Steve Keeley🇺🇸

About Steve Keeley

Product Operations Manager at TikTok

Hi, I'm Steve

I've spent about 20 years in operations and program management, running Trust and Safety teams between 8 and 450 people globally at Accenture, Meta and Twitter, and I was in Product Operations at TikTok.

I've taken an account from 8 people to 150 and another from 150 to 450. I hired, promoted and coached the managers along the way, and coaching managers is most of what I do now.

I can help you with Stepping into management for the first time Interviewing for operations and program management roles Learning how to coach your team, both ICs and managers Scaling a team that's growing faster than its process

Expertise

Sessions with Steve Keeley

• New Manager Coaching (30 min): For people in their first few years of managing, or about to be a manager. The problems tend to be the same ones, first hard conversation, someone who isn't performing well and you don't know why, a manager who reports to you and needs to learn how to coach, other teams bringing work to your team that you didn't agree to take on, a culture that needs shifting, etc. Bring me the situation you're stuck on and I'll tell you what I actually do, from 15+ years of running teams. This isn't a theory based on what I've read, this is what I would do if it were my team.
• Operations & Program Management (30 min): Career and role coaching for operations and program management. Whether you're trying to move up the and need a growth path, grow inside a role, figure out the next move, manage up to a difficult boss, or fix a process that worked at twenty people and is breaking at a hundred, bring me the details and we'll work through the actual problem. I've been running operations and program management for about twenty years, including Trust and Safety teams from eight to four hundred fifty people, so almost all of what I share comes from having done the job.
• Interview Prep for Operations & Program Managment (30 min): Interview prep for operations and program management roles, including TPM and behavioral rounds. I have been on the hiring side of hundreds of employees in these areas, so I can tell you what the signals are person across the table is actually listening for, which is often not what the question sounds like it's asking. Bring the role you're interviewing for and we'll work your narratives/story, your answers to the questions you'll actually get and how to close on an offer. If you have a loop coming up, just make sure to pull in levels of each of the interviewers.
• Ongoing Leadership & Operations Mentorship (30 min): Ongoing mentorship for people working through something that lasts longer than one conversation. Stepping into management for the first time, scaling a team, running a job search or growing into a bigger role. We meet regularly (normally bi-weekly) and work whatever is going on that week. Over time I get to know your situation and your people so the advice gets sharper and more specific instead of starting cold each call. This is best used for a real arc instead of a specific one-off advice, more like fixing a broken culture, helping someone who's struggling on your team, figuring out how to handle stakeholder management and the like.
• Scaling a Team / Trust & Safety (30 min): For anyone building or scaling an operations or Trust and Safety team. I have grown teams from eight people to a 150, and another from a 150 to 450, across Accenture, Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Scaling an operation is a different problem than running one. What works at twenty people quietly breaks at a hundred and most of the job is noticing which piece is breaking before it takes a quarter to fix it. Let's talk through where things are currently and what could possibly break next.

What mentees say

“Really liked Steve's approach - he asked me to tell me everything that was going on and what exactly I was looking for help with so we could make the most of the session. He gave me actionable suggestions for my job application process and also was happy to provide specific feedback on my resume. I also appreciated how encouraging he was about the job search process.”