Meeting Title: Brainforge_Vishnu Priya Date: 2025-03-13 Meeting participants: Mariane Cequina, Aakash Tandel, Nicolas Sucari, Uttam Kumaran, Vishnu Priya
WEBVTT
1 00:01:48.820 ⇒ 00:01:49.650 Uttam Kumaran: Hey? Nico.
2 00:01:50.630 ⇒ 00:01:52.389 Nicolas Sucari: Hi! Tom! Hi! Vishnu.
3 00:01:52.390 ⇒ 00:01:52.980 Uttam Kumaran: Anniversity of.
4 00:01:55.580 ⇒ 00:01:56.069 Vishnu Priya: How are you?
5 00:01:56.070 ⇒ 00:01:56.990 Nicolas Sucari: How are you?
6 00:01:57.230 ⇒ 00:01:58.210 Uttam Kumaran: Good.
7 00:01:59.910 ⇒ 00:02:01.959 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you so much for taking the time.
8 00:02:01.960 ⇒ 00:02:03.360 Vishnu Priya: Sure sure thing, no worries.
9 00:02:04.710 ⇒ 00:02:06.290 Vishnu Priya: I’m glad, to be sure.
10 00:02:06.450 ⇒ 00:02:09.810 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I appreciate it. Maybe I’ll give some context. So Nico and Marianne.
11 00:02:09.810 ⇒ 00:02:10.220 Vishnu Priya: Sure.
12 00:02:10.629 ⇒ 00:02:20.620 Uttam Kumaran: Vishnu is part of vixel. Vixel is our accelerator and then they’ve been running a program with us. For the past.
13 00:02:21.629 ⇒ 00:02:28.739 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know what few months now feel. It’s gone so fast. And basically have been so pivotal in us
14 00:02:29.367 ⇒ 00:02:31.929 Uttam Kumaran: improving every part of the business.
15 00:02:32.402 ⇒ 00:02:35.699 Uttam Kumaran: You know everything from sales to positioning to
16 00:02:35.709 ⇒ 00:03:05.259 Uttam Kumaran: what we sell, how we sell team structure. And now operations. So I’m very, very thankful their time is so so valuable, and they help a lot of other companies. So very thankful, Vishnu, that you’re taking an hour today. On the call. Today you have Nico and Marianne, who are from our operations team. Basically, as you know, operations is everything that doesn’t fall into another team. So they do a lot for us and work very closely with me, because my job is also
17 00:03:05.309 ⇒ 00:03:28.989 Uttam Kumaran: operations except for everybody. So I handle anything that doesn’t get handled here. So they are. They’re so, you know, close to my heart in terms of how I want you know us to this team to work for the company. And then amber is also here. Amber is on our project management team. She’s joined recently. And yeah, I think you have. You have a good mix of folks here, I think. Of course
18 00:03:29.119 ⇒ 00:03:54.139 Uttam Kumaran: you know about our company. But what does a consultancy do right. We deploy resources and solve problems. That’s on. And we have some, some help really short term that’s needed on, how do we assist our project managers onboarding new clients onboarding new engineers. But, of course, how does the operations serve? Everything from clients that become leads all the way to getting assigned executing and work.
19 00:03:54.431 ⇒ 00:04:00.709 Uttam Kumaran: So I kind of want to leave this floor to to the team to sort of. They prepared some stuff to ask you questions, but
20 00:04:00.809 ⇒ 00:04:09.949 Uttam Kumaran: anything that any wisdom that you could give to us on how to run an excellent operations crew would be. You know, we would be so happy. So thank you.
21 00:04:09.950 ⇒ 00:04:22.491 Vishnu Priya: Okay, thanks. The introduction and the context is really helpful. So thank you for that. You know. Like I said, I’m I’m glad to be here, and I’ll try my best to share what I’ve learned, you know, as part of
22 00:04:22.900 ⇒ 00:04:26.099 Vishnu Priya: again, just a quick context for you guys.
23 00:04:26.320 ⇒ 00:04:34.389 Vishnu Priya: I’m definitely, not from an operations background. I think I learned it on the job back at Flux 7. So flux 7 was us was a previous startup
24 00:04:35.062 ⇒ 00:04:38.719 Vishnu Priya: we founded that back in 2013
25 00:04:39.030 ⇒ 00:04:46.449 Vishnu Priya: come from a tech background. You know. So as a typical startup, I took on several hats when we all started off
26 00:04:47.026 ⇒ 00:05:02.803 Vishnu Priya: over the years. I started focusing more on the operations and finance side of the house. If you had asked me anytime before 2013, if I was, if I had any interest in operations, I think I would have said no, but today’s operations is like the thing that I really enjoy doing. It’s
27 00:05:03.220 ⇒ 00:05:12.440 Vishnu Priya: to me. It it defines the the business right? I mean, you can have strategy all day, but without operations. Strategy is just something you write down.
28 00:05:12.440 ⇒ 00:05:20.050 Uttam Kumaran: About like how you how you how you found out that you you really enjoyed it, or what about it? Because I feel like everybody in this call, like
29 00:05:20.290 ⇒ 00:05:47.389 Uttam Kumaran: out of, out of everybody in the company. I feel like the 4 of us on this call are all very process, driven. I mean, I feel like I have the toughest job, because I have to strategically drop balls, and we are extremely, you know, all over the place. But I know everybody on this call. One thing I know about them personally is they’re all very process, driven people. It’s 1 thing I really loved and enjoy about about them. But if you just talk about like, what in particular like got you so interested in? Like what was the hook for you?
30 00:05:47.970 ⇒ 00:05:55.890 Vishnu Priya: I think I would definitely plus one, the process driven personality right? I think it’s just who I am, too. So
31 00:05:56.000 ⇒ 00:06:22.269 Vishnu Priya: when I think when I had my hands like, say, you know, I was part of sales and marketing. It was cool stuff, like, I mean, I’m not degrading any of those business areas in any way. I’m just saying there are things that you know you do there. It just was not for me from a personality standpoint, because you know more of an introvert to be honest. So you put me in with, you know, with operations and stuff. I’m I’m happy again. So if I want to say.
32 00:06:22.270 ⇒ 00:06:29.399 Vishnu Priya: how did I find it was the structure for me? Right? And the the habit that you start building over time to say, hey? Okay.
33 00:06:29.450 ⇒ 00:06:46.369 Vishnu Priya: like, why would you not follow this habit? You know, as a company, it’s going to help us all like, for example, until we had Okrs, for example, everyone had their own goals and objectives for the for the week, the month, and the quarter.
34 00:06:46.490 ⇒ 00:07:04.329 Vishnu Priya: When we started having Oks, we all had our, you know, focus align, you know, in the same area. So the question really was in hindsight, like, why would we not do that right? So anytime, you know we did something in the operation side. The question always came down to, why did we not do this sooner? Because it was
35 00:07:04.330 ⇒ 00:07:21.860 Vishnu Priya: creating a lot more structure not. Just for you know, like individuals, right? Like as a team, we were able to stay more aligned. And that aspect actually, you know. Tick things for me right? Because it was. It was just not saying, Hey, we’ll just go and
36 00:07:22.897 ⇒ 00:07:24.269 Vishnu Priya: you know, basically
37 00:07:24.650 ⇒ 00:07:54.549 Vishnu Priya: capture the world, you know. It’s the it’s you’ll have that vision. But how do? How am I capturing the world like? What’s the world that I am defining like, you know? You you start getting down into the the steps and the process. So again, the the structure and the the habit, the formation that you know that I was able to get into. Not just for me, but you know, for the team as well was was definitely the the trigger point for me. I think that’s a good question, though. But yeah, I think that was that was a trigger point for me. Yeah.
38 00:07:54.710 ⇒ 00:07:57.690 Uttam Kumaran: Right, any questions from anyone, so far.
39 00:07:58.370 ⇒ 00:08:09.290 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah, so well, I think, Vishnu, your experience is is great, and it’s great to know that you like. Don’t have like that background on operations, or I don’t know if that exists at all, like I think.
40 00:08:09.290 ⇒ 00:08:11.430 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t have a background in operations, either, you know.
41 00:08:11.430 ⇒ 00:08:13.459 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s that’s that’s why, yeah.
42 00:08:13.890 ⇒ 00:08:17.280 Nicolas Sucari: I’m not sure if that exists at all. Like to have a background in operations.
43 00:08:17.280 ⇒ 00:08:17.789 Nicolas Sucari: Yep, just
44 00:08:17.790 ⇒ 00:08:44.579 Nicolas Sucari: like you start doing stuff, and you learn how to do it and repeat that process again and again. But yeah, I mean what you mentioned right now, like how you discovered that you liked working on operations. It seems like really fun, and it seems like everything that you did is kind of when you thought about that again, like from like retrospectively, it will say, why did we didn’t do this before, right? But there was maybe there was some times that
45 00:08:44.580 ⇒ 00:09:05.350 Nicolas Sucari: you try to do stuff and and didn’t work right like, do you have like examples of that like what? What initiatives or projects you? You kind of try to push from the operational side that you then look back and say, Hey, this was not like meant to be deliverable, that that we finally delivered, or something like that.
46 00:09:06.310 ⇒ 00:09:08.094 Vishnu Priya: That’s a good question.
47 00:09:09.760 ⇒ 00:09:15.940 Vishnu Priya: I’m able to think of all the positive outcomes, you know, rather easily and quickly the the
48 00:09:16.380 ⇒ 00:09:22.950 Vishnu Priya: the ones that didn’t work. I’m I’m trying to understand. I’m trying to figure out what. Exactly. So, for example, right?
49 00:09:23.090 ⇒ 00:09:24.055 Vishnu Priya: We
50 00:09:25.230 ⇒ 00:09:31.749 Vishnu Priya: you know, we debated for a very long time. What’s a good Crm. Tool? And this is a flexible example. By the way.
51 00:09:31.900 ⇒ 00:09:37.239 Vishnu Priya: you know, marketing and sales would go crazy saying, if it’s not Hubspot.
52 00:09:37.290 ⇒ 00:10:05.839 Vishnu Priya: It isn’t even a Crm. So they’ll take that stance, and they’ll stick by that stance if you will, I think, and then you’ll have a delivery. Come in and say, Hey, crm is great, but we can’t do capacity planning there. So where are we sitting now? So and then I come in from the Finance House side of the house and say, Okay, you guys are, you know, trying to figure things out as finance play into all of this? Right? So I, I get data from our bookings to revenue.
53 00:10:05.920 ⇒ 00:10:17.979 Vishnu Priya: Actually, maybe not even revenue. Just the bookings data out of Hubspot. How do I get the revenue data. How do I get the cash data? So just coming coming to terms to the fact that, hey, there are multiple systems in play
54 00:10:18.300 ⇒ 00:10:23.199 Vishnu Priya: and a tooling is not, you know. The solution
55 00:10:23.440 ⇒ 00:10:30.890 Vishnu Priya: is how you make the tool work for you as a solution, right? And a very good example. Again, I know I’m not answering your question right now.
56 00:10:30.890 ⇒ 00:10:31.729 Nicolas Sucari: No, that’s fine.
57 00:10:31.820 ⇒ 00:10:47.310 Vishnu Priya: I think the the key learning for us was you’d be surprised we actually did our capacity planning right in Hubspot. Actually, I’ve not heard that do. It’s not a common use case that you use Hubspot for right? We literally used to have a dashboard where and
58 00:10:47.420 ⇒ 00:11:04.789 Vishnu Priya: at 1 point we actually did give access to all of our engineers, too. We gave them read only access to our Crm, we basically told them, have access, right? Like, know what’s going on in the company. So that helped with the capacity planning. You know, aspect as well. So things like that when you know when there are
59 00:11:04.810 ⇒ 00:11:28.810 Vishnu Priya: those preconceived notions, if you will, when especially people with a lot of experience. And again, no offense to any of their experience. It’s just that when they come in and say, Hey, you have to do this. This is the only way to go. The interesting part was to challenge that right to say, hey? Tooling cannot define who we are, in fact, some flux, 7 learnings, if you will, that we had
60 00:11:29.323 ⇒ 00:11:35.820 Vishnu Priya: it did take us some time, but eventually we started understanding the significance of data.
61 00:11:36.280 ⇒ 00:11:59.310 Vishnu Priya: Data was a crucial part of you know, our, you know, operations basically every single time. And in my case, I was working closely with Ato. Actually, you know Ato better than I think the rest of them. Here we used to go crazy even during like, you know, weekends, I mean, literally all the way from learning like, what’s cash accounting what’s accruable.
62 00:11:59.920 ⇒ 00:12:20.760 Vishnu Priya: And this is a fun story. By our guys. By the way we had a customer call. They basically said, Okay, great. This all looks good. Can you send us an sow? Now we said, Okay, yeah, we’ll send an sow. We had to come back. Google, what’s the damn sow like? We didn’t know what’s an sow back then, was, you know it’s we all we knew was.
63 00:12:21.020 ⇒ 00:12:33.170 Vishnu Priya: since we are a services business, we have to send a contract, and that’s about it, right? But those terms, you know, we started to learn. Basically. So again, because going back to you know what you were asking, I think I’m not sure I necessarily. You know.
64 00:12:33.460 ⇒ 00:12:45.789 Vishnu Priya: there were things that we learned in the process. Right? So, for example, in an accounting system, we started off, you know, by bringing in like external vendors, we learned quickly that accounting needed to be in house
65 00:12:46.020 ⇒ 00:13:11.690 Vishnu Priya: the moment you give the control elsewhere. It just does not work. Basically, tooling is another example. So those were the learnings that we had in that, hey? We tried to do it a certain way, and then it fell, you know, a completely different way. But the foundation was the same right in that. We needed to have. You know those processes. We needed to have some tool to support our, you know, operational efficiency.
66 00:13:11.690 ⇒ 00:13:20.079 Nicolas Sucari: Oh, but that’s that’s great. I mean, we with Marianne. We are trying to understand all of like the internal processes that each team is having
67 00:13:20.366 ⇒ 00:13:26.959 Nicolas Sucari: and obviously there are like a lot of tools involved in in each of the different teams. And we’re trying to set up.
68 00:13:26.960 ⇒ 00:13:50.669 Nicolas Sucari: for example, right now, we’re trying to set up linear. We tried with notion to manage all of the tasks that the company has between clients internally and everything. And yeah, everyone has like different needs. So that’s that’s really good to hear, like a tool doesn’t define me. And I need to understand like the process. I need to understand what the team needs. So that then, can we? We can come with the best like process available for each
69 00:13:50.750 ⇒ 00:13:58.200 Nicolas Sucari: of those right independently of the tool that we are using, we need to understand what every team needs, and then see how to
70 00:13:58.330 ⇒ 00:14:01.910 Nicolas Sucari: to to build that processes for them as as easy as possible. Yeah.
71 00:14:01.910 ⇒ 00:14:12.729 Vishnu Priya: For sure. I think Trello is another example that comes to my mind that you know I’m tempted to share, for sure. Most of our customers. I think, like 90% of our customers were actually on Jira.
72 00:14:13.240 ⇒ 00:14:30.437 Vishnu Priya: So we forced them into trello, basically right? And we started getting comfortable with the fact that, hey, you have to be on the system, you know, if you want us to work efficiently. So eventually, people eventually the convincing, you know, didn’t take us long. It was basically because we were not saying, Hey,
73 00:14:31.300 ⇒ 00:14:54.259 Vishnu Priya: you, you start create creating that habit with the customers, too. Basically, what we used to do is whenever we get on a call with them. You just don’t talk with them. You open the Trello board right? So they know. Get the the latest updates right there from Trello, and that was a huge you know, change in our delivery processes. By the way, each of our customers had their own trello board in our flexible.
74 00:14:54.260 ⇒ 00:14:54.710 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah.
75 00:14:54.710 ⇒ 00:15:14.940 Vishnu Priya: And all those you know, those that were involved in the project had access to it. But the nice part was those that were not involved in the project, had access to it as well, because they’re learning from it right like, Hey, what happened in that project? How quickly did cards move from one place to the other. Now the 3rd added benefit to all of that was literally the customer had access to it. So
76 00:15:15.010 ⇒ 00:15:41.440 Vishnu Priya: Trello was that, you know, I think we were taking the, not the the regular route, if you will. Right? Basically, everyone was Jira. In fact, we did create a Jira account. We said, you know, we have to be the cool guys, too. Let’s just, you know, use Jira. Only then we can show ourselves to be technically, you know, competent. But then quickly, we realized, Trello is not. Jira is not for us. Trello works because Trello is also something that we you know we were using internally.
77 00:15:41.590 ⇒ 00:16:04.140 Vishnu Priya: So we had no reason to, you know. Add, like yet another you know, tool, tool in our toolbox. Basically. So just thought I’d share that example as well. So it doesn’t even have to be like the standard tools that people are using out there right as long as again, as long as you can make that work to your needs of the business. You know it, it should do it basically.
78 00:16:05.640 ⇒ 00:16:07.130 Nicolas Sucari: Cool. That’s great.
79 00:16:07.643 ⇒ 00:16:10.050 Nicolas Sucari: Thank you. Thank you for sharing. Yeah.
80 00:16:10.050 ⇒ 00:16:10.430 Vishnu Priya: Sure.
81 00:16:10.430 ⇒ 00:16:12.359 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah, I have a lot of yeah. Go ahead, Maria.
82 00:16:12.360 ⇒ 00:16:12.860 Vishnu Priya: Go ahead!
83 00:16:12.860 ⇒ 00:16:14.788 Mariane Cequina: Actually do have a question, because.
84 00:16:15.320 ⇒ 00:16:15.700 Vishnu Priya: Offer.
85 00:16:15.700 ⇒ 00:16:31.990 Mariane Cequina: Every week we do a lot of like a kick off meeting, and then we always talk about okrs, etcetera. So I was thinking how we can align the operation with with like the okrs, and and make like an impact as well in the company. Something like that.
86 00:16:32.710 ⇒ 00:16:33.500 Vishnu Priya: So.
87 00:16:33.500 ⇒ 00:16:39.089 Mariane Cequina: And how, again, we know that we have the best system. And what is the ideal structure of operation team.
88 00:16:39.090 ⇒ 00:16:57.940 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So maybe something around even we have. I know we wrote a question about how do we measure if we’re succeeding and measuring like pro what to prioritize. So I think sort of like it also, of course, starts from the Okrs. But for this team, how do they build into that right? And that’s that’s where you know, from one perspective from my side is
89 00:16:58.230 ⇒ 00:17:13.259 Uttam Kumaran: as we’re now shifting to having multiple teams. I actually am much less interested in dictating how it gets done. I want you guys to actually do that. I my job is to make sure that I can set the bar.
90 00:17:13.310 ⇒ 00:17:29.860 Uttam Kumaran: and that, though that’s like fair, and we all accept that we can get there. But if I start commonly and again, I’ve been many businesses where not only does the person that top set the bar. Then they’re like, start like micromanaging. I don’t. I can’t do that. I don’t want to do that. And it’s we’re not gonna succeed if I do that. So
91 00:17:30.250 ⇒ 00:17:36.040 Uttam Kumaran: that’s I think you have my perspective there. But with that I think, yeah, it’s really great question.
92 00:17:36.540 ⇒ 00:17:50.629 Vishnu Priya: Maybe just one thing I’m gonna tell you really quick, before I get back to you, Marian. The the one major major thing that helped us at flux 7 was at a followed a similar thing as well. So he was. The CEO back at flux 7 right
93 00:17:51.076 ⇒ 00:18:08.800 Vishnu Priya: sure. He did not set things like, Hey, micromanagement was not his thing at all, so he would not say, Hey, you have to do this today, and it doesn’t make sense right like, especially with the company growing. If the CEO has to say what the junior engineer has to do for that day, it just does not work that day, but
94 00:18:08.820 ⇒ 00:18:30.110 Vishnu Priya: I think people started using the tools a lot more religiously when they saw at a use it himself. So whenever you know he gets on a call. The 1st thing he would do is open up the trailer board right like whichever board was relevant for that call. Actually. So we had this internal you know, to do board when we have that open. They know that you are trying to create that habit for yourself.
95 00:18:30.110 ⇒ 00:18:46.540 Vishnu Priya: So they know the others have to follow through because you’re seeing the value they are seeing. You see the value. So they have to start imbibing it. Basically, so just thought I’d share that part. So again, I completely agree with the sentiment. You know, you don’t set the bar, you know. You don’t define
96 00:18:46.640 ⇒ 00:19:04.729 Vishnu Priya: how the team has to do it. But whatever the team defines, you do it as well, because that’s going to give a huge push for the. And this goes into the the question that you were asking Marian, which is, How do you enforce this? Right, let me start here. It’s not easy, not easy at all.
97 00:19:05.030 ⇒ 00:19:18.859 Vishnu Priya: It’s never going to be easy, because there are always going to be folks that you know are just going to say I I did not get to it today, right? Like, I did not update that board. I did not update my status of this card, but you keep repeating it. Keep
98 00:19:19.420 ⇒ 00:19:23.509 Vishnu Priya: keep building that habit to say if it’s not here.
99 00:19:23.710 ⇒ 00:19:30.500 Vishnu Priya: we’re not talking right like I’ll give you a couple of simple, you know, ticks and tips and tricks that we’ve used at Flux 7.
100 00:19:31.170 ⇒ 00:19:49.170 Vishnu Priya: This was for the the leadership team, by the way, so the leadership team we had like a very specific, you know, like an Oks board, where they’ll have like specific tasks and chaos that they’ll have to work on, and then they come back, and you know they have to report weekly on what their status is.
101 00:19:50.430 ⇒ 00:19:55.770 Vishnu Priya: Trust me, Marion, like literally, for the 1st few months at least, easily.
102 00:19:55.930 ⇒ 00:20:13.109 Vishnu Priya: Every one of their you know, status update would be we did not get the time to update the board. We had a customer call to be on. You know, we had this important delivery meeting that you know we were just off of. So they have all these cool updates to share. And you know the board is not updated right now.
103 00:20:13.260 ⇒ 00:20:21.719 Vishnu Priya: Once a day is fine once a week is fine, but then eventually you’ll start finding the board is becoming staid. So what we started doing was.
104 00:20:21.930 ⇒ 00:20:25.750 Vishnu Priya: we all understand? You know you are. You’re all busy.
105 00:20:25.870 ⇒ 00:20:43.145 Vishnu Priya: It’s a 30 min. Call 30 min, you know. Stand up! Call the 1st 5 min will be quiet time. Let’s just sit on the call right now. Update the board right like, what’s your excuse now? You can’t make give an excuse now at all, because we’ve given you the time to, you know, to update the board, basically. So that helped
106 00:20:44.250 ⇒ 00:21:02.529 Vishnu Priya: quickly, you know, because it took us time to realize what the issue was, because everyone is each time everyone just had a reason. And each time every a different person had a reason, basically. But just introducing these small things, but by saying that, hey, the board has to be a definition of what you’re doing today helped actually.
107 00:21:03.120 ⇒ 00:21:06.611 Vishnu Priya: Another thing that you know, certainly helped is
108 00:21:07.110 ⇒ 00:21:09.970 Vishnu Priya: Instead of waiting for that big, grand event
109 00:21:10.190 ⇒ 00:21:12.899 Vishnu Priya: to say, Hey, you have to do that status update
110 00:21:13.080 ⇒ 00:21:19.129 Vishnu Priya: next week. Tuesday at 2 Am. Central that does not work except for the leadership team. Right?
111 00:21:19.620 ⇒ 00:21:30.439 Vishnu Priya: Specifically, on the operation side. I’ve seen what I’ve seen workers have a daily stand up right? Literally. I know it’s you know, it’s the most. It may sound like the most daunting thing to do
112 00:21:30.730 ⇒ 00:21:40.009 Vishnu Priya: but and don’t make it a ceremony. Just 1015 min stops. All of you get on a call, because if you try to do this, offline the
113 00:21:40.120 ⇒ 00:21:49.110 Vishnu Priya: it’s all asynchronous, right? They’re all gonna give you updates at different times, you know, and then you may have a question. You’ll have to wait for the response. It just does not work.
114 00:21:49.200 ⇒ 00:22:17.540 Vishnu Priya: Get on the call it? The call has a very specific agenda last 24 h since we met. What were you doing next? 24 h? What are you going to do? Simple as that? Right? The it and it wasn’t even, and don’t even treat it as a, you know, like a true true status, update your board should speak for yourself. By the way up. This is you met with Ted. This is one of Ted’s favorite favorite quote, he he’ll always say
115 00:22:17.620 ⇒ 00:22:20.260 Vishnu Priya: the boat should speak for itself, so.
116 00:22:20.260 ⇒ 00:22:35.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I love Ted. Oh, my God, that 30 min, the 40 min I spent with him I mean guys. So the the whole reason, I went on. That whole product owner sort of like tear last week was because I called Ted and I called Melinda. Not sure if Melinda worked with you guys as well.
117 00:22:35.140 ⇒ 00:22:35.870 Vishnu Priya: Yep.
118 00:22:35.870 ⇒ 00:22:37.609 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I called both of them.
119 00:22:37.800 ⇒ 00:23:07.660 Uttam Kumaran: I literally felt like I was like, I was like in the matrix, like just learning. And I was like, Oh, my God! These have! They have all the answers. And then we. We immediately implemented everything. So we have now a structure we’re driving towards with product owners, project managers, the scrum master, and then development teams like the that hour was like change, the course of like history for us. So like it was really great. And yeah, I I totally agree, like he mentioned a very similar thing. So yeah.
120 00:23:07.660 ⇒ 00:23:17.280 Vishnu Priya: Sure. By the way, interesting fun fact, Melinda was not hired as a agent or a scrum master. She was actually a sales coordinator back in Flux 7, we
121 00:23:17.720 ⇒ 00:23:42.119 Vishnu Priya: seeing the relevance of sales coordinator role going down because we started using Hubspot and all that. We, we basically gave her a choice. Hey? Do you want to try another role at Flux 7. Right? And Agilist was the thing that she wanted to try. Ted actually literally trained up from bottom up. And you know, here she is. You know, agilist right now. So yeah, she has a fun story from Flux 7 as well.
122 00:23:42.378 ⇒ 00:23:51.170 Vishnu Priya: But in I’m going to go really quick to yours. And then, you know, we can take on any other questions that we have. Another thing that I’ve seen workers during these status updates.
123 00:23:51.637 ⇒ 00:23:56.882 Vishnu Priya: Like, I said, the board should speak for itself. Right? So don’t ask for people, hey?
124 00:23:57.520 ⇒ 00:24:05.149 Vishnu Priya: Why is this here like, why is this card here or not? So you can have a quick discussion about, you know, a particular task or a particular goal for the day.
125 00:24:05.470 ⇒ 00:24:10.080 Vishnu Priya: But the the center point of the discussion always has to be.
126 00:24:10.350 ⇒ 00:24:20.239 Vishnu Priya: This card has been in this list, if you will. So when I say card and boats and talking like a Kanban board here. Right? So you know, you have like a to do current peak, priority and all that.
127 00:24:20.510 ⇒ 00:24:23.910 Vishnu Priya: If a card is sitting in the same list, like for a very long time.
128 00:24:24.020 ⇒ 00:24:38.399 Vishnu Priya: push the team to answer those questions right like, why is the card here like for a very long time. Now, if you can translate that into data which we did at, you know, flex 72, which is basically you know some of the metrics that we started gathering was.
129 00:24:39.070 ⇒ 00:25:07.970 Vishnu Priya: how many cards are you pushing from today’s priority to done? If it’s 4 cards and you have like 8 cards sitting. Why do you even sign up for 8 cards? Right? Push it to push it to the left? Basically. So data started helping us, you know, in those aspects for sure. So again, the center point has to be, are you blocked on something? Will this be a blocker for you for the next 24 h. If it’s not, how? If it is, how do we block unblock you? If it’s not a blocker, make sure you do get it done in the next 24 h, basically, right?
130 00:25:07.970 ⇒ 00:25:29.610 Vishnu Priya: So when they meet you tomorrow, if they have not done that task, they should have a justification to give you right like, hey? Something else came up. I mean, it’s a business right? Like things happen. Something out of the blue could come your way. But that 10 min or 15 min stand up that you have every day will certainly help. In fact, it’s something that we actually even do today at Wixel
131 00:25:29.850 ⇒ 00:25:32.839 Vishnu Priya: all teams come together and then say, Hey.
132 00:25:33.350 ⇒ 00:25:35.330 Vishnu Priya: we have like 10 or 15 tasks.
133 00:25:35.780 ⇒ 00:25:51.350 Vishnu Priya: and if it goes beyond 15, some of us at least one of us will open our mouth and say, Hey, there are too many cards here. Right like, let’s push something to the the left. Basically, it’s not for today. Let’s be okay with the fact that you know, we’ll get only, like, you know, 4 or 5 done for the day. Basically.
134 00:25:52.678 ⇒ 00:25:58.531 Vishnu Priya: Did that answer your question, Marian. But you know anything else. Maybe you wanted to double click on
135 00:25:58.840 ⇒ 00:26:03.169 Mariane Cequina: Yeah, yeah, I also would like to ask, like, what is for you, what is the best like?
136 00:26:03.560 ⇒ 00:26:18.470 Mariane Cequina: like an ideal operation structure, because there are a lot of things that we need to do in the operation sides where we can help other team as well, so they can focus on more important stuff. So we can handle like more like a repetitive tasks. Basically.
137 00:26:18.860 ⇒ 00:26:27.079 Vishnu Priya: What are the things that you you have taken on as operations like? Could we start there? Because operations to me is all the way from
138 00:26:27.871 ⇒ 00:26:42.820 Vishnu Priya: Hr people opposite, if you will. So you know, like payroll making sure. You know everything. Everyone is getting paid the right time all the way up to are the sales contracts going out in time. So which areas would you say? You know, is
139 00:26:43.030 ⇒ 00:26:48.879 Vishnu Priya: it’s hurting the most today, or which areas are you guys focusing on, you know today to, you know, to improve and take on to the next step.
140 00:26:49.800 ⇒ 00:26:54.800 Mariane Cequina: We’re actually scaling. So I don’t. I don’t know how we can like
141 00:26:55.280 ⇒ 00:26:57.913 Mariane Cequina: like add more more
142 00:26:58.550 ⇒ 00:27:16.169 Mariane Cequina: like tasks in operation operation team where we can help like the the other team as well. But basically, for now we’re we’re handling the onboarding, for example, like the contract and things like that. So as of now, we wanted to focus on creating a better documentation
143 00:27:16.420 ⇒ 00:27:31.780 Mariane Cequina: because we didn’t have like a great documentation, as of now. So we wanted to learn as well as the process of other team, so we can try to to find which way we can help them as well. Things like that.
144 00:27:32.300 ⇒ 00:27:50.359 Vishnu Priya: Documentation did help. It’s again. It’s not the easiest thing in the world, but you know it definitely helps especially for operations, right? Because it’s never a set and done documentation. It has to be a living document, right? Like there are constantly things that you’re learning. And you know, updating the document if you will.
145 00:27:50.840 ⇒ 00:27:53.109 Vishnu Priya: Now will I ask if
146 00:27:53.490 ⇒ 00:28:01.050 Vishnu Priya: if the documentation was the key factor in inculcating the habit in people, I would actually say, no.
147 00:28:01.340 ⇒ 00:28:01.700 Mariane Cequina: Okay.
148 00:28:01.700 ⇒ 00:28:10.049 Vishnu Priya: Because it was always a hard part, right? People had to. And I’m talking about the flux. 7 story. So this is like, you know at least a few years old story.
149 00:28:10.400 ⇒ 00:28:32.150 Vishnu Priya: I could never get people to go in, and, you know, read the documentation. I constantly found myself saying, Did you read that documentation first, st like, you know, before asking me, and I had to get comfortable with that question right? So because it’s easy for you to say, Hey, a team member has reached out to me. I’d rather just give them the answer right, like, you know, save everyone some time. But I had to get comfortable with the fact that
150 00:28:32.150 ⇒ 00:28:40.669 Vishnu Priya: are you sure it’s not in the documentation? If not, let’s go and write it together right like, you know. Let’s let’s look at the document together again. The same whole. That same habit building
151 00:28:40.670 ⇒ 00:28:59.910 Vishnu Priya: document has to be your, you know, like, go to response, if you will to say, Hey, this is this is where you look at basically. Now in the AI world, I think I take a Tad bit of a different stance and something that you know we are marching towards differently at Wixel, if you will. The current startup.
152 00:29:00.380 ⇒ 00:29:08.220 Vishnu Priya: I think I would rather have an Llm. Have these as faqs, basically, right? So if there is a chat box, and then
153 00:29:08.487 ⇒ 00:29:30.930 Vishnu Priya: if there’s basically so if I’m a newcomer, and then I come in and say, Hey, how do I onboard a customer? And if the you know the internal, the Chatbot is basically saying, Follow these steps. I would rather take that because it’s gonna give you like specific links and whatnot. And then, you know, they can have like that interaction. And having, like an internal chat, bot, it’s not that hard right? Like I think things have gotten a lot more easy.
154 00:29:30.930 ⇒ 00:29:34.069 Uttam Kumaran: Can we talk about? Can we talk about that? For I know we have several.
155 00:29:34.070 ⇒ 00:29:34.400 Nicolas Sucari: Okay.
156 00:29:34.400 ⇒ 00:29:43.719 Uttam Kumaran: On that, I guess. Nico Marianne, ambra kash like, can we explain? I mean, I think, amber and Kash, since you guys are new, you may not have full awareness of what we’ve done on the AI front.
157 00:29:43.790 ⇒ 00:29:58.959 Uttam Kumaran: But, Vishnu, this is like what I’ve been trying to do, for, like since I started. The company is to automate a lot of these things. I mean, frankly, you know, I’m an engineer, and so documentation is has been in my blood for a long time. But I, of course know that
158 00:29:58.970 ⇒ 00:30:19.950 Uttam Kumaran: that is, it’s in itself typically people carve 30% of their time just to do documentation like. And so I feel like AI is actually really good at attacking the need for some of that, but also the creation of some of that. In fact, this is something we are we’re doing for one of our AI clients is actually working on this process. And so one of the things that I wanted to ask is
159 00:30:19.950 ⇒ 00:30:32.560 Uttam Kumaran: if that you think there are key opportunities for us to use AI, and even how you have. You’ve seen, like the low hanging fruit. That we can tackle with some of our AI agents. I mean to give you a context of what capabilities we have
160 00:30:32.760 ⇒ 00:30:35.320 Uttam Kumaran: every we currently primarily use slack
161 00:30:35.430 ⇒ 00:30:42.760 Uttam Kumaran: zoom and notion. And now linear, everything is an Api or an SDK. Everything’s available. We actually do now have.
162 00:30:43.204 ⇒ 00:30:48.510 Vishnu Priya: Agents that have access to knowledge from each of those sources. So I feel like we are.
163 00:30:48.750 ⇒ 00:31:07.599 Uttam Kumaran: We are very close to actually solving a lot of what new engineers need to onboard new new folks need. But if you were to think about, even if now that as you use AI, or even, let’s say, you had access to the same capabilities in your role of flux. 7. Like what would be the most effective applications, or
164 00:31:07.964 ⇒ 00:31:12.259 Uttam Kumaran: like. What process do you think would be like? Oh, we totally would have skipped like half of this stuff.
165 00:31:12.660 ⇒ 00:31:27.419 Vishnu Priya: Sure thing, I think I would have gotten rid of a bunch of slide decks for sure. To begin with, because documentation back, you know few years ago it was all you know, just in slides. And Google Docs, right given that you have slack in your toolbox. Slack is
166 00:31:27.560 ⇒ 00:31:35.969 Vishnu Priya: slack is a tool slack would have been my go to, because again, if I were to do it all all over again for flux 7
167 00:31:36.573 ⇒ 00:31:43.850 Vishnu Priya: we literally lived on slack, right? And we were as remote as you could get even back then
168 00:31:43.990 ⇒ 00:31:53.309 Vishnu Priya: remote. Had a remote didn’t have a definition. Let’s start there right? I mean, the the remote has started having a definition now, especially after you know the post Covid.
169 00:31:53.970 ⇒ 00:32:12.880 Vishnu Priya: We we did not get on calls, you know, slack text messages was, you know, was our primary mode of, you know, communication, basically so many of the tools that you know we Incorporated, you know, eventually, over time, we made sure, does it have like a slack integration? Right? So even Hubspot, we we wanted to make sure, hey?
170 00:32:13.260 ⇒ 00:32:27.000 Vishnu Priya: If not, yeah. If someone is not updating you know their records, they would get like a slack message saying, Hey, you’ve not updated this updated now. So we were able to leverage all of those you know. Even back then without AI,
171 00:32:27.260 ⇒ 00:32:30.630 Vishnu Priya: I think right now, like, if I were to
172 00:32:31.600 ⇒ 00:32:34.629 Vishnu Priya: again document them all. I would rather
173 00:32:35.170 ⇒ 00:32:54.799 Vishnu Priya: feed whatever I have as processes today to an Llm. Right? And then have that give us, you know, response to my new team members, if you will. So if I had like a slack channel that said, here are all the you know the the topics, if you will, that a newcomer should know
174 00:32:54.860 ⇒ 00:33:08.379 Vishnu Priya: I I’d have the Llm. Know as opposed to a documentation, because, again, like I said, I was never able to get someone to go, especially an operations team. I was never able to get someone, you know, to go and read a documentation and say, hey? Oh, these are exactly the steps it would be.
175 00:33:08.380 ⇒ 00:33:09.460 Uttam Kumaran: It’s never gonna happen.
176 00:33:09.460 ⇒ 00:33:11.399 Vishnu Priya: Yeah, it’s not gonna happen. I I can say that.
177 00:33:11.400 ⇒ 00:33:36.520 Uttam Kumaran: Totally. And that’s why I want to accept that versus doing what I’ve done at every company which is, have this conversation. Everybody sort of is like, yeah. And then just like leaves the meetings like, there’s no way that happens. Let’s go to lunch. That’s of that’s 100. What’s happening and what will happen like I don’t. We can’t tackle. This is like a such a legacy problem. But that’s why I feel so lucky that we’re building a company and have access to AI, right? So like.
178 00:33:36.770 ⇒ 00:33:52.549 Uttam Kumaran: you know, I I think it’s clear doing like new employee onboarding for them to maybe be paired with a slack. But do you have a couple of other like? If there was to be a slack agent in between a process where maybe we can at least eliminate the need for documentation. But in fact, it actually just
179 00:33:52.690 ⇒ 00:33:56.099 Uttam Kumaran: improves, or maybe speeds things up even beyond that. Like
180 00:33:56.210 ⇒ 00:34:20.779 Uttam Kumaran: if you were to. I know you cause. I know. Even so for context guys. And as part of vixel we interact with a chat bot in order to produce our materials for every weekly meeting, and actually, like I sent screenshots of that to Casey. Who’s we have? We have a couple of folks on the AI team where I was like, I want this spinny thing, and I was meaning to connect you with them, because I’m like we should be sending some sort of like in progress. Gif, that’s a great genius idea.
181 00:34:21.230 ⇒ 00:34:34.129 Uttam Kumaran: And we stole a couple of ideas from that. Actually. But like, yeah, if you were to like, let’s say you were to have your own vixy or set of vixies like during Flex 7 like where would you deploy them? What do you think.
182 00:34:36.550 ⇒ 00:34:41.329 Vishnu Priya: That’s a good question. Actually, let me think about it. So.
183 00:34:41.330 ⇒ 00:34:42.030 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
184 00:34:43.050 ⇒ 00:34:45.820 Vishnu Priya: Alignment was always the main issue, right?
185 00:34:45.949 ⇒ 00:34:53.070 Vishnu Priya: The challenge with. So no matter how hard you try, you’re always going to have a couple of different tools. That’s a given.
186 00:34:53.260 ⇒ 00:34:55.870 Vishnu Priya: There’s not one single tool out there. No.
187 00:34:56.139 ⇒ 00:35:10.199 Vishnu Priya: I I take that back. There are single tools out there that you could use. But they’re not necessarily the most modern tools. Right? So, for example, I think there’s netsuite and a couple more that could literally do end to end when
188 00:35:10.520 ⇒ 00:35:26.549 Vishnu Priya: end to end operations handling for a you know, professional services business, basically. But somehow those tools have never been my thing right? I I don’t know. I it’s just not. It hasn’t given me that that modern feeling, if you will. You know, they always feel a bit outdated
189 00:35:26.550 ⇒ 00:35:31.600 Vishnu Priya: and a and a lot more complicated than it needed to be. So every time I, you know.
190 00:35:31.600 ⇒ 00:35:46.339 Vishnu Priya: look out for Demos for those tools my only thought would be, I can never get the team to use this tool. There’s going to be more problems, basically. So going back, I think alignment was the constant issue. I was trying, you know, to solve. So
191 00:35:46.480 ⇒ 00:35:54.699 Vishnu Priya: sales was having their own operations going on. Finance had their own operations going on. So if there was an agent that’s constantly talking.
192 00:35:55.030 ⇒ 00:36:07.819 Vishnu Priya: constantly, talking between these business areas right now again, no matter how hard you try, how hard you keep to how hard you try to keep your organization structure flat.
193 00:36:08.780 ⇒ 00:36:11.230 Vishnu Priya: you are gonna have some sort of an hierarchy. Basically, right?
194 00:36:11.230 ⇒ 00:36:11.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
195 00:36:11.620 ⇒ 00:36:40.569 Vishnu Priya: So there are going to be teams, even if you don’t want to have teams. Let’s start that now. The reason I say that is flux 7. We tried to avoid the whole. Hey? Let’s not have too many hierarchies. Let’s keep it as flat as we can. In fact, it was just atur, and then like a single layer of leaders, and then the rest. All reported to the leaders, basically. But even with that flat structure, data going between these layers was always a challenge. So alignment was an issue. Basically. So if I had.
196 00:36:40.640 ⇒ 00:36:50.920 Vishnu Priya: and you know, like an agent that’s constantly telling, hey, sales has updated this like what’s going on on the mark, you know, on the accounting side right now they have. So, for example.
197 00:36:51.130 ⇒ 00:36:55.360 Vishnu Priya: let’s say our sales is marking a a you know, a a project.
198 00:36:55.806 ⇒ 00:37:00.680 Vishnu Priya: As close. Oh, sorry. A a booking as close like, you know. You have a signed contract.
199 00:37:01.050 ⇒ 00:37:24.390 Vishnu Priya: An agent needs to talk to the delivery agent, if you will, to say, Hey, a new customer is ready. Be prepared right like that’s all that I need, you know. I don’t even need the agent, the AI like the Bot, or whatever to go and do it for me. I just need those, you know alerts to come in and say, Hey, okay, what are? What are all the things that I’m doing now? The last time I on boarded a customer was like 4 weeks ago.
200 00:37:24.390 ⇒ 00:37:33.329 Vishnu Priya: and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna forget, like 4 out of the 12 things that I have to do. So if the agent is giving me that. You know that Trigger to say
201 00:37:33.380 ⇒ 00:37:37.110 Vishnu Priya: you have to be ready now. That would be helpful for me, right? Because
202 00:37:37.250 ⇒ 00:37:42.720 Vishnu Priya: otherwise, as a as an individual. I’m constantly making sure.
203 00:37:43.195 ⇒ 00:38:11.009 Vishnu Priya: Okay, has sales updated their status today? Did anything move to done today? So if I have a close booking so, for I’ll give you an example right like, let’s say, 3 days in a row. They have not updated anything the 4th day I’m not gonna make it a priority to go and check right, and that will be the exact day they actually move something to close as well. Now, by the time it comes back to me. I’ve lost time. So the customer onboarding takes time, basically. So alignment.
204 00:38:11.010 ⇒ 00:38:11.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
205 00:38:11.440 ⇒ 00:38:21.279 Vishnu Priya: You know, teams has been one of the major challenges, if you will to say, Hey, okay, this has. The handoff is ready. I have to take over now.
206 00:38:21.550 ⇒ 00:38:29.979 Vishnu Priya: Now, at the same time, this agent needs to talk with that agent as well the sales agent as well, giving updates right like to, for example, to say, Hey.
207 00:38:30.280 ⇒ 00:38:35.750 Vishnu Priya: it doesn’t have to be every single step, but once the customer is fully on board, or the project has started.
208 00:38:35.800 ⇒ 00:38:42.869 Vishnu Priya: The sales agent gets a, you know, an update, basically saying, Hey, they’re all good to go. No issues. Let’s keep going right.
209 00:38:42.910 ⇒ 00:39:06.380 Vishnu Priya: If they’re close to their project. Let’s say you have a transactional project going on, let’s say, for 4 to 6 weeks. At the 4 week. Mark, the delivery agent tells the sales agent like, Hey, 2 weeks left, be prepared to start the next conversation right? I think I would take any of those, because all these things that were things that we tried to do manually, and we constantly drop balls, too, for sure, right?
210 00:39:06.380 ⇒ 00:39:29.600 Vishnu Priya: It’s natural, especially if you have your number of concurrent projects increase, which which you will see increase eventually. It’s going to be hard like. Who do you even ask? Right? At 1 point you just give up. You’re like, I’ll just hope for the best, and things will just happen. You get to that mindset. Basically. So yeah, one example would definitely be alignment between the you know the teams. The second.
211 00:39:29.730 ⇒ 00:39:37.239 Vishnu Priya: I know it’s not, you know, like an agentic AI that I need here just an automated you know, automated system, if you will.
212 00:39:37.430 ⇒ 00:39:41.499 Vishnu Priya: that can. Alert for data misses.
213 00:39:42.610 ⇒ 00:39:57.989 Vishnu Priya: I I took over data analysis as my thing. And trust me, I I love looking at data, you know, trying to make sense of it like what’s going on like, you know, how do we improve? You know, how do we make things better on the sales side on the internal team side, whatever. Right?
214 00:39:58.150 ⇒ 00:40:07.260 Vishnu Priya: But then you’ll find. Let’s say you have like 50 records to analyze. I’m pretty sure I’d have 30 date 30 records with missing data. So I’m like.
215 00:40:07.880 ⇒ 00:40:10.229 Vishnu Priya: go and follow up with them right like who.
216 00:40:10.230 ⇒ 00:40:40.100 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, you know what we’re, you know why we’re lucky, and that this is what we do for clients. Both P. Things are what we do for clients. Amber is, we’re working on a client where we are documenting their processes. We built a bot that helps literally their customer service reps they, what do we do around here? We also help clients understand when their data is missing, and there’s alerting. So this is so lovely to hear, because I feel very quick that we can solve this problem for ourselves. But it’s really great. Yeah.
217 00:40:40.100 ⇒ 00:40:58.139 Vishnu Priya: Hey? I mean, so we can level up our thoughts in that way right as a team, our thoughts level up because we’re not talking about. You know, when when we get together as a team, we’re not talking about, hey? Why didn’t you update that data? Or why didn’t you update this data, it gets to the next level of discussion where we say, Hey, look at this data right? Like we’re doing something
218 00:40:58.140 ⇒ 00:41:14.320 Vishnu Priya: super right here, let’s double down on it. We are doing something bad here, like you know what’s going on right like. Let’s put all hands, you know, on deck and see how we can fix this issue. Basically. So again, it elevates the discussions as well, you know, as amongst the you know, the team members.
219 00:41:14.320 ⇒ 00:41:29.210 Vishnu Priya: But but yeah, those would be my 2 for sure alignment. And you know, data misses. If there’s this constant again, doesn’t have to be an agent. But some sort of an automation or AI that can. You know, that can help support the
220 00:41:29.550 ⇒ 00:41:35.590 Vishnu Priya: support with the with the processes. Basically. By the way, actually, even you know, at Wixel
221 00:41:36.210 ⇒ 00:41:50.699 Vishnu Priya: agent is something that you know we are. We’ve used on the the customer facing side with the evaluations and stuff. Right. So you know, for example, let’s say you have like a financial statement, for you know, for everyone’s benefit, you know, Tom, I know you’ve gone through this
222 00:41:51.151 ⇒ 00:42:14.460 Vishnu Priya: but let’s say you have like a financial statement. And you’re we have like a agent that can come and quickly. Just look for you know issues. It’s gonna look for inconsistencies. Right? Like, Hey, this is too high. This is too low, like, why? So you know, why are those things happening? Basically, we have a few other. You know, evaluators. So evaluators are, you know, the area that we have tried? You know, so far from a agent. You know, standpoint.
223 00:42:15.280 ⇒ 00:42:41.270 Vishnu Priya: If I were to share, like the Wixel vision with you guys, the next level would be if these agents can talk with themselves right? Like, you know, if you submitted the you know, financial model, is it aligning with your vision statement? Mission statement? Okrs, like, how you know, how does that play, basically. But on the internal side, we’re using a lot of automation for sure, right? So I wouldn’t say AI, but automation for sure, in that air table is our you know, internal tool.
224 00:42:41.690 ⇒ 00:42:58.240 Vishnu Priya: Pretty much. We use that as our, you know, Crm and our project management tool. In fact, even our content calendar goes on at table. Basically, given that, it’s a you know, it’s a a spreadsheet foundation. Basically. Right? So you know, you make it work to your liking.
225 00:42:58.320 ⇒ 00:43:13.870 Vishnu Priya: So the things that I have found at least, you know recently help is, there are so many things that you have to do each from an operation standpoint, right? So many things that you have to do at, you know each event. So, for example, customers getting on boarded, I literally
226 00:43:14.230 ⇒ 00:43:22.100 Vishnu Priya: just for the customer onboarding for each customer. It’ll have like 10 things to do. But then, just for the entire group, if there is a new group coming.
227 00:43:22.240 ⇒ 00:43:39.330 Vishnu Priya: There are some 1015 tasks generate for the group that I have to do, basically. But how do I keep this in my mind? Right. I did try documentation. By the way, that was the 1st thing that I did. I’m like, Hey, I’m going to get better. I did not do it. Well, at Flux 7. I’m going to do it better at Wixel. I started writing things down.
228 00:43:39.720 ⇒ 00:43:59.260 Vishnu Priya: I myself wasn’t looking at the documentation, which is bad. I know it’s just that over time. I know it’s like I know what to do right? I just do it myself, only to realize I’ve dropped 2 things in the list, basically. So I started shifting my mindset to say, Hey, I can document all day if I’m not looking at the documentation that I am writing. How can I expect someone else to write? So
229 00:43:59.320 ⇒ 00:44:24.329 Vishnu Priya: I started shifting my thought process to say, if they click the status to say, Hey, a new cohort is getting on boarded. Just click the status. There’ll be like a bunch of 5 or 6 tasks that’s assigned to them with various statuses right like, Hey, it’s your current week priority. It’s your next week priority. It’s your today’s priority. And then that shows up. Now, I don’t have to think I know that you know these are all the tasks that I have to do, and then I keep moving.
230 00:44:24.600 ⇒ 00:44:25.390 Vishnu Priya: But.
231 00:44:25.570 ⇒ 00:44:49.550 Vishnu Priya: as you know, as someone that’s, you know, doing it constantly. I’m also having these opportunities, if you will, to improve right? And you say, Hey, I’ve not thought about this as a task to include in the automation. I could add that now. So you’re constantly improving again. It’s not a certain you know, set and done deal, but automation has helped, you know, for sure in helping us keep track of, you know tasks, if you will.
232 00:44:50.520 ⇒ 00:44:51.370 Vishnu Priya: So
233 00:44:54.410 ⇒ 00:44:56.840 Vishnu Priya: I’m sorry I’m going to open the No.
234 00:44:56.840 ⇒ 00:44:57.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
235 00:44:57.340 ⇒ 00:44:58.659 Vishnu Priya: Sorry I did not open the.
236 00:44:58.660 ⇒ 00:45:01.099 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, no, that’s fine. Any questions.
237 00:45:01.350 ⇒ 00:45:07.740 Uttam Kumaran: Folks on the call anything I mean. I have like I will ask a million questions, but I want everyone else
238 00:45:07.850 ⇒ 00:45:12.070 Uttam Kumaran: like, please feel free like this is a really good time for us to learn how to do this.
239 00:45:16.970 ⇒ 00:45:22.330 Nicolas Sucari: Yeah, I mean, all of this is kind of super useful. I think on the AI side, like.
240 00:45:22.540 ⇒ 00:45:40.840 Nicolas Sucari: as Tom said, like we have a great team. And and yeah, I I kind of like of thinking that we can do anything regarding that and try to automate all of the processes. But if you, if you’d like to like, I want, I want to understand, like, how’s your process on
241 00:45:40.900 ⇒ 00:45:55.349 Nicolas Sucari: trying to understand what what is around there that you will like, how? How? Your prioritization will work in terms of saying, Hey, I need to tackle down this 1st instead of this other thing like, what do you think, or what do you measure in terms of
242 00:45:55.350 ⇒ 00:46:12.439 Nicolas Sucari: understanding which process, or which? Yeah, I don’t know. Tasks. You need to start like thinking of automating instead of going and saying, Hey, I think this is a problem. I don’t want to think if this is a problem, I want to see that this is a problem and measure that and see what’s gonna be most valuable to automating the company.
243 00:46:12.970 ⇒ 00:46:20.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And I want, I wanna just add one piece like, just to take this even to a higher level, is like, How do you do this on a recurring basis, right?
244 00:46:20.930 ⇒ 00:46:50.889 Uttam Kumaran: This is one of the few teams where the client is the business right? And so my instinct is to run it just like a typical like. If if I was, think of me as the product owner, maybe, or someone but like I like, what are the nuances of even doing that prioritization process when it comes to operations versus what we do for clients, right? And are there benefits to all of us being internal that we can take advantage of, but other nuances to the operations, deliverables that may require a different process.
245 00:46:51.710 ⇒ 00:46:53.689 Vishnu Priya: Sure thing makes sense. Actually so
246 00:46:54.020 ⇒ 00:47:03.699 Vishnu Priya: prioritization I wish there was a framework, but in my head at least, right? I think the way I I’ve tackled it is if it answers
247 00:47:05.140 ⇒ 00:47:27.899 Vishnu Priya: to your point, Nicholas, I think if there’s a a new problem coming away, and there are going to be problems coming away from directions we would not have even expected. So that’s normal, right? So it comes away. How do I make sure I’ve already, you know, signed up like, for you know, 10 different things. How do I fit this in? Basically, either I have to drop something, and then, you know, bring this in, or I have to move this apart.
248 00:47:27.920 ⇒ 00:47:34.880 Vishnu Priya: The question I’ve always asked is 2 things right? Is it a customer facing? You know? Problem
249 00:47:36.541 ⇒ 00:48:00.499 Vishnu Priya: if the answer is yes, I think I would still ask a follow up question right? Which is, if I don’t get to this issue right now, will it be disruptive to the business? So here’s the thing right. Customers can give you feedback all the time. You know you are. Gonna find, you know, challenges with the customer related operations all the time, but you can’t go around fixing it all the time. So you have to take back a step and say, Hey.
250 00:48:00.700 ⇒ 00:48:27.459 Vishnu Priya: is it answering these 2 questions right? If I don’t fix this? You know, for this customer, and if I don’t roll out this you know this problem or the solution, if you will, across the board, is it gonna be disrupted to the business? If the answer is no, even if it is a customer facing issue. I will deprioritize it right? It’s okay. We have to get comfortable with the fact that just because it’s a customer facing issue does not mean it. It goes on the top of the list, basically
251 00:48:27.580 ⇒ 00:48:46.459 Vishnu Priya: the second. And the the more the second category of questions that I would ask us, is it people? Ops, facing right? How is it impacting the rest of the team? Those those would be my 2 key stakeholders which are going to be the 2 2 key stakeholders of most of your problems. Right? But
252 00:48:46.890 ⇒ 00:48:55.270 Vishnu Priya: you have to ask those, you know, like the urgent versus the important. Basically they’re all important, sure. But how are they? Urgent?
253 00:48:55.655 ⇒ 00:48:59.369 Vishnu Priya: So you ask the next set of questions. Right? Is it people? Ops related
254 00:48:59.500 ⇒ 00:49:11.399 Vishnu Priya: again, the your team members are always gonna have you do things differently. They’re always wanted. They’re always want wanting new things in place, as well, you know. So, for example, they could.
255 00:49:11.920 ⇒ 00:49:25.919 Vishnu Priya: we were constantly, especially with the team growing. We were constantly faced with issues like, Hey, we would have. We would prefer to have this policy in place. We would prefer to have that policy in place. You know. Could you guys give us like a reimbursement and all the fun stuff, right?
256 00:49:26.130 ⇒ 00:49:28.419 Vishnu Priya: Sure. We can have all that in day one.
257 00:49:28.520 ⇒ 00:49:50.789 Vishnu Priya: And we had the temptation, too. Right? Like, you know, hey? The employees asking the contact is asking like, what what will happen if we don’t do that today? Right like, what if we miss them out because they are on a customer, you know, project. What if they decide to leave like you’re you’re going to have all those questions haunt, you know, pretty much. But then the question is, is it a common ask, is it a common pattern that you’re seeing?
258 00:49:50.790 ⇒ 00:49:59.960 Vishnu Priya: If it’s not a pattern? Again, we are in the data world, right? Like, if it’s not a pattern. It’s an outlier pretty much right like. Push it aside. I’m not saying do not get to it, but
259 00:50:00.480 ⇒ 00:50:13.709 Vishnu Priya: deprioritized right like it doesn’t even have to be in your top 10 priorities for the, you know, for the week. You can simply say both to the customer and the you know, the the team member. We hear you loud and clear. It’s it’s awesome.
260 00:50:13.710 ⇒ 00:50:35.330 Vishnu Priya: The idea is great. We will get to it when we get to it right like, if you can commit to a timeline, commit to a timeline. But otherwise, you know, you simply say we can’t get to this right? It’s it’s a you know it’s it just cannot be done. It’s oh, by the way, this goes to the things that you know we were talking about, you know, earlier, which is, it’s okay for us to build that habit with the team as well to say, Hey.
261 00:50:35.360 ⇒ 00:50:40.500 Vishnu Priya: that they have to be okay with hearing no, from the the business as well to say, Hey.
262 00:50:41.350 ⇒ 00:51:09.130 Vishnu Priya: and don’t keep saying No, you know, continuously, it’s it’s the other part we are hitting a balance here. But then, when we say no, they’ll know that we are saying no, but then we get to it, you know, at some point, so as long as it’s not disruptive. It’s never urgent, but they’re all important. So just put them in the important bucket, and then the the urgent ones only, if there is a pattern, if there is not a pattern hold it until you know you can get to it. Once you’ve gone through the the current priorities. Basically.
263 00:51:12.444 ⇒ 00:51:15.019 Vishnu Priya: Okay, so that’s good.
264 00:51:17.480 ⇒ 00:51:19.259 Uttam Kumaran: I had a Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, go ahead. Akash.
265 00:51:19.260 ⇒ 00:51:44.030 Aakash Tandel: Yeah. Thanks for answering all these questions. By the way, this is very helpful, I think. My questions more on kind of how we should structure the team moving forward. You know, we have a fairly small team. It’s basically just Marianne and and Nico and then for the Pm. Side of things, I think amber myself, and then Steve and another Pm. Are gonna kinda try to handle a lot of the
266 00:51:44.590 ⇒ 00:51:58.509 Aakash Tandel: standard Pm. Stuff, but might take on some of the operational stuff for the time being. Just because we are, you know, a smaller team. What do you think is like the the easy split there? Or should we be overlapping in certain cases anything like that.
267 00:51:59.608 ⇒ 00:52:04.449 Vishnu Priya: I have a tad bit of a personal bias coming in Akash, so please bear with me. I.
268 00:52:04.450 ⇒ 00:52:05.060 Aakash Tandel: Sure.
269 00:52:05.060 ⇒ 00:52:12.350 Vishnu Priya: As much as I love structure having a structure in a, you know, like a process standpoint, I’ve not necessarily been a fan of having
270 00:52:12.490 ⇒ 00:52:14.490 Vishnu Priya: layers or structures within the team.
271 00:52:14.810 ⇒ 00:52:19.090 Vishnu Priya: My belief has been we are an operations team.
272 00:52:19.210 ⇒ 00:52:32.510 Vishnu Priya: Let’s jump in as needed. Basically, right? Start there. No, I’m not saying you can operate this way, you know, for a very long time you’re gonna start seeing some of those natural splits happen.
273 00:52:32.770 ⇒ 00:52:51.529 Vishnu Priya: but it’s too early, especially in your case, I would say it’s too early. I would rather you all. You know, operate as a single team. Do not have those sub layers just yet. And, as you said, you already have a bit of that tiny delineation coming right? So you know, few of you are. Gonna focus on Pm. And whatnot. But
274 00:52:51.780 ⇒ 00:53:03.730 Vishnu Priya: at this stage it’s crucial for you to take that, you know, whatever you’re learning, whatever you’re going through on the Pm. Side to take it back to the the rest of the operations team. Basically, right? That’s going to be crucial, you know, at this stage of the business.
275 00:53:03.920 ⇒ 00:53:09.040 Vishnu Priya: So when I started, you know, building an operations team, if you will at, you know, Flex 7,
276 00:53:09.522 ⇒ 00:53:29.089 Vishnu Priya: I basically said, I’m gonna give you a role. But it’s just because, legally, I’m entitled to give you a role. But do not expect me to give you tasks that are just gonna be relevant to that role. Right? If you’re okay with that requirement, then come and join me. Basically. So what happened eventually was, it took us at least a year or 2 before
277 00:53:29.130 ⇒ 00:53:43.300 Vishnu Priya: they all found their own likings. Basically, right now, what that led to was, okay, I started seeing there’s a gap here. I need to fill fill someone in or someone from the team needs to take on. You know that particular. So, for example, very specific example.
278 00:53:43.370 ⇒ 00:53:48.890 Vishnu Priya: the operations team, you know, we we called ourselves the the bizarops team, the business operations team. Basically.
279 00:53:49.010 ⇒ 00:53:55.890 Vishnu Priya: we we had both people, Ops and bizarps all under the bizarps structure, if you will.
280 00:53:56.130 ⇒ 00:54:12.089 Vishnu Priya: So we have like a payroll person. But then he’ll also take care of you know. Admin, you know, admin stuff for the team across the board. By the way, it was kind of like an ex executive assistant, if you will, across the board. So he did that, and then we, when I brought in my 1st in house accounting person.
281 00:54:12.260 ⇒ 00:54:17.830 Vishnu Priya: I basically just said, you have experience in accounting, you know. Let’s just do. You know, accounting
282 00:54:18.240 ⇒ 00:54:27.720 Vishnu Priya: she started off there. But you know, just within weeks, you know, what I realized was, she actually also had contracts you know, a background. Basically, she had interest in that as well.
283 00:54:28.110 ⇒ 00:54:37.100 Vishnu Priya: So she she started taking care. Some of the you know the contract, you know, work for me now. That led to her wanting to learn about accounts receivables.
284 00:54:37.160 ⇒ 00:54:48.020 Vishnu Priya: So she had some, you know, basic exposure. But she said, Hey, I’m looking at accounting. I’m also looking at contracts. I see how these 2 are aligning with each other. Why, why don’t I take accounts receivables on my end?
285 00:54:48.070 ⇒ 00:54:59.980 Vishnu Priya: And then on the other side? You know the person I was just talking about, you know, handling payroll. He was also the one that was, you know, paying our vendors, if you will. So it’s like, Hey, I understand why we are paying this vendors.
286 00:55:00.010 ⇒ 00:55:19.419 Vishnu Priya: Maybe I’ll take on their relationship right? The Ap. The accounts payable relationship as well. So you start seeing some of those natural segregation happen at this stage, I would strongly recommend again personal bias coming in, which is, I would prefer not to have a structure because it it became a much more healthier team
287 00:55:19.880 ⇒ 00:55:43.200 Vishnu Priya: because everyone knew everything. They were learning something. Right? So basically, when I started sharing, hey, these are all the things that are happening in this area. They were able to say, Hey, I could use that idea here in my specific processes, and so on and so forth. So the learning was a lot more. You know better. And again, as a team it was a much more healthier team when you didn’t have super specific delineation. This early in the process.
288 00:55:44.620 ⇒ 00:55:53.470 Aakash Tandel: Cool. Yeah, I like that. Also from a like a workload standpoint. I feel like it. It might be more even just because we don’t have those. Yeah, awesome. Thanks.
289 00:55:53.470 ⇒ 00:56:04.339 Vishnu Priya: And you can take it on right. Actually, we did do that, too. By the way, one other trick that we actually did was operate. We had like an operations board, and you know we had like an idea column.
290 00:56:04.390 ⇒ 00:56:33.499 Vishnu Priya: We used to throw all these column, you know all these ideas there. So if someone had like a lighter workload, if they’ve got, you know, if they’re finished with their current priorities, they could just go to the idea, but pull something in that may not even necessarily be their area. But they could get that head start for the, you know, for the rest of the team. Basically. So those things have worked really well. And again, you get to learn a lot more as an operations team together. And like you said, I’m not sure what a background in operations mean. You you are learning together, you know, in the process. So it does help.
291 00:56:33.760 ⇒ 00:56:39.230 Vishnu Priya: You know, when anyone can take on anything, at least, for now and then. Eventually you can start separating them out.
292 00:56:39.740 ⇒ 00:56:40.710 Aakash Tandel: Cool, awesome.
293 00:56:40.990 ⇒ 00:56:41.790 Aakash Tandel: Thanks.
294 00:56:42.200 ⇒ 00:56:46.557 Vishnu Priya: That’s anything else. Guys,
295 00:56:49.830 ⇒ 00:56:50.830 Uttam Kumaran: I know where?
296 00:56:50.830 ⇒ 00:56:53.019 Uttam Kumaran: Amber? Yeah, I have maybe one.
297 00:56:53.020 ⇒ 00:56:53.700 Nicolas Sucari: Go ahead of time.
298 00:56:53.700 ⇒ 00:56:55.310 Uttam Kumaran: I have one more question.
299 00:56:57.910 ⇒ 00:57:07.410 Uttam Kumaran: so I think one of the things that that it’s helpful, maybe really, tactically, to talk about is like how we want to start. I think 2 things that would love feedback on one is.
300 00:57:07.560 ⇒ 00:57:21.840 Uttam Kumaran: you know, we we talked about maybe running daily meetings with an operations team. I mean, I am so excited to do that like all the time, guys that might that’s getting out of clients. I want to go towards building the machine. But I’ll I’ll be there every day whenever we want to do that.
301 00:57:22.159 ⇒ 00:57:38.040 Uttam Kumaran: If that’s the path forward, then I think this group, or whoever wants to be involved in that work stream. I think that’s a really good path. I do want this team to own, though, how we take on new tasks, prioritize and execute, and on what cadence I’m happy to act
302 00:57:38.160 ⇒ 00:57:55.109 Uttam Kumaran: as one stakeholder. But I do think that this team is a has clients that are across the business. So I’m happy to be the arbiter. I may also be a client, but I wanna make sure that my role is really clear, because otherwise, you guys know, I’ll just play wherever I wherever I can go. But
303 00:57:55.270 ⇒ 00:58:01.690 Uttam Kumaran: like, I think, what we need to figure out is how we can create a set of expectations on how we do that prioritization. And what’s important?
304 00:58:02.252 ⇒ 00:58:13.490 Uttam Kumaran: And how do we start to move tackling day to day sort of contracts. Things like that also budgeting times towards longer term stuff, and similar to every team building out, building out a roadmap.
305 00:58:14.660 ⇒ 00:58:21.270 Uttam Kumaran: so I think one of the thing Vishnu is we have an in house AI team, and I just wanted to know, like.
306 00:58:21.400 ⇒ 00:58:23.100 Uttam Kumaran: let’s say, you had
307 00:58:23.620 ⇒ 00:58:39.370 Uttam Kumaran: 2 or 3 AI engineers, how would you consider getting them most up to speed with the teams they support? And if I can be to say one more thing, amber is actually the the project manager for that team. And I’ve I’ve actually explained that the operations team
308 00:58:39.560 ⇒ 00:58:42.490 Uttam Kumaran: Daryl is a client of of like that team.
309 00:58:42.870 ⇒ 00:58:56.890 Uttam Kumaran: But do you think it’s better just to like? Not have these sort of chains and say, Hey, maybe an an AI person should just join the OP. The operations team and do a stint and like maybe do a stint in every team. I don’t know. I’m trying to just like start to
310 00:58:57.820 ⇒ 00:59:05.889 Uttam Kumaran: meld everyone together strategically. But like, if you, if you had that sort of scenario, put yourself in our shoes like what? What do you think you would do.
311 00:59:06.470 ⇒ 00:59:08.289 Vishnu Priya: Have them tag along, for sure.
312 00:59:08.290 ⇒ 00:59:08.910 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
313 00:59:09.270 ⇒ 00:59:15.063 Vishnu Priya: Sure. Right? So again, you you have the benefit of having a smaller team still.
314 00:59:15.650 ⇒ 00:59:23.870 Vishnu Priya: Anytime you cross 50, you lose this liberty right. I would use this to the maximum advantage I could, and.
315 00:59:24.510 ⇒ 00:59:27.300 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, my gosh! 50 people are gonna make me so nervous.
316 00:59:28.620 ⇒ 00:59:57.718 Vishnu Priya: It’s crazy for sure. It’s like, I mean when I think we would be like 10 or 15, everyone knew where everyone was and what everyone was doing at any given day the moment we crossed. We’re like, what in the world are you talking about like? Where did this even come from like, I was not even expecting this problem to to pop up. Right? So yeah, 50 is that number for sure, till you get there, you have the liberty. I would say it has a tag along, because again, as a company, as a business, you have to, and as a team themselves
317 00:59:58.670 ⇒ 01:00:01.919 Vishnu Priya: handoffs don’t make sense right? It’s it’s too early for that.
318 01:00:02.330 ⇒ 01:00:18.050 Vishnu Priya: I’ve seen things work better when they hear it, when they hear it directly, right? Like I mean, scope them out in a way that you know they are not feeling overwhelmed either. So, for example, our own you know AI lead. Actually.
319 01:00:18.310 ⇒ 01:00:42.340 Vishnu Priya: she has access to, you know, pretty much anything that’s going on in the, you know, in the curriculum, and that has given her the you know, the the mind space, if you will right to think outside the box. And you know, hey, can I? Can I do things this way? Can I do? Because she has the context, if you will, and I’m constantly feeding her, you know, feedback. And actually, I’m when I say I’m feeding her.
320 01:00:42.520 ⇒ 01:01:08.399 Vishnu Priya: But she knows when I’m you know, inputting something in the you know the system because she gets an alert right? So she knows. So I’m I’m avoiding that manual or you know, human interaction. There she gets to me when she has to talk about something. You know a lot more. You know, at a strategic level. Basically, so simple answer would be tag along for sure until it gets overwhelming for the you know, for the team which you know, you can give them space to, you know, to let let them
321 01:01:08.744 ⇒ 01:01:12.535 Vishnu Priya: let they can come and let you know about it. But
322 01:01:13.300 ⇒ 01:01:15.468 Vishnu Priya: As long as you have those
323 01:01:16.380 ⇒ 01:01:22.309 Vishnu Priya: levels in control, they should stand along, would be my answer. Okay, that would help for sure.
324 01:01:22.310 ⇒ 01:01:27.590 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, I know we’re at time. Thank you so much. This was like.
325 01:01:28.050 ⇒ 01:01:39.737 Uttam Kumaran: I’m so excited. I like, I I’m so happy that we got this time any last questions. I think if anything, I’m happy to. Everyone has visions email, I’m happy to. I know we have the slack channel as well.
326 01:01:40.030 ⇒ 01:01:53.940 Vishnu Priya: I was just gonna say, it’s too hard to honestly, I think I was to be in full transparency with them. And if you guys are up for it, if you’re seeing the value here, right I was seeing this as an introductory call. Right? Operations in 1 h is, it’s never a thing.
327 01:01:53.940 ⇒ 01:01:54.435 Vishnu Priya: Yes.
328 01:01:54.930 ⇒ 01:02:21.480 Vishnu Priya: talk about just a high level. I think we just touched some, you know, high level, for sure. You know, if you’d like, for, you know, if you’d like for a follow up calls, you know. And then, just, you know, ping me on slack, and we could get like very specific right? I know we covered, like, you know, a different set of topics. But if you want to get deep into like one specific area. I’m happy to, you know. Share some of the learnings that I’ve had both, you know, and you know, Flex 7. So like I said, I think I saw this as an introductory call, and I hope you.
329 01:02:21.480 ⇒ 01:02:21.860 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
330 01:02:22.067 ⇒ 01:02:26.009 Vishnu Priya: You know. Want to see it that way, too. So anytime you want to reach out, please, please do.
331 01:02:27.970 ⇒ 01:02:30.210 Nicolas Sucari: Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, okay.
332 01:02:31.260 ⇒ 01:02:33.080 Vishnu Priya: Thanks. Everyone. Appreciate the time.
333 01:02:33.080 ⇒ 01:02:34.000 Vishnu Priya: Thank you. Thank you.
334 01:02:34.300 ⇒ 01:02:34.840 Nicolas Sucari: Have a good one.
335 01:02:34.840 ⇒ 01:02:36.260 Nicolas Sucari: Thank you. Bye, bye.
336 01:02:36.260 ⇒ 01:02:37.050 Mariane Cequina: Bye-bye.