The Operations Manager
a.k.a. Director of Operations · Ops Lead · Operations Director
Owns day-to-day throughput so work is delivered reliably.
Who they are
Where the operations manager runs the day from the desk.
Owns day-to-day throughput so work is delivered reliably.
Software relationship: daily
Goals · what “good” looks like
- ▸Predictable delivery capacity
- ▸Higher utilization
- ▸Consistent execution
Who shows up · how they think
Demographics & mindset.
Demographics
Typical MBTI types
the temperaments we keep meeting in this seat
A day with the operations manager
Wake to bed.
12 waypoints. 2 peak-stress hours.
Phone check
Coffee, kitchen counter, dashboard on the laptop. Yesterday's completion rate, today's board, the two jobs dispatch flagged overnight. One install is short a permit; the other is a reschedule from a tech callout.
Drive in
Calls the on-call dispatcher from the car. Confirms the permit job slides to Wednesday and the reschedule slots into the 1pm hole on truck four. Two problems off the board before he parks.
Board walk
Stands at the dispatch board with the Dispatch Manager. Eighteen service calls, three installs, one commercial PM. Walks the day truck by truck, flags the two routes with too much windshield time, and rebalances before techs roll.
Daily ops huddle
Fifteen minutes with Service Manager, Install Manager, and Dispatch. Yesterday's first-time-fix, today's coverage gaps, the open punch list. No agenda creep — ends on time.
Process work
Door closed. Pulls up the install handoff form he's been redesigning for two weeks. The current version has a field nobody fills in; rewrites it in Google Docs, walks it across the hall to the install manager for a sanity check.
Capacity model
Spreadsheet open. Modeling next month's tech hours against the booked board and the marketing pipeline. The model says they're a tech-and-a-half short for July; flags it for the GM's Monday report.
Working lunch
Salad at the desk. The office printer that always jams Mondays jams again — leaves it for the office manager. Reads two Slack threads from the field and replies to one.
Field ride-along
Drives out to a residential install to watch the new Installer run the day. Doesn't talk for the first thirty minutes — just watches the staging, the truck loadout, the customer intro. Notes two coaching points for the install manager.
Dispatch reroute
Truck six broke down on the interstate. Sits with dispatch, reassigns three afternoon calls across two trucks, and calls the customer on the 4pm appointment personally to push to tomorrow morning at 8.
Tomorrow's board
Walks the next-day schedule with dispatch. Confirms the truck-six jobs are reseated, the permit-blocked install is queued for Wednesday, and the new dispatcher's first day starts on the easy zip code.
Drive home
Voice-memo to himself: rewrite the handoff form one more time, ask the GM about the half-tech for July, bring donuts for the new dispatcher Monday.
Couch close-out
Laptop on the coffee table for ten minutes. First-time-fix closed at 87% — the number he wants. Closes the laptop, picks up the book his wife has been telling him to finish.
What they own · where they slip
The job, frankly.
Core duties
what’s on their plate every week
Where they trip
watch for these, they’re common
What makes them a champion
Entire operation's throughput on one screen.
Career map · the ladder in and out
Where they came from, where they’re headed.
Keep exploring
