Startup Operations: Fix Chaos Before You Scale, 480+ Tools

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Up to about fifty people, a company runs on the founder remembering everything. Past that, memory stops working and the flexibility starts looking like chaos. Here are 485 tools to build the operational base in order: 7 working files, 309 ready-to-use templates, question lists, search strings, procedures and checklists, 118 models and methods, and 51 services and apps shown on screen.

Open a lecture, take the tool, write down one process this week.

Twelve new people and everything got slower

Two teams are quietly doing the same work and neither knows it. Nobody can say who makes a particular decision, so it gets made three times. You hired ahead of the plan, and now payroll is the largest number on the page and the runway is shorter than expected. The org chart lives on a slide from last quarter and no longer matches anyone’s actual job. And the engineering hire that determines your product speed has been open for four months, because nobody in the company knows where developers are or what to say to them.

What changes after this course

You know which processes to write down first and which to leave alone. You see where time is lost and who decides what. The structure follows the strategy and not the history of who was hired when. Headcount is a calculation. The founder has the basic people tools before anyone is hired to run them. And you have a plan for the day the runway shortens.

What is inside: 485 tools, counted lecture by lecture

You do not have to take this number on trust. Open any lecture and read its description: every tool inside is listed there by name.

• 51 downloadable resources: the lecture presentations plus 7 standalone workbooks (Write It Down Test, operations dashboard builder, automation ROI calculator, operations stack audit, operations career roadmap, ops value report, operations competency assessment)
• 309 ready-to-use tools inside the presentations:
• 63 templates and sample documents: metric ownership specification, team change announcement, operations technology roadmap, operations manager 90-day plan
• 51 question lists and scripts: bottleneck diagnosis, monthly operations review, operating model design, staffing decisions
• 50 search strings: GitHub candidate sourcing, LinkedIn candidate sourcing, Crunchbase candidate sourcing, laid-off candidate search
• 44 step-by-step procedures and workflows: process mapping, theory of constraints, escalation protocol, operations change implementation
• 36 checklists: process prioritization, handoff design, operations rhythm implementation, automation readiness
• 31 scorecards, rubrics and matrices: impact and effort matrix, RACI responsibility matrix, RAG status reporting, operations platform selection matrix
• 19 formulas and metric sets: operations process metrics, operations performance metrics, FTE calculation, upcoming workload staffing calculation
• 10 ready AI prompts: process change analysis, change communication plan, operations dashboard design, workflow automation ROI
• 5 other working tools: weekly operations rhythm, stabilize or redesign decision tree, Boolean search operator guide
• 118 models and methods explained with examples: value stream analysis, TIMWOODS waste analysis, Greiner growth model, ADKAR change management
• 51 services and apps shown on screen, from a quick look to a detailed demo: GitHub, hireEZ, RocketReach, Hunter, PeopleForce, Breezy HR, Kissflow, Confluence, Slack, Loom and others

Where the tools are

• Start here (1 tool). The Write It Down Test: decide what to write down first.
• Operations (3 sections, 90 tools). The function, processes, metrics, bottlenecks, operating rhythms, change, the toolkit and its value. Six of the seven workbooks are here.
• Organisational design (3 sections, 43 tools). The design process, the star model, structures, decision power, span of control and five company cases.
• Workforce planning (2 sections, 83 tools). Headcount, demand forecasting, job design, headcount cost and performance.
• Founder-led people operations (4 sections, 104 tools). The essential HR system, pay, the first people hire, senior onboarding, bonuses, equity and automation.
• Technical recruiting (2 sections, 114 tools). Developer roles and levels, talent mapping, Boolean search, sourcing tools and outreach.
• Crisis and restructuring (2 sections, 70 tools). Hiring, payroll and development in a crisis, people decisions, communication and contingency planning.

Who is teaching

I am Mike, the #1 HR instructor on Udemy, with 1,800,000+ course enrollments from 170,000 students, and the author of about 200 books on Amazon. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn and worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank across 20 years in HR. I hold PHRi, SHRM-CP and HCI sHRBP certifications and represent HRCI in Eastern Europe. I am also a founder and lead the strategy of my own academy.

I have lived through this growth. When I joined Preply there were 50 people, and in a little more than half a year we grew to 110. Doubling the company is a heavy load on everyone. One of the things that helped was simple: once a month everyone gathered and each newcomer told about themselves in a short presentation, five minutes in any format they liked. I took part in it as a new employee and later organised it for others.

How to use the course

Start with the first lecture and its Write It Down Test. Then go to the block where the company hurts most now: operations, structure, headcount, people, developer hiring or crisis. Section and lecture titles show how many tools are inside, and each lecture description lists them by name.

What is included

• 46 lectures across 17 sections, 22.5 hours
• 51 downloadable resources: lecture presentations and 7 workbooks
• 485 tools across the lessons, including 51 services and apps shown on screen
• Lifetime access to all materials
• Active instructor support in the Q&A section
• A Udemy Certificate of Completion

Where to start

Take the decision that was made three times last month. Open the lecture on decision power, put the names into a responsibility matrix and show it to the people involved. One recurring argument will end. Enrol now and start your first lesson today.

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