Meeting Title: Brainfork Project Manager Interview Date: 2025-08-12 Meeting participants: Usama Riaz, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:06:09.450 ⇒ 00:06:10.580 Amber Lin: Hi there!
2 00:06:12.990 ⇒ 00:06:14.850 Amber Lin: Hi, Amber. How are you?
3 00:06:15.530 ⇒ 00:06:17.429 Amber Lin: I’m good, how are you? It’s been a while.
4 00:06:17.430 ⇒ 00:06:25.799 Usama Riaz: Yes, and still, I was thinking, because, I was just, you can say, wondering.
5 00:06:26.000 ⇒ 00:06:30.800 Usama Riaz: If someone join… will be joining or not, so… Glad to see you.
6 00:06:31.890 ⇒ 00:06:33.370 Amber Lin: And what’s C2?
7 00:06:33.520 ⇒ 00:06:36.120 Amber Lin: And so recently we’ve been…
8 00:06:36.420 ⇒ 00:06:44.299 Amber Lin: we’ve had some movements in personnel. We hired someone, and we’re just testing it out, and then we were…
9 00:06:44.550 ⇒ 00:06:52.929 Amber Lin: So, we’re still looking to hire, and then I know my boss, Utam, told me he wants to make a decision soon.
10 00:06:52.930 ⇒ 00:07:04.649 Amber Lin: So, you’ll hear back from us, I would say, within a week or two about the decision after this meeting, either by the end of this week or at the end of next week.
11 00:07:05.430 ⇒ 00:07:08.350 Usama Riaz: Sure. So, is he joining this?
12 00:07:08.710 ⇒ 00:07:09.710 Usama Riaz: session, or….
13 00:07:09.710 ⇒ 00:07:11.710 Amber Lin: He’s on another call.
14 00:07:12.040 ⇒ 00:07:12.750 Usama Riaz: Okay.
15 00:07:13.870 ⇒ 00:07:14.570 Usama Riaz: Right.
16 00:07:15.940 ⇒ 00:07:16.500 Amber Lin: Yeah.
17 00:07:17.810 ⇒ 00:07:22.669 Amber Lin: Let’s see… Sorry, I’m just pulling up your….
18 00:07:22.670 ⇒ 00:07:23.989 Usama Riaz: No, no, it’s okay.
19 00:07:23.990 ⇒ 00:07:25.170 Amber Lin: Slide down.
20 00:07:30.760 ⇒ 00:07:34.709 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think… last time when we talked.
21 00:07:35.010 ⇒ 00:07:39.219 Amber Lin: Did I ask you about the hour overlap you would have with us?
22 00:07:40.740 ⇒ 00:07:49.275 Usama Riaz: our overlapping, … Yes, yes, because I’m living in Asia, so… …
23 00:07:50.520 ⇒ 00:07:52.710 Usama Riaz: Right now, it is 12 AM.
24 00:07:53.000 ⇒ 00:08:04.740 Usama Riaz: So, it’s okay, it’s been 9… more than 9 years that I worked… I’m used to work as per Eastern time zone, because, most of my, yes, most of my career, I… you can say.
25 00:08:04.940 ⇒ 00:08:09.830 Usama Riaz: work with US, Canadian, and UK clients, so I’m okay with that.
26 00:08:10.340 ⇒ 00:08:11.070 Amber Lin: Okay.
27 00:08:12.240 ⇒ 00:08:19.649 Amber Lin: I see. I think one of the concerns we have is, the fit with…
28 00:08:19.760 ⇒ 00:08:26.669 Amber Lin: So, cultural fit, I would say. So, we are a consultancy, and we are very fast-paced.
29 00:08:26.690 ⇒ 00:08:27.360 Usama Riaz: And….
30 00:08:27.360 ⇒ 00:08:42.799 Amber Lin: there’s not a lot of existing, documentation or structure to how we do things, and we’re expected to take things off fairly fast and figure things out, as we go. Can you help me answer that concern?
31 00:08:43.110 ⇒ 00:08:49.119 Usama Riaz: Yeah, sure, why not? I hope you… I hope you had a chance to review Meta Zoom in my project management
32 00:08:49.270 ⇒ 00:09:03.720 Usama Riaz: career. So, in every project, there’s a part of, you can say, documentation. Even I was, being a part of some internal automation, and after that, I used to, you can say, made some, documentation. So…
33 00:09:04.150 ⇒ 00:09:07.259 Usama Riaz: In documentation perspective, I have no issue, I can support you.
34 00:09:07.510 ⇒ 00:09:08.919 Usama Riaz: Where you need it.
35 00:09:10.470 ⇒ 00:09:16.349 Amber Lin: I think my question was that we are… most of the times, we’re expected to…
36 00:09:16.350 ⇒ 00:09:32.459 Amber Lin: take on tasks really fast and figure things out as we go. Have you had that type of experience before, or was your organization’s more… do they have a lot of structure? How was it like?
37 00:09:33.580 ⇒ 00:09:40.070 Usama Riaz: So, right now, I’m… the organization I’m working in.
38 00:09:40.420 ⇒ 00:09:52.700 Usama Riaz: working on. So, I’m on probation, so if I… you can say, if I’ll be shortlisted or get any opportunity from Brain Fork, so I just need 7 days to join, to switch, so….
39 00:09:55.690 ⇒ 00:10:03.970 Amber Lin: Oh, sorry, I think my, my question was that, so for instance, we recently hired a…
40 00:10:04.120 ⇒ 00:10:08.129 Amber Lin: coordinator to help with projects, right?
41 00:10:08.130 ⇒ 00:10:08.670 Usama Riaz: G.
42 00:10:08.810 ⇒ 00:10:14.630 Amber Lin: There wasn’t a lot… there’s not much onboarding in place, and there’s…
43 00:10:14.850 ⇒ 00:10:20.700 Amber Lin: we don’t really have time to wait for someone to take 3 months to ramp up.
44 00:10:20.990 ⇒ 00:10:31.810 Amber Lin: We are expected… new members who join are expected to take on tasks from day one. So I was wondering if you are comfortable with that type of environment.
45 00:10:32.350 ⇒ 00:10:35.740 Usama Riaz: Yes, I already told you that if…
46 00:10:35.930 ⇒ 00:10:45.649 Usama Riaz: I get an opportunity, any offer from your company, so… I just need maximum 7 days, and if you want me, you can say, …
47 00:10:46.090 ⇒ 00:10:52.540 Usama Riaz: Right after the next day, when I received the offer, so I can… I can join, no problem.
48 00:10:52.990 ⇒ 00:10:54.380 Usama Riaz: I can do that as well.
49 00:10:54.830 ⇒ 00:10:55.600 Amber Lin: I see.
50 00:10:56.320 ⇒ 00:11:06.870 Usama Riaz: Because obviously, here in, Abacus, I’m working in the morning, so this job requires the Eastern Time on my availability, so I can manage.
51 00:11:07.090 ⇒ 00:11:10.839 Usama Riaz: For 7 days, so it’s… that would be not… An issue for me.
52 00:11:11.420 ⇒ 00:11:26.529 Amber Lin: Gotcha. Can you tell me about a time where you were asked to, go on a project midstream? So the project is already happening, and you were asked to join in the project. What would you do?
53 00:11:27.440 ⇒ 00:11:41.310 Usama Riaz: First of all, I’ll, you can say, align with the client, with the stakeholder or any technical team, and, very first, I’ll try to understand if there are any project-related documentation, like scope of work.
54 00:11:41.310 ⇒ 00:11:50.509 Usama Riaz: Any prerequisite table, anything related to project document, which you can say… which will give me some understanding what is happening, what is, going on.
55 00:11:50.680 ⇒ 00:12:10.600 Usama Riaz: So, that’s the thing, and after that, I’ll discuss internally with the technical team, and the third step will be to, you can say, interact with the client to understand how much, you can say, development we have done, what is the current progress, and what, are there, you can say, remaining
56 00:12:10.880 ⇒ 00:12:13.240 Usama Riaz: Progress or ending work.
57 00:12:15.090 ⇒ 00:12:23.650 Amber Lin: Okay, so I see at this step, you’ve understood the project. What are you exactly doing for the project?
58 00:12:24.950 ⇒ 00:12:44.940 Usama Riaz: As a project manager, I will be managing the technical team, I will be taking care of the project-related documentation, I will be aligning internal or external stakeholder, I will be taking care of the project weekly status report, I will be taking care of, you can say, sprint review meetings, I will be managing boards, everything, so everything comes…
59 00:12:44.950 ⇒ 00:12:52.819 Usama Riaz: into, you can say, my job responsibility as a project manager. So there are a lot of things which I will, you can say, have to cater.
60 00:12:52.930 ⇒ 00:12:55.470 Usama Riaz: If the project is already…
61 00:12:55.710 ⇒ 00:12:58.269 Usama Riaz: You can save going on.
62 00:12:59.580 ⇒ 00:13:01.959 Amber Lin: Okay, I see.
63 00:13:02.120 ⇒ 00:13:04.679 Amber Lin: Can I answer any of your questions?
64 00:13:05.460 ⇒ 00:13:09.759 Usama Riaz: No, I don’t have such questions. I’m just, …
65 00:13:09.910 ⇒ 00:13:12.150 Usama Riaz: Waiting for, you can say, if…
66 00:13:12.380 ⇒ 00:13:24.989 Usama Riaz: someone is expecting to join, like Utam, so… because almost… it’s been 3 weeks that we started the conversation, and I was just curious regarding my job.
67 00:13:25.310 ⇒ 00:13:29.920 Usama Riaz: application, status, so… So, yes…
68 00:13:30.260 ⇒ 00:13:37.790 Usama Riaz: I will be happy if I’ll get any, you can say, opportunity, any news from your side, or any feedback, so….
69 00:13:38.370 ⇒ 00:13:47.649 Amber Lin: Okay, I hear you. I don’t think Uten will be join… will be able to join today. I can check with him if he can find a time with you this week, but it does.
70 00:13:47.650 ⇒ 00:13:48.030 Usama Riaz: It depends.
71 00:13:48.030 ⇒ 00:13:52.689 Amber Lin: on his schedule, because he has a lot of calls already booked.
72 00:13:52.690 ⇒ 00:13:57.210 Usama Riaz: Why don’t we ask from his first, and then we can schedule any…
73 00:13:57.500 ⇒ 00:14:10.919 Usama Riaz: any time as per his convenience or availability. Because right now, I’m scheduling on my, you can say, on convenience, so I think we have to consult with him first, ask for his availability, then, …
74 00:14:11.260 ⇒ 00:14:14.060 Usama Riaz: You can say that will be more proactive.
75 00:14:14.420 ⇒ 00:14:15.330 Usama Riaz: Approach. Oh yeah.
76 00:14:15.330 ⇒ 00:14:20.389 Amber Lin: Get him on the call. That was what I was… that was… that was what I was gonna do.
77 00:14:20.770 ⇒ 00:14:21.610 Usama Riaz: Sure.
78 00:14:22.810 ⇒ 00:14:34.250 Amber Lin: Okay, I originally had around 10 to 15 minutes to see if you had any questions, but if you don’t have any questions, I can end early, and then I can check with Utam if you would like to talk.
79 00:14:35.340 ⇒ 00:14:39.929 Usama Riaz: I… I just have a question, for example, ….
80 00:14:40.580 ⇒ 00:14:51.950 Usama Riaz: Yes, I have a question you can say. For example, I have a… I’ve seen some of your services, brain fog services, on your LinkedIn profile and on your company’s website.
81 00:14:52.050 ⇒ 00:15:15.849 Usama Riaz: content’s LinkedIn profile. So, Brain Fork is providing services related to data analytics, data architecture, data reporting, AI, automation, etc. So, what industry you can say Brain Fork is targeting? Like, your target audience, or your target market is US-based, or you are providing services, you can say, out of station, including Europe, or any GC
82 00:15:15.850 ⇒ 00:15:16.810 Usama Riaz: be region.
83 00:15:16.970 ⇒ 00:15:18.109 Usama Riaz: Or, ….
84 00:15:18.880 ⇒ 00:15:35.249 Amber Lin: I see. We have a horizontal positioning, so when we talk… when you talk about a specific industry, you mean hair care, e-commerce, those are verticals. We’re a… we have a horizontal positioning, so we focus on a function. The function is data, and.
85 00:15:35.250 ⇒ 00:15:35.950 Usama Riaz: Hmm.
86 00:15:35.950 ⇒ 00:15:41.640 Amber Lin: each industry have different types of data, but the services they need is the same. We need to
87 00:15:42.380 ⇒ 00:15:54.089 Amber Lin: courses, give it structure, and then take insights out of that data. And we specialize in this horizontal field, so it doesn’t really matter what industry it is. The services we do are the same.
88 00:15:54.310 ⇒ 00:16:09.160 Usama Riaz: Okay, so what core technology we are, you can say, leveraging? For example, we are, providing services on Microsoft or Azure-related technologies, or, we are providing services on, GCP, Google Cloud, or Amazon Web Service.
89 00:16:09.740 ⇒ 00:16:21.569 Amber Lin: We have people for all of these, just different tools, and hence why I think the PM’s role does get part, and hence why I asked if you can…
90 00:16:21.570 ⇒ 00:16:32.780 Amber Lin: start, learning or just taking on tasks really fast, because that’s the requirement, because there’s just so many things going on. We don’t have a standardized tool that we use. Depends on what’s best for.
91 00:16:32.780 ⇒ 00:16:38.759 Usama Riaz: Don’t worry. Don’t worry, I will… I’ll do my best. I will… as per my previous experience, you can say I can provide
92 00:16:38.810 ⇒ 00:16:48.180 Usama Riaz: You can say, I know what sort of food services, at what kind of value I can add into your company’s, we can say culture and the organization.
93 00:16:48.180 ⇒ 00:17:06.289 Usama Riaz: Because, for example, let me tell you one thing, as a project manager, if I’ll join, so, obviously, I’ll, prefer to follow Agile methodology, and specifically Scrum Framework, in which we do daily stand-up calls internally with our technical teams to see what we have done yesterday, what we are planning for today.
94 00:17:06.290 ⇒ 00:17:14.750 Usama Riaz: If there is any escalation or limitation which needs to, reports to any, you can say, client-side or internal stakeholders, that’s a thing.
95 00:17:14.750 ⇒ 00:17:33.529 Usama Riaz: I used to make a weekly progress, project progress report, in which we see, for example, how many billable hours we have, how many we have utilized, how many remaining, what percentage of work we have completed, what accomplishments we have done last week, if there is any blocker, bottleneck, or any… anything.
96 00:17:33.560 ⇒ 00:17:37.170 Usama Riaz: So, this is a practice, and … on…
97 00:17:37.410 ⇒ 00:17:42.570 Usama Riaz: PM tool, if I talk about, so, in some companies, I was using Jira.
98 00:17:42.990 ⇒ 00:17:49.020 Usama Riaz: To manage, you can say their task, their, ticketing service, sorry, ticket.
99 00:17:49.500 ⇒ 00:18:01.329 Usama Riaz: And in some companies, I was using Azure DevOps. In some companies, I have got a chance to use Trello as well. So this is the practice I was used to follow in my past experiences.
100 00:18:01.500 ⇒ 00:18:12.219 Usama Riaz: And, yes, let me tell you one thing. Since 2017 to 2019, I was working as a Microsoft Dynamics techno-functional consultant. I was doing development, kind of, say you can say.
101 00:18:12.290 ⇒ 00:18:26.700 Usama Riaz: integration, customization. So, as a technical project manager, it always helps me to understand the client’s requirement. What is he looking exactly? What is the scope?
102 00:18:26.700 ⇒ 00:18:40.449 Usama Riaz: And, for example, if I’m having discussion with the technical team internally, for example, this is a project, how much time it will take to complete, how much sprints we need to divide it. So, it helps me to, you can say, in the project planning phrase.
103 00:18:41.150 ⇒ 00:18:43.999 Usama Riaz: So, there are a lot of things I can talk about, so…
104 00:18:44.080 ⇒ 00:19:01.550 Usama Riaz: I think, obviously, you’re not a technical person, so, if, we have any other, you can say, concerned person related to these queries, like Utram or anyone else from your organization, so that would be great. Otherwise, with you, I think I can ask,
105 00:19:01.670 ⇒ 00:19:14.059 Usama Riaz: onboarding-related question, salary-related question, and what I need to say? You can put your question into my mind, so I can ask in this call.
106 00:19:17.220 ⇒ 00:19:25.699 Amber Lin: I think we talked about onboarding in our last call. I’m not responsible for the salary for this position, I don’t… I don’t handle….
107 00:19:25.700 ⇒ 00:19:27.050 Usama Riaz: Yes, yes, exactly.
108 00:19:28.180 ⇒ 00:19:43.369 Usama Riaz: I just want to ask that, is there any… yes, because I already asked in our last interview that, is there any bracket or any budget for this position? So you said we have a lot of projects, so there’s an often budget, so I need to negotiate with, or you can say…
109 00:19:43.810 ⇒ 00:19:48.030 Usama Riaz: having discussion with the, Utam, if I’m not wrong.
110 00:19:48.490 ⇒ 00:19:52.880 Usama Riaz: So yes, let’s keep this question for our next session.
111 00:19:53.150 ⇒ 00:19:58.910 Usama Riaz: And, the last thing, okay, I’ll be, you can say, …
112 00:19:59.660 ⇒ 00:20:14.369 Usama Riaz: … what do I need to say? I will be cooperative in your onboarding process. If you need me, from, for example, from this Monday, so I will be available. Obviously, I’ll put resign to my organization abacus, so it will take
113 00:20:14.570 ⇒ 00:20:24.070 Usama Riaz: 7 days, so… for 7 days, I will manage, because obviously I’m working in the morning time, so this job, requires my availability in the….
114 00:20:24.070 ⇒ 00:20:26.070 Amber Lin: Night time, so….
115 00:20:26.070 ⇒ 00:20:31.260 Usama Riaz: Yeah, thank you for telling me. This is what I can manage, it’s not a problem, for 70s.
116 00:20:31.720 ⇒ 00:20:32.530 Amber Lin: Alright.
117 00:20:34.570 ⇒ 00:20:40.200 Usama Riaz: And, … Yes, anything else you want me to explain?
118 00:20:40.200 ⇒ 00:20:47.980 Amber Lin: from our side, I think… I think at this point, what you need is… we need to confirm that Rutan wants to talk to you.
119 00:20:48.170 ⇒ 00:20:53.419 Amber Lin: And if so, I’ll get that booked for you guys, and then… That would be….
120 00:20:53.420 ⇒ 00:20:59.009 Usama Riaz: great if you can, if you can schedule this, the next session by yourself, so I will be available. I’ll manage.
121 00:20:59.940 ⇒ 00:21:02.260 Usama Riaz: Instead of… I will be scheduling.
122 00:21:02.430 ⇒ 00:21:08.549 Usama Riaz: As per my understanding or my availability, so that would be great if you can… if you can schedule by yourself.
123 00:21:09.240 ⇒ 00:21:09.980 Usama Riaz: So….
124 00:21:10.530 ⇒ 00:21:14.639 Amber Lin: I will need to ask Uta. I don’t handle logistics in this company.
125 00:21:16.320 ⇒ 00:21:20.009 Usama Riaz: Okay, no, it’s not about logistics, it’s just about his availability.
126 00:21:21.590 ⇒ 00:21:25.490 Amber Lin: Okay, we have the operations person that will assist you in the process.
127 00:21:26.440 ⇒ 00:21:27.220 Usama Riaz: Sure.
128 00:21:28.170 ⇒ 00:21:28.890 Usama Riaz: Sure.
129 00:21:29.460 ⇒ 00:21:30.170 Amber Lin: Alright.
130 00:21:30.450 ⇒ 00:21:39.589 Usama Riaz: All right, thank you, Amber. Thanks so much for your time. See you in the next session. I’m just waiting and quite interested, and you can say, excited for this opportunity.
131 00:21:40.340 ⇒ 00:21:41.980 Amber Lin: Okay, I appreciate you.
132 00:21:42.190 ⇒ 00:21:44.230 Usama Riaz: Thank you. Thank you, Amber. Have a good day.