Behind the Scenes with Operator

Running a small, independent platform like Glass takes more than great design and thoughtful features. It takes careful, often invisible work to keep the lights on, support members, and maintain a healthy community. Especially when you’re a tiny team.

Over the past year, much of our work has focused on something our members never directly see: Operator, the internal tool we use to manage everything behind the scenes.

We thought it might be helpful, and hopefully a little interesting, to give you a glimpse into what that looks like, and why it plays such a big role in keeping Glass running smoothly every day.

From scattered systems to a unified home

When we launched Glass in 2021, we weren’t just building a product. We were building a community. We shipped with EXIF support, human-centered design, and manual curation to help shape the kind of platform we wanted Glass to become. We also included safety tools like spam prevention and content reporting from day one.

But as the platform grew, across iPad, Android, Web, and Windows, so did the tools required to support it. From highlighting member photos to managing subscriptions, support tickets, flagged content, categories, equipment, and our help docs… it became a lot to juggle.

We used Webflow for Highlights, Retool for accounts, and having to manually dig through the feed to find work to feature. It worked, barely. But it slowed us down.

Enter Operator

So we built something better.

Operator is our internal tool that now powers nearly every aspect of Glass. It’s our command center. It lets us run the platform, manage the community, and keep everything moving without burning out.

With Operator, we can:

• Respond to support messages and solve billing issues

• Moderate flagged content and track community health

• Schedule Highlights and post across multiple platforms

• Manage new categories, featured photos, and Series

• Approve cameras and lenses without touching the code

• Edit and improve the FAQ based on common questions

What used to be a mess of tools, Notion docs, and Slack threads now lives in one central place. It saves time, reduces mistakes, and means the whole team can pitch in without everything falling on one person.

Why this matters

Operator makes Glass stronger. It helps us scale the platform with care and intention, without needing to grow our team or compromise on the kind of experience we’re building.

It’s not flashy. It doesn’t show up in a changelog. But it makes Glass more sustainable, more resilient, and more responsive to the people who use it.

If you’ve ever wondered what your subscription helps support, this is a big part of it. Not just infrastructure, but the thoughtful systems that help us keep this community safe, creative, and evolving.

Thanks for being part of it.