Angus Parker's 10-App Operations Stack

Operations manager who figured out that good ops means less daily chaos, not more complicated systems. His job is keeping everything running smoothly - teams coordinated, projects on track, clients happy - without becoming a bottleneck himself.

Angus Parker built his tech stack around one question: can this be systematized so it runs without constant input? If a process needs him to manually intervene every time, either the system is broken or the tool is wrong.

The 10 apps below handle team communication, project management, client relationships, and all the automation connecting them together. Nothing groundbreaking. Just solid tools that do their job and play nice with each other.

What makes it work is the integration layer - Zapier ties everything together so information flows automatically. Client signs up, triggers welcome email, creates Notion entry, posts to Slack. Zero manual copying between systems.

Slack replaced about 80% of internal meetings. Organized channels for each project, department, and client. The search actually works, so finding old decisions doesn't require digging through email.

Channel structure is simple: #general for company-wide stuff, #project-name for active work, #team-department for functional groups. No channels with three people having private conversations - that's what DMs are for.

Integrations bring other tools into Slack. Calendar notifications, Notion updates, form submissions - they all post to relevant channels. Team sees what's happening without checking five different apps.

Gmail handles external communication. Labels auto-sort by client, project, or urgency. Filters catch newsletters and notifications before they clog the inbox. Snooze feature brings emails back when they're actually relevant.

The key is keeping Slack for internal and Gmail for external. No client emails in Slack channels, no team discussions in Gmail threads. Clear boundaries between communication types.

Notion is the operations brain. Every SOP, every project status, every piece of institutional knowledge lives here in connected databases.

Main databases: Clients (with contact info and project history), Projects (linked to clients and team members), SOPs (searchable procedures for recurring work), Meeting Notes (tagged by project and attendees).

Relations between databases are clutch. Click a client, see all their projects. Click a project, see all meetings and relevant SOPs. Everything connects without duplicating information across multiple docs.

Templates speed up recurring work. New project? Use the project template with pre-filled sections. Onboarding new team member? Template includes every step and link they need. Don't reinvent the wheel weekly.

Some people love Notion, others find it overwhelming. For operations work with lots of interconnected information, the database features are worth the learning curve. Better than spreadsheets or scattered docs.

Circle handles client community management. Way better than trying to run a Facebook group for professional communities. More organized than Discord, which feels too casual for business.

Clients can ask questions, share wins, and connect with each other without cluttering email inboxes. Spaces organize conversations by topic. Events feature handles community calls and workshops.

Kit powers email marketing and automation. Client newsletters go out monthly. New signups get automated onboarding sequences. Product launches use segmented campaigns based on client interests.

The visual automation builder in Kit is way more accessible than code-based tools. Want to send different emails based on link clicks? Drag some boxes, connect them with arrows, done. No developer needed.

Honestly, most operations managers underuse email automation. Setting up a good onboarding sequence once saves hours every month of manual welcome emails and check-ins.

Calendly killed the back-and-forth email scheduling. Different booking links for different meeting types - 15min quick calls, 30min client check-ins, 60min strategy sessions.

Buffer times between meetings prevent the day from becoming one continuous Zoom call. Integration with Google Calendar means it knows your actual availability, not just what you told it three months ago.

Claude handles first drafts of repetitive writing. SOPs, client emails, project documentation - feed it context, get a starting point, edit it into final form. Way faster than staring at blank page.

Using AI for operations work isn't about replacing thinking. It's about speeding up the parts that don't need deep thought - formatting docs, summarizing meeting notes, drafting routine communications.

Canva makes quick graphics possible without waiting on a designer. Slide decks, social graphics, simple diagrams. Templates keep everything on-brand. Export directly to formats that work everywhere.

Zapier connects everything together. Without it, the Angus Parker tools are just 9 separate apps requiring manual data entry between them.

Common zaps: New Circle member triggers Kit welcome sequence and Notion database entry. Calendly booking creates Slack notification and Google Calendar event with Zoom link. Form submissions post to specific Slack channels and update relevant Notion pages.

Setting up automation takes time upfront but pays off weekly. Spend an hour building a good zap, save 15 minutes every week forever. After a few months, you're way ahead.

Dropbox handles file storage with Smart Sync. Client files, shared folders, archive materials - synced across devices without eating all your local storage.

The whole stack works because every tool does one thing well and Zapier handles the connections. No all-in-one platform trying to be everything. Just focused tools working together through automation.