Donovan Watts

Business Operations · Process Improvement · Business Systems

Business operations and process improvement leader with 17 years at AnswerLab, advancing from administrative support through UX research and management into company-wide process and systems leadership.

Owned business applications, Salesforce administration, SaaS vendors, licensing, spend tracking, and cross-functional workflow design. Now extending that work through AI-enabled operational automation.

Experience ↓ResumeBlogEmail

Experience

AnswerLab
Remote · 2006 — 2024

Director of Innovation & Process Improvement · May 2019 — Mar 2024

  • Owned the organization-wide business application portfolio outside Accounting's stack and managed an estimated $150K–$200K in annual SaaS spend for a 150-to-250-person remote-first organization.
  • Led Salesforce administration for hundreds of users; later managed two Salesforce administrators as direct reports, with responsibility for data quality, dashboards, training, and optimization.
  • Led process improvement across HR, IT, Accounting, Research Operations, Research, and Sales, translating business needs into standardized workflows for onboarding, client compliance, digital signatures, project kickoffs, and team communication.
  • Introduced and supported core collaboration and operations platforms, and designed the Zoom Sessions Generator across Airtable, Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, and Zoom to improve consistency and reduce repeated setup work.
AnswerLab
Remote · 2013 — 2019

UX Research Manager

  • Managed researchers and contractors and guided quality, scope, profitability, and delivery across engagements.
  • Managed three direct reports by FY2014 and built role scorecards, feedback, delegation, and FinancialForce review tools.

Earlier roles included Senior UX Researcher, UX Researcher, Associate UX Researcher, and Administrative Assistant / Admin Coordinator.

Current work

OK Computer
2024 — Present

AI-enabled process improvement and automation

  • Build and operate Ground Control, combining AI-assisted interpretation, deterministic workflow rules, and accounting-system integrations for financial operations.
  • Designed Outlook-to-QuickBooks Online remittance processing with confidence-based autoposting; added journal-entry generation from recurring Paylocity payroll and Shopify sales reports.
  • Automated a law-firm commission-split workflow from multiple report uploads to one action, replacing an approximately three-hour monthly spreadsheet chore.

Selected work

Fable
Canada · Workflow automation

Wired practical solutions using Zapier, Excel, and HubSpot to reduce repetitive operational work.

AnswerLab systems and workflows
Cross-functional operations

Built and improved workflows spanning Salesforce, Airtable, Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Zoom, Box Sign, and internal operating routines.

Recommendations

Excerpts from LinkedIn recommendations from clients and colleagues.

Justin Tyme JacksonColleague on a different team

These automations quickly became essential to our work.

Read full recommendation from Justin Tyme Jackson

I highly recommend Donovan, who has been an invaluable part of our team. His expertise with Zapier has automated several key tasks, streamlining UX Research processes and making them more efficient. These automations quickly became essential to our work.

On top of his technical skills, Donovan is friendly, professional, and always willing to help. He patiently taught me many of the tools and skills I use today, and his ability to explain complex concepts in a clear, approachable way has made him a great team member.

It’s been a pleasure working with him, and I’m confident he’ll be a tremendous asset to any team.

James Rogers, MA, CHRPClient

Donovan has a collaborative mindset that worked well for our team's specific interests and pain points.

Read full recommendation from James Rogers, MA, CHRP

I reached out to Donovan for help building automations for some of our People/HR processes. Donovan impressed me by coming to our first few meetings already prepared with ideas and sketches -- this is clearly something he's passionate about. He was eager to get going but he also listened closely to our needs and tailored his approach whenever necessary. Donovan has a collaborative mindset that worked well for our team's specific interests and pain points. I always appreciated his communication style and his ability to adapt when we encountered road blocks. I feel that I learned a lot about automations by working with Donovan, and I'd highly recommend his services to anyone looking to build automations and efficiencies into their processes.

Nicole CubaColleague at AnswerLab

His depth of knowledge, kindness, and willingness to assist or teach new skills made him invaluable.

Read full recommendation from Nicole Cuba

I've had the privilege of collaborating with Donovan in my past positions at AnswerLab. Whenever there was a hiccup in processes or automation, Donovan was always there to lend expertise and solve the problem. His depth of knowledge, kindness, and willingness to assist or teach new skills made him invaluable. Donovan's expertise knows no bounds, and any team he joins will undoubtedly benefit. I highly recommend Donovan without hesitation.

Abby GreutmanColleague on a different team

Donovan is extremely knowledgeable, resourceful, and a pleasure to work with.

Read full recommendation from Abby Greutman

Donovan is extremely knowledgeable, resourceful, and a pleasure to work with. Any company would greatly benefit from having Donovan on their team.

Capabilities

Process improvement
Workflow redesign · Standardization · Adoption
Business systems
Application portfolios · Integrations · Governance
Salesforce
Administration · Data quality · Dashboards · Training
Operations leadership
Cross-functional delivery · People leadership · Vendors
Automation
Zapier · n8n · APIs · Python · AI-assisted workflows
Financial operations
QuickBooks Online · SAP FI-AR · Paylocity · Shopify