Operations Management of Professional Services Firms

Operations Management

Professional Services

• Web Design & Marketing

• Online Software Applications

• Product Design

• Research & Development

Business Problems• Running a company where the primary mode of

work is in the form of a project

• Having a group of people come together quickly and to act as a cohesive, effective and efficient team

• Successfully making something new that has not been done before

• Systematically managing variability - multiple projects, resources, location, methods

Managerial Challenges• Inherent variability cannot be eliminated

• Better understood

• More effectively managed

• Type of project similar, yet:

• Scope - every project has it owns dynamic & newness

• Demand and Capacity - different organizational capabilities & resources

• Goal - gracefully flow through the company & intelligently flex

Teams

Clients• Love them or hate them

• Staying out in front

• Understanding their business

• Partnership goal

• Teaching

• 100% Referable

Value StreamDiscovery Understanding Ideation Project charter White-boarding Stakeholder mapping Interviews Field studies Contextual inquiry Walk-a-Mile Concept mapping Personas Experience diagramming Flow analysis Mind mapping Forecasting Flow analysis

Research Observation Concept Visualization Participatory designFramingLo-Fi prototypingFuture scenariosRequirements definition Rapid ethnography Time-lapse video 2D models Competitive product survey Cognitive task analysis Affinity diagraming

Design Appearance models 3D models Evaluate Refine Critique System design Interaction designUsability testingDesign heuristics AnalysisAssembly analysis SLAs Unfocus group Scale modeling Camera journaling Scenario testing Day in the life

Development Implementation Manufacture feasibility assessment Quality planning Design for excellence Performance verification Experience validationSupplier involvement Test plan Beta release Mar-com Beta fixes Release docs Branding

Testing & Launch Supply chain development Marketing Sales Support Design validation Post launch review Demos Lead generation Product roadmaps Training Advertising Sales strategy Product support package White papers Social media plan

Iterative Prototype Refinement

Resources• Employees

• External

• Clients & co-design efforts

• Variety of Roles

• Creative Space & Tools

Resource Management• Account Managers

• Project Managers

• Producers

• Information Architects

• User Experience Designers

• Copy Writers

• Visual Designers

• Web Developers

• Software Engineers

• QA

• Business Support - IT, HR, Admin, Accounting

Capacity & Utilization• Teams

• Individuals

• Client Work

• Process Improvement

• Sales Support

• Admin

• Personal development

Process Improvement

• Growing capabilities

• Reducing cost

• Challenge

• Culture

Financial

• Reporting

• Transparency

• Sharing

• Profit and Loss

Growth

• Revenue

• Capabilities

• Driven internally or externally

• Challenges

Contraction

• Inevitable

• Insight

• Flex appropriately

Recruiting

• Networking

• Recognizing underdeveloped talent

• Focus on your people

Right Shoring

• Partnership

• Leverage knowledge

• Off-shoring, low cost it isn’t

Creative• Everyone is ..

• Changing landscape

• People

• Technology

• Design Thinking / Human-centered Design

Fun• The difference it makes

• Giving back

Exercise• 45 projects

• 38 clients

• 25 resources - 4 teams

• business analyst, visual designer, front-end developer, backend developer

• who else do you need in your organization?

• Development - 4 months

• Goal - design a operational management system

• How would you manage?

• What activities would you do- daily, weekly, monthly?

• What kind of organizational structure?

Doug Henderson mobile :: 603-397-2944

email :: doug@frosthub.com linkedin :: linkedin.com/douglashenderson

twitter :: dougehenderson