What pieces of consulting should you bring in to BizOps vs leave behind?
As I described in my first article, BizOps is often referred to as an internal strategic consulting team. You’ll see many of the typical characteristics of consulting — project-based work, best-in-class frameworks, talented problem solvers jumping in.
It would be an easy shortcut to say, “Just model your BizOps team after a consulting team!” However, while there are definitely some aspects of consulting that you should incorporate when building a BizOps team, there are others that you should leave behind.
What to Keep
Customer mindset. BizOps is a customer service role and your goal is to partner with your customers to make them successful. Relationship building, establishing trust and credibility, and managing difficult situations are just as critical to success as on a consulting engagement.
Methodology. As I described in my post on methodology, having a documented standard approach provides consistency and builds confidence with your customers. Setting clear expectations with project scoping, producing consistent, quality deliverables with standard approaches, and preparing seamless transitions are all hallmarks of professional consulting engagements.
Strategic thinking & best practice perspective. Although you’re an internal employee at your company, you’re bringing in an outsider’s view to the customers you serve. You’re offering industry standard frameworks, external expertise, and critical thinking about possible risks or obstacles. Keeping an insider-outsider mindset adds valuable perspective that you’d often pay a consultant for.
What to Leave Behind
Customer formalities. Although a customer mindset is useful, treating your customers too much like clients is not. You should feel like partners. The relationships you build will be long lasting and continue on future projects. And their success — the company’s success — is also yours. Ensure they know you are invested.
Strict scope boundaries. You don’t need to tightly manage a contractually agreed Statement of Work. You’re all on the same team and as circumstances or timelines change, you should work with your business partners to identify solutions. You should set clear expectations and deliver on them; you should not be rigid about adapting when appropriate. Remember, you’re not billing them for your hours.
Excessive or inflexible frameworks. “Industry standard frameworks” are powerful accelerators, but often startups or smaller tech companies are still maturing and prefer simpler, more agile approaches. It’s important to understand the environment and match to where the company is or adapt the approach rather than try to force something that won’t be adopted.
