Continuous Problem-Solving Operations

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Overview

Change that lasts takes a lot of work. Nowadays, anyone can make a vibe coded product in hours. But that's not the only moment that matters. Just because an app exists doesn't mean people will use it over time. It doesn't mean they'll keep coming back. It doesn't mean it will solve problems that people experience. The act of creation comes from a lot of process, collaboration, buy-in, and idea testing. It takes a lot of communication. It requires you to empower those around you to care about the stake in the result. It requires problem-solving. It takes a large amount of energy to keep something going at market.

The Process of Change

The process of change making happens in cycles that never end. You see things happening in the world, identify the change, make something, and succeed or fail. Then the cycle continues. You start over with new changes. Operations professionals create living processes for teams to work together towards change. The lifecycle of work has many steps:

Intake Milestone

Steps

1. Identify key goals
2. Measure success
3. Build your team

Deliverables

1. Team agreements
2. Project summary
3. Kickoff

Continuous Discovery Milestone

Steps

1. Form hypotheses
2. Do research
3. Analyze and repeat

Deliverables

1. Research insights
2. Current experience maps
3. Scenario-based problem statements
4. Positioning statements
5. Unique value

Vision and Scope Milestone

Steps

1. Identify the most important problems to solve
2. Identify scenarios to support
3. Commit to near-term outcomes
4. Commit to long-term outcomes

Deliverables

1. Vision boards
2. Release-level scope of outcomes
3. Strategy definition
4. Success metrics

Requirements Milestone

Steps

1. Break down the work
2. Generate buy-in

Deliverables

1. User stories
2. Acceptance criteria
3. Task flows
4. Backlogs

Install Milestone

Steps

1. Make the changes

Deliverables

1. Prototypes
2. Code
3. Content

Test and Launch Milestones

Steps

1. Evaluate the change
2. Put the change in place

Deliverables

1. Testing Plans
2. Feedback Loops

The Two Approaches to Work

You can perform these cycles in one of two ways: the Phased Approach or the Incremental Approach. Both of these have their risks:

1. A Phased approach - work happens one step at a time, and launches at the end. (Some people call this "Waterfall").
2. An incremental approach - different work happens in parallel, and launches as you go. (Some people call this "Agile").

When teams start these lifecycles, it's not enough to talk about the ways this work happens. People need to show the work. There may be resistance to change, and it's important to talk about. The best that ProblemOps specialists can do is build a shared language and understand others. They must influence the changes in the process.

Phased Approach

Incremental Approach

ProblemOps Within the Lifecycle

Problem-solving operations exists in the entire lifecycle. It shows up in the definition, the commitment, the collaboration, and the change making for each milestone.

1. In intake, people define success criterion.
2. In discovery, people define and analyze scenario-based problems.
3. In vision and scope, people commit to the scenarios they want to change and develop language around the change.
4. In requirements, people define how to deliver the change.
5. In implementing, people make the change together.
6. In testing, people evaluate the changes based on what's been communicated so far.

Once change is made, we go right back to the beginning to take what's learned and make more change. It's called a "lifecycle" because it's continuous. When one change is made, a lot of other things get affected in systems. Positive and negative change affects a lot of touchpoints. Teams must continue the cycle of learning and delivery so that they can always be sure they're evaluating the change.