Operations

Best Subreddits for Operations: 15 Communities Every Ops Leader Should Follow

9 min read

If you’re running operations at a startup or growing company, you know the struggle: every day brings new challenges, from streamlining workflows to managing team productivity to implementing the right tools. The best subreddits for operations can become your secret weapon for solving these problems faster.

Reddit’s operations communities are gold mines of real-world advice, war stories, and solutions from people who’ve been in your shoes. Unlike formal business publications, these subreddits give you unfiltered insights from practitioners dealing with the same operational headaches you face daily. Whether you’re a COO, operations manager, or founder wearing the ops hat, these communities can help you make better decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

In this guide, we’ll explore the best subreddits for operations professionals, what makes each one valuable, and how to get the most out of these communities.

Why Reddit is Essential for Operations Professionals

Before diving into specific subreddits, let’s address why Reddit should be part of your professional toolkit. Unlike LinkedIn’s polished posts or Twitter’s hot takes, Reddit offers something different: honest, detailed discussions about operational challenges.

Operations professionals use Reddit to:

Get unbiased tool recommendations: Real users share what actually works, not what vendors claim
Troubleshoot specific problems: Detailed questions get detailed answers from experienced practitioners
Learn from failures: People share what went wrong and how to avoid similar mistakes
Stay updated on trends: Early discussions about new methodologies and tools before they hit mainstream
Build expertise: Exposure to diverse operational challenges across industries

The anonymity of Reddit also encourages more candid discussions about sensitive topics like salary negotiations, difficult team dynamics, and company politics that affect operations.

The Best General Operations Subreddits

r/operations

With over 15,000 members, r/operations is the most direct community for operations professionals. This subreddit covers everything from supply chain management to process optimization, making it ideal for generalist ops leaders.

You’ll find discussions about:

Process improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen)
Team management and organizational design
Operations strategy and planning
Industry-specific operational challenges

The community is particularly helpful for mid-career professionals looking to level up their operations knowledge or solve specific tactical problems.

r/projectmanagement

With over 200,000 members, r/projectmanagement is one of the largest professional subreddits relevant to operations. While focused on project management, there’s massive overlap with operational concerns.

Operations leaders frequent this subreddit for:

Project management tool comparisons (Asana, Monday, Jira, etc.)
Resource allocation strategies
Stakeholder management techniques
Cross-functional team coordination

The community includes both PMP-certified professionals and self-taught practitioners, offering diverse perspectives on operational execution.

r/productivity

Though not exclusively for operations, r/productivity (850,000+ members) is invaluable for ops leaders focused on efficiency. This subreddit explores systems, tools, and methodologies for getting more done.

Relevant topics include:

Automation tools and workflows
Time management systems
Meeting efficiency strategies
Focus and deep work techniques

Many operations professionals use this subreddit to discover productivity hacks they can implement across their teams.

Best Subreddits for Startup Operations

r/startups

For operations folks at early-stage companies, r/startups (1.4 million members) is essential reading. The subreddit is packed with founders and operators discussing the unique challenges of building operations from scratch.

Key discussion themes:

Setting up operations infrastructure on a budget
Scaling challenges and solutions
Hiring and team building
Tool stack recommendations for startups

The community is particularly valuable for understanding how operations decisions impact company growth and fundraising.

r/entrepreneur

With 3.5 million members, r/entrepreneur offers operational insights from business owners who often serve as their own operations team. The scale of this community means you’ll find discussions about operations at every business stage.

Operations-relevant content includes:

Systems and processes for small businesses
Outsourcing and delegation strategies
Financial operations and bookkeeping
Customer service operations

Technical Operations and DevOps Communities

r/devops

For operations leaders in tech companies, r/devops (300,000+ members) is crucial. Even if you’re not directly managing technical infrastructure, understanding DevOps principles helps you work better with engineering teams.

Discussions cover:

Infrastructure automation
CI/CD pipelines
Incident management
Team collaboration between dev and ops

r/sysadmin

With 750,000+ members, r/sysadmin provides insights into IT operations and system administration. This community is goldmine for understanding technical operations challenges.

Valuable for learning about:

Tool and software management
Security operations
Vendor relationships and procurement
Technical debt management

Process Improvement and Efficiency Subreddits

r/lean

The r/lean community focuses on Lean methodology and continuous improvement. Operations professionals use this subreddit to learn how to eliminate waste and optimize processes.

Topics include:

Value stream mapping
Kaizen events and workshops
5S implementation
Lean manufacturing principles

r/Six_Sigma

For operations leaders interested in data-driven process improvement, r/Six_Sigma offers discussions about statistical process control, quality management, and operational excellence.

Customer Operations and Support

r/customerservice

Customer operations is a crucial part of overall business operations. This subreddit (50,000+ members) discusses everything from support ticket systems to customer success strategies.

Relevant discussions:

Support tool comparisons (Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk)
SLA management and metrics
Team training and development
Difficult customer scenarios

Supply Chain and Logistics Communities

r/supplychain

If your operations involve physical goods, r/supplychain (45,000+ members) is essential. The community discusses procurement, inventory management, logistics, and supplier relationships.

r/logistics

Complementing r/supplychain, r/logistics focuses specifically on transportation, warehousing, and distribution operations.

Finding and Validating Operations Pain Points at Scale

While manually browsing these best subreddits for operations can yield valuable insights, there’s a smarter way to discover what operational challenges are actually trending across these communities. When you’re looking to identify the most pressing pain points that operations professionals are discussing right now, PainOnSocial helps you cut through thousands of Reddit discussions to surface the validated problems people are actively struggling with.

Instead of spending hours reading through multiple operations subreddits hoping to find relevant pain points, PainOnSocial analyzes real discussions from communities like r/operations, r/projectmanagement, r/startups, and others to identify the most frequent and intense operational challenges. Each pain point comes with real quotes, permalink references, and upvote counts so you can verify the legitimacy and see exactly what people are saying.

This is particularly valuable when you’re:

Evaluating whether to build or buy operational tools
Identifying which process improvements will have the most impact
Understanding emerging operational challenges in your industry
Validating that a problem you’re experiencing is widespread

The AI-powered scoring system helps you prioritize which operational issues deserve your attention based on how intensely and frequently they’re being discussed across the operations communities.

Industry-Specific Operations Subreddits

r/ecommerce

For e-commerce operations, this 100,000+ member community discusses fulfillment, inventory management, shipping operations, and platform-specific challenges (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.).

r/SaaS

Operations professionals at SaaS companies find value in r/SaaS discussions about customer onboarding, churn prevention, and scaling service delivery.

How to Get Maximum Value from Operations Subreddits

Simply joining these communities isn’t enough. Here’s how to extract maximum value:

Engage Actively, Don’t Just Lurk

While reading is valuable, participating builds relationships and gets you better answers. Share your own experiences, answer questions where you have expertise, and ask specific questions when you need help.

Use Reddit’s Search Effectively

Before asking a question, search the subreddit. Most operational challenges have been discussed before. Use specific keywords and filter by top posts to find the best discussions.

Save and Organize Valuable Content

Use Reddit’s save feature or tools like Notion to organize particularly valuable threads, advice, or resources you find. Build your own operations knowledge base.

Cross-Reference Advice

Don’t take any single Reddit comment as gospel. Look for patterns across multiple threads and communities. The best advice usually appears repeatedly across different discussions.

Contribute Your Own Insights

As you solve operational challenges, share your learnings back to these communities. Teaching others reinforces your own learning and builds your reputation.

Setting Up Your Operations Reddit Workflow

Create a custom multi-reddit combining your favorite operations subreddits. This gives you a single feed of all relevant discussions. Here’s a suggested setup:

r/operations + r/projectmanagement + r/productivity (core operations)
r/startups + r/entrepreneur (business context)
Industry-specific subreddit (e.g., r/SaaS, r/ecommerce)
r/devops or r/sysadmin (technical operations)

Set aside 15-20 minutes daily or a longer session weekly to review top posts and discussions. This keeps you connected without becoming a time sink.

Red Flags to Watch For

Not all Reddit advice is created equal. Watch out for:

Over-generalization: Advice that doesn’t account for company size, industry, or context
Tool shilling: Suspiciously positive reviews of specific tools (could be marketing)
Outdated information: Check post dates, especially for tool recommendations
One-size-fits-all solutions: Operations is contextual; be skeptical of universal claims

Look for detailed explanations, specific examples, and commenters who engage thoughtfully with follow-up questions. These signal genuine expertise.

Conclusion

The best subreddits for operations offer something you can’t get from consultants, courses, or business books: real-time, unfiltered insights from practitioners facing the same challenges you are. From r/operations for general operational excellence to r/startups for early-stage company building to specialized communities like r/devops and r/supplychain, these communities provide a competitive advantage for operations leaders willing to engage.

Start by joining 3-5 subreddits most relevant to your current operational challenges. Spend a week reading discussions to understand each community’s culture and norms. Then begin participating - ask questions, share experiences, and contribute to discussions. Over time, these communities become an invaluable part of your operational toolkit, helping you solve problems faster, make better decisions, and build a stronger operations function.

Remember that Reddit is just one source of operational wisdom. Combine insights from these communities with your own experience, industry research, and direct experimentation. The best operations leaders synthesize information from multiple sources to make informed decisions that work for their specific context.

Ready to level up your operations game? Join these subreddits today and start learning from thousands of operations professionals who’ve walked the path before you.