Finally, every process written down and actually followed.

About

A coworking space that runs on people, routines, and getting the details right

Manifold Coworking is a shared workspace in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Running a coworking space means managing a constant mix of daily tasks, member interactions, facility upkeep, and team handoffs. When things aren't documented, they depend entirely on whoever's been there the longest.

Katherine Blaney, Operations Manager, came on board to help bring more structure to how the business runs, and to set it up to scale without everything living in one person's head.

The challenge

The business ran fine, but only because the right people were there

Manifold's team had been doing the job well for years. But the processes that kept things running were informal, undocumented, and tied to individuals. Bringing someone new in meant starting from scratch, hoping they picked things up through observation, and inevitably losing something in the transfer.

• No single place to find how anything was supposed to be done
• Daily and weekly tasks managed through memory and habit, not documented standards
• New staff onboarding was slow and inconsistent
• Tools like ClickUp and Monday had been considered, but the complexity put people off

The solution

A place for every process, simple enough that people actually use it

Katherine set up NextStep to document Manifold's day-to-day operations: daily opening checklists, weekly cleaning routines, staff check-ins, and everything in between. With over a dozen processes now running and more on the way, it's becoming the single source of truth for how the business operates.

One detail that stood out: the ability to embed photos directly into process steps. For a physical space where visual standards matter, showing someone a photo of how the kitchen counter should look is more useful than describing it.

The automated reminders also changed how the team engaged with their daily routines. Rather than relying on someone to chase tasks, the system sends the prompt and keeps a record. For Graham, the long-term team member who has everything in his head, the daily email is a useful nudge to stay accountable, not just a tick-box exercise.

Results

Clarity where there wasn't any before

The biggest shift so far isn't a number, it's that everything is written down. Standards exist. The business no longer depends on memory or tribal knowledge to function day to day.

Katherine is also honest about what's still ahead. The full benefit will come when a new staff member joins and the onboarding process gets its real test. That's the moment NextStep was built towards: handing someone a complete picture of how the business runs from day one.

The comparison to other tools keeps coming up. NextStep doesn't try to do everything, and for Manifold that's the point. No setup overhead, no learning curve that takes months, and no need to engineer workarounds to get a simple checklist running.

What's next

Onboarding, integrations, and getting to critical mass

With more processes being added regularly, Katherine expects the habit to shift once there's enough coverage. When everything has a process, the default becomes checking NextStep rather than asking someone.

• A full new staff onboarding flow, giving new hires a structured path through how the business runs
• Member onboarding processes, including the critical Office R&D account setup step that currently relies on a 72-hour link and no reminder
• Automated triggers from their booking software, so when a meeting room is booked externally, a process kicks off without any manual action
• Quarterly and seasonal tasks preloaded in NextStep, replacing vague calendar reminders with proper documented processes