Meeting Title: Operations Weekly Date: 2025-11-10 Meeting participants: Lauren Ford, Rico Rejoso, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:02:17.690 ⇒ 00:02:19.469 Lauren Ford: Hi, Rico, how are you?
2 00:02:19.840 ⇒ 00:02:21.440 Rico Rejoso: Hey, Lauren, I’m good, how are you?
3 00:02:21.920 ⇒ 00:02:23.180 Lauren Ford: I’m okay.
4 00:02:23.450 ⇒ 00:02:24.610 Lauren Ford: I’m just…
5 00:02:27.730 ⇒ 00:02:30.590 Lauren Ford: I’m just wondering whether I’m over my head.
6 00:02:32.770 ⇒ 00:02:33.620 Rico Rejoso: Why would that happen?
7 00:02:34.510 ⇒ 00:02:45.569 Lauren Ford: The other job is just, like, going to be a lot, and I don’t know how well I’m gonna be able to, like, go back and forth, because it’s, like, so much context switching, but we’ll see.
8 00:02:48.120 ⇒ 00:02:51.199 Rico Rejoso: Let me know how I can, let me know how I can help you out.
9 00:02:51.580 ⇒ 00:02:58.370 Lauren Ford: No, I appreciate it. Thank you for putting all this stuff in linear. I think it’s just, like, figuring out how to do the stuff in linear that I…
10 00:02:59.680 ⇒ 00:03:04.470 Lauren Ford: asynchronously, that I’m… Trying to figure out.
11 00:03:05.780 ⇒ 00:03:07.730 Lauren Ford: So we’ll see.
12 00:03:08.020 ⇒ 00:03:10.750 Lauren Ford: How… how was today? How was… did,
13 00:03:10.960 ⇒ 00:03:16.280 Lauren Ford: It didn’t look like anything got launched from Tom’s perspective. Are we holding off till tomorrow?
14 00:03:16.880 ⇒ 00:03:19.649 Rico Rejoso: I think we’re just waiting for them to send it.
15 00:03:20.130 ⇒ 00:03:21.459 Lauren Ford: Oh, cool, okay.
16 00:03:21.840 ⇒ 00:03:27.639 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I drafted a message for him, not sure when he’s gonna send that. Maybe at the end of day.
17 00:03:27.850 ⇒ 00:03:29.479 Lauren Ford: Yeah, makes sense.
18 00:03:33.790 ⇒ 00:03:34.820 Lauren Ford: Let’s see…
19 00:03:36.250 ⇒ 00:03:39.119 Rico Rejoso: Mondays are pretty busy and powerful.
20 00:03:39.740 ⇒ 00:03:47.729 Lauren Ford: Yeah, I wish I had done stuff on Sunday, but I just wanted to give myself a full weekend before diving into both jobs on this.
21 00:03:48.060 ⇒ 00:03:49.520 Rico Rejoso: Definitely, that’s a must.
22 00:03:50.000 ⇒ 00:03:55.720 Lauren Ford: I don’t know, I think it would have been smarter to get ahead on this one, because it’s, like, just so much,
23 00:03:58.530 ⇒ 00:04:03.789 Lauren Ford: it’s… you know what it’s like. It’s like, it’s easy if you’ve done it before, but if it’s totally new, it gets a little bit…
24 00:04:06.410 ⇒ 00:04:09.519 Rico Rejoso: You have to deep dive the context first, and you know.
25 00:04:09.520 ⇒ 00:04:19.160 Lauren Ford: Exactly. Context is everything, and I don’t have enough from the one week, so… Who would have implemented?
26 00:04:19.380 ⇒ 00:04:20.730 Lauren Ford: Peer reviewed.
27 00:04:28.370 ⇒ 00:04:34.260 Lauren Ford: What is the code implemented? I’m looking at the, AOR review cadence and calendar holds.
28 00:04:34.610 ⇒ 00:04:41.380 Lauren Ford: What did you mean by code implemented and peer-reviewed? Like, he wants it to be part of the whole…
29 00:04:41.500 ⇒ 00:04:44.800 Lauren Ford: Meeting is, like, making sure the…
30 00:04:45.080 ⇒ 00:04:49.439 Lauren Ford: AI, programming is working, or what am I missing?
31 00:04:49.440 ⇒ 00:04:51.799 Rico Rejoso: I’m sorry, what was that, AOR, right?
32 00:04:52.000 ⇒ 00:04:56.270 Lauren Ford: Yeah, on the established quarterly AOR, this one here, I’ll tag you.
33 00:04:58.780 ⇒ 00:05:05.329 Lauren Ford: Does that work? Do I have to hit save or anything, or does it automatically ping you?
34 00:05:06.830 ⇒ 00:05:08.910 Rico Rejoso: It should… wait, let me check.
35 00:05:09.270 ⇒ 00:05:11.530 Lauren Ford: Here, I’ll, I’ll share my screen, too.
36 00:05:11.720 ⇒ 00:05:12.809 Rico Rejoso: Sure, thanks.
37 00:05:14.820 ⇒ 00:05:17.410 Lauren Ford: So, here we go… this.
38 00:05:18.010 ⇒ 00:05:23.150 Lauren Ford: So I’m looking at this… this one.
39 00:05:23.150 ⇒ 00:05:24.390 Rico Rejoso: Oh, okay, yeah.
40 00:05:25.040 ⇒ 00:05:35.749 Rico Rejoso: I guess that’s just… the one you mentioned, that you will have, like, a quarterly review of AOR, if there are any changes for any responsibility for each
41 00:05:36.180 ⇒ 00:05:38.410 Rico Rejoso: You know, departments and stuff.
42 00:05:38.800 ⇒ 00:05:39.530 Lauren Ford: Right
43 00:05:40.650 ⇒ 00:05:48.350 Lauren Ford: And then, would this be part of, like, the same… is it related to the AOR, or is it just, like, a… we want a quarterly meeting so that we can make sure that.
44 00:05:48.350 ⇒ 00:05:49.939 Rico Rejoso: It’s a quarterly meeting, yeah.
45 00:05:49.940 ⇒ 00:05:51.249 Lauren Ford: Got it, got it.
46 00:05:52.750 ⇒ 00:06:00.180 Lauren Ford: So, quarterly… I’m gonna call it a business health check-in.
47 00:06:01.140 ⇒ 00:06:01.800 Rico Rejoso: Excellent.
48 00:06:01.800 ⇒ 00:06:05.110 Lauren Ford: Including… AOR review.
49 00:06:09.270 ⇒ 00:06:10.290 Lauren Ford: Okay.
50 00:06:14.790 ⇒ 00:06:15.760 Lauren Ford: Keep that away.
51 00:06:17.150 ⇒ 00:06:24.920 Lauren Ford: So… Would the code… review be led by Sam or someone else?
52 00:06:31.820 ⇒ 00:06:32.979 Lauren Ford: I’m told it.
53 00:06:33.450 ⇒ 00:06:40.809 Lauren Ford: should I assume that the unit integration tests and the code, peer review will be led by Sam, or would that be…
54 00:06:41.380 ⇒ 00:06:44.400 Lauren Ford: Always sure.
55 00:06:47.750 ⇒ 00:06:49.499 Lauren Ford: Or UTAM himself.
56 00:06:55.130 ⇒ 00:07:02.370 Rico Rejoso: I guess that’s for the AI team, but I’m not sure if that feature should be… or should that be part of the acceptance criteria?
57 00:07:02.920 ⇒ 00:07:03.280 Lauren Ford: Got it.
58 00:07:03.280 ⇒ 00:07:07.689 Rico Rejoso: this is… this is mostly, like, AI-generated, so maybe those… these are, like, you know.
59 00:07:07.910 ⇒ 00:07:12.150 Lauren Ford: Oh, I see, I see. So these were just ideas, got it.
60 00:07:12.150 ⇒ 00:07:12.720 Rico Rejoso: Yep.
61 00:07:14.130 ⇒ 00:07:14.780 Lauren Ford: Okay.
62 00:07:30.770 ⇒ 00:07:36.680 Lauren Ford: So… My recommendation would be to separate this out.
63 00:07:48.420 ⇒ 00:07:49.750 Lauren Ford: Look at this.
64 00:07:50.530 ⇒ 00:07:51.579 Lauren Ford: I’m trying.
65 00:08:03.810 ⇒ 00:08:09.150 Lauren Ford: Yeah, I did the same thing. I was like, how can ChatGPT help me figure out what’s missing?
66 00:08:09.310 ⇒ 00:08:10.889 Lauren Ford: It was kind of good.
67 00:08:18.670 ⇒ 00:08:26.760 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, so maybe, like, the criteria would be something like an idea, but feel free to just cross it out if, you know, it’s an.
68 00:08:26.760 ⇒ 00:08:27.270 Lauren Ford: Awesome.
69 00:08:27.270 ⇒ 00:08:27.870 Rico Rejoso: Ado.
70 00:08:28.110 ⇒ 00:08:36.669 Lauren Ford: Okay, so we’ll do Robert… There’s, hannah… Amber.
71 00:08:43.890 ⇒ 00:08:45.120 Lauren Ford: I wish.
72 00:08:45.620 ⇒ 00:08:46.780 Lauren Ford: Ryan.
73 00:08:53.590 ⇒ 00:08:54.780 Lauren Ford: Keep doing that.
74 00:09:52.570 ⇒ 00:09:56.890 Rico Rejoso: Could it be, like, any days within the month provided?
75 00:09:58.880 ⇒ 00:10:01.869 Lauren Ford: Yeah, I would say, looking at what…
76 00:10:01.870 ⇒ 00:10:02.520 Rico Rejoso: month.
77 00:10:02.870 ⇒ 00:10:08.420 Lauren Ford: I would say if you could do it in the middle of the month, like, honestly, if you could…
78 00:10:08.590 ⇒ 00:10:13.549 Lauren Ford: I would say, like, due to the beginning of November, but,
79 00:10:14.260 ⇒ 00:10:24.930 Lauren Ford: we’re already in the beginning of November, so I just see when people are free, because you’re going to have enough of a little bit of a challenge just getting all five, and you, of course.
80 00:10:29.730 ⇒ 00:10:37.740 Lauren Ford: Yeah, so the way I would tackle this would be very similar to what you identified, but, like, basically just, like.
81 00:10:38.020 ⇒ 00:10:42.130 Lauren Ford: I made a copy so I could just, like, play around with it, but,
82 00:10:43.650 ⇒ 00:10:49.690 Lauren Ford: The pre-work should be, like, what didn’t these people… what isn’t on here that you’re doing?
83 00:10:50.110 ⇒ 00:10:56.900 Lauren Ford: What should be on here that you know you should be doing, but you don’t have time for, and then just, like, identifying the gaps.
84 00:10:57.020 ⇒ 00:10:58.050 Lauren Ford: So…
85 00:10:58.930 ⇒ 00:11:08.140 Lauren Ford: The problem is, in order to even add to this what she asked me to do… I mean, like, I pulled stuff from AI to look at, like, what might
86 00:11:08.330 ⇒ 00:11:19.079 Lauren Ford: be a missing area, but, like, I can’t really check this without talking to the team and being like, okay, where are these? Is this a real thing? You know, like, is this a real problem?
87 00:11:19.220 ⇒ 00:11:23.000 Lauren Ford: So…
88 00:11:23.000 ⇒ 00:11:25.420 Rico Rejoso: So that’s individually, right?
89 00:11:26.380 ⇒ 00:11:39.630 Lauren Ford: Yeah, so I thought it’d be… I would check in with people individually beforehand, and then schedule the group meeting, and I think if y’all meet on it quarterly, it’s really gonna help just have… just to have that touch base.
90 00:11:39.630 ⇒ 00:11:50.759 Lauren Ford: But the first one would be… I mean, you could just do it that way. You could do the first one as, like, the information gathering session. I was gonna try to do it individually with people.
91 00:11:53.840 ⇒ 00:12:00.900 Lauren Ford: I’m just worried about trying to do it asynchronously, because it’s way easier to do it as just a meeting.
92 00:12:01.420 ⇒ 00:12:04.470 Rico Rejoso: And maybe a 20-minute meeting would surprise, though.
93 00:12:04.940 ⇒ 00:12:06.189 Lauren Ford: Yeah, it might.
94 00:12:06.400 ⇒ 00:12:14.790 Lauren Ford: Who is… is… are you doing this, or is this something UTAM’s doing? Payroll, contractor payments?
95 00:12:16.290 ⇒ 00:12:18.020 Rico Rejoso: That’s for the finance rep.
96 00:12:18.180 ⇒ 00:12:18.870 Lauren Ford: Okay.
97 00:12:19.030 ⇒ 00:12:20.300 Lauren Ford: That’s finance.
98 00:12:20.440 ⇒ 00:12:23.949 Lauren Ford: Employee records, we’re not doing that right now.
99 00:12:24.270 ⇒ 00:12:24.920 Rico Rejoso: Sweet.
100 00:12:30.760 ⇒ 00:12:33.119 Lauren Ford: So, this would probably be exact.
101 00:12:33.950 ⇒ 00:12:36.930 Lauren Ford: This would be operations.
102 00:12:42.350 ⇒ 00:12:44.640 Lauren Ford: This is operations…
103 00:12:49.110 ⇒ 00:12:52.910 Lauren Ford: Right now, you have Gusto, right? As far as you know?
104 00:12:54.360 ⇒ 00:12:57.420 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I think finance is utilizing Vista, but I haven’t…
105 00:12:58.720 ⇒ 00:13:01.690 Lauren Ford: Got it. So this is probably a later problem.
106 00:13:03.930 ⇒ 00:13:10.309 Lauren Ford: This is a later problem.
107 00:13:14.690 ⇒ 00:13:16.540 Lauren Ford: This is an executive.
108 00:13:19.410 ⇒ 00:13:21.069 Lauren Ford: This is a later prop.
109 00:13:33.870 ⇒ 00:13:36.830 Lauren Ford: Is UTAM able to join, or.
110 00:13:36.830 ⇒ 00:13:38.310 Rico Rejoso: I’m not sure.
111 00:13:38.650 ⇒ 00:13:42.620 Lauren Ford: Yeah. Sorry, I’m just, like, making you watch me work.
112 00:13:42.620 ⇒ 00:13:43.380 Rico Rejoso: Just, yeah.
113 00:13:43.380 ⇒ 00:13:43.950 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
114 00:13:48.270 ⇒ 00:13:53.169 Lauren Ford: Let’s see… Notion, Slack, and other…
115 00:13:53.890 ⇒ 00:13:55.060 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, I handle that.
116 00:13:55.060 ⇒ 00:14:02.190 Lauren Ford: You do that, pretty much, yeah. Oversee vendor onboarding, renewals, software licenses, that’s you?
117 00:14:04.490 ⇒ 00:14:06.200 Lauren Ford: Yeah, continuity.
118 00:14:06.540 ⇒ 00:14:10.459 Lauren Ford: This is… Yeah, mostly operations.
119 00:14:11.740 ⇒ 00:14:17.810 Lauren Ford: Nobody’s doing really tech equipment right now, so we’ll put this as a later problem.
120 00:14:32.800 ⇒ 00:14:38.620 Lauren Ford: Hmm… I’m just gonna put this as a later problem.
121 00:14:39.600 ⇒ 00:14:45.449 Lauren Ford: I’m like, legal documentation, let’s not worry about that yet.
122 00:15:01.480 ⇒ 00:15:02.030 Rico Rejoso: Yep.
123 00:15:05.710 ⇒ 00:15:10.899 Lauren Ford: Where are you getting this already? Escalation points for administrative and IT-related questions?
124 00:15:10.900 ⇒ 00:15:11.750 Rico Rejoso: Yeah.
125 00:15:11.980 ⇒ 00:15:14.090 Lauren Ford: You are getting that already? Yeah. Okay.
126 00:15:14.090 ⇒ 00:15:16.210 Rico Rejoso: But most are, like, tools and software.
127 00:15:16.490 ⇒ 00:15:17.690 Lauren Ford: Yeah. Interest.
128 00:15:18.100 ⇒ 00:15:20.250 Lauren Ford: Task Management Systems.
129 00:15:21.400 ⇒ 00:15:27.160 Lauren Ford: Are you doing that, or is that not really? Because you’re not using Asana, so it’d be a linear…
130 00:15:28.330 ⇒ 00:15:29.200 Rico Rejoso: Linear, yeah.
131 00:15:29.700 ⇒ 00:15:31.609 Lauren Ford: linear operations.
132 00:15:33.300 ⇒ 00:15:37.000 Lauren Ford: And is that something everybody’s doing, or you’re doing most of the…
133 00:15:37.900 ⇒ 00:15:39.639 Rico Rejoso: Everyone on the delivery side.
134 00:15:39.640 ⇒ 00:15:41.810 Lauren Ford: Got it. And then, are you…
135 00:15:41.920 ⇒ 00:15:49.280 Lauren Ford: How actively are you guys monitoring the data privacy side right now, or is that just built into the tools you’re using?
136 00:15:51.150 ⇒ 00:15:57.170 Rico Rejoso: I’m not sure, but when you say data privacy, like, more of our files and documentations.
137 00:15:57.170 ⇒ 00:15:59.810 Lauren Ford: Yeah, more of.
138 00:15:59.810 ⇒ 00:16:02.330 Rico Rejoso: Access given to external people.
139 00:16:02.330 ⇒ 00:16:07.639 Lauren Ford: Yeah, or even, like, if you’re looking at client files, I’m gonna… I’m gonna assume it’s a later problem, I think.
140 00:16:07.950 ⇒ 00:16:11.340 Rico Rejoso: Yeah. External vendors, that’s you, right?
141 00:16:11.920 ⇒ 00:16:12.480 Rico Rejoso: Yep.
142 00:16:12.790 ⇒ 00:16:13.659 Lauren Ford: Okay, cool.
143 00:16:13.870 ⇒ 00:16:15.640 Lauren Ford: Digital assets.
144 00:16:16.670 ⇒ 00:16:18.080 Lauren Ford: That’s you.
145 00:16:21.010 ⇒ 00:16:22.499 Rico Rejoso: and the marketing team.
146 00:16:24.780 ⇒ 00:16:26.419 Lauren Ford: This is the marketing team.
147 00:16:26.690 ⇒ 00:16:30.279 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, most of the branding templates, decks.
148 00:16:30.280 ⇒ 00:16:32.329 Lauren Ford: Oh, oh, right, of course.
149 00:16:32.330 ⇒ 00:16:33.360 Rico Rejoso: Every one of them will be at.
150 00:16:33.360 ⇒ 00:16:33.990 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
151 00:16:34.330 ⇒ 00:16:42.069 Lauren Ford: Master budget forecast versus actuals, that’s finance? Okay, cool. And they are doing that?
152 00:16:44.200 ⇒ 00:16:46.130 Lauren Ford: Or they need to be doing that. Okay, cool.
153 00:16:46.130 ⇒ 00:16:47.659 Rico Rejoso: They, they are, yeah.
154 00:16:47.660 ⇒ 00:16:49.310 Lauren Ford: And they’re doing AP.
155 00:16:49.690 ⇒ 00:16:51.090 Lauren Ford: Accounts payable.
156 00:16:51.760 ⇒ 00:16:54.129 Rico Rejoso: They’re sending a monthly review for that.
157 00:16:54.330 ⇒ 00:16:55.170 Lauren Ford: Okay, cool.
158 00:16:55.440 ⇒ 00:16:57.899 Lauren Ford: Payroll cycles, they’re doing that.
159 00:16:59.910 ⇒ 00:17:01.120 Lauren Ford: Are they…
160 00:17:02.600 ⇒ 00:17:04.310 Rico Rejoso: That part, I’m not sure.
161 00:17:04.310 ⇒ 00:17:05.300 Lauren Ford: Yep.
162 00:17:05.790 ⇒ 00:17:12.049 Rico Rejoso: Yeah. Financial summaries and cash flow statements. Yep, they’re doing that.
163 00:17:12.390 ⇒ 00:17:15.920 Lauren Ford: Track company subscription renewals and software spend.
164 00:17:19.450 ⇒ 00:17:21.679 Rico Rejoso: I did that one part.
165 00:17:22.160 ⇒ 00:17:23.490 Rico Rejoso: Like, 2 months ago?
166 00:17:23.750 ⇒ 00:17:25.119 Lauren Ford: Oh, okay.
167 00:17:26.030 ⇒ 00:17:28.410 Rico Rejoso: But we’re not actively monitoring it.
168 00:17:28.410 ⇒ 00:17:37.959 Lauren Ford: Okay, we’ll call that a later problem. Financial documentation for audit readiness. That’s gotta be a later problem.
169 00:17:38.390 ⇒ 00:17:41.240 Lauren Ford: Tax preparation and filings, they’re doing that?
170 00:17:43.410 ⇒ 00:17:45.780 Rico Rejoso: Not sure, I haven’t got any information from them a lot.
171 00:17:45.780 ⇒ 00:17:49.160 Lauren Ford: That’s totally fair. Okay, we’ll put, question mark.
172 00:17:49.950 ⇒ 00:17:54.480 Lauren Ford: Internal expense policy, and reimbursement.
173 00:17:55.350 ⇒ 00:17:59.109 Lauren Ford: That’s pretty much coming down to an exec… through Tom.
174 00:17:59.950 ⇒ 00:18:01.930 Lauren Ford: insurance renewals.
175 00:18:03.210 ⇒ 00:18:04.449 Lauren Ford: Question mark.
176 00:18:04.900 ⇒ 00:18:10.250 Lauren Ford: forecast hiring… That’s a later problem.
177 00:18:10.250 ⇒ 00:18:13.459 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, but most are from Robert and Utom, so…
178 00:18:13.780 ⇒ 00:18:14.180 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
179 00:18:14.180 ⇒ 00:18:14.860 Rico Rejoso: exit.
180 00:18:15.810 ⇒ 00:18:18.100 Lauren Ford: Support R&D tax credits.
181 00:18:21.100 ⇒ 00:18:22.710 Lauren Ford: We’re doing anything with that?
182 00:18:23.200 ⇒ 00:18:25.730 Lauren Ford: Tax credits or grant submissions?
183 00:18:27.490 ⇒ 00:18:31.639 Rico Rejoso: until lately, I guess, we had a notification from the finance regarding that.
184 00:18:31.640 ⇒ 00:18:38.230 Lauren Ford: Oh, interesting. Okay, we’ll just put question mark. Quarterly financial dashboards.
185 00:18:41.890 ⇒ 00:18:42.510 Lauren Ford: Hmm.
186 00:18:43.190 ⇒ 00:18:45.070 Rico Rejoso: We don’t have any dashboard for it.
187 00:18:45.410 ⇒ 00:18:53.909 Lauren Ford: Yeah, so… later problem, credit card issuance… you’re doing the ramp thing, right?
188 00:18:55.110 ⇒ 00:18:57.060 Lauren Ford: You’re issuing the RAMP card.
189 00:18:58.510 ⇒ 00:18:59.879 Rico Rejoso: It’s the finance.
190 00:18:59.880 ⇒ 00:19:07.140 Lauren Ford: Or finances, okay, great. Define and maintain product roommate…
191 00:19:11.260 ⇒ 00:19:18.299 Lauren Ford: Is Amber doing that, or is that more of a consultant thing right now? Like, or is that totally UTAM executive?
192 00:19:18.700 ⇒ 00:19:20.710 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, that’s on the sales side.
193 00:19:20.880 ⇒ 00:19:25.450 Rico Rejoso: Oh, okay. So, Robert… Yeah, Robert and the sales team.
194 00:19:25.450 ⇒ 00:19:26.210 Lauren Ford: Okay.
195 00:19:27.850 ⇒ 00:19:34.019 Lauren Ford: Are we doing anything with, like, customer feedback into feature requirements, or feature requests?
196 00:19:35.090 ⇒ 00:19:36.870 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, that’s under marketing.
197 00:19:37.110 ⇒ 00:19:37.720 Lauren Ford: MR.
198 00:19:41.060 ⇒ 00:19:46.330 Lauren Ford: Hmm… AI and data initiatives.
199 00:19:49.010 ⇒ 00:19:53.800 Lauren Ford: That’s sort of within… that’s sort of… that’s a weird one. I don’t know if I like that line.
200 00:19:54.790 ⇒ 00:19:57.150 Lauren Ford: Because that’s inherent to the company.
201 00:20:05.590 ⇒ 00:20:07.090 Rico Rejoso: Yeah, that’s under sales.
202 00:20:10.930 ⇒ 00:20:16.860 Lauren Ford: track feature delivery timelines. They’re already doing that, right? That’s sort of built into here, though.
203 00:20:18.340 ⇒ 00:20:18.980 Lauren Ford: Okay.
204 00:20:20.860 ⇒ 00:20:22.630 Rico Rejoso: I think that’s on the delivery side.
205 00:20:23.620 ⇒ 00:20:24.340 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
206 00:20:26.830 ⇒ 00:20:30.950 Lauren Ford: Okay. Do we… do you feel like it’s fair to say that’s already on there?
207 00:20:33.000 ⇒ 00:20:34.620 Lauren Ford: That’d be here, right?
208 00:20:34.620 ⇒ 00:20:35.180 Rico Rejoso: Yep.
209 00:20:35.420 ⇒ 00:20:37.000 Lauren Ford: Okay, cool. Great.
210 00:20:38.070 ⇒ 00:20:39.240 Lauren Ford: We’re gonna call it.
211 00:20:39.410 ⇒ 00:20:40.630 Lauren Ford: already on there.
212 00:20:42.580 ⇒ 00:20:46.460 Lauren Ford: Customer journey maps and feedback loops.
213 00:20:54.900 ⇒ 00:20:58.029 Lauren Ford: That’s not really on there, I would say.
214 00:20:58.030 ⇒ 00:21:00.839 Rico Rejoso: Just a sec. Just answering a call.
215 00:21:00.840 ⇒ 00:21:02.140 Lauren Ford: Oh, yeah, yeah, do your thing.
216 00:23:21.910 ⇒ 00:23:24.889 Rico Rejoso: Mutam would be joining, yeah, I was… Okay.
217 00:23:25.260 ⇒ 00:23:26.060 Lauren Ford: Oh, cool.
218 00:23:35.890 ⇒ 00:23:36.860 Uttam Kumaran: Hi, Lauren.
219 00:23:37.040 ⇒ 00:23:38.330 Lauren Ford: Hey, how are ya?
220 00:23:38.330 ⇒ 00:23:41.589 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, good, sorry for the delay, I’m just, it’s kind of been a…
221 00:23:42.040 ⇒ 00:23:46.870 Uttam Kumaran: It’s been a good day, I just had an in-person sales meeting, and then that sort of, like…
222 00:23:47.190 ⇒ 00:23:51.949 Uttam Kumaran: Ended up taking quite a bit longer than I, expected, and then…
223 00:23:52.550 ⇒ 00:23:54.769 Uttam Kumaran: That’s my girlfriend’s birthday today, and I’m like.
224 00:23:54.770 ⇒ 00:23:56.070 Lauren Ford: Running to her.
225 00:23:56.330 ⇒ 00:23:57.580 Uttam Kumaran: To her, like, birthday dinner.
226 00:23:57.580 ⇒ 00:23:58.789 Lauren Ford: I will tell her what happened.
227 00:23:58.790 ⇒ 00:24:10.270 Uttam Kumaran: Happy birthday. I mentioned, she, I mean, I mentioned, that you’re starting to work with her. She’s like, who’s Lauren? And I’m like, oh, you don’t even know from Flow Code. I met her here in Austin, so…
228 00:24:10.270 ⇒ 00:24:12.010 Lauren Ford: Awww.
229 00:24:12.010 ⇒ 00:24:13.030 Uttam Kumaran: But…
230 00:24:13.470 ⇒ 00:24:21.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I… but we ended up… the sales call went well, and I told her I’m on our way, so… signature peace.
231 00:24:21.370 ⇒ 00:24:31.310 Lauren Ford: Nice. Today is one of the few times I do have sort of a… I have to kind of be going by 6.40, but, like, we can chat, and I could talk later in the week, too. Okay, cool.
232 00:24:31.310 ⇒ 00:24:32.420 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no problem.
233 00:24:33.130 ⇒ 00:24:49.950 Uttam Kumaran: I want to just check, like, how things are going today, and like, yeah, I sent a couple notes. I didn’t end up getting to send out our operations message yet, but Rico drafted that for me, and I’ll… I’ll get that out as soon as I can with surveys and things like that. But yeah, I also just wanted to…
234 00:24:50.370 ⇒ 00:24:51.850 Uttam Kumaran: Anything being blocked by me.
235 00:24:53.630 ⇒ 00:25:07.659 Lauren Ford: No, I think once we do that, I just, today, as I said, like, given that it’s the first day with a new role, I didn’t really have any time, and I sort of took the weekend to kind of reset, but I’m hoping to sort of dive in a little later in the week.
236 00:25:07.720 ⇒ 00:25:14.780 Lauren Ford: And then I’ll definitely get a sense of whether… whether I’m a crazy person to think I can do both.
237 00:25:15.170 ⇒ 00:25:17.020 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, you tell me, yeah, yeah, yeah, you tell me.
238 00:25:17.020 ⇒ 00:25:17.630 Lauren Ford: We’ll see.
239 00:25:17.630 ⇒ 00:25:19.219 Uttam Kumaran: What the vibe is, yeah, yeah.
240 00:25:19.220 ⇒ 00:25:28.480 Lauren Ford: It was definitely intense today, but I mean, it’s also, like, day one, so I just don’t have any idea of the cadence, so we’ll see how it goes. But I think it’s gonna be a… it’s definitely…
241 00:25:28.650 ⇒ 00:25:36.879 Lauren Ford: it’s definitely gonna be a post-530 thing, like, I thought, well, maybe I’ll, like, be able to… but they have, like, a wildly strict policy on, like.
242 00:25:36.880 ⇒ 00:25:37.929 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, that’s fine.
243 00:25:37.930 ⇒ 00:25:45.440 Lauren Ford: But that’s… I mean, I think it’s doable, it’ll just be, like, figuring out what I can fit in and reasonably get done. But,
244 00:25:45.750 ⇒ 00:25:48.659 Lauren Ford: I think we try it out and see how it goes.
245 00:25:48.950 ⇒ 00:25:50.420 Lauren Ford: For sure.
246 00:25:50.420 ⇒ 00:26:00.360 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I’m totally game for that. Look, it’s up to us at Brainforge to… to figure… get the budget, so I’m totally fine with whatever you can spare.
247 00:26:00.360 ⇒ 00:26:06.050 Lauren Ford: Awesome, awesome. By the way, just as an aside, did you know Ben Steinberg just lost his job?
248 00:26:06.050 ⇒ 00:26:08.860 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, I… I actually just called back.
249 00:26:08.860 ⇒ 00:26:10.069 Lauren Ford: They went to Miss… they went.
250 00:26:10.070 ⇒ 00:26:15.320 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a missed call, but, I am, gonna… we’re talking tomorrow. Yeah, we talk every week.
251 00:26:15.320 ⇒ 00:26:20.250 Lauren Ford: I thought of you. Aww. Oh, that’s right. Okay, cool. Yeah, I think we see…
252 00:26:20.250 ⇒ 00:26:35.780 Uttam Kumaran: on Friday, and I was like, I want to work with him. We don’t do exactly what he does, although a lot of our clients need that help. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, I… I would love to… I told him that we, that you, you were helping us out with stuff, too, so…
253 00:26:36.250 ⇒ 00:26:37.230 Lauren Ford: Yeah, nice.
254 00:26:37.230 ⇒ 00:26:38.889 Uttam Kumaran: I told you, I told Ivana as well, so…
255 00:26:38.890 ⇒ 00:26:42.060 Lauren Ford: Aww, I miss her. She was so sweet.
256 00:26:42.080 ⇒ 00:26:56.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think we’ll figure it out. I just, rico did an amazing job of moving all of my… I had made a bunch of notes from our last meeting, but he moved them all in the linear, which was really above and beyond, so thank you, Rico. I just need to start.
257 00:26:56.420 ⇒ 00:27:00.449 Lauren Ford: hacking away at them, which I’ll probably start… I’ll probably do more of that
258 00:27:00.780 ⇒ 00:27:11.079 Lauren Ford: on Wednesday night, maybe… maybe tomorrow night, but I’m guessing that the most overwhelming part of this job is right dang now, until I’m, like, in it. That’s fine.
259 00:27:11.080 ⇒ 00:27:15.880 Uttam Kumaran: And honestly, most of, like, until, like, probably…
260 00:27:16.050 ⇒ 00:27:19.429 Uttam Kumaran: Wednesday, I’m usually, like, pretty cooked.
261 00:27:19.430 ⇒ 00:27:19.800 Lauren Ford: Okay.
262 00:27:19.800 ⇒ 00:27:22.840 Uttam Kumaran: On my schedule, because basically, like.
263 00:27:22.960 ⇒ 00:27:42.130 Uttam Kumaran: as I mentioned, like, we kind of run everything on, like, one-week sprints, so Monday is usually, like, okay, what’s our objectives for the week? We sort of set everybody up, and then Wednesday is usually when I get breathing room, also because we sort of push as many sales conversations to as early in the week, so that we can sort of get things closed, so… Yeah.
264 00:27:42.130 ⇒ 00:27:42.609 Lauren Ford: That’s smart.
265 00:27:42.610 ⇒ 00:27:44.529 Uttam Kumaran: I will say, we’re having our…
266 00:27:44.820 ⇒ 00:27:51.280 Uttam Kumaran: Last month was our best month ever, and looks like we have 3 more deals that may close.
267 00:27:51.520 ⇒ 00:27:52.610 Lauren Ford: That’s awesome.
268 00:27:52.610 ⇒ 00:27:56.940 Uttam Kumaran: And so, it’s just… I don’t know, it’s just going, so…
269 00:27:56.940 ⇒ 00:27:58.310 Lauren Ford: That’s exciting!
270 00:27:58.360 ⇒ 00:28:01.700 Uttam Kumaran: Very much fingers crossed, on everything, but…
271 00:28:01.910 ⇒ 00:28:11.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, I think this is where I want to make sure Rico has… Rico and I also do a lot on the recruiting side, so of course, what happens is when we start to scale up.
272 00:28:11.950 ⇒ 00:28:15.829 Uttam Kumaran: Our clients, You know, we just need support, so me…
273 00:28:15.830 ⇒ 00:28:16.410 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
274 00:28:16.410 ⇒ 00:28:23.410 Uttam Kumaran: he’s gonna definitely need some help, balancing everything as… as I need… try to draw him a little bit onto recruiting, so…
275 00:28:23.680 ⇒ 00:28:24.450 Lauren Ford: Yeah!
276 00:28:24.450 ⇒ 00:28:25.080 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
277 00:28:25.440 ⇒ 00:28:28.869 Lauren Ford: Well, let me know, too, like, if you think of things that are, like.
278 00:28:29.550 ⇒ 00:28:33.250 Lauren Ford: I just need somebody to, like, have eyes on this, or think through this.
279 00:28:33.250 ⇒ 00:28:42.099 Uttam Kumaran: Totally, that’s actually what I’m doing in Slack, by the way, I’m just sending, like, yeah, someone should look at this at some point, or, like, I got an email about something, like…
280 00:28:42.100 ⇒ 00:28:42.560 Lauren Ford: Okay.
281 00:28:42.560 ⇒ 00:28:44.279 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll just send those, and then…
282 00:28:44.590 ⇒ 00:29:01.129 Uttam Kumaran: again, if any… what I tell everybody is, like, not everything is urgent, but everything should get tracked. So, if you have any questions on, like, what’s urgent right now, or hey, I saw a bunch of stuff in, what should I… what’s the number one priority, I can totally let you know. So I’ll just… I’ll basically live blog into that operations channel.
283 00:29:01.130 ⇒ 00:29:02.339 Lauren Ford: Okay, great. Yeah.
284 00:29:02.340 ⇒ 00:29:02.740 Uttam Kumaran: you know.
285 00:29:02.740 ⇒ 00:29:08.590 Lauren Ford: Yeah, what are you… what are you thinking is most urgent for me to try to knock out first, in general?
286 00:29:08.590 ⇒ 00:29:20.490 Uttam Kumaran: Give me a sense of, like, what’s, like, what did we discuss on Friday, like, a plan for this week? If you can give me a couple of options, I can… Yeah. I mean, the sense I got was that our focus should be on the,
287 00:29:20.490 ⇒ 00:29:27.419 Lauren Ford: on the… the AOR sheath, basically, trying to figure that out. The thing I’m a little nervous about is…
288 00:29:28.190 ⇒ 00:29:33.990 Lauren Ford: just getting enough context to know, like, I pulled stuff from ChatGPT to just, like, compare to it.
289 00:29:33.990 ⇒ 00:29:34.340 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.
290 00:29:34.340 ⇒ 00:29:49.159 Lauren Ford: Because why not? But that’s not gonna have the same nuance as… oh, I’m screen sharing, still. Like, that’s not gonna have the same nuance as if we go to your team and say, like, what is breaking, right?
291 00:29:49.160 ⇒ 00:30:00.430 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, as long as you take… as long as you get it to, like, 70% or 80%, like, you know that, hey, this should have what’s expected of a company our size, then I can have everybody fill it in.
292 00:30:00.430 ⇒ 00:30:01.100 Lauren Ford: Okay.
293 00:30:01.200 ⇒ 00:30:11.009 Lauren Ford: Okay, cool, got it, got it. So just, like, get them a thing, we’ll see, get their thoughts, like, see if they think… yeah, because it’s like, what are… what are they missing? Because I just don’t have…
294 00:30:11.890 ⇒ 00:30:18.550 Lauren Ford: like, I can pull it from ChatGPT all day, but so can you, so I don’t want to, like, waste your time by, like, doing that, but
295 00:30:19.370 ⇒ 00:30:24.240 Lauren Ford: But I’m happy to do it. I just don’t have… I’ve never started a business, so I… I’m like…
296 00:30:24.240 ⇒ 00:30:27.660 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, as long as… even… I would say even if you use ChatGPT, you can tell it.
297 00:30:27.660 ⇒ 00:30:28.060 Lauren Ford: Okay.
298 00:30:28.060 ⇒ 00:30:39.329 Uttam Kumaran: about our business. Okay. Again, also, like, if you go into, like, our prompts and our prompt library and stuff, most of them are, like, here’s what Brainforge is. ChatGPT will generally get it right.
299 00:30:39.330 ⇒ 00:30:39.790 Lauren Ford: Excuse me.
300 00:30:39.790 ⇒ 00:30:48.920 Uttam Kumaran: mainly what I’m going for is, like, as long as, like, 70-80% of the responsibilities are on there, and the sheet looks, like, usable, then I can go to the team and be like.
301 00:30:49.230 ⇒ 00:30:51.420 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, make sure everything is accurate here.
302 00:30:51.750 ⇒ 00:30:59.280 Lauren Ford: Great. Okay, great. If that’s… I can definitely do that for you, then. I can get it into shape for that. And then, yeah, I was gonna say, like.
303 00:30:59.280 ⇒ 00:31:14.690 Lauren Ford: I think if you do your first meeting on this in November, and the first meeting can be more like, this is, you know, this is what the meeting is, we’re gonna track these things. Like, you could even do the work with them in real time there, and then the next one, it can be the pre-work, so that when you actually meet, it’s more going about
304 00:31:14.810 ⇒ 00:31:16.210 Lauren Ford: what’s broken?
305 00:31:16.240 ⇒ 00:31:29.209 Lauren Ford: And what’s missing? Like, what are we doing that isn’t documented here, and then what is breaking? And I think that could be huge. That was one… that was a big piece of what we talked about. Other than that, we wanted, the survey is up.
306 00:31:29.210 ⇒ 00:31:38.590 Lauren Ford: Right now, I think it says it’s gonna close at Friday. If you wanna push that out, we can do whatever you want with deadline, you know, like, to match to when it rolls out.
307 00:31:38.590 ⇒ 00:31:45.049 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll… I’ll send it out, I’ll send a… yeah, I’m just gonna draft the note and have it send, probably, like.
308 00:31:45.190 ⇒ 00:31:46.900 Uttam Kumaran: Early morning tomorrow, because there’s.
309 00:31:46.900 ⇒ 00:31:47.340 Lauren Ford: Perfect.
310 00:31:47.340 ⇒ 00:31:48.020 Uttam Kumaran: available, and then…
311 00:31:48.020 ⇒ 00:31:48.350 Lauren Ford: Yeah.
312 00:31:48.350 ⇒ 00:31:57.149 Uttam Kumaran: it’ll… it’ll end up working out, and that’s fine. Okay, okay. We’re a small company, so I’ll just… on probably Thursday, I’ll ask you who hasn’t responded, and I’ll get everybody to respond.
313 00:31:57.150 ⇒ 00:31:57.610 Lauren Ford: Awesome.
314 00:31:57.610 ⇒ 00:32:01.069 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, I think my… probably my only other…
315 00:32:01.170 ⇒ 00:32:10.350 Uttam Kumaran: Probably the thing that’s most urgent is just starting to organ… just make sure, like, our… our notion for our… like, our notion is generally organized.
316 00:32:10.680 ⇒ 00:32:11.300 Lauren Ford: Okay.
317 00:32:11.420 ⇒ 00:32:18.600 Uttam Kumaran: I think that is where I could probably use a little bit more thinking. I actually watched a great video from the founder of Notion today on, like.
318 00:32:18.600 ⇒ 00:32:19.179 Lauren Ford: Oh, cool.
319 00:32:19.180 ⇒ 00:32:21.179 Uttam Kumaran: organize their notion, I actually think.
320 00:32:21.440 ⇒ 00:32:27.689 Uttam Kumaran: it’s probably worth watching. It’s also that’s the sort of work that you totally don’t… it could be totally done async, like, you don’t… you don’t.
321 00:32:27.690 ⇒ 00:32:43.489 Lauren Ford: Okay, that’s great. I think that would be really good, because I can definitely look at that and think about it, and I’m, you know, that’s where my brain is right now anyway, because I’m onboarding with a different company, so it’s like thinking through how you find things and how it’s set up, so I can do that for sure.
322 00:32:43.530 ⇒ 00:32:51.679 Lauren Ford: Okay. I might even prioritize that for this week, so I’ll do… I’ll let… I’ll let ChatGPT drive the bus of the AOR thing, and then.
323 00:32:51.680 ⇒ 00:32:52.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, excuse me.
324 00:32:52.160 ⇒ 00:33:09.990 Lauren Ford: I sort of run with it, and then I will work on thinking through the Notion organization and sort of reconfiguring, and maybe giving you some draft pages that don’t have anything on them, and then… that are like, I think you need something on this here, and then we can, like, put it as a placeholder, figure it out, fill it in later.
325 00:33:10.180 ⇒ 00:33:29.489 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, yeah, and then the biggest thing is, like, most people are using Notion for, like, understanding where our project… where our client project documents are. Yeah. And so, I think that’s the one thing where if we can get at least one version of a client page that everybody likes, then Rico and I can help, basically.
326 00:33:29.760 ⇒ 00:33:38.559 Uttam Kumaran: duplicated for all the other clients. Great. For example, some people… some people are like, where’s the Google Drive for this client? Or, like, where’s our project charter? Or, like.
327 00:33:38.860 ⇒ 00:33:41.639 Uttam Kumaran: where do I go add files? So, like, they just need, like, a…
328 00:33:41.800 ⇒ 00:33:54.839 Uttam Kumaran: like, one template for how we do clients. Got it. And then, often, we share that with our client as well, in case they need access to it, but for the most part, it’s all internal. But people are having trouble just understanding where stuff is in Notion, so…
329 00:33:54.840 ⇒ 00:34:01.059 Lauren Ford: Oh, Rico, can you point me to a few of those, and then I can look at them together, and then figure out a template from…
330 00:34:01.440 ⇒ 00:34:02.770 Lauren Ford: Hodgepodging them.
331 00:34:03.340 ⇒ 00:34:05.730 Rico Rejoso: Definitely, let me send the notion link for the clients.
332 00:34:05.730 ⇒ 00:34:07.350 Lauren Ford: Okay, awesome.
333 00:34:07.640 ⇒ 00:34:11.959 Lauren Ford: So, a client template, an overall format.
334 00:34:14.969 ⇒ 00:34:15.949 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
335 00:34:15.949 ⇒ 00:34:16.889 Lauren Ford: Awesome.
336 00:34:17.709 ⇒ 00:34:18.579 Lauren Ford: Okay.
337 00:34:20.979 ⇒ 00:34:21.869 Lauren Ford: Great.
338 00:34:22.109 ⇒ 00:34:28.719 Lauren Ford: I think that’s… I think that’ll be easily doable when I don’t have a 7pm conflict, but…
339 00:34:28.789 ⇒ 00:34:44.380 Lauren Ford: Have so much fun with, with your ladies. Thank you. Thank you. Yes! And, yeah, tonight is… tonight is just, like, getting organized, and then, we can… I’ll get some of this knocked out in, like, Tuesday, Wednesday, if that works for you.
340 00:34:44.389 ⇒ 00:34:50.169 Lauren Ford: Okay, perfect. Probably more Thursday, Friday is when I’ll actually have time, but I can at least continue to get organized as we go.
341 00:34:50.179 ⇒ 00:34:50.809 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
342 00:34:50.809 ⇒ 00:34:54.019 Lauren Ford: Okay. That’s perfect. Thanks, Sue Tom. I’ll talk to you soon.
343 00:34:54.409 ⇒ 00:34:55.759 Uttam Kumaran: Appreciate it. Bye.
344 00:34:56.770 ⇒ 00:34:57.490 Rico Rejoso: Later, Tim.