'Small business' update 04

This was originally sent as an email.

This week we've been spending a lot of time thinking about some of the patterns inside category 12 Where I trade & how I get around.

'Where I trade…' includes all of the things at those premises, and the management of these things. We've split them in to 'back office' (or 'back of house' if you like) and 'front office'. In considering all of the types of things that you might have there, here's the structure we've got so far.

12.20 ■ Back office equipment & operations ⛔️
12.21 Keep the basics running
12.22 Keep us safe
12.23 Keep it nice for us
12.24 Keep the back office well equipped
12.25 Keep us fed and watered
12.26 Keep us sending & receiving
12.30 ■ Front office equipment & operations 🛎️
12.31 Keep the basics running
12.32 Keep our customers safe
12.33 Keep it nice for our customers
12.34 Keep the front office well equipped
12.35 Keep our customers fed and watered

By now you shouldn't be surprised to see patterns emerging. Patterns help your brain, and patterns are surprisingly useful when you're designing a system because they reveal potential gaps.

And you'll notice that we haven't used boring words. We started with boring words: 'office equipment' and so on. Turns out, making them less boring has a number of benefits.

They're less boring! (adj. not interesting; tedious.)
They're more memorable.
They encompass more when you express them as intent vs. content. We can't possibly know what all of you might put in here; but if we can figure out how each of you go about your day, we can hopefully provide a place for (almost) everything.

Let's put a quick example in each of these things. At JDHQ we're using a hairdressing salon as our working example because it seems to provide a nice spread of services, and conveniently Lucy had a cut & colour earlier this week so she had a good look around and asked a bunch of questions.

12.20 ■ Back office equipment & operations ⛔️
      - (This is a header.)
12.21 Keep the basics running
      - Electricity supply to the premises.
12.22 Keep us safe
      - The office security system.
      - This has an operations manual: how do you open up at the start of the day and lock up at the end?
12.23 Keep it nice for us
      - Buying a comfy chair for the staff area.
12.24 Keep the back office well equipped
      - From staplers to photocopiers.
12.25 Keep us fed and watered
      - Getting a fruit box delivered.
12.26 Keep us sending & receiving
      - Parcels and post.
12.30 ■ Front office equipment & operations 🛎️
      - (This is a header.)
12.31 Keep the basics running
      - You might have utility-like services that are front-of-house only. e.g. gas bottles for portable heaters at the front of a cafe.
12.32 Keep our customers safe
      - Security guards.
12.33 Keep it nice for our customers
      - Cleaning the toilets.
12.34 Keep the front office well equipped
      - Hairdryers and straighteners.
12.35 Keep our customers fed and watered
      - Buying a Nespresso machine & pods so you can give your customers a coffee while their colour sets.
      - This has an operations manual: how do you refill it? How often? Who does it? Where do you keep the pods? What happens when they run out?

Each of these IDs is really broad and, again, this is by design. This system will theoretically include a place for everything: a design goal is that we don't want you to have to create your own IDs. As soon as you create your own thing you're off the standard track; that standard gives us all a common language.

So, within each of these IDs there'll be a well-defined set of subfolders. All the same: as usual, consistency rules. Here they are. (*Noting that this is all a work-in-progress.)

10 Invoices, receipts, & warranties (buying it, or supplies for it)
20 Product manuals & training (how the vendor says to use it)
30 Operations manuals (how we use it)
40 Maintenance, repair, & service (keep it in working order)
50 Vendor & supplier details (who to contact)
60 Sale, cancellation, & disposal (it went away or ended)

The (words in parens) here might or might not make it to the finished product, but they're certainly helping me with the design. See previous email re: telling a story.

So now we have a place, for, say, explaining how to reset the office power breaker:

10-19 Company administration
   12 Where I trade & how I get around
      12.20 ■ Back office equipment & operations ⛔️
      12.21 Keep the basics running
            30 Operations manuals
               Electricity - how to reset the mains power.txt

And that little text file tells your staff where the breaker is and how to safely turn it back on, etc.

Designing a system that will theoretically be usable by any small business is, obviously, a challenge. I guess that's why nobody's ever done it. So I'd love to know what you think: do you read this and think, 'yeah, I could use that'...

...or do you think something different? Tell us! Now or never... ;-)