Meeting Title: ABC Discovery Project Check-in Date: 2025-12-16 Meeting participants: Amber Lin, Robert Tseng
WEBVTT
1 00:00:51.140 ⇒ 00:00:52.020 Robert Tseng: Hi.
2 00:00:52.020 ⇒ 00:00:52.640 Amber Lin: We’re…
3 00:00:54.670 ⇒ 00:00:56.190 Robert Tseng: Sorry, I’m late.
4 00:00:56.190 ⇒ 00:01:07.500 Amber Lin: No, all good. I just saw Utsom’s message, he said he wants to talk about ABC Discovery. He just sent the message, so I’m asking if he wants to join our meeting right here, is that okay?
5 00:01:07.770 ⇒ 00:01:08.660 Robert Tseng: Yeah, that’s good.
6 00:01:08.660 ⇒ 00:01:10.959 Amber Lin: Okay, let me send him the meeting link.
7 00:01:15.750 ⇒ 00:01:16.420 Amber Lin: Cool.
8 00:01:18.360 ⇒ 00:01:26.749 Amber Lin: Okay, I gotta start… I got started on Honey Stinger. I don’t think it’s… it’ll be too hard. I was able to find the data fields, so…
9 00:01:26.750 ⇒ 00:01:27.240 Robert Tseng: Oh, great.
10 00:01:27.240 ⇒ 00:01:33.409 Amber Lin: From there, that’ll be okay. I found it in orders and also in customers, so that’s exactly what I needed.
11 00:01:33.850 ⇒ 00:01:35.240 Robert Tseng: Okay, sounds good.
12 00:01:35.390 ⇒ 00:01:35.920 Amber Lin: Yeah.
13 00:01:40.180 ⇒ 00:01:45.920 Amber Lin: Ugh, I’m thinking about the… the New Year’s of…
14 00:01:46.170 ⇒ 00:01:51.090 Amber Lin: After that, how should I plan where I… where I learn?
15 00:01:51.730 ⇒ 00:02:00.109 Amber Lin: So I’m thinking, after the So, starting next, I’ll try to see if I can… Build more roadmaps, and…
16 00:02:00.860 ⇒ 00:02:13.769 Amber Lin: have a higher level view of doing analysis and seeing how, like, I can structure my path a little bit more? Do you think that’s the way to go, or should I just go…
17 00:02:13.770 ⇒ 00:02:23.619 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I… I need to bring in… we need to bring in, like, a… like, a true delivery leader, not, like, a project manager, like, somebody who’s, like.
18 00:02:23.620 ⇒ 00:02:24.330 Amber Lin: Yeah.
19 00:02:24.550 ⇒ 00:02:30.050 Robert Tseng: like a… I don’t know if you’ve spoken to Jasmine yet, but what I’m expecting Jasmine to be
20 00:02:30.190 ⇒ 00:02:33.369 Robert Tseng: But if it’s not her, we’re interviewing other people, so…
21 00:02:33.370 ⇒ 00:02:33.830 Amber Lin: Yeah.
22 00:02:33.830 ⇒ 00:02:38.469 Robert Tseng: Yeah, like, I think that would be helpful for you.
23 00:02:39.280 ⇒ 00:02:41.730 Robert Tseng: To get more of their time, yeah.
24 00:02:41.880 ⇒ 00:02:42.620 Amber Lin: Cool
25 00:02:42.760 ⇒ 00:02:59.319 Amber Lin: Yeah, I talked to Jasmine yesterday. I think she’s a very strong strategist. I just haven’t heard… from the… from our talk, I didn’t hear her experience in, like, leading more junior folks. Her project has always been, like, her and her boss.
26 00:02:59.640 ⇒ 00:03:06.430 Amber Lin: Or just her, so, like, I… I… she sounds really capable, I just don’t know how much
27 00:03:07.090 ⇒ 00:03:16.610 Amber Lin: How comfortable she is with guiding people like me, who, like, will have questions and will not be… will not perform at her pace.
28 00:03:16.770 ⇒ 00:03:26.779 Amber Lin: So, I don’t know about that, but, like, she never had a chance to demonstrate that, so I won’t really comment that she doesn’t have that ability.
29 00:03:26.950 ⇒ 00:03:28.930 Amber Lin: Just haven’t seen it happen yet.
30 00:03:31.980 ⇒ 00:03:33.489 Robert Tseng: Okay, that’s good to know.
31 00:03:33.660 ⇒ 00:03:34.240 Amber Lin: Yeah.
32 00:03:36.610 ⇒ 00:03:38.810 Robert Tseng: Sorry, I’m, like, eating lunch.
33 00:03:38.810 ⇒ 00:03:40.040 Amber Lin: Oh, good, all good.
34 00:03:41.200 ⇒ 00:03:42.539 Robert Tseng: Is your time going to join this call?
35 00:03:42.620 ⇒ 00:03:47.370 Amber Lin: I sent him the link. I can… Oh.
36 00:03:47.370 ⇒ 00:03:48.080 Robert Tseng: No worries you’re not.
37 00:03:48.080 ⇒ 00:03:52.099 Amber Lin: He’s booked until 3 p.m. CT.
38 00:03:52.690 ⇒ 00:03:53.350 Robert Tseng: Okay.
39 00:03:53.350 ⇒ 00:03:54.970 Amber Lin: Are you free, then?
40 00:03:55.560 ⇒ 00:03:56.470 Amber Lin: Let me check…
41 00:03:56.470 ⇒ 00:03:58.999 Robert Tseng: I’m not. We have a green group.
42 00:03:59.990 ⇒ 00:04:02.100 Amber Lin: Oh… okay.
43 00:04:02.300 ⇒ 00:04:02.940 Amber Lin: And then.
44 00:04:02.940 ⇒ 00:04:05.150 Robert Tseng: And I actually go to that, because I don’t want to reschedule.
45 00:04:05.150 ⇒ 00:04:06.799 Amber Lin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
46 00:04:06.910 ⇒ 00:04:15.690 Amber Lin: Okay, so… Cool. Okay, so we’ll talk, and then… We’ll slack him.
47 00:04:17.450 ⇒ 00:04:18.130 Robert Tseng: Okay.
48 00:04:20.640 ⇒ 00:04:24.850 Amber Lin: Okay.
49 00:04:25.410 ⇒ 00:04:26.660 Amber Lin: Let’s see…
50 00:04:30.490 ⇒ 00:04:32.750 Robert Tseng: Sorry, I didn’t prepare anything. I’m just gonna…
51 00:04:32.750 ⇒ 00:04:39.220 Amber Lin: Oh, me neither. I’ve been… I’ve been… swamped.
52 00:04:39.220 ⇒ 00:04:39.820 Robert Tseng: Yeah.
53 00:04:40.640 ⇒ 00:04:46.580 Robert Tseng: Maybe… tell me about ABC. Tom says you’re kind of, you’re struggling there.
54 00:04:47.420 ⇒ 00:04:49.229 Amber Lin: I don’t think…
55 00:04:49.730 ⇒ 00:05:00.180 Amber Lin: I would say he says I’m struggling on the project management side, because it’s hard for me to switch brains, and because the stand-up happens in the morning.
56 00:05:00.290 ⇒ 00:05:09.549 Amber Lin: So I am not really in the loop there, and I… it’s hard to do analysis and also follow a project
57 00:05:09.760 ⇒ 00:05:17.579 Amber Lin: On every error that happens, so I think it’s the natural progress. The only thing I could have done is to point it out earlier.
58 00:05:17.690 ⇒ 00:05:22.070 Amber Lin: Right. And have someone take over, which we don’t really have anyone.
59 00:05:23.340 ⇒ 00:05:23.970 Robert Tseng: Okay.
60 00:05:23.970 ⇒ 00:05:24.590 Amber Lin: Yeah.
61 00:05:24.590 ⇒ 00:05:29.490 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I guess, like you said, I think just… if you… if you know that
62 00:05:30.410 ⇒ 00:05:37.239 Robert Tseng: if you knew, like, hey, I’m not getting enough context, because I’m not… I’m not able to come to these meetings, you should just say it, like, earlier.
63 00:05:37.620 ⇒ 00:05:43.219 Robert Tseng: I think that would probably be… be… be better. I think, like, the common theme across
64 00:05:44.100 ⇒ 00:05:47.220 Robert Tseng: Most people here is… people are not.
65 00:05:47.220 ⇒ 00:05:48.319 Amber Lin: Saying when…
66 00:05:48.820 ⇒ 00:05:51.359 Robert Tseng: They need help. Or life.
67 00:05:52.420 ⇒ 00:05:58.599 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I… so, you know, I guess that’s… that’s… that’s all I can… I don’t… I don’t know enough about, like, the…
68 00:05:58.600 ⇒ 00:06:07.409 Amber Lin: Yeah, I agree, and a lot of it, it’s, like, because too many people own it, so nobody owns it, and that’s also a problem.
69 00:06:07.420 ⇒ 00:06:08.290 Robert Tseng: So…
70 00:06:08.820 ⇒ 00:06:14.670 Amber Lin: So, unfortunately, Uten has to step in, and I really have not the technical ability to
71 00:06:15.060 ⇒ 00:06:23.950 Amber Lin: I feel that a lot of times in the bigger technical projects, when I was project managing, I would like to help, but
72 00:06:24.440 ⇒ 00:06:25.320 Amber Lin: like…
73 00:06:25.870 ⇒ 00:06:35.149 Amber Lin: what is it in Chinese? In Chinese, it’s like, sino. It’s like, I can’t do it. I want to.
74 00:06:35.590 ⇒ 00:06:53.400 Amber Lin: the ability, I don’t have the ability to push things through. I think similarly with, like, more senior analysis or caring projects, that that’s something I want to do, it’s just, for some reason, I just don’t know how to put my effort to it, and it just is very hard.
75 00:06:53.600 ⇒ 00:06:56.400 Robert Tseng: Yeah, no, I think that’s… that’s tough. Yeah.
76 00:06:58.420 ⇒ 00:06:59.220 Amber Lin: Yeah.
77 00:06:59.330 ⇒ 00:07:02.219 Amber Lin: Oh, well, but on the dis… yeah, yeah, go ahead.
78 00:07:03.730 ⇒ 00:07:05.470 Robert Tseng: Oh, no, no, it’s left.
79 00:07:05.920 ⇒ 00:07:22.370 Amber Lin: I think on the discovery side, we met with a few of the internal folks. I think we got access to some of the data, but we do have… we do want to prioritize, because there’s so much work, and we only have so much time.
80 00:07:23.210 ⇒ 00:07:30.740 Amber Lin: If… I guess if I were to lead this discovery, I think I would think about,
81 00:07:31.250 ⇒ 00:07:42.260 Amber Lin: how can we do a very high-level analysis that tells us which one to prioritize? So I’m thinking that we can start looking at
82 00:07:42.500 ⇒ 00:07:47.779 Amber Lin: Their basic financial stuff of where their revenue is.
83 00:07:48.280 ⇒ 00:07:54.049 Amber Lin: Coming from, how much they spend on different channels, what is their cost.
84 00:07:54.160 ⇒ 00:07:59.990 Amber Lin: To serve, and then the cost of different areas, to just get a general sense of their business.
85 00:08:00.110 ⇒ 00:08:08.010 Amber Lin: And then after that, I think a lot of the talks has been within marketing.
86 00:08:08.520 ⇒ 00:08:11.990 Amber Lin: So maybe then to look at the conversion rates.
87 00:08:11.990 ⇒ 00:08:13.859 Robert Tseng: Of how we’re performing.
88 00:08:14.140 ⇒ 00:08:16.669 Amber Lin: In different channels.
89 00:08:17.150 ⇒ 00:08:20.879 Amber Lin: Oh, Utam sent a message, and I’ll tag you.
90 00:08:30.430 ⇒ 00:08:36.440 Amber Lin: Mmm… Send a link to Utam’s thread.
91 00:08:36.590 ⇒ 00:08:38.220 Amber Lin: In the Zoom chat.
92 00:08:56.790 ⇒ 00:09:05.619 Amber Lin: I guess my question would be, how should we approach discovery? Like, how would you design
93 00:09:05.990 ⇒ 00:09:19.509 Amber Lin: a discovery where there’s so many different things opening up, and it seems like we’re getting access to most of them, even though sometimes it’s slow, but it seems like we are getting access. But then there’s just so much to look at.
94 00:09:21.100 ⇒ 00:09:25.380 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I think, I think you’re… what you described is kind of the right approach.
95 00:09:26.100 ⇒ 00:09:30.280 Robert Tseng: I would say you just, try to understand, like, the high…
96 00:09:31.180 ⇒ 00:09:41.050 Robert Tseng: you first measure… measure performance across the organization, right? So, for their type of business, like, you kind of just go through that, like, exercise of, like, top
97 00:09:41.050 ⇒ 00:09:52.750 Robert Tseng: top-down, like, what are the most important metrics that they… they should be thinking about for their business? Obviously, being a services business, it’s probably… it’s different from a product, it’s different from… like, it’s different from SaaS, it’s different from CPG,
98 00:09:52.860 ⇒ 00:09:59.890 Robert Tseng: So I think kind of having a clear framework, you don’t have to come up with it, maybe GPT could help you with that, or, like, they already have, like.
99 00:10:00.180 ⇒ 00:10:03.919 Robert Tseng: They already tell you, like, this is how they measure their business, which would be ideal.
100 00:10:04.070 ⇒ 00:10:13.260 Robert Tseng: And then I think from there, you’re basically trying to, identify where are the biggest opportunities for us to go and actually help.
101 00:10:13.440 ⇒ 00:10:18.030 Robert Tseng: And I told Utam this, but, like, if they’re a regional, like, business.
102 00:10:18.440 ⇒ 00:10:23.990 Robert Tseng: They have multiple cities. You’re gonna find the most interesting, like, opportunities in
103 00:10:24.120 ⇒ 00:10:26.280 Robert Tseng: Like, not their main city, so…
104 00:10:26.280 ⇒ 00:10:26.650 Amber Lin: Hmm.
105 00:10:26.650 ⇒ 00:10:33.800 Robert Tseng: I guess if they’re mostly in Austin, and San Antonio is, like, the growing market, then we should just look at San Antonio.
106 00:10:34.750 ⇒ 00:10:39.750 Robert Tseng: Because… Yeah, I mean, once you’re able to benchmark.
107 00:10:41.540 ⇒ 00:10:49.720 Robert Tseng: San Antonio against, like, their overall business, and, like, Austin against their overall business, you’ll be able to see some clear differences between the two markets.
108 00:10:49.760 ⇒ 00:10:58.639 Robert Tseng: And I think from there, like, yeah, whether you go… if they’re trying to drive revenue, then yeah, you go marketing. If they’re… if they’re, like, more, like, in a…
109 00:10:58.650 ⇒ 00:11:14.249 Robert Tseng: cost… cost crunch, and they’re, like, trying to… looking for margin opportunities, then yeah, like, maybe you would just stay in the bigger market, and you would look for, like, operational, like, kind of… you… you would look at… look for COGS opportunities on the… on the, in the main market.
110 00:11:14.850 ⇒ 00:11:17.090 Robert Tseng: Which is probably Austin, right? Yeah.
111 00:11:17.090 ⇒ 00:11:24.920 Amber Lin: Yeah, they’re thinking about, growth, because their growth has been 2-3% compared to overall industry growth.
112 00:11:25.010 ⇒ 00:11:38.620 Amber Lin: So they want to catch up on growth, and also their marketing director is leaving, so I assume we would mostly focus on marketing, but, like, should probably still size out
113 00:11:38.800 ⇒ 00:11:44.220 Amber Lin: the opportunities, because it’s… we’ll need to figure out where to look at later. Yeah.
114 00:11:44.930 ⇒ 00:11:45.760 Amber Lin: Cool.
115 00:11:46.170 ⇒ 00:11:58.380 Amber Lin: Okay, that was my main questions there. I think Utem has some questions about allocations, moving forward. I think my time will still have some on Honey Stinger.
116 00:11:58.530 ⇒ 00:12:04.490 Amber Lin: Do you think… you still need me on Insomnia, or… No. Go. Okay.
117 00:12:05.570 ⇒ 00:12:12.730 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, I guess do minimal stuff there, but, I mean, they’re not looking promising. I’m not expecting them to renew.
118 00:12:13.050 ⇒ 00:12:13.850 Amber Lin: Okay.
119 00:12:13.960 ⇒ 00:12:17.639 Amber Lin: Cool. Okay, so I’ll let him… I’ll let him know.
120 00:12:19.260 ⇒ 00:12:25.079 Robert Tseng: Yeah, but obviously, I think, you know, I’m trying to push for renewal, so, you know, we’ll do what we can. I think,
121 00:12:25.870 ⇒ 00:12:30.809 Robert Tseng: There’s always this tug-of-war between, like, yeah, we want to get ahead of the planning and allocation and, like.
122 00:12:31.950 ⇒ 00:12:32.950 Robert Tseng: no…
123 00:12:33.890 ⇒ 00:12:40.879 Robert Tseng: How much time we can move over to a new client, or in this case, it’s just a new old client with a new scope.
124 00:12:41.020 ⇒ 00:12:42.250 Robert Tseng: Versus, like.
125 00:12:43.330 ⇒ 00:12:50.559 Robert Tseng: I don’t know, like, trying to make it work with the existing client here. So,
126 00:12:50.780 ⇒ 00:12:55.349 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I mean, assuming… yeah, if I… if I get new scope from insomnia.
127 00:12:55.680 ⇒ 00:13:01.649 Robert Tseng: then we’ll decide what to do. But, like, I think it’s… I think it’s fair to just assume it’s not… it’s not gonna come through.
128 00:13:02.970 ⇒ 00:13:06.580 Amber Lin: Cool, okay, I’ll let him know. That’s all for today.
129 00:13:07.170 ⇒ 00:13:15.340 Amber Lin: Okay. And I won’t be here… oh, you said next week… I saw your message that we want to talk about the Martech stuff?
130 00:13:17.430 ⇒ 00:13:18.720 Robert Tseng: Oh, yeah. Are you out?
131 00:13:19.130 ⇒ 00:13:23.289 Amber Lin: I’m very happy to come in, I would love to talk about that.
132 00:13:24.340 ⇒ 00:13:27.479 Robert Tseng: Yeah, I thought it would just be a great, kind of, discussion for
133 00:13:27.960 ⇒ 00:13:29.739 Robert Tseng: To kind of just chat about…
134 00:13:30.030 ⇒ 00:13:45.140 Amber Lin: Yeah. Should I… I’m a little bit stressed because I have basically zero to one knowledge. How sh… what’s my role in that discussion? Can I just ask you questions?
135 00:13:45.570 ⇒ 00:13:46.130 Robert Tseng: Yeah, yeah.
136 00:13:46.130 ⇒ 00:13:48.720 Amber Lin: Okay, okay, great. I can do that.
137 00:13:53.560 ⇒ 00:13:57.830 Amber Lin: Cool, cool. All right. Thank you.
138 00:13:57.830 ⇒ 00:13:59.250 Robert Tseng: Thanks, Amber. Talk to you later.