Build Scalable Systems: Set Your Business Up for Growth
Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I’m exploring a key part of scaling a business: creating operational systems that can grow with you. Based on my experience, the best systems help growth and keep chaos away. I learned a lot by streamlining operations. This helps avoid bottlenecks and boosts efficiency.
As founders, we can get lost in developing products and marketing them. But one area that I believe gets overlooked is the operational side. If you don’t build scalable systems, growth will just add more stress to your business. I've made mistakes, but I've learned important lessons I want to share.
The Power of Small Choices Up Front
A lot of people talk about doing things that don’t scale in the early stages of a business. It’s a famous saying: "Do things that don’t scale until they do." And, frankly, I think that’s true. At first, you need to be resourceful. This is key, especially when the infrastructure isn’t set up properly. I’ve learned that small choices at the start can really impact scaling.
Let me give you a personal example. We began our voice AI product with a simple idea. We made a spreadsheet to track user feedback. It worked—until it didn’t. As our user base grew, managing feedback in a spreadsheet became tough. It was hard to link that feedback to specific moments in the product.
We discovered a simpler, scalable solution. We added feedback right into the product. Users can now comment on voice AI calls. All feedback is tracked and stored in the product’s database. This helps us analyze quicker. We can also use AI to automate tasks, such as bug reporting and prioritizing fixes.
Reflecting on my time with Acompli, we faced a similar challenge. We needed to improve our customer support. We setup so you could only submit support tickets using the Acompli app. This made things easy for our small team. Users could submit tickets from any screen. The app will track that context on its own. This let us grow with a small support team. We support millions of users with just a few agents. We gained this efficiency by cutting out extra steps. We also embedded the support system right into the product.
How to Build Scalable Systems
1. Standardize Early
It’s easy to be flexible at first. If you standardize your processes now, it will be easier to scale later. A clear system for customer support can prevent chaos. It helps manage feedback and tickets effectively.
2. Add Tools Directly to Your Product
The best systems have tools built right in. Tools in the product make things easier. They also keep everything in one place. This also makes automation much easier. We use Jira or GitHub for engineering issues and Asana for operations. We also try to embed these processes in the product experience whenever we can.
3. Automate Repetitive Tasks
If you don’t automate what you can, you waste time. In today’s world, there’s so much technology available to help with this. We use AI to automate customer support tasks. This helps us analyze feedback, saving our team a lot of time and effort. The more you automate, the easier it is for your systems to scale. This way, you won't always need human help.
4. Move to a shared space for customer communication now.
Use real-time tools to enhance interaction. That means we will move customer talks to a Slack channel. This helps your team stay involved. They can learn from each interaction. It also ensures everyone is on the same page. Slack lets users add team members. This simplifies the process. It also makes it more collaborative.
5. Think Long-Term
It’s tempting to focus on quick fixes. But consider how these solutions might grow over time. If you’re solving a problem that you think might occur again, document it. Making a quick Loom video to explain how you fixed the issue can help others learn to solve it too. You can soon turn that documented process into an AI automation plan. This plan will manage similar tasks down the line.
Key Takeaways
- Scalable systems build on the small decisions made at the start.
- Simplify your processes to make scaling easier.
- Add tools to your product to make operations easier.
- Automate tasks that repeat. This saves time and cuts down on mistakes.
- Shift customer chats to shared spaces such as Slack. This will help with teamwork and make work more efficient.
Final Thoughts
Creating scalable systems is key for lasting growth. It might seem boring to invest in good operational practices, but it will pay off in the long run. When you build systems that grow with your business, scaling is easier and less stressful.
I’ve learned it’s not just about the right tools. It's about using the tools in the product. Make tasks simpler and focus on green practices for the future. It's about fixing bottlenecks. You need to set up processes that can grow without breaking down.
If you’re starting to scale, don’t wait for things to break. Start building those systems now, and you’ll thank yourself later.
See you next week,
-kevin
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