As a new Operations Lead, what processes should I document in my first 30 days?

In your first 30 days as a new Operations Lead, document the processes that are most critical and least documented: customer-facing workflows, single-owner processes, and any task that causes confusion or errors when the usual person is unavailable. Start by asking each team member "What breaks when you're out sick?" — those answers are your documentation priority list.

What should you document in each week?

Week	Focus	Actions
Week 1	Discovery	Interview each team member, identify undocumented processes, inventory existing docs
Week 2	Critical processes	Document the top 5 highest-risk workflows (single-owner, customer-facing)
Week 3	Recurring tasks	Document weekly and monthly processes before they come due
Week 4	Handoff and escalation paths	Document how work moves between people and teams

How do you prioritize which processes to document first?

Ask two questions about each process:

1. What is the blast radius if this process fails? — Customer-facing processes and revenue-impacting workflows rank highest.
2. How many people can perform this process? — If only one person knows how, it is a documentation emergency.

Priority	Criteria	Example
Immediate	Customer-facing + single owner	Only Maria knows how to process refunds
High	Revenue-impacting + undocumented	Monthly billing reconciliation has no SOP
Medium	Team-wide + inconsistent	Everyone handles vendor invoices differently
Low	Internal + well-understood	Team meeting agenda (everyone knows the format)

Record each workflow with Glyde as team members perform their tasks. You learn the processes while simultaneously creating documentation — two goals accomplished in one activity.

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This answer is part of our guide to process documentation.