Adrian Doonan
I like to work on operational improvement - eliminating waste, fixing broken processes, and building systems that run like clockwork. I also write about craft, thinking, and the uncomfortable gap between how work gets done and how it should.
What I do
Lean Six Sigma process improvement. DMAIC project management. Operational diagnostics for whatever I might be doing at the time.
Whether that is working on a sketch show that needs to be conceived, written, rehearsed, and performed in 10 hours. Helping run a five-day, understaffed improv festival. Mixing substrate and inoculating bags for an urban mushroom farm while running a production line for their at-home grow-kits. Or just the simple, everyday grind of working on enterprise banking software with 20 different teams to produce one, error-free, accurate, comprehensive and cohesive documentation portal.
I find where time is wasted or frustration builds, measure it precisely, and fix it in a way that stays fixed.
Background
Product Owner, Technical Writer, Full-stack Bootcamp Graduate and indie improviser, I've also seen the inside of a call center, been a startup incubator factotum, and social media marketed my way off a few sinking ships.
I like to understand how things work, and why they don't. I like to know why I need to follow a step in a process, and what happens if I don't. I like to figure out how to make the second time I do something easier, faster and more efficient than the first.
The Third Policeman is about the work: what worked, what didn't, and why it matters.
Customer support / back office
How batch command execution and visual pattern recognition cut case review cycles from a full day to two hours.
70% reduction in review time; cleared systemic backlog growth.
Mushroom cultivation
Moving from improvised ratios to a repeatable, tightly controlled substrate mixing process that reduced waste and improved colonisation rates.
Reduced over-production waste by 35%, eliminated batch variability