies
Written By Michele Williams

183: Preparing for an OPs Resource in Your Design Firm

with Kelcee Sparks

On the podcast today with me, again is Kelcee Sparks. And she is the Director of Operations and Success for Scarlet Thread Consulting. You might remember that Kelcee and I did Episode 168, together on how to hire an operations person for your design firm. And in that episode, if you haven't listened you may want to go check it out. We discussed operations, building trust, working within your zone of genius and process, we really focused on what an operations person did and why you might need one. Today, we're going to go a little bit deeper. And we're going to really focus on the details of being ready, creating the first steps to move in the direction of hiring an operations person, we're going to talk 30-60-90 day plans. And we're also going to talk about creating a hybrid, so that sometimes the person may be in the office, and sometimes they may be working remotely. And so I hope that you gather a lot from this and are able to put it into practice.

Topics Mentioned:

  • Client Experience 

  • Team Management

  • SOPs

  • Communication

Listen to the Episode

Key Thoughts:

  • Having either an additional resource that can work remotely that can do those tasks, or allowing your boots on the ground in office person time to be able to focus on those tasks could really benefit the company to have some very dedicated and focused time to accomplish the task before them. Michele (7:57) 

     

  • That's where your clients see the biggest benefit from our operations support that we provide them in the program is because they do have to stop and focus on the bigger picture. Kelcee Sparks (8:44) 

     

  • The five areas that we focus on are the client experience, team management, project management, vision, and clarity. From that, you develop a plan for our clients that says, here's where we need to start. Michele (14:53) 

     

  • As operations people our expertise is breaking those big goals down and realistically setting expectations for you and for us. Kelcee Sparks (16:36) 

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References and Resources:

Click here to read the transcript for this episode.

Michele Williams
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