Hello, this is Kawarazaki.
I am in the operations team and am mainly responsible for site design.
As an operations team, our main job is, as our name suggests, operating the website.
Each and every website has its own purpose and vision, and we approach them from the same perspective. We do not just publish what has been requested; we are involved in operational work as if we were treating the company's website from the same perspective as the people in charge.
Here we would like to introduce some of the things we keep in mind every day when working on the projects we are in charge of.
If you just "avoid mistakes," mistakes will happen.
As part of our operations work, we sometimes create landing pages as promotional materials for e-commerce sites based on manuscripts and catalogs received from clients.
What we are careful about when doing this is not to assume that all manuscripts and materials provided by customers are the "correct" ones.
We check for common typos and phrasing as a prerequisite, but in addition we also check from the perspective of our client's web manager.
Check carefully, and if there is nothing wrong, then that's OK. If there is anything wrong, you can correct it before publishing, so I think it's very important to have a detached perspective.
In fact, this may be the most time-consuming part.
For example, if a catalog product used on an e-commerce site that you receive from a customer is priced differently from last month, this may be because the price has changed for some reason (such as a price increase), but it may also simply be a mistake in the price.
I think it's only because I'm in charge of operations every month that I'm able to notice these kinds of mistakes.
Also, when a customer requests a page to be revised, we not only check the requested page, but also thoroughly review other pages to see if there are any that need similar revisions.
I don't just do what I'm told; as the person in charge, I feel that I have the best understanding of the site I'm managing, and I take full responsibility for its production.
As an operations manager, I check every last detail of the work I create.
While the information is fresh
We have a relatively large production project where we are responsible for updating around 5 landing pages per month plus all of the associated content.
There are a total of eight people involved in this project, and there are a mountain of decisions to be made and tasks to be carried out.
In order to share tasks and information that arise daily, we hold a progress management meeting every morning at 11am, with all project members attending.
Every morning meeting.
Based on the project schedule created in a spreadsheet, planners, designers, and coders each report on the progress and remaining tasks up to the previous day, making the person in charge, status, and schedule visible and shared.
Although the meetings only last about 5 to 10 minutes, by conducting this basic progress management every day, we can check whether the project is behind schedule or whether there are any missing tasks. Also, by sharing the progress between the people in charge of each phase, we can ensure a smooth flow from wiring → design → coding.
We place great importance on all projects, not just large ones, having all staff share information when producing a project.
We make sure that no work is missed by creating a monthly schedule in a spreadsheet and sharing it with everyone to improve efficiency.
To ensure uniform production quality
In operational projects, regular update work is frequently required as part of the business.
In case we receive requests for fixed tasks like this, we create operation manuals in spreadsheets for each project.
The aim of this is to standardize quality by clarifying the operational flow so that the same quality can be produced regardless of who is doing the work.
By actually using the operations manual, mistakes such as following the wrong procedures or missing checks have been reduced, resulting in a significant improvement in operations.
By creating an appropriate manual for each project, you can keep it easy to use and likely to produce results.
What do you think?
The tasks we have introduced here may seem tedious under normal circumstances, but by doing them repeatedly, you will make it easier to manage projects within your team and improve the quality of your productions.
In addition to the examples I have given today, I would like to introduce some other "mindsets" unique to the operations team on another occasion.
KAWARAZAKI Taira