Meeting Title: Eden Project Weekly Planning Date: 2025-08-25 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran, Awaish Kumar, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:00:16.950 ⇒ 00:00:17.880 Awaish Kumar: Move.
2 00:00:19.030 ⇒ 00:00:20.190 Uttam Kumaran: Hello?
3 00:00:21.460 ⇒ 00:00:23.360 Awaish Kumar: I’ve shared a link to you.
4 00:00:24.030 ⇒ 00:00:30.340 Awaish Kumar: It’s about… it’s from Stack Blizz. Should I share that with, Self….
5 00:00:31.560 ⇒ 00:00:32.940 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s fine.
6 00:00:33.920 ⇒ 00:00:34.630 Awaish Kumar: Okay.
7 00:00:38.010 ⇒ 00:00:42.580 Awaish Kumar: So I’m going to share that along with some… Indeed, huh?
8 00:00:43.730 ⇒ 00:00:48.659 Awaish Kumar: For the event, like, numbers, for the events and customers, and then…
9 00:00:49.300 ⇒ 00:00:54.190 Awaish Kumar: We can expect from him to get some kind of dock by tomorrow.
10 00:00:55.240 ⇒ 00:00:56.240 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
11 00:04:57.080 ⇒ 00:04:58.640 Amber Lin: Hi there, sorry I’m late.
12 00:04:59.560 ⇒ 00:05:00.690 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, no problem.
13 00:05:04.400 ⇒ 00:05:06.950 Amber Lin: Are we writing in a doc right now?
14 00:05:08.220 ⇒ 00:05:15.109 Uttam Kumaran: I think we were just sitting silently, regrouping after meeting back-to-backs.
15 00:05:15.290 ⇒ 00:05:16.570 Amber Lin: Yeah, I see.
16 00:05:18.480 ⇒ 00:05:19.210 Uttam Kumaran: ….
17 00:05:20.140 ⇒ 00:05:25.999 Amber Lin: Well, we already heard the parts on the projects and the PMO, I think we can skip that side.
18 00:05:26.350 ⇒ 00:05:27.200 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
19 00:05:30.920 ⇒ 00:05:35.800 Amber Lin: Robert’s not gonna be here, so I don’t know if we’ll have updates on sales.
20 00:05:36.890 ⇒ 00:05:41.809 Amber Lin: And… I can run through a little bit about…
21 00:05:41.920 ⇒ 00:05:45.579 Amber Lin: Recruiting? I know you guys also had an engineering meeting.
22 00:05:46.330 ⇒ 00:05:52.120 Amber Lin: Are there any items we want to discuss in this meeting, other than recruiting?
23 00:05:52.430 ⇒ 00:05:58.400 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so… it looks like Annie’s billing 40 hours to Eden per week.
24 00:05:59.310 ⇒ 00:06:05.539 Uttam Kumaran: I guess I had questions, like, is that expected? Did we arrive at the performance plan? And, like.
25 00:06:06.470 ⇒ 00:06:08.149 Uttam Kumaran: Should we limit her?
26 00:06:09.130 ⇒ 00:06:11.000 Amber Lin: Let me note that down. Okay.
27 00:06:12.330 ⇒ 00:06:16.250 Awaish Kumar: Right. For the last time, we agreed for, like, 20 hours per week.
28 00:06:16.250 ⇒ 00:06:19.429 Amber Lin: Yeah, I don’t think there is…
29 00:06:19.710 ⇒ 00:06:33.419 Amber Lin: 40 hours of work. I don’t… I have not touched the performance plan, I don’t know if I should be owning that, but as you guys speak, I will pull up what’s done last sprint.
30 00:06:34.450 ⇒ 00:06:37.260 Amber Lin: So, give me one second.
31 00:06:52.440 ⇒ 00:06:54.910 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I just, like, 40 hours seems insane.
32 00:07:02.180 ⇒ 00:07:03.579 Awaish Kumar: Yeah, like, we….
33 00:07:03.580 ⇒ 00:07:04.590 Amber Lin: Rescreen.
34 00:07:05.140 ⇒ 00:07:13.200 Awaish Kumar: we discussed about having 20 hours on 18, and then 20 on other clients where they were, like, Robert wanted.
35 00:07:13.850 ⇒ 00:07:15.000 Awaish Kumar: Jorgel?
36 00:07:18.560 ⇒ 00:07:19.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
37 00:07:19.340 ⇒ 00:07:22.759 Amber Lin: Okay, let me share screen and show you the tickets.
38 00:07:22.880 ⇒ 00:07:33.980 Amber Lin: For the past 2 weeks, not just one. Okay. So it does seem there’s quite a few tickets. A lot of it, however, are sub-issues, so I’m gonna hide the sub-issues.
39 00:07:34.880 ⇒ 00:07:42.680 Amber Lin: of… Because there’s always updates and small changes. So, mainly there was…
40 00:07:44.170 ⇒ 00:07:51.170 Amber Lin: Like, one or two data pulls, Updates to the… ….
41 00:07:51.170 ⇒ 00:07:52.240 Awaish Kumar: Oh, that’s see….
42 00:07:53.450 ⇒ 00:08:01.479 Amber Lin: Tableau, and then there was requests from Danny, so a dashboard for Danny, and then…
43 00:08:04.710 ⇒ 00:08:06.540 Amber Lin: some….
44 00:08:07.530 ⇒ 00:08:09.440 Uttam Kumaran: So how many tickets total is this?
45 00:08:11.540 ⇒ 00:08:15.020 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s see, this is 24 points, how much is 24 points?
46 00:08:15.020 ⇒ 00:08:20.359 Amber Lin: It’s not all pointers. Oh, okay, okay, okay. 17… 17 tickets.
47 00:08:22.600 ⇒ 00:08:23.350 Amber Lin: Wish I always.
48 00:08:23.350 ⇒ 00:08:24.480 Uttam Kumaran: So, the 17 tickets….
49 00:08:24.480 ⇒ 00:08:27.110 Amber Lin: 1 to 3… Points.
50 00:08:27.660 ⇒ 00:08:31.890 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so we have 17, so we have 80 divided by 17.
51 00:08:33.000 ⇒ 00:08:35.559 Uttam Kumaran: It’s about 5 hours a ticket.
52 00:08:38.190 ⇒ 00:08:39.070 Amber Lin: Huh.
53 00:08:41.190 ⇒ 00:08:45.089 Amber Lin: If you show the subject issues…
54 00:08:47.820 ⇒ 00:08:54.720 Amber Lin: Yeah, adding the sub-issues, there’s, like, 20… 4?
55 00:08:55.460 ⇒ 00:08:56.820 Amber Lin: ….
56 00:08:58.890 ⇒ 00:09:04.850 Uttam Kumaran: Can you… so, can you open up, like, whatever… like, let’s take a ticket that looks like it should take a long time, like, is there one?
57 00:09:06.390 ⇒ 00:09:07.430 Amber Lin: This one.
58 00:09:10.360 ⇒ 00:09:12.339 Amber Lin: So, this for….
59 00:09:12.710 ⇒ 00:09:15.269 Uttam Kumaran: This is something for Josh.
60 00:09:15.990 ⇒ 00:09:16.700 Amber Lin: ….
61 00:09:16.700 ⇒ 00:09:21.280 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so updates applied, so can I see the list of updates there?
62 00:09:22.690 ⇒ 00:09:26.499 Uttam Kumaran: So, if you just scroll below this screenshot…
63 00:09:27.460 ⇒ 00:09:30.840 Uttam Kumaran: So, slicers sent to pharmacy date range…
64 00:09:49.920 ⇒ 00:09:50.810 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
65 00:09:52.200 ⇒ 00:09:58.100 Amber Lin: I think the reason she’s building 40 hours is because she’s only on this client, so she just…
66 00:09:58.200 ⇒ 00:10:04.320 Amber Lin: she wouldn’t… She would just bill 40 hours exactly each week.
67 00:10:05.430 ⇒ 00:10:07.350 Uttam Kumaran: She’s not billing exactly, though.
68 00:10:07.580 ⇒ 00:10:08.320 Amber Lin: Hmm.
69 00:10:09.740 ⇒ 00:10:11.010 Amber Lin: Interesting.
70 00:10:11.550 ⇒ 00:10:13.069 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, well, I’m…
71 00:10:15.670 ⇒ 00:10:21.100 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I’m gonna… I’m gonna kick it to Robert, then, and try to ask him….
72 00:10:23.360 ⇒ 00:10:24.050 Amber Lin: Okay.
73 00:10:29.300 ⇒ 00:10:37.589 Awaish Kumar: Yeah, but… like, that’s why at the start of the sprint, I wanted it in grooming.
74 00:10:38.160 ⇒ 00:10:44.259 Awaish Kumar: Which is longer than, like, regular stand-up, and different from regular stand-up.
75 00:10:45.170 ⇒ 00:10:49.709 Awaish Kumar: So you assign, like, the correct estimates to the tickets?
76 00:10:49.890 ⇒ 00:10:54.070 Awaish Kumar: And based on that, only keep that in the sprint.
77 00:10:55.870 ⇒ 00:11:01.730 Awaish Kumar: That way, like, we know, like, Nobody should be… billing more than…
78 00:11:02.110 ⇒ 00:11:12.149 Awaish Kumar: what they are communicating. Otherwise, like, we keep on getting tickets, and sometimes it gets over, like, what was agreed for the client.
79 00:11:16.090 ⇒ 00:11:16.700 Awaish Kumar: Yep.
80 00:11:18.760 ⇒ 00:11:32.099 Amber Lin: I hear you. Right now, we do it on Wednesday. We could make the Monday session a bit longer and add in some groomings. These are just, whenever new tickets get created, Eden’s
81 00:11:32.180 ⇒ 00:11:41.440 Amber Lin: have, I would say, 40% plan and 60% new requests that comes in, so whenever they come in,
82 00:11:42.000 ⇒ 00:11:47.930 Amber Lin: we create the ticket, but there’s no estimate there, so I think I wish you point out a good problem.
83 00:11:49.690 ⇒ 00:11:53.980 Awaish Kumar: Yeah, then, yeah, we can try… adding estimates…
84 00:11:54.340 ⇒ 00:12:00.780 Awaish Kumar: Then and there, for those tickets. Secondly, we can communicate with the team that Whenever they are…
85 00:12:01.390 ⇒ 00:12:06.009 Awaish Kumar: Like, they have… like, we can communicate, like, you have to spend 20 hours per week.
86 00:12:06.150 ⇒ 00:12:09.059 Awaish Kumar: And when you have done so, just inform
87 00:12:10.230 ⇒ 00:12:13.399 Awaish Kumar: Us, like, instead of working overtime.
88 00:12:13.840 ⇒ 00:12:16.749 Awaish Kumar: Let us know that you have worked for 20 hours.
89 00:12:17.010 ⇒ 00:12:19.379 Awaish Kumar: In the week, and then we can see, okay.
90 00:12:19.630 ⇒ 00:12:23.199 Awaish Kumar: Is the time spent correctly, or whatever? What happened?
91 00:12:24.130 ⇒ 00:12:32.520 Amber Lin: That’s a good point. … This should inform us.
92 00:12:42.410 ⇒ 00:12:46.170 Amber Lin: Okay, and then I will extend the Monday…
93 00:12:46.380 ⇒ 00:12:55.350 Amber Lin: the Monday meeting by 15 minutes, so we have some chance to do at least the most…
94 00:12:55.650 ⇒ 00:13:04.119 Amber Lin: the tasks that we’re immediately about to do, so at least we can add some estimates to them. Just Mondays, most people are just very, very…
95 00:13:04.590 ⇒ 00:13:05.260 Amber Lin: Busy.
96 00:13:05.260 ⇒ 00:13:07.649 Awaish Kumar: But that would be, like, without buying.
97 00:13:08.940 ⇒ 00:13:11.070 Amber Lin: … Yes.
98 00:13:12.220 ⇒ 00:13:13.190 Amber Lin: Yes.
99 00:13:13.650 ⇒ 00:13:17.879 Amber Lin: Actually, I was just gonna move the pre-meeting a little bit earlier.
100 00:13:18.070 ⇒ 00:13:25.080 Amber Lin: And then make that 30 minutes, and, like, I think what’s remaining… …
101 00:13:26.240 ⇒ 00:13:30.990 Amber Lin: Maybe a wish… Elise, you can… you can help me estimate a lot of them.
102 00:13:32.540 ⇒ 00:13:35.380 Amber Lin: … And…
103 00:13:35.800 ⇒ 00:13:46.160 Amber Lin: Because you can help me estimate the AE and DE task, and for Annie’s task, usually, I’ve been asking her to give estimates when she… when she creates.
104 00:13:46.160 ⇒ 00:13:49.600 Awaish Kumar: So we should have grooming before we’re standing by.
105 00:13:52.500 ⇒ 00:13:55.350 Awaish Kumar: We should do grooming before the stand-up, so he…
106 00:13:55.540 ⇒ 00:13:59.639 Awaish Kumar: Go prepared in the meeting and tell, like, oh, these are your tickets, and….
107 00:13:59.780 ⇒ 00:14:01.619 Amber Lin: Yeah, I was thinking that I’m gonna….
108 00:14:02.380 ⇒ 00:14:02.930 Awaish Kumar: Nope.
109 00:14:02.930 ⇒ 00:14:08.219 Amber Lin: So you want to add another one with the whole team members, or should I just extend this one?
110 00:14:08.220 ⇒ 00:14:12.140 Awaish Kumar: No, it can be between us two, but… Before, like, stand-up.
111 00:14:12.140 ⇒ 00:14:13.800 Amber Lin: Yeah, I agree, I agree.
112 00:14:14.290 ⇒ 00:14:17.450 Amber Lin: So… Alright.
113 00:14:17.940 ⇒ 00:14:25.730 Amber Lin: Henry can help estimate his tickets and Andrew’s tickets, and then Annie estimates her own dashboarding tasks.
114 00:14:25.920 ⇒ 00:14:27.129 Amber Lin: Okay, that’s good.
115 00:14:27.520 ⇒ 00:14:29.410 Amber Lin: This will happen…
116 00:14:38.120 ⇒ 00:14:41.540 Amber Lin: Weekly… Alright.
117 00:14:47.020 ⇒ 00:14:47.690 Amber Lin: Yep.
118 00:14:47.910 ⇒ 00:14:52.600 Amber Lin: Sounds good. Any other issues we want to bring up and address?
119 00:14:55.600 ⇒ 00:15:02.759 Uttam Kumaran: … Should we add Sam and Shreya to the allocations meeting?
120 00:15:04.240 ⇒ 00:15:06.330 Amber Lin: Why would we add Freya?
121 00:15:08.250 ⇒ 00:15:11.690 Uttam Kumaran: Because basically, I’m starting to…
122 00:15:12.330 ⇒ 00:15:17.629 Uttam Kumaran: I’m starting to ask her about… to kind of become the lead for anything product analytics.
123 00:15:17.840 ⇒ 00:15:26.050 Uttam Kumaran: So… She’s also going to be, kind of, hopefully, taking over on Insomnia and Ellie.
124 00:15:27.220 ⇒ 00:15:38.320 Uttam Kumaran: maybe it’s too soon, we can wait another week, but kind of my hope is that we now… so kind of the way we’re running engineering leads is it’s me, Awash, Sam, and Treya.
125 00:15:39.240 ⇒ 00:15:44.480 Uttam Kumaran: That gives basic coverage over, like, all the core engineering functions.
126 00:15:44.740 ⇒ 00:16:02.259 Uttam Kumaran: So, I’m kind of, like… I kind of want Sam and Shreya to start to also take some of the burden of understanding, like, how much time we’re spending on clients and allocating, because they should be able to tell you how long work takes and how long to put someone on there.
127 00:16:02.540 ⇒ 00:16:07.909 Uttam Kumaran: … You know, I guess my point is that, right now, all you’ve had is.
128 00:16:07.910 ⇒ 00:16:09.970 Amber Lin: Probably me and Awash, but….
129 00:16:10.090 ⇒ 00:16:16.060 Uttam Kumaran: I think… and we’ve had very little, kind of, context from Robert in product analytics work, so I think.
130 00:16:16.060 ⇒ 00:16:18.179 Amber Lin: Shreya can become that person.
131 00:16:18.480 ⇒ 00:16:24.310 Uttam Kumaran: … And certainly, I think Sam should be taking over that for the AI folks.
132 00:16:28.770 ⇒ 00:16:34.030 Amber Lin: Do you mean for time allocations, or just general sprint planning?
133 00:16:35.140 ⇒ 00:16:35.990 Amber Lin: Both.
134 00:16:37.070 ⇒ 00:16:40.520 Uttam Kumaran: For both. Like, certainly, I think they should be…
135 00:16:40.860 ⇒ 00:16:44.210 Uttam Kumaran: For their given clients, they should be on the…
136 00:16:44.880 ⇒ 00:16:51.090 Uttam Kumaran: sprint rituals, but I don’t know, I wonder, like, if it would be helpful to have them in the allocation meetings.
137 00:16:52.020 ⇒ 00:16:59.750 Uttam Kumaran: So that they can take a look at… because ultimately, I think it’s going to be a mix of the PM and the lead.
138 00:16:59.990 ⇒ 00:17:03.629 Uttam Kumaran: Who make sure that we execute the right work, and we do it profitably, right?
139 00:17:03.740 ⇒ 00:17:04.800 Uttam Kumaran: So…
140 00:17:05.440 ⇒ 00:17:16.060 Uttam Kumaran: Ultimately, I think the question of, like, do we have the right people, and is this the right amount of time? That’s a question for them to answer. I think the PM can answer who’s available, like.
141 00:17:16.220 ⇒ 00:17:21.239 Uttam Kumaran: what clients we need people on. I don’t know, there’s, like, some mix of responsibilities here, I think.
142 00:17:21.240 ⇒ 00:17:33.989 Amber Lin: I agree. Our current allocations are every month, so every Tuesday before the start of the next month. So, the next one is…
143 00:17:34.480 ⇒ 00:17:42.359 Amber Lin: tomorrow, so the monthly allocations. Do you want to do it this week, or next week, which will be September 2nd?
144 00:17:42.360 ⇒ 00:17:43.739 Uttam Kumaran: I think you’d do it this week.
145 00:17:43.740 ⇒ 00:17:44.740 Amber Lin: Okay.
146 00:17:44.740 ⇒ 00:17:46.580 Uttam Kumaran: Do it, and do it for, …
147 00:17:48.220 ⇒ 00:17:53.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think do it… I think do it tomorrow, and then do it for the month that’s coming.
148 00:17:53.790 ⇒ 00:17:54.110 Amber Lin: Yeah.
149 00:17:54.110 ⇒ 00:17:55.969 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I don’t know, I, I…
150 00:17:56.170 ⇒ 00:17:59.850 Uttam Kumaran: I think they’re gonna… they’re gonna enjoy being part of that process in life.
151 00:18:00.390 ⇒ 00:18:01.100 Uttam Kumaran: Whatever.
152 00:18:01.100 ⇒ 00:18:04.869 Amber Lin: I’ll add Sam and Shreya. Shreya probably can’t contribute much yet.
153 00:18:04.870 ⇒ 00:18:05.540 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
154 00:18:05.540 ⇒ 00:18:05.860 Amber Lin: there’s.
155 00:18:05.860 ⇒ 00:18:08.470 Uttam Kumaran: Just let her know that, say we’re not expecting anything, but….
156 00:18:10.550 ⇒ 00:18:13.229 Amber Lin: Okay, those are some of our events.
157 00:18:13.750 ⇒ 00:18:15.819 Amber Lin: Alright, great.
158 00:18:16.560 ⇒ 00:18:20.090 Amber Lin: … Okay.
159 00:18:20.290 ⇒ 00:18:29.969 Amber Lin: So, did that… Anything… Else… Oh, also, finance meeting moved to tomorrow.
160 00:18:29.970 ⇒ 00:18:30.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
161 00:18:30.790 ⇒ 00:18:32.370 Amber Lin: 2PM your time.
162 00:18:32.510 ⇒ 00:18:34.750 Amber Lin: So, before the monthly allocations.
163 00:18:35.940 ⇒ 00:18:36.670 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
164 00:18:36.670 ⇒ 00:18:37.230 Amber Lin: Yep.
165 00:18:37.750 ⇒ 00:18:40.840 Amber Lin: Anything else?
166 00:18:45.290 ⇒ 00:18:50.029 Uttam Kumaran: I was gonna talk to Robert about the gig radar renewal, ….
167 00:18:54.140 ⇒ 00:19:00.429 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I’m doing a much… I am continuing to… say no.
168 00:19:00.850 ⇒ 00:19:02.030 Uttam Kumaran: to things.
169 00:19:02.270 ⇒ 00:19:11.679 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if you all saw that thread, but I get hit for a lot of random stuff, and I’m trying to share more how I’m saying no to things. …
170 00:19:11.940 ⇒ 00:19:15.939 Uttam Kumaran: just so I can have a place to put it, because it’s…
171 00:19:16.190 ⇒ 00:19:19.549 Uttam Kumaran: Kind of draining, just saying no to people, but….
172 00:19:19.550 ⇒ 00:19:23.030 Amber Lin: I hope I can serve as inspiration on how to guard your time.
173 00:19:23.180 ⇒ 00:19:31.430 Uttam Kumaran: The other thing I’m doing is… I’m doing my best to create… make sure the mid part of my days are open.
174 00:19:31.550 ⇒ 00:19:36.630 Uttam Kumaran: … So, I’m gonna continue to, like, try to enforce that. I think having…
175 00:19:36.940 ⇒ 00:19:42.000 Uttam Kumaran: now we have engineering figured out, the next… the last role is to get this PM.
176 00:19:42.140 ⇒ 00:19:44.910 Uttam Kumaran: So tomorrow’s a big day for those interviews.
177 00:19:45.230 ⇒ 00:19:49.959 Uttam Kumaran: I’m really, really hopeful, like, I mean, let’s see, I think if Justin…
178 00:19:50.190 ⇒ 00:19:54.580 Uttam Kumaran: works, he’s right here, which would be amazing, so let’s see if he can nail it tomorrow.
179 00:19:54.830 ⇒ 00:19:55.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m.
180 00:19:55.520 ⇒ 00:20:00.500 Amber Lin: Talking to Ayesha, Tomorrow, and then…
181 00:20:00.830 ⇒ 00:20:09.000 Amber Lin: Gulame on Thursday. I’m less interested about Gulame just because he’s based in Europe. Time zones don’t really overlap well.
182 00:20:09.000 ⇒ 00:20:09.770 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
183 00:20:09.770 ⇒ 00:20:10.710 Amber Lin: ….
184 00:20:11.140 ⇒ 00:20:19.059 Uttam Kumaran: I also want you to spend less time in, like, I just want you out of the, like, this interview mode, because we’ve been in it for a while, so….
185 00:20:19.060 ⇒ 00:20:27.709 Amber Lin: I should be… I should be done after just these two persons, because I think we’re not… are we still trying to get a PM coordinator?
186 00:20:28.840 ⇒ 00:20:35.970 Uttam Kumaran: We are, but certainly not as high priority as, like… The PM itself?
187 00:20:36.100 ⇒ 00:20:39.490 Uttam Kumaran: So, like, I’ll be… I can be a little bit more, like…
188 00:20:39.680 ⇒ 00:20:42.589 Uttam Kumaran: As needed, we can bring that person on, so it’s not a rush.
189 00:20:43.180 ⇒ 00:20:44.120 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
190 00:20:44.830 ⇒ 00:20:48.789 Uttam Kumaran: So let’s see, hopefully tomorrow I can close that… close that roll. …
191 00:20:49.360 ⇒ 00:20:53.410 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, this week I’m just focused on trying to make sure Shreya feels supported, so…
192 00:20:53.530 ⇒ 00:21:05.370 Uttam Kumaran: If you have a moment, it would be great if each of us on the management team can find the time to chat with her. Okay. I know, I think, Amber, you chatted with her during the interview. I don’t know a ways if you chatted with her, but…
193 00:21:05.730 ⇒ 00:21:19.589 Uttam Kumaran: Robert and I are talking to her, and… Okay, cool. We’re talking to her 10 minutes, just, like, let’s really try to make sure she feels supported. Her and Sam, I want to really make sure that they feel, like, really supported, and that they can invest their time here.
194 00:21:19.730 ⇒ 00:21:24.399 Uttam Kumaran: … They’re gonna start taking on a lot more responsibility, and as you guys know.
195 00:21:24.870 ⇒ 00:21:32.829 Uttam Kumaran: there’s gonna be quite stuff that can come their way that is not in their job description, and so I want to make sure that they feel supported, they feel
196 00:21:33.210 ⇒ 00:21:35.320 Uttam Kumaran: Excited to take that on, and….
197 00:21:35.680 ⇒ 00:21:43.259 Uttam Kumaran: It’s also starting at a remote company, and it’s not just, like, me, so, like, I’m… I don’t have time to…
198 00:21:43.530 ⇒ 00:21:51.510 Uttam Kumaran: to do my usual, which is I call every day, like I did for you guys. So I want to make sure that they can get love from multiple different areas, so….
199 00:21:52.590 ⇒ 00:21:57.680 Amber Lin: Should they be eventually added to the manager’s meeting, Shreya and….
200 00:21:58.130 ⇒ 00:22:10.519 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I don’t know, I’m kind of like… I’m not… I think this is… we’re gonna have to decide this as a crew, like, how we see this thing evolving. I mean, like, I… I still don’t think, like, Sam is technically, like.
201 00:22:10.690 ⇒ 00:22:15.890 Uttam Kumaran: the people manager for AI, and Trey is technically a people manager.
202 00:22:16.000 ⇒ 00:22:31.040 Uttam Kumaran: So, I’m gonna… I’m having those conversations with Sam, and for Shreya, I think I just… I don’t… I’m just gonna leave her just as a technical lead for now. So, I think let’s just leave this as us. I think still, I would… I would like the script to just be, like.
203 00:22:31.230 ⇒ 00:22:33.050 Uttam Kumaran: Probably 3 to 5 people.
204 00:22:33.180 ⇒ 00:22:37.859 Uttam Kumaran: And I think we’re all… we all can… have been at the company long enough to sort of see everywhere, so…
205 00:22:38.000 ⇒ 00:22:39.500 Uttam Kumaran: I think this is okay for now.
206 00:22:41.140 ⇒ 00:22:41.770 Amber Lin: Okay.
207 00:22:42.450 ⇒ 00:22:48.780 Amber Lin: And then… Anything else?
208 00:22:57.030 ⇒ 00:22:58.470 Uttam Kumaran: That’s probably it for me.
209 00:22:58.660 ⇒ 00:22:59.440 Amber Lin: Okay.
210 00:23:00.200 ⇒ 00:23:01.229 Amber Lin: Roger, do you think….
211 00:23:01.230 ⇒ 00:23:02.480 Awaish Kumar: Okay, that’s okay.
212 00:23:02.480 ⇒ 00:23:06.539 Amber Lin: on more and more… Development work, or engineering work?
213 00:23:07.500 ⇒ 00:23:14.860 Uttam Kumaran: Certainly, I don’t think it’s ideal, but… I think for urban stems, I’m…
214 00:23:15.590 ⇒ 00:23:24.549 Uttam Kumaran: I just… I’m not, like, clicking into a lot of stuff, and I think we’re just a bit behind, so I want to move a lot of that forward. I would like to have…
215 00:23:26.060 ⇒ 00:23:27.590 Uttam Kumaran: some more support.
216 00:23:27.910 ⇒ 00:23:30.329 Uttam Kumaran: But at the same time.
217 00:23:30.930 ⇒ 00:23:37.840 Uttam Kumaran: that… that money is just… we don’t have to… it’s not as expensive, right? Because right now, we’re… basically…
218 00:23:38.060 ⇒ 00:23:42.639 Uttam Kumaran: Running urban stems just at the demolade margin, so….
219 00:23:44.370 ⇒ 00:23:49.560 Uttam Kumaran: on one hand, I think we could use a little bit more of that extra margin, …
220 00:23:50.260 ⇒ 00:23:54.130 Uttam Kumaran: I am using AI very, very heavily, so… It’s…
221 00:23:54.320 ⇒ 00:24:07.670 Uttam Kumaran: not taking as much as my time, but it is a risk, for sure. I don’t want to be… like, we certainly need a data engineer that was supposed to be Vashdev. We definitely need another AE, for sure.
222 00:24:07.980 ⇒ 00:24:12.160 Uttam Kumaran: … I’m just… I’m gonna be a little bit more careful bringing on…
223 00:24:12.890 ⇒ 00:24:18.610 Uttam Kumaran: Bringing out people and, like, finding someone that can actually do it, and then getting them out if they can’t, you know?
224 00:24:21.720 ⇒ 00:24:22.490 Amber Lin: Yep.
225 00:24:27.700 ⇒ 00:24:31.610 Amber Lin: Any concerns on your side, Awash?
226 00:24:33.090 ⇒ 00:24:35.570 Awaish Kumar: … nodes?
227 00:24:35.570 ⇒ 00:24:39.400 Amber Lin: So, we just have an update on Remo that we….
228 00:24:39.750 ⇒ 00:24:43.580 Awaish Kumar: I, of the myself met. We are going to share
229 00:24:43.900 ⇒ 00:24:48.059 Awaish Kumar: Some information itself, and then he’s going to prepare a proposal.
230 00:24:48.330 ⇒ 00:24:51.719 Awaish Kumar: By tomorrow, and then we can share that with Ramo.
231 00:24:53.700 ⇒ 00:24:54.920 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s rough.
232 00:24:59.920 ⇒ 00:25:03.680 Amber Lin: Okay, I think my concern is…
233 00:25:04.510 ⇒ 00:25:13.770 Amber Lin: Rico’s workload, is he okay with both ops and PM workload? Because he now has 3 small client teams.
234 00:25:14.300 ⇒ 00:25:17.959 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I’m gonna move… his stuff is gonna move to the new PM immediately.
235 00:25:17.960 ⇒ 00:25:19.020 Amber Lin: Okay, okay.
236 00:25:19.020 ⇒ 00:25:25.839 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, that… he’s… he’s not… the new PM isn’t coming on and, like, taking on… that person is gonna take on some of…
237 00:25:25.990 ⇒ 00:25:32.290 Uttam Kumaran: Ricoh scope, and then also take on new clients, so… Okay. Yeah, it’s… it’s…
238 00:25:32.570 ⇒ 00:25:36.089 Uttam Kumaran: he’s gonna get slammed probably for another week or two. Yeah.
239 00:25:36.090 ⇒ 00:25:44.600 Amber Lin: I see. I’ll see if I can help him on LA to set things up, because I think that’s the hardest part, and then maintaining will take less time.
240 00:25:45.280 ⇒ 00:25:45.780 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
241 00:25:45.780 ⇒ 00:25:51.919 Amber Lin: Yeah. Okay, sounds good. I have a call tomorrow with him, so I’ll ask him about how it’s going.
242 00:25:52.810 ⇒ 00:25:53.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
243 00:25:53.950 ⇒ 00:25:54.760 Amber Lin: Yeah.
244 00:25:56.150 ⇒ 00:25:57.910 Amber Lin: That’s all for me.
245 00:25:58.200 ⇒ 00:26:00.700 Amber Lin: I’ve started reading the book, it was very helpful.
246 00:26:01.100 ⇒ 00:26:02.360 Uttam Kumaran: Is it good, right? Yeah, it’s good.
247 00:26:02.360 ⇒ 00:26:03.170 Amber Lin: That’s good.
248 00:26:03.400 ⇒ 00:26:05.460 Amber Lin: Very short, which I appreciate.
249 00:26:05.730 ⇒ 00:26:13.220 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s really tactical. So you’ll see, after you read the book, you’ll be like, oh yeah, I get why he just added all these meetings, and…
250 00:26:13.440 ⇒ 00:26:15.040 Uttam Kumaran: did these notes.
251 00:26:15.040 ⇒ 00:26:22.449 Amber Lin: Yeah, I find, especially today at the delivery meeting, I copied your template for this meeting, it was very helpful.
252 00:26:22.900 ⇒ 00:26:31.709 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think, like… and also keep iterating on the templates, like, if you find… like, I’ve changed some templates today. If you find that one section never gets hit, or, like.
253 00:26:31.920 ⇒ 00:26:35.699 Uttam Kumaran: you wish you had another section, just add it. Like, we should continue to evolve these.
254 00:26:35.770 ⇒ 00:26:54.279 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, I mean, I’m hopeful that we… when people join the company, I want them to have a… to know that we’re a culture of writing and preparing. I know, like, we still don’t do the best job at preparing for every meeting, but it’s the thought that counts, and for new people, I want them to see that that’s the expectation, you know?
255 00:26:54.450 ⇒ 00:27:00.839 Uttam Kumaran: Because for a lot of people, I wanted them to send their time writing and thinking through tasks, and then come to the meeting prepared, so….
256 00:27:01.060 ⇒ 00:27:02.390 Amber Lin: Yeah, it’s, ….
257 00:27:02.390 ⇒ 00:27:06.160 Uttam Kumaran: It’s… it sets a good, you know, … Bar for everybody.
258 00:27:07.400 ⇒ 00:27:08.170 Amber Lin: Yeah.
259 00:27:08.170 ⇒ 00:27:12.070 Awaish Kumar: I was reading that book.
260 00:27:12.600 ⇒ 00:27:13.310 Awaish Kumar: ….
261 00:27:13.310 ⇒ 00:27:13.740 Uttam Kumaran: Nice.
262 00:27:13.740 ⇒ 00:27:18.719 Awaish Kumar: And, yeah, in that book, it was, like, that you have 15 minutes of meeting, and….
263 00:27:18.720 ⇒ 00:27:20.419 Uttam Kumaran: 10 minutes to prepare.
264 00:27:21.990 ⇒ 00:27:23.579 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, 10 minutes at the beginning.
265 00:27:23.580 ⇒ 00:27:24.920 Awaish Kumar: Yeah.
266 00:27:26.250 ⇒ 00:27:40.719 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so, and I also think, look, for me, my only reason I can’t prepare is because I’m in every meeting, so I think eventually, too, like, delivery excellence may not need to include me. Like, some of the meetings, I can… I can only… I can join some of them, not all of them.
267 00:27:40.900 ⇒ 00:27:48.370 Uttam Kumaran: So, we’ll see how things evolve, but I’m excited. I think, like, between you two, and also now Sam, and, …
268 00:27:48.520 ⇒ 00:28:05.519 Uttam Kumaran: Shreya, like, we have a really great class of pretty, like, you know, like-minded, like, high-energy folks that I think want to really tackle stuff, so… just, like, leaning on each other and try to, you know, nail these next couple weeks. We still have a lot of sales pipeline, but I just have to go back to start to…
269 00:28:05.550 ⇒ 00:28:11.210 Uttam Kumaran: To do that, and it’s taking… it’s just… it’s… that is something that’s hard to context switch in and out of.
270 00:28:14.680 ⇒ 00:28:15.710 Amber Lin: I agree.
271 00:28:16.360 ⇒ 00:28:29.630 Amber Lin: I think my project loads are becoming easier. I think Eden has become a lot easier to maintain. Urban Stems is just not much there. I need to spend a little bit more time on ABC, because that one has been…
272 00:28:29.960 ⇒ 00:28:35.470 Amber Lin: Not that loved. But I have some time today before Casey gets back tomorrow.
273 00:28:36.090 ⇒ 00:28:40.399 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think also ask for Sam… ask Sam for help there. Like, keeping Sam for stuff.
274 00:28:40.540 ⇒ 00:28:41.350 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
275 00:28:44.450 ⇒ 00:28:50.479 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, think of the… start thinking about… take a look at the Chief of Staff stuff, and let me know what you think.
276 00:28:50.480 ⇒ 00:28:56.079 Amber Lin: Yeah, I was… I was reading through it, I’m now reading some articles that I found…
277 00:28:56.290 ⇒ 00:29:02.210 Amber Lin: online. I’ve also talked to the two people Robert intro’d me to.
278 00:29:02.680 ⇒ 00:29:10.869 Amber Lin: So… I will… put some notes there. I haven’t had time to thoroughly think through it, but I.
279 00:29:10.870 ⇒ 00:29:15.500 Uttam Kumaran: No, that’s… as long as you’re, like, glancing at it here and there, and the brain will process it, so….
280 00:29:15.500 ⇒ 00:29:16.350 Amber Lin: Yeah, yeah.
281 00:29:17.000 ⇒ 00:29:18.270 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, cool.
282 00:29:21.300 ⇒ 00:29:21.860 Amber Lin: Okay.
283 00:29:21.860 ⇒ 00:29:22.580 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
284 00:29:23.370 ⇒ 00:29:23.685 Awaish Kumar: Huh.
285 00:29:25.390 ⇒ 00:29:27.150 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, thank you guys.
286 00:29:27.340 ⇒ 00:29:28.710 Amber Lin: Yeah, thanks all.
287 00:29:28.960 ⇒ 00:29:29.870 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, talk to you soon.
288 00:29:29.870 ⇒ 00:29:30.710 Amber Lin: I….