Processes aren’t just a set of documents and rules that help your business run efficiently and reduce human error…

They’re also something that needs to be part of your company culture. Process adherence is the culture side of systemization, and that makes it one of those hard to grasp concepts without many solid rules.

The culture of processes — instead of the act of writing and optimizing them — is something we’ve been meaning to cover for a while because we know it’s a big problem for our users.

Incidentally, we got an insightful comment on our article about creating an operations manual from MamaRed Knight. She outlined an age-old problem with process adherence:

“[Process adherence] is something I’ve been dealing with since I started formally creating documentation in ’83. It really must start at the top level where they don’t answer questions, they ask if it is “in the manual” and it ripples down.

It does take time because, frankly, a very teensy tiny percentage of people want to look something up… 98% want to ask someone and be done with it.”

In this quote, she highlights two main issues:

• Employees don’t want to look up processes
• Procedures are passed on informally by hearsay

In this post, I’m going to explain why processes fail because of human nature, and then unpack each reason with an explanation of how you can improve process adherence in each area.

Continue Reading

Apple is well-known for being innovative and immensely successful, to the point where the company is worth $750 billion (and counting). However, without a healthy dose of workflow analysis they would’ve crumbled under their own business model back in the late 1980s.

“We could no longer afford the limitations that went with our product development processes… The lack of a formal new product development process led to confusion, wasted time, and often caused project teams to ‘re-create the wheel’” – Jackie Streeter (then VP of Engineering at Apple), Apple Rethinks Core Process: Improves Cycle Time

The simple truth is that any company (no matter the size or success) needs to regularly review its workflows and processes in order to keep them up to date and efficient. Tasks should be updated, improved, and automated where possible to save time and money, but without using the best workflow management software around to analyze and improve your business practices, your entire business model itself can prevent your success.

Continue Reading

Hatch Canada has been a long time member of the Process Street community and utilizes our platform to streamline their recruitment and onboarding processes. We spoke with CEO Peter Kuperman about how Process Street is utilized within the business.

The Hatch Canada story

While children grow up with iPads and computers, their classes in school too often focus on the same areas as they did 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Hatch is on the forefront of changing that approach.

Hatch is committed to opening up technology to everyone, and providing an opportunity to understand what’s inside the machines kids already interact with daily.

Not simply a coding school, Hatch is dispersed across Canada and is able to boast that it’s a 100+ person company.

The aim is to making learning fun.

Continue Reading

When I think of monopoly I think of a mustachioed man with a nice hat and a highland terrier.

I also think of family arguments and Christmas flashbacks; Monopole mon amour, directed by Resnais…

Yet, those aren’t the only monopoly connotations you should be worried about. The New York Times recently reported that a whopping 77% of mobile social traffic is owned by Facebook, 74% of the ebook market is Amazon, and Google owns 88% percent of the search advertising market.

They aren’t the only monopolies around and they’re only in specific sectors. A report from eMarketer showed that in 2016 Facebook and Google collectively accounted for 57% of all mobile advertising – and that figure is rising. Maybe it’s not a monopoly at all, but a duopoly?

Market position isn’t static, it’s dynamic. Monopolies form and fade, doing so in response to specific factors and environments.

In this article, we’ll look at the rise and fall of some monopolistic scenarios and try to learn a little about how this current dominance may look moving forward.

Continue Reading

Everyone wants to be the next Dollar Shave Club ad. Aside from being a fantastic and effective ad, it’s a perfect example of viral marketing, with almost 24.5 million views and counting.

Unfortunately, most of us can barely agree on what classes as “viral” content, let alone create it at will with a set marketing process. Worse still, much of the existing research on viral marketing ignores one key factor; how big your audience is. That’s like gambling without even knowing how much you’re betting – the theory is solid, but you can’t expect to succeed without knowing more.

So, in an attempt to pin down how a less-established site can produce viral content, I analyzed 10,879 of the most shared articles from last year. Stick around to find out:

• How much your existing audience affects your viral marketing chances
• Which social media platform is best to focus on
• How long your content should be (and how much it matters)
• The link between viral sharing and traffic
• Why spam tactics work, but are a terrible idea
• How to give your content the best chance of going viral (without needing your own audience)

Let’s get started.

Continue Reading

Is your team confused about responsibility, hierarchy, or who reports to who?

Do you have a clear idea of where there’s room to give a promotion, or which department could do with more hires?

You need to make an organizational chart for your business, no matter what size your company is because it ensures your company can scale consistently with a clear view of its structure. It’s just as important as solid processes because it’s the single source of truth for the architecture of your business.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to create organizational charts using simple free tools, or powerful paid alternatives.

You’ll learn:

• The definition and components of an organizational chart
• The hidden benefits of organizational charts, and why they’re not just a formality
• Creating a cloud-based organizational chart in Google Sheets that you can automate
• How to use templates to create a simple org chart in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and dedicated diagram tools
• How to use different types of charts for alternative organizational structures, like matrix and flat

Continue Reading

You don’t have to be a consultant to get paid for recommending software. Instead, you can earn money or in-app credits by using a referral program.

In other words, you can earn money for referring products without paying a cent. Yes, I know that sounds like a “I earn $1,537.87 per day from home” clickbait ad, but it’s true.

Continue Reading

Toronto-based iQ Food Co is a long time user of Process Street and its operations are being driven forward with the aid of our platform. We spoke with Arthur Bekerman, the COO, about how iQ Food Co implement Process Street in their business.

The iQ Food Co Story

iQ Food Co is a company deeply embedded with an ethos. They devote themselves to the promotion of balance and sustainability and feel that everyone should have access to the healthy and vibrant food they provide. More than half of the produce iQ Food Co buys is sourced from within 100 kilometers and they serve it up in balanced colorful meals for customers across their 5 locations.

Continue Reading

Do you know how long a prospective candidate will spend reading your job ad?

Six seconds.

With more than three billion job listings online at any given moment, standing out from the crowd might mean the difference between finding the greatest team member possible or having to settle for the best of a bad bunch.

Data from 2015 suggests that 100 million startups are launched annually. And, as the number of competitors rockets up, the pool of available talent is diluted, leaving you with less choice.

The solution?

A clear and compelling job description. It’s more complex than it first seems, but in this article I’ll be sure to make it easy.

Continue Reading

Last week we failed to meet a big deadline for the second time in a month. Vinay (Process Street‘s CEO) wasn’t impressed.

“How can you forget something so simple? What’s going wrong?”

Then came the kicker.

“What was your process?”

From missed deadlines to widespread cyber attacks, things go wrong in businesses all the time. The vast majority of problems, however, are caused by following bad processes. Processes might be vital to your business’ success, but unchecked they can just as easily cause you to fail.

The only way to change these weak links in your own business is to have a system of process improvement – a way of constantly improving the processes that power your business.
Continue Reading