Question
Or should it be split into multiple roles?
My co-founder and I are strong at Marketing and Sales, but need help with Ops to deliver our service efficiently.
We need to make a top-level hire to design, implement and monitor processes and KPIs. We also need them to handle the day-to-day issues of our team, to take pressure off my co-founder and me.
What job title should we use to accurately describe this role? We thought COO, but I'm not sure if this captures it.
Or, should it actually be two roles, if it would be hard to find one person with the skillset to do it all?
Answer
Figuring out questions like this is literally what I do — organizational design. I'm a former COO who implemented OKRs in a 200-person organization and helped shape high-level roles like this.
You could hire a COO for this, and it would be safer to start by hiring a "Head of Operations" (not C-level) and promote from there. What's needed from a COO is more than what you list here. And what you list here, yes, could be one role.
It sounds like there may be more questions around this, including how to shape this role and how to know if someone is a good fit for it, and what to look for.
If you want to go deeper, I imagine a 10 minute call where we go into some more detail would give you a lot of clarity, if this is something you're still considering.
Best of luck. :)