OPS · Starter PLAYBOOK

The pre-flight SOP: the 60 minutes before every stream

Updated 2026-10-16 · Sources & methodology noted inline

WHY A SOP AND NOT A HABIT: the most expensive failures in live commerce happen in the hour before the stream, not during it — dead batteries, muted mics, wrong product staged, claims sheet missing, slot time mis-set. Under time pressure, humans do not rise to the level of their intentions; they fall to the level of their checklist. This SOP is the level. Print it, laminate it, initial it. The sixty minutes is structured as T-60 to T-0, and every item is a real failure mode observed in member post-mortems, not hygiene theater.

T-60 TO T-45 — TECHNICAL BASELINE: run one full test recording (60 seconds, reviewed, not assumed): camera framing correct at your standing/seating position, focus locked, exposure correct under actual room lighting. Audio check with headphones — the mic you check without headphones is the mic that fails at minute twelve. Network: run a speed test and confirm headroom above your platform's recommended bitrate; if on Wi-Fi, confirm nobody in the building is about to start a video call or update. Charge everything that has a battery, including the backup phone. Failure mode covered: the 'it worked yesterday' class of incidents, which is the majority class.