Operator’s Manual

Years ago I created a document called “The Book of Ian” (juvenile title, I know) and shared it with my team. The document contained objective guidelines for communication about data, dates and deliverables. My goal in sharing it was to codify the (high) standards I wanted my team to meet, and that I would try to meet myself. I decided to dust off and update the document, and also renamed it in the process. I present, for your review and discussion, the Operator’s Manual, 2014 edition. - @ianmcall

On Communication:

• Answer the question
• Answer first, then explain
• Be concrete
• When questions should be answered by a date
• Who questions should be answered by a name
• How much/many questions should be answered by a number. Dates, dollars, percentages. Define your units.
• Avoid weasel words (should, could, might, etc.)
• Own your problems. Don’t be defensive. “Yes; my mistake. Won’t happen again.” “I don’t know. I should know. I will have that information for you by Friday.”

On Data:

• Assume the best answer to any question is data. Data first, interpretation second.
• Be precise. Define metrics precisely. Make sure data ties together precisely. Root out error.
• Provide absolute and percentage values.
• Specify the time range.
• If the data you need is not available, make it available. 1) Define what data you need, 2) Create a backlog item, 3) Agitate to get it prioritized appropriately.
• Snapshots (i.e. data points) bad, metrics good. In doing the work to get a data point you’ve done 50% of the work to create a metric. Create the metric once so you don’t have to keep creating snapshots.
• If it is difficult to determine if the data shows something is good or bad, look for comparative benchmarks elsewhere in the company.

On Deliverables:

• Ask for clarification if you are unclear on expectations (due date, format, content).
• If asked for a deliverable by a certain due date, send the document by that date or schedule a meeting to occur by that date and bring any requested documents for review.
• If asked to schedule a meeting to review a deliverable, you are expected to schedule the meeting.

On Dates:

• Be conservative when providing dates and expect to be held accountable.
• I don’t like pushing dates back. Given the choice, I will always prefer to move them up.
• Assume that every date you give me will be relayed to our CEO with your name and the deliverable attached to it.
• COB = Close of Business (5:00 pm)
• EOD = End of Day (midnight)
• EOW = End of Week (Friday, 5:00 pm)

P.S. Standard disclaimer: This post contains my personal opinions, not my company’s.