A Simple Way to See Your Whole Business at a Glance

I’m a visual thinker.

Maybe it comes from starting out as a designer, but visual and spatial thinking is second nature to me.

I process diagrams, charts, and maps way faster than text.

Even when my wife asks how a dress looks on her, I tell her honestly: “I’ll let you know when I see it.” (Of course, she looks great in everything.)

But the point is — visuals work faster. That’s not an opinion. It’s science.

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When It Started to Hurt

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The real pain came when we scaled past 20 active projects and 40+ team members.

I didn’t need the details.

I needed a quick way to see:

• project status
• budget alignment
• team load
• key metrics
• who owns what

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And I needed it fast — without digging through tools.

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We used JIRA and Confluence — great for dev teams, but limited beyond that.

Pipedrive handled sales, but once we had 5 reps, visibility went out the window.

Google Sheets for roll-ups.

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But here’s what happened:

• Teams lived in their own context
• Sales each did their own thing
• No big-picture view

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And eventually, that led to a costly mistake.

I missed one rep’s catastrophic inefficiency — until it was too late.

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And while all that was happening, we had tons of internal projects:

• Ads
• Hiring
• Budgets
• Marketing
• Operations

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What I really needed was a view into:

• Who’s responsible
• Who reports to whom
• How info flows between departments
• Where delays and bottlenecks show up

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Without that, you’re not managing — you’re firefighting.

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How I Started Visualizing the Business

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I went through a bunch of tools:

• Miro, Lucidchart, MindMeister for mapping
• Google Sheets for data
• Integrations between Pipedrive, QuickBooks, JIRA
• Custom alerts on key events

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Still, I lacked a bird’s-eye view.

Everything was fragmented.

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Then I discovered BPMN — Business Process Modeling Notation.

Basically, visual flowcharts that help you:

• map out process chains
• assign clear roles
• uncover friction points across departments

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I only used the modeling part — perfect for visually explaining complex workflows and roles.

Each subprocess could then be turned into a simple SOP.

Great Lucidchart tutorial:

https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/tutorial/bpmn

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What About Dashboards?

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Now that was tricky.

Ten years ago, good no-code tools didn’t exist.

Building our own was too expensive. Negative ROI.

So we ended up with:

• Pipedrive, QuickBooks, JIRA
• Google Sheets updated manually via SOPs
• Dashboards, partially automated, mostly not

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At the time, we were still testing processes. Everything was changing.

Custom tools would've just slowed us down.

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Things Are So Much Easier Now

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Now, I use Notion.

• Visual structure
• Simple metrics
• Flexible and customizable
• Knowledge base, CRM, task tracker — all-in-one

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Is it perfect? Nope.

But it covers 90% of what a small business owner needs.

And most importantly — it helps you think in structure.

That’s why I use it helping my clients during Ops-On-Demand Sprint.

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No need for a fancy dashboard. Focus on:

• Defining processes
• Visualizing your structure
• Adapting Notion to your workflow
• Using Google Sheets when it makes sense

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It’s Not About the Tool. It’s About the System.

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The tool is just a hammer. What matters is:

• how you use it
• why you use it
• and whether utactually helps

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Don’t feel bad if you’re still using Google Sheets.

If it saves time and gives clarity — it wins.

If not — it’s time to automate.

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The goal isn’t to build “a system.”

It’s to build one that actually works.

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Disclaimer.

Every business has its nuances, and every founder has their unique context and resources. Whether or not my advice applies depends on your situation, experience, and needs. But one thing is universal—use your brain.

Think about how to apply the advice in your context before acting.

Your way.