Meeting Title: AI Team Retro Date: 2025-08-22 Meeting participants: Samuel Roberts, Casie Aviles, Mustafa Raja, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:07.930 ⇒ 00:00:08.890 Samuel Roberts: Hey!
2 00:00:40.980 ⇒ 00:00:42.139 Samuel Roberts: Can you hear me alright?
3 00:00:45.170 ⇒ 00:00:46.589 Casie Aviles: Oh, I hear you now.
4 00:00:47.000 ⇒ 00:00:51.240 Samuel Roberts: Okay, cool. Sorry, I… I had some issues with my headphones this morning, so I was just making sure.
5 00:00:53.310 ⇒ 00:00:54.670 Samuel Roberts: How you doing today?
6 00:00:56.440 ⇒ 00:01:03.019 Casie Aviles: Yeah, I’m doing fine. I just had a one-day rest yesterday.
7 00:01:03.020 ⇒ 00:01:03.810 Samuel Roberts: Yeah.
8 00:01:04.220 ⇒ 00:01:06.920 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, it’s important.
9 00:01:06.920 ⇒ 00:01:07.710 Casie Aviles: Yeah.
10 00:01:07.990 ⇒ 00:01:09.129 Samuel Roberts: Something, at least, yeah.
11 00:01:11.280 ⇒ 00:01:12.220 Casie Aviles: How about you?
12 00:01:13.400 ⇒ 00:01:15.179 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, doing alright.
13 00:01:15.440 ⇒ 00:01:17.489 Samuel Roberts: Been a little busy, I’m here, I talk.
14 00:01:18.260 ⇒ 00:01:21.839 Samuel Roberts: I’m in Boston, Massachusetts right now, my parents’ house.
15 00:01:21.840 ⇒ 00:01:22.730 Casie Aviles: Oh.
16 00:01:22.730 ⇒ 00:01:28.089 Samuel Roberts: And we’re showing off the new baby and everything, so… gonna be a… it’s been a busy week.
17 00:01:28.950 ⇒ 00:01:30.989 Casie Aviles: Nice, congrats, …
18 00:01:31.150 ⇒ 00:01:37.670 Casie Aviles: So, you’re not originally… so, where do you stay if you’re not from… if you’re going at Boston, if you’re visiting Boston.
19 00:01:38.150 ⇒ 00:01:39.659 Samuel Roberts: I’m at my parents’ house.
20 00:01:40.940 ⇒ 00:01:42.150 Casie Aviles: Oh, okay.
21 00:01:42.210 ⇒ 00:01:44.350 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, but I live in… I live in Cleveland.
22 00:01:45.050 ⇒ 00:01:45.990 Samuel Roberts: Normally.
23 00:01:47.670 ⇒ 00:01:50.999 Casie Aviles: Yeah, same. I’m also at my parents’ house right now.
24 00:01:51.360 ⇒ 00:01:52.549 Samuel Roberts: Oh, nice, okay.
25 00:01:53.110 ⇒ 00:01:56.509 Casie Aviles: I used to live alone before, …
26 00:01:56.960 ⇒ 00:02:01.770 Casie Aviles: In, like, in our capital, in the Philippines, but… Oh, sure, yeah.
27 00:02:02.180 ⇒ 00:02:06.620 Casie Aviles: But yeah, I’m originally from the province, and so I went back here.
28 00:02:07.380 ⇒ 00:02:08.289 Samuel Roberts: Oh, okay.
29 00:02:09.690 ⇒ 00:02:17.719 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I don’t know the Philippines that well, but I, I, my, … I spent a couple years in,
30 00:02:18.060 ⇒ 00:02:24.620 Samuel Roberts: London, and my wife was a nurse there, and she worked with a lot of nurses that were from the Philippines, actually.
31 00:02:24.620 ⇒ 00:02:28.749 Casie Aviles: Yeah, we have a lot of nurses as export.
32 00:02:28.750 ⇒ 00:02:32.439 Samuel Roberts: Exactly, so, like, she’s very much hoping that we get to visit someday, because…
33 00:02:32.760 ⇒ 00:02:37.940 Samuel Roberts: He knows a lot of people now that, like, he wants to, like, that want to show us around and everything, so…
34 00:02:39.200 ⇒ 00:02:40.840 Samuel Roberts: I’m hoping someday to get there.
35 00:02:41.550 ⇒ 00:02:43.439 Casie Aviles: Yeah, that would be cool.
36 00:02:45.670 ⇒ 00:02:47.000 Casie Aviles: Hey, Mustafa.
37 00:02:47.300 ⇒ 00:02:47.930 Samuel Roberts: Yay.
38 00:02:49.190 ⇒ 00:02:50.229 Mustafa Raja: Hey, how are you?
39 00:02:52.020 ⇒ 00:02:52.780 Samuel Roberts: We did.
40 00:02:55.360 ⇒ 00:02:56.560 Samuel Roberts: How are you doing today?
41 00:02:57.360 ⇒ 00:02:58.490 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, doing good.
42 00:03:02.380 ⇒ 00:03:09.590 Samuel Roberts: Alright, I don’t know… We should wait if Utam’s joining, or if he is.
43 00:03:11.520 ⇒ 00:03:17.580 Samuel Roberts: Something else this morning. Just give it another minute or two. Oh, there we go, look at that, as I’m seeing it.
44 00:03:21.950 ⇒ 00:03:23.410 Samuel Roberts: Good morning, you doing?
45 00:03:24.990 ⇒ 00:03:25.899 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, guys.
46 00:03:27.520 ⇒ 00:03:28.319 Samuel Roberts: How’s it going?
47 00:03:29.410 ⇒ 00:03:31.299 Uttam Kumaran: Good! How’s everything?
48 00:03:32.520 ⇒ 00:03:35.990 Samuel Roberts: Pretty good, pretty good, been… Been an interesting job here.
49 00:03:36.120 ⇒ 00:03:45.559 Samuel Roberts: I’m in Boston, right now, yeah, so we’re still here. We’ve been showing the baby off a lot. Family been coming by and stuff, so….
50 00:03:45.560 ⇒ 00:03:53.410 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I was gonna ask you, you didn’t send any pictures, and you thought I wasn’t… You thought I wasn’t gonna hold you… You thought I wasn’t gonna hold you accountable.
51 00:03:53.410 ⇒ 00:03:58.610 Samuel Roberts: Here’s the problem, I was… I kind of was just like, oh, I’ll get to it, and then, you know… I know.
52 00:03:58.610 ⇒ 00:04:00.740 Uttam Kumaran: That’s what everybody says.
53 00:04:00.740 ⇒ 00:04:07.390 Samuel Roberts: You’re not the only one asking, like, we have family that are like, why aren’t we seeing more pictures and stuff? And I’m like, my wife and I are just bad.
54 00:04:07.390 ⇒ 00:04:10.549 Uttam Kumaran: I know, I know, I know, I’m just… I’m just teasing.
55 00:04:10.860 ⇒ 00:04:12.970 Samuel Roberts: No, I definitely wrote today, because I’ve been meaning to.
56 00:04:13.440 ⇒ 00:04:15.890 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m just teasing, so….
57 00:04:15.890 ⇒ 00:04:18.370 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, dude, good. I mean, he’s adorable, I want to show him off, but….
58 00:04:18.370 ⇒ 00:04:20.730 Uttam Kumaran: What’s his name?
59 00:04:21.329 ⇒ 00:04:22.829 Samuel Roberts: His name is Brennan.
60 00:04:23.270 ⇒ 00:04:24.910 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, wow, amazing.
61 00:04:25.110 ⇒ 00:04:27.740 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, no, it’s… he’s a cutie, so…
62 00:04:29.690 ⇒ 00:04:34.300 Samuel Roberts: But yeah, it’s been… it’s been a busy week, and then next week… so tomorrow we head to…
63 00:04:35.210 ⇒ 00:04:40.079 Samuel Roberts: Pennsylvania. My parents got a place for, like, the week, so I’ll be working from there.
64 00:04:41.010 ⇒ 00:04:42.189 Uttam Kumaran: They’re in PA.
65 00:04:42.810 ⇒ 00:04:46.029 Samuel Roberts: In, like, the Poconos area? Oh, love that.
66 00:04:46.030 ⇒ 00:04:47.270 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s great.
67 00:04:47.270 ⇒ 00:04:49.080 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, it’s like…
68 00:04:49.470 ⇒ 00:04:54.299 Samuel Roberts: Hopefully it’ll just be, like, a nice, relaxing week, and, you know, my parents can chill with the baby.
69 00:04:54.570 ⇒ 00:04:57.769 Samuel Roberts: You know, maybe a hike or two here or there, but….
70 00:04:57.770 ⇒ 00:04:58.560 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
71 00:04:59.320 ⇒ 00:05:04.540 Samuel Roberts: I’ll be… I’ll be online at least a bit. I don’t know exactly how it’s all gonna work out yet, but I will make it work.
72 00:05:04.540 ⇒ 00:05:05.690 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, cool, cool.
73 00:05:07.440 ⇒ 00:05:12.320 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, maybe we can go around the horn. Maybe I’ll share a couple of, like, my thoughts for…
74 00:05:12.630 ⇒ 00:05:21.109 Uttam Kumaran: For this week, so… I mean, I think it’s still been pretty busy on the interlude and, …
75 00:05:21.230 ⇒ 00:05:36.429 Uttam Kumaran: default side, we got a kind of a big approval from default yesterday, so I think prob… probably, like, I’ll share a couple of thoughts on, like, how we can keep projects moving, because my time is just getting busier, but yeah, I feel… I feel pretty good about
76 00:05:36.430 ⇒ 00:05:42.259 Uttam Kumaran: default, for Interlude, yeah, I mean, we’re coming up on the end of the contract, so…
77 00:05:42.310 ⇒ 00:06:01.559 Uttam Kumaran: today, I just want to confirm, like, I mean, I’ve been the one that’s been blocking, kind of, several next steps, but I want to make sure that I can help bust through that, and then, the Slack agent is working, and the Notion agent is working. I want to train their team on, sort of,
78 00:06:01.840 ⇒ 00:06:07.830 Uttam Kumaran: how to make tweaks and how to use this, so that’s a session we’ll do next week. …
79 00:06:07.980 ⇒ 00:06:23.200 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m excited for that as well, and… and we’ll see. I’m gonna kind of talk to Matt and see, like, okay, what is… what other opportunities are there for us to, you know, help stream? I think the only thing that we didn’t get to for this client is, like, data.
80 00:06:23.340 ⇒ 00:06:35.559 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I think we did off a lot, and I know it was not easy to get everything done, but we didn’t end up putting together, like, a dashboard, like a usage dashboard.
81 00:06:36.010 ⇒ 00:06:39.170 Uttam Kumaran: You know, which is maybe something we can still consider doing.
82 00:06:39.190 ⇒ 00:06:40.290 Samuel Roberts: ….
83 00:06:40.590 ⇒ 00:06:44.720 Uttam Kumaran: But I would love to try to get in front of people
84 00:06:44.890 ⇒ 00:06:54.439 Uttam Kumaran: data as much as possible on, like, the eval, but also on usage of each of the agents. So, something we can talk about and see maybe what we can cram in next week.
85 00:06:54.590 ⇒ 00:07:00.439 Uttam Kumaran: On ABC, I also think we had a great meeting this week where I kind of got Casey out of
86 00:07:00.560 ⇒ 00:07:16.180 Uttam Kumaran: hopefully some time every day, like, triaging things. I think the biggest thing to note for everybody, is that noise and, like, urgency are often, not good indicators of importance.
87 00:07:16.340 ⇒ 00:07:26.319 Uttam Kumaran: Like, one is Slack, is really, really… there’s no indication of priority, so if you get Slack to do something.
88 00:07:27.060 ⇒ 00:07:35.290 Uttam Kumaran: often I will encourage you to just qualify its importance among your other list of tasks, even if it’s coming from me.
89 00:07:35.290 ⇒ 00:07:35.740 Samuel Roberts: down.
90 00:07:35.740 ⇒ 00:07:38.660 Uttam Kumaran: Slack is just where conversations are gonna happen.
91 00:07:38.800 ⇒ 00:07:40.520 Uttam Kumaran: But, …
92 00:07:40.770 ⇒ 00:07:50.579 Uttam Kumaran: You know, you’re never gonna get deeper work done unless you probably log out for, like, an hour or two here and there, and do sort of extended sessions.
93 00:07:50.830 ⇒ 00:07:54.160 Uttam Kumaran: Off of that, or you just mute more vigorously?
94 00:07:54.290 ⇒ 00:07:59.490 Uttam Kumaran: So that would be my suggestion there. And then, yeah, on the ABC thing, you know, I’m…
95 00:07:59.600 ⇒ 00:08:03.789 Uttam Kumaran: although I’m happy, I think, like, one thing I just want to inform everybody is that
96 00:08:03.830 ⇒ 00:08:22.649 Uttam Kumaran: like, we just have to be very mindful of getting sucked into, like, into client work where it’s not the most important at the moment. Like, spending 2 hours on ABC every week, when I heard that, I was like, this cannot happen, right? That’s way too much… every day, that’s way too much time.
97 00:08:22.700 ⇒ 00:08:34.529 Uttam Kumaran: And so those are things that I want to kind of, like, indicate that we should guard against, you know, so we can get deeper work done, right? Like, our productivity and our time is really, really valuable for this group.
98 00:08:34.659 ⇒ 00:08:40.069 Uttam Kumaran: like, this is one of the more higher leveraged groups, and so I want to make sure you guys are, like, really protecting your time as well.
99 00:08:40.220 ⇒ 00:08:46.300 Uttam Kumaran: And you’re able to, like, crush things out end-to-end. And that’s probably my… my last point is…
100 00:08:46.710 ⇒ 00:08:49.230 Uttam Kumaran: I think probably the only feedback I have
101 00:08:49.380 ⇒ 00:09:02.029 Uttam Kumaran: for you, Mustafa, is just keep going. Like, I think… I think you’re… you’re gonna be blocked by me a lot for approvals on things, when most of the time, your stuff is working.
102 00:09:02.170 ⇒ 00:09:08.499 Uttam Kumaran: So, my suggestion is… One, if it’s working pretty well, ship it.
103 00:09:08.620 ⇒ 00:09:18.210 Uttam Kumaran: Second is communicate directly with the client. You’ll really shortcut me, and I’m the worst person on the team right now in terms of communication.
104 00:09:18.320 ⇒ 00:09:22.459 Uttam Kumaran: You know, I will say I’ll do something, and I’m… it’s just not gonna happen.
105 00:09:22.500 ⇒ 00:09:34.850 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t know what to do about that right now, but what I would encourage, and, you know, I think, Casey, you’ve gotten a lot better at this, and so Mustafa, I think I would like to see you kind of continue in this direction.
106 00:09:34.850 ⇒ 00:09:42.890 Uttam Kumaran: is ship things. If you think they’re pretty much there, and you can get a loom out, and SAM approves, or anyone.
107 00:09:43.160 ⇒ 00:09:59.550 Uttam Kumaran: chip it. Second thing is go direct to the client. Like, I wish we were actually testing out the interlude stuff in that channel with them, right? So don’t be afraid to put stuff in front of the client, even if it’s not 100% there. You know, you’re gonna watch me sort of gracefully
108 00:09:59.660 ⇒ 00:10:07.869 Uttam Kumaran: handle those things. Like, in the default meeting, right, like, we weren’t perfect on the agent, but they still loved it, right? But that’s just communication.
109 00:10:08.230 ⇒ 00:10:08.610 Mustafa Raja: Yep.
110 00:10:08.610 ⇒ 00:10:22.290 Uttam Kumaran: So, I would encourage you to just, like, push yourself there, don’t be afraid. Like, this is a very, like, no-fail environment. The stuff we’re doing is really, really impressive, and we just need to show off.
111 00:10:22.450 ⇒ 00:10:40.019 Uttam Kumaran: The one thing… the one thing we will… we have in the past, and we will continue to… to battle in this company, is we have a lot of perfectionists. And so, we are very afraid to put stuff half-baked, but also, if a client doesn’t hear from us for a few days, that is not a good experience.
112 00:10:40.090 ⇒ 00:10:49.439 Uttam Kumaran: So you have to maintain both of those things in your head, and understand that the client knows the least about what’s going on, and we need to be the most communicative there.
113 00:10:49.540 ⇒ 00:10:54.379 Uttam Kumaran: So, that’s probably my… Sort of words of wisdom this week.
114 00:10:55.690 ⇒ 00:11:05.279 Samuel Roberts: I like… I like those. I was gonna add, I think… I know, like, from the engineering side, like, especially when you’re, like, in the weeds with something, and it’s not working perfectly.
115 00:11:05.370 ⇒ 00:11:23.969 Samuel Roberts: like, even if you’re not a perfectionist, it is still like, oh, I didn’t quite get there, but showing something is often way better than, like you said, like, a couple days without the client hearing something can be way worse than, like, a work-in-progress demo to at least show something, because it is, he’s right, it is impressive stuff that we’re doing, and especially if they’re not, you know.
116 00:11:24.870 ⇒ 00:11:33.430 Samuel Roberts: the most technical people, it might just be like, oh, okay, they are making progress, and they are seeing something is big. Over-communicate is often better than under-communicating, so….
117 00:11:34.110 ⇒ 00:11:37.580 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and the other thing is, you know, I was having this conversation with Robert about, like.
118 00:11:37.670 ⇒ 00:11:54.950 Uttam Kumaran: you know, project management, and it’s just not gonna be an area where we’re gonna have a lot of support. Like, we wanna have engineers that can slightly project manage themselves, right? The worst thing we are is, like, what every consultancy is, where, like, everything is gate-kept.
119 00:11:54.950 ⇒ 00:12:10.570 Uttam Kumaran: through a project manager, and nothing ends up happening. And I want to really, really, really strive to avoid that. Right now, on interlude and Default, that’s who I am, right? But you’re seeing that I’m a huge roadblock, right? And, like, I’m like a D-level project manager right now.
120 00:12:10.570 ⇒ 00:12:16.460 Uttam Kumaran: And so, because I’m not communicating, the projects aren’t moving forward, and we have to short-circuit that.
121 00:12:16.580 ⇒ 00:12:33.689 Uttam Kumaran: So you’re probably gonna see me be a little bit… now that I’ve said it out loud, you’re gonna see me be a little bit more aggressive on that, and saying, like, go direct. Like, I may not have time to review this, but you know the requirements. Meet with the client, go ask them for feedback, send them the loom.
122 00:12:33.690 ⇒ 00:12:45.389 Uttam Kumaran: like, just push it forward. We are not going to scale our project management office like a typical consultancy, where we’re gonna have, like, dedicated PMs for every project, like.
123 00:12:45.850 ⇒ 00:12:58.360 Uttam Kumaran: Meaning, like, we’re gonna have 10 PMs, and every project has a single person. People are gonna be split, and their job is gonna be to catch balls that are falling, but also go work on the most complex stuff.
124 00:12:58.380 ⇒ 00:13:11.639 Uttam Kumaran: So we’re… one requirement of the engineers, and I think this is something that is not common in consulting and not common in industry, is that I’m… I want people to project manage themselves. Like, I don’t want our work to be gatekept by
125 00:13:11.640 ⇒ 00:13:18.590 Uttam Kumaran: project management. And you’ll see that, like, in traditional industry and in traditional consulting.
126 00:13:18.590 ⇒ 00:13:32.690 Uttam Kumaran: that is, like, always the case. Like, a project manager just, like, holds the baton and makes sure that stuff doesn’t get through without them. That cannot happen here. It’s gonna affect our margin, it’s gonna affect our velocity to have another person, so…
127 00:13:33.040 ⇒ 00:13:41.350 Uttam Kumaran: That’s what I would probably want to just convey, is that, like, you have the green light to do it. I would rather you ship it and it be wrong than not ship it all.
128 00:13:41.640 ⇒ 00:13:47.459 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. That is the biggest, you know, … Issue we would have, so….
129 00:13:50.580 ⇒ 00:13:51.610 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I…
130 00:13:52.150 ⇒ 00:14:01.579 Samuel Roberts: I 100% agree, having been, like, a startup person for so long, and then, like, talking to friends that are, like, more in, like, established industry and established companies, I’m always amazed at how, like.
131 00:14:01.770 ⇒ 00:14:13.650 Samuel Roberts: out-of-the-loop engineers are sometimes on, like, product things or, you know, things that are, like, a technical decision or something that get made levels above, and, like, the people that have to implement it aren’t there, and I’m always an advocate for, like.
132 00:14:13.840 ⇒ 00:14:15.510 Samuel Roberts: Getting the technical people.
133 00:14:15.610 ⇒ 00:14:18.010 Samuel Roberts: In those conversations. And, and, you know.
134 00:14:18.390 ⇒ 00:14:20.560 Samuel Roberts: I think in a place like this, it’s gonna be a lot.
135 00:14:21.240 ⇒ 00:14:28.510 Samuel Roberts: not… I don’t want to say easier to do that, but, like, there’s just… if you don’t have those layers already established, like, why establish them? Like, if we can…
136 00:14:28.700 ⇒ 00:14:29.250 Samuel Roberts: the community.
137 00:14:29.250 ⇒ 00:14:45.419 Uttam Kumaran: Corporate, yeah, corporate, like, corporate organization, it’s really natural to, like, add people and add bureaucracy, and I’m constantly fighting against that. Like, our team needs to be majority builders, not
138 00:14:45.750 ⇒ 00:15:02.469 Uttam Kumaran: managers, right? And as you can see, a lot of the managers are also still working and building stuff, so we’re not gonna be a team of, like, people that are pencil-pushing tickets. There’s… the most complicated stuff is gonna have, you know, PMs on it, but
139 00:15:02.640 ⇒ 00:15:14.469 Uttam Kumaran: I really think that a lot of projects, we won’t need it as long as people are really high agency, so… Yeah, I’m curious, like, Masafa or Casey, if you guys have, like, thoughts on that, and hearing that, and…
140 00:15:14.630 ⇒ 00:15:15.570 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
141 00:15:18.410 ⇒ 00:15:22.200 Casie Aviles: You know, I think that just, reaffirms… …
142 00:15:22.390 ⇒ 00:15:27.740 Casie Aviles: stuff that I’ve also been… how I’m thinking of approaching the work that I do, so…
143 00:15:28.140 ⇒ 00:15:33.100 Casie Aviles: Yeah, I understand, like, sometimes I also… Asked for approval, and…
144 00:15:33.710 ⇒ 00:15:36.819 Casie Aviles: Or reviewed, and it’s not necessarily…
145 00:15:37.460 ⇒ 00:15:42.119 Casie Aviles: It’s also… it’s gonna get blocked there, even though I have something working, so…
146 00:15:42.790 ⇒ 00:15:50.389 Casie Aviles: Yeah, I do try… when I think, okay, at least I have something minimum, I always strive to go for
147 00:15:50.620 ⇒ 00:15:54.940 Casie Aviles: Like, the minimum viable product, like, something working, even if it’s not, like…
148 00:15:55.980 ⇒ 00:15:59.310 Casie Aviles: You know, but yeah, that just…
149 00:15:59.830 ⇒ 00:16:03.730 Casie Aviles: It’s a good reminder also for me to… …
150 00:16:04.110 ⇒ 00:16:06.060 Casie Aviles: You know, the dish ship stuff.
151 00:16:07.390 ⇒ 00:16:10.379 Casie Aviles: And not get blocked by bureaucracy and stuff like that.
152 00:16:10.950 ⇒ 00:16:11.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
153 00:16:12.990 ⇒ 00:16:18.210 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, I have, I have, pretty similar thoughts, on this.
154 00:16:18.460 ⇒ 00:16:28.709 Mustafa Raja: Definitely, we can communicate directly with the client, on the progress that we’ve had so far, and get a review from them.
155 00:16:29.250 ⇒ 00:16:31.800 Mustafa Raja: Get the communication going.
156 00:16:33.900 ⇒ 00:16:44.690 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Yeah, so I think what I’m hopeful for is that this next coming week, in stand-ups, if there are things waiting for review or blocked, the answer
157 00:16:44.880 ⇒ 00:16:49.240 Uttam Kumaran: from someone on this team, or from Sam, or from me, or from yourself, should be…
158 00:16:49.400 ⇒ 00:16:58.209 Uttam Kumaran: … just go for it, you know? But also, go for it and do it in front of the client. Send the email, send the Slack, send the whatever.
159 00:16:58.330 ⇒ 00:17:02.239 Uttam Kumaran: You’ll see project management is gonna get a lot better over time.
160 00:17:02.460 ⇒ 00:17:12.969 Uttam Kumaran: But right now, it’s a huge blocker for us, because we’re shipping great work, and it’s not getting in front of folks, and it’s a shame. So I kind of want to, like… and, you know, I’m…
161 00:17:13.069 ⇒ 00:17:32.280 Uttam Kumaran: you guys see I’m up working late, it’s just… there’s no time, so I want to make sure that I’m not the blocker for you guys. Like, this, you know, there are… there are other teams in the company that aren’t able to, sort of, do that because their quality of work isn’t always so high. This team, the quality of work is really high, so…
162 00:17:32.280 ⇒ 00:17:43.419 Uttam Kumaran: I completely trust that we should just get stuff out there. We can always come back and fix it. None of the things that we’re working on, or the incremental changes we’re making are ever, like.
163 00:17:43.470 ⇒ 00:17:49.139 Uttam Kumaran: super, super, like, involve a huge migration or a ton of downtime, so I would just go for it.
164 00:17:53.260 ⇒ 00:17:53.780 Samuel Roberts: Yeah.
165 00:17:54.220 ⇒ 00:18:03.239 Samuel Roberts: And I think that’s good, that’s good advice, and I was, I think what Tom and I were talking, I want to start doing, like, maybe, like, a check-in with you guys one-on-one, maybe every other week or something, so if there’s, like.
166 00:18:03.290 ⇒ 00:18:14.399 Samuel Roberts: things you want to feel more comfortable with, or talking to clients, or doing other stuff like that, like, we can hash through some of that, but I will say, like, even just, you know, the little bit of stuff we’ve talked about, like, you guys have pretty good instinct when it comes to this stuff.
167 00:18:14.500 ⇒ 00:18:16.900 Samuel Roberts: Like Mustafa, we were talking yesterday, I think, about…
168 00:18:17.060 ⇒ 00:18:35.589 Samuel Roberts: interlude and, like, prioritizing a few things, and you, like, you knew exactly what was the priority, even if things weren’t listed in linear right. And so, like, I just want to say, like, you know, trust that, you guys are, you know, you know what you’re doing, and sometimes that, you know, perfectionism, or even just, like, getting in the weeds can get in the way of that, but…
169 00:18:36.520 ⇒ 00:18:41.189 Samuel Roberts: You know, it can also just be, like, yeah, siloed in your head, and you gotta get it out to people, so…
170 00:18:42.110 ⇒ 00:18:43.230 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, that’s all.
171 00:18:45.960 ⇒ 00:18:56.819 Samuel Roberts: I had another thought, and I don’t remember what it was now, so I apologize. Oh, I think, there… I don’t think I’m on some of the, like, client external channels.
172 00:18:56.820 ⇒ 00:18:57.260 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, no.
173 00:18:57.260 ⇒ 00:18:58.359 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, yeah.
174 00:18:58.650 ⇒ 00:19:04.240 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, go ahead. I can help, like, facilitate a little bit more that way if it’s, like, if you guys want, you know.
175 00:19:04.800 ⇒ 00:19:05.890 Samuel Roberts: A little bit of….
176 00:19:05.890 ⇒ 00:19:11.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, let’s… let’s do that. I’ll… let’s just add Sam wherever necessary, and then I’ll….
177 00:19:11.950 ⇒ 00:19:13.429 Samuel Roberts: Maybe in or something.
178 00:19:13.450 ⇒ 00:19:21.119 Mustafa Raja: Or do whatever, yeah. Sam isn’t on default, so if we can add Sam in default channels, that would be good.
179 00:19:21.540 ⇒ 00:19:27.390 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I’ll include him there, and then I’ll make a little brief intro, and then, similarly on Interlude.
180 00:19:27.390 ⇒ 00:19:28.500 Samuel Roberts: And then….
181 00:19:28.510 ⇒ 00:19:34.839 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I would be also great, Sam, if you can start coming to the ABC meetings,
182 00:19:35.060 ⇒ 00:19:42.500 Uttam Kumaran: you know, which is on Thursdays, you can start to see, sort of, like, how I’m presenting to the stakeholders, and probably end up even
183 00:19:42.550 ⇒ 00:20:02.510 Uttam Kumaran: taking over some of that. I usually just… I’m usually kind of a fly on the wall. Amber leads most of it, and then I just fill in, like, technically or strategy-wise. But it didn’t happen yesterday, but for example, yesterday, I wanted to share the stuff you worked on, so I’m actually gonna… I’m actually gonna probably take a screenshot of it and… and send it over to them and request some time.
184 00:20:02.560 ⇒ 00:20:09.139 Uttam Kumaran: With their head of customer service, just to share, like, features for Copilot Kit and things like that, so….
185 00:20:09.140 ⇒ 00:20:09.530 Samuel Roberts: Okay.
186 00:20:09.530 ⇒ 00:20:09.990 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
187 00:20:09.990 ⇒ 00:20:10.370 Samuel Roberts: Yeah.
188 00:20:10.370 ⇒ 00:20:10.850 Uttam Kumaran: Like, when….
189 00:20:10.850 ⇒ 00:20:13.639 Samuel Roberts: I have thoughts on that, too, that I could maybe brain dump at some point.
190 00:20:13.640 ⇒ 00:20:23.850 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly, yeah, like, wherever you can fill in, I think, where I am would be very, very helpful, because I can… I’m the ultimate, like, plan…
191 00:20:24.290 ⇒ 00:20:43.420 Uttam Kumaran: DEFG, you know, like, if anything slips, I’ll handle it, but I… plan A and Plan B need to be not me, because I, … I tend to be… it’s… Yeah, I’ll have to… at some point, I’ll have to, like, share with you all the amount of, …
192 00:20:43.820 ⇒ 00:20:48.799 Uttam Kumaran: context switching and the amount of threads that I have to deal with right now, it’s…
193 00:20:49.090 ⇒ 00:20:57.550 Uttam Kumaran: I’ve never been in this position to… and there’s so much happening, and it’s not all client work, and it’s….
194 00:20:58.100 ⇒ 00:21:07.590 Uttam Kumaran: Extremely challenging. Yeah, it’s a… it’s an engineering problem in its own. I’m not sure 100% how…
195 00:21:07.840 ⇒ 00:21:18.659 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, we are solving it through hiring, but I would rather, much rather solve it through AI, and like… but we’ll have to get to that point once we solve, like, the basics.
196 00:21:19.000 ⇒ 00:21:23.860 Samuel Roberts: Yeah. No, I’ve been… I’ve been in that position, like, when I… I mean, it’s a different company, but the hair care company.
197 00:21:23.860 ⇒ 00:21:24.430 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
198 00:21:24.430 ⇒ 00:21:35.659 Samuel Roberts: grew so quickly in the pro… like, and getting… this is obviously before we could have used AI for a lot of things, but even just, like, processes and stuff, like, just getting things that were so, …
199 00:21:36.200 ⇒ 00:21:45.499 Samuel Roberts: I don’t know, manual before, and, like, you just were able to do them, and then all of a sudden you have a bunch of people, and everyone has… it’s a problem in and of itself as things grow.
200 00:21:45.500 ⇒ 00:21:45.970 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
201 00:21:45.970 ⇒ 00:21:53.640 Samuel Roberts: I know exactly the feeling about context switching, and there’s just always stuff, and it’s… yeah, I think there’s a lot we can improve that way, and help you out.
202 00:21:54.330 ⇒ 00:22:08.710 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and I think one thing that, you know, I want to tell this team, and I’m listening to this podcast about this, but I think we’re gonna have to create, like, the meeting yesterday, I think, was really good. I think we’re gonna have to create more moments like that, where we…
203 00:22:08.750 ⇒ 00:22:26.869 Uttam Kumaran: really extract the problems of the company, and we build trust in the stakeholders. I know we’re not spending a lot of time on internal work right now, which, like, is the most painful thing, but, like, we’re gonna start to buy that time back, but in the time we do have to develop for them, like, I think reflecting on
204 00:22:27.150 ⇒ 00:22:36.679 Uttam Kumaran: reflecting on the amount of stuff we’ve done in the past, I’d much rather wish we had… we had not built the next thing, and instead had just prioritized adoption.
205 00:22:36.700 ⇒ 00:22:51.129 Uttam Kumaran: You know, which we made a lot of inroads in many different areas, but we never, like, got it all shipped end-to-end, measured, you know, like… and so it’s just something that we’re gonna have to spend time doing. …
206 00:22:51.470 ⇒ 00:22:52.390 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.
207 00:22:53.320 ⇒ 00:23:04.899 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I feel like we’re… we have a ways to go there, but I like that meeting. I thought people were genuinely curious about the stuff we were doing. I think there’s still a ways to go, but… but yeah.
208 00:23:05.620 ⇒ 00:23:07.710 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I think there’s… Some…
209 00:23:07.870 ⇒ 00:23:19.990 Samuel Roberts: other ways, maybe, to draw some of that out. Like, I don’t have a ton of insight into, like, what the day-to-day is for some of the other people in other teams. Yeah. So maybe it is, like, just, like, even just sharing, like.
210 00:23:20.310 ⇒ 00:23:27.660 Samuel Roberts: what people do, and then, like, we can get a sense of, like, oh, maybe this could be, or maybe that could… you know, like, just brainstorming in other ways, ….
211 00:23:27.660 ⇒ 00:23:28.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
212 00:23:28.470 ⇒ 00:23:32.900 Samuel Roberts: Would be just help, you know, because it’s one of those things, like, when you want to solve a problem, you’ve got to kind of.
213 00:23:32.900 ⇒ 00:23:39.280 Uttam Kumaran: No, you need to do user inter… you need to do user interviews, right? And that’s also the kind of advice I gave the Casey and Mustafa, is like.
214 00:23:39.430 ⇒ 00:23:45.119 Uttam Kumaran: I’m great because I know every role, but I’m also, like, kind of a hack because.
215 00:23:45.520 ⇒ 00:23:51.480 Uttam Kumaran: you’ll just listen to what I say and never generate those instincts, and the roadmap is completely gay-kept by me, because.
216 00:23:51.480 ⇒ 00:23:52.430 Samuel Roberts: Because….
217 00:23:52.430 ⇒ 00:24:09.810 Uttam Kumaran: you can’t sort of, like, build the next thing without me dictating. And so, one of the things that I want to do is, yeah, build those relationships, and maybe instead of doing the whole company, we just go team by team, like, we focus on ops for, like, a month or two, and then we move on, or we focus on engineering, or we focus on sales.
218 00:24:09.910 ⇒ 00:24:19.679 Uttam Kumaran: like, maybe that’s the way, but this is where, like, I’m… I’m really interested in what… in what you, Sam, think, and what the team thinks, and, like, how do we progress, because…
219 00:24:19.840 ⇒ 00:24:24.399 Uttam Kumaran: I want to make sure everyone’s satisfied, but I do have priority. Like, sales.
220 00:24:24.550 ⇒ 00:24:39.100 Uttam Kumaran: And PM are the number one priority, in that order. So, I would… if we are working on things, and if we’re thinking about who matters right now, those are the two groups that matter. Sales really, really, really matters, like.
221 00:24:39.200 ⇒ 00:24:46.400 Uttam Kumaran: If we can’t bring on a couple more clients, there’s nowhere for us. Like, we’re completely stalled.
222 00:24:46.500 ⇒ 00:25:04.870 Uttam Kumaran: So, helping them, right? And these are basic things, like, you know, someone goes in and, like, updates a Google Sheet every day. It’s, like, very similar stuff to what we’re doing for Insomnia. There’s also, like, someone who’s going in and literally copying and pasting what HubSpot leads there are in progress. That’s probably a report to a…
223 00:25:04.870 ⇒ 00:25:08.699 Uttam Kumaran: to a webhook, to, like, Slack.
224 00:25:08.780 ⇒ 00:25:15.759 Uttam Kumaran: Right, there’s just all these low-hanging fruit things, but I know them very instinctually, but
225 00:25:15.980 ⇒ 00:25:20.650 Uttam Kumaran: I’m a Chico, like, it will not work sustainably going forward if I…
226 00:25:21.150 ⇒ 00:25:30.689 Uttam Kumaran: just give that. So we need to facilitate maybe some of that, where maybe, I don’t know, like, yeah, I’m just kind of, like, talking out loud here, we should think about how we can serve them still.
227 00:25:31.270 ⇒ 00:25:34.969 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I think… I think going team by team is probably not a bad idea, at least for, like.
228 00:25:35.250 ⇒ 00:25:37.140 Samuel Roberts: a little while, because I think…
229 00:25:37.350 ⇒ 00:25:52.120 Samuel Roberts: it’s one thing to just be like, AI enable everything, and, like, we can do lots of stuff, and we can build a platform, and we can do the things that help everyone, like the meeting transcripts and stuff, but I think probably, like, getting that deeper cut into sales, or… or…
230 00:25:52.180 ⇒ 00:25:59.990 Samuel Roberts: Operations or something, and then we can be like, okay, here are, like, the 3 or 4 things we can immediately automate, and we’ll take, like, you know.
231 00:26:00.300 ⇒ 00:26:12.590 Samuel Roberts: a week while we’re still doing client work stuff, and, like, get it all, like, get a few of those low-hanging fruits, and then we can move on and do that for other teams. That will not only help them, but then we’ll have much better insight into, like.
232 00:26:12.730 ⇒ 00:26:16.649 Samuel Roberts: The processes that are going on, and that will help us long-term.
233 00:26:17.060 ⇒ 00:26:17.799 Samuel Roberts: you know.
234 00:26:17.800 ⇒ 00:26:20.100 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Come up with other things we can do, because….
235 00:26:20.100 ⇒ 00:26:27.640 Samuel Roberts: that, yeah, just once we know that our users and our stakeholders, like, as the other members of the company, like, I think that’s the only way to do it.
236 00:26:28.540 ⇒ 00:26:29.200 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
237 00:26:31.100 ⇒ 00:26:33.889 Samuel Roberts: And if sales is the way to go, then maybe we set up, like, a…
238 00:26:34.370 ⇒ 00:26:44.090 Samuel Roberts: a time to chat, or even, like, if it’s, like, you know, just, like, one-on-one with people and being like, show me how you do a bunch of stuff. Like, what, like, give me a list of your tasks. Like, just really pulling that out.
239 00:26:44.210 ⇒ 00:26:51.499 Samuel Roberts: At least, I mean, I’m… I mean, I’m speaking as someone, like, who’s kind of come into the company and trying to understand stuff, and, like, I don’t have a great incentive to that.
240 00:26:51.500 ⇒ 00:26:53.439 Uttam Kumaran: It has to be that way.
241 00:26:53.440 ⇒ 00:27:06.289 Samuel Roberts: Exactly. I think my, like, fresh eyes might be helpful for that. But just in general, just like, you know, if, if, you know, the three of us were able to sit in on some sales stuff and see, like, or just chat with someone.
242 00:27:06.290 ⇒ 00:27:21.459 Samuel Roberts: And they show us that, like, okay, they’re copying stuff, but, like, yeah, like, even if they are aware of what they’re doing and how it could be automated, like, we might be like, oh, well, we can actually do this even. And, like, there’s probably ways to combine that, but the only way to do that is to really get into it with them, I think.
243 00:27:22.050 ⇒ 00:27:22.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
244 00:27:24.350 ⇒ 00:27:28.260 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, even, like, as a group, or even one-on-one over time, so I don’t know how, yeah.
245 00:27:29.200 ⇒ 00:27:31.570 Samuel Roberts: Let’s just schedule all that, but….
246 00:27:31.570 ⇒ 00:27:35.390 Uttam Kumaran: What’s a good… yeah, what’s a good, like, kind of… yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
247 00:27:37.640 ⇒ 00:27:42.409 Casie Aviles: I agree, like… Being able to talk with the other teams as well, like.
248 00:27:42.780 ⇒ 00:27:49.460 Casie Aviles: Even just the daily… the weekly check-ins that we did with Amber, that was helpful.
249 00:27:51.950 ⇒ 00:27:52.620 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
250 00:27:55.290 ⇒ 00:28:01.019 Samuel Roberts: But yeah, I would say, like, the first thing would be, like, set up something where, like, you know, we can get on with
251 00:28:01.270 ⇒ 00:28:07.560 Samuel Roberts: You know, the sales team as a whole, and just learn a little more about the general processes, and then maybe
252 00:28:08.240 ⇒ 00:28:11.729 Samuel Roberts: Like, we each can, like, dig in with someone specifically and really see, like.
253 00:28:11.920 ⇒ 00:28:24.110 Samuel Roberts: okay, they’re all doing the same kind of things, but so-and-so’s more focused on this, and this is a process we can automate right away for them. You know what I mean? Like, there’s, like, the holistic view of, like, everything that has to happen in sales, and then the specific, like.
254 00:28:24.160 ⇒ 00:28:33.700 Samuel Roberts: how does person A do this versus person B? You know, like, there’s… and then, like, combining… I think there’s just… I… I’m talking very generally, because I’m, you know, I don’t….
255 00:28:33.700 ⇒ 00:28:42.120 Uttam Kumaran: No, but I guess, like, what I’m more interested in is, like, what is this plat- like, what are the processes for discovery that we need to implement? Like.
256 00:28:42.220 ⇒ 00:28:46.369 Samuel Roberts: Can I give you a really good example? So, for the marketing team.
257 00:28:46.370 ⇒ 00:28:55.700 Uttam Kumaran: I’m trying to show them that all they need to do to get a case study is to call one of us, have us talk into a mic for 30 minutes about a project, and show.
258 00:28:55.700 ⇒ 00:28:56.160 Samuel Roberts: Atlanta.
259 00:28:56.160 ⇒ 00:28:57.519 Uttam Kumaran: our case study prompt.
260 00:28:57.700 ⇒ 00:29:04.369 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So for us, it’s also like, okay, do we want them to share their screen?
261 00:29:04.470 ⇒ 00:29:18.589 Uttam Kumaran: and we record the transcripts, and we have them sort of, like, we work through, like, a workflow, linear workflow, and we map it out in FigJam, so we have a really great capture of the current process.
262 00:29:18.790 ⇒ 00:29:35.500 Uttam Kumaran: and then is the next piece generate, like, what the AI augmentation options are, get approval, and then execute? Like, what is the framework for isolating a problem, documenting it, proposing the fix, and executing, right? Because we’re going to do this systematically throughout the company.
263 00:29:35.500 ⇒ 00:29:39.089 Samuel Roberts: Absolutely. Yeah, no, I mean, I’m so used to, like.
264 00:29:39.260 ⇒ 00:29:47.170 Samuel Roberts: free AI, just, like, watching people and taking notes on how they use something. But, yeah, I think, like, a screen share recording.
265 00:29:47.560 ⇒ 00:29:52.469 Samuel Roberts: As they talk it through, obviously, like, we’ll learn from that, but then, like, that could be fed into…
266 00:29:52.680 ⇒ 00:29:54.690 Samuel Roberts: You know, something that can…
267 00:29:55.150 ⇒ 00:29:59.300 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I gotta think a little bit more about… what we can…
268 00:29:59.960 ⇒ 00:30:04.320 Samuel Roberts: How to streamline that a little bit more, but… … I think…
269 00:30:04.510 ⇒ 00:30:10.130 Samuel Roberts: the other thing is, like, I don’t know if there’s any documentation already on, like, Processes in general.
270 00:30:10.500 ⇒ 00:30:11.430 Samuel Roberts: …
271 00:30:12.070 ⇒ 00:30:18.409 Samuel Roberts: But that’s also, like, a good place to start and just see, like… like you were saying, like, someone’s going into Google Sheets every day and doing something, or there’s something, like.
272 00:30:18.410 ⇒ 00:30:18.890 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
273 00:30:18.890 ⇒ 00:30:24.040 Samuel Roberts: If there’s things that we’ve already known, that’s probably a decent place to start, and then just be like, okay, …
274 00:30:25.020 ⇒ 00:30:29.739 Samuel Roberts: show me that, you know, and then record it, like you’re saying. I don’t have a great…
275 00:30:30.080 ⇒ 00:30:33.550 Samuel Roberts: Sense of how we can plug all that together right now, but…
276 00:30:37.170 ⇒ 00:30:39.229 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I gotta think about that a little bit more.
277 00:30:40.110 ⇒ 00:30:40.720 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
278 00:30:42.990 ⇒ 00:30:47.779 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, a lot of my, like, experience is, like, having built something, showing it to users, and getting them to
279 00:30:48.520 ⇒ 00:30:53.080 Samuel Roberts: see how they’re using it, and I think more of, like, automating someone else’s processes, and…
280 00:30:53.500 ⇒ 00:30:57.530 Samuel Roberts: Understanding their flows, pre-existing.
281 00:30:58.140 ⇒ 00:30:58.820 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
282 00:30:59.350 ⇒ 00:31:05.330 Samuel Roberts: Okay, okay, let me… let me do a little bit of thinking about that, because I think, yeah, there definitely can be a pretty straightforward, like.
283 00:31:05.650 ⇒ 00:31:08.939 Samuel Roberts: Okay, we’re gonna set up a call, you’re gonna walk me through…
284 00:31:09.250 ⇒ 00:31:13.540 Samuel Roberts: You know, 5 basic things you do every day, or every week, or whatever.
285 00:31:13.690 ⇒ 00:31:16.180 Samuel Roberts: We’re gonna have that to… to see.
286 00:31:16.340 ⇒ 00:31:22.439 Samuel Roberts: And then, yeah, passing that into something that can cause that. Yeah, I think there’s…
287 00:31:23.090 ⇒ 00:31:27.610 Samuel Roberts: I… I… yeah, I’m not… I’m just spitballing now, because I’m like, yeah, there’s….
288 00:31:27.610 ⇒ 00:31:32.789 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, but this is where, like, I want you guys to think about this like a systematic….
289 00:31:32.790 ⇒ 00:31:33.940 Samuel Roberts: Yeah. ….
290 00:31:35.100 ⇒ 00:31:54.040 Uttam Kumaran: like, a very systematic process for which we automate this company, but it can’t be one-off, right? It has to be, like, we’re gonna start going into areas that are very, very unknown, and so how do we make sure that we come in as external consultants and can really, you know, crush it, is sort of my point.
291 00:31:54.450 ⇒ 00:31:58.280 Samuel Roberts: The other kind of, like, meta thing about this is that, like.
292 00:31:58.950 ⇒ 00:32:16.090 Samuel Roberts: doing it… doing… us doing this manually is like someone else doing something manually that we’re gonna automate, that maybe, like, we need to figure out the best way that we work to do that, and maybe the first few are more manual, and then we realize, oh, okay, these are the common system… common things in our process that we can automate, if that makes sense.
293 00:32:16.290 ⇒ 00:32:16.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
294 00:32:16.690 ⇒ 00:32:17.310 Samuel Roberts: …
295 00:32:17.410 ⇒ 00:32:25.060 Samuel Roberts: Like, not just assuming, like, this is the best way to do everything, but, like, if we just have a meeting with sales, have a meeting with a few people, record all those, obviously, and then…
296 00:32:25.160 ⇒ 00:32:34.340 Samuel Roberts: We’re like, okay, here are the common things and how we’ve been doing it, and, like, easy ways to get things up and running. Like, I think we can apply that process to ourselves,
297 00:32:35.120 ⇒ 00:32:36.800 Samuel Roberts: It’s probably the best way to get
298 00:32:37.660 ⇒ 00:32:40.969 Samuel Roberts: Get, gains over time, if that makes sense.
299 00:32:40.970 ⇒ 00:32:42.340 Uttam Kumaran: Totally, totally, totally.
300 00:32:43.880 ⇒ 00:32:46.020 Samuel Roberts: I think, like, it’s easy to try to, like…
301 00:32:46.310 ⇒ 00:32:55.830 Samuel Roberts: over-optimize something early, and try to think that… but, like, really, is it, like, it’s figuring out what the process is and what has to happen, and that’s something we can apply to ourselves, yeah.
302 00:32:56.300 ⇒ 00:32:58.500 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s also you build the connection with the user.
303 00:32:58.900 ⇒ 00:32:59.690 Samuel Roberts: 100%, yeah.
304 00:32:59.690 ⇒ 00:33:10.059 Uttam Kumaran: Ultimately, you’re serving them, and so when you solve it for them, this is what we’re finding out in companies that we go consult with, which… which is they don’t always describe the entire problem.
305 00:33:10.060 ⇒ 00:33:23.439 Uttam Kumaran: So the faster you can get to something that’s, like, kind of working, they’ll be like, oh, actually, there’s, like, this other nuance I forgot to mention, it’s other nuance. And we’ll start to build systems that actually work. But we almost have to be, like, internal consultants.
306 00:33:23.440 ⇒ 00:33:25.669 Samuel Roberts: Right? Yeah, yeah. That’s the….
307 00:33:25.900 ⇒ 00:33:29.220 Uttam Kumaran: sort of my… meta point here.
308 00:33:29.710 ⇒ 00:33:34.880 Samuel Roberts: Definitely, definitely. And I think that’s a… that’s good insight, though, that, like, users don’t always know what they…
309 00:33:35.250 ⇒ 00:33:38.509 Samuel Roberts: need, like, they have ideas, because…
310 00:33:39.100 ⇒ 00:33:44.359 Samuel Roberts: But, like, then the root of it is different than just the, like, top level of what they think.
311 00:33:44.910 ⇒ 00:33:45.380 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
312 00:33:45.380 ⇒ 00:33:46.999 Samuel Roberts: And that’s our job, is to, like.
313 00:33:47.250 ⇒ 00:33:49.530 Samuel Roberts: Pull that apart a little bit for them.
314 00:33:49.820 ⇒ 00:33:50.450 Samuel Roberts: Email.
315 00:33:50.450 ⇒ 00:33:51.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
316 00:33:54.000 ⇒ 00:33:54.660 Samuel Roberts: So…
317 00:33:56.510 ⇒ 00:34:05.039 Samuel Roberts: But yeah, I would say, like… like, action items from that would be, like, let’s… let’s do… let’s… let’s get together with sales, or with a couple people, and, like, really see their…
318 00:34:06.000 ⇒ 00:34:11.209 Samuel Roberts: Their processes, and then, like, we can run from there and figure out, like, okay, how do we handle this?
319 00:34:12.820 ⇒ 00:34:14.610 Samuel Roberts: And then build our own process from there.
320 00:34:14.610 ⇒ 00:34:31.709 Uttam Kumaran: I guess my, my kind of, like, one thing about, like, maybe pre-work is, can we create, like, a… so, actually, Amber did this process, like, a few months ago, where she went and interviewed everybody, so she has some of this already written. I think my biggest…
321 00:34:31.800 ⇒ 00:34:36.089 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. My biggest thing is, like, how do we create a structured dock
322 00:34:36.199 ⇒ 00:34:51.870 Uttam Kumaran: for, like, a pre-wrote… pre-note, where they can… people can list out all their processes. In the meeting, we just try to accelerate and go as fast as possible to walk through each of those, get it recorded, get it all linked up, and then we can brainstorm, like, what is the AI augmented…
323 00:34:52.159 ⇒ 00:34:53.209 Uttam Kumaran: Totally.
324 00:34:53.210 ⇒ 00:34:53.649 Samuel Roberts: None of that.
325 00:34:54.210 ⇒ 00:34:54.870 Samuel Roberts: Definitely, yeah.
326 00:34:54.870 ⇒ 00:35:12.789 Uttam Kumaran: Because also it’s going after things that are high ROI. Like, there’s things that Ricoh’s doing where it’s, like, moving stuff into a document. We could automate it, but the… the level of… the ROI is not high enough. So we want to, like, write it all down first, build a table that’s like, okay, what is the…
327 00:35:12.870 ⇒ 00:35:16.859 Uttam Kumaran: what is the ROI here, and then which one should we attack first?
328 00:35:17.040 ⇒ 00:35:29.319 Uttam Kumaran: You know, so I think something around, like… and this can all go in that architecture doc, it’s just, like, a subpage, but basically, like, for each… for each area, I just want… kind of want to go a little bit
329 00:35:29.580 ⇒ 00:35:32.850 Uttam Kumaran: Deeper and build out the list of processes, you know?
330 00:35:34.210 ⇒ 00:35:35.660 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, I mean, I think we can…
331 00:35:35.810 ⇒ 00:35:38.260 Samuel Roberts: Definitely get started on that, and like, yeah, if she has…
332 00:35:39.060 ⇒ 00:35:46.850 Samuel Roberts: if there’s meetings or, like, you know, recordings from that, like, that can definitely help us get that started even more. But yeah, there’s definitely, like, a general way to…
333 00:35:47.980 ⇒ 00:35:52.919 Samuel Roberts: Plan that out, … I can add some stuff to the document, maybe, about that, and…
334 00:35:53.080 ⇒ 00:35:58.889 Samuel Roberts: questions I have that, you know, might be answers and stuff Amber did, or, you know, can get those answers later.
335 00:35:59.460 ⇒ 00:36:00.170 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
336 00:36:00.850 ⇒ 00:36:01.380 Samuel Roberts: Yeah.
337 00:36:02.920 ⇒ 00:36:11.479 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I think… let’s plan on that for next week. I’m gonna… I’ll create a channel… there’s already a sales go-to-market AI channel.
338 00:36:11.880 ⇒ 00:36:12.630 Samuel Roberts: Is there people that talk?
339 00:36:12.630 ⇒ 00:36:18.510 Uttam Kumaran: to… the biggest people to talk to are Ryan and, Brian and Sid.
340 00:36:18.620 ⇒ 00:36:32.550 Uttam Kumaran: So, if possible, can we arrange meetings with them for next week? And they’re gonna give you… Robert has time, but I want to use his time more wisely, because he’ll be like, guys, this is all really basic.
341 00:36:32.800 ⇒ 00:36:33.330 Samuel Roberts: Yeah, yeah.
342 00:36:33.330 ⇒ 00:36:46.550 Uttam Kumaran: possible, I want to get as much of the information from Sid, and actually, sales has a list of daily, weekly rituals that they all do. So a lot of it is documented in Slack, so you can just ping them and ask them where all that stuff is.
343 00:36:46.970 ⇒ 00:36:47.570 Samuel Roberts: Cool.
344 00:36:48.540 ⇒ 00:36:57.280 Uttam Kumaran: So there’s a thing called Sales Go-to-market AI, that’s the channel. You can just use that to ping them and… and, start to get an understanding of that.
345 00:36:59.170 ⇒ 00:37:01.049 Samuel Roberts: Alright, awesome. Yeah, I will do that.
346 00:37:02.810 ⇒ 00:37:03.660 Samuel Roberts: Okay, cool.
347 00:37:05.440 ⇒ 00:37:09.499 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, great. Alright guys, I’m gonna go prep for the meeting later.
348 00:37:11.810 ⇒ 00:37:12.500 Samuel Roberts: Okay.
349 00:37:12.780 ⇒ 00:37:14.149 Casie Aviles: Sounds good. Thank you, guys.
350 00:37:14.580 ⇒ 00:37:15.620 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you.
351 00:37:16.190 ⇒ 00:37:16.970 Samuel Roberts: I agree.
352 00:37:17.370 ⇒ 00:37:18.110 Samuel Roberts: Bye.