Julie Cousins

I'm Julie Cousins, an Operations & Workflow Strategist with a background that starts in software engineering and runs through product leadership, program management, and organizational design.

I've spent my career sitting at the intersection of technical and non-technical, translating and building bridges between them, and designing the systems that let both sides move faster together. I've done this at a global greeting card company, SaaS organizations, and government IT.

I've managed cross functional teams as well as teams dedicated to software engineering, Mobile App Development, Design Engineering, and Quality Assurance. I've been the person who builds the thing, the person who manages the people building the thing, and the person who figures out why the thing isn't getting built fast enough.

I also hold enough certifications to craft a tasty alphabet soup, PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP, PAL I, and PSM II.

I started Nudge Ops because the most impactful work I've ever done wasn't the big reorg or the multi-year roadmap. It was the small, well-placed nudges that removed blockers that were felt but not named..

Who I Love To Work With

  • Teams that are growing fast and starting to feel the drag that comes with scaling. The processes that worked at twenty people are breaking down at sixty, and nobody has time to fix them.

  • Teams that have accepted that their current processes are flawed and have just grown to accept it. Institutional constraints feel too overwhelming to make any meaningful change.

  • Organizations that need help moving from working reactively to strategically.

  • Organizations that need help teaching the “why” to inspire their teams.

How I Help

  • Your team needs help getting the tools they have to work for them

    I specialize in getting real value out of tools like Smartsheet, Jira, Slack, and Confluence, without buying more add-ons or replacing what you have.

  • Your team is busy, but not moving fast enough

    I diagnose the friction points that slow teams down from making real progress even though they are constantly busy, and address them in targeted, low-disruption ways.

  • Your processes were built for a smaller, simpler version of the organization

    I design repeatable operating rhythms so your team can scale without rebuilding everything from scratch every six months as you grow.

  • Technical and non-technical people are working in parallel universes

    I bridge the gap between engineering, product, marketing, sales, and design to help realign everyone toward the same goals

  • Nobody knows where to start to make things better

    I help teams figure out which problem to solve first so they build momentum instead of compounding their operational debt

If you're running a team that's working hard but has the nagging sense it could work smarter, I'd love to hear what's going on. Contact Me.