Should you have a formal BizOps methodology?

Should you have a consistent, documented process for how you do your BizOps work? In the world of tech companies, where constant agility is valued and every project is a unicorn, the answer is often a firm “No!”

However, I would argue that having a simple but structured methodology is incredibly valuable for a BizOps team to have, for 3 key reasons:

1. Onboarding — It makes it easy to onboard new BizOps team members and cross train them on the methods your team typically uses to deliver work.
2. Customer Experience — It creates a consistent experience for your customers, who can expect the same approach and quality no matter which team member they’re working with.
3. Reusability — It saves time and brainpower for the elements of a project that are repeatable, follow standard frameworks, or can leverage existing work.

Assuming that I’ve now convinced you that it’s worth documenting a methodology, how do you go about creating useful, simple standards that add value?

At Zendesk, our methodology is designed to provide guidance without being overly prescriptive. Team members are encouraged to bring their own personal style, adapt to the needs of their specific project and customers, and evolve our documentation as things change.

Our methodology is defined in 3 parts:

Project Scoping

Our BizOps team has a standard set of questions we ask our customers when we begin a project, both to understand the work they want us to do and also to begin to plan and estimate the work effort.

Example questions:

• What problem is the project trying to address?
• What does success look like for this project?
• Who are the decision makers on this project?
• What challenges do you anticipate?

Answers to these questions inform our recommended approach, timeline, and proposed BizOps deliverables (e.g. a playbook, a business case, etc). After our initial conversation, we summarize our understanding of the project’s goals and expected outcomes to the customer for confirmation and alignment.

Design & Execution

The details of the Design & Execution phase will vary by the type of work, or service offering. Each service offering has its own playbook, built by our BizOps team, covering things like:

• The typical approach to the work & best practices
• How to partner with stakeholders
• Common challenges
• Any unique nuances at Zendesk
• Examples of past work

Closeout & Handoff

As I mentioned in a previous post, BizOps often plays a short term role on projects, most commonly in the Clarify and Design phases, setting the execution up for success. The execution by operational teams will continue after BizOps departs or ramps down. Therefore, a smooth transition is critical to successful completion.

BizOps members are asked to complete tasks such as:

• Ensure sign-off/approval of any designs/deliverables
• Confirm transition of ownership of deliverables and action items
• Request feedback on our work
• Plan future check-ins as appropriate

Having this methodology in place has been a key to our BizOps team’s success at Zendesk — it allows us to assure our customers that everyone on the team is trained in similar methods and are capable of delivering consistent work.

So before you say “no” to methodology, I encourage you to give it a try!