What Is an SOP — and Why Your Team Still Asks Questions After You’ve Written One
- Hieu Do
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
By: Hieu Do, Business Analyst
If your team still asks “how should I do this?” even though you already have SOPs, chances are you’re using SOPs for the wrong job.
Many founders say, “We already have SOPs.”But when you look closer:
The SOPs sit in Google Drive, rarely opened
New hires still struggle during onboarding
Founders keep explaining the same things again and again
The problem is not that people don’t read SOPs.The problem is that SOPs are often misunderstood and misused.
What an SOP actually is (in plain language)
An SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) documents the standard way to do a repeatable task, so that:
Different people get consistent results
Mistakes and risks are reduced
Founders don’t become the permanent “help desk”
An SOP is not meant to:
Design how your company operates
Solve complex or evolving problems
Replace thinking or judgment
=> An SOP is an output, not a starting point.
SOP vs Process vs Procedure vs Playbook vs Work Manual
Founders often call everything an “SOP”, but these tools serve different purposes:
Process→ The big picture: how work flows from start to finish, who does what and when(Example: order fulfillment from purchase to delivery)
Procedure→ How to perform one specific step inside a process(Example: how to check inventory)
SOP→ The standard way to handle repeatable tasks, to avoid inconsistency(Example: SOP for refunds)
Work Manual→ Step-by-step instructions for new hires(Example: screenshots, system clicks)
Playbook→ How to handle situations, not routine tasks(Example: handling major customer complaints or system outages)
=> The most common mistake: Using SOPs to fix everything.
When founders SHOULD write SOPs
SOPs work well when:
The task is repeatable
Mistakes are costly (money, customers, compliance)
Multiple people perform the same task
If the work:
Is still changing
Doesn’t have a clear flow yet
Looks different every time
=> Writing SOPs too early just creates documentation noise.
3 common SOP mistakes founders make
Writing SOPs before clarifying the process→ SOPs exist, but no one can follow them properly
Writing SOPs for consultants, not operators→ Sounds professional, but useless on the ground
Treating SOPs as “done”→ No updates, no ownership, no real adoption
The founder takeaway
SOPs don’t make operations work better if operational clarity doesn’t exist first.
In many ops rebuilds, the first step is not writing SOPs. It’s understanding how work actually flows today — then deciding:
Which tasks need SOPs
Which don’t
And which shouldn’t be documented at all (yet)
That clarity is what makes SOPs useful — not the other way around.
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