𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼-𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Everyone who ever launched a physical product at scale will sooner or later realize the hard part was never the build but operating it successfully at scale in the field. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨-𝘵𝘰-𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴. Most of it is traceable to a single structural problem: operations was brought in at PVT to 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦 the product rather than at DVT to 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 it. By the time the handoff package lands on the ops team's desk, the decisions that will drive their daily reality have already been made and some of them are quietly expensive. The maintenance SOP is one example. In assembly, a technician runs a procedure once per unit, maybe twice across an build cycle. In operations, that same procedure may run every day, on every unit that comes back for service. What i...
