Ashley Helkenn, Sr. Director L&D + Ops Services @ Bonchon

"If a picture's worth a thousand words, in a kitchen that's about 995 too many." Today on 🍔Restaurant 🤖Tech 📈Trends I sit down with Ashley Helkenn, Sr. Director of Learning & Development and Operations Services at Bonchon, the Korean fried chicken brand born in Busan in 2002 and now approaching 500 locations worldwide (150 in the US). Ashley started as Director of Training about four and a half years ago as the brand built the infrastructure to scale franchising. She'll tell you her heart has always been in operations, and it shows. 📺WATCH AND LEARN📺 👉 How Bonchon made its back-of-house training WORDLESS, so a crew member can execute the same way no matter what language they speak or whether they can read (hint: color-coded scoops are involved) 👉 Why day one is about mastering ONE step of that double-fried, hand-brushed chicken instead of learning it all soup to nuts, and how that fights turnover 👉 The QR-code-to-trained-in-15-seconds setup, and why the stores with more engagement see earlier wins in sales and service scores 👉 Why so much scheduling tech becomes "expensive shelf software," and her take that operators don't have a tech fear, they have a time problem 👉 Best-of-breed vs. all-in-one at 150 US units, and why her goal is "better bucketing" Shout outs to Opus and Tattle for the training and guest feedback love along the way. ➕ PLUS the rapid fire round, where Ashley picks a side on soy garlic vs. spicy and kiosk vs. human, names the best fried chicken that isn't Bonchon (not the answer you'd expect), and shares the one word every new crew member should hear on day one Ashley and I first met at one of our Future of Restaurant Tech dinners, and I'm so glad we finally made this one happen. Give it a watch and let me know what you think 👇