The Ops Blueprint for Coaches: Streamlining Your Processes and Documenting Your Data for Easy Handoffs (with Jennie Lakenan)

What is a process? 

A process is a set of step-by-step instructions for how to do a certain job. It gives everyone a standard way to do a task. You might also hear it called a system or an SOP, which just stands for Standard Operating Procedure. 

Processes can make a business way more fun to run because it's efficient, it's scalable, and the end result of your product or service is much consistently higher quality.

Benefits of having processes for coaching businesses

Processes make the work way faster 

Processes help your business run smoothly and efficiently because everyone on the team knows how to do a certain job or deal with a certain situation. This cuts down on mistakes and reduces the time and resources the team has to expend to actually finish the job. 

You're saving time and money because your team will be able to work faster doing the same work, which is also super fun for them. It makes their workflow more satisfying and seamless too. 

As we say as coaches, we want our clients to feel held in their process as they work with us, and we also want our team members to feel held and supported. Process is an amazing way to make that happen.

Processes make your offerings more scalable 

As your business grows, you'll likely need to hire more people or give more jobs to your existing team members. And with processes, it's easier to train new team members and confidently give them jobs. The process helps make everyone follow the same steps to get a job done. It's easier to keep high standards for your team even as your business grows. 

Processes make your offerings more consistently high quality 

When everyone on the team follows the same process to deliver an offer, you can give your clients the same high-quality results every time. This does amazing things for your reputation as a coach. 

Being known for having a really consistently high-quality offer helps to build trust and loyalty with your clients. They feel taken care of because they're in your process, and that they're gonna get the result that they need with you.

What are the steps to creating a process? 

Here is the blueprint of creating processes. 

1. Record and share a video of your process 

Loom is a great screen sharing tool that makes it super quick to record your computer screen, walk through a process, and then Loom quickly generates a share link as soon as you hit "stop record". It does have a five-minute video limit on their free tier, though. So you can't make videos that are longer than five minutes on the free tier. 

If you don't want to mess with another subscription or learn another tool, you can also screen share in a Zoom room by yourself, record, walk through the task, and then export the recording. It's not quite as seamless of a workflow, but it does work.

Once you're recording on Loom or Zoom, you'll walk through the task step by step. Try to keep it to five to ten minutes or less where possible. If the video is much longer than 10 minutes, you might consider breaking it up into separate processes instead of having one long video. The chances are that if it's more than a 10-minute video, it's probably more than one process.

2. Generate a transcript from the video 

If you're using Loom, it'll generate a transcript for you as part of the interface.

If you're using Zoom, you can use a tool like Fathom AI, which is a Zoom add-on to generate the transcript.

3. Create a checklist from the transcript

You’d want to have a checklist or a bullet-pointed "how-to" list. The idea is that the video is helpful for initial learning for a team member, like the first time they're doing the process, and then for subsequent times they need to do the task, it's easier to refresh real quick with a checklist instead of having to re-watch the video every time.

It is highly recommended to use an AI tool to create the checklist, because it generates the checklist much faster and easier. It's essential to be really specific when prompting the AI to ensure it has the context it needs. Then, take the checklist, copy it out into a doc, and edit it for clarity and any missteps that the AI may have overlooked.

4. Edit your checklist and add screenshots

You can add screenshots where needed to provide more detail and clarity on the steps.

If you don't include screenshots, your process may be difficult to follow, and users are more likely to miss important steps. 

After you have edited your checklist for clarity and added screenshots, you should test your process. This is a step that many people overlook, many coaches who have created a lot of processes for their businesses say that the number one factor in their success is having a team member actually use the process to complete a task and then provide feedback. 

This way, they may identify areas that need more or less detail, or they may notice a step that has been missed.

5. Store your processes intent intentionally

Creating a process is only half of the equation; storing it in a way that you and your team can easily reference and use is the other important piece. This usually means adding your processes to individual documents in your knowledge-based tool, such as Google Drive, Notion, or Click Up. Create an individual document for each process so that you and your team can easily find them.

Also, having some kind of table of contents for those process documents is advisable. For example, if you're storing your videos and checklists in a unique Google Doc, create a Google Sheets table of contents. 

Or if you're using a tool like Airtable, you could create the table of contents there. If you're using a tool like Notion or Click Up, you can create an individual page for each process inside a general processes database, which will have a built-in table of contents for you.

Alternative tools to make your process creation easier 

The first one is ScribeHow, and the second one is called Tango. What these are is, instead of video capture, they're screen capture tools that try to help create a process by tracking where you click and creating screenshots and written steps around your clicks on the page. 

But, they might not be quite as accurate at guessing what you’re doing, so experiment and see what works for you.

Key takeaways from this presentation

First, record your screen and share your video using Loom or Zoom. 

Generate a text transcript for the video, and remember that Loom will do this automatically for you if you're using it, which is great. 

Use that transcript to create a checklist using an AI tool. ChatGPT is a really great one, but of course, there are lots of others. 

Fourth, you'll edit that process for clarity. Add any steps that the AI missed, screenshots, and then test it. Don't forget to test. 

Lastly, store that process in an easy-to-use way so that you have a table of contents to easily find and use it.