Meeting Title: AI PM Process Review Sync Date: 2025-09-23 Meeting participants: Rico Rejoso, Amber Lin, Justin Breshears
WEBVTT
1 00:00:09.020 ⇒ 00:00:10.290 Amber Lin: Hi!
2 00:00:10.880 ⇒ 00:00:12.329 Rico Rejoso: Hey, Amber, how are you?
3 00:00:12.940 ⇒ 00:00:30.570 Amber Lin: I’m good. I was just chatting with the AI team on the AI PM stuff, and I have a few things that I want us to review, maybe, like, tomorrow. I also asked Sam and team about, the PMing progress. How do you feel?
4 00:00:32.870 ⇒ 00:00:34.749 Amber Lin: Sounds like you guys did a lot already.
5 00:00:35.240 ⇒ 00:00:44.860 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I’m trying to… what do you call that? Revamp the process that I’m doing before with the marketing team.
6 00:00:44.990 ⇒ 00:00:53.189 Rico Rejoso: So, I want to make sure that we’re aligned with the OPRs, because basically, with the marketing team, fast-paced environment.
7 00:00:53.300 ⇒ 00:01:08.910 Rico Rejoso: I think that’s the reason I wasn’t able to keep up more, but since AI is more stable and everything, I’m trying to create a different process and, you know, exploring based on Justin’s and your notes. I mean, your guide.
8 00:01:09.060 ⇒ 00:01:12.259 Rico Rejoso: As well, coming up with a process of my own as well.
9 00:01:13.040 ⇒ 00:01:17.230 Amber Lin: I think that’s something… Okay.
10 00:01:17.550 ⇒ 00:01:28.099 Amber Lin: I know you guys are creating new projects, I guess I’ll just check in maybe a few days, later, and then I’ll see how it goes. Hi, Justin!
11 00:01:29.620 ⇒ 00:01:32.220 Justin Breshears: Hey, sorry, a little late, how are ya?
12 00:01:32.960 ⇒ 00:01:33.550 Rico Rejoso: I did.
13 00:01:34.100 ⇒ 00:01:43.400 Amber Lin: Yeah, I just chatted with the AI team, and I was just seeing how Rico feel about starting on that project. Let me copy and paste our…
14 00:01:43.640 ⇒ 00:01:47.620 Amber Lin: Actually, here are the notes Notion doc.
15 00:01:47.770 ⇒ 00:01:49.849 Amber Lin: Let me share that.
16 00:01:50.330 ⇒ 00:01:55.940 Amber Lin: And then we can keep our notes and the agendas there. Let me copy and paste the agenda.
17 00:01:56.460 ⇒ 00:02:07.810 Amber Lin: So, our agenda today… I know we want to… Today is…
18 00:02:11.039 ⇒ 00:02:17.190 Amber Lin: So today is September. Oh, so funny, the last time we did this was a month ago.
19 00:02:17.520 ⇒ 00:02:21.100 Amber Lin: It’s just so… Okay.
20 00:02:21.570 ⇒ 00:02:28.100 Amber Lin: So, there’s Remo, check on that. I guess I also want to see how, Justin, you feel on the new projects.
21 00:02:28.430 ⇒ 00:02:32.220 Amber Lin: False check…
22 00:02:32.500 ⇒ 00:02:41.270 Amber Lin: And then I also just met with the AI team, on the stuff that they’re doing for the…
23 00:02:41.860 ⇒ 00:02:59.200 Amber Lin: like PM automations. I’m just gonna put it there. I think throughout this week, if we can… maybe tomorrow we can take time to review it together. There’s quite a few items, and if we can give them feedback, or at least help them ticket it out, that will be… that will be helpful.
24 00:03:00.340 ⇒ 00:03:05.350 Amber Lin: Okay. I think in terms of priority, I think this is good. Let’s start.
25 00:03:05.590 ⇒ 00:03:11.219 Amber Lin: Is this agenda good? I’m gonna just start in this order. Anything else you want to add before we start?
26 00:03:13.510 ⇒ 00:03:19.659 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I just want to go over the Sprint Management SOP and kind of, you know, be able to kind of review that, and…
27 00:03:20.230 ⇒ 00:03:22.530 Amber Lin: Oh, that’s the review SOP that you have at the top.
28 00:03:23.330 ⇒ 00:03:27.969 Rico Rejoso: I also have one I just created, baseball.
29 00:03:28.100 ⇒ 00:03:29.550 Rico Rejoso: Promoton’s request.
30 00:03:29.690 ⇒ 00:03:33.630 Rico Rejoso: The budget allocation, Oh, yeah.
31 00:03:34.200 ⇒ 00:03:35.270 Amber Lin: Budgets…
32 00:03:38.300 ⇒ 00:03:41.010 Amber Lin: Yeah, can you link that here?
33 00:03:41.770 ⇒ 00:03:47.159 Rico Rejoso: I have it… I mean, I submitted it to Finance, still waiting for the response.
34 00:03:47.760 ⇒ 00:03:58.369 Amber Lin: what’s the… I guess let’s do the first one, and then… he also asked me a while back, I just… I only did, like, a quick formula calculation, but I want to see how that is.
35 00:03:58.740 ⇒ 00:03:59.490 Amber Lin: Alright.
36 00:04:00.400 ⇒ 00:04:05.450 Amber Lin: Let’s get started. Justin, do you want to share screen and we can go over the SOP?
37 00:04:06.450 ⇒ 00:04:08.370 Justin Breshears: Sounds like a plan. Cool.
38 00:04:08.530 ⇒ 00:04:24.609 Justin Breshears: So I’ll start with this as, like, this was… just came out of, like, Rico and I talking about, like, how I… I view a sprint, or whatever. None of this in here is, like, you have to do all of these things, right? Like, some projects that we have, I don’t think that we have, like, weekly…
39 00:04:24.640 ⇒ 00:04:29.169 Justin Breshears: Sprint reviews or check-ins with the client, and, like, we don’t do it necessarily the same, but…
40 00:04:29.910 ⇒ 00:04:47.079 Justin Breshears: I think this is kind of an aspirational goal, is to, like, run our projects this way eventually, when they’re, like, a little bit more complex. It’ll require this kind of level of management, but for now, there’s definitely…
41 00:04:47.280 ⇒ 00:04:56.420 Justin Breshears: some things that we can take away from this, again, than what we’re doing right now. And I think the biggest thing is, like, in the sprint planning and the velocity.
42 00:04:56.640 ⇒ 00:05:10.789 Justin Breshears: and the capacity planning. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen that we can improve on in the current projects that we have. So, I’ll run through this, ask questions along the way, I’ll elaborate on this. I’m not going to read word for word through all of this.
43 00:05:11.080 ⇒ 00:05:21.379 Amber Lin: Justin, do you want us to take 5 minutes to read and comment? This way, you don’t have to read to us each one of them. We can comment, and you can answer questions from the comments.
44 00:05:21.790 ⇒ 00:05:23.650 Justin Breshears: I’m definitely not gonna read this to you.
45 00:05:23.650 ⇒ 00:05:24.470 Amber Lin: Oh, okay, okay.
46 00:05:24.470 ⇒ 00:05:32.239 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I think you can take the time to, like, read through it, you know, piece by piece after if you want, if you haven’t already.
47 00:05:32.450 ⇒ 00:05:50.659 Justin Breshears: But I’m just gonna give kind of the overview. There’s three… three main, you know, parts to the Sprint, the beginning, the middle, and the end, right? And the… you kind of have to look at it, you know, each Sprint as, like, its own little mini project, right? So…
48 00:05:50.840 ⇒ 00:05:57.489 Justin Breshears: you start a sprint, Monday… most of our stuff is running Monday through Friday, so it’s like, start the week.
49 00:05:57.650 ⇒ 00:06:05.059 Justin Breshears: you plan out, what are we gonna do this week, right? So, the first thing you have to know is, like, what is the total capacity for
50 00:06:05.440 ⇒ 00:06:14.449 Justin Breshears: my team, because we’re running teams that have partial allocations, for the most part. I don’t think anybody is, like, 100% dedicated to one thing.
51 00:06:14.470 ⇒ 00:06:28.100 Justin Breshears: So, we’re running partially allocated teams, which means I gotta know the capacity of my team, so I got… this resource has 10 hours, this resource has 5, so on and so forth, right? You add it all up, that’s your total capacity for the sprint, right?
52 00:06:28.230 ⇒ 00:06:36.980 Justin Breshears: You work from there. You should have planned work for each of those resources to hit their capacity, right? You want everything to equal out one-to-one.
53 00:06:37.260 ⇒ 00:06:43.570 Justin Breshears: So if somebody has 10 hours in the week to dedicate to the project, she’ll plan out 10 hours of work for them.
54 00:06:43.840 ⇒ 00:06:51.760 Justin Breshears: If you do not have 10 hours of work for them, that’s fine, as long as y’all are, as a team.
55 00:06:51.910 ⇒ 00:06:53.560 Justin Breshears: Hitting the overall goal.
56 00:06:53.670 ⇒ 00:07:01.039 Justin Breshears: of the project, right? So, that’s what we’re constantly comparing to. It’s not just, like, oh, I gotta make sure
57 00:07:01.550 ⇒ 00:07:10.979 Justin Breshears: you know, this person has 10 hours of work, this person has 5. It’s also comparing it to, like, are we meeting client expectations and what they want, right?
58 00:07:10.980 ⇒ 00:07:24.650 Amber Lin: I have a question on that side. So, it’s… it’s easy if we just want to cap hours at a certain number. It’s harder to gauge, what you just said of, okay, the client needs at least this per week.
59 00:07:24.750 ⇒ 00:07:33.010 Amber Lin: And balancing those two. How do you convert, or how do you assess what the client needs this week?
60 00:07:34.570 ⇒ 00:07:36.450 Justin Breshears: Great question.
61 00:07:36.890 ⇒ 00:07:42.880 Justin Breshears: Great question, two ways, and I think the first way is, like, aspirational.
62 00:07:44.990 ⇒ 00:07:56.310 Justin Breshears: So, we should have, like, deliverables and requirements and, like, expectations clearly mapped out in our statements of work. I don’t think that we have that right now. Maybe in the future, that we’ll get more…
63 00:07:56.310 ⇒ 00:07:58.559 Amber Lin: Very, very hard, because things…
64 00:07:58.560 ⇒ 00:07:59.040 Justin Breshears: Yes.
65 00:07:59.040 ⇒ 00:08:01.099 Amber Lin: Things come up ad hoc very often.
66 00:08:01.100 ⇒ 00:08:16.320 Justin Breshears: Right. And I’m seeing that with Insomnia, right? Like, insomnia has, like, no clear goal. We’re really just, like, answering questions for them, right? So some projects, it’ll be impossible to do that, and that’s fine, like, that’s kind of the nature of client work. Sometimes it’s gonna be a little bit messy.
67 00:08:16.320 ⇒ 00:08:21.980 Justin Breshears: So, the second way that you make sure that you are hitting the mark is communication with the client.
68 00:08:22.840 ⇒ 00:08:33.890 Justin Breshears: making sure that you are on the same page with your client about expectations, that’s, like, one of the main jobs of a PM, in my opinion. So, you know, even if you’ve got, like.
69 00:08:34.049 ⇒ 00:08:54.030 Justin Breshears: send a message on Monday to the client and be like, hey, these are the things that we’re focusing on this week. These are our priorities. Let me know if you want to change that up, or you disagree, or whatever, right? Like, just making sure that… the way I used to do it is with an actual sprint review meeting every week, where we would
70 00:08:54.310 ⇒ 00:08:56.810 Justin Breshears: Go over the work that we did the last sprint.
71 00:08:57.110 ⇒ 00:09:10.209 Justin Breshears: the client would say, yep, we love it. And then we would close that out, and then we would look ahead and show them the work that we were planning that spread. Like, literally on a call together, showing them the tickets, right? I don’t think we’re there yet. Like, that’s…
72 00:09:10.540 ⇒ 00:09:13.979 Justin Breshears: I don’t think we’re there yet in our projects, right? So, even.
73 00:09:14.460 ⇒ 00:09:18.910 Justin Breshears: now, it may just be, like, a Slack message, and just being like, hey.
74 00:09:20.560 ⇒ 00:09:38.800 Justin Breshears: kicking off the week, like, these are our priorities that we’re focusing on, like, if… just make sure that matches up with your expectations, right? Okay. And then in the weekly updates at the end of the sprint, it’s, hey, this is all that we did, right? And it should match up, right? Like, the stuff that you planned at the beginning of the week should match up with the stuff at the end, right?
75 00:09:38.840 ⇒ 00:09:51.810 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think your, our spring planning is lacking, because I think the current problem is that we’ll tell the clients these are what we’re gonna do, and we end up delivering, like, two-thirds of that.
76 00:09:51.910 ⇒ 00:09:52.560 Amber Lin: And I think.
77 00:09:52.560 ⇒ 00:09:53.280 Justin Breshears: Yeah.
78 00:09:53.450 ⇒ 00:09:58.009 Amber Lin: Not only planning, but also watching if things carry over, because…
79 00:09:58.170 ⇒ 00:10:05.209 Amber Lin: I do think we planned within capacity, so it’s either some things are not being documented, or…
80 00:10:05.520 ⇒ 00:10:10.310 Amber Lin: things are not getting completed on time. Like, I keep seeing tickets getting…
81 00:10:10.640 ⇒ 00:10:28.930 Amber Lin: hold, drag to the next sprint, and I think people are optimistic, or they don’t want to say that they can’t do certain things. Like, today, on Eden, I was asking, hey, can we do this? Do you need someone else to take this ticket over? And people want to seem like they can
82 00:10:28.970 ⇒ 00:10:35.399 Amber Lin: Or if they did less work last week, they want to do more this week, very understandable, but we need to…
83 00:10:36.200 ⇒ 00:10:46.209 Amber Lin: have them only take on what they can do. It’s… or is this something that we can enforce harder, and we have just more authority to say, hey, this one we’re gonna do…
84 00:10:46.330 ⇒ 00:10:48.220 Amber Lin: Next. And…
85 00:10:50.620 ⇒ 00:11:03.960 Justin Breshears: Sorry, that was a lot. I think that’s… no, you’re spot on. I’ve seen the same thing since I’ve been here, and it’s definitely causing problems. So, that’s where I think the in-flight monitoring during the sprint is crucial.
86 00:11:04.340 ⇒ 00:11:21.019 Justin Breshears: So, what I would say is, I think daily stand-ups should be the default for every project. Like, I think you should start every project setting up a 15-minute daily stand-up for this reason, because if you are looking at it every single day, you can see, like.
87 00:11:21.340 ⇒ 00:11:27.069 Justin Breshears: During the sprint, hey, like, this ticket is estimated at a 2-pointer, like.
88 00:11:27.140 ⇒ 00:11:33.750 Justin Breshears: and it’s taken you 3 days to do, like, what’s going on there, right? Like, that’s how you measure…
89 00:11:33.820 ⇒ 00:11:41.879 Justin Breshears: you know, if you’re… if you’re hitting things, or you’re running into problems, or, like, whatever. I think the best way to measure that is, like.
90 00:11:41.910 ⇒ 00:12:00.459 Justin Breshears: buy ticket, like, your estimates, you should hold people to, like… and that’s why due dates on the tickets are important, too, so it’s like, hey, you know, when do you think you can do this two-point ticket? Tuesday? Okay. If it’s Wednesday and that ticket’s not done, we should be asking why. Like, I had to do that a lot today on my sinks, where.
91 00:12:01.380 ⇒ 00:12:04.960 Justin Breshears: I was like… Hey guys,
92 00:12:05.180 ⇒ 00:12:09.249 Justin Breshears: You know, these are all due last week, like, what’s going on here?
93 00:12:09.500 ⇒ 00:12:17.060 Justin Breshears: So I think just, like, holding people accountable is a huge part of being a PM and managing a sprint.
94 00:12:17.060 ⇒ 00:12:17.390 Amber Lin: Yeah.
95 00:12:17.390 ⇒ 00:12:30.140 Justin Breshears: like a legitimate reason where it’s like, hey, I couldn’t do that because I’m blocked by this thing from the customer, then that’s a totally, you know, separate conversation where it’s like, okay, I need to go to the customer with that, you know?
96 00:12:31.830 ⇒ 00:12:39.189 Amber Lin: And sometimes, it’s just they… they end up working, or something comes up in their lives where they didn’t end up working that much.
97 00:12:39.490 ⇒ 00:12:42.239 Amber Lin: That week, or it…
98 00:12:43.590 ⇒ 00:12:56.210 Amber Lin: sometimes I just don’t know why things didn’t get done, it’s not blocked, it’s just planned and not done, and within their available hours. I guess my question is on how do we keep accountability
99 00:12:56.350 ⇒ 00:13:01.400 Amber Lin: Because I ask the same questions, but sometimes it just keeps happening.
100 00:13:01.770 ⇒ 00:13:02.740 Amber Lin: Should we…
101 00:13:02.740 ⇒ 00:13:03.609 Justin Breshears: I mean, you should be raised.
102 00:13:03.610 ⇒ 00:13:04.540 Amber Lin: Harsher?
103 00:13:05.240 ⇒ 00:13:23.080 Justin Breshears: Well, you should just be raising that risk to, the channels. So, like, if I had a resource that was committing to a certain amount of work and continually not hitting that velocity, I’d be flagging that in the internal client channel, just being like, hey, you know.
104 00:13:23.470 ⇒ 00:13:32.450 Justin Breshears: so-and-so, I’ll just use Rico, because you’re here, Rico, not saying that she would ever do this, but Rico, you know, had 10 points estimated this week.
105 00:13:32.730 ⇒ 00:13:34.990 Justin Breshears: It only hit 5,
106 00:13:35.510 ⇒ 00:13:47.059 Justin Breshears: So these things didn’t get done. And then it’s a question of, like, is it a performance issue that we need to evaluate as a company? Like, are they just not doing their job? Do they need assistance? Like, whatever. Like, that’s…
107 00:13:47.060 ⇒ 00:13:55.810 Justin Breshears: that’s a greater conversation than I think at this point, like, Utam, Robert, and myself probably need to take over at that point.
108 00:13:56.970 ⇒ 00:13:57.630 Amber Lin: Hmm.
109 00:13:57.890 ⇒ 00:14:05.959 Justin Breshears: because I’m… I mean, I’m happy to help have those conversations and everything, but yeah, that’s where you’re raising risks, you’re raising red flags of, like.
110 00:14:06.140 ⇒ 00:14:18.540 Justin Breshears: we’re continually not hitting velocity, and this is impacting the project in this way. So either we need to change the way that we are planning our velocity, or figure out what’s going on. Again, if…
111 00:14:18.680 ⇒ 00:14:24.239 Justin Breshears: If it’s not needed, like, let’s say 5 hours is sufficient enough to, like.
112 00:14:24.480 ⇒ 00:14:35.589 Justin Breshears: the client’s happy, we’re getting everything done, like, great. 5 hours is enough. But, if it’s, you know, we’re supposed to be at 10, and we’re hitting 5, and the 5 that we didn’t hit is, like.
113 00:14:35.750 ⇒ 00:14:38.770 Justin Breshears: The client is expecting it, and we’re not delivering, then…
114 00:14:39.100 ⇒ 00:14:41.829 Justin Breshears: that’s when I would be raising the red flags.
115 00:14:42.070 ⇒ 00:14:43.160 Amber Lin: So…
116 00:14:43.160 ⇒ 00:14:45.679 Justin Breshears: You can’t, like, hold anybody, like…
117 00:14:45.860 ⇒ 00:14:54.009 Justin Breshears: accountable yourself as a PM. Like, that’s one of the hardest things about being a PM, is, like, you don’t have any kind of organizational authority over people.
118 00:14:54.760 ⇒ 00:15:02.879 Justin Breshears: just have influence, right? So, somehow you’ve got to… it’s a dance where you learn how to influence people without authority.
119 00:15:03.250 ⇒ 00:15:15.609 Justin Breshears: And that’s, like, you know, just holding people to expectations is one of the ways that you can do that. So, setting clear expectations at the beginning of the sprint, hey, this is the work that we have for you.
120 00:15:15.630 ⇒ 00:15:27.089 Justin Breshears: And then holding them accountable by following up along the way with the in-flight sprint monitoring, and then, you know, reviewing at the end. Like, those are the ways that you can hold people accountable without
121 00:15:27.250 ⇒ 00:15:33.549 Justin Breshears: Like, being harsh, or, you know, having any kind of, like, organizational authority over that.
122 00:15:33.980 ⇒ 00:15:43.800 Justin Breshears: And if it’s not working, and they’re just continually brushing it off, then that’s, again, that’s a greater conversation that… I mean, you can even bring it up with, like, the tech leads on the projects and stuff, like…
123 00:15:44.100 ⇒ 00:16:01.939 Justin Breshears: hey, like, maybe talk to them, see what’s going on, whatever. And sometimes, I think we’ll run into, like, this person just took on too much work, because they’re involved in this project, and this project, and then internal initiatives, and all that stuff. And that’s one reason why we have to really manage this capacity well, is because we’re all sharing these people.
124 00:16:02.050 ⇒ 00:16:14.010 Justin Breshears: You know, Rico may have, you know, Casey on the internal AI team working on stuff, and then I’m working with Casey on Insomnia, and Casey’s probably doing stuff on other projects, right? So if we allow…
125 00:16:14.260 ⇒ 00:16:20.020 Justin Breshears: somebody to take on too much work in any one of those, it affects all of the other projects that they’re working on, too.
126 00:16:20.120 ⇒ 00:16:23.699 Justin Breshears: So that’s why this is super important to keep on top of.
127 00:16:24.300 ⇒ 00:16:33.479 Amber Lin: Yeah, I was thinking here, we would… we should have a escalation process, SOP, eventually, of…
128 00:16:33.500 ⇒ 00:16:52.399 Amber Lin: how to escalate, and then different scenarios of why things might happen, and how to deal with those different scenarios. I think I started… I started something based on that in the… in the guide that I wrote, like, the sprint, how to run different rituals and stuff, but I do want to update it based on
129 00:16:52.400 ⇒ 00:16:54.120 Amber Lin: What you just wrote here.
130 00:16:55.240 ⇒ 00:17:02.120 Amber Lin: So that if we have new coordinators coming on, they can just follow line by line, that’ll be easier.
131 00:17:03.120 ⇒ 00:17:03.680 Justin Breshears: Yeah.
132 00:17:03.990 ⇒ 00:17:06.740 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I agree. I think that would be a good thing to add.
133 00:17:07.359 ⇒ 00:17:24.689 Justin Breshears: maybe we just add it into this one, maybe we make it its own separate thing, whatever. And that’s the whole point of, like, having these SOP templates that, like, hey, we have an idea where it’s like, hey, it would be nice to have an SOP for this. Boom, duplicate the template, fill it out, you know, circulate it around, and then ship it, you know?
134 00:17:25.170 ⇒ 00:17:35.000 Justin Breshears: So this is definitely, like, we have probably 500 more of these that we need to create with all the different processes, so… Oh, by the way…
135 00:17:35.040 ⇒ 00:17:52.900 Amber Lin: By the way, for one of the AI team’s OKRs is to map out all the different processes. I know they have a document, and I do want us to list out all the SOPs that we want to create. Can we find a time to do that together, or should someone do it, and then we…
136 00:17:52.900 ⇒ 00:17:55.670 Amber Lin: or AI do the initial pass, and we review it.
137 00:17:56.490 ⇒ 00:17:57.100 Justin Breshears: Yep.
138 00:17:57.540 ⇒ 00:18:00.960 Justin Breshears: Show me that document, happy to, because I just kind of.
139 00:18:00.960 ⇒ 00:18:02.069 Amber Lin: I’m running back.
140 00:18:02.070 ⇒ 00:18:02.770 Justin Breshears: log.
141 00:18:03.190 ⇒ 00:18:07.269 Amber Lin: Don’t know. Let me try and find where that is.
142 00:18:07.970 ⇒ 00:18:09.480 Justin Breshears: Where’s… .
143 00:18:10.900 ⇒ 00:18:16.069 Amber Lin: Rico, do you know where they keep it? It’s the one with multiple tables for each team.
144 00:18:18.140 ⇒ 00:18:20.340 Rico Rejoso: Not sure, I think it’s on the date.
145 00:18:20.840 ⇒ 00:18:21.500 Rico Rejoso: Let me check.
146 00:18:21.500 ⇒ 00:18:22.180 Amber Lin: -Oh.
147 00:18:23.470 ⇒ 00:18:24.270 Amber Lin: Okay.
148 00:18:30.300 ⇒ 00:18:37.259 Justin Breshears: Well, while you’re doing that, we can continue with this. Some things I just want to highlight, my stand-ups, this is how I run my stand-ups. Pull up the board.
149 00:18:37.510 ⇒ 00:18:42.389 Justin Breshears: 15 minutes, go around the horn and say, hey, what did you do yesterday? What are you doing today?
150 00:18:42.560 ⇒ 00:18:45.100 Justin Breshears: You know, what are you blocked off? That kind of thing.
151 00:18:45.210 ⇒ 00:18:51.369 Justin Breshears: People tell, you know, what they’re… what they got going on. You’re checking in against expected progress, all that stuff.
152 00:18:51.940 ⇒ 00:19:01.399 Justin Breshears: Cool, good to go, move on to the next person. If there’s some bigger discussion, like, I’m actually having trouble with this code, or, this issue, or whatever, like, and…
153 00:19:01.670 ⇒ 00:19:05.720 Justin Breshears: The stand-up is not the time to solution problems. You can create…
154 00:19:05.910 ⇒ 00:19:11.029 Justin Breshears: You know, separate syncs or async, you know, collaboration on whatever topics that come up.
155 00:19:11.140 ⇒ 00:19:16.379 Justin Breshears: But the stand-up should be quick, hitter, going around the horn, you know, talking about what people did.
156 00:19:20.350 ⇒ 00:19:30.950 Justin Breshears: The other thing is, if work is added into the sprint, that’s the big one that we see a lot. Like insomnia, that’s all it is. It’s just ad hoc work, right? So…
157 00:19:31.760 ⇒ 00:19:39.969 Justin Breshears: That’s where, like, hey, we got stuff planned, -oh, customer came in with a new request, that’s when we should huddle together and be like, okay, what needs to come out of our sprint?
158 00:19:40.230 ⇒ 00:19:47.929 Justin Breshears: We can’t… if we have 20 hours for the team planned, and 10 extra hours of work come in, we can’t just make it 30 hours for the week now.
159 00:19:48.270 ⇒ 00:20:04.800 Justin Breshears: we have to make trade-offs, with what is important. So, that’ll be a conversation that you have with the delivery team and the account owner. So, Robert or Utam or whoever, you know, owns that account, they’ll be key in helping prioritize
160 00:20:05.280 ⇒ 00:20:10.019 Justin Breshears: the work, and see, like, okay, is this ad hoc work that came in? What does it bump out?
161 00:20:11.010 ⇒ 00:20:13.940 Amber Lin: And that’s also, like, conversations with the client, too, like…
162 00:20:14.180 ⇒ 00:20:18.379 Justin Breshears: you know, Hey, we can absolutely get this request done for you.
163 00:20:18.690 ⇒ 00:20:32.260 Justin Breshears: on top of it, but, you know, what’s your… what’s your timeline on when you want this done? Because right now, we have this, this, and this planned for this week. If you want it… if you need it done this week, like, happy to move stuff around, but, you know, what do you want?
164 00:20:32.770 ⇒ 00:20:35.369 Justin Breshears: Those type of conversations with the client are important.
165 00:20:36.480 ⇒ 00:20:37.120 Amber Lin: Yeah, I see.
166 00:20:37.120 ⇒ 00:20:43.089 Justin Breshears: And this is where, like, I don’t think we are yet, is in, like, weekly sprint reviews with the client, but this would be…
167 00:20:43.310 ⇒ 00:20:49.440 Justin Breshears: future case, I think, for anything, like, complex. I mean, I think Eden is probably already there, which I don’t.
168 00:20:49.440 ⇒ 00:20:57.519 Amber Lin: Eden, Robert does a review with the client, so he calls them every Friday, and then he just added me to the… every…
169 00:20:57.660 ⇒ 00:21:01.559 Amber Lin: I think every other Wednesday check-in that I… that he has for them.
170 00:21:01.560 ⇒ 00:21:05.200 Justin Breshears: There you go. Perfect. See, so he’s doing that. Eventually…
171 00:21:05.320 ⇒ 00:21:08.209 Justin Breshears: I want that to be led by… us.
172 00:21:08.420 ⇒ 00:21:12.570 Justin Breshears: Us PMs. That would be better.
173 00:21:12.860 ⇒ 00:21:15.390 Amber Lin: Because I think the idea is…
174 00:21:15.820 ⇒ 00:21:29.010 Justin Breshears: like, what we really want to do is get Robert and Utam out of delivery, and so they can focus on sales. Because if they can focus on sales, we all make more money as a company, and we all benefit from that, I think, so…
175 00:21:29.370 ⇒ 00:21:33.199 Justin Breshears: More money for raises, bonuses, all sorts of stuff, right?
176 00:21:33.690 ⇒ 00:21:46.659 Justin Breshears: So, I think that’ll… that’s the goal, is, like, eventually, like, PM team should be owning those weekly reviews, but for now, like, it’s fine. The relationships are there between, you know, Robert and the client, that’s fine.
177 00:21:47.020 ⇒ 00:21:55.630 Justin Breshears: Most of this is, like, again, aspirational for future work, future clients, but important to have those kind of, like, processes documented for when we get there.
178 00:21:57.360 ⇒ 00:22:03.270 Justin Breshears: Any questions on any of that? I know I just went really long, but I just wanted to chat with Joe about it and see what questions you have.
179 00:22:04.040 ⇒ 00:22:10.149 Amber Lin: I don’t have questions, I asked all of them as you talked, so I have no questions.
180 00:22:10.150 ⇒ 00:22:11.360 Justin Breshears: Jico, you got anything?
181 00:22:11.640 ⇒ 00:22:14.949 Rico Rejoso: Same, I don’t have any questions so far. Basically, Amber.
182 00:22:15.740 ⇒ 00:22:17.399 Rico Rejoso: Already asked those questions.
183 00:22:17.880 ⇒ 00:22:18.470 Justin Breshears: You bet.
184 00:22:18.660 ⇒ 00:22:25.170 Justin Breshears: I do want to create a weekly status report template at some point, so that’s pending. That’s on my list of things to do.
185 00:22:25.170 ⇒ 00:22:30.349 Amber Lin: We have something… would it be easier if you edited something instead of creating it from scratch?
186 00:22:30.660 ⇒ 00:22:31.699 Justin Breshears: Of course, yeah.
187 00:22:31.700 ⇒ 00:22:39.879 Amber Lin: Yeah, here’s the… let me send you the current one, and you can comment on, this is… we should include this, we should include that.
188 00:22:40.770 ⇒ 00:22:41.150 Justin Breshears: That’d be great.
189 00:22:41.150 ⇒ 00:22:46.459 Amber Lin: communication… Alright, let me put it in the…
190 00:22:53.210 ⇒ 00:23:07.159 Justin Breshears: That would be great. And just one more note on the Sprint Management stuff, Rico, I think this is gonna be really important for your teams, as you’re taking over, like, these internal teams, because y’all have a very fixed budget, of, like, hours that you can spend, right?
191 00:23:08.730 ⇒ 00:23:16.109 Justin Breshears: So, it’s gonna be, like, super important for you to not let people on the internal teams go over their budgeted time.
192 00:23:16.220 ⇒ 00:23:32.090 Justin Breshears: Because that’s gonna take away from, like, client work and… and all sorts of stuff. So, you’re gonna be somebody who can really utilize, like, this… this process, more so than… than maybe some of us following client work that’s, like, kind of a little bit more nebulous, you know?
193 00:23:32.140 ⇒ 00:23:41.259 Justin Breshears: So I’d be curious to see how this process really works in your context. So give us, you know, feedback and updates as, you know, in the next couple of weeks as you…
194 00:23:41.390 ⇒ 00:23:42.870 Justin Breshears: As you see it in action.
195 00:23:43.700 ⇒ 00:23:49.169 Amber Lin: Let me put down… so… I tagged you in there.
196 00:23:49.620 ⇒ 00:23:56.000 Amber Lin: And then… I also included a document in our PM team meeting notes.
197 00:23:56.310 ⇒ 00:23:59.829 Amber Lin: So, you should be able to find it there.
198 00:24:00.060 ⇒ 00:24:06.400 Amber Lin: Yeah, and then the next item on our agenda is the budget allocations for internal teams.
199 00:24:08.200 ⇒ 00:24:13.639 Amber Lin: I know sales and marketing, we said we wanted to be 20% of MRR.
200 00:24:15.550 ⇒ 00:24:19.890 Rico Rejoso: I mean, what becomes the rules?
201 00:24:20.110 ⇒ 00:24:26.560 Rico Rejoso: 10%, although we still have, like, room to adjust that one, since we have, like, 14%.
202 00:24:26.670 ⇒ 00:24:27.890 Rico Rejoso: as a buffer.
203 00:24:28.690 ⇒ 00:24:29.400 Rico Rejoso: the… because…
204 00:24:29.400 ⇒ 00:24:39.000 Amber Lin: Wait, can you paste his words, or type out what he wants the percentages to be?
205 00:24:41.300 ⇒ 00:24:44.819 Rico Rejoso: There’s just this screenshot of it when we get the Slack message.
206 00:25:15.070 ⇒ 00:25:16.349 Rico Rejoso: Just a stuck message.
207 00:25:22.060 ⇒ 00:25:23.100 Amber Lin: Alright.
208 00:25:24.500 ⇒ 00:25:30.629 Amber Lin: Oh… 10% is very low.
209 00:25:31.740 ⇒ 00:25:33.720 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I’m seeing.
210 00:25:33.720 ⇒ 00:25:43.039 Amber Lin: What do you mean, stay in within… oh, I think it means we need a budget, and then stay within 10% of the budget. Doesn’t mean it’s 10% of the MRR.
211 00:25:45.410 ⇒ 00:25:48.860 Justin Breshears: Hmm… I think that’s probably the opposite.
212 00:25:49.670 ⇒ 00:25:56.030 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I’m also, like, I looked at the perplexity, conversation that he had.
213 00:25:56.450 ⇒ 00:26:02.309 Rico Rejoso: Wherein it’s, like, within… 10% to 25% at max in regards to,
214 00:26:02.890 ⇒ 00:26:03.470 Rico Rejoso: Kidding.
215 00:26:03.610 ⇒ 00:26:07.790 Rico Rejoso: So, I just put in 10% for now, and put the rest for buffer.
216 00:26:08.330 ⇒ 00:26:09.080 Rico Rejoso: If engaged.
217 00:26:09.080 ⇒ 00:26:11.420 Amber Lin: How much is 10%?
218 00:26:12.920 ⇒ 00:26:19.519 Rico Rejoso: That’s… For sales, that’s… I mean, from 10%, I…
219 00:26:19.820 ⇒ 00:26:28.900 Rico Rejoso: Put 6% under sales and 4% on marketing, 5,000 for sales and 3,000 for marketing, based on the.
220 00:26:28.900 ⇒ 00:26:36.470 Justin Breshears: Actually, I think Amber was right. I think Amber was right that we need to get a budget approved, and then stay within 10% of that budget by end of March.
221 00:26:36.470 ⇒ 00:26:37.200 Amber Lin: Yeah.
222 00:26:37.420 ⇒ 00:26:38.379 Amber Lin: That’s not ridiculous.
223 00:26:38.380 ⇒ 00:26:40.070 Justin Breshears: Sorry, I just saw the message.
224 00:26:40.290 ⇒ 00:26:55.799 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me actually share a screen. We can… we can map it out here. I think for sale, I remember what Utam said, for sales plus marketing, so anything to promote to get revenue, I think he said 20% of our MRR.
225 00:26:55.900 ⇒ 00:27:06.939 Amber Lin: Which I think right now we’re at, like, 80 or 85, depending on how… how we count, because sometimes hourly clients are large, like, we earn more or less.
226 00:27:07.370 ⇒ 00:27:08.819 Amber Lin: We’re currently…
227 00:27:09.610 ⇒ 00:27:11.059 Rico Rejoso: That’s 7th and 2.
228 00:27:13.120 ⇒ 00:27:21.459 Amber Lin: 8285… Per month. Which gives us… how much?
229 00:27:22.380 ⇒ 00:27:23.630 Amber Lin: Let’s say…
230 00:27:25.350 ⇒ 00:27:29.560 Rico Rejoso: I checked the OKR, it says 86K, so that’s around 172.
231 00:27:30.430 ⇒ 00:27:31.090 Amber Lin: Okay.
232 00:27:34.150 ⇒ 00:27:35.390 Amber Lin: 17.
233 00:27:38.370 ⇒ 00:27:42.010 Amber Lin: Which equals… .
234 00:27:42.010 ⇒ 00:27:43.240 Rico Rejoso: 10%, 17%.
235 00:27:43.350 ⇒ 00:27:44.210 Amber Lin: Okay.
236 00:27:45.370 ⇒ 00:27:49.600 Amber Lin: 3, 9… per week.
237 00:27:49.600 ⇒ 00:27:55.260 Justin Breshears: I know I just took up a ton of our time, so I apologize, and I have a hot stop in 2 minutes, but…
238 00:27:55.880 ⇒ 00:27:56.730 Amber Lin: All good.
239 00:27:56.730 ⇒ 00:27:57.340 Rico Rejoso: Killers.
240 00:27:57.340 ⇒ 00:27:58.169 Amber Lin: Yeah, I will…
241 00:27:58.170 ⇒ 00:27:59.690 Justin Breshears: Let me continue this…
242 00:28:00.690 ⇒ 00:28:06.060 Amber Lin: We’ll talk more next tomorrow as well. I think we need to make it a 30-minute meeting.
243 00:28:06.990 ⇒ 00:28:07.740 Justin Breshears: Yeah.
244 00:28:08.320 ⇒ 00:28:11.360 Amber Lin: Would you be free at that time tomorrow? I can move in.
245 00:28:11.360 ⇒ 00:28:17.509 Justin Breshears: No, because I only had 50… yeah, let’s move it, because I only had 15 minutes sandwiched in between two other client meetings at that time.
246 00:28:19.090 ⇒ 00:28:21.799 Amber Lin: Okay, let me find a time…
247 00:28:22.440 ⇒ 00:28:25.049 Justin Breshears: Actually, two default meetings.
248 00:28:26.270 ⇒ 00:28:27.949 Justin Breshears: I guess it’s with different people.
249 00:28:29.360 ⇒ 00:28:31.200 Amber Lin: Art, here that is.
250 00:28:31.360 ⇒ 00:28:32.530 Amber Lin: That is tough.
251 00:28:32.830 ⇒ 00:28:38.220 Amber Lin: I guess we can squish it in here.
252 00:28:40.720 ⇒ 00:28:42.980 Amber Lin: I’ll just have my lunch break earlier.
253 00:28:44.060 ⇒ 00:28:45.280 Amber Lin: Gonna do this.
254 00:28:48.140 ⇒ 00:28:48.609 Justin Breshears: Worse for her.
255 00:28:48.610 ⇒ 00:28:52.039 Amber Lin: So, also between Europe, you have 3 default meetings.
256 00:28:52.850 ⇒ 00:28:53.590 Amber Lin: Yeah.
257 00:28:53.590 ⇒ 00:28:56.199 Justin Breshears: ones to stand up, so… Okay.
258 00:28:57.390 ⇒ 00:28:59.480 Amber Lin: Alright, that works.
259 00:28:59.790 ⇒ 00:29:04.059 Amber Lin: So I’ll… we can go through this stuff tomorrow.
260 00:29:04.740 ⇒ 00:29:07.110 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I do really want to talk through, like.
261 00:29:07.230 ⇒ 00:29:15.689 Justin Breshears: a new project initiation, because, like, with Remo, like, we kind of got surprised by that, right? Like, they’re like, oh, contract signed, like.
262 00:29:16.090 ⇒ 00:29:19.940 Amber Lin: We go delivery, and we’re just like, what do we do, right? Yeah.
263 00:29:19.940 ⇒ 00:29:26.349 Justin Breshears: So I was like, yeah, we have the STD process that I want to, like, you know, implement, and I’m working with…
264 00:29:26.350 ⇒ 00:29:27.799 Amber Lin: Fill it out for you.
265 00:29:28.120 ⇒ 00:29:30.139 Amber Lin: No, they haven’t yet, right?
266 00:29:30.140 ⇒ 00:29:45.990 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I… and I’m gonna be, in Austin with Utam and Justina, the next couple of days, so I will try and hammer out, like, you know, that process from sales on that. But after that, like.
267 00:29:46.160 ⇒ 00:29:49.670 Justin Breshears: We really need to figure out, like, our kickoff process, you know?
268 00:29:49.670 ⇒ 00:29:50.900 Amber Lin: Yeah.
269 00:29:50.900 ⇒ 00:30:00.269 Justin Breshears: like, what does kickoff look like? What are the tasks leading up to kickoff that are necessary to do? So, like, I would love to create a project prep checklist.
270 00:30:00.750 ⇒ 00:30:16.090 Justin Breshears: And with y’all, and, have, like, all the tasks that we need to do prior to kicking off the project. And then what does kickoffs look like? Is it a formal kickoff, where we meet with the client and have a deck and, like, present it and all that? Or is it more of a, you know.
271 00:30:16.270 ⇒ 00:30:18.299 Justin Breshears: Internal kickoff, you know?
272 00:30:20.010 ⇒ 00:30:23.080 Justin Breshears: So yeah, stuff like that, I think we should look at next.
273 00:30:24.410 ⇒ 00:30:44.380 Amber Lin: Okay, right now, for Remo, we just had a call with them today before this meeting, and I’m gonna create the linear project and stuff for Wish, but the other stuff at kickoff… is there a checklist right now? If not, I’ll just do what I can, and once you have the checklist, I’ll check things off and make sure I do all of them.
274 00:30:45.330 ⇒ 00:30:48.789 Justin Breshears: Yeah, I think keep track of all the tasks that you’re doing right now, so, like…
275 00:30:48.790 ⇒ 00:30:49.359 Amber Lin: Huh.
276 00:30:49.690 ⇒ 00:30:57.899 Justin Breshears: hey, you got, you know, a new project this morning, like, what are all the things that you did, right? Keep track of all those, and we can make the checklist out of that.
277 00:30:58.380 ⇒ 00:30:59.960 Amber Lin: Okay, yeah, sounds good.
278 00:31:00.620 ⇒ 00:31:05.640 Justin Breshears: Also, thank you for taking that on. I know I just kind of was like, Amber, here you go! But, I mean, I think.
279 00:31:05.640 ⇒ 00:31:09.319 Amber Lin: It’s okay. It’s the same, it’s the same people. Right.
280 00:31:09.320 ⇒ 00:31:10.340 Justin Breshears: That’s what I was like, it may…
281 00:31:10.340 ⇒ 00:31:13.010 Amber Lin: And it’s the same teammates.
282 00:31:13.490 ⇒ 00:31:14.680 Amber Lin: So it’s fine.
283 00:31:15.330 ⇒ 00:31:22.200 Justin Breshears: I saw another thing I’m trying to figure out with Utam is resourcing process. I had a long conversation with him yesterday about that.
284 00:31:22.600 ⇒ 00:31:26.749 Justin Breshears: So I’m like, we don’t have any kind of, like, process for how we assign
285 00:31:26.860 ⇒ 00:31:34.719 Justin Breshears: resourcing, all that. Sometimes it just, like, my mind hurts when I think about all the stuff that we need to do.
286 00:31:34.720 ⇒ 00:31:38.930 Amber Lin: Yeah, it’s okay, but… because we… right now, we’re functional, so…
287 00:31:38.930 ⇒ 00:31:39.520 Justin Breshears: Yeah, yeah.
288 00:31:39.520 ⇒ 00:31:43.900 Amber Lin: It’s what we will do, but it’s not like we’ll die without it, so…
289 00:31:43.900 ⇒ 00:31:49.269 Justin Breshears: We’re definitely functional, we’re getting stuff done, but we’re not optimal yet, so we’re trying to.
290 00:31:49.270 ⇒ 00:31:50.010 Amber Lin: Yep.
291 00:31:50.370 ⇒ 00:31:52.210 Amber Lin: Yeah, okay, I know you have to hop.
292 00:31:52.210 ⇒ 00:31:52.900 Justin Breshears: Welcome.
293 00:31:53.330 ⇒ 00:31:54.080 Amber Lin: Thanks, guys.
294 00:31:54.080 ⇒ 00:31:55.730 Justin Breshears: Sorry for talking the whole time.
295 00:31:55.990 ⇒ 00:32:04.850 Amber Lin: All good. That’s what we need. Rico, let’s stay a tiny bit, let’s calculate the budget, so you can send it to…
296 00:32:05.120 ⇒ 00:32:06.320 Amber Lin: finance.
297 00:32:07.720 ⇒ 00:32:13.450 Amber Lin: Okay. So, for AI, is there a budget for that?
298 00:32:16.030 ⇒ 00:32:17.810 Rico Rejoso: None.
299 00:32:18.080 ⇒ 00:32:24.749 Rico Rejoso: Yet, so I created with my… I mean, I come up with my own, like, 40%.
300 00:32:24.890 ⇒ 00:32:29.540 Rico Rejoso: Since they’re… they are under, COGS, right, or cost of goods sold.
301 00:32:29.660 ⇒ 00:32:32.260 Rico Rejoso: And they should take 60%.
302 00:32:32.710 ⇒ 00:32:34.330 Rico Rejoso: If I’m… is that correct?
303 00:32:35.350 ⇒ 00:32:38.950 Amber Lin: What do you mean? Actually, let me go find…
304 00:32:39.840 ⇒ 00:32:41.419 Rico Rejoso: I mean, we’re…
305 00:32:41.440 ⇒ 00:32:45.710 Amber Lin: the perplexity… thing, is this what…
306 00:32:46.580 ⇒ 00:32:49.460 Amber Lin: Okay, let me go read his chat.
307 00:32:49.840 ⇒ 00:32:51.390 Rico Rejoso: I mean, the Australian.
308 00:32:52.770 ⇒ 00:32:53.640 Amber Lin: Huh?
309 00:32:54.460 ⇒ 00:32:55.320 Amber Lin: Wait.
310 00:33:04.890 ⇒ 00:33:07.350 Amber Lin: Oh, no, I might not have access.
311 00:33:11.850 ⇒ 00:33:12.980 Amber Lin: Alright.
312 00:33:14.400 ⇒ 00:33:19.680 Amber Lin: Yeah. So, if the total budget is, like…
313 00:33:20.370 ⇒ 00:33:21.460 Rico Rejoso: I mean,
314 00:33:22.770 ⇒ 00:33:32.070 Rico Rejoso: based on what I understand, is that to maintain a 40% margin, 60% of it will be under cost of goods sold, right? And…
315 00:33:32.820 ⇒ 00:33:40.629 Rico Rejoso: Under cost of goods, so that includes the delivery of AI and engineering team, and the cloud or technical infrastructure.
316 00:33:41.030 ⇒ 00:33:46.000 Rico Rejoso: So, we have to spread out, the 60% under those three.
317 00:33:46.290 ⇒ 00:33:50.359 Rico Rejoso: three lines, such as AI, PM, the delivery, and the.
318 00:33:50.890 ⇒ 00:33:52.280 Rico Rejoso: technical infrastructure.
319 00:33:52.530 ⇒ 00:33:57.049 Rico Rejoso: So I came up with my, with a percent of revenue.
320 00:33:57.260 ⇒ 00:34:02.380 Rico Rejoso: From 60%, 40% of it will be under AI or engineering.
321 00:34:02.820 ⇒ 00:34:06.270 Rico Rejoso: 10% is under PM or delivery, and 8%.
322 00:34:07.350 ⇒ 00:34:10.159 Rico Rejoso: For the tools or the infrastructure.
323 00:34:10.750 ⇒ 00:34:16.129 Rico Rejoso: Oh, that totals to 58%, so we have, like, a 2% buffer, because…
324 00:34:16.540 ⇒ 00:34:22.689 Rico Rejoso: perplexity. It’s a good practice to not utilize or maximize 60% and keep it.
325 00:34:22.699 ⇒ 00:34:23.159 Amber Lin: Okay.
326 00:34:23.159 ⇒ 00:34:24.759 Rico Rejoso: Within 55 to 16.
327 00:34:24.760 ⇒ 00:34:28.140 Amber Lin: Yeah, so we said engineering and AI takes up how much percent?
328 00:34:28.530 ⇒ 00:34:29.429 Rico Rejoso: 40%.
329 00:34:29.870 ⇒ 00:34:30.940 Amber Lin: 40%.
330 00:34:31.870 ⇒ 00:34:34.860 Amber Lin: And then… tools and miscellaneous, like…
331 00:34:35.080 ⇒ 00:34:35.949 Rico Rejoso: 8%.
332 00:34:36.330 ⇒ 00:34:38.649 Amber Lin: Which is… let’s see, how much is that?
333 00:34:39.380 ⇒ 00:34:42.900 Amber Lin: 85.
334 00:34:42.900 ⇒ 00:34:46.989 Rico Rejoso: On the, notion page that I shared.
335 00:34:47.239 ⇒ 00:34:48.479 Rico Rejoso: I’m just reading along.
336 00:34:49.000 ⇒ 00:34:50.319 Amber Lin: Okay, where is that?
337 00:34:51.560 ⇒ 00:34:53.149 Amber Lin: Oh, is it in the traffic?
338 00:34:53.469 ⇒ 00:34:54.549 Rico Rejoso: on the agenda.
339 00:34:55.330 ⇒ 00:34:57.120 Amber Lin: Oh, sorry.
340 00:34:58.110 ⇒ 00:34:58.680 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.
341 00:34:58.680 ⇒ 00:34:59.620 Amber Lin: There we go.
342 00:35:00.290 ⇒ 00:35:00.980 Amber Lin: Okay.
343 00:35:02.690 ⇒ 00:35:08.050 Amber Lin: Let me… I do want to have, like, a weekly budget.
344 00:35:08.470 ⇒ 00:35:13.700 Amber Lin: Powder management… Yeah, for sure, sure.
345 00:35:29.960 ⇒ 00:35:32.380 Amber Lin: Operating expense.
346 00:35:33.020 ⇒ 00:35:42.000 Amber Lin: Do we account for… Like, operational costs, or finance, and… All that.
347 00:35:42.320 ⇒ 00:35:43.410 Rico Rejoso: I think it’s…
348 00:35:43.410 ⇒ 00:35:45.310 Amber Lin: Because we also pay the finance people.
349 00:35:45.960 ⇒ 00:35:50.360 Rico Rejoso: the, it’s under General Admin.
350 00:35:50.620 ⇒ 00:35:51.960 Rico Rejoso: the 7%.
351 00:35:54.920 ⇒ 00:35:55.430 Amber Lin: Oh.
352 00:35:55.820 ⇒ 00:35:57.610 Rico Rejoso: Under Operations Expense.
353 00:35:58.630 ⇒ 00:36:05.250 Amber Lin: Is that included here? Because that’s already… 50… Yay.
354 00:36:05.250 ⇒ 00:36:06.790 Rico Rejoso: No, as…
355 00:36:06.790 ⇒ 00:36:07.370 Amber Lin: Great.
356 00:36:07.370 ⇒ 00:36:08.060 Rico Rejoso: Based on…
357 00:36:08.060 ⇒ 00:36:10.679 Amber Lin: These are not cogs.
358 00:36:12.430 ⇒ 00:36:19.580 Amber Lin: Because project management logs in… Gets logged into…
359 00:36:20.630 ⇒ 00:36:28.380 Amber Lin: Let me try and think. So, there’s the project allocations, and then there’s supporting tasks.
360 00:36:28.520 ⇒ 00:36:33.869 Amber Lin: So there’s stuff that we do on projects, which is its own allocations.
361 00:36:33.870 ⇒ 00:36:52.159 Amber Lin: And then there’s, like, overhead, which is, like, our… what we just did of project management meetings, or the AI team does non-client work, that’s overhead. Engineering does the data platform, that’s overhead. And so, that would be the 60%, is overhead.
362 00:36:52.460 ⇒ 00:36:56.899 Amber Lin: Essentially, if we’re… if we’re leaving nothing for the firm.
363 00:36:57.650 ⇒ 00:37:04.300 Amber Lin: If we’re using 100% of our revenue, our overhead would be 60% of our… Revenue.
364 00:37:07.960 ⇒ 00:37:11.549 Amber Lin: Does that make sense? Let’s… let me… let me write down…
365 00:37:11.870 ⇒ 00:37:12.390 Rico Rejoso: Okay.
366 00:37:12.390 ⇒ 00:37:20.200 Amber Lin: So, let’s say gross margin target, so meaning our profits equal
367 00:37:20.630 ⇒ 00:37:28.650 Amber Lin: Right, 40%, right? So that’s… that means cost equals… 60%.
368 00:37:29.960 ⇒ 00:37:31.529 Amber Lin: Like, cost of goods sold.
369 00:37:31.760 ⇒ 00:37:32.420 Rico Rejoso: Yo.
370 00:37:32.850 ⇒ 00:37:35.989 Amber Lin: Like, client project costs.
371 00:37:37.450 ⇒ 00:37:43.910 Amber Lin: equals 40%, 60%. So, that means our… R.
372 00:37:44.290 ⇒ 00:37:53.179 Amber Lin: Overhead… Needs to be… less than… 40%. Does that make sense?
373 00:37:54.430 ⇒ 00:38:06.920 Amber Lin: Yeah, so… Meaning, we have… we have… 60%… to… Allocate two words.
374 00:38:07.280 ⇒ 00:38:13.590 Amber Lin: Project… Costs… Maximum.
375 00:38:19.050 ⇒ 00:38:21.810 Amber Lin: 40% to allocate.
376 00:38:22.310 ⇒ 00:38:24.870 Amber Lin: Towards overhead.
377 00:38:25.440 ⇒ 00:38:34.950 Amber Lin: Right now, we’re… we’re not giving Utam and Robert any profits, because if we allocate everything, then they’re not making any money.
378 00:38:34.950 ⇒ 00:38:40.750 Rico Rejoso: I think the overhead here on the one that I created was… it’s the operational expense.
379 00:38:41.720 ⇒ 00:38:46.789 Amber Lin: Okay. I think we’ll have to… I think we can keep the percentages.
380 00:38:46.910 ⇒ 00:38:51.659 Amber Lin: But we will have to redo this monthly budget.
381 00:38:52.120 ⇒ 00:38:52.880 Rico Rejoso: Okay.
382 00:38:52.880 ⇒ 00:38:55.380 Amber Lin: Right, because we will,
383 00:38:59.440 ⇒ 00:39:06.040 Amber Lin: So… How much buffer do we want?
384 00:39:08.470 ⇒ 00:39:11.190 Amber Lin: Like, how much does… .
385 00:39:11.670 ⇒ 00:39:17.270 Rico Rejoso: I think we can have that, after we compute everything under cost of goods sold and overhead.
386 00:39:17.400 ⇒ 00:39:19.640 Rico Rejoso: Expenses to operational expenses.
387 00:39:19.640 ⇒ 00:39:31.879 Amber Lin: Because right now, if I show you our delivery stuff, this is our current cost. So, you can see our margin’s actually at 61%.
388 00:39:31.940 ⇒ 00:39:43.420 Amber Lin: So our cost on projects, just client projects, is actually lower. Our overhead is actually at… let’s see… like, our company margin is at 3.6.
389 00:39:43.540 ⇒ 00:39:46.789 Amber Lin: Which means Uten Robert makes 3.6.
390 00:39:47.200 ⇒ 00:39:49.529 Amber Lin: Of all the revenue.
391 00:39:49.640 ⇒ 00:39:52.799 Amber Lin: Our average project margins are pretty good.
392 00:39:53.030 ⇒ 00:40:00.340 Amber Lin: Let’s see… our current overhead… Is… last week.
393 00:40:00.730 ⇒ 00:40:04.430 Amber Lin: Is 58%.
394 00:40:05.930 ⇒ 00:40:07.750 Amber Lin: Which is quite high. Yep.
395 00:40:08.240 ⇒ 00:40:09.950 Amber Lin: Yeah, so…
396 00:40:21.000 ⇒ 00:40:30.330 Amber Lin: So, let’s… Go back… Here…
397 00:40:51.080 ⇒ 00:41:00.930 Amber Lin: Let’s see, so… How do we distribute it between… sales, and… Mark, okay.
398 00:41:02.350 ⇒ 00:41:03.130 Amber Lin: Huh.
399 00:41:04.160 ⇒ 00:41:11.549 Amber Lin: Actually, can I… can I redo this and then get back to you? I don’t want to do calculations on call.
400 00:41:11.740 ⇒ 00:41:14.109 Rico Rejoso: I need to run this through AI.
401 00:41:14.700 ⇒ 00:41:15.320 Rico Rejoso: No worries.
402 00:41:15.610 ⇒ 00:41:23.340 Amber Lin: Okay, would you mind sending a message to finance just to have them wait a bit before reviewing it? I want to run it through you and through Udom.
403 00:41:23.650 ⇒ 00:41:27.609 Rico Rejoso: No worries, I just sent it through Megan, and I don’t keep a few less times.
404 00:41:27.610 ⇒ 00:41:32.140 Amber Lin: Okay, yeah, at me too, so I know which thread to send updates in.
405 00:41:33.140 ⇒ 00:41:33.800 Rico Rejoso: Okay.
406 00:41:34.150 ⇒ 00:41:35.420 Rico Rejoso: Create a trailer.
407 00:41:36.140 ⇒ 00:41:36.780 Amber Lin: Alright.
408 00:41:37.070 ⇒ 00:41:37.640 Rico Rejoso: Thank you so much.
409 00:41:37.640 ⇒ 00:41:47.039 Amber Lin: Of course, I’m glad we brought it up, because then you’ll have to re… like, they would have gave the same comments as well. So I’m glad we can do it internally.
410 00:41:48.240 ⇒ 00:41:50.269 Amber Lin: Yay, okay, thank you so much.
411 00:41:50.270 ⇒ 00:41:51.059 Rico Rejoso: Alright, have a good one.
412 00:41:51.060 ⇒ 00:41:52.770 Amber Lin: Great. Yeah, you too, bye.