Meeting Title: Brainforge Interview: Uttam & Alex <> Alyque Date: 2025-08-26 Meeting participants: Alyque Babwani, Alexander Lubka, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:00:55.970 ⇒ 00:00:56.770 Alexander Lubka: Hi, Aleek.
2 00:00:57.020 ⇒ 00:00:57.890 Alyque Babwani: Did I pronounce that right?
3 00:00:59.090 ⇒ 00:01:00.540 Alyque Babwani: Yeah, you did. How are you?
4 00:01:00.810 ⇒ 00:01:02.150 Alexander Lubka: Hey, I’m doing well, how are you?
5 00:01:02.700 ⇒ 00:01:04.319 Alyque Babwani: Good, can you hear me okay?
6 00:01:04.650 ⇒ 00:01:06.080 Alexander Lubka: I can hear you perfectly.
7 00:01:06.780 ⇒ 00:01:07.919 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, how are you?
8 00:01:10.670 ⇒ 00:01:12.059 Alyque Babwani: Hey, how are you?
9 00:01:12.060 ⇒ 00:01:17.239 Uttam Kumaran: Good. You’re cutting in and out a little bit, I don’t know, Alex, is that me? Or is it… you’re seeing that too?
10 00:01:17.860 ⇒ 00:01:20.290 Alexander Lubka: I… try again, Alik. Hi.
11 00:01:21.320 ⇒ 00:01:22.430 Alexander Lubka: Test, test.
12 00:01:23.110 ⇒ 00:01:23.980 Alyque Babwani: Hi.
13 00:01:25.200 ⇒ 00:01:26.470 Alexander Lubka: I think there’s a little bit of a lap.
14 00:01:26.700 ⇒ 00:01:28.010 Uttam Kumaran: Your audio’s coming in.
15 00:01:28.010 ⇒ 00:01:28.800 Alyque Babwani: Hey, dude.
16 00:01:30.040 ⇒ 00:01:34.640 Alyque Babwani: Yeah, yeah, there’s definitely a little bit of lag, I think. I saw the video.
17 00:01:34.890 ⇒ 00:01:37.189 Alyque Babwani: That’s taking up all the power.
18 00:01:38.180 ⇒ 00:01:56.150 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, so maybe, we’ll see if it works. If it doesn’t work, we can turn off video, but for now, I think it’s fine. Yeah, thank you, Alik, for taking the time today, and thank you for, meeting with Amber before and for submitting to Loom, I appreciate it. Yeah, we’re super excited to speak with you about
19 00:01:56.150 ⇒ 00:02:06.260 Uttam Kumaran: you know, the project management role, on our team. Just a little bit of an intro. My name is Utam. I started, Brainforge about 2 years ago.
20 00:02:06.390 ⇒ 00:02:09.649 Uttam Kumaran: My background is in data engineering, and before that,
21 00:02:09.810 ⇒ 00:02:22.829 Uttam Kumaran: after that, was also leading product at a startup, worked leading data teams, and moved here to Austin about 3 years ago, started this business about 2 years ago. Currently, we’re about 15 people. We are…
22 00:02:22.830 ⇒ 00:02:38.279 Uttam Kumaran: serving, I think right now, like, maybe 10 clients, growing, like, every week or two weeks, it seems like. So, super crucial that we bring on more support, for Amber and the entire, sort of, delivery team in this role. So…
23 00:02:38.370 ⇒ 00:02:50.079 Uttam Kumaran: And yeah, just really excited to sort of dive into your background, really excited to hear about, you know, beyond the data, projects that you’ve worked on, just, like, your interest in,
24 00:02:50.440 ⇒ 00:03:09.520 Uttam Kumaran: sort of being on the kind of the ground floor on project management for us, also hearing about, your goals, and yeah, happy to answer, you know, any questions on our side. I believe I can stay on for a little bit longer as well if we need more time, for questions, so just feel free. Yeah, Alex, if you want to give a quick intro.
25 00:03:09.800 ⇒ 00:03:22.789 Alexander Lubka: Sure. Hey, Alik, my name is Alex. I am a project manager advisor for Brainforge. I’ve been working with them for about 3 months now, working a lot with Amber, setting up some of the PMO stuff that she had previously mentioned to you.
26 00:03:22.790 ⇒ 00:03:39.210 Alexander Lubka: Building out that department, processes, documentation, templates, and just also just mentoring her and helping her with some training as this is her first, PM role, so just making sure she gets those fundamentals, resources that are available to her for, you know, up-leveling and,
27 00:03:39.210 ⇒ 00:03:50.450 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, and build… and working with some other folks at BringForge to make sure that, you know, PMO works well with sales and engineering and all those other folks that we’re working… we’re working with to make sure it’s going well.
28 00:03:50.450 ⇒ 00:04:01.109 Alexander Lubka: So it’s been fun. It’s been, yeah, a fun 3 months, just working with them when I can. During the day, I work at an investment firm called Bridgewater, and I’m a TPM in their research investment, side.
29 00:04:02.390 ⇒ 00:04:05.189 Alyque Babwani: Okay, okay, well, that’s wonderful. You definitely have your hands full.
30 00:04:06.760 ⇒ 00:04:08.079 Alexander Lubka: Not just Amber.
31 00:04:08.270 ⇒ 00:04:10.250 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
32 00:04:11.750 ⇒ 00:04:13.009 Alexander Lubka: Great. Cool,
33 00:04:13.060 ⇒ 00:04:17.509 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, go ahead, Alex, if you wanna take it on, and I’ll let you kind of start.
34 00:04:17.850 ⇒ 00:04:29.729 Alexander Lubka: Sure, well, I’d love to learn more about, your experience in project management, and, whether it’s this current role or your previous role, where you think might be the best match with,
35 00:04:29.880 ⇒ 00:04:36.070 Alexander Lubka: Bridge… or, I’m sorry, Bring Forge. I shouldn’t have said the Bridgewater word. …
36 00:04:36.910 ⇒ 00:04:47.349 Alexander Lubka: So, because I know, like, from… I saw the interview with, Amber, and, you know, on LinkedIn, it’s like, looks like it’s a, you know, not too much bigger of a firm, like 25 people, but a totally different industry.
37 00:04:47.350 ⇒ 00:05:01.029 Alexander Lubka: And I listened to what you said, and, like, I believe that the skill set is fairly transferable. I know you had a conversation with Amber about, like, you know, bio… the biosphere or industry that you’re in versus, like, you know, consulting.
38 00:05:01.030 ⇒ 00:05:12.830 Alexander Lubka: I think the skill set is pretty transferable for project management, so I’d love to hear your experience with that, and, like, how you’ve worked with this industry, and, like, how you’ve used that skill set in a couple different industries that you’ve been in.
39 00:05:13.650 ⇒ 00:05:31.289 Alyque Babwani: Sure, sure, no, absolutely. Thank you again, both of you, to, you know, getting on a call with me. You’re right, my current focus right now is definitely healthcare technology and biopharma, but, you know, that’s not how I’ve supported, you know, clients in the past. I’ve been in various different industries, from
40 00:05:31.750 ⇒ 00:05:46.169 Alyque Babwani: data analytics to retail, media, internet, telecom, so, you know, definitely have a wide, variety in terms of, you know, project management skills, and I think you’re right, in terms of, you know, all of those skills being very transferable.
41 00:05:46.320 ⇒ 00:05:49.880 Alyque Babwani: Between one organization or one industry to another.
42 00:05:50.970 ⇒ 00:06:05.379 Alyque Babwani: giving a little context, you know, I come from a strong background in project management with, you know, data analytics, and right now I’m also working with a lot of Gen AI capabilities, you know, which I think aligns really well with, you know, what Brainforge is looking for.
43 00:06:05.540 ⇒ 00:06:22.700 Alyque Babwani: Most recently, I’ve led strategic delivery for several fast-paced analytics projects at our boutique consulting firm and technology, working with our cross-functional teams, our data engineers, product managers, architects, and sometimes directly with clients and their stakeholders.
44 00:06:22.820 ⇒ 00:06:34.499 Alyque Babwani: my sweet spot has always been where technology, business goals, and, you know, people intersect, and I love translating the bigger picture requirements into actionable plans and driving teams forward,
45 00:06:34.810 ⇒ 00:06:40.550 Alyque Babwani: with meaningful results, especially in environments where, you know, time to value matters.
46 00:06:41.160 ⇒ 00:06:52.480 Alyque Babwani: last year, you know, as I mentioned, we started off as GenAI implementations for our biopharma healthcare technology, and kind of using, you know, newer, data modeling techniques to
47 00:06:52.740 ⇒ 00:06:59.190 Alyque Babwani: You know, reduce the operational risk, and also, you know, enhance our, system and client capabilities.
48 00:07:00.600 ⇒ 00:07:08.100 Alyque Babwani: What really drives me to this particular role, or really attracts me, is, you know, really an opportunity to work in a boutique, high…
49 00:07:09.100 ⇒ 00:07:19.660 Alyque Babwani: expertise environment where results matter, right? I’ve been with smaller firms in the past, so I understand, you know, the concept of wearing multiple hats. I’ve been with startups in the past, whether it be DataOcean, whether it be Mozus.
50 00:07:19.730 ⇒ 00:07:33.090 Alyque Babwani: Or even, Arbor says, right, it’s not too old, you know, of a company, so I… I understand, you know, what it really takes to work in a startup environment, and that really speaks to, you know, my own values and work style as well, so…
51 00:07:33.090 ⇒ 00:07:39.849 Alyque Babwani: I will definitely thrive in that environment where, you know, structured processes can meet, you know, high adaptability, and excited to really chance
52 00:07:40.010 ⇒ 00:07:45.429 Alyque Babwani: to help, you know, shape Brainforge AI’s project management discipline as, you know, the company scales.
53 00:07:47.640 ⇒ 00:08:03.760 Alexander Lubka: Well, is there anything that you heard from your… or heard from Amber, your conversation there, or that you read about the company, so far? And maybe you don’t have… you wouldn’t have a full perspective on this yet, but when you’re talking about, like, the project management, how you can help our project management organization.
54 00:08:03.760 ⇒ 00:08:09.350 Alexander Lubka: Are there any things that you’ve, like, picked up on so far that you think would benefit our PMO?
55 00:08:10.220 ⇒ 00:08:17.979 Alyque Babwani: Yeah, I mean, you know, especially reading, you know, the job description as well as my conversation, you know, with Ember.
56 00:08:18.190 ⇒ 00:08:28.320 Alyque Babwani: What really struck to me is, you know, the opportunity to be a part of a founding team building, you know, innovative AI products, right? That has really struck with me, especially
57 00:08:28.480 ⇒ 00:08:45.680 Alyque Babwani: You know, with this particular role, I did notice, you know, Brain Forge really values rapid results and a pragmatic, no-nonsense approach, you know, delivering outcomes in weeks, not months, right? So, and that, along with, you know, my experience as well as, you know, what I can really bring to the table, can really help, you know, drive results faster.
58 00:08:45.780 ⇒ 00:08:53.770 Alyque Babwani: I know, Amber mentioned a lot about, also setting up the PMO, the governance framework, upscaling, you know,
59 00:08:54.040 ⇒ 00:08:58.000 Alexander Lubka: How we manage clients, you know, you know, in a more unified and a….
60 00:08:58.180 ⇒ 00:09:04.859 Alyque Babwani: unified way. So, you know, those are some of the best practices, that I can also bring to the table, having
61 00:09:04.980 ⇒ 00:09:11.499 Alyque Babwani: the ability to also have startup PMO back at Rent, you know, I was able to start up a PMO at Rent.
62 00:09:11.750 ⇒ 00:09:23.419 Alyque Babwani: With about 600-plus stakeholders, involved, from sales all the way to different departments. So, you know, that experience is combined with, you know, my current and recent experiences, will really help, you know,
63 00:09:23.820 ⇒ 00:09:31.749 Alyque Babwani: Teams operate at a faster cadence, you know, and each project can be, you know, where every project can be a little different as well to each other.
64 00:09:33.270 ⇒ 00:09:36.570 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s no one-size-fits-all for sure.
65 00:09:36.570 ⇒ 00:09:37.950 Alyque Babwani: Yes.
66 00:09:37.950 ⇒ 00:09:45.689 Alexander Lubka: So one thing I’ve been working on with, Amber and folks is that, you know, we’re trying to…
67 00:09:45.980 ⇒ 00:10:05.320 Alexander Lubka: you know, set the processes, and documentation, and one example of that is the, initiation process. You know, Utam and Robert go out, get those sales, have those conversations with prospects, and I’m trying to get Amber and some other PM folks more involved at the end of the sales cycle to,
68 00:10:05.490 ⇒ 00:10:10.900 Alexander Lubka: Get some information on, and start documenting some, project
69 00:10:11.000 ⇒ 00:10:18.999 Alexander Lubka: prospective clients’ project, information. When they started thinking about resourcing earlier, started thinking about capacity of those people.
70 00:10:19.000 ⇒ 00:10:32.459 Alexander Lubka: think about timelines, stuff like that, and the vehicle for that is a charter that the sales org would put together for some of that high-level information. So I’d love to just, like, run through a little exercise of just, like.
71 00:10:32.460 ⇒ 00:10:36.429 Alexander Lubka: You get a project, you’re involved with the end of the sales cycle.
72 00:10:36.430 ⇒ 00:11:00.700 Alexander Lubka: you get a project charter from, UTAM, we have a signed SOW, maybe it’s a POC for, like, a month or something for, you know, a data engineering project, or to test out, some models that they want to… the client wants to test out before going to a full-on contract. So I want to see, like, how you think about… what would you do? I want to see how you think through the project life cycles, from, like, initiation to close, and what you would do
73 00:11:01.200 ⇒ 00:11:02.660 Alexander Lubka: Once you get that charter.
74 00:11:05.110 ⇒ 00:11:06.600 Alyque Babwani: Okay, ….
75 00:11:06.600 ⇒ 00:11:08.009 Alexander Lubka: So there’s a lot of processes and stuff.
76 00:11:08.010 ⇒ 00:11:11.349 Alyque Babwani: I know, I know, I know. Where’d you start, like, what’d you think, yeah.
77 00:11:11.590 ⇒ 00:11:13.140 Alyque Babwani: And I wanna be, you know.
78 00:11:13.310 ⇒ 00:11:19.210 Alyque Babwani: definitely a little bit thoughtful in terms of my response as well, but I’ll definitely walk you through how I would approach a
79 00:11:19.320 ⇒ 00:11:34.489 Alyque Babwani: fast turnaround POC project at, you know, at a company, starting from handoff all the way to the end of sales cycle. So, first and foremost would be, you know, project intake and, you know, really initial assignment. You know, I would review the project chart in detail, scope, objectives.
80 00:11:34.680 ⇒ 00:11:53.970 Alyque Babwani: key stakeholders, technical success criterias, you know, and, you know, most people, any constraints or risks, right? I would set up a quick kickoff call with the internal teams, engineering, you know, data leads, other team members, to make sure that everyone’s got the same understanding and, you know, confirmed resource availability and skills, skills fit.
81 00:11:54.150 ⇒ 00:12:01.610 Alyque Babwani: At this stage, I’m also looking for any red flags, unknowns in, you know, data access, client dependencies, or even ambiguity that, you know.
82 00:12:01.800 ⇒ 00:12:21.260 Alyque Babwani: In what done really looks like. Second, you know, once I really understand everybody’s kind of into this one vision, one goal, my second step would be a client kickoff and setting some of the expectations with the client. So, you know, having a kickoff, introducing some of the core team members, and walking through
83 00:12:21.500 ⇒ 00:12:27.449 Alyque Babwani: You know, POC goals, deliverables, timelines, and the roles on both sides. I…
84 00:12:27.620 ⇒ 00:12:43.510 Alyque Babwani: would definitely ask clarifying questions on success metrics, key users, data environment, and clarify the communication cadences. You know, every client likes to be, involved differently, so I just want to make sure I’m catering to them. I would also make sure that, you know, the client understands,
85 00:12:43.900 ⇒ 00:12:49.490 Alyque Babwani: That, you know, the POC’s time box, and, you know, what would really require a change request.
86 00:12:49.830 ⇒ 00:13:05.250 Alyque Babwani: Once I understand the client’s needs as well, of course, there’s some sort of massaging that needs to take place, so, you know, creating a detailed planning and, you know, risk assessment. I would break down the project into key milestones and deliverables, you know, whether it be data ingestion, model development.
87 00:13:05.360 ⇒ 00:13:22.080 Alyque Babwani: a test run, you know, sometimes clients, you know, definitely need that. Any review sessions, final output delivery, I would lay out a, you know, sprint-based schedule on something, you know, that’s, you know, ultra-visible to the clients, you know, at all levels, that, you know, has a clear ownership of who
88 00:13:22.200 ⇒ 00:13:24.840 Alyque Babwani: On these tasks, deadlines, and dependencies.
89 00:13:25.460 ⇒ 00:13:35.599 Alyque Babwani: I’ve also worked on risk weight logs in the past, so, you know, flagging some of those unclear requirements or resource bottlenecks, early on, and setting up, you know, the team for success.
90 00:13:35.700 ⇒ 00:13:43.280 Alyque Babwani: At this stage, what I’m really looking for is really aligning everyone on success criteria, you know, whether it be ROI,
91 00:13:43.520 ⇒ 00:13:51.069 Alyque Babwani: You know, define as model accuracy, or, you know, automation speed, so, you know, or just any functional deliveries that we’re looking for.
92 00:13:51.260 ⇒ 00:13:52.120 Alyque Babwani: …
93 00:13:52.370 ⇒ 00:14:01.160 Alyque Babwani: once I have, you know, a solid plan, developed, you know, kind of get into the daily execution and stakeholder management, you know, I would lead.
94 00:14:01.660 ⇒ 00:14:09.640 Alyque Babwani: Stand-ups, async check-ins, you know, whatever best fits, you know, the team’s bandwidth to surface any blockers and keep the momentum high.
95 00:14:10.340 ⇒ 00:14:21.440 Alyque Babwani: I’m actively, at this point, looking to proactively communicate any risk or changes, you know, pre-schedule, weekly or bi-weekly touchpoints with the clients to show progress.
96 00:14:21.550 ⇒ 00:14:27.910 Alyque Babwani: get real-time feedback and, you know, prevent any scope creeps. I know that, as we are agile, you know,
97 00:14:28.960 ⇒ 00:14:38.159 Alyque Babwani: it’s okay to, you know, have certain changes at certain different points, but we just want to make sure that, you know, the scope week isn’t overly complicating the process.
98 00:14:38.480 ⇒ 00:14:48.639 Alyque Babwani: Throughout this entire plan, I’m also, in the back of my mind, thinking about change management, you know, issue management, if requirements shift or hiccups occur, you know, what is my processes?
99 00:14:48.770 ⇒ 00:15:02.280 Alyque Babwani: I’ll follow… usually I follow a very lightweight but structured approach, you know, log the issue, assess the impact on timeline, budget, possess any alternatives, get buy-in from both internal and external stakeholders, and, you know, before changing direction.
100 00:15:02.610 ⇒ 00:15:05.499 Alyque Babwani: And then last but not the least, right,
101 00:15:06.060 ⇒ 00:15:20.459 Alyque Babwani: Once we have the project delivered, to the client, and the client’s satisfied with it, you know, there’s, of course, closure and feedback at the end of each project, running structured project closure, final deliverable handoffs, what went well, what went or did not go well.
102 00:15:20.620 ⇒ 00:15:25.279 Alyque Babwani: Post-mortem write-ups, so, you know, we can scale learnings, you know, in next engagements.
103 00:15:25.470 ⇒ 00:15:44.119 Alyque Babwani: But, you know, overall, I’m laser-focused on, you know, communication, rapid iteration, and, you know, getting measurable results, you know, within the final months, turning data into value, you know, by the same time, there’s enough structure to minimize surprises and set the stage for long-term, engagement and success.
104 00:15:44.440 ⇒ 00:15:50.659 Alyque Babwani: So that’s kind of, like, the height level, but I’m sure there’s… every company I’ve been, you know, has…
105 00:15:50.830 ⇒ 00:15:58.800 Alyque Babwani: different processes, and, you know, I’m adaptable and flexible to not only adapting the practices, but also, you know, kind of bringing in some of the…
106 00:15:58.930 ⇒ 00:16:04.119 Alyque Babwani: You know, best practices from, you know, my experiences to, enhance processes.
107 00:16:05.720 ⇒ 00:16:15.350 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I think that’s a cool thing about this role, is that you have the… a lot of ability to do that, and you hit a lot of, like, high-level stuff, which is great, because there’s, you know, like you said, there’s other things involved.
108 00:16:15.370 ⇒ 00:16:31.969 Alexander Lubka: But, yeah, I think the cool thing about this role is that you can really put your, you know, your footprint, or not footprint, your fingerprint on it, and make it your own, you know, working with the team, but, like, taking the experience that you’ve had previously, and, you know, once you get in, you know, your 30, 60, 90 days, and
109 00:16:31.970 ⇒ 00:16:37.569 Alexander Lubka: You’ll get a better sense of, like, the company and providing your own feedback on how the company can
110 00:16:37.570 ⇒ 00:16:43.570 Alexander Lubka: … You know, utilize these techniques for… to, you know, to benefit everybody.
111 00:16:43.700 ⇒ 00:17:00.280 Alexander Lubka: On that note, like, how… what is your philosophy on feedback? Like, are you… how are you… are you usually comfortable with feedback? How do you usually get feedback from, like, engineers, you know, to make sure you’re… you’re all in sync and, you know, you can, you know, sniff out problems when they may exist?
112 00:17:02.660 ⇒ 00:17:17.820 Alyque Babwani: Sure. So, for me, it really starts with, you know, a feedback-driven mindset. I like to spend, you know, the first few weeks really observing how the team communicates, what tools everyone, you know, actually uses, and where, you know, client also feels, you know, the most friction, right?
113 00:17:17.960 ⇒ 00:17:28.689 Alyque Babwani: I’ll regularly pulse the team for honest feedback. I’m not afraid, you know, to fine-tune templates of the documentation, even change how, you know, our stand-ups are retro to be looked for.
114 00:17:28.920 ⇒ 00:17:45.889 Alyque Babwani: Feedback also gives us a lot of visibility on projects. You know, so, for example, using sprint-based project schedules that clients can view anytime, or engineers can, you know, view anytime, right? That really helps. In my last role, when I joined, you know, a large project, I noticed there was
115 00:17:46.030 ⇒ 00:17:59.620 Alyque Babwani: they were great at rapid execution, but sometimes missed out on capturing learnings or optimizing our processes over time. So once I settled in, you know, of course, the first 30, 60, 90 days of really understanding the team dynamics and pain points, I really started
116 00:17:59.750 ⇒ 00:18:03.610 Alyque Babwani: some of the retrospective systems after each project or sprint, you know?
117 00:18:03.860 ⇒ 00:18:19.909 Alyque Babwani: kind of capturing, you know, what we need and what we need to work on. So, for me, feedback is both constructive, as well as I’m comfortable taking it. I, you know, setting clear expectations up front so people know it’s safe to share and, you know, honest input.
118 00:18:19.970 ⇒ 00:18:38.729 Alyque Babwani: And if it’s not going to take, you know, personally, especially in a high-velocity environment, right? I’m proactive about not only asking for feedback on myself, but also, you know, providing feedback to teams, not just at, you know, project milestones or reviews, but throughout the quick things, retros, and, you know, even async’s channel, right, that fits the team’s vibe.
119 00:18:38.900 ⇒ 00:18:53.630 Alyque Babwani: And especially with engineers, I find best feedback happens organically during our daily stand-ups or code reviews, when, you know, we’re talking through buckets or discussing what’s working and what’s not in our process, I would often ask, you know, pointed questions like.
120 00:18:53.990 ⇒ 00:19:03.690 Alyque Babwani: You know, what could, you know, I do differently to help the team move faster? Is there anything, you know, the project planning is slowing you down, right? So those are some of the things that I’m comfortable, with, and…
121 00:19:03.800 ⇒ 00:19:11.499 Alyque Babwani: That, you know, possesses a challenge for our teams. At the same time, you know, I think, you know, best ideas come from when people push back or call out blind spots.
122 00:19:11.850 ⇒ 00:19:13.980 Alyque Babwani: So that’s where… that’s my….
123 00:19:14.040 ⇒ 00:19:16.530 Alexander Lubka: Of course, direct feedback. Yeah.
124 00:19:16.720 ⇒ 00:19:23.889 Alexander Lubka: And, yeah, feedback can be tough. And my last question before I hand it over to Tom is, you know, how do you hold your engineer and your development teams accountable?
125 00:19:25.400 ⇒ 00:19:27.280 Alyque Babwani: Huh, …
126 00:19:29.130 ⇒ 00:19:42.259 Alyque Babwani: So, accountability is definitely two ways. You know, for me, so holding engineering or development is kind of really about creating a shared sense of ownership over both the process and outcome, right? Without losing trust or autonomy that, you know, great
127 00:19:42.740 ⇒ 00:19:44.060 Alyque Babwani: team lead.
128 00:19:44.340 ⇒ 00:19:45.210 Alyque Babwani: …
129 00:19:45.520 ⇒ 00:19:55.450 Alyque Babwani: I approach, so I’ll give you an example, right? So, in my last role, or in one of my last roles, you know, where the team was working on rapid delivery.
130 00:19:55.710 ⇒ 00:20:07.169 Alyque Babwani: You know, with multiple simultaneous projects, it was easy for priorities and deadlines to drift, right? My responsibility was to ensure everyone stayed accountable for deliverables, communicate any blockers quickly.
131 00:20:07.390 ⇒ 00:20:24.179 Alyque Babwani: And that we constantly meet our timelines and quality standards. You know, I kicked off every project by co-creating clear success criterias and objectives with the engineers, so everyone knew the why behind every milestone. We maintain transparent, screen-accessible project boards.
132 00:20:24.200 ⇒ 00:20:32.870 Alyque Babwani: Where progress and assignments, you know, were visible to everyone, including the client, and if appropriate, you know, having those stand-ups, or regular, things needed.
133 00:20:33.120 ⇒ 00:20:43.900 Alyque Babwani: And I always invite pushback and honest feedback, as I also mentioned a little bit earlier as well. But when deadlines were missed, or, you know, quality is dropping, I focus the conversation on the root cause.
134 00:20:44.030 ⇒ 00:21:03.120 Alyque Babwani: You know, versus, you know, doing a brain game, you know, was it a scoping issue, resource constraint, you know, breaking, you know, a breakdown in the process? So instead of the brain, instead of, you know, pinpointing fingers or a blame, I really rally the team around, you know, what could be done differently next time, documenting our learnings, so that it doesn’t get lost, and also.
135 00:21:03.120 ⇒ 00:21:19.970 Alyque Babwani: making a point to publicly celebrate wins and, you know, shine on light, on team members that, you know, went the extra mile. So over time, this approach has really improved, you know, on-time delivery rates, you know, especially in my past projects, and, you know, we have seen a measurable impact in terms of, you know, how the team felt.
136 00:21:20.120 ⇒ 00:21:21.449 Alyque Babwani: connected.
137 00:21:22.530 ⇒ 00:21:30.860 Alyque Babwani: In short, or, you know, just to sum up, right, accountability works best when expectations are transparent, progress is visible.
138 00:21:31.110 ⇒ 00:21:38.899 Alyque Babwani: And the teams really feel empowered to, you know, to speak up, and I would make sure to facilitate that environment every step of the way.
139 00:21:41.090 ⇒ 00:21:41.770 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
140 00:21:42.080 ⇒ 00:21:42.810 Alyque Babwani: Okay.
141 00:21:42.810 ⇒ 00:21:52.330 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I guess I wanted to kind of open it up maybe to you, like, if you have any questions about the company or about the role, like, happy to answer anything, you know, in the…
142 00:21:52.490 ⇒ 00:21:53.800 Uttam Kumaran: Short time remaining.
143 00:21:54.960 ⇒ 00:21:56.100 Alyque Babwani: Okay.
144 00:21:56.380 ⇒ 00:21:57.290 Alyque Babwani: …
145 00:21:58.820 ⇒ 00:22:11.820 Alyque Babwani: maybe, you know, I know that, you know, this is a new startup company, but what are some of the challenges or the opportunities that the company is currently facing right now, and, you know, how does, you know, team member play a part in solving them?
146 00:22:13.150 ⇒ 00:22:29.719 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, we’re having challenges managing projects, so I think, really, I’m hopeful that this person can come in and sort of lead the delivery, like, running sprint rituals, you know, understanding the scopes, like, spending time with clients, building empathy with them.
147 00:22:29.770 ⇒ 00:22:35.770 Uttam Kumaran: But we’re having trouble, like, kind of scaling, and, you know, I think this is…
148 00:22:35.930 ⇒ 00:22:54.169 Uttam Kumaran: running consultancy is a headcount, you know, type of business, so you have to hire to sort of manage. But we’re also not looking for folks that are just very cookie-cutter project managers. I think we’re hopeful that people can stretch across multiple projects, but also they can consider, like, client service one versus
149 00:22:54.470 ⇒ 00:23:01.949 Uttam Kumaran: sort of nailing the perfect, you know, structure or process. So, yeah, that’s kind of, like, what we’re… we’re hopeful for in this role.
150 00:23:03.880 ⇒ 00:23:05.080 Alyque Babwani: Okay, okay.
151 00:23:05.180 ⇒ 00:23:07.190 Alyque Babwani: As,
152 00:23:07.430 ⇒ 00:23:15.290 Alyque Babwani: You know, how do you typically balance client expectations for speed with the need to maintain your long-term scalability and quality in your solutions?
153 00:23:16.950 ⇒ 00:23:22.550 Uttam Kumaran: It’s sort of case-by-case. I mean, if they’re paying for it, then we can move as fast as they want to.
154 00:23:22.710 ⇒ 00:23:34.000 Uttam Kumaran: Otherwise, as a standard, like, our goal is to maintain great engineering work. So, we won’t move fast if that compromises the quality of our… what we deliver.
155 00:23:34.000 ⇒ 00:23:42.989 Uttam Kumaran: Because it’s gonna come back to bite us anyways. Clients bring us in as a partner, not as, like, a dev shop, so we don’t do everything that they say, we…
156 00:23:42.990 ⇒ 00:23:53.470 Uttam Kumaran: We have gone into arguments with them about scope and speed. I don’t mind doing that, that’s why we’re there. In fact, we’re there as a partner to get us to get them to the outcome.
157 00:23:53.470 ⇒ 00:24:09.329 Uttam Kumaran: you know, there may be firms that are… will listen and sort of just build whatever they ask, but they’ll end up exactly where that company probably was before they called us, which was not a happy place, you know? So, that’s kind of usually… I think we’re… we’re more hard-headed because we…
158 00:24:09.660 ⇒ 00:24:12.779 Uttam Kumaran: Really understand the solutions that we build, you know, end-to-end.
159 00:24:14.040 ⇒ 00:24:16.499 Alyque Babwani: Okay, okay, no, that’s perfect.
160 00:24:16.810 ⇒ 00:24:28.579 Alyque Babwani: And given, you know, the fact that, you know, the company is growing, the departments are, you know, kind of, you know, in their growing pains as well, you know, what would success really look like for this particular role, maybe in the first 90 days?
161 00:24:29.280 ⇒ 00:24:40.080 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, a couple of our KPIs for the role would be maintaining project profitability. I think additionally, it would be minimizing escalations that come to me or my business partner.
162 00:24:40.100 ⇒ 00:24:50.020 Uttam Kumaran: So we want to see this person really owning clients, being able to run stand-ups, maintain that stuff is getting out on time, so there’s probably some metric around
163 00:24:50.050 ⇒ 00:25:02.630 Uttam Kumaran: you know, task completion, on-time task completion, but really, like, those are the three things. So minimizing our time that’s going into escalations, maintaining profitability, and, you know, ensuring that
164 00:25:03.030 ⇒ 00:25:10.630 Uttam Kumaran: tasks are happening on time. I think probably as this evolves, we get more into, like, client NPS and sort of understanding client happiness as well.
165 00:25:12.670 ⇒ 00:25:19.320 Alyque Babwani: Okay, I know we have 5 more minutes, just wanted to see if there’s any additional
166 00:25:19.530 ⇒ 00:25:27.899 Alyque Babwani: questions, clarifications that you have about my, you know, fit for this particular role, and how I can probably address those, the next few minutes that we have.
167 00:25:29.160 ⇒ 00:25:36.900 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, do you feel like… do you feel like it’s a good fit for you, from what you’ve learned so far, and just talking to us? Like, just, you know, just taking that into consideration for moving forward?
168 00:25:38.550 ⇒ 00:25:54.900 Alyque Babwani: Yeah, I think so. I know I’ve always thrived in smaller, you know, startup environments. I’ve been with a lot of, you know, startup environments in the past, so I know what it takes to really get things done, right? I’m not the one to just come in and, you know, this is my role, and, you know, I’m kind of…
169 00:25:55.140 ⇒ 00:26:01.829 Alyque Babwani: surfacing around that. I’m happy to kind of go above and beyond, kind of roll up my sleeves as needed. Even now,
170 00:26:01.960 ⇒ 00:26:11.539 Alyque Babwani: You know, I’ve done QA validations, I’ve written test kits, I’ve worked with engineers, I’ve worked with the product teams, I’ve worked with, you know, different projects that, aside, you know, from, you know, my day-to-day.
171 00:26:11.770 ⇒ 00:26:17.800 Alyque Babwani: I don’t think they’ll trust me with, you know, coding, but I think, that’s probably,
172 00:26:18.610 ⇒ 00:26:23.510 Alyque Babwani: best for, you know, for the company. So genuinely, yeah, of course, I’m drawn to, you know, the companies.
173 00:26:23.680 ⇒ 00:26:30.679 Alyque Babwani: mission, you know, the fact that it’s fast-moving, high-impact environment, to what you described, I love being in those settings where results really matter.
174 00:26:30.820 ⇒ 00:26:46.669 Alyque Babwani: Second, I appreciate, you know, how, you know, the company operates as a true partner to its client. It’s just not a dev shop, right? That consultative mindset, pushing back when necessary to protect quality and delivering long-term value, that’s not just checking boxes, right? That’s really important to me.
175 00:26:46.940 ⇒ 00:26:53.409 Alyque Babwani: And then, you know, from a technical side, or, you know, from a cultural side, you know, the roll-up list is, you know.
176 00:26:53.880 ⇒ 00:27:08.280 Alyque Babwani: described the best way, and the fact that, you know, you value structure, but also flexibility is, you know, really what I’m looking for. So, in all, you know, I think this is a good fit for me, and I definitely see that, you know, there’s a lot of impact that I can bring to the organization, as the organization
177 00:27:08.410 ⇒ 00:27:09.720 Alyque Babwani: growth.
178 00:27:12.290 ⇒ 00:27:12.910 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
179 00:27:13.370 ⇒ 00:27:18.549 Alexander Lubka: Great. Well, I’m glad to hear that. I have nothing else on my end. You, Tom?
180 00:27:19.590 ⇒ 00:27:31.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I feel good. I think I’ll probably kind of touch base with Alex and some of the team after this, and then we can get back in touch with next steps. Feel free to email me if you have any, you know, further questions or anything that I can answer.
181 00:27:32.330 ⇒ 00:27:34.740 Alyque Babwani: Okay, will do. From a process side, you know.
182 00:27:34.740 ⇒ 00:27:37.389 Alexander Lubka: Can you maybe just share a timeline, or….
183 00:27:37.630 ⇒ 00:27:42.340 Alyque Babwani: If there’s any next, I’m happy to speak with additional team members if… as and if needed.
184 00:27:42.810 ⇒ 00:27:55.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so we’re gonna… we’re hoping to kind of make a decision in this role within the next, like, week and a half or so, so I should… I believe that you’ll kind of hear from us. We’re interviewing several others for this opportunity as well, but that’s kind of, like, our timeline on a decision.
185 00:27:55.960 ⇒ 00:27:59.279 Alyque Babwani: Okay, okay, that’s perfect. That should work out for me as well.
186 00:28:00.170 ⇒ 00:28:03.539 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect. Well, thank you so much. Thanks, Alex, for taking the time.
187 00:28:03.540 ⇒ 00:28:05.309 Alyque Babwani: Thank you guys.
188 00:28:05.310 ⇒ 00:28:06.320 Alexander Lubka: Thank you.
189 00:28:06.320 ⇒ 00:28:06.900 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.