Welcome to Ops and Ends

Every 2 weeks I’ll be dropping a five-minute read filled with insights and actual “how to’s” on managing the chaos that’s going on in your company.

Table of Contents

• People - Let’s Talk about Them

• Processes Aren’t the Product

• Ops is a People Business

• You’ve Built a Process - Now what?

• Behaviour is the Product

_{People - Let’s Talk about Them}

In the last few editions, I’ve talked heavily about processes. I’ve dived into operational debt, talked through how automation can help, and how involving AI into the mix can be even better.

But this time, let’s talk about what I deliberately left out.

People.

Fundamentally this is the most important thing. Because if I didn’t bring people along the journey with me, all the work that I spent hours on, from building a new structure to designing great SOPs, would have been a total waste of time.

In layman terms - operational debt would have increased.

Quick Refresher: What’s Operational Debt?

If you haven’t read first edition, head on here. But as a quick refresher, Operational debt is what builds up when teams work around broken and isolated systems, responsibilities are unclear or it’s just plain and utter chaos where every day is continuous firefighting.

Processes Aren’t the Product

You might have heard of the new transition of people as a product. You probably also know that product managers obsess over user journeys. They want to know how/if customers actually use what’s been built.

It’s the same in Operations. Sure, we might not be building apps, and serving to our millions of customers, but our users are the team and they are just as important.

So let’s say for example, you spend hours designing a process. You create a beautiful Miro board, with documentation on Scribe, ticked off your task list on Asana, and have breathed a deep sigh of relief knowing that you’ve put it behind you. In your mind you’ve done it to the best of your ability, streamlining everything, taking into account any niches that might turn up and achieving ultimate efficiency. But no one uses it.

Because every unused process is another workaround that’s about to happen. Another Slack DM. Another “where do I find that?”, and it continues to pile up. #iykyk

Ops is a People Business

Ops can feel like solo land. You might have a meeting and then you’re in your deep work: building flows, questioning processes, building out structure whilst clarifying the chaos. But in all honesty?

You’re not doing this work for yourself (well, maybe in part) but really, you’re doing it for others. And that means people skills matter just as much as systems thinking and problem solving. What makes a great operator isn’t just logic, efficiency, speed or the ability to see five steps ahead.

It’s the stuff no one puts in a job description:

• 💬 You’re a translator. You turn abstract briefs into clear action.

• 🤍 You’re a therapist. You listen, you hear and you empathise.

• 🪜 You’re a habit-builder. You make the new way of working feel so good.

• ✅ You’re a simplifier. Say less.

It’s like you’re Marie Kondo, but for workflows.

You’ve Built a Process - Now what?

So you’ve built your shiny new process. Good 👏 For 👏 You 👏 . Now what?

• 👉 Do people actually use it?

• 👉 Do they hate it? i.e. is this something that people bond due to their shared hatred in it?

• 👉 Does it solve a real pain point, or did you pick this out of thin air?

• 👉 Or is it just another doc they ignore and lo and behold is found years later?

If no one engages, the problem isn’t the people.

It’s most likely the following:

• 😫 People weren’t brought in early enough.

• 😫 Their problem wasn’t solved.

• 😫 They don’t understand the impact.

And when that happens, you’ve guessed it. You’ve added to your Operational Debt.

You’re not building for yourself, as much as that would be the easiest thing to do. You’re building for other humans. You’re translating their pain points into clarity, into repeatable systems, into habits they can actually stick to. That’s when processes becomes real. That’s when you know it’s working—not when it’s built, but when it sticks.

Behaviour is the Product

Because when it doesn’t? That’s operational debt creeps back up.

So next time you're proud of your process, ask yourself:

• ✅ Have I built this with people in mind?

• ✅ Did I test it with real pain points?

• ✅ Have I created a loop to learn, iterate, and improve?

That’s how you reduce the cost—and keep it from compounding.

Who is Penny Penati?

Queue the Big Brother meme: "Who is she?" (And no, I'm not referring to myself in the third person... for now, anyway 😏).

With over a decade of experience in Operations, here's what I bring to the table:

• Building and fixing is in my nature

• Processes, people and efficiency is how I talk

• Continuously zooming in and out of the business is how I work

• Always learning and being challenged is my ethos

• Automation and tools is where I geek out

I’m here to help other operators and founders build amazing businesses, using the lessons I’ve learned (and the mistakes I’ve made).

🤍 Let me know if you’ve enjoyed this edition, and what other topics you’d love to cover. If you know of anyone that would enjoy this, send them my way!