A Comprehensive Overview of Business Operations (Bizops) Archetypes in Tech
Business Operations (aka bizops) is one of the most popular roles in the tech for consultants and bankers. It’s also one of the least understood. A cursory Google Search will yield generic ChatGPT sounding results that don’t tell you much such as:
Business operations professionals are responsible for the management of all the administrative and operational tasks that a company needs to function. The business operations role is often overlooked in a tech start-up, but it is crucial for its success.
And yes, I did pose the same question to ChatGPT itself and the answer was very weak. Granted, that’s because its trained on publicly available web content and most of what’s out there isn’t that great either. Rocketblocks and Exponent do their best, but IMO their perspective is limited.
So let’s get right to the point. What is business operations in tech? I’ve found that there are ~5 different archetypes of business operations roles. Given the flexibility of bizops roles and those typically taking the role (generalist business athletes) → it’s not uncommon for a role to have elements of archetype, though it may lean heavily toward one or the other.
Let’s introduce the Archetypes!
- Planning / Rhythm of Business
- Internal Consulting
- Pinch Hitter
- Operator
- Analytics
Planning / Rhythm of Business
WBR, MBR, QBR, AOP, OP — do these terms ring a bell? They all have to do with business reviews (BR) and planning (P). The job of bizops in this function is to drive and own the planning process for either the entire organization, a business unit, or a function (e.g., marketing, engineering).
This job involves of lot of meeting scheduling (sounds silly, but very important), aligning the right cross-functional leaders at the right cadences, providing feedback on strategy, building slides to frame meetings, all to make sure that everyone is driving towards the same outcomes and aligning on which direction the org/bu/function is going.
Plan →Review →Plan →Review so it goes, with quarterly and annual cadences being the most intensive exercises.
Most common in larger mature companies or growth stage companies that are transitioning into the former.
Internal Consulting
Bizops in this function act as internal consultants to provide a recommendation / POV on a variety of business topics at either the org, BU, or function level. Product management need some help sizing the TAM of a new market? HR need a unit economics capacity planning model for new office expansion? Marketing need help on a build or buy decision on a martech vendor? Project-based work.
Bizops to the rescue with structured thinking, slides + spreadsheets, and an “outside” perspective on what to do.
Pinch Hitter
This is similar to internal consulting in that it is usually project based but different in that typically the function is operating as opposed to advisory.
Need an extra PM? Check. Need an analytics person? Check. Need someone to open a new market? Check. Need someone to buy snacks for the office? Check.
You basically plug in wherever the business needs it.
Most common in earlier-stage startups where there is a ton of work to be done but no limited / budget scope to afford specialists for the things that need to be done, but someone needs to do then. Not common in big tech given that every function / role is already highly specialized and defined.
Operator
Marketplace startups will often call GM-type roles “business operations” or “strategy & operations” but what they really mean is that you own a function (e.g., trust and safety), a market (e.g., Seattle), and/or a side of the marketplace (e.g., drivers). You make most of the non-product decisions for the area that you own and are responsible for them.
P&L ownership is often tied to this role (not the case for any of the others) and is most commonly found in consumer tech / marketplace. There’s really not such a thing for B2B businesses.
Analytics
Companies typically define analytics as a separate function but occasionally it will get rolled in as bizops.
This is standard descriptive / prescriptive analytics work → lots of SQL + BI tool dashboarding type work, maybe some A/B testing as well. Can also include more finance type work where excel modeling is used.
Have more questions on bizops roles? Please feel free to reach out :)
