Operators As Automators
Feb 26, 2024 | Garrett Houghton
AI and No Code tools can turn Operators (people in operations roles) into Automators, completely reshaping what an internal operations person can do when it comes to improving processes, automating workflows, capturing reportable metrics, and standing up internal tools.
What do I mean? Here’s an example. Let’s say your product development processes for a specific business line are undocumented, chaotic, and untrackable: a classic operations problem.
To solve this problem as an operations person, before becoming an Automator, (let’s assume you already identified the issue, spoke to internal customers to validate, and a tool solution is needed), you would typically source, buy, or repurpose expensive, non-tailored SaaS software for the use case, spend months implementing the system (to get it close to your actual use case) and then even more months after that training your workforce, and by the time everything is up and running your business has changed and the whole thing is less relevant than when you started.
Alternatively to the option above, you might walk across the aisle and lobby engineers at your company to help you build a custom solution. And finally, once you get on the internal roadmap (after no less than two-quarters of negotiation), the engineering team delivers a v1 system that sort of meets your needs but they don’t have the bandwidth to improve or maintain the solution moving forward.
Either of these outcomes are less than ideal. So what does the Automator solution look like?
As an Automator, an operations person can act as an internal consultant, product manager, and an operations engineer all at once, scoping and defining the issue, designing the system, and then actually implementing a scaled solution in weeks, not months. Even better, this solution can be owned and maintained by the operations team, so future iterations are more cost-effective and faster to deliver; the solution can truly evolve as the business does in real time.
What might this look like concretely? Let’s take the same example above. Instead of going the procurement or internal engineering route, an Automator can leverage tools like Airtable, Zapier, Loom, and OpenAI to develop a bespoke project management solution for the same product development process.
The Automator can spin up a few tables in Airtable to store data, design a couple of interfaces in Airtable Interfaces to enable streamlined data entry, and automate downstream workflows with Zapier. From there, with Loom, the Automator can record a few video tutorials for asynchronous system training. Once the new platform and process are up and running, system data could be sent to OpenAI for automated insights and recommendations on how to improve key metrics within the process over time.
I don’t mean to paper over the above as a basic and existing skillset for operations people. This is often a new set of skills to be learned for many people in these roles, but it’s right in the wheelhouse of Operators already, as most are already thinking of processes, automation, and data daily.
So what then are the additional skills to pick up for an Operator to become an Automator? I’d start with lightweight database design, user interface design, and process automation.
These new skills do not have to be near the level of your professional peers who are dedicated to these specific functions. And you don’t need to take theory-laden courses to pick these skills up. Advancements in AI and No Code tools have made internal tool development much easier, cheaper, and faster through highly visual and prescriptive building environments.
If I were just starting on this path, I’d begin with Airtable exclusively to develop internal tools and then layer on Zapier to expand and further automate the capabilities of the system.
I know some organizations already employ Automators and it’s exciting to see. Curious if anyone is seeing this type of work/skillset internally at your respective company. And if so, are they embedded in operations teams or somewhere else?
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