#15: The one operations doc everyone needs, but nobody writes
Spelling out our culture, how we work together and making the implicit explicit.
👋 Hey Diana here! Welcome to the #15 issue of the Operations Optimist newsletter. Each Tuesday, I tackle questions about building operations functions in startups and share my lessons from working in venture capital. In today’s newsletter, we break down how to write your how we work manual.
Whatever stage you are, you already have a company culture. It’s just undocumented.
Two people equals culture. Ten people is chaos if expectations aren’t clear. Most startup dysfunction doesn’t come from bad intent, rather it comes from silent mismatches on how work gets done. When do I reply? Can I call you? Should we fistbump when we meet?
Let’s dive in.
5 building blocks for a startup operating manual
1: define your communication expectations
Every team sits on a scale between async and sync. The most synchronous company will still use email and be async in some parts of their day. And the most async company will also have an occasional meeting.
It’s a balance, so be explicit about yours.
What you need is intentionality:
Are we a team that writes up agendas, context and expectations before meetings? Or do we always rely on the serendipity of real time?
What is our expected communication tools and behaviors?
How do we document decisions?
Create and model behaviors you want in your team. Maybe it’s: Slack does not need immediate replies, Google Doc for decisions, we have one meeting-free week per quarter or one in-person offsite per year. Maybe it's something else unique to you.
2: rituals > random pings
Unstructured teams build calendars full of meetings that accumulate over time. Structured teams build rituals — predictable and purposeful.
Here’s your minimum meeting cadence from issue #5.
Annual offsite → Vision, trust, and focus reset
Monthly all-hands → Transparency, demos, progress
Bi-weekly team syncs → Tactics, blockers, idea exchange
Weekly 1:1s → Personal growth and accountability
You can always add more to it, but start here.
3: define what off-cadence meetings are good for
Just because you can jump on a call doesn’t mean you should. But sometimes, you actually should.
Here’s when syncups make sense:
Decisions that need fast back-and-forth or emotional alignment
Feedback that’s nuanced, messy, or personal (think performance reviews)
1:1s that build trust (regular checkins with your manager)
Emergencies where async would delay real consequences (customer issue, bugs, etc.)
4: write the rules of engagement for your tools
Most tools become chaotic because no one defines what they’re for. Here's one flavor of this:
Slack → For day-to-day chatter. Think watercool conversations and quick clarifications. Default: respond in 24 hours.
Email → Legal, external, formal. Treat it like regular mail – slow but important (or spam)
Notion/Google Docs/Whimsical → Source of truth. Projects, decisions, documentation
Loom → Use for async demos and context sharing
Calls → Reserved for emergencies, decision-making, feedback sharing or 1:1 trust-building.
Every tool should have an assumed response time, don’t shy away from defining them.
5: document it and never stop updating it
Your how we work doc is a living organism. It’s your chance to shine, make implicit behaviors explicit and model the kind of culture you want to build.
Document:
How your company communicates
What tools are used and why
What response times are expected
When meetings happen and how to prep for them
How decisions are made
How feedback happens
Write it once. Update it on a regular basis. Link it in onboarding. Refer to it internally or when you see something that needs course correction.
That’s it for today.
Here’s what we covered:
Your “how we work” doc is your culture in writing
Every tool needs a job, a tone, and a response time
Real-time matters, but only in the right moments, define them
Cadence beats chaos, start with simple rituals: the minimum meeting cadence
Apply even half of this and your future self (and team) will thank you.
Need some inspiration?
Here are some great sources from 37Signals, Whereby and Juro.
Thank you for reading!
PS. Are you enjoying Operations Optimist? Please send this to a friend. It fuels my writing habit — and my completely unnecessary quest to find the perfect TV quote for each newsletter ✌️