Operations problems don't start in operations.

By the time a problem reaches operations, it usually has history. The requirement that was never quite specified. The handoff that worked until it didn't. The workflow that made sense when it was built and stopped making sense when something upstream changed.

What looks like a process failure is often a communication failure that ran long enough to become structural.

Jo works with operations teams to find where the breakdown originated — not where it's currently showing up. That distinction matters. Fixing the symptom means the problem resurfaces. Fixing the root means the fix holds.

In practice: sitting with the people doing the work, mapping the actual process against the intended one, and finding where they diverge. The divergence is almost always where the communication broke down. A handoff that assumed shared context that wasn't there. A system configured for a version of the workflow that no longer exists. A requirement that was approximate when it was written and never got made precise.

The operational fix comes after the clarity work. Not before it.

If your team is capable and the output is still inconsistent, the problem is upstream of the process. That's worth finding.