Meeting Title: Brainforge x Eden Project Sync Date: 2025-08-04 Meeting participants: Alexander Lubka, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:01:38.090 ⇒ 00:01:39.359 Amber Lin: Hi! There!
2 00:01:40.020 ⇒ 00:01:40.930 Alexander Lubka: Hi! How are you?
3 00:01:42.270 ⇒ 00:01:44.249 Amber Lin: Good to see you again soon.
4 00:01:44.580 ⇒ 00:01:45.890 Alexander Lubka: So good to see you.
5 00:01:46.180 ⇒ 00:01:48.160 Amber Lin: It’s been 2 days.
6 00:01:48.160 ⇒ 00:01:49.760 Alexander Lubka: I know I missed you.
7 00:01:50.870 ⇒ 00:01:56.591 Amber Lin: Yes, you, too. I have a few things today that I want to discuss.
8 00:01:58.060 ⇒ 00:02:12.380 Amber Lin: So Giselle signed. So we’re onboarding her right now, meeting her tomorrow, and currently we don’t have anything prepared
9 00:02:12.590 ⇒ 00:02:23.099 Amber Lin: for her. Onboarding would give her all the access to the tools. But we don’t really have an onboarding plan. Just discussed her responsibilities.
10 00:02:24.310 ⇒ 00:02:31.219 Amber Lin: and so wanted some advice on that. And then I think another thing is to
11 00:02:32.020 ⇒ 00:02:47.100 Amber Lin: Talk about Eden. I know we sent something in a in the Pm. Channel, and I wanted to talk about that because Robert’s reducing his time next week, and I just want to be prepared for that. So that’s 2 things on my mind.
12 00:02:47.880 ⇒ 00:02:54.019 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I had. I had eaten and hiring updates in my agenda. So sounds like we’re in sync.
13 00:02:54.720 ⇒ 00:02:55.470 Amber Lin: Okay.
14 00:02:55.470 ⇒ 00:03:04.850 Alexander Lubka: So tell me about Giselle. I never met her and tell me about her and what we want her to do, and why she’s starting today. If we don’t have a plan for her.
15 00:03:05.800 ⇒ 00:03:13.250 Amber Lin: Oh, we signed today, and she’s starting tomorrow. So I I am in a crunch to get it planned
16 00:03:13.370 ⇒ 00:03:14.340 Amber Lin: for her.
17 00:03:15.030 ⇒ 00:03:21.040 Alexander Lubka: Why did do you know why that happened like? Why did you set? Why do we have to sign her for tomorrow? If we don’t have a plan for yet.
18 00:03:21.750 ⇒ 00:03:26.429 Amber Lin: Oh, they would have sent the contract.
19 00:03:27.326 ⇒ 00:03:35.070 Amber Lin: She signed the contract. She’s on hourly, so it’s more she’s available starting tomorrow.
20 00:03:37.270 ⇒ 00:03:41.719 Amber Lin: So it’s whenever we assign her work she’ll start billing.
21 00:03:42.310 ⇒ 00:03:42.970 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
22 00:03:43.870 ⇒ 00:03:49.160 Alexander Lubka: Do you know her availability, like, I know, is she on like that? 20 h for 2 weeks? Kind of trial thing?
23 00:03:49.410 ⇒ 00:03:50.250 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
24 00:03:50.490 ⇒ 00:04:12.539 Amber Lin: She should be available for more. I think that this will be her only job, for now she’s looking for jobs. And then look, we’re looking to ramp her up so for now. So a bit about her. She has had 8 years in project management, and for the last
25 00:04:13.010 ⇒ 00:04:35.730 Amber Lin: 3, 4 years. So she was in a pretty similar environment. They were a Web development slash marketing agency. And so they also had a Pmo in the process was pretty similar as ours. So I think she would know all the processes needed, and what we want her to do is
26 00:04:35.760 ⇒ 00:04:46.099 Amber Lin: 1st take on default and interlude, which are currently smaller clients that Utah is Pme. And he will be on to.
27 00:04:46.510 ⇒ 00:04:54.410 Amber Lin: He’s doing work on those clients as well. So we want her to get started on those, and then to take any
28 00:04:54.630 ⇒ 00:05:04.706 Amber Lin: coordination tasks from me, and I do think that she’s she will level up to a project manager pretty soon.
29 00:05:05.350 ⇒ 00:05:16.959 Amber Lin: but what we wanna, we wanna create a say 1st 4 weeks onboarding plan or 100 days onboarding plan for her, and I wanted your advice on that.
30 00:05:18.691 ⇒ 00:05:22.709 Alexander Lubka: what is what kind of coordinator tasks are you thinking?
31 00:05:23.550 ⇒ 00:05:27.239 Alexander Lubka: Or like, what are you what where could she provide you some leverage there.
32 00:05:29.630 ⇒ 00:05:31.740 Amber Lin: On my tasks usually.
33 00:05:32.342 ⇒ 00:05:37.699 Alexander Lubka: Like, what are some of the coordinate? You said something about like coordinate coordinator tasks that you’re currently doing.
34 00:05:37.700 ⇒ 00:05:51.889 Amber Lin: Yeah, I I was also considering. So I think that I meant less complex work. And so you may be recording all the requests from clients and turning them into tickets.
35 00:05:54.810 ⇒ 00:06:01.330 Amber Lin: because sometimes I’m just stuck in meetings, and I I have to get to them by later in the day.
36 00:06:05.294 ⇒ 00:06:11.290 Amber Lin: So following up on team members to see their progress.
37 00:06:21.642 ⇒ 00:06:24.879 Amber Lin: checking the status of tickets to see
38 00:06:29.070 ⇒ 00:06:30.780 Amber Lin: they are groomed.
39 00:06:32.415 ⇒ 00:06:34.849 Amber Lin: What else can you think of.
40 00:06:39.320 ⇒ 00:06:43.360 Alexander Lubka: So I’m thinking I’m I’m thinking of her for only internal things right.
41 00:06:44.933 ⇒ 00:06:48.720 Amber Lin: No. So interlude and default are class small.
42 00:06:48.920 ⇒ 00:06:52.820 Alexander Lubka: Sorry. Besides that. Like to help you know. Help you.
43 00:06:56.880 ⇒ 00:06:57.820 Amber Lin: Yes.
44 00:06:58.140 ⇒ 00:07:03.277 Amber Lin: Why don’t let let me share this, Doc, so that we have something to look at together
45 00:07:03.720 ⇒ 00:07:07.280 Amber Lin: so I can also share here.
46 00:07:07.280 ⇒ 00:07:16.489 Alexander Lubka: One thing I can think of that she can help is she? Can it? It seems like there’s a lot of like, you know. There’s a lot of new products coming which is great if she can help with the intake process of that.
47 00:07:18.160 ⇒ 00:07:23.659 Alexander Lubka: Like if she can manage. You know our intake process of that of.
48 00:07:23.660 ⇒ 00:07:23.980 Amber Lin: Hmm.
49 00:07:23.980 ⇒ 00:07:27.518 Alexander Lubka: You know, getting making sure there’s a project charter for it.
50 00:07:28.190 ⇒ 00:07:35.129 Alexander Lubka: making or asking questions of like that are missing from the charter. I could see her being very helpful with like initiation.
51 00:07:37.350 ⇒ 00:07:38.190 Amber Lin: Hmm.
52 00:07:41.220 ⇒ 00:07:43.760 Amber Lin: yeah. So to coordinate with Rico.
53 00:07:48.900 ⇒ 00:08:05.009 Alexander Lubka: So one way we could like. So this is a good start to just like a list of things. How we could probably how I usually think of it, of structuring it as like a 30, 60, 90 day plan. Where it’s like, this is what we want you to do for each increment of time and the goal for that. So then we can measure it against that when she hits those timelines
54 00:08:05.670 ⇒ 00:08:08.859 Alexander Lubka: so like within 30 days, like.
55 00:08:08.980 ⇒ 00:08:22.679 Alexander Lubka: you know what we want to like in the 1st 3 days, just like meet people. You know. Learn about the company, learn about what we do. And you know, then start taking on some tasks like you know, defaults or
56 00:08:23.070 ⇒ 00:08:36.990 Alexander Lubka: or interlude things, or some of the things you’re talking about, and we could. We’ll get into more detail. But this is just me thinking. Then, in 60 days we want her to like fully own. We’ll definitely by 6 days wanted to fully own, you know, interlude and default, and then by now.
57 00:08:36.990 ⇒ 00:08:37.299 Amber Lin: I know.
58 00:08:37.309 ⇒ 00:09:03.099 Alexander Lubka: You know some of those things, plus like proposing new things with for the Pmo. You know, forming her own opinion, taking ownership of more things. So that’s how I I’m initially thinking about. It is like, Okay, well, what are you? 1st of all, like you have here? What are your roles and responsibilities, and and then what do we want you to accomplish for them? And so and then the date of it so like 30 days would be like after Labor Day. Probably
59 00:09:04.249 ⇒ 00:09:05.549 Alexander Lubka: she’s trying to.
60 00:09:05.550 ⇒ 00:09:10.790 Amber Lin: It is start of August, so that would be september 5.th
61 00:09:11.320 ⇒ 00:09:12.910 Alexander Lubka: September 8.th It’s a Monday.
62 00:09:12.910 ⇒ 00:09:13.610 Amber Lin: Okay.
63 00:09:21.210 ⇒ 00:09:26.389 Alexander Lubka: And then by September or by October 6.th That’s a Monday, too.
64 00:09:30.480 ⇒ 00:09:32.230 Amber Lin: October.
65 00:09:33.710 ⇒ 00:09:34.570 Amber Lin: Okay.
66 00:09:39.080 ⇒ 00:09:40.729 Alexander Lubka: And then we can give her November 10.th
67 00:09:41.320 ⇒ 00:09:42.500 Alexander Lubka: Another Monday
68 00:09:48.910 ⇒ 00:09:55.689 Alexander Lubka: is like, so it’s like the 30 day is also like the 30 day mark to determine like, if we wanted to come on full time.
69 00:09:57.079 ⇒ 00:09:58.799 Amber Lin: I, I think so.
70 00:09:59.070 ⇒ 00:10:10.980 Amber Lin: Perman for time offer probably will want to do that sooner, maybe after 2 weeks.
71 00:10:11.380 ⇒ 00:10:14.249 Amber Lin: or is that too soon.
72 00:10:15.831 ⇒ 00:10:26.029 Alexander Lubka: I think it’s a little thing, I think. 2 weeks, if you’re only I think 2 weeks a little soon. I I like the idea of 30 days of like. Okay, by September 8, th we know if we want.
73 00:10:26.230 ⇒ 00:10:29.750 Alexander Lubka: if she want, if she wants to stay here full time, and if we want to offer a full time.
74 00:10:31.480 ⇒ 00:10:32.190 Amber Lin: Hmm.
75 00:10:36.360 ⇒ 00:10:38.370 Alexander Lubka: Did you do that? Did you do the 2 weeks?
76 00:10:38.640 ⇒ 00:10:40.100 Alexander Lubka: 20 h thing.
77 00:10:42.660 ⇒ 00:10:51.319 Amber Lin: that was, that was what was planned. And then in a week I was doing 40 h. So no, I just had a lot of work.
78 00:10:51.750 ⇒ 00:10:52.370 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
79 00:10:57.240 ⇒ 00:11:02.730 Amber Lin: Oh, and also they’re setting up the night to meet Robert in New York.
80 00:11:03.641 ⇒ 00:11:08.340 Amber Lin: I I know we send a contract to him. He hasn’t signed yet.
81 00:11:09.430 ⇒ 00:11:11.490 Alexander Lubka: Well, they sent Vinay a contract.
82 00:11:12.650 ⇒ 00:11:15.980 Amber Lin: I offer. I think I’m not sure
83 00:11:17.150 ⇒ 00:11:22.559 Amber Lin: but we’ve sent an email to ask them to meet Robert. Ask him to meet Robert.
84 00:11:24.510 ⇒ 00:11:26.610 Alexander Lubka: Yep, I saw that one that’s exciting.
85 00:11:26.610 ⇒ 00:11:27.160 Amber Lin: Group.
86 00:11:27.610 ⇒ 00:11:33.618 Amber Lin: Yeah, 30 day. Full time commitment.
87 00:11:36.100 ⇒ 00:11:39.830 Amber Lin: title leveling up. Or do we do that later?
88 00:11:41.770 ⇒ 00:11:45.929 Amber Lin: Evaluate? I’m still on Giselle’s document. Evaluate if we wanna
89 00:11:46.340 ⇒ 00:11:48.989 Amber Lin: if we want to level her up to
90 00:11:52.630 ⇒ 00:11:57.610 Amber Lin: say a fault project manager instead of Project Coordinator.
91 00:11:59.540 ⇒ 00:12:03.199 Alexander Lubka: I I don’t know. Is that like
92 00:12:06.850 ⇒ 00:12:08.380 Alexander Lubka: I don’t. Is that the goal.
93 00:12:10.900 ⇒ 00:12:17.728 Amber Lin: not necessarily. But I think she’s capable, and it’s I. I do think it can be motivating to know that.
94 00:12:18.520 ⇒ 00:12:23.069 Amber Lin: we will. We, we will consider that.
95 00:12:23.560 ⇒ 00:12:25.330 Alexander Lubka: I think that’s probably an end of the year thing
96 00:12:26.290 ⇒ 00:12:37.000 Alexander Lubka: I mean. 1st we got to figure out if she wants this job, then we gotta make sure she gets if she gets to her 90 day plan. And I think that we could. A conversation could be had in December before. At the end of the year of if
97 00:12:37.240 ⇒ 00:12:40.360 Alexander Lubka: if she’s capable of leveling up to.
98 00:12:41.100 ⇒ 00:12:41.610 Amber Lin: Oh, okay.
99 00:12:47.300 ⇒ 00:12:52.219 Alexander Lubka: Like if if we if we’re at November 10th and she’s like, yeah, she’s she’s crushing it.
100 00:12:52.450 ⇒ 00:13:02.839 Alexander Lubka: and we think she can. And she’s been on full time, and we think she can take on more. We she’d be a project manager and can work well with. Whoever we hire as the project manager.
101 00:13:03.427 ⇒ 00:13:10.909 Alexander Lubka: Then I think we can have a conversation with her in December to be, if if that is a good opportunity for her and make it official.
102 00:13:10.910 ⇒ 00:13:19.999 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think that’s an awesome timeline. Because then we get to complete this 90 day plan because it does take a while to level to get familiar and
103 00:13:20.250 ⇒ 00:13:23.349 Amber Lin: to get in the groove of work. So I think that’s great.
104 00:13:23.350 ⇒ 00:13:23.970 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
105 00:13:24.750 ⇒ 00:13:32.180 Amber Lin: Oh, so that will be the last last checkpoint.
106 00:13:37.340 ⇒ 00:13:38.030 Amber Lin: Okay.
107 00:13:41.070 ⇒ 00:13:52.350 Amber Lin: how do I? Any other tips on this onboarding, Doc? I can work on it after our meeting, too. I just wanna know some areas to include.
108 00:13:54.276 ⇒ 00:14:04.449 Alexander Lubka: And then I can work on it later today, too, if you need some more help on it if you want to do it ad hoc, but I would. So the 1st 30 days. I’d also have a review. The Pmo plan
109 00:14:07.930 ⇒ 00:14:10.900 Alexander Lubka: and all the project management documentation we have on notion.
110 00:14:16.350 ⇒ 00:14:20.589 Amber Lin: I can probably ask her to clean it up, too. It’s a mess.
111 00:14:20.590 ⇒ 00:14:22.280 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, she can organize it. That’s a good one.
112 00:14:24.260 ⇒ 00:14:28.330 Amber Lin: I think, in the process organizing, she’ll understand what they’re for.
113 00:14:29.480 ⇒ 00:14:30.040 Alexander Lubka: Yep.
114 00:14:31.330 ⇒ 00:14:37.269 Alexander Lubka: she can also, I mean, she probably has, like some brain forge on boarding. I’m sure it’s not like a big deal, but, like
115 00:14:37.740 ⇒ 00:14:39.990 Alexander Lubka: set up everything, and you know.
116 00:14:40.790 ⇒ 00:14:45.279 Alexander Lubka: so that’s she’ll have to do some like brain forge on boarding whatever Rico sets up for her.
117 00:14:50.250 ⇒ 00:14:52.029 Alexander Lubka: The confirm access stuff.
118 00:15:01.860 ⇒ 00:15:07.350 Amber Lin: Should I have her book meetings with to herself until.
119 00:15:07.650 ⇒ 00:15:10.819 Alexander Lubka: That’d be nice meeting members schedule schedule one on ones. Yeah.
120 00:15:19.790 ⇒ 00:15:28.310 Amber Lin: Oh, don’t lose style, rico amber stuff
121 00:15:29.920 ⇒ 00:15:37.740 Amber Lin: Most of the main person on the teams that you’ll be working with, maybe with a wish wish.
122 00:15:39.690 ⇒ 00:15:40.810 Amber Lin: Oh.
123 00:15:45.550 ⇒ 00:15:49.110 Amber Lin: which is 8.
124 00:15:49.640 ⇒ 00:15:53.020 Amber Lin: Where? I hmm.
125 00:16:02.560 ⇒ 00:16:04.310 Amber Lin: yeah. So you just click the name.
126 00:16:04.740 ⇒ 00:16:07.550 Amber Lin: Yeah, that that’s a very good point.
127 00:16:08.475 ⇒ 00:16:14.360 Amber Lin: Maybe we just add her to next week’s Monday.
128 00:16:14.980 ⇒ 00:16:23.149 Alexander Lubka: Well, I was gonna ask you if you think she should be included in this meeting moving forward, or we should find a smaller amount of time to meet with her.
129 00:16:24.060 ⇒ 00:16:29.609 Amber Lin: I think, to start with a smaller amount of time. She can join this meeting.
130 00:16:29.820 ⇒ 00:16:33.549 Amber Lin: hop up, hop off a bit earlier.
131 00:16:34.180 ⇒ 00:16:34.820 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
132 00:16:35.010 ⇒ 00:16:43.490 Amber Lin: 20 min or 15 min, and whatever time we need, and then anything else we can discuss.
133 00:16:44.890 ⇒ 00:16:46.420 Alexander Lubka: Great. Yeah.
134 00:16:46.420 ⇒ 00:16:50.889 Alexander Lubka: we can add her. I’ll add her for next week. I think I have to move next week, so I’ll look at the calendar.
135 00:16:52.760 ⇒ 00:16:56.909 Amber Lin: Okay, yeah, she is in Philippine
136 00:16:57.090 ⇒ 00:17:04.500 Amber Lin: time, but I think she should be available. At 3. If we check in, I’ll just check with her
137 00:17:04.630 ⇒ 00:17:06.300 Amber Lin: if she’s available.
138 00:17:07.349 ⇒ 00:17:14.609 Alexander Lubka: Okay. Do you know? Like what hours she will keep like translated like East Coast or Pacific, or something.
139 00:17:15.349 ⇒ 00:17:18.089 Amber Lin: Okay available.
140 00:17:23.289 ⇒ 00:17:30.819 Amber Lin: If you say I think my 12 o’clock ish. And then she
141 00:17:30.999 ⇒ 00:17:46.529 Amber Lin: just got up. It was like, I think her 4 am. So if she prefers early, then our afternoon should be fine. If she prefers to stay up late, then our mornings would work, so I’ll just confirm with her.
142 00:17:46.930 ⇒ 00:17:47.620 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
143 00:17:48.990 ⇒ 00:17:55.790 Alexander Lubka: And if it doesn’t work out like maybe I mean, I could always do before. So I’ll figure it out with her. But I I do want to confirm her like hours.
144 00:17:59.010 ⇒ 00:18:00.420 Amber Lin: Yeah. Note.
145 00:18:01.160 ⇒ 00:18:01.700 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
146 00:18:04.090 ⇒ 00:18:05.040 Alexander Lubka: Oh, really.
147 00:18:05.040 ⇒ 00:18:07.640 Amber Lin: And then, like the 60 day, we can ask her to own the.
148 00:18:07.940 ⇒ 00:18:09.759 Alexander Lubka: Initiation process.
149 00:18:09.980 ⇒ 00:18:10.740 Amber Lin: Hmm!
150 00:18:12.680 ⇒ 00:18:20.640 Amber Lin: I think that’s something that we can have for start soon, because it’s mostly there’s this Doc
151 00:18:21.693 ⇒ 00:18:25.570 Amber Lin: nag people to fill it in use. AI to fill it in.
152 00:18:26.530 ⇒ 00:18:27.609 Amber Lin: That’s my take.
153 00:18:27.610 ⇒ 00:18:31.439 Alexander Lubka: Okay? So by 30 days, do you think she can own the initiation process?
154 00:18:31.940 ⇒ 00:18:33.029 Amber Lin: I think so.
155 00:18:33.030 ⇒ 00:18:37.480 Alexander Lubka: Okay, let’s let’s add it. Let’s do it. See what she’s got.
156 00:18:39.060 ⇒ 00:18:44.389 Amber Lin: Yeah, if you can’t do it, we’ll keep pushing it. But
157 00:18:44.750 ⇒ 00:18:52.110 Amber Lin: I think she has the need to own initiation process.
158 00:18:57.530 ⇒ 00:19:05.280 Amber Lin: So the top ones are onboarding for this.
159 00:19:05.850 ⇒ 00:19:07.560 Alexander Lubka: You. You just use what we have.
160 00:19:10.820 ⇒ 00:19:12.040 Alexander Lubka: Well, I’ll paste it.
161 00:19:12.040 ⇒ 00:19:16.090 Amber Lin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
162 00:19:19.260 ⇒ 00:19:21.059 Alexander Lubka: Oh, that’s supposed to be translate!
163 00:19:46.350 ⇒ 00:19:47.060 Amber Lin: Okay?
164 00:19:48.400 ⇒ 00:19:49.470 Amber Lin: Oh.
165 00:19:54.550 ⇒ 00:20:03.000 Amber Lin: okay, alright. And then for for 60 days.
166 00:20:04.590 ⇒ 00:20:09.380 Amber Lin: fully owning 2 clients, and then
167 00:20:14.640 ⇒ 00:20:21.019 Amber Lin: let’s start 2. 0, anything we want to accomplish by 60 days.
168 00:20:23.200 ⇒ 00:20:28.720 Alexander Lubka: I think the I think that owning 2 client projects is pretty significant.
169 00:20:31.440 ⇒ 00:20:37.052 Amber Lin: So projects are small, but I think fully owning. It means that
170 00:20:37.640 ⇒ 00:20:43.329 Amber Lin: Utam can trust and take some of his time off of those projects.
171 00:20:43.750 ⇒ 00:20:47.170 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, would that be a good way to measure it is, if is the goal for him to be
172 00:20:47.290 ⇒ 00:20:52.140 Alexander Lubka: completely off of them, or completely off, of managing them as projects.
173 00:20:52.510 ⇒ 00:20:58.759 Amber Lin: Completely off of project management, because some of them still needs his engineering help.
174 00:20:58.760 ⇒ 00:21:05.530 Alexander Lubka: Okay, that’s a good goal fully owning 2 client pro projects where Utam is no longer
175 00:21:06.060 ⇒ 00:21:08.520 Alexander Lubka: managing them as or managing those projects.
176 00:21:15.850 ⇒ 00:21:17.439 Amber Lin: Okay, that’s good.
177 00:21:19.160 ⇒ 00:21:20.670 Amber Lin: Initiation.
178 00:21:23.380 ⇒ 00:21:24.890 Alexander Lubka: You have anything new.
179 00:21:24.890 ⇒ 00:21:27.359 Amber Lin: All brought all new project.
180 00:21:29.890 ⇒ 00:21:36.400 Amber Lin: Have a project charter before kick off
181 00:21:44.370 ⇒ 00:21:45.949 Amber Lin: anything else.
182 00:21:53.080 ⇒ 00:21:56.707 Alexander Lubka: yeah. All new products have structured for kickoff. Great
183 00:21:58.300 ⇒ 00:22:03.270 Amber Lin: What about say helping with my projects? How can we measure that?
184 00:22:04.060 ⇒ 00:22:06.459 Amber Lin: Is it also in terms of my time.
185 00:22:08.252 ⇒ 00:22:14.499 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, if you’re if if those things are completely off your plate, I think that’s a good signal of that.
186 00:22:15.209 ⇒ 00:22:20.660 Alexander Lubka: But yeah, if you want to put those things that you talked about of like recording requests from clients trimming or
187 00:22:22.040 ⇒ 00:22:29.989 Alexander Lubka: turn them into tickets, grooming the tickets. If you wanted to run like any of your ceremonies like if you wanted to run grooming for any of your clients by then.
188 00:22:29.990 ⇒ 00:22:30.510 Amber Lin: Hmm!
189 00:22:31.080 ⇒ 00:22:32.210 Amber Lin: I see
190 00:22:32.890 ⇒ 00:22:45.279 Amber Lin: when I think about that it makes me think like, Oh, do I? It does that mean I’m still needed like, does that mean? I should even have the job if I’m asking someone else to do it.
191 00:22:46.130 ⇒ 00:22:51.459 Alexander Lubka: Well, I’m hoping that you would start to. You would have your own onboarding plan for your Chief of staff role.
192 00:22:52.560 ⇒ 00:22:53.490 Amber Lin: That’s true.
193 00:22:53.490 ⇒ 00:23:08.630 Alexander Lubka: So I would think during, I would think during I don’t know what the transition period is for that, or if they’ve shared that with you, but I would think during some something along the lines of this period, you would be training and helping the new project management hires as well as I would
194 00:23:09.317 ⇒ 00:23:14.460 Alexander Lubka: into getting comfortable into their roles, while you’re also transitioning into your new role.
195 00:23:15.864 ⇒ 00:23:19.489 Amber Lin: I’m still waiting on the plan
196 00:23:19.630 ⇒ 00:23:24.280 Amber Lin: from Utam. Hence, why, I’m, a bitch concerned
197 00:23:25.390 ⇒ 00:23:26.980 Alexander Lubka: I did tell him he has to do that.
198 00:23:29.080 ⇒ 00:23:33.749 Amber Lin: Yeah, I know he. He is creating it. I just don’t think he has enough information.
199 00:23:34.270 ⇒ 00:23:35.830 Amber Lin: Yeah.
200 00:23:36.020 ⇒ 00:23:38.419 Alexander Lubka: Well, he will, when Robert’s not as available.
201 00:23:39.528 ⇒ 00:23:40.631 Amber Lin: That is true.
202 00:23:41.230 ⇒ 00:23:48.180 Amber Lin: Healthy amber taking to be d wow!
203 00:23:48.540 ⇒ 00:23:50.429 Alexander Lubka: But you think you have some ideas.
204 00:23:51.310 ⇒ 00:23:56.540 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally. And then you bring up the grooming part is also really nice running
205 00:23:56.640 ⇒ 00:24:03.809 Amber Lin: rituals, because a lot of the rituals is this task next task. What about this? What about that?
206 00:24:04.130 ⇒ 00:24:05.290 Amber Lin: And so.
207 00:24:07.660 ⇒ 00:24:12.099 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. So if there’s any rituals that you identify, that she could help you with, that would buy you some time.
208 00:24:12.230 ⇒ 00:24:13.509 Amber Lin: That’s a great win.
209 00:24:14.500 ⇒ 00:24:19.500 Amber Lin: And then a measurement of it is that she is successfully running like these rituals, and.
210 00:24:19.970 ⇒ 00:24:26.510 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, it’s not reducing the quality, or you’re not getting any. Be feedback bad feedback from the people that are in the meetings.
211 00:24:27.340 ⇒ 00:24:29.439 Alexander Lubka: Otherwise like that’s not going well.
212 00:24:38.620 ⇒ 00:24:40.620 Amber Lin: yeah, sounds good.
213 00:24:42.545 ⇒ 00:24:53.540 Amber Lin: Okay, I’m happy with that. And then 90 days, proposing changes to the pmo think that’s good.
214 00:24:54.300 ⇒ 00:24:56.750 Alexander Lubka: We can see if she wants her own.
215 00:24:57.000 ⇒ 00:24:59.080 Amber Lin: 3 clients.
216 00:25:00.501 ⇒ 00:25:06.910 Amber Lin: But if not, we can think about what what we can add to the 90 day school, still a bit far away.
217 00:25:07.400 ⇒ 00:25:16.070 Alexander Lubka: Do we want her to do any of like the mark? Gross margin stuff calculations? Or is that something we’d wanna a lead project manager to do.
218 00:25:19.340 ⇒ 00:25:34.979 Amber Lin: gross, I think, for time allocations and margins ideally. It should just be calculated by our financial model. Like ideally, we don’t have to manually calculate it. I think that’s something is working on to enable.
219 00:25:35.010 ⇒ 00:25:52.310 Amber Lin: So it’s more of as a demo, we review the numbers, we review the actual hours review what we’re our current margins and costs are. And then say, okay, this is what we need to decide. I think that’s something we can do in the Pm.
220 00:25:53.240 ⇒ 00:25:56.300 Amber Lin: We have something we’re gonna start.
221 00:25:56.640 ⇒ 00:25:57.340 Amber Lin: Oh.
222 00:25:57.940 ⇒ 00:26:10.539 Amber Lin: both as a retro of how she’s doing when the night starts, of. Also how we’re doing as a Pmo. And then to prepare for, say, Monday’s manager meeting to present these stuff. Tom.
223 00:26:11.960 ⇒ 00:26:12.540 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
224 00:26:12.990 ⇒ 00:26:15.559 Amber Lin: I don’t know how her role in that is. Gonna be, though.
225 00:26:16.300 ⇒ 00:26:20.100 Alexander Lubka: Okay, yeah, I think.
226 00:26:20.100 ⇒ 00:26:21.630 Amber Lin: This is a really good start.
227 00:26:21.990 ⇒ 00:26:22.610 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
228 00:26:25.280 ⇒ 00:26:35.489 Alexander Lubka: I guess like. And for 90 days it could be like, if you wanted to make sure the Pmo or Pmo processes are fully implemented into the project. She manages.
229 00:26:55.970 ⇒ 00:27:00.399 Amber Lin: okay? And then proposed changes. I noted both of them.
230 00:27:00.790 ⇒ 00:27:03.699 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, that’s good. I think that’s a place to start.
231 00:27:04.030 ⇒ 00:27:04.700 Amber Lin: Okay.
232 00:27:05.110 ⇒ 00:27:10.549 Alexander Lubka: And then I can res. So let’s see, next week.
233 00:27:12.720 ⇒ 00:27:16.809 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, let me know what her availability is, and I’ll find a time that works for all of us for next week.
234 00:27:17.100 ⇒ 00:27:20.020 Amber Lin: Okay. Sounds good. Let me note that down.
235 00:27:24.630 ⇒ 00:27:27.380 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me just ask that right now.
236 00:27:32.560 ⇒ 00:27:33.580 Amber Lin: So.
237 00:27:43.530 ⇒ 00:27:44.430 Alexander Lubka: Thank you.
238 00:27:47.800 ⇒ 00:27:55.421 Alexander Lubka: So you’re interviewing 2 other candidates for the Coordinator role. But you already hired Giselle.
239 00:27:56.580 ⇒ 00:28:01.369 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think what we want is to have a constant flow of candidates.
240 00:28:01.720 ⇒ 00:28:23.839 Amber Lin: or at least to keep warm, because if we expand, then we will need new people again, and we don’t really know what the pace of expansion is, because it we did just expand very fast, so mostly to understand what they want. Make a connection, and let them kind of get to know them better, to see if they will be a fit in the future. So I have
241 00:28:24.700 ⇒ 00:28:29.659 Amber Lin: Emily Ward and I have Kieran, so, Emily, for Friday and Kiran for Wednesday.
242 00:28:29.940 ⇒ 00:28:34.869 Amber Lin: I’m meeting them for the 1st time, which I’ve met them both already, and
243 00:28:35.520 ⇒ 00:28:51.990 Amber Lin: I also posted some a job on Linkedin. And I got a few emails on that. I’m going to forward them to Rico, and he’s going to coordinate that in the future. Just just have it, maybe one or 2 per week. So we have a steady, steady flow of
244 00:28:52.130 ⇒ 00:29:12.099 Amber Lin: people. And then for the project manager role, we have the name, and then we have Usama. I don’t think Osama will be a project management lead, but he can be a project manager, maybe. I’m talking to him next Friday, and
245 00:29:13.510 ⇒ 00:29:24.420 Amber Lin: I would say I’m less confident in him. But I I also learned from when we interviewed Vinay that I have my own biases. So I was wondering
246 00:29:24.550 ⇒ 00:29:30.909 Amber Lin: how I can best do this next round of technical interview. So I only did one screening with him.
247 00:29:31.540 ⇒ 00:29:33.500 Amber Lin: so haven’t done anything else.
248 00:29:35.300 ⇒ 00:29:53.699 Alexander Lubka: Well, we could do it together. If you think he’s worth going to the next round the fall next week at some point. I you do need to. You know it kind of professionally and legally. You need to check those biases. Because you can’t discriminate against people for gender and stuff.
249 00:29:53.700 ⇒ 00:29:57.299 Amber Lin: Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid that I will unconsciously do.
250 00:29:58.070 ⇒ 00:30:02.100 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, you you need to. You need to check the
251 00:30:02.230 ⇒ 00:30:08.719 Alexander Lubka: going into it. You need to go with like a clean slate. You can’t have any biases like that going into an interview.
252 00:30:11.710 ⇒ 00:30:16.870 Alexander Lubka: I guess how you do. That is just focus on one way you could do that is just focus on the content.
253 00:30:17.708 ⇒ 00:30:20.570 Alexander Lubka: Try to block those things out of your mind.
254 00:30:21.740 ⇒ 00:30:23.940 Alexander Lubka: Maybe. Do some deep breathing before
255 00:30:24.870 ⇒ 00:30:26.460 Alexander Lubka: calm down. Make sure you’re calm.
256 00:30:27.510 ⇒ 00:30:28.999 Alexander Lubka: So you don’t get triggered by anything.
257 00:30:30.460 ⇒ 00:30:40.445 Amber Lin: I don’t think I get triggered. It’s more of oh, this person thinks a very similar way, and I have an affinity towards that. It’s not. I have a
258 00:30:41.680 ⇒ 00:30:51.480 Amber Lin: Maybe there’s existing. I’m like I’d rather have someone that I understands clearer. And so let’s see.
259 00:30:53.070 ⇒ 00:31:02.090 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, it’s more. It’s that’s part of it. But it’s more of just like, do you think they could do the job? And do you think they’ll be good, do you think? Be level raising for Brainforge.
260 00:31:03.110 ⇒ 00:31:04.330 Amber Lin: I don’t think.
261 00:31:04.330 ⇒ 00:31:04.830 Alexander Lubka: And I also.
262 00:31:04.830 ⇒ 00:31:09.490 Amber Lin: Let’s see, but that could be too early of a call.
263 00:31:09.950 ⇒ 00:31:11.280 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I mean.
264 00:31:11.640 ⇒ 00:31:26.109 Alexander Lubka: yeah, go go to the interview. You know. You know how to do an interview, you know, if you if you think it goes well, then we can. We can do it a joint one again. If not, if you really, because, like, you were kind of like, I think it’s good.
265 00:31:26.490 ⇒ 00:31:28.650 Alexander Lubka: but I’m not 100% sure.
266 00:31:29.700 ⇒ 00:31:36.909 Alexander Lubka: But if Usama’s like, I know 100, sure he’s not good. Or now you have an a to compare against like. Do you think he’s better than Vanay at the job.
267 00:31:38.690 ⇒ 00:31:40.809 Amber Lin: I don’t think he’s gonna be better than Vanae.
268 00:31:41.170 ⇒ 00:31:42.867 Alexander Lubka: Okay, then don’t waste my time.
269 00:31:43.560 ⇒ 00:31:55.049 Amber Lin: Yeah, I I am thinking of him for to keep in the pipeline of future candidates. If we need a project manager and not a project management lead.
270 00:31:55.050 ⇒ 00:31:55.690 Alexander Lubka: I mean.
271 00:31:55.690 ⇒ 00:32:02.330 Amber Lin: Do a Pm. Role. But he’s Vinay’s better
272 00:32:03.840 ⇒ 00:32:16.630 Amber Lin: just in terms of his approach in terms of how he communicates how he thinks. But I do want to assess Osama more. But I don’t think I want to to use your time on that yet.
273 00:32:17.310 ⇒ 00:32:18.350 Amber Lin: Yeah, first.st
274 00:32:19.440 ⇒ 00:32:20.080 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
275 00:32:20.960 ⇒ 00:32:24.330 Alexander Lubka: If you change your mind, let me know. It sounds like you kind of know where you’re going.
276 00:32:24.330 ⇒ 00:32:24.980 Amber Lin: Perfect.
277 00:32:26.743 ⇒ 00:32:29.839 Alexander Lubka: But we just wanted to double check, because we have much yet.
278 00:32:31.880 ⇒ 00:32:33.180 Amber Lin: What were you saying.
279 00:32:33.990 ⇒ 00:32:37.869 Alexander Lubka: But we’re only hiring for those 2 roles, right? The Coordinator and the Dpm.
280 00:32:38.440 ⇒ 00:32:45.740 Amber Lin: Yeah. Yeah. So I think we’re gonna keep it in the pipeline just to get more information before we
281 00:32:45.900 ⇒ 00:32:48.200 Amber Lin: stop talking to him for a while.
282 00:32:49.080 ⇒ 00:33:00.539 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, and I don’t know where you know Vinay and Utam are, and like negotiations or anything. And you know I don’t know. Didn’t know what the numbers were at the time, so I don’t know if you get with Vinay gets the numbers. He doesn’t like them
283 00:33:01.120 ⇒ 00:33:04.280 Alexander Lubka: like maybe he’ll say no. So there’s always that possibility.
284 00:33:04.876 ⇒ 00:33:06.069 Amber Lin: That’s true.
285 00:33:06.400 ⇒ 00:33:13.060 Amber Lin: I think Utam really wants Renee, I think utam’s willing to change the numbers, but that’s not my call.
286 00:33:13.060 ⇒ 00:33:19.009 Alexander Lubka: No, whatever they come up with, but it’s good to keep talking to people until Finnay signs on the dotted line.
287 00:33:20.085 ⇒ 00:33:27.789 Amber Lin: Totally okay, that’s for hiring. That’s the 3, people, i’m gonna talk with and then
288 00:33:28.000 ⇒ 00:33:36.150 Amber Lin: for eden, let me pull up concerns for Eden.
289 00:33:36.290 ⇒ 00:33:37.060 Amber Lin: Yeah.
290 00:33:44.100 ⇒ 00:33:45.210 Amber Lin: So I think
291 00:33:45.320 ⇒ 00:33:53.689 Amber Lin: the main problem from my point of view, and I want to hear what it’s like for you is that there’s
292 00:33:54.950 ⇒ 00:33:59.510 Amber Lin: too many different projects going on. It’s not worth.
293 00:34:00.070 ⇒ 00:34:03.200 Amber Lin: And Robert doesn’t have time to
294 00:34:03.940 ⇒ 00:34:08.260 Amber Lin: and to communicate what he needs because he he just
295 00:34:08.770 ⇒ 00:34:21.870 Amber Lin: he shouldn’t be a project manager, because that’s that shouldn’t be his responsibility, but he’s forced to do it because there’s no one else doing it. And therefore things are not documented, and team members don’t really know what’s going on. There’s no one to.
296 00:34:22.110 ⇒ 00:34:31.349 Amber Lin: especially for the more junior folks to get them to communicate with the client, so they never built that habit, and the things come fall onto proper.
297 00:34:31.690 ⇒ 00:34:40.309 Amber Lin: And Robert gets stressed and then things fall through the cracks. The client gets stressed and clients shift responsibilities.
298 00:34:40.868 ⇒ 00:34:50.949 Amber Lin: Because we don’t really have a clear picture of what’s going on and just keeps going on and on and on. And it just I think we need to break something in that cycle to get out of it.
299 00:34:52.620 ⇒ 00:34:55.389 Alexander Lubka: So you’ve have you started going to their rituals?
300 00:34:56.620 ⇒ 00:35:25.913 Amber Lin: Yeah, I’m hosting all of the rituals. So the current state is that I host all the rituals I keep track of all the different ad hoc requests, and I keep track of the different projects. However, Robert knows the different project priorities, because he directly communicates to the client CEO and the like, the most important client stakeholders, and he communicates that that to us. He’s also doing some of the engineering work on the most important project.
301 00:35:27.050 ⇒ 00:35:29.570 Amber Lin: He wants to hand that off, too, before
302 00:35:29.770 ⇒ 00:35:41.130 Amber Lin: we have Henry, who’s supposed to handle that. But Henry was out last week, so a lot of it fell onto proper, and I felt like I couldn’t help him with that, because I can’t do the actual engineering stuff.
303 00:35:44.040 ⇒ 00:35:47.400 Alexander Lubka: Do you have a regular one on one with Robert.
304 00:35:48.525 ⇒ 00:35:49.130 Amber Lin: No.
305 00:35:49.810 ⇒ 00:35:51.269 Alexander Lubka: Do you think you could squeeze in that.
306 00:35:51.270 ⇒ 00:35:53.930 Amber Lin: Yes, I will do that. I think that’s very important.
307 00:35:54.450 ⇒ 00:35:58.299 Amber Lin: at least at least every 2 weeks, if not every week.
308 00:35:59.470 ⇒ 00:36:04.650 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I think just you guys getting in sync on that regularly will will be one thing that could help
309 00:36:05.257 ⇒ 00:36:13.339 Alexander Lubka: another thing like a technique that I’ve used before when we’re coming into a new project is kind of like acting stupid
310 00:36:13.550 ⇒ 00:36:18.399 Alexander Lubka: and being like, you know, can you can we level set this like.
311 00:36:18.880 ⇒ 00:36:29.729 Alexander Lubka: why don’t we have a roadmap like can we create? I mean, I’m new. Say, like, I’m new here, like, you know, I’m coming into this. It’s all over the place like, Can can I work with you guys create a roadmap?
312 00:36:29.800 ⇒ 00:36:52.710 Alexander Lubka: Or can you guys like love set some time like up to level. Set me and be like, you know, where is the current state of things? I just wanna make sure I’m understanding it right? So I can manage this project well, and then just like, get an understanding of the world better. I think that will help you, too. And then, just being like and based off that being like, Okay, well, you know, this is worth. This is where I understand where things stand. And this is where I understand where things are going is that
313 00:36:52.710 ⇒ 00:36:59.829 Alexander Lubka: can I confirm? That’s correct? And if it is, or they’ll deviate from that. People are always willing to like, give you some time to like, learn their stuff.
314 00:37:00.040 ⇒ 00:37:17.590 Alexander Lubka: and then, if that is the case, or then once you get that information you can synthesize it for them and then help them build out a roadmap. And because you could say like, in order for me to be successful in my role, I need to know where this is going. I need to know what projects are are going on now, their current state that they’re in
315 00:37:17.590 ⇒ 00:37:42.349 Alexander Lubka: when any issues or risks that they currently have for them. And what’s the timeline for this? And where is this going? I also don’t know what’s coming up in the pipeline, so I can prepare for it. Of what’s your road? Do you have a roadmap? Can we create a roadmap, or what? What a couple, even if it’s not like a long roadmap. It’s like, Okay, well, what is the rest of the year? You know, we’re in August. So like, what does the rest of the year look like for you guys. And how can we plan for that and make sure that we’re? You know I set you up for success for the
316 00:37:42.350 ⇒ 00:37:53.329 Alexander Lubka: that you want to complete. So that could be like a good kind of like snapshot. It’s like, Okay, I’m coming into this thing. It’d be overwhelming to create like a you know, a year roadmap, maybe for these guys, I don’t know. But if it’s
317 00:37:53.350 ⇒ 00:38:01.790 Alexander Lubka: if it is being like, Okay, well, I’m just coming in. I want to get the. I want to understand what’s going on. And I want to. What can you help me understand what we’re working on for the rest of the year?
318 00:38:03.600 ⇒ 00:38:10.059 Alexander Lubka: And so then you can develop a plan. You can create a project. I think there’s probably one. I think I’ve seen it, but you can create a project management plan.
319 00:38:10.200 ⇒ 00:38:20.200 Alexander Lubka: and then you can confirm with them. It’s like, okay, is this, we’re working on for the rest of the year. And they should know, unless you tell me that it’s really bad they should know what they’re doing for the rest of the year. At this point.
320 00:38:20.770 ⇒ 00:38:40.270 Amber Lin: They should know. Robert also has a strategy deck that he updates bi-weekly. He tries to that has the general all the different projects, the direction of where things want to go. And then we have the different projects in linear. So I think we’re getting better on that. I think
321 00:38:40.840 ⇒ 00:38:47.969 Amber Lin: the reason why I feel like, or people feel like the stakeholders are changing the priorities so fast is because
322 00:38:51.160 ⇒ 00:38:55.930 Amber Lin: like they have a lot of stakeholders that
323 00:38:56.030 ⇒ 00:39:06.219 Amber Lin: priority shifts between the different sprints. So we’re on for one stakeholder for a while, and then we switch to another one. We’ll switch back to another one.
324 00:39:06.440 ⇒ 00:39:07.560 Amber Lin: So
325 00:39:08.000 ⇒ 00:39:27.000 Amber Lin: I think that’s what’s confusing. I’ll be able to list out all the current projects. But I think it it would be helpful to understand, like moving forward how it is. I’m just scared that these people don’t want to talk to me, because most of the times they’re like
326 00:39:27.470 ⇒ 00:39:29.389 Amber Lin: they’re very short.
327 00:39:29.390 ⇒ 00:39:34.509 Alexander Lubka: People love talking about. If you make it. If you make it about them, they’ll talk. They people love talking about themselves.
328 00:39:35.270 ⇒ 00:39:36.120 Amber Lin: Okay.
329 00:39:36.510 ⇒ 00:39:37.059 Alexander Lubka: Like, so.
330 00:39:37.060 ⇒ 00:39:38.180 Amber Lin: Oh, awesome!
331 00:39:38.440 ⇒ 00:39:42.300 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. So like this project management plan, this Eden project management plan.
332 00:39:42.680 ⇒ 00:39:46.700 Alexander Lubka: It has been updated. It was updated this last week, the 28, th
333 00:39:46.990 ⇒ 00:39:50.390 Alexander Lubka: I mean, there’s no sprint schedule, and there’s still like.
334 00:39:50.620 ⇒ 00:39:52.669 Amber Lin: Nope, I don’t know. The spring schedule.
335 00:39:52.670 ⇒ 00:39:58.749 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so you need to. I I think you need to go in there and just be like, like, Hey, I’m new like the things I just talked about.
336 00:40:00.220 ⇒ 00:40:18.449 Alexander Lubka: And just, it’s okay to play like play. Dumb people love that like they want to talk about themselves and their projects and their work and stuff. So be like, you know, the thing I just talked about, and I think they would be receptive. Or if you’re just like, Hey, can we find time for me. Whoever those stakeholders are, one of one stakeholder, or whatever who you think can get information from.
337 00:40:18.975 ⇒ 00:40:37.459 Alexander Lubka: See if it’s asking you to schedule some time, and you or you can even tell them about our process. It’s like, Look, we have a project management plan. You can even blame me you could. I could be a great villain, or whatever you could just like. Hey, I have this advisor that I’m working with. I. Our process is a Pmo plan. I got to put together a plan like, do you mind like helping me figure this out.
338 00:40:38.780 ⇒ 00:40:40.350 Amber Lin: Okay.
339 00:40:40.910 ⇒ 00:40:48.440 Amber Lin: I think they will complain, Robert, that this is a waste of time. But i’ll get Robert to back me up, and I need to get this.
340 00:40:49.210 ⇒ 00:41:03.479 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, you need to. You need to be able to tell these people what you need in order to be successful, because they all want you to be successful. They all want these projects delivered, and they all want you to be successful in doing that. And you just need to tell them what you need to be successful.
341 00:41:05.250 ⇒ 00:41:05.930 Amber Lin: Okay.
342 00:41:05.930 ⇒ 00:41:12.129 Alexander Lubka: And nobody will be upset or angry with you if you tell them what you need to do this job.
343 00:41:14.620 ⇒ 00:41:17.010 Amber Lin: Okay, sounds good.
344 00:41:17.330 ⇒ 00:41:18.290 Alexander Lubka: Is that helpful at all?
345 00:41:18.290 ⇒ 00:41:19.050 Amber Lin: Okay.
346 00:41:19.200 ⇒ 00:41:25.449 Amber Lin: yeah, that’s very. That’s very helpful. I think I just needed a push to actually go talk to them because they are very scary.
347 00:41:26.630 ⇒ 00:41:28.440 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, are they on the east coast.
348 00:41:28.440 ⇒ 00:41:32.010 Amber Lin: It’s yeah. They’re on the they’re on the east coast.
349 00:41:32.320 ⇒ 00:41:32.990 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
350 00:41:33.200 ⇒ 00:41:35.050 Alexander Lubka: He’s scary new Yorkers.
351 00:41:35.680 ⇒ 00:41:40.770 Amber Lin: I don’t. I don’t know. I think there
352 00:41:40.900 ⇒ 00:41:58.358 Amber Lin: their archetype, everybody in the company, every man. And it’s the same I’ve yet to talk to any. I think their female stakeholders are all on the pharmacy operations side, and everyone else are the same person.
353 00:41:59.120 ⇒ 00:42:00.890 Amber Lin: They’re very similar.
354 00:42:01.120 ⇒ 00:42:01.960 Alexander Lubka: Oh, God!
355 00:42:02.260 ⇒ 00:42:03.240 Amber Lin: Yeah.
356 00:42:03.850 ⇒ 00:42:16.139 Alexander Lubka: And if and if you need support from Ro Robert, tell him that to be like, can you at least for, like maybe the 1st ones like, Hey, I want to do a scoping exercise with them. Can you come with me, or can you come to some of it and break the ice.
357 00:42:16.320 ⇒ 00:42:17.689 Alexander Lubka: If you feel like you need that.
358 00:42:22.590 ⇒ 00:42:25.869 Amber Lin: Yeah, okay, I will ask.
359 00:42:25.870 ⇒ 00:42:28.850 Alexander Lubka: Just like the beginning, like just come to like the beginning.
360 00:42:30.830 ⇒ 00:42:32.580 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally.
361 00:42:35.530 ⇒ 00:42:45.080 Amber Lin: Okay. I’m looking at Robert’s concerns. So the 1st one, he said, just have Andrew attend when.
362 00:42:45.370 ⇒ 00:42:49.309 Alexander Lubka: I’m showing my screen. If you want to look at that on days that.
363 00:42:49.640 ⇒ 00:42:50.500 Amber Lin: Hold on
364 00:42:50.750 ⇒ 00:43:12.900 Amber Lin: updated. So I updated our Zoom invite so that we have Monday, Wednesday. I have Andrew there. And just in case client client wants to come. Clients are optional on Monday, Wednesday, Robert said. He will also be there. This is mostly a time for them to talk. I feel like I probably have to have another meeting link ready just in case client comes. I’m gonna take the team elsewhere.
365 00:43:13.690 ⇒ 00:43:17.020 Amber Lin: And on the second thing
366 00:43:18.090 ⇒ 00:43:24.079 Amber Lin: is what I wanted to ask you about what you feel, how you think we should proceed.
367 00:43:27.660 ⇒ 00:43:29.610 Alexander Lubka: The number 2.
368 00:43:35.870 ⇒ 00:43:37.490 Alexander Lubka: Sorry you keep going there now.
369 00:43:42.940 ⇒ 00:43:44.159 Alexander Lubka: are you there? Amber.
370 00:43:44.830 ⇒ 00:43:49.139 Amber Lin: Yeah. Oh, I’m here. I see him turn off my video.
371 00:43:49.140 ⇒ 00:43:53.160 Alexander Lubka: Okay? So I’m sorry. What do you want me to look at, or which is it? The highlighted stuff.
372 00:43:53.160 ⇒ 00:43:56.330 Amber Lin: Second point. Yeah. The second point, for from Robert.
373 00:43:56.540 ⇒ 00:44:04.549 Alexander Lubka: Okay regarding execution speed. Yeah, this is what I’m saying. I feel like the Pm ticketing process is a luxury that makes engineers feel like they can
374 00:44:04.790 ⇒ 00:44:15.179 Alexander Lubka: just use the. It’s not a clean ticket, so I won’t do an excuse. If a ticket gets blocked, they also don’t feel like it’s on them to unblock it. The cog situation is simply pointing out.
375 00:44:16.160 ⇒ 00:44:18.268 Alexander Lubka: we don’t have historical coverage.
376 00:44:19.380 ⇒ 00:44:21.519 Alexander Lubka: cog. What does cogs mean to you?
377 00:44:23.049 ⇒ 00:44:28.370 Amber Lin: So we have a project for them that we’re trying to find out
378 00:44:28.590 ⇒ 00:44:39.539 Amber Lin: the prices of the products they sold because they had price changes. So we’re trying to help them make that into our data model and provide that information to them.
379 00:44:41.110 ⇒ 00:44:41.820 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
380 00:44:43.880 ⇒ 00:45:04.890 Alexander Lubka: we don’t have the historical cost data because we don’t have direct pharmacy integration. We do cogs, snapshots starting in June 25, because that’s doing stuff. But new tickets get stuck because it’s a matter of triaging and figuring out how this actually, things actually work. Clients describe the symptoms. But they don’t understand the problem and how to deal with the source. Our engineers just want
381 00:45:05.100 ⇒ 00:45:08.869 Alexander Lubka: to come in and perform the surgery. They don’t want to diagnose their specialists, but
382 00:45:09.000 ⇒ 00:45:14.139 Alexander Lubka: we need them to do consultation. Most surgeons still have performed consultations. But
383 00:45:17.380 ⇒ 00:45:18.010 Alexander Lubka: okay.
384 00:45:18.540 ⇒ 00:45:25.609 Alexander Lubka: so is he saying, that is, he. Is this a critique on both project management and engineering. Is he wanting? Is it?
385 00:45:25.950 ⇒ 00:45:31.749 Alexander Lubka: Is, he think, does he think that tickets are too laborious? And does he think this? The engineers are not
386 00:45:31.920 ⇒ 00:45:34.440 Alexander Lubka: consulting as part of their work.
387 00:45:35.450 ⇒ 00:45:41.180 Amber Lin: I think it’s both because the main problem is okay. Why is this
388 00:45:41.380 ⇒ 00:46:02.510 Amber Lin: one? Why is this blocked for so long or 2? Why can’t we foresee it and then get it unblocked sooner? So if we’re seeing stakeholder needs and diagnosing what they actually want, instead of just taking tickets at face value and just saying, Oh, this, ask this, I complete this. And then 1 million other problems come up because we didn’t see the
389 00:46:03.080 ⇒ 00:46:04.319 Amber Lin: core issue.
390 00:46:08.410 ⇒ 00:46:12.500 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so it’s yeah, it’s a combination of.
391 00:46:14.180 ⇒ 00:46:17.199 Alexander Lubka: so are they. So in your are the engineers.
392 00:46:19.390 ⇒ 00:46:21.659 Alexander Lubka: do they interact with the client?
393 00:46:23.943 ⇒ 00:46:32.199 Amber Lin: They do in terms of if it’s very small requests engineers help answer them.
394 00:46:32.703 ⇒ 00:46:48.040 Amber Lin: If it’s bigger requests they triage to me. I make the ticket, and then they update the client when I keep the client posted on progress, and then, when it’s done, engineers, show the progress to the client directly.
395 00:46:49.320 ⇒ 00:46:51.800 Amber Lin: because we just have a lot of ad hoc requests.
396 00:46:52.210 ⇒ 00:46:56.440 Alexander Lubka: Did you save the screenshot somewhere else? I think you have it on the Giselle’s onboarding plan.
397 00:46:56.440 ⇒ 00:46:57.520 Amber Lin: Oh, sorry!
398 00:46:58.430 ⇒ 00:46:58.980 Alexander Lubka: Thank.
399 00:47:02.480 ⇒ 00:47:05.660 Amber Lin: I’m gonna put it here.
400 00:47:09.210 ⇒ 00:47:09.930 Amber Lin: Okay.
401 00:47:10.410 ⇒ 00:47:15.599 Alexander Lubka: Okay. So I think it comes. It sounds like it comes to a couple of different things, one of which is like
402 00:47:16.800 ⇒ 00:47:21.350 Alexander Lubka: feeds into what you’re talking about before is like there’s nobody. It seems like just Robert
403 00:47:21.460 ⇒ 00:47:25.039 Alexander Lubka: just holding a lot of information either in his head or somewhere.
404 00:47:26.090 ⇒ 00:47:28.340 Alexander Lubka: And it’s not.
405 00:47:29.360 ⇒ 00:47:43.150 Alexander Lubka: There’s no acceptance. It sounds like the tickets aren’t working because there isn’t. Maybe acceptance criteria. And I also it sounds like the engineers are just like, aren’t being thoughtful about these things. They’re just executing on these things.
406 00:47:43.800 ⇒ 00:47:48.970 Alexander Lubka: Cause like you need a in order to do a work on a ticket. You need to understand.
407 00:47:49.430 ⇒ 00:47:51.949 Alexander Lubka: What is, what is it? Why are we doing it?
408 00:47:52.080 ⇒ 00:48:16.809 Alexander Lubka: And is there, you know? What are all the options to do it. Is there a better way to do it like I don’t know what the specific tasks are, but like, is there different tools that we could use. You know what is best for the client. What is the client trying to achieve? So one thing might be like if you, if you part of your level setting, maybe like to do an intro, or like a kick a re re, kick off kind of with the engineers like my questions would be like? Do the engineers know what we’re working on
409 00:48:18.520 ⇒ 00:48:47.509 Alexander Lubka: like? Do they know what their client is trying to achieve? And if because if they understood that that would could help them with their, you know, execution process of like examining it more also, should they be more in more meetings with the client like, maybe they don’t understand what we’re working on. So they, you know, they’re just executing. Maybe it’d be helpful if we got them in front of the client and heard. So they heard what the critical business issues are and heard what’s what they’re looking to achieve, so that they can take that into consideration when they’re trying to do the work.
410 00:48:48.366 ⇒ 00:48:59.973 Alexander Lubka: It sounds like there’s a disconnect there’s disconnect of like the quality of the tickets and and then how the how the engineers are understanding
411 00:49:00.830 ⇒ 00:49:09.809 Alexander Lubka: the tickets, and how it relates to what the client is looking to achieve and what their goals are like. I don’t know if the engineer do. The engineer knows what the clients, what kind of company they even are.
412 00:49:11.160 ⇒ 00:49:20.980 Amber Lin: They have some more context. I think some of them have more context than others, but most of them are restricted to the stuff they are working on because they’re just so many.
413 00:49:22.760 ⇒ 00:49:28.310 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, but it’s leading. It’s turning into low quality. Apparently it’s leading into low quality work.
414 00:49:33.130 ⇒ 00:49:42.649 Alexander Lubka: The result of bad tickets. And engineering engineers not being inquisitive is that you’re getting a sounds like you’re getting a lower quality product that he’s concerned about.
415 00:49:43.680 ⇒ 00:49:46.839 Amber Lin: Yeah, he, I think he’s also concerned about things are.
416 00:49:47.660 ⇒ 00:50:05.389 Amber Lin: Often we wait until they kind of blow up, because the clients like, I really need this right now and then. Engineers scramble so part of it, I think, will become better as I get on boarded. But if I don’t understand what’s important for the client. This is gonna happen again.
417 00:50:06.100 ⇒ 00:50:21.769 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, you need, you need to understand the priorities. And I think this is a great thing that Utah or Vinay, and maybe or maybe Vinay, and maybe Giselle can buy you space for because this this seems like to me, this right now seems like your top priority.
418 00:50:22.090 ⇒ 00:50:23.270 Amber Lin: Yeah. Totally.
419 00:50:23.690 ⇒ 00:50:28.369 Alexander Lubka: So if they can buy you some space in from your other project work, so you can focus on this.
420 00:50:28.540 ⇒ 00:50:31.420 Alexander Lubka: This. I think this is our largest client. Right?
421 00:50:32.150 ⇒ 00:50:55.981 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so this should be your top priority. And so you you need to think about it like holistically, is like, Okay, well, Eden is my top priority. What do I 1st of all, what do I need to on the project side to be successful in this project? And that’s like the things we already talked about. Then you need to think about like, what are, what do I need on the brain forge side to be successful on this project. Okay, you need some more. You need more time. You need more space.
422 00:50:56.540 ⇒ 00:51:11.620 Alexander Lubka: you. And we’re getting you that with Giselle. And maybe Vinay or somebody else. So. But then, like how? What do you need from them? In order to be successful? You need them to take the the ticketing tasks off some of your
423 00:51:11.690 ⇒ 00:51:27.829 Alexander Lubka: off your plate. You need them. You know some of the rituals off your plate. You need them to take a couple of maybe a project or 2 off your plate? So you could focus, you know the majority of your time on Eden, since that’s 1 of our most important clients, so I would think of it like that of like
424 00:51:28.524 ⇒ 00:51:29.139 Alexander Lubka: what.
425 00:51:29.140 ⇒ 00:51:31.130 Amber Lin: Yeah, that’s really helpful thinking.
426 00:51:31.130 ⇒ 00:51:31.800 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
427 00:51:32.560 ⇒ 00:51:33.290 Amber Lin: Okay.
428 00:51:33.810 ⇒ 00:51:36.319 Amber Lin: Noted it down.
429 00:51:38.170 ⇒ 00:51:39.030 Amber Lin: See?
430 00:51:39.380 ⇒ 00:51:43.289 Alexander Lubka: So you might. Is that so? We have strategy of those things? Yeah.
431 00:51:45.190 ⇒ 00:51:50.539 Amber Lin: Yeah. So for the brain force side to get her help pointed.
432 00:51:51.139 ⇒ 00:51:57.339 Amber Lin: In other projects, I’m not handling the other projects, so it doesn’t affect me. So I’m going to get her help on Eden
433 00:51:57.920 ⇒ 00:52:04.690 Amber Lin: and then on the project itself. The 1st part is what we talked about of
434 00:52:04.870 ⇒ 00:52:12.020 Amber Lin: the level setting, making sure we have priorities, and we have a plan for the future
435 00:52:12.150 ⇒ 00:52:15.449 Amber Lin: and getting closer with stakeholders.
436 00:52:15.640 ⇒ 00:52:25.169 Amber Lin: So that’s the 1st thing, and then on my on the Pm. Side, and then for the engineering is making that sure that they also know
437 00:52:25.480 ⇒ 00:52:35.600 Amber Lin: what we’re doing. I had a good retro with them last last sprint to talk about who handles what type of communication, especially when the client
438 00:52:35.710 ⇒ 00:52:51.440 Amber Lin: dumps a lot of ad hoc requests. I mean, we got better at that, as if they always will tag the P. The Pm. Even if the client doesn’t tag me so that we always have a way to triage and make sure. The engineers don’t get distracted.
439 00:52:52.050 ⇒ 00:53:14.180 Amber Lin: Maybe in part of that program process is to make sure I understand why we’re doing it and putting that in the ticket. It’ll be great if I have an existing understanding. If I have a bigger context of the project. But if not, I can always ask the client of, Hey, why is this important? Why are we doing this? And we can have that in the process?
440 00:53:14.730 ⇒ 00:53:15.300 Amber Lin: That’s right.
441 00:53:15.690 ⇒ 00:53:24.230 Alexander Lubka: I think that’s great. Yeah, you need to understand. You need to understand the scope of work. And this project. And if it doesn’t make sense to you. It’s not going to make sense to the engineers.
442 00:53:25.800 ⇒ 00:53:31.380 Amber Lin: Okay, sometimes I kind of
443 00:53:31.690 ⇒ 00:53:35.629 Amber Lin: a lot of well, some of the times when the work is very technical
444 00:53:35.820 ⇒ 00:53:38.910 Amber Lin: it it’s hard for me to fully understand
445 00:53:39.800 ⇒ 00:53:48.324 Amber Lin: how they’re doing over the very specifics. So I I think on that end I’m more reliant on Robert or someone else to help
446 00:53:49.170 ⇒ 00:53:54.710 Amber Lin: But I do think we’ll have someone to replace Robert on that side, so I can still get help somewhere.
447 00:53:54.710 ⇒ 00:53:56.989 Alexander Lubka: Is, is there a tech lead, or just Robert.
448 00:53:57.880 ⇒ 00:54:06.489 Amber Lin: Robert’s gonna ask Henry to help replace him on the main project, lead side, and then oasis tech leading. So
449 00:54:07.340 ⇒ 00:54:12.870 Amber Lin: it’s more consulting strategy and then oasis technical implementation.
450 00:54:13.540 ⇒ 00:54:15.729 Amber Lin: So I have people to consult.
451 00:54:15.950 ⇒ 00:54:16.870 Alexander Lubka: That’d be great.
452 00:54:17.030 ⇒ 00:54:17.560 Amber Lin: Yeah.
453 00:54:17.947 ⇒ 00:54:28.390 Alexander Lubka: But yeah, the thing about the a job like this is that you need to know a lot about a little versus they know a little or no. You need to know a little bit a lot they need. They need to know a lot about a little.
454 00:54:28.390 ⇒ 00:54:28.910 Amber Lin: Oh!
455 00:54:28.910 ⇒ 00:54:43.817 Alexander Lubka: So that’s the Delta. And that’s where you need to know. You know how you need to know what the client does. You know what the project scope is. You know what they’re looking to accomplish. And you also need to know, like how they yeah, that’s great. That’s great.
456 00:54:44.960 ⇒ 00:54:57.259 Alexander Lubka: So you need. And you didn’t know what the engineering engineers are doing. But you need to know it at the high level. And you need to know in a way that’s communicate. You can communicate to the client. You don’t need to know all the technical stuff or and all the you know, you know the approach
457 00:54:57.500 ⇒ 00:55:22.610 Alexander Lubka: that they’re taking for to solve technical issues. That’s why you have a tech lead. But you know, you need to know, like you need to be able to communicate that to the back to the stakeholders of like. Oh, what are you know? What are the team work on this week? Oh, we did this, this and this you know, they found this issue, or they want this. So that’s what you have to communicate. But you don’t need to. You need to know holistically what’s going on. They need to know more vertically of like, I’m solving this technical issue. That’s not your job.
458 00:55:24.350 ⇒ 00:55:28.589 Amber Lin: No, I see. Okay.
459 00:55:35.290 ⇒ 00:55:38.999 Amber Lin: yeah, I will put these as to do’s
460 00:55:39.300 ⇒ 00:55:42.750 Amber Lin: 1st off, I think I’ll make updates.
461 00:55:43.160 ⇒ 00:55:47.599 Amber Lin: Oh, pm, plan to the best of my ability.
462 00:55:50.150 ⇒ 00:55:58.480 Amber Lin: And then ask Robert for one on one, and then improve
463 00:55:59.170 ⇒ 00:56:23.100 Amber Lin: document his knowledge. I think I last time with him I got the current state. I don’t have the future state yet. I need that to get that from him, just so that I don’t ask clients the same questions, because I feel like I don’t want them to think I’m stupid but I think after that I’ll I need to get in touch with the clients, especially if Robert is going to be off of this client.
464 00:56:23.710 ⇒ 00:56:29.010 Amber Lin: I need Robert to intro me. So I will ask that one Robert, one on one.
465 00:56:29.010 ⇒ 00:56:37.380 Alexander Lubka: But also you need to also hold Robert accountable that of what you need in order to for for him to come off
466 00:56:38.160 ⇒ 00:56:52.280 Alexander Lubka: so like he wants to do law school, or he wants to do something else, or he needs more time for whatever and he needs you to manage this. You need to tell him what you need in order you need to set like, yeah, tell him what you need in order to get get you there.
467 00:56:52.500 ⇒ 00:56:55.960 Alexander Lubka: because otherwise he can’t do those other things until you’re comfortable.
468 00:56:56.750 ⇒ 00:56:57.580 Amber Lin: Yeah.
469 00:56:57.580 ⇒ 00:57:01.070 Alexander Lubka: Otherwise, that puts the relationship and the project at risk.
470 00:57:01.590 ⇒ 00:57:16.569 Amber Lin: Yeah, I agree. I I think, Mark, I’m just concerned that I might not think of all the things I need to get from him and then things might fall apart. So I think that as as part of what I’ll do before I talk to him, I’ll try. I’ll try to think about
471 00:57:16.970 ⇒ 00:57:21.580 Amber Lin: what I currently can’t do, and I’ll I’ll ask him about that.
472 00:57:22.250 ⇒ 00:57:35.420 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, or, if you like, if one of those calls you want to include me on with him like, and I can listen to see if you’re missing anything, or if you want to run things by me after you’ve talked to him. I say, hey, I just talked about these things like. Do you think I missed anything? I’m happy to do that.
473 00:57:35.990 ⇒ 00:57:41.360 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think I’ll talk to him. Fill in the Pmo plan and then
474 00:57:41.480 ⇒ 00:57:49.900 Amber Lin: run it by, you see, okay, is this good to run this project, and then you can grow me on any of those gaps.
475 00:57:50.910 ⇒ 00:57:53.220 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I think we could do that. That’s great.
476 00:57:53.220 ⇒ 00:57:53.870 Amber Lin: Sounds good.
477 00:57:54.040 ⇒ 00:57:58.340 Amber Lin: Yeah. And then, lastly, to
478 00:58:04.810 ⇒ 00:58:11.650 Amber Lin: Pm, I think I’ll aim for next Monday, because next month, maybe even sooner.
479 00:58:12.552 ⇒ 00:58:15.230 Amber Lin: But I will ask Robert to talk
480 00:58:15.810 ⇒ 00:58:19.359 Amber Lin: tomorrow or Wednesday. I’ll I’ll aim for that.
481 00:58:22.670 ⇒ 00:58:23.400 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
482 00:58:23.400 ⇒ 00:58:26.860 Amber Lin: Okay, thank you. I think that was that was very helpful.
483 00:58:27.030 ⇒ 00:58:27.710 Alexander Lubka: Awesome.
484 00:58:28.317 ⇒ 00:58:37.322 Alexander Lubka: And then I’ll let you know. Let me know when Giselle is available, and we’ll either find I’ll find find a new time for Monday. I’m gonna go down to my parents in Florida.
485 00:58:37.860 ⇒ 00:58:45.650 Alexander Lubka: so I probably can’t do Monday night or Monday next week. But let me know what Giselle available. I’ll see what Giselle says in the chat.
486 00:58:45.920 ⇒ 00:58:55.780 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think we can also do Friday this week. If Monday you’re not available, so we can shift the time a bit earlier.
487 00:58:56.620 ⇒ 00:59:00.590 Alexander Lubka: Okay, great. I’ll look at. Well, I’ll see what she says, and I’ll take it from there, and I’ll look at your calendar.
488 00:59:01.570 ⇒ 00:59:03.629 Amber Lin: Okay. Yeah. Sounds good.
489 00:59:03.790 ⇒ 00:59:04.430 Alexander Lubka: Cool.
490 00:59:04.540 ⇒ 00:59:06.460 Alexander Lubka: You need anything else, for now Amber.
491 00:59:06.990 ⇒ 00:59:08.529 Amber Lin: I think that would be all.
492 00:59:09.540 ⇒ 00:59:14.309 Alexander Lubka: Okay. Well, I’m curious to see how the week goes with the hiring and interviews and stuff. Let me know.
493 00:59:14.310 ⇒ 00:59:17.709 Amber Lin: Yeah, we’ll see. I’m excited to have someone new on board, too.
494 00:59:18.310 ⇒ 00:59:19.560 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, it’s gonna be great.
495 00:59:19.560 ⇒ 00:59:20.990 Amber Lin: Alright! Have a great night.
496 00:59:21.290 ⇒ 00:59:22.090 Alexander Lubka: You too, bye.
497 00:59:22.090 ⇒ 00:59:22.780 Amber Lin: Bye.