Operations Mapping

I conducted interviews with each team in the organization to understand their experience of the existing policies, processes, tools, technologies, and systems.

The staff completed technology inventories to account for the tools they use and identify where the organization was overspending on duplicate tools.

I conducted a thorough assessment of all the existing policies, processes, and systems the organization had in place, with its values and priorities in mind.

Using the research from Phase 1, I identified a list of high-level gaps, including policies and processes that required drafting, systems and solutions that required implementation, and inconsistencies between how things worked and what the staff wanted.

I conducted a design thinking session with the operations department to review the outcomes of the research, and identify options to fill the gaps

At the end of the planning process, I offered organizational leadership a list of more than 80 deliverables that should be produced over the course of five years to reach the goals of the organization. This included things like cybersecurity policies, a transparent budget tracking system, and training in existing technologies from an accessibility perspective.

I worked with leadership to prioritize this list according to their resources and priorities.

Using the priorities list, I created a timeline for the deliverables to understand what was achievable in each working year, based on staff hours and other resources.

This list was broken down into annual plans to be integrated into staff goal setting for operational work and departmental budgets.

I reviewed the plans with the executive and leadership teams of the organization to receive their feedback.

Feedback was integrated into the plan, with the Executive Director having final approval of the version to be shared with staff.

I generated a visual roadmap (using Prezi) to walk the organizational team through the plan for the next five years.

Staff were able to ask questions and voice concerns.

Staff feedback was integrated into documentation.

Documentation was handed over, including the written annual plans, a one-page FAQ document, and individual short summaries with bullet-point priorities for each deliverable on the five-year list.