One thing I’ve noticed working in lean teams:
We don’t always have IT.
…but the work still exists.
So it quietly gets absorbed by whoever is closest to the systems.
And suddenly “admin” starts to include things like:
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Managing user access
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Deciding who owns what tool
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Cleaning up shared drives
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Setting up workflows and automations
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Troubleshooting when something breaks
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Thinking about data security (sometimes without formal training)
At some point, you realize:
This isn’t just admin work.
This is systems governance.
The tricky part is that this role is rarely defined.
There’s no clear:
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Ownership
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Documentation
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Standard for how tools should be used
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Process for onboarding/offboarding access
So everything becomes:
→ reactive
→ person-dependent
→ hard to scale
What I’ve learned is that even without a formal IT function, teams still need:
1. Clear ownership of systems
Who is responsible for each tool—beyond just “who uses it”?
2. Access governance
Who has access to what, and how often is that reviewed?
3. Usage standards
How should this tool actually be used across teams?
4. Documentation that lives beyond one person
So knowledge doesn’t disappear when someone leaves
Because without this, tools don’t just get messy—
they become risky.
And the cost shows up as:
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lost time
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duplicated work
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confusion across teams
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and sometimes… security gaps
I’ve started thinking of this role less as “admin”
and more as operational infrastructure.
“Digital chores” is such a good way to put it and, the impact is so much bigger than it feels in the moment.