Build it, hire for it, or install a system: a one-page decision
Sort the work by its kind. When the same steps happen every time, install a system. When the work needs judgment or relationships, hire a person. When it's small and rare, build it yourself. Most businesses have all three, so write each piece of work on its own line and choose for each line.
Something in the business keeps slipping. Leads wait for a reply, kickoffs drag, or the monthly report goes out late, and the owner ends up doing it after hours. The usual fixes are to build it yourself, hire someone for it, or install a system. Each one suits a different kind of work, and most businesses have some of each.
I build systems, so weigh my view with that in mind. This is the rule I use to decide which way to go, and for some of the work it points away from a system.
The rule: sort the work by its kind
Look at what the work is made of before you look at who could do it. When the same details move through the same steps every time, install a system. When it needs judgment or a relationship with a client, hire a person. When it's small and comes up rarely, build it yourself: do it by hand, or set up something small in a tool you already use.
- Same steps every time: install a system
- Judgment and relationships: hire a person
- Small and rare: do it yourself
| Kind of work | What it looks like | The choice | Where the choice goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same steps every time | The same details move between the same tools each week: a form into the CRM, a signed proposal into the project board, a kickoff date into everyone's calendar. | Install a system | Nobody looks after it when one of its tools changes, or it's asked to make calls that need a person. |
| Judgment and relationships | Reading how a client feels from a short email, pushing back on scope, deciding what a late project needs. | Hire a person | The person you hire spends most of the week copying details between tools, and the judgment work still lands on you. |
| Small and rare | A task that comes up now and then and doesn't take long, like changing the questions on a form or pulling a one-off report. | Build it yourself | It stops being rare and nobody notices, so the owner is still doing it by hand every week. |
The one-page memo
Write each piece of work that keeps slipping on its own line, then fill in the columns. Be plain about who owns it today, even when the answer is whoever gets to it first. Once the middle columns are filled in, the last one mostly follows from them.
| The work | How often | Same steps or judgment | Who owns it today | The choice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replying to a new lead from the website form | Several times a week | Both: sorting and drafting follow the same steps, and the reply needs a person's say | Whoever sees it first | A system sorts it and drafts the reply, and a person at the business approves it |
| Turning a signed proposal into a project, folders and a kickoff invite | Every new client | Same steps | The owner, after hours | Install a system |
| Deciding whether a scope change needs a new quote | A few times a month | Judgment | The owner | Keep it with a person, and hire when there's more of it than the owner can hold |
| Answering a client who's unhappy with a deliverable | Now and then | Judgment and relationship | The account lead | Hire a person, or keep it with the account lead |
| Changing the questions on the intake form | Rarely | Same steps, but rare | The owner | Build it yourself |
Notice that the first row is split. Most work that slips is part routine and part judgment, and the memo works best when you split those parts onto separate lines and choose for each.
When hiring is the right call
If you're wondering whether to just hire an ops person, look at the lines on your memo marked judgment. A person earns their place on work where somebody has to make a call, own an outcome or keep a client happy. Put that same person on the same-steps lines and they spend the week as the glue between tools.
When the memo has both kinds of line, I'd take the same-steps lines off the table first and hire after, so the job you advertise is the judgment work alone. The cost side of that choice, with US federal pay figures for a coordinator, is on the page about hiring an operations coordinator or installing a system, and the coordination cost tool works it out from your own numbers.
When building it yourself is right
For small, rare work, the owner or someone already on the team is often the best answer. When a task is rare enough, doing it by hand costs less than building it, looking after it and writing it down. If it can be set up in a tool you already use, like a form that emails you its answers, that still counts as building it yourself.
Keep what you build small enough that you can fix it yourself. And look at the memo again every few months, because rare work has a way of turning weekly while nobody is counting.
When a system is right, and what it still needs
A system suits the work that follows the same steps every time, and it runs the same when people are out. It still needs a person in two places. Someone has to look after it when one of its tools changes, and someone at the business approves anything it drafts for a client. Anything it can't place goes to a person with the context to decide.
Before you install one, check how it handles failures, double sends and handover. The guide to what a reliable automation looks like and the questions to ask anyone building your automations cover them.
If you'd like a number for the repeated work on your memo, the coordination cost tool works out what it costs each year from your own counts and the hourly cost of the people doing it.
Questions
I'd rather have a person than a system. Is that wrong?
Not when the work is mostly judgment and relationships. The trouble comes when the person you hire spends most of the week moving the same details between tools. Fill in the memo first, and hire for the lines marked judgment.
What if a piece of work is half routine and half judgment?
Split it into two lines. The routine half goes to a system, and it hands the judgment half to a person with the details already gathered. Replying to a new lead is the common case: the sorting and the draft follow the same steps, and a person at the business approves the reply.
How rare is rare enough to do it myself?
Rare enough that doing it by hand over a year costs less than building it and looking after it would. If you notice you're doing it every week, move it to the same-steps line of the memo.
Can I build the system myself?
For small ones in tools you already use, often yes. What takes the time is the odd cases, an alert when a step fails, and making sure nothing sends twice. Without those, a break can go unnoticed until a client mentions it.
What do I do with the finished memo?
Start with the same-steps line that takes the most time each week. That's usually the first system worth installing, and it frees time for the judgment lines, whoever ends up owning them.
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