Jhana Li on Founder Chaos to Scalable Systems

The fires showing up in your business every week are not bad luck. They are a signal that something in your operations is broken underneath the surface.

In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jhana Li, founder of Spyglass Ops, a firm that has pioneered the operator placement model, embedding a fractional COO directly into a business while the search for a permanent hire is underway. Jhana has been a COO for two startups, an operations coach for hundreds of founders, and has built one of the most practical and no-nonsense frameworks for how growing companies should think about the operations function, from the first ops hire all the way through to a fully scaled team.

🔻 Why every recurring fire in your business is data, not a crisis, and what it is actually telling you

🔻 How to know whether an operations problem is a systems issue or a people issue

🔻 Why managing to outcomes instead of inputs is what unlocks real team autonomy and AI adoption

🔻 How to build a job scorecard that works for hiring, onboarding, and performance all at once

🔻 Why really good operations looks like nothing and how to advocate for it anyway

🔻 How to tell the difference between an ops manager, a director of ops, and a COO so you hire the right level

🔻 Why AI layered onto broken systems just helps you sprint faster in the wrong direction

🔻 How to democratize SOP ownership so documentation never falls behind again

🔗 Connect with Jhana Li on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhana-li/

🎥 Follow Jhana on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theJhanaLi

📱 Follow Jhana on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejhanali/

🔗 Learn more about Spyglass Ops: https://bit.ly/4ftmOFR

🔗 Learn more about KPI Fire: https://www.kpifire.com/

🎙 Hosted by Keith Norris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithnorris/