How Operational Excellence Becomes a Competitive Advantage
This July, MINT celebrates its 14th birthday, and while that kind of longevity doesn’t happen by accident, it also isn’t built on great creative work alone. Behind every successful client relationship and every smoothly delivered project is a team that knows how to operate. A big part of that? Strong standard operating procedures, or SOPs.
Our Director of Operations, Kelsey, has been involved with process documentation and development for over 5 years. During her time at MINT, she’s helped with documenting, refining, and maintaining the processes that keep our team aligned and our clients well taken care of. Here, she’s sharing some of the philosophy and practical approaches behind building an SOP framework that actually works.
When it comes to writing SOPs, it all starts with one guiding question: How is this process specific to how we do our work?
Not every task needs to be documented. If the steps are platform-specific and could easily be Googled, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. For example, take something as simple as an out-of-office process. Your company may have specific requirements around the wording, tone, and backup contacts that should appear in every employee’s automatic reply, which absolutely warrants documentation. What doesn’t need to be outlined, however, are the technical steps for turning on an automatic reply in Gmail or Outlook. That’s a Google search, not an SOP. The sweet spot for documentation is the work that reflects your agency’s unique approach, the decisions, workflows, and standards that make your output distinctly yours.
One of the most practical tips for documenting a process? Do it while you’re actually performing the task.
Writing in real time allows you to capture screenshots, record short video walkthroughs, and document the exact steps and wording that will help a team member truly understand the process, not just follow it blindly. It also ensures nothing gets missed, which is easy to do when writing from memory after the fact.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that team members learn differently. Some are visual learners, others prefer written step-by-step instructions, and some benefit most from a recorded walkthrough. Where possible, building that variety into your SOPs helps ensure the documentation works for everyone.
Completing an SOP doesn’t mean you can file it away and forget about it. Processes evolve, tools change, teams grow, and better ways of doing things emerge. SOPs need to be consistently reviewed and updated to stay accurate and useful.
At MINT, we lean on the team to help with this. As the person in the operations seat, Kelsey isn’t always deep in the day-to-day of every creative process, and that’s okay. What matters is creating an environment where team members feel encouraged to speak up when a process feels clunky or no longer reflects how the work is actually being done. Adaptability is one of MINT’s core values, and that applies just as much to our internal processes as it does to how we show up for clients.
Even the most thorough SOP library is useless if no one can find what they’re looking for. Whether your team uses a shared Google Drive, a company intranet, or a dedicated internal resource hub, accessibility is everything.
A well-organized SOP library should have two things: a logical folder structure that mirrors how your team thinks about their work, and a search function so employees can quickly find what they need without digging through endless folders. Removing friction from the process of finding information means team members are far more likely to actually use it.
The most common reason SOPs go unused isn’t that they’re hard to find or poorly written; it’s that the team hasn’t built the habit of referencing them. The best way to change that? Model the behavior yourself.
When team members see leadership actively using SOPs as part of their daily work, it signals that these documents are real tools, not just formalities. And when someone comes to you with a question, try redirecting them to the relevant SOP first, then invite them to follow up if they still have questions after reviewing it. A well-written SOP should empower team members to find answers on their own and execute with confidence.
At the end of the day, a strong SOP framework isn’t just an internal operational win, it’s something your clients feel. When processes are documented, followed, and maintained, clients receive a consistent experience no matter where they are in their journey with your agency or who on your team they’re working with.
That consistency builds trust. And trust, over 14 years, builds a business.
