RACI Matrix and Job Descriptions

Guesswork Unveiled, Issue #1

RACI Matrix & Job Descriptions

Guesswork Unveiled, Issue #1

Welcome to the first post of Guesswork Unveiled, the paid section of my newsletter, which will focus more in the weeds of running my small business.

First, quick context — I acquired my business about 2.5 years ago in the Seattle area. After a couple years of cutting my teeth in the operational trenches, I am ready to make an Operations Manager hire so that I can re-focus on growth.

To be clear, this is not me trying to step away from the business. Instead, making this hire feels like the prerequisite step to me building a bigger business — I wrote more about the “trap size” of small business previously, which digs into why.

Let’s dive in — first things first, I need a good job description. Below I walk through how I created it — I have no idea if this will work, you’ll find out alongside me.

It’s entirely possible I overthought this and this isn’t best practice, but it’s the approach I took, so sharing with you! If you have feedback or different thoughts, please feel free to reply to this email.

RACI Matrix

I didn’t come up with this concept — I learned it from a prospective searcher who job shadowed me at the business for a week (if you see this, thank you!!). She comes from a big corporate background, so was able to relay this concept to me, which is actually highly applicable to the small business world.

RACI stands for:

• Responsible: People who are involved in doing the work. Multiple people can be responsible.

• Accountable: Buck stops here: the person who owns the task — can only be one person.

• Consulted: People who need to be asked for their input before task is completed, even if they’re not responsible for the actual work.

• Informed: People who should be kept aware of the task progress, any issues, etc., but doesn’t have to be consulted for actual decision-making.

I’m sure there’s a “correct” way to build out the RACI Matrix, but below is how I did it.

First, I defined all the roles in my business and create simple shorthand acronyms for them. I did it based on the eventual org chart (post-Operations Manager hire, not currently). And wherever possible, I made it role-based, not person-based.

Here’s the list: