People

Eggcelerate

A good week would strike a balance between reflection and action. I would start by reviewing priorities and aligning teams, spend the middle of the week solving problems and supporting delivery, and finish by learning, mentoring, and clearing the decks. I would always include time with customers or partners, as an external perspective keeps me grounded.

My calendar. It is the backbone of how I plan, prioritise and protect time for what truly matters. It helps me balance strategic thinking with day-to-day delivery, and it keeps me honest about where my attention really goes.

That efficiency is not always the goal. Sometimes it is better to pause, listen and allow creativity to shape the outcome. The best systems leave space for human judgment and initiative.

Turning complexity into clarity. I can identify the essential elements of a situation and bring structure and focus, enabling others to move forward with confidence.

Redesigning an organisation that achieved both record growth and gender balance in its senior team. It showed that strong performance and inclusion strengthen each other when supported by a clear strategy and trust.

Calm and perspective. I focus on facts, address what can be controlled, and make sure the team has the space to think. How one behaves under pressure defines the culture, so composure matters.

Be curious about how every part of the organisation works. Operations connect everything, so the wider your understanding, the greater your contribution will be. Above all, stay calm and keep learning.

ULAM LABS

Perfect week has all meetings and calls booked in 1-2 days, its a mix of strategy and hands-on.

Notion, Chatgpt, google workspace - i use them everyday

I solve problems :)

Organisational growth from 150 to 300 headcount, after which a larger company acquired the organisation. I oversaw process of aquisition and merge

my second brain in notion

be meticulous

Vin Noir Explorers and Importers

Funny enough I actually have a perfect that sits on my desk: - Monday - Orders. Tax , and Compliance review with a review of our planned sales visits - Tuesday - Begin sales visits w/ marketing campaigns planning - Wednesday - Deliveries & Content Marketing Planning - Thursday - Digital Marketing Day (Writing, Social Media, Ads) - Friday - Makeup Day for anything & Business Recap Reporting

Standard MS Office tooling (Excel, PowerPoint) - Core tool for spec sheets and reporintg Buffer & Canva - Content Marketing and Social Media planning ChatGPT - I’m a terrible Proofreader 😅 Google Analytics, Aherfs, Wix - Site performance and management

If you’re not constantly researching how to do something or how you can add a new skillset to your tool belt, are you even an Ops person?

“Link-ability” - Finding connections to anything from content, vendors, shippers, and everything in between to make sure if I don’t know the answer I know where to start to find out what it is.

Launching Vin Noir Explorers and Importers - It was the culmination of every single skill, experience, and mentor/mentee conversation I’ve had that gave me the confidence to step into this venture still nervous, but confident that I have the ability to succeed.

My Kanban Board, a To-Do List, a clear unwavering vision, and my Remarkable Notebook 😅

Say yes to new challenges. Even those that make absolutely no sense, because you never know how that experience will shape your future career outlook or trajectory.

Parallax

My ideal week would be a mix of deep focus with high-energy collaboration. I’d start with half-day blocks for the more strategic work and shaping priorities without interruptions. I love collaborative working around a whiteboard generating ideas and solving problems, so would definitely incorporate some of those sessions in to the week, alongside walking 1:1s with my direct reports (I find this helps get the conversation flowing and focussed on each other). I like the feeling of getting an initiative over the line and implemented so moving from planning to delivery throughout a week is a great motivator. Definitely would have a team social and regular exercise to balance out the work and sitting at a desk (although I do have a standing desk and walking pad at home!). I’d wrap up on Friday by reviewing outcomes and planning the next sprint, leaving with a clear head and a sense of progress.

Regular retrospectives, coupled with the ongoing refinement of tasks, initiatives and priorities, keep me (and the business!) adaptable and focused on what really matters. This rhythm means we’re not just delivering value but constantly learning, adjusting and sharpening how we work - so improvements become part of everyday operations rather than an occasional exercise and we’re constantly learning and growing.

Progress over perfection - Perfection is overrated. I’ve had to unlearn perfectionism and embrace an agile mindset... ship improvements quickly, learn and iterate. Waiting for flawless slows growth - small, fast, continuous changes create more impact and resilience.

Turning chaos into clarity - I thrive on bringing order, structure and priorities when everything feels urgent. I quickly cut through noise, define next steps and keep teams focussed so progress continues even in high-pressure, fast-changing situations.

I led a three-month company-wide rollout of a new software, consolidating legacy tools and years of scattered spreadsheets into a single platform. The change touched all 55 employees and was high stakes, as without a smooth transition we risked inaccurate invoices, unclear capacity and disrupted client delivery. I owned the programme end-to-end, shaping the vision, sequencing the rollout to meet contract deadlines, and orchestrating discovery, stakeholder engagement and targeted training. Clear, tailored communication and phased adoption minimised disruption while improving data quality from day one. The result was finally having a single source of truth for project and financial data, sharper forecasting and invoicing, and far less manual effort (freeing up over 15 hours of month of manual data entry!), enabling transparency and cross-team collaboration.

Ops often means constant context-switching and competing urgencies, so ruthless prioritisation is key. Years in project management and fast-moving companies have trained me to stay calm and decisive when things flare up. Writing everything down helps with focus, and quickly deciding what truly needs action now. Clear communication keeps everyone aligned, and I delegate where necessary - it’s important to recognise that I don’t have to solve everything myself as then I become a bottleneck.

Start by building trust everywhere. Spend time with teams across the business to understand their goals, pain points and how you can genuinely help. Get close to the numbers - dig into the P&L and data available to you so you know where the pressure points and opportunities lie. Set up a simple system (e.g. Jira, Trello, Slack lists!) to track initiatives and continually reprioritise, and start each day by reviewing what matters most and clearing blockers. Also the one that people quite often forget - Ops is about people as much as processes: communicate clearly, tailor your message to your audience, and always ask questions rather than assume. Stay aware that others have competing priorities - influence and collaboration often get you further than urgency alone.

FLOX

ZERO admin, all big thinking! I love sinking my teeth into big strategies and churn out pathways for my teams to pursue and get them some wins.

I am a huge fan of process mapping. Wether it's a Miro board or the back of a napkin, it has always brought me and the people involved a lot of clarity and empathy towards the process. It's also a great tool to de-risk and assign ownership. I love to see it come to life into tools and comms plans, and I couldn't live without Notion supporting all of this.

I used to think I'd never be a C-level because I don't have a university degree or big shiny certifications. I have changed that narrative and am living proof that you can achieve a lot without any academic status quo.

I am unshakeable! I might be drowning or firefighting, but I am just such a fan of the ride that I am never fazed by it. My people compass is also very much alive through this so I often feel like Neo in the Matrix - hyper aware of everything around me and seeing it unfold without losing sight of the human element.

Scaling my current company's product deployment. We work in complex on prem situations and I have brought in a huge amount of quality in our processes, while managing huge construction sites (and men, sigh!) - making our on prem operations cheaper, more efficient and smooth like butter. To put it in numbers, that was a 17x growth in 6mo!

The rest of my SLT - we are deeply bonded and aligned and I know I can reach out to them and centre myself again. We care deeply for each other and the business, so I always come out it more grounded and ready to fight the fires!

Don't worry too much about your credentials - observe, learn and sharpen your instincts along the way and you'll do great! Trust yourself and find your ops tribe - they will be your ride or die through all the ups and downs of startup life!

Advisor at Nirvana / freelance COO

Agree a clear plan for the week. Tackle a few key issues to fix/automate/scale/deliver them. Work with teams as much as possible and work with management to plan/think about the strategy (they have to all line up!). Take a step back to see if we're missing anything.. Then later in the week be honest about what worked/ what didn't (and why/whare are the metrics telling us). Meet in person to have a nice end of week celebration with team / end the week on a positive.

It sounds strange, but whatsapp. it's an immensely simple, reliable and convenient (free!) tool that works for sharing ideas / updates / having calls / keeping in contact / doing quick polls / being super agile when travelling. I would be lost without it.

That 'operational excellence' is seen as binary, 'achievable' thing. That's nonsense. operations is all about continuous improvement / optimization and scaling processes ... day in, day out, in the best possible way. In a tough environment when everyone is working hard and there are countless problems, then a single 'win' for the day (technical, product, client, revenue etc) can be a big step forward and that is 'excellence' in itself. Most people who ask what operational excellence is, rarely have been deep in the weeds in operations/ventures/tough delivery projects in my experience.

I listen to and observe what the teams are doing as if my life depended on it. leadership is 90% listening. 10% speaking.

Moving from a corporate 'stable' job in Banking in New York, to a growing scale up FinTech in Berlin. Some people thought I was mad.

Take a step back. People act the way you act, so as a leader you need to be calm, measured and objective. Deal with the situation (client,tech issue, whatever it is) to the best of the ability, then later you can step back and think about what went wrong. Weekly incident review meetings (honest, open and constructive) should be essential in ANY organisation.

know the details within operations. inside out. If you have the details (of processes, data, touch points, workflows, client needs etc etc) it becomes an absolute super power. I didn't always realise that (coming from consulting) .. but if you're an expert on the details and can articulate that within the teams, you'll end up running the show.