Evolving the DOO Certification Program

What are some of the upcoming changes for the Director of Operations (DOO) certification program?

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Today we are talking about the evolution of the DOO certification program, which has produced over 350 women through 15 rounds. I wanted to share some behind the scenes of what we have done, how we have grown, and some of the changes we have made. 

Round 16 is about to begin. If you are curious, read all about our certification program!

The Evolution of the DOO Certification

I have put my heart, soul, and entire legacy into this certification program. In 2015 when I dove into entrepreneurship, I had no idea that I would land here. 

The History

I was working with a couple of coaches who had encouraged me to expand, so I attempted an agency model. Long story short, it was not for me… but it was the only way I could think of to multiply myself. 

As the requests to work with me continued, I decided that I was going to create a course around my Strategic Mapping Model™. But, as you know, I am a masterful operator… not a masterful marketer, so the sales fell flat. 

I found myself way overworked and way too invested in too many peoples businesses to the point that it was no longer sustainable.

“I came into entrepreneurship with the expectation that I was going to enhance the quality of my life, and bring legacy into what I was doing both personally and professionally… and I wasn’t doing either of those things.”

One day I was talking with a friend who had given me the idea of certifying. It took me a bit of time to get that information out and into a place where I felt confident teaching it. 

I had 13 people say “yes” in Fall 2018 for the beta round. We were testing the idea and the curriculum. It was a 12 week program delivered partly with pre-recorded content and a good chunk was done live. It was purely focused on the Strategic Mapping Model™ and the operational disciplines. 

I got fantastic feedback! The women were upleveling who they were working with, they were creating new offers, they were able to articulate their services and their value in a different way, and it motivated me to continue.

From there we put in an application process to make sure the right people were coming in. 

“The application process was the first step in me realizing that we could build upon this and that I could pull in the right people for me to work with.”

 

Changes over time

The next time we launched, I introduced expert coaches. We had multiple disciplines that we were teaching on, and I was the right person for project management and HR. But there were other disciplines where I pulled in women who had completed the program to be a resource as we were going through these topics. 

Then we started to bring in accountability advisors, and that role has changed drastically. Supporting everyone in a one to one capacity in addition to everything I was doing was a lot so I got the interest of some of the DOOs to become a support for about 10 hours per month as a resource. 

We were launching twice a year, the demand was growing, and we were still serving our students. We take feedback very seriously and have implemented lots of ideas from the feedback of our students. 

“I will always be the type of business and brand who has real relationships with our students, so they give us feedback and ideas… and we welcome that.”

“We are obsessed with our students’ success.”

One of the areas we get people seeking advice about are the various ways that DOOs use their certification. This input changed the course. We have identified four different areas that DOOs can leverage their skills to build a business:

• Retainer model
• Project based work
• Agency model
• Product model

The program continued to expand:

• We decided to expand the program from 12 weeks to 6 months, with the first part focused on the curriculum, and the second part focusing on the business boot camp
• During round 8 we did an overhaul
  • Accountability advisors amplified
  • We started hosting multiple cohorts
  • We reformatted our modules so that 3 weeks are dedicated learning a skill (week 1), “getting it done” (week 2), and integrating it into your business (week 3)
  • Added in case studies for practical application
  • Added in milestones: What does success look like on a scorecard?

“Action creates confidence and confidence creates cash.”

Team

Over these 15 rounds our team has changed substantially:

• We have 12 resources that serve on our team
• We have a marketing division and operations division
• We have a coaching division led by Amy Lockrin who has an eye on our students success

Announcing DOO 2.0

We have been working with an instructional designer and they looked at what we were teaching, how we are teaching it, accessibility, etc. We wanted to up-level the way we were delivering, which has led to DOO 2.0 for round 16! We have added 120 videos for this upcoming version to give you the gold star experience. 

We have added more content around: 

• The Strategic Mapping Model™
• Diversity
• Managing your team
• Culture building
• Key results and how to build processes
• KPIs

Other additions:

• We’ve broken down some of the content into shorter, more consumable content
• Added graphics to help articulate thoughts.
• Added live coaching weeks where we coach live daily, and momentum days which will focus on implementation of the concepts

“Our promise to our students is that they are going to become well rounded in the various disciplines of operations that serve small businesses, and have the ability to sell their service inside of a business.” 

If you are interested in becoming a certified DOO, check out our program!

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