Meeting Title: Operations and Project Management Sync Date: 2025-08-08 Meeting participants: Rico Rejoso, Uttam Kumaran


WEBVTT

1 00:03:28.780 00:03:29.990 Uttam Kumaran: There we go!

2 00:03:34.000 00:03:34.690 Rico Rejoso: How are you, Thumb?

3 00:03:37.080 00:03:38.169 Rico Rejoso: I’m good. How are you.

4 00:03:38.890 00:03:39.910 Uttam Kumaran: Good.

5 00:03:40.320 00:03:41.000 Rico Rejoso: Okay.

6 00:03:41.330 00:03:42.760 Uttam Kumaran: Busy week man.

7 00:03:42.980 00:03:46.030 Rico Rejoso: It is. I saw your. I saw your schedule as well.

8 00:03:47.000 00:03:49.419 Uttam Kumaran: What do you think? I thought it was busy for you, too.

9 00:03:50.988 00:03:53.540 Rico Rejoso: Manageable still, I think.

10 00:03:53.710 00:04:06.990 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t say that. Rule number one. Don’t say you have to say I’m so busy I’m underwater, and then I’ll be like, Okay, well, I’ll take some stuff off your plate.

11 00:04:06.990 00:04:11.353 Rico Rejoso: Unless I’m burned out. I think that’s that’s that’s when.

12 00:04:11.790 00:04:20.896 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, it’s okay. I just think, just be careful. Tell me if if it’s getting crazy because the work will keep coming around here. It’s never it won’t stop

13 00:04:21.649 00:04:23.549 Uttam Kumaran: But I’m glad to hear that.

14 00:04:23.930 00:04:25.746 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, actually, I like that.

15 00:04:29.030 00:04:31.230 Uttam Kumaran: What do you think it’s but what’s week? 3.

16 00:04:31.970 00:04:35.720 Rico Rejoso: Week. 4, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Week, 4.

17 00:04:36.470 00:04:37.939 Uttam Kumaran: What do you would you think.

18 00:04:38.232 00:04:50.800 Rico Rejoso: It’s fun. Actually, I’m getting to know more of the you know. I’ve been engaging with a lot of people already, a lot of team members. So it’s for me. It’s fun at the same time challenging. Especially I get to learn

19 00:04:50.940 00:04:55.580 Rico Rejoso: more stuff as I go through each week each day.

20 00:04:56.980 00:04:59.569 Rico Rejoso: so I kind of was like exploring as well.

21 00:05:00.480 00:05:03.870 Uttam Kumaran: Good. Good. Yeah. I mean, you’re you’re quickly becoming the.

22 00:05:03.990 00:05:09.279 Uttam Kumaran: You’re quickly becoming the replacement of me. So that’s good. Everyone’s going to you.

23 00:05:09.770 00:05:14.779 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I think that’s that’s my goal to take. You know, some off your plate so you can focus.

24 00:05:14.780 00:05:15.549 Rico Rejoso: No, no, it’s great.

25 00:05:15.550 00:05:15.969 Rico Rejoso: We can see.

26 00:05:15.970 00:05:19.600 Uttam Kumaran: Incredibly helpful. No, it’s it’s incredibly incredibly helpful.

27 00:05:20.750 00:05:21.480 Rico Rejoso: Thank you.

28 00:05:25.520 00:05:27.419 Uttam Kumaran: So let’s see if Robert joins.

29 00:05:31.650 00:05:37.640 Rico Rejoso: That’s, I think, one of the one for agenda was the contract on upwork, and how to get

30 00:05:38.370 00:05:41.170 Rico Rejoso: those money of upwork right.

31 00:05:41.370 00:05:42.150 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

32 00:05:42.150 00:05:42.600 Rico Rejoso: Okay.

33 00:05:44.070 00:05:46.849 Uttam Kumaran: God! He said. It’s possible, so just hear it from him.

34 00:05:47.370 00:05:48.150 Rico Rejoso: Okay. Great.

35 00:07:11.380 00:07:19.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think I’m gonna start also gonna start involving in some of the financial planning stuff as well. How is it going with managing marketing like, is it tough?

36 00:07:21.540 00:07:24.220 Uttam Kumaran: Think you can take more? What’s what’s going on there.

37 00:07:24.540 00:07:35.310 Rico Rejoso: Well, they’ve been cooperative all throughout, especially Hannah and Espier Hannah, since it’s the head of the marketing department and

38 00:07:36.320 00:07:57.069 Rico Rejoso: we’ve been going pretty well. It’s just that. I think I wasn’t more involved into it. So I wasn’t able to manage directly to their tasks and everything. What I can manage is just to remind them of the tasks that they have for this cycle, and make sure that it’s accomplished rather than moving it to the next cycle. I think that’s 1 of our priority.

39 00:07:58.550 00:08:02.529 Uttam Kumaran: How do you feel about the Project management work versus other work?

40 00:08:04.400 00:08:28.150 Rico Rejoso: It’s fun for me, actually. Cause, you know, leading has been one of my I mean, I I love doing that stuff, especially since I’m not good at it, because the more challenge it is challenge challenging it is, the more fun it is for me, because I’m not used to speaking, as you know, as if you notice I’m not used to speaking with a lot of person. I used to do my work behind the scene.

41 00:08:28.480 00:08:40.059 Rico Rejoso: and you know, speaking to them was like, open up new experiences for me, although I love, you know, leading. And I was Ryan’s team leader before, when we were working at a call center.

42 00:08:40.740 00:08:51.199 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great! Well, I guess my my question was gonna be like, what do you want to do now that you’ve seen that you’ve seen operations work like, what do you think? Cause there’s a lot of project management work

43 00:08:51.320 00:08:52.480 Uttam Kumaran: that you could

44 00:08:52.590 00:08:58.040 Uttam Kumaran: get involved in. But it’s I sort of don’t want to give you stuff that you’re like.

45 00:08:58.320 00:09:19.359 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, I don’t want to be into Pm. World, but the other reason is, operations is will be pretty lonely like it’ll just be me and you. So I do like that. You’re spending time with Amber. And hopefully, Giselle, because they’re there. It’s gonna be helpful for you to learn the stuff they’re learning. But yeah, just like, where do you want? What do you? What are you thinking about? Longer term?

46 00:09:21.050 00:09:31.460 Rico Rejoso: Anywhere I can fit in to be honest operations. For now, because I feel like everyone or like they, our team member just needs someone to go through

47 00:09:31.738 00:09:53.491 Rico Rejoso: especially if you’re like busy. I know your schedules like backed up with a lot of clients, sales and everything. So I I just want to be like a shadow that they want that you can go to whenever they need access stuff like that. Questions they have in mind, so that you know they can feel at ease as much as possible. Then eventually growing to a more tasks that I can take with learning

48 00:09:53.770 00:10:07.781 Rico Rejoso: through it. First, st because I I think that’s where I build my confidence with. As long as I’m prepared, I can, you know, prepared and knowledgeable. I can work through stuff. But if it’s something new, I kinda like, you know, panic. And just

49 00:10:08.630 00:10:14.700 Rico Rejoso: I mean, I’ll be honest with that if it’s something new. I kind of like overthink stuff, and just like the.

50 00:10:14.700 00:10:16.290 Uttam Kumaran: That’s everybody. Dude. Don’t worry. That’s fine.

51 00:10:16.290 00:10:16.700 Rico Rejoso: Gloves.

52 00:10:16.700 00:10:17.240 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

53 00:10:18.260 00:10:19.140 Rico Rejoso: I.

54 00:10:19.140 00:10:20.469 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah. The book club.

55 00:10:20.470 00:10:26.810 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, you know, you know what I’ve been speaking with. I’ve been speaking with Hannah for, like for a couple of days, and I.

56 00:10:26.810 00:10:28.080 Uttam Kumaran: No way dude.

57 00:10:28.080 00:10:34.989 Rico Rejoso: I read the book twice already, just thinking of how how to, you know, create an event for this one. Then Hannah came along.

58 00:10:34.990 00:10:37.076 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, dude!

59 00:10:38.120 00:10:46.100 Rico Rejoso: Just told me you have to do. You have to do like this thing. And I was like, how? How was it so simple for, and I was like overthinking stuff and everything. And you know.

60 00:10:46.460 00:10:47.880 Rico Rejoso: big help for all coming from her.

61 00:10:47.880 00:10:48.830 Rico Rejoso: What happens.

62 00:10:49.120 00:10:54.090 Uttam Kumaran: No, it happens. But this is what’s 1 thing I’m telling everybody to learn is like, ask questions first, st

63 00:10:54.210 00:10:59.970 Uttam Kumaran: like, we’re all pretty smart. There’s no dumb questions. But if you go 3 days, I’m gonna notice

64 00:11:00.110 00:11:04.689 Uttam Kumaran: right? And the best thing you can do is just tell me, give me a status update right versus.

65 00:11:04.690 00:11:05.310 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.

66 00:11:05.789 00:11:09.019 Uttam Kumaran: But also it’s it’s typically probably a lot simpler than you think.

67 00:11:09.511 00:11:18.919 Uttam Kumaran: But you know everybody has to learn that in their own time, but you know me like as long as you slack me I’ll get. I’ll tell you what the what the answer is. You know.

68 00:11:20.210 00:11:24.470 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, yeah, I think that’s my You know my my fault on my end. I wasn’t able to.

69 00:11:24.470 00:11:50.489 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, but I know a lot of people will be. I’m not. A lot of people will be like, oh, I don’t want to waste your time and stuff. It’s actually no, you’re gonna waste my time. If I have to follow up, I actually want to hear. I want to hear what people are doing. And so that’s totally fine. And and yeah, look I, I, in terms of longer term stuff like for me, you’re actually you’re you’re incredibly talented, and you’re incredibly resourceful, like, I don’t see you operations.

70 00:11:50.670 00:11:58.300 Uttam Kumaran: you know. I think there is a long way to go, but also I do think that there is also a lot of room on the Pm. Side. So maybe it is a little bit of both

71 00:11:58.754 00:12:12.770 Uttam Kumaran: or we think of just like ways that you can start to stretch. But you know, I think you you could end up like leading operations or or doing something, you know, even higher level, and someone being under you doing the basic stuff, you know.

72 00:12:13.530 00:12:33.640 Rico Rejoso: Yeah. Once we get, you know, everything set up once I interconnect our sales operation to Pmo. I think that’s like a sign that we can move forward like taking on some other departments to, you know, help and assist with. And you know, pm, them based from what I can. I’ve learned from amber and stuff.

73 00:12:34.050 00:12:43.219 Rico Rejoso: So I think that’s, you know, just slow slow growth and process. I’m looking for that, because right now, I believe there’s still like a lot of work in operations, and I don’t want to leave it behind.

74 00:12:44.160 00:12:45.580 Rico Rejoso: They go skimming. Yeah.

75 00:12:54.150 00:13:03.445 Rico Rejoso: especially on sales, I believe. That’s 1 thing. I’m still working with seed, because the sales to you know.

76 00:13:04.120 00:13:13.030 Rico Rejoso: I mean client to onboarding process, although I have. I have experience on boarding stuff, but I just do the legal part of it, the documentation and

77 00:13:13.780 00:13:26.010 Rico Rejoso: setting up. But I haven’t fully gone through the client onboarding process from the sales to close, from closing the sales and to on onboarding it. So I think that’s 1 thing I’m also looking forward to.

78 00:13:28.790 00:13:38.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I think we’re gonna basically kind of the way I’m thinking about it’s like, how do we go from managing stuff like day to day, to week, to week, to month to month, and it’s a quarter by quarter.

79 00:13:40.330 00:13:50.109 Uttam Kumaran: you know. So those are like I. For example, there’s things like taxes, compliance, like I sort of want to have. You see, the more complicated stuff because it’s clear you can take on the

80 00:13:50.370 00:13:55.099 Uttam Kumaran: the, the easy work, I can tell is easy. So that’s just that that I’m not.

81 00:13:55.320 00:13:56.300 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t

82 00:13:56.470 00:14:05.649 Uttam Kumaran: like. I want you to you. You can quickly graduate from that. And then it’s also training. You know, it’s like, how do we write sops for stuff so that anyone can do it?

83 00:14:06.100 00:14:08.400 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, I do think that there’s a

84 00:14:08.810 00:14:18.940 Uttam Kumaran: there’s a good amount of stuff that you can help with on some more advanced operations work. And you’re gonna start seeing that on the planning side. You know, planning and allocation, which is a big piece.

85 00:14:20.260 00:14:23.329 Rico Rejoso: Definitely, I’m looking forward to it, actually, on the financial side as well.

86 00:14:23.630 00:14:27.770 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, you know, I kind of see, you’re like the kind of like me, like the glue between

87 00:14:27.970 00:14:30.080 Uttam Kumaran: delivery and

88 00:14:30.450 00:14:40.880 Uttam Kumaran: finance. And then also, like you’re the 1st person that gets kicked off like soon as sales comes, like, it’s like, Okay, how does client get on board or how to get off boarded people on board offboarded all that.

89 00:14:41.337 00:14:45.850 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll document and and get all that cleared.

90 00:14:47.090 00:14:48.050 Rico Rejoso: Definitely.

91 00:14:50.530 00:14:57.540 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I don’t know if Robert is coming. Maybe if you want to send him a quick note, see if you can stop on for like 10 min.

92 00:14:58.810 00:15:02.010 Rico Rejoso: Yes, let me. I think you message on sales.

93 00:15:03.390 00:15:04.900 Rico Rejoso: Can I send a message there?

94 00:15:06.090 00:15:07.769 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, he did, or.

95 00:15:07.770 00:15:09.810 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I just sent a message from sales.

96 00:15:16.680 00:15:26.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, can you just ping him in a channel with with

97 00:15:26.210 00:15:30.910 Uttam Kumaran: just ping him and just see if he can hop on for 10 min to talk about work.

98 00:15:33.360 00:15:35.720 Rico Rejoso: Okay, one, second.

99 00:16:07.400 00:16:09.150 Uttam Kumaran: So you read the book twice already.

100 00:16:09.770 00:16:12.419 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I was scattering through.

101 00:16:12.420 00:16:13.330 Uttam Kumaran: CEO within.

102 00:16:13.520 00:16:26.439 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I was. I was scanning through all the chapters, and I was since I was coming up with the weekly pattern. And how we can, you know, execute it. I was reading like the 1st 1st chapter to second chapter.

103 00:16:26.440 00:16:29.850 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, what did you think when reading it?

104 00:16:30.600 00:16:31.950 Rico Rejoso: Pretty good. Right?

105 00:16:31.950 00:16:39.360 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, actually. There were like a lot of things that I was planning on. You know, doing myself. But I didn’t know.

106 00:16:39.360 00:16:40.750 Uttam Kumaran: Dude. I know process.

107 00:16:40.750 00:16:45.880 Uttam Kumaran: That’s why I wanted to read it. That’s why I want all of us to read, because I read it. I was like, oh, my God, this is so good!

108 00:16:46.310 00:17:02.840 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I have this white word on my room. I usually write write stuff process actions that I didn’t know that there was like a legit process, and how things were done because I wasn’t really reading that kind of book. That kind of books, you know, before. More of like, you know fantasy and everything. But once I read that once I go. Oh.

109 00:17:02.840 00:17:04.939 Uttam Kumaran: I read. I read books like this

110 00:17:05.560 00:17:13.560 Uttam Kumaran: kind of like all the time, and they they sort of, you know, good book will like kind of say what you’re you already are thinking. But put it into words, you know.

111 00:17:13.869 00:17:16.309 Rico Rejoso: Yeah. And there were like a clear process for it.

112 00:17:16.449 00:17:20.099 Rico Rejoso: And I was like thinking, how should I do it? And they’ve already done it.

113 00:17:21.040 00:17:26.100 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, exactly. There’s already a process that like we just maybe like didn’t

114 00:17:26.220 00:17:40.220 Uttam Kumaran: like. Maybe we could have arrived there eventually. But someone else did it, and it’s perfect like. That’s where I got the Okrs Aors and the meeting notes like. And so that’s a good way. And I wanted everybody to read it, because everybody is a CEO of their own work. You know.

115 00:17:40.220 00:17:45.120 Rico Rejoso: Yes, definitely.

116 00:17:56.680 00:18:04.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So we’ll we’ll read that together, and I’ll kind of give everyone. And then I have, like probably 2 or 2 more books. After that that we can read. Think probably one book a month.

117 00:18:05.290 00:18:06.489 Uttam Kumaran: It’s good.

118 00:18:08.200 00:18:13.319 Rico Rejoso: So how do you like the the pacing for it? Because if it was me, I can like, do

119 00:18:14.010 00:18:21.349 Rico Rejoso: I think the only long part was the first, st either. Second second chapter second, yeah. Second chapter.

120 00:18:21.960 00:18:25.280 Rico Rejoso: But everything we’re like the per second.

121 00:18:25.280 00:18:27.650 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, the book is really short, you know.

122 00:18:29.650 00:18:41.629 Rico Rejoso: But I collect a second into 6 weeks, just to make sure I don’t know if everyone reads fast or will take time there to digest some of the parts. So I was thinking, how how will be the pacing with.

123 00:22:07.210 00:22:14.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, what is your what’s your typical schedule like these days? Is it mostly just like a couple of meetings? And then, just like mainly cranking through stuff.

124 00:22:15.270 00:22:21.039 Rico Rejoso: Yeah. Only have a few meeting and a stand up with the marketing team.

125 00:22:21.490 00:22:28.769 Rico Rejoso: Then I follow up with some of the work that we have previously done, but most of it are on review already, or needs a review.

126 00:22:29.020 00:22:33.480 Rico Rejoso: So there’s like, I’m just waiting for, also some ad hoc stuff.

127 00:22:34.460 00:22:35.100 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

128 00:22:36.010 00:22:41.009 Rico Rejoso: Because there’s something especially for G cell. For the past few days I’ve been like oh.

129 00:22:41.440 00:22:44.349 Rico Rejoso: on with her, and assisting her with all the tools.

130 00:22:47.443 00:22:52.060 Uttam Kumaran: Project, management, like.

131 00:22:52.060 00:22:52.770 Rico Rejoso: We’ll talk.

132 00:22:52.770 00:22:54.280 Uttam Kumaran: Related meetings.

133 00:22:55.940 00:22:58.149 Uttam Kumaran: Just so you can see their process.

134 00:22:58.780 00:23:00.739 Rico Rejoso: Oh, yeah, I can join definitely.

135 00:23:02.660 00:23:13.409 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, cause it’s just Amber and Giselle. But I I think it would be helpful, because because I sort of see you as the you know the you’re kind of the project manager in the operations team, but it’s only me and you, you know.

136 00:23:13.410 00:23:13.865 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.

137 00:23:20.810 00:23:27.200 Uttam Kumaran: But I I do wonder that like if maybe it’s helpful if you can also start to help project manage

138 00:23:27.380 00:23:29.889 Uttam Kumaran: one other internal team like.

139 00:23:30.410 00:23:35.069 Uttam Kumaran: For example, we have our internal AI team that could that could use some help as well.

140 00:23:36.670 00:23:42.299 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, definitely. I just. I’ll just need to review some of the tickets as well.

141 00:23:43.010 00:23:45.690 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay, alright, I’ll I’ll talk to Amber about it.

142 00:23:47.800 00:23:51.520 Rico Rejoso: Oh, I think Robert replied.

143 00:23:53.220 00:23:56.809 Rico Rejoso: Oh! He said, that he already addressed this to you.

144 00:24:01.345 00:24:05.119 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, well, let me not see.

145 00:26:34.780 00:26:38.570 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, maybe let’s see if we can just discuss through slack for this one.

146 00:26:40.270 00:26:41.869 Rico Rejoso: Okay, no worries. Thank you.

147 00:26:42.178 00:26:50.499 Uttam Kumaran: And then maybe my last thing, I reviewed all of the the tool analysis that you sent. Can you send that to Leo Luna, and just

148 00:26:50.780 00:26:54.879 Uttam Kumaran: maybe we can get their approval and see if they want to take next steps.

149 00:26:55.270 00:26:57.100 Rico Rejoso: Okay. I’ll send it after.

150 00:26:57.620 00:27:00.339 Uttam Kumaran: That that document was great. By the way,

151 00:27:02.120 00:27:08.320 Rico Rejoso: You make it look better. To be honest, I was reviewing the formula, because I’m not pretty good at ex us.

152 00:27:08.320 00:27:19.960 Uttam Kumaran: No, you’ll see. Yeah. You’ll see that I’ll anytime I go in a spreadsheet. I get very like it has to look good. Otherwise I get annoyed. So I edit it. But yeah, it’s it’ll come over time.

153 00:27:20.440 00:27:22.669 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I’ll study on that one as well.

154 00:27:23.320 00:27:28.010 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, yeah, if you just want to send it to them and or you can move this to the

155 00:27:28.720 00:27:32.819 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I don’t know. It’s actually fine. You can just just send this to them and see what they say.

156 00:27:33.580 00:27:35.650 Rico Rejoso: Okay. I’ll set it to slap.

157 00:27:36.380 00:27:37.449 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay. Alright.

158 00:27:37.450 00:27:37.920 Rico Rejoso: All right.

159 00:27:37.920 00:27:38.359 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you. Dude.

160 00:27:38.360 00:27:39.380 Rico Rejoso: Thank you.

161 00:27:39.890 00:27:41.210 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? Bye.