Meeting Title: Brainforge Insomnia Project Check-in Date: 2025-12-09 Meeting participants: Sezim Zhenishbekova, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:01:44.470 ⇒ 00:01:45.989 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Oh, hi, Robert.
2 00:01:45.990 ⇒ 00:01:46.890 Robert Tseng: Hey, Susan.
3 00:01:47.470 ⇒ 00:01:48.299 Sezim Zhenishbekova: for you.
4 00:01:49.180 ⇒ 00:01:55.960 Robert Tseng: I’m okay. It’s been, kind of a crazy past couple weeks, but, yeah.
5 00:01:57.230 ⇒ 00:02:05.720 Sezim Zhenishbekova: So, I don’t… I don’t really know what’s the agenda for today, that’s why I was open to… yeah.
6 00:02:06.000 ⇒ 00:02:08.130 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, I guess…
7 00:02:08.570 ⇒ 00:02:14.849 Robert Tseng: today… well, I mean, first I just want to make sure that you, like, I know what kind of the projects you’re working on.
8 00:02:14.960 ⇒ 00:02:18.710 Robert Tseng: And then we can talk a bit more about insomnia.
9 00:02:19.910 ⇒ 00:02:21.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, and then…
10 00:02:25.410 ⇒ 00:02:32.749 Robert Tseng: I would like to, I mean, gotta figure out, like, how… how things are going, and what adjustments we need to make as well.
11 00:02:33.490 ⇒ 00:02:39.550 Robert Tseng: So… Yeah, with… on stand-up and Eden and stuff, like, I’m gonna assume that…
12 00:02:40.110 ⇒ 00:02:47.179 Robert Tseng: You’re gonna update the tickets, I’m not gonna keep asking for bag. I think you and Henry can kind of figure that out, so…
13 00:02:47.360 ⇒ 00:02:52.530 Robert Tseng: I’ll kind of… yeah, I wanna talk about that. I’ll just talk about insomnia first.
14 00:02:52.530 ⇒ 00:02:55.620 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And then we can talk about… Yes.
15 00:02:55.620 ⇒ 00:02:56.700 Robert Tseng: I think it’s more generally.
16 00:02:57.250 ⇒ 00:02:57.710 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Sounds great.
17 00:02:57.710 ⇒ 00:03:01.099 Robert Tseng: Okay, so let me pull up…
18 00:03:04.690 ⇒ 00:03:09.909 Robert Tseng: A couple things… have… Spark Arn…
19 00:03:21.580 ⇒ 00:03:25.029 Robert Tseng: with that, and we’ll also look at…
20 00:03:31.580 ⇒ 00:03:41.819 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. So, where… Okay, I guess I could just do my whole screen.
21 00:03:44.330 ⇒ 00:03:59.110 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so… With insomnia… Going back to… hmm… the impact scorecard.
22 00:03:59.280 ⇒ 00:04:09.600 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think this looks good. I think what I would like to do… Hey, huh.
23 00:04:09.970 ⇒ 00:04:20.209 Sezim Zhenishbekova: So it starts with daily summary and goes to weekly, quarterly, and then executive summary just, brings it up based on the dates that you want to look it up for.
24 00:04:20.740 ⇒ 00:04:27.900 Robert Tseng: Oh, right. So… Wait, yeah, so it’s this one, this one, and this one?
25 00:04:28.350 ⇒ 00:04:41.269 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes. The daily summary is used on a daily basis to fill it out all the information, and weekly summary, quarterly summary, and weekly mix just gives, like, small analytics.
26 00:04:41.440 ⇒ 00:04:42.050 Robert Tseng: Okay.
27 00:04:42.640 ⇒ 00:04:50.040 Sezim Zhenishbekova: An executive summary is dynamic, you can change the date, and then it will, adapt based on the requests.
28 00:04:50.690 ⇒ 00:04:51.550 Robert Tseng: Okay, great.
29 00:04:51.550 ⇒ 00:04:51.940 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
30 00:04:51.940 ⇒ 00:04:56.789 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I think what I would like you to do with this one, just to kind of close this out for now.
31 00:04:56.790 ⇒ 00:04:57.260 Sezim Zhenishbekova: consciousness.
32 00:04:58.260 ⇒ 00:05:05.170 Robert Tseng: Yeah, if you could do, like, a… if… we have… we have Loom, if you don’t… if you’re not on Loom,
33 00:05:05.170 ⇒ 00:05:12.659 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I registered it… I have registered with Brainforge account, and left some comments while onboarding,
34 00:05:12.960 ⇒ 00:05:20.499 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I don’t know, I was tagging someone to get answers to questions, but yeah, I have the loom, so I need to record it.
35 00:05:20.850 ⇒ 00:05:24.350 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so if you could… because I, you know, based on, like.
36 00:05:24.530 ⇒ 00:05:27.840 Robert Tseng: where this client is headed. So,
37 00:05:29.630 ⇒ 00:05:38.890 Robert Tseng: basically, we are shifting our stake… so our main stakeholder was a CMO before, but she actually got fired, so that’s just…
38 00:05:38.890 ⇒ 00:05:39.400 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Oh.
39 00:05:39.400 ⇒ 00:05:55.189 Robert Tseng: kind of been a weird situation where there hasn’t been, like, a main stakeholder on this client, and so my role is just trying to find the next person, so I’ve talked to the VP of Product, I’ve talked to the chief of staff today, who’s now… she wants us to loop in the CEO, and so…
40 00:05:55.290 ⇒ 00:06:01.060 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, I’m basically, within the next week or two weeks, I’m trying to figure out, like, what the…
41 00:06:01.210 ⇒ 00:06:10.880 Robert Tseng: way of continuing forward is gonna look like. You know, if the CEO is gonna be our main sponsor, then I think that’s… that’s great, but also, like, you know, that’s also kind of…
42 00:06:11.850 ⇒ 00:06:19.430 Robert Tseng: That’ll also be kind of rough, because this is the CEO of, like, a $650 million business, so, like, his expectations are going to be much higher.
43 00:06:19.430 ⇒ 00:06:19.960 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
44 00:06:19.960 ⇒ 00:06:32.869 Robert Tseng: what we currently have with the stakeholders that we work with. This is one of the resources that we do update, and so, yeah, I kind of want you to be the owner of this, of this scorecard, and.
45 00:06:33.360 ⇒ 00:06:41.199 Robert Tseng: Just being able to walk through, okay, this is how things were being updated before, how we were reading out on it, and then kind of talking through
46 00:06:41.660 ⇒ 00:06:44.049 Robert Tseng: What you’ve built, why it’s better.
47 00:06:44.510 ⇒ 00:06:51.339 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, I kind of need you to kind of package that up so that I can send him that video, so…
48 00:06:51.860 ⇒ 00:06:53.510 Robert Tseng: It’s gonna be executive-facing.
49 00:06:53.510 ⇒ 00:06:55.970 Sezim Zhenishbekova: That’s a lot.
50 00:06:55.970 ⇒ 00:06:56.310 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
51 00:06:56.310 ⇒ 00:06:57.499 Sezim Zhenishbekova: out of pressure.
52 00:06:57.500 ⇒ 00:07:06.119 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah, so, I mean, I don’t want to set you up for failure, so hopefully we can just, like, spend a bit of… a few minutes here just to kind of talk through what I think would be the most important.
53 00:07:06.420 ⇒ 00:07:08.380 Robert Tseng: So…
54 00:07:08.670 ⇒ 00:07:14.239 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I guess, like, kind of the pain with this one, right, was that, you know, this was, like, a daily…
55 00:07:14.580 ⇒ 00:07:17.239 Robert Tseng: I was on test. Or what? Draft?
56 00:07:17.240 ⇒ 00:07:26.560 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I did the test because I needed… my formula wasn’t working, so I didn’t doing the test, I didn’t want to touch the main one, so I will delete the test one.
57 00:07:27.720 ⇒ 00:07:41.290 Robert Tseng: Okay. Yeah, well, so, I mean, you know, we’re basically saying, you know, before, every… every day had a separate, like, car, like a separate car where we had to manually paste in all these different things. This used to be taking the team
58 00:07:41.380 ⇒ 00:07:48.050 Robert Tseng: like, an hour to two hours a day to be updating this, and this was, like, 5 different people, so…
59 00:07:48.050 ⇒ 00:07:48.470 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
60 00:07:48.470 ⇒ 00:08:00.019 Robert Tseng: What we’ve done is we’ve built, and so this is kind of where I want you to, like, kind of learn… you’ve talked to Rico, or you’ve talked to Casey, you’ve talked to Amber.
61 00:08:00.170 ⇒ 00:08:02.650 Robert Tseng: You have some sense of, like.
62 00:08:02.870 ⇒ 00:08:10.899 Robert Tseng: the automation that we’ve built to speed up this process. So, I’m just kind of walking you through the outline of, like, the story that you need to tell, right? Yeah.
63 00:08:12.060 ⇒ 00:08:25.220 Robert Tseng: It’s like, before, this is what it was. You could talk about the friction points, and, like, how… how it was taking… you know, you just think of it like a pitch. You’re, like, pitching, like, a product, almost, to, like, to an executive suite.
64 00:08:25.220 ⇒ 00:08:25.770 Sezim Zhenishbekova: audience.
65 00:08:27.110 ⇒ 00:08:43.169 Robert Tseng: yeah, you know, every… every tab is, like, kind of on a monthly basis, every… every… every kind of tile is updated daily, and this would take the team, like, an hour, two hours a day to update. Now we’ve built out some automation. You could flash some things that we’ve done,
66 00:08:44.190 ⇒ 00:08:53.180 Robert Tseng: So, I know we’ve… if there’s a way to visualize, like, the automation that we’ve done, we have di… we have architecture diagrams, we have…
67 00:08:53.180 ⇒ 00:09:06.100 Robert Tseng: the Google Sheet automations, like, I don’t know exactly what Casey and Amber showed you, but being able to just kind of reference, okay, this is what we’ve done, this has sped it up so that our team now spends less than 30 minutes a day updating everything here.
68 00:09:06.310 ⇒ 00:09:19.889 Robert Tseng: But still, you know, we… we were, basically looking across these… these rows on a weekly basis to look at weekly and weekly deltas year over year to compare period over period.
69 00:09:20.160 ⇒ 00:09:27.979 Robert Tseng: And yeah, this was what we were doing previously in, like, the mon… and our, like, our Monday… Monday, like, reviews.
70 00:09:28.050 ⇒ 00:09:42.760 Robert Tseng: Now, like, we think that this is a better… this is a better way of viewing it, because, you get a quick snapshot of, like, weekly performance, like, that’s already aggregated on a weekly… on a quarterly basis.
71 00:09:44.270 ⇒ 00:09:50.289 Robert Tseng: And we get to, kind of look at marketing, yeah.
72 00:09:50.460 ⇒ 00:09:55.820 Robert Tseng: Kind of by channel, by marketing mix, and so we can do this, this, like, we could do these…
73 00:09:56.130 ⇒ 00:10:06.320 Robert Tseng: the snapshots of these aggregations, and then on a quarterly, then we can also drill into it on a quarterly, weekly, and daily, cycle, right? So…
74 00:10:06.670 ⇒ 00:10:18.520 Robert Tseng: I think that’s… that’s… to me, that’s, like, the storyline that we need to tell, of, like, what… what we’ve built. So I think, like, this video should probably be, like.
75 00:10:18.950 ⇒ 00:10:27.249 Robert Tseng: no more than 5 minutes. I think it could be less, too. But yeah, I think if you could record kind of just talking, talking through those steps.
76 00:10:27.360 ⇒ 00:10:35.249 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think, like, the skills that you’re demonstrating here, one is, like, executive presentation, like, obviously, like, kind of…
77 00:10:35.680 ⇒ 00:10:50.650 Robert Tseng: when you’re presenting analysis, like, and you’ll need to be doing more of these if we want to move you to become more client-facing, like, I think this is also important for you to practice, so I think there’s… I could tell you all the reasons why I think this is an important exercise, but.
78 00:10:50.650 ⇒ 00:11:04.170 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, I totally get it. Like, it’s good to be able to present the work that you’ve done in the best way possible, because you need to convince that it’s actually, like, impactful, so… Yeah. Yes.
79 00:11:04.170 ⇒ 00:11:12.059 Robert Tseng: And, yeah, I mean, you know, this is gonna go to the CEO of a $650 million company, so… I mean, obviously, not to put too much pressure on you.
80 00:11:12.060 ⇒ 00:11:13.710 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And there’s also, like… Yeah.
81 00:11:13.710 ⇒ 00:11:17.870 Robert Tseng: I mean, you’re getting this type of exposure, like, right away, so, like, I think this is…
82 00:11:18.070 ⇒ 00:11:26.400 Robert Tseng: this is the life of being at Brainforge. We’re always talking to C-level people. So, yeah, I think…
83 00:11:26.850 ⇒ 00:11:31.349 Robert Tseng: So that’s… that’s that, so I would ask for you to kind of polish that.
84 00:11:31.350 ⇒ 00:11:31.750 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Are you thinking.
85 00:11:31.750 ⇒ 00:11:35.829 Robert Tseng: kind of like, you know, formatting issues, I would just make sure, just make sure that.
86 00:11:35.830 ⇒ 00:11:50.039 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, today I wanted to sit through and, like, recheck the numbers, because, it was a lot of, like, I did all the November monsters, I backtraced everything and put it in the new daily summary sheet.
87 00:11:50.210 ⇒ 00:12:00.260 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay. And I just want to make sure that everything runs, like, the summarization, and then the formulas are right. And yeah, before recording, I will do that.
88 00:12:00.810 ⇒ 00:12:01.470 Robert Tseng: Okay.
89 00:12:01.660 ⇒ 00:12:04.990 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I’m just asking for one more level of polish, I’ll share.
90 00:12:05.370 ⇒ 00:12:07.210 Robert Tseng: Have you seen these files?
91 00:12:07.490 ⇒ 00:12:15.110 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I’ve seen… I haven’t, like, seen it… downloaded it, I don’t have the physical file, I just saw the snapshots of it.
92 00:12:15.340 ⇒ 00:12:17.600 Robert Tseng: Okay, I will.
93 00:12:17.600 ⇒ 00:12:21.019 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, can you send me the download? Maybe I can format it.
94 00:12:21.020 ⇒ 00:12:31.800 Robert Tseng: This is from their finance team that, like, they get… that they send to all the executives on a daily basis, so this is kind of like… this is actually one of the data sources that gets pulled into
95 00:12:32.550 ⇒ 00:12:34.810 Robert Tseng: our process. Yeah.
96 00:12:34.810 ⇒ 00:12:38.250 Sezim Zhenishbekova: For the scorecard area calculation, right?
97 00:12:38.580 ⇒ 00:12:43.319 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I’ll share a few things with you.
98 00:12:43.510 ⇒ 00:12:49.309 Robert Tseng: I think you should be able to access it without a login. If you need to use a login, then…
99 00:12:49.310 ⇒ 00:12:50.230 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
100 00:12:50.510 ⇒ 00:12:59.740 Robert Tseng: I, I, we, we share all of our credentials, so I would say you could, microsoft… yeah, you, you should… you should use…
101 00:13:00.040 ⇒ 00:13:06.039 Robert Tseng: this one… If you need to log in to Insomnia Microsoft.
102 00:13:06.220 ⇒ 00:13:15.050 Robert Tseng: Yeah, their security is, like, really tight for some… I think it’s kind of unnecessary, but it is kind of what it is.
103 00:13:16.680 ⇒ 00:13:17.560 Robert Tseng: What?
104 00:13:18.400 ⇒ 00:13:21.449 Robert Tseng: Okay, so I’ll let that load in the background, but basically.
105 00:13:21.560 ⇒ 00:13:24.669 Robert Tseng: This just kind of gives you a flavor for, like.
106 00:13:24.780 ⇒ 00:13:28.470 Robert Tseng: what I think the level of polish needs to be before we send it. Like, this is.
107 00:13:28.470 ⇒ 00:13:28.990 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
108 00:13:28.990 ⇒ 00:13:40.190 Robert Tseng: consumes this. So, I mean, I don’t think it’s that far different, but, you know, make sure when you’re showing, kind of, like, you know, increases or decreases, like, some sort of, like.
109 00:13:40.930 ⇒ 00:13:41.430 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Coloring.
110 00:13:41.430 ⇒ 00:13:59.739 Robert Tseng: be a coloring, but yeah, like, some light coloring would be helpful. Make sure that everything is formatted, like, best accounting practices. You know, again, so I would think this is, like, a good style guide. You don’t have to use the same font or whatever, but just, like, in terms of, like, cleanliness, like, it should… it should look at least comparable to this.
111 00:14:00.050 ⇒ 00:14:02.430 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And I do think that there are some…
112 00:14:02.430 ⇒ 00:14:20.069 Robert Tseng: kind of formatting practices here, but I mean, this is really just, like, a store-level kind of, like, sales summary. So, this is different from what you’re doing. You’re doing, like, marketing-driven revenue, not store… this is, like, point-of-sale store revenue. So,
113 00:14:20.310 ⇒ 00:14:23.319 Robert Tseng: So yeah, if I were to kind of contrast this, yeah, so I think,
114 00:14:25.040 ⇒ 00:14:28.689 Robert Tseng: Yeah, as much as you can, you know, follow…
115 00:14:29.100 ⇒ 00:14:29.740 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
116 00:14:29.740 ⇒ 00:14:32.730 Robert Tseng: Like, something a bit cleaner like this. I think that would be helpful.
117 00:14:32.880 ⇒ 00:14:43.379 Robert Tseng: Yeah, anything that’s just, like, in the millions, you should knock down, like, you should know… don’t… don’t show sense. Yeah, generally speaking, you don’t… you shouldn’t show sense, because these numbers are too big.
118 00:14:44.640 ⇒ 00:14:45.610 Robert Tseng: And…
119 00:14:46.600 ⇒ 00:14:53.030 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so I guess that’s my feedback stylistically on, like, how… where I think this needs to… at what level I think this needs.
120 00:14:53.030 ⇒ 00:14:53.489 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I forget to.
121 00:14:54.120 ⇒ 00:14:55.360 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
122 00:14:55.360 ⇒ 00:15:09.810 Robert Tseng: And then, on the quarterly summaries, I think this is the right… this is the right presentation. Obviously, I think you’re gonna make it look a little bit, like, nicer as well, but yeah, I think Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 of, like, 20… yeah, yeah, you know, base…
123 00:15:09.810 ⇒ 00:15:19.650 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, I wanted to keep the… and weekly mix is the same, but it’s for… Promos over time.
124 00:15:20.350 ⇒ 00:15:24.419 Sezim Zhenishbekova: So I categorize based on promo, I think that would be helpful.
125 00:15:26.900 ⇒ 00:15:30.530 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think,
126 00:15:31.530 ⇒ 00:15:37.230 Robert Tseng: I think weekly mix promo… I mean, this… I think base vs. promo is fine. I think…
127 00:15:37.550 ⇒ 00:15:40.960 Robert Tseng: It’d probably be more helpful to break it out by, like.
128 00:15:41.710 ⇒ 00:15:45.089 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Oh, okay, I have that too.
129 00:15:45.090 ⇒ 00:15:45.920 Robert Tseng: this…
130 00:15:45.920 ⇒ 00:15:52.489 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes. Oh, okay, great. It’s a weekly summary, and it’s broken by down by dates.
131 00:15:52.690 ⇒ 00:15:54.630 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Basically, for a week.
132 00:15:54.840 ⇒ 00:16:00.010 Robert Tseng: I see. I just decided to keep it in this format, because it’s better for the weekly mix.
133 00:16:00.360 ⇒ 00:16:03.649 Sezim Zhenishbekova: To pull data from this sheet and calculate it.
134 00:16:03.860 ⇒ 00:16:05.789 Sezim Zhenishbekova: For the executive summary.
135 00:16:06.660 ⇒ 00:16:07.530 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
136 00:16:07.640 ⇒ 00:16:10.739 Robert Tseng: I would say, like, I actually think that this…
137 00:16:13.150 ⇒ 00:16:23.959 Robert Tseng: having, like, the groups on one axis, and then every column is a different week would probably be better for the weekly summary. I think it’s easier to read, right?
138 00:16:24.670 ⇒ 00:16:29.660 Robert Tseng: So, I actually would probably switch… switch to these. Like, they should be, like, weak…
139 00:16:30.090 ⇒ 00:16:32.239 Robert Tseng: Here, that way you only have, like.
140 00:16:33.880 ⇒ 00:16:43.520 Robert Tseng: you know, let’s say FDA is… I’m just gonna… promo code, and then it’s, like, 11.3, 1110… 11, 17…
141 00:16:43.520 ⇒ 00:16:51.170 Sezim Zhenishbekova: So, basically, weekly mix, but it’s breaking down into promos. Okay. I can create it under the weekly mix.
142 00:16:51.170 ⇒ 00:16:51.550 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
143 00:16:51.550 ⇒ 00:16:57.660 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I will put it there, because this is, like, like, it has all the information, so I will pull from here to run…
144 00:16:57.660 ⇒ 00:16:58.080 Robert Tseng: Okay.
145 00:16:58.080 ⇒ 00:16:59.060 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Her promo.
146 00:16:59.120 ⇒ 00:17:00.250 Robert Tseng: Great, yeah, so should that…
147 00:17:00.250 ⇒ 00:17:01.790 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Instead of breaking it down.
148 00:17:02.020 ⇒ 00:17:02.690 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes. Okay.
149 00:17:02.690 ⇒ 00:17:10.020 Robert Tseng: So this is actually… otherwise, this is fine. I think that makes sense. This is similar to the marketing performance tracker.
150 00:17:17.660 ⇒ 00:17:20.570 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so, like, this is, like, a daily… have you seen this?
151 00:17:21.440 ⇒ 00:17:29.400 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, you pull data from here, too, the scorecard, right? Yeah, yeah. As I remember, yes.
152 00:17:29.400 ⇒ 00:17:48.230 Robert Tseng: But yeah, I’m saying this style is similar to what you’ve built for the summaries, because it’s, like, date, column, and then each of the different metrics. Like, I think that’s… that to me is what I… that’s… that’s kind of what you’re doing here. So I think that makes sense for weekly, and then on the daily side, yeah, I think this view is fine.
153 00:17:48.490 ⇒ 00:17:50.870 Robert Tseng: Okay, so…
154 00:17:53.590 ⇒ 00:17:59.360 Robert Tseng: I guess, just to… yeah, I guess, are we… do you feel like you’re clear on, like, what adjustments.
155 00:17:59.360 ⇒ 00:17:59.740 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
156 00:17:59.740 ⇒ 00:18:01.160 Robert Tseng: snake for the spirit? Okay.
157 00:18:01.420 ⇒ 00:18:13.799 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes, I will go through the insomnia file, making formatted clauses to that, fix some formatting numbers, do the QA,
158 00:18:13.940 ⇒ 00:18:26.130 Sezim Zhenishbekova: check everything out, fill it out until December, so, like, since from today, people can start using the card, and record the video, update the weekly mix by breaking down every…
159 00:18:26.490 ⇒ 00:18:31.850 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Promo by category, instead of sorting into base and…
160 00:18:32.020 ⇒ 00:18:37.319 Sezim Zhenishbekova: The promos category, and then record a video, 5 minutes long.
161 00:18:37.550 ⇒ 00:18:40.459 Sezim Zhenishbekova: To describing every process.
162 00:18:41.070 ⇒ 00:18:48.849 Robert Tseng: Okay, great. So, I think, yeah, that should be kind of the end of this one.
163 00:18:49.720 ⇒ 00:18:55.929 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, as far as, like, future projects, like, I mean, we’re just gonna have to see. Like, I… I would like to…
164 00:18:56.430 ⇒ 00:19:00.810 Robert Tseng: Basically, the stuff that…
165 00:19:02.270 ⇒ 00:19:08.940 Robert Tseng: like, we have some more scope that’s queued up. I mean, I’m not gonna kind of give you an intro to everything now, but,
166 00:19:10.030 ⇒ 00:19:11.600 Robert Tseng: the…
167 00:19:13.140 ⇒ 00:19:25.179 Robert Tseng: like, Amber’s work on, like, marketing analysis, like, eventually I would want to, kind of have you, like, learn and take some of that over as well, so I can move her.
168 00:19:25.180 ⇒ 00:19:25.710 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Go different.
169 00:19:25.710 ⇒ 00:19:35.729 Robert Tseng: So I think that’s maybe, like, a next step after this week, but yeah, I guess that’s…
170 00:19:36.260 ⇒ 00:19:54.870 Robert Tseng: that’s all I have for Insomnia right now. On Eden, I feel like it’s… it’s a lot clearer, like, they’re locked in with us for another 6 months, so, like, Insomnia, like, I… I don’t want to say too much, because, like, I don’t exactly know what’s gonna happen after… after this month, so… Yeah. Until they’ve really signed the deal for another extension, like, I don’t want us to… to…
171 00:19:54.870 ⇒ 00:19:57.909 Robert Tseng: spend too much time on that. So, I care more about
172 00:19:57.910 ⇒ 00:20:04.159 Robert Tseng: what’s coming on Eden, like, you know, I want Jonah to feel good about working with you,
173 00:20:04.280 ⇒ 00:20:07.120 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, I’m… I’m a little bit…
174 00:20:07.820 ⇒ 00:20:19.130 Robert Tseng: unsure, like, how things are going. Like, I… I know I kind of assigned you to be under Henry to kind of, for him to kind of manage your work right now. It’s…
175 00:20:19.250 ⇒ 00:20:28.029 Robert Tseng: I mean, frankly, like, I don’t… I don’t know, I don’t… I don’t see any details, so, like, I… I don’t… it doesn’t make me… I mean, I think that’s why UTAM sent you that message, because he’s like.
176 00:20:28.260 ⇒ 00:20:37.360 Robert Tseng: I don’t really know what Sesame’s doing, so… which I think is totally fair. So, part of it is on Henry, on, like, writing, like, kind of…
177 00:20:37.850 ⇒ 00:20:55.920 Robert Tseng: managing the project better, which I am, like, I’m working with him on, but I think for you, the best thing for you to do is just to keep your tickets up to date. Yeah, you should kind of manage your own work, when you’re assigned something and, you know what’s coming. Yeah, just, like, to make that, clear, yeah.
178 00:20:55.920 ⇒ 00:21:06.110 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, to be honest, Henry’s doing great, we are having frequent calls, it’s just, on my end, I didn’t really record it on linear, so yeah, and then last week, I was…
179 00:21:06.110 ⇒ 00:21:21.540 Sezim Zhenishbekova: kind of busy with Insomnia, still onboarding, but now, this week, I’m gonna be more focused on the Eden, since I already, like, we have a moment… I’m basically done with that, and I can entirely focus on doing the Eden stuff, and I… yeah, I agree.
180 00:21:21.570 ⇒ 00:21:26.609 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I have… I need to do a better job recording at the linear, yeah.
181 00:21:26.610 ⇒ 00:21:29.909 Robert Tseng: Okay. Yeah, I know you kind of just got thrown into things, so I get, like.
182 00:21:29.910 ⇒ 00:21:30.540 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
183 00:21:30.540 ⇒ 00:21:31.779 Robert Tseng: Yeah, so that’s a lot to kind of pick.
184 00:21:31.780 ⇒ 00:21:34.850 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, I’m also still, like,
185 00:21:35.170 ⇒ 00:21:51.809 Sezim Zhenishbekova: figuring out my schedule situation, because I still have another part-time job, and it’s been a bit hectic, but I think, like, this… by the end of this week, it will settle down a bit more, so I would know my hours better, and make sure to deliver everything.
186 00:21:51.850 ⇒ 00:21:57.339 Sezim Zhenishbekova: On a timely basis by recording it properly. So, yeah. Okay.
187 00:21:57.340 ⇒ 00:22:07.719 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, we’re obviously an async team, like, everybody works remote, so I think, like, the best thing to do is just to, yeah, communicate in Slack, let people know what you’re working on, what you’re gonna deliver on.
188 00:22:08.120 ⇒ 00:22:14.169 Robert Tseng: And, like, generally, like, how you get there is kind of up to you. Like, I don’t think we really, like, care too much.
189 00:22:14.170 ⇒ 00:22:14.570 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
190 00:22:14.570 ⇒ 00:22:17.149 Robert Tseng: Obviously, we do our daily stand-ups, and…
191 00:22:17.680 ⇒ 00:22:21.870 Robert Tseng: I mean, that’s our really only our only mandatory, like, meeting, I guess, so…
192 00:22:21.870 ⇒ 00:22:22.280 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
193 00:22:22.280 ⇒ 00:22:24.620 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think that’s…
194 00:22:24.620 ⇒ 00:22:29.669 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And I was wondering, do you want me to attend every day, Fred? Or…
195 00:22:29.670 ⇒ 00:22:38.639 Robert Tseng: What is the schedule like? Yeah, I think, like, well, I know every time I have asked you to join every day, like, I don’t really think you need.
196 00:22:38.640 ⇒ 00:22:42.920 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, yeah, like, maybe minimum 3 times,
197 00:22:43.200 ⇒ 00:22:55.619 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah. Like, because I know I also track my time, so I was wondering if you… I mean, I don’t mind, like, I can attend the meetings, but I don’t know how useful it is for me to be there, like…
198 00:22:56.540 ⇒ 00:23:00.110 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I expect all the full-time people to attend every day, like, I know you’re.
199 00:23:00.110 ⇒ 00:23:00.520 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
200 00:23:00.520 ⇒ 00:23:06.570 Robert Tseng: still kind of part-time, so I don’t really expect you to. I think three times a week sounds fair, like, I think Monday…
201 00:23:06.570 ⇒ 00:23:12.840 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, because I’m not doing a lot of work on a daily basis, too, and I don’t really sometimes have something to report.
202 00:23:12.920 ⇒ 00:23:21.049 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I don’t… yeah, I don’t know what… how you backed your work right now, but anyway, like, I think, like, in the… in the… you know, I guess it’s…
203 00:23:21.400 ⇒ 00:23:37.659 Robert Tseng: you’ve been here for a couple weeks. I mean, we usually do, like, a one-month kind of check-in. I mean, it should be shorter than that. I mean, I kind of want to throw some time, like, end of the week, end of next week or something, and we make a decision on, like, do you want to kind of keep working with us, and, like, do you… what’s your… what’s your capacity and stuff, so…
204 00:23:37.680 ⇒ 00:23:47.390 Robert Tseng: I think we hope that people will choose to ramp up and, like, want to… want to do more, so… Yeah. Like, I have… we have more clients, so, like, I… I think it’s…
205 00:23:47.390 ⇒ 00:24:01.780 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I think, could you, like, by the end of this week, I would be very keen to get, like, something on my mind as well. For me, it takes time to, like, get familiar with the project, so if you have any additional projects, just let me know, and…
206 00:24:01.780 ⇒ 00:24:07.479 Sezim Zhenishbekova: In advance, so I can, like, in my spare time, while I’m taking a break from another one, I can read.
207 00:24:07.680 ⇒ 00:24:08.890 Sezim Zhenishbekova: The other one?
208 00:24:09.510 ⇒ 00:24:15.359 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I guess, I mean, you see all of our… I mean, you’re on the stand-up, so you see all the clients that we’re working.
209 00:24:15.360 ⇒ 00:24:15.930 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, yeah.
210 00:24:15.930 ⇒ 00:24:20.610 Robert Tseng: if there’s anyone that, like, I think you are.
211 00:24:21.440 ⇒ 00:24:26.499 Robert Tseng: Yeah, if there’s anything that you’re curious in learning, like, you should just
212 00:24:26.840 ⇒ 00:24:30.040 Robert Tseng: let us… let us know. Like, I don’t think I have write-ups for every client.
213 00:24:30.040 ⇒ 00:24:30.610 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay.
214 00:24:30.610 ⇒ 00:24:31.930 Robert Tseng: I just don’t.
215 00:24:31.930 ⇒ 00:24:33.360 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, sounds good.
216 00:24:33.360 ⇒ 00:24:36.980 Robert Tseng: Yeah, but… Yeah, I think, like.
217 00:24:37.850 ⇒ 00:24:44.250 Robert Tseng: what I would like to know by the end of… I don’t know, this week, next week, is, like.
218 00:24:46.030 ⇒ 00:24:52.640 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, can you… like, is there a path forward where you have, like, consistent work that you can…
219 00:24:52.790 ⇒ 00:25:10.689 Robert Tseng: take on for… for Eden. For Insomnia, I think I’ve already seen… I’ve seen what you can do there. So, like, I think this is fine, like, this project is good for… for this one that, like, I… you’re just gonna close it out, and we’ll send it… we’ll send the message, and we’ll see from there. But yeah, like, I kind of need to see,
220 00:25:12.120 ⇒ 00:25:16.020 Robert Tseng: like, how… oh, yeah, you kinda, like…
221 00:25:16.300 ⇒ 00:25:28.170 Robert Tseng: it’s… we… it’s weird being in this organization, because we operate as, like, consultants to our clients, but then we operate more like a product company internally, like…
222 00:25:28.170 ⇒ 00:25:28.670 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yes.
223 00:25:28.670 ⇒ 00:25:32.559 Robert Tseng: From the consult… from, like, the client experience side, like.
224 00:25:32.870 ⇒ 00:25:36.869 Robert Tseng: Yeah, they have certain service level expectations, like.
225 00:25:37.450 ⇒ 00:25:53.439 Robert Tseng: we’re consistently doing some agreed-upon amount of work. You know, we’re continuing to build scope and, like, to execute against it, but it is also very dependent. Like, if we assign you to a project, and the client doesn’t work with, like, for example, like, Jonah.
226 00:25:53.690 ⇒ 00:26:00.750 Robert Tseng: if Jonah decides, like, he tells me, yeah, Robert, I don’t want to work with Henry and Seism, then there’s nothing I can do. Then that pretty much
227 00:26:01.130 ⇒ 00:26:07.149 Robert Tseng: that signals to me, like, well, it just didn’t work out, so I’ll just have to find a different way.
228 00:26:07.630 ⇒ 00:26:25.000 Robert Tseng: But, you know, if he’s like, great, I want to work with Sezim and Henry, I think we have enough scope, and he’s like, great, like, I want 10 hours a week of her time, then good. Like, I think that’s… that’s what I… I need that validation from the clients. So, I need that validation externally, and then internally as well, like, I just need to know
229 00:26:25.000 ⇒ 00:26:28.499 Robert Tseng: Like, what people’s skill set is, like, where, like, how…
230 00:26:28.690 ⇒ 00:26:45.950 Robert Tseng: like, where they’re looking to… to stretch into, like, and so I’m… this… this trial is really for you to kind of explore everything that we’re doing. Like, I don’t… you should be… you should have free access to ask anybody questions. I think with Utam and I, we have… our time’s a little bit more limited, so…
231 00:26:45.950 ⇒ 00:26:46.330 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Hmm.
232 00:26:46.330 ⇒ 00:26:49.009 Robert Tseng: Best I can do is maybe one or two check-ins with you a week.
233 00:26:49.380 ⇒ 00:26:49.869 Sezim Zhenishbekova: where you’re gonna.
234 00:26:49.870 ⇒ 00:26:59.809 Robert Tseng: ask me any question about the business. But yeah, like, I think you kind of need to decide for yourself, like, if you want to, like, kind of continue with us or not.
235 00:27:00.710 ⇒ 00:27:01.749 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think…
236 00:27:02.050 ⇒ 00:27:20.590 Robert Tseng: we have too many clients at this point, so, you know, if you don’t end up taking this on, like, it’s fine, like, we’ll just have to… we’ll just have to bring… bring someone… bring someone else in. But, yeah, I don’t think we will… we would… we would not keep you at, like, 10 or 20 hours a week. Like, I just think that’s unlikely to…
237 00:27:20.670 ⇒ 00:27:23.299 Robert Tseng: go well, like, for the long term. But if you…
238 00:27:23.300 ⇒ 00:27:24.579 Sezim Zhenishbekova: There’s a reason to.
239 00:27:24.580 ⇒ 00:27:37.509 Robert Tseng: do that for, like, you want to do it for, like, another month? Like, it’s not, like, we’re not, like, super, strict about it either. Like, I think there… there… there’s… there are exceptions. Like, I think if we need to
240 00:27:38.100 ⇒ 00:27:45.930 Robert Tseng: like… like, Zoran, for example, has been part-time with us for 3 months. Like, he has a special circumstance, like, he…
241 00:27:46.190 ⇒ 00:27:50.080 Robert Tseng: And… I mean, I am trying to bring him on full-time.
242 00:27:50.080 ⇒ 00:27:50.610 Sezim Zhenishbekova: panel.
243 00:27:50.610 ⇒ 00:27:56.119 Robert Tseng: Like, he just needed… he just needed a little… he needed… he needed a little, like, a longer time.
244 00:27:56.190 ⇒ 00:27:57.630 Robert Tseng: But…
245 00:27:57.630 ⇒ 00:28:17.770 Robert Tseng: like, while he’s here, like, the clients love him, like, so I’m totally fine with him doing that, because Eden loves working with him, Ellie, mental health loves working with him, so I… to me, it’s… it’s not a… like, it’s easy to make a case for him to stay on, because, he pretty much, like, kind of takes care of his stuff, and, like, I don’t have to worry about him. So…
246 00:28:17.770 ⇒ 00:28:20.240 Robert Tseng: There… yeah, that’s kind of, like, the…
247 00:28:20.270 ⇒ 00:28:26.200 Robert Tseng: Those are some of the things that I think about, like, when I… when we’re trying to, like, staff people on projects.
248 00:28:27.420 ⇒ 00:28:28.010 Robert Tseng: So…
249 00:28:28.010 ⇒ 00:28:35.419 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, personally for me, I think I can be part-time, because I like to go into projects and, like, be…
250 00:28:35.440 ⇒ 00:28:50.679 Sezim Zhenishbekova: focused on it, so I think 20 hours is fun, but I think if I want to get really good results full-time, I think it’s always a better option to do my best. So, yeah, so far I love it, I think…
251 00:28:50.910 ⇒ 00:28:57.670 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I like how everything is built so far, it’s just taking me time to, like, adjust, see the processes, like, even linear, right? Like.
252 00:28:57.760 ⇒ 00:29:15.259 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah. In my past projects, you know, we used to do stand-ups daily on Slack, so we used to just, like, write it down quickly, and impediments once a day, and that’s it, like… but the Tom is asking me to write it in the morning and at night, like, what’s working, but I told him I will just do the daily, like, during the day.
253 00:29:15.260 ⇒ 00:29:15.890 Robert Tseng: F.
254 00:29:15.890 ⇒ 00:29:26.490 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And then I just couldn’t understand, like, okay, we have calls, I have to attend, I also need to write, and, like, over-communicating is good, I think, and it’s very… pushes me to do more.
255 00:29:26.810 ⇒ 00:29:34.590 Sezim Zhenishbekova: So, yeah, so this process, I’m still getting used to it slowly, but yeah, but I like what’s happening so far.
256 00:29:34.690 ⇒ 00:29:38.260 Sezim Zhenishbekova: And yeah, excited to work with Eden now.
257 00:29:38.910 ⇒ 00:29:40.759 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, great. Yeah, I mean…
258 00:29:40.920 ⇒ 00:29:46.480 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I, I guess… sorry, this is a little bit, like, kind of off the cuff. I didn’t, like, have it all synthesized for you.
259 00:29:46.480 ⇒ 00:29:47.010 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Like, I think…
260 00:29:47.010 ⇒ 00:29:48.279 Robert Tseng: I, you know, I just…
261 00:29:48.600 ⇒ 00:30:07.089 Robert Tseng: just needed… felt like we need to… we need to chat. So, I think what would be helpful is… so other than, like, as far as, like, the business perspective goes, like, we’re… we’re gonna book a time, probably in the next week, for you to do, like, a check-in with just me and Utang, just to kind of have more of a formal assessment of how things are going.
262 00:30:07.090 ⇒ 00:30:10.399 Robert Tseng: In advance of that, I think it’d be helpful for you to kind of, like.
263 00:30:10.650 ⇒ 00:30:27.479 Robert Tseng: have thoughts on, like, how your experience went, and, like, also, kind of, you should write your own job description, I guess. I’ve given you a Notion doc before, and so you can kind of maybe reference that. And if you need help kind of carving that out, I would… I would reach out to Clarence. So, Clarence
264 00:30:27.800 ⇒ 00:30:32.600 Robert Tseng: kind of, like, one of our advisors on, like, team, like, management specifically.
265 00:30:33.140 ⇒ 00:30:40.379 Robert Tseng: I mean, yeah, he’s super experienced, and, like, he knows how, like, kind of how we’re… how we’re building the organization, so…
266 00:30:40.380 ⇒ 00:30:40.870 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah.
267 00:30:40.870 ⇒ 00:30:41.730 Robert Tseng: I, I think…
268 00:30:41.730 ⇒ 00:30:43.690 Sezim Zhenishbekova: If you haven’t spoken to them already, you should.
269 00:30:43.690 ⇒ 00:30:47.870 Robert Tseng: you should get some time with him. I think it would be… I think he’d be super helpful.
270 00:30:48.380 ⇒ 00:30:56.489 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, that would be very good, yeah, because I was, like, all over the places, and now it’s coming to place right now. So yeah, got it.
271 00:30:56.490 ⇒ 00:30:59.120 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool.
272 00:30:59.120 ⇒ 00:30:59.879 Sezim Zhenishbekova: I think that’s…
273 00:30:59.880 ⇒ 00:31:11.299 Robert Tseng: That’s all I got for now. Yeah, you can always ask me questions in Slack if I’m… if I’m not responsive, or I’ll tell you you should talk to someone else, like, I can redirect you. But… but yeah, like, I…
274 00:31:11.440 ⇒ 00:31:17.379 Robert Tseng: I know that, you know, we haven’t necessarily spent as much time as I was hoping, it’s kind of just been a couple crazy.
275 00:31:17.380 ⇒ 00:31:18.020 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Sorry, it’s a…
276 00:31:18.020 ⇒ 00:31:18.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah.
277 00:31:18.490 ⇒ 00:31:28.809 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Yeah, it’s finals week and all everything, wrapping up the year, so I totally get it. And yeah, thank you so much for taking your time to kick in on me.
278 00:31:28.810 ⇒ 00:31:35.009 Robert Tseng: Sure, sure. Yeah, I’ll schedule, we’ll schedule another time next week, but if anything else comes up, just let me know.
279 00:31:35.150 ⇒ 00:31:38.680 Sezim Zhenishbekova: Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Have a good rest of the day. Bye.