How to map your operating model to OpX

OpX isn't a one-size-fits-all template. Here's how to map your existing operating model — methodology, governance, cadence — to the platform.

Start with what exists

Most CI leads inherit an operating model. Maybe it's a stage-gate process the previous director introduced. Maybe it's a hybrid of Lean and Agile that nobody quite agreed on. Maybe it's a SteerCo cadence that grew organically.

The mistake is to scrap that and impose a fresh model alongside the platform. The right move is to map what exists onto the platform's primitives, then evolve.

The three primitives that matter

Project: a piece of improvement work with a scope, an owner, and a time-box. Map your existing project taxonomy to this.

Stage: the gates a project moves through. DMAIC has five. A3 has seven. Your existing process probably has three or four. Configure to match.

Approval: who signs off on movement between stages. Mirror your existing governance — don't invent new approvers.

Evolve, don't rewrite

Once your existing operating model is running on the platform, the data itself surfaces what to change. Bottlenecks at stage 3? Maybe stage 3 is too coarse. Approvals always taking 10 days? Maybe the approver is overloaded.

The platform doesn't impose a methodology. It surfaces where your current methodology is working and where it isn't. The work of evolution is then yours.