SOP (standard operating procedure)
Also called: standard operating procedure, operations manual
A written, step-by-step description of a recurring task, with the reason behind it and known pitfalls, detailed enough that someone new can do it without asking the founder.
An SOP (standard operating procedure) is a written, step-by-step description of a task that comes up again and again: what triggers it, what to do in what order, why each step matters, and what usually goes wrong. A good SOP is detailed enough that someone new can do the task correctly without asking the person who wrote it.
In a small company almost everything starts in the founders' heads. That works until the business grows past what they can hold: the same questions interrupt them all day, nobody else can handle an emergency, and a week off becomes impossible. Written procedures move that knowledge out of their heads and into a shared place, so tasks can be handed over, done the same way each time and improved deliberately.
Start with the tasks that repeat most often or cost the most when they go wrong: onboarding a new customer, the monthly billing check, what to do when the product breaks. Write the SOP the next time you do the task, not from memory; include the reason behind each step, so people can handle cases the document doesn't cover. Keep SOPs short, date them, and update them whenever the process changes. Documented procedures also raise what a business is worth, because a buyer can see it will run without the founders.
Example
By August of year 2 GarageDesk has 200 shops, and Nina has gone three weeks without a day off, fixing things at night. The founders write four procedures first: onboarding a new shop, the monthly payment check, incident response and switching the SMS provider.
The incident SOP turns the lessons of the night of 17 April (when a release sent duplicate reminders to 140 car owners of one shop) into steps: 1) roll back the last release first, investigate later; 2) pause sending if reminders are going out wrongly; 3) no reminders between 21:00 and 9:00; 4) by 8:00 the next morning, message the affected shop's owner with what happened and what was fixed; 5) with the owner's OK, send one apology to their car owners under the shop's name. Why: the shop's reputation is at stake, not only GarageDesk's.
Common mistakes
- Writing from memory. Write the procedure while doing the task, or steps get skipped.
- Steps without reasons. Without the "why", people can't handle a case the document doesn't cover.
- Documenting everything at once. Start with the few tasks that repeat most or hurt most.
- Never updating. An outdated SOP is worse than none; date each one and review it when the process changes.