Meeting Title: Q3 OKRs and Pmo Planning Date: 2025-07-07 Meeting participants: Alexander Lubka, Uttam Kumaran, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:00:31.540 ⇒ 00:00:32.689 Alexander Lubka: Hello!
2 00:00:32.890 ⇒ 00:00:34.310 Amber Lin: Hi.
3 00:00:34.930 ⇒ 00:00:36.860 Alexander Lubka: Hi! How was your meeting.
4 00:00:38.791 ⇒ 00:00:45.370 Amber Lin: My my meeting was pretty good. It was an internal internal meeting with Utah. And then
5 00:00:45.917 ⇒ 00:00:49.419 Amber Lin: there’s a it was the manager’s meeting, so
6 00:00:49.570 ⇒ 00:00:52.159 Amber Lin: we’re talking about a few internal items.
7 00:00:53.150 ⇒ 00:00:53.930 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
8 00:00:53.930 ⇒ 00:00:54.330 Amber Lin: Hmm!
9 00:00:55.460 ⇒ 00:00:57.500 Amber Lin: Who sometimes he would be joining.
10 00:00:58.127 ⇒ 00:01:04.970 Amber Lin: I also added him on the link to this meeting so hopefully he hops on.
11 00:01:06.000 ⇒ 00:01:06.600 Alexander Lubka: Great!
12 00:01:07.740 ⇒ 00:01:09.420 Alexander Lubka: How was your week? How was your 4.th
13 00:01:10.320 ⇒ 00:01:13.140 Amber Lin: My 4, th I think.
14 00:01:13.310 ⇒ 00:01:28.939 Amber Lin: didn’t do much, but that was the goal. I tried to see fireworks but on top of my on top of my apartment building. It was perfectly blocked, I saw, like teeny, tiny bits outside of it. So I didn’t really get to see the fireworks. What about you? How was
15 00:01:29.330 ⇒ 00:01:30.360 Amber Lin: sleep out, sleep.
16 00:01:31.150 ⇒ 00:01:41.933 Alexander Lubka: It was good. I? Yeah. I went to Rhode Island and New Jersey to get that beach time in. I try to work a little bit coming along for early summer. I got some more work to do.
17 00:01:42.920 ⇒ 00:01:45.800 Alexander Lubka: It was nice nice. Get out of the city, and just get some like beach time in.
18 00:01:47.710 ⇒ 00:01:48.880 Amber Lin: Not good.
19 00:01:49.180 ⇒ 00:01:54.090 Amber Lin: Well, since our last meeting, I was, I found time to work on the
20 00:01:54.410 ⇒ 00:02:06.549 Amber Lin: pmo plan on Thursday, I was like, I can do it Friday. But then I realized I’m not gonna do any work on Friday if I didn’t do it. So I did it Thursday, right before the break.
21 00:02:07.190 ⇒ 00:02:09.029 Alexander Lubka: Great. What did you do?
22 00:02:09.361 ⇒ 00:02:10.649 Amber Lin: So I have the
23 00:02:10.999 ⇒ 00:02:18.899 Amber Lin: project management plan in Team Charter at least a draft or complete enough draft of it for
24 00:02:19.389 ⇒ 00:02:21.379 Amber Lin: ABC. And urban stems.
25 00:02:21.770 ⇒ 00:02:31.660 Amber Lin: madam. More I didn’t do because it was it was just finishing off. So I was finishing the handoff documentations related to Madam Moore.
26 00:02:31.850 ⇒ 00:02:36.309 Amber Lin: So that was the main 3 things that I was doing this week.
27 00:02:37.290 ⇒ 00:02:47.070 Alexander Lubka: Cool. Yeah, I I put in the I put in a message in you in the plan. I don’t know if you saw our comment, just like we had matter more in as our next steps.
28 00:02:47.190 ⇒ 00:02:50.970 Alexander Lubka: and we don’t need to do doesn’t sound like we need to do that right.
29 00:02:51.415 ⇒ 00:02:51.720 Amber Lin: Hmm.
30 00:02:51.720 ⇒ 00:02:53.690 Alexander Lubka: Just just towards closure.
31 00:02:53.690 ⇒ 00:02:54.440 Amber Lin: Yeah.
32 00:02:54.440 ⇒ 00:02:55.040 Alexander Lubka: Okay
33 00:02:55.745 ⇒ 00:03:05.299 Alexander Lubka: it. So it does. It sound like I saw some messaging going back and forth about it was the Tldr that it’s just because they hired somebody else. It’s not negative feedback from our team right.
34 00:03:05.520 ⇒ 00:03:11.110 Amber Lin: No, it’s just they had. We were outside help now. They have some in house.
35 00:03:11.740 ⇒ 00:03:15.650 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, okay, that happens.
36 00:03:16.210 ⇒ 00:03:16.999 Amber Lin: I don’t know.
37 00:03:18.172 ⇒ 00:03:20.729 Alexander Lubka: So when is there? When is your last day with them?
38 00:03:21.050 ⇒ 00:03:28.720 Amber Lin: There’s no specified date. They’re pretty horrible on communicating, and they don’t really communicate through me.
39 00:03:29.400 ⇒ 00:03:48.869 Amber Lin: I I kept reaching out, and Matthew talks the the CEO talks Tom directly, and so right now they reached out to schedule a meeting. I reached out to schedule a meeting with their in-house analyst. So I believe after that will be done. I think that would mostly be the last step of hand off.
40 00:03:49.790 ⇒ 00:03:59.649 Amber Lin: It’s hard to implement the processes we have when they’re not the most responsive, but I think we have them have most of it.
41 00:04:01.820 ⇒ 00:04:02.370 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
42 00:04:03.708 ⇒ 00:04:11.089 Alexander Lubka: So what are you? What are you working on? What is the team currently working on? Is there still tasks to work on to wind down, or they’re pretty much done.
43 00:04:11.522 ⇒ 00:04:26.670 Amber Lin: No. So everything is done or paused. So all I ask them to do is to record a walkthrough walkthrough video of certain stuff we have because we have the written documentation already.
44 00:04:28.770 ⇒ 00:04:29.460 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
45 00:04:29.700 ⇒ 00:04:30.240 Amber Lin: Yeah.
46 00:04:30.550 ⇒ 00:04:32.859 Alexander Lubka: Are they reallocated to other projects.
47 00:04:33.951 ⇒ 00:04:46.929 Amber Lin: They will be because we have a lot of more other projects coming on. I don’t exactly know who’s gonna be allocated. To which but we have a lot more need for people’s hours internally. And now.
48 00:04:47.560 ⇒ 00:04:49.710 Alexander Lubka: So, who who had been on matter more.
49 00:04:49.710 ⇒ 00:05:11.955 Amber Lin: So Madam Moore has been Luke and Annie. Annie is the analyst, and Luke is the analytics engineer. And so Annie is on other projects already, and we only have one full time analyst. So we will need her time. And then, Luke, we were just discussing internally on
50 00:05:12.840 ⇒ 00:05:31.329 Amber Lin: how he’s not the most proactive, and tickets that that’s assigned to him sometimes take a lot of time. So he’s usually not fully allocated yet, probably because of that. And I think the team is currently thinking of a decision on how to how to move forward.
51 00:05:33.430 ⇒ 00:05:34.560 Alexander Lubka: What’s his role?
52 00:05:35.010 ⇒ 00:05:36.809 Amber Lin: He’s an analytics engineer.
53 00:05:37.600 ⇒ 00:05:38.330 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
54 00:05:38.810 ⇒ 00:05:40.469 Alexander Lubka: And Annie’s a data analyst.
55 00:05:44.150 ⇒ 00:05:44.900 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
56 00:05:46.450 ⇒ 00:05:47.120 Alexander Lubka: Got it.
57 00:05:48.392 ⇒ 00:05:50.720 Alexander Lubka: Can you send me when you get a chance? The
58 00:05:51.100 ⇒ 00:05:55.680 Alexander Lubka: project management and the plans and the closure documents you’ve been working on.
59 00:05:55.680 ⇒ 00:06:03.450 Amber Lin: Oh, sure I put them all in the different client hubs, but let me link them and send them to you.
60 00:06:03.930 ⇒ 00:06:05.600 Alexander Lubka: Thank you. Yeah. Let me take a look at him.
61 00:06:07.920 ⇒ 00:06:09.450 Amber Lin: So
62 00:06:15.910 ⇒ 00:06:20.200 Amber Lin: I’ll send them in the project management channel.
63 00:06:21.150 ⇒ 00:06:32.240 Amber Lin: so that one’s the 1st one’s scored rather more, and then no.
64 00:06:48.050 ⇒ 00:06:49.060 Uttam Kumaran: Hello!
65 00:06:49.360 ⇒ 00:06:52.380 Alexander Lubka: Hey? How are you, hey? Good! How are you guys?
66 00:06:52.550 ⇒ 00:06:55.099 Alexander Lubka: Good. You still at the lake, or you back.
67 00:06:55.100 ⇒ 00:07:00.610 Uttam Kumaran: No, I’m back day of travel yesterday, so I’m kind of like
68 00:07:01.140 ⇒ 00:07:03.894 Uttam Kumaran: just dying at the end of the day right now.
69 00:07:04.170 ⇒ 00:07:05.939 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, it must have been a busy travel day.
70 00:07:06.660 ⇒ 00:07:09.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, a lot of people traveling. And
71 00:07:10.646 ⇒ 00:07:20.439 Uttam Kumaran: just like spend a lot of time in the sun. So I feel like I’m still dehydrated. I’m just like sitting outside all day.
72 00:07:21.880 ⇒ 00:07:25.050 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do, I mean, sounds like you’re just drinking the right thing. Then.
73 00:07:25.427 ⇒ 00:07:32.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, I was drinking too much of the right thing. And yeah, no, it was really really good.
74 00:07:33.830 ⇒ 00:07:36.350 Alexander Lubka: That’s awesome. You’re at Lakewood, Missaki.
75 00:07:36.780 ⇒ 00:07:38.460 Uttam Kumaran: I was in Winnipesauke. Yes.
76 00:07:38.610 ⇒ 00:07:40.300 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, that’s awesome. Love it up there.
77 00:07:40.680 ⇒ 00:07:51.949 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that was really really nice again this week, like sort of back in Austin. Now for quite a while. But it was productive, I mean, I got to come see, you spend some time in New York, and then
78 00:07:52.467 ⇒ 00:07:56.280 Uttam Kumaran: took a little bit of a break so nice like mid year
79 00:07:56.540 ⇒ 00:08:03.310 Uttam Kumaran: sort of break. And we’re making, I think every week we’re sort of making more and more changes in the right direction. So
80 00:08:03.780 ⇒ 00:08:05.150 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, positive.
81 00:08:05.650 ⇒ 00:08:09.459 Alexander Lubka: Good to hear. Yeah, Amber. Next time you come to New York we’ll take you to butter service.
82 00:08:09.460 ⇒ 00:08:13.283 Uttam Kumaran: Better service. Yes, oh, yes.
83 00:08:14.600 ⇒ 00:08:16.159 Amber Lin: That sounds exciting.
84 00:08:16.400 ⇒ 00:08:20.100 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I mean that picture of Kyle and Annie look good. But I didn’t see any butter.
85 00:08:22.200 ⇒ 00:08:23.250 Uttam Kumaran: Very healthy.
86 00:08:26.690 ⇒ 00:08:49.760 Amber Lin: I sent you the different project management plans in the project management channel. I know today. Wanted to talk about sort of goals or Q. 3 goals we want to set for delivery standards, and how we want to do that. So if you’re okay with that, I’ll let. I’ll just let utumn open and open the discussion, and we can just talk about it here.
87 00:08:50.220 ⇒ 00:08:51.000 Alexander Lubka: Let’s do it.
88 00:08:51.000 ⇒ 00:08:51.460 Amber Lin: Oh!
89 00:08:51.460 ⇒ 00:09:01.719 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, let me let me even pull up what we had last time, like we tried to do sort of just like okrs around delivery, and maybe we can
90 00:09:01.880 ⇒ 00:09:06.930 Uttam Kumaran: critique those and see how we can evolve those. So give me, let me give me, let me get those.
91 00:09:25.170 ⇒ 00:09:35.249 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So this was what we did in Q, 2,
92 00:09:35.936 ⇒ 00:09:40.960 Uttam Kumaran: and so to talk a little bit about the reasoning why?
93 00:09:44.100 ⇒ 00:09:46.180 Uttam Kumaran: I will expand these.
94 00:09:48.520 ⇒ 00:10:00.389 Uttam Kumaran: Basically, we were struggling with just like baseline communication standards for clients like
95 00:10:00.750 ⇒ 00:10:07.600 Uttam Kumaran: just making sure that we could do. And this is so. This was set coming out of q 1. Right? So this is
96 00:10:08.030 ⇒ 00:10:30.859 Uttam Kumaran: what like, 3 months ago, or whatever basically, we were just trying to find a way that we can effectively communicate with clients, making sure that people are aware of the work that we’re taking on and like simple stuff, like engaging on client messages, meeting accountabilities. Things like that. So I actually think.
97 00:10:31.210 ⇒ 00:10:36.019 Uttam Kumaran: feel pretty good about everything that we did here. We only had. We had. It was.
98 00:10:36.580 ⇒ 00:10:42.055 Uttam Kumaran: we have basically very little support at all on the Pm. Side. At this point
99 00:10:42.570 ⇒ 00:10:59.519 Uttam Kumaran: Nico was pming like a ton of different stuff. Nico used to be on our team. And so I think we’ve we sort of did a good job hitting everything here. The next piece is sort of around client work, and really the Kr. Was around our time.
100 00:11:01.000 ⇒ 00:11:02.629 Uttam Kumaran: Mainly around like.
101 00:11:02.990 ⇒ 00:11:08.980 Uttam Kumaran: can we help? Can we do something on the operation side to improve fine onboarding?
102 00:11:09.490 ⇒ 00:11:17.260 Uttam Kumaran: We effectively got, you know, amber on the team. And we were sort of able to start to think about
103 00:11:17.430 ⇒ 00:11:26.180 Uttam Kumaran: engaging long term with clients. And then one of the sort of creative okrs that we also had was basically trying to build
104 00:11:26.742 ⇒ 00:11:31.170 Uttam Kumaran: a junior Pm, like AI agent. And really, I think
105 00:11:31.340 ⇒ 00:11:38.809 Uttam Kumaran: one thing that we wanted to aim for was just like, can we build a set of tools that that you could theoretically
106 00:11:38.910 ⇒ 00:12:00.369 Uttam Kumaran: do, each of the kind of core jobs of like a Junior. Pm, right? So updating notion tickets, updating documentation producing client summaries. I feel like we got. We did. Okay, I don’t think we really saw this really come together until the last until the last, probably like 45 days.
107 00:12:00.856 ⇒ 00:12:07.250 Uttam Kumaran: But we have been working on this for for quite a while. I think we still haven’t done like
108 00:12:07.911 ⇒ 00:12:15.910 Uttam Kumaran: sort of any sort of concise feedback loop, and any sort of like usage on our AI tools. But
109 00:12:16.240 ⇒ 00:12:18.760 Uttam Kumaran: our goal was to really
110 00:12:19.230 ⇒ 00:12:28.528 Uttam Kumaran: attack this role. In terms of building tooling for for to help project, manage
111 00:12:29.580 ⇒ 00:12:31.989 Uttam Kumaran: And so this is, these were our Okrs.
112 00:12:32.517 ⇒ 00:12:37.559 Uttam Kumaran: Before. Maybe I can pause there. If there’s any questions or thoughts.
113 00:12:38.430 ⇒ 00:12:46.730 Alexander Lubka: And as if it stands right now, the the department okrs for delivery. Is that just you, Tom, Robert and Amber.
114 00:12:47.320 ⇒ 00:12:48.170 Uttam Kumaran: Correct.
115 00:12:48.170 ⇒ 00:12:49.900 Alexander Lubka: Okay, so.
116 00:12:51.120 ⇒ 00:12:51.510 Alexander Lubka: Go ahead!
117 00:12:51.510 ⇒ 00:12:55.200 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think it. Maybe it could. It could also include
118 00:12:56.660 ⇒ 00:13:04.999 Uttam Kumaran: like engineering managers in case there’s anything that they can cover. But that that is correct.
119 00:13:05.470 ⇒ 00:13:09.060 Alexander Lubka: Okay. So like, were you and
120 00:13:09.860 ⇒ 00:13:14.900 Alexander Lubka: Rob, are you the one who was responsible for the junior Pmai agent? Okr.
121 00:13:15.630 ⇒ 00:13:16.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
122 00:13:16.550 ⇒ 00:13:17.210 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
123 00:13:19.810 ⇒ 00:13:22.969 Alexander Lubka: And amber. You came in, and did you come in in April or March?
124 00:13:22.970 ⇒ 00:13:24.620 Amber Lin: I’m in early March. Yeah.
125 00:13:24.620 ⇒ 00:13:25.210 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
126 00:13:25.620 ⇒ 00:13:26.980 Alexander Lubka: I’m sorry. Go ahead.
127 00:13:27.230 ⇒ 00:13:32.089 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So I. So I was responsible for that. I think, like, this is a stretch.
128 00:13:32.230 ⇒ 00:13:35.084 Uttam Kumaran: And we, I think we’re a lot closer to this.
129 00:13:35.610 ⇒ 00:13:44.420 Uttam Kumaran: but actually, this is where the AI team now is, I think, engaging directly with y’all and building what y’all need. The next feedback loop is to start to measure
130 00:13:44.580 ⇒ 00:13:51.669 Uttam Kumaran: like the usage and sort of continue that like. So I actually don’t think we’re very far from this. But
131 00:13:51.960 ⇒ 00:13:59.240 Uttam Kumaran: part of like. What is unique about our our company is that automation sort of isn’t the DNA of of every team.
132 00:13:59.360 ⇒ 00:14:02.599 Uttam Kumaran: And so I do think that I want the AI team to
133 00:14:03.310 ⇒ 00:14:12.199 Uttam Kumaran: be able to have okrs around automation. If it matters. But again, this isn’t something directly that the delivery team
134 00:14:12.640 ⇒ 00:14:22.119 Uttam Kumaran: may own like this could be something we put on to the automation team as their sort of okrs. In supporting this team. You know.
135 00:14:23.490 ⇒ 00:14:25.750 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I think that’d be great to partner with them on.
136 00:14:26.020 ⇒ 00:14:26.710 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
137 00:14:27.942 ⇒ 00:14:34.489 Alexander Lubka: Or so amber. Is that something you have been spending some time on? It’s like giving feedback on, or looping on it, or.
138 00:14:34.980 ⇒ 00:14:50.220 Amber Lin: Yeah. I have a now have a weekly meeting set up every Tuesday to with the AI team on Pm. Related AI stuff before. It’s just been responses here and there, but I think it deserves a more dedicated time.
139 00:14:51.500 ⇒ 00:14:55.879 Alexander Lubka: Cool. Yeah, if they ever need some feedback, I’m happy to provide some. If they wanna
140 00:14:56.490 ⇒ 00:14:58.069 Alexander Lubka: need any additional perspective.
141 00:14:58.510 ⇒ 00:14:59.080 Uttam Kumaran: Cool.
142 00:15:00.330 ⇒ 00:15:02.400 Alexander Lubka: And so did you. Do you think
143 00:15:02.510 ⇒ 00:15:08.027 Alexander Lubka: it sounded like there were some changes with Nico? And then Amber coming in? Do you think you spend less time
144 00:15:08.420 ⇒ 00:15:11.949 Alexander Lubka: with clients now than you did at the beginning of the quarter of last quarter.
145 00:15:12.710 ⇒ 00:15:13.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Totally.
146 00:15:13.900 ⇒ 00:15:14.370 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
147 00:15:14.370 ⇒ 00:15:14.855 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
148 00:15:15.340 ⇒ 00:15:16.669 Alexander Lubka: Amber was a big lift for that.
149 00:15:16.880 ⇒ 00:15:23.046 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so that’s that’s huge. And again, I think that was part of just bringing on.
150 00:15:24.850 ⇒ 00:15:29.437 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I mean, we, we definitely made a lot of inroads, I think.
151 00:15:30.930 ⇒ 00:15:40.480 Uttam Kumaran: we still, I think, are in a need for like this Pm. Coordinator role, and most likely still looking to try to bring on a mid market. Pm.
152 00:15:40.861 ⇒ 00:15:43.959 Uttam Kumaran: so I don’t know. Maybe I mean, I could start to
153 00:15:45.050 ⇒ 00:15:51.550 Uttam Kumaran: could start to note some of these, some of these down. But basically I think it’s still we. We’re still
154 00:15:52.150 ⇒ 00:15:55.339 Uttam Kumaran: basically pming. Now, I think a couple of other projects.
155 00:15:55.793 ⇒ 00:15:58.270 Uttam Kumaran: That I would like to hand off.
156 00:15:59.590 ⇒ 00:16:05.729 Uttam Kumaran: at least the Pm side. The solutions architect side would be the next thing like we are still
157 00:16:06.170 ⇒ 00:16:11.360 Uttam Kumaran: select low key recruiting for like a data tech lead and like an AI tech lead.
158 00:16:11.530 ⇒ 00:16:24.468 Uttam Kumaran: I’m less concerned about that because those are things like I could show up and do that. That’s fine. It’s a Pm work that’s that’s really, really quite like an always on job. That that is difficult
159 00:16:25.370 ⇒ 00:16:32.329 Uttam Kumaran: to do. And so we we do have an active recruiting campaign for mid level. Pm’s here in Austin.
160 00:16:32.490 ⇒ 00:16:37.260 Uttam Kumaran: I just got. I just got a low note back from someone
161 00:16:37.720 ⇒ 00:16:48.153 Uttam Kumaran: today to go meet them. And I’m meeting someone on Friday. So I have feel good about that. But that could be something that this team takes on as an Okayr,
162 00:16:48.650 ⇒ 00:16:51.299 Uttam Kumaran: I do kind of like that, because
163 00:16:51.540 ⇒ 00:17:04.620 Uttam Kumaran: it’s sort of we don’t have like a dedicated recruiting team. Right? So I think it is on this team to take on things that are related to recruiting for a role on the team and making sure that that person
164 00:17:04.730 ⇒ 00:17:12.950 Uttam Kumaran: succeeds. But I also, I think I would probably defer to both of you all about measurable
165 00:17:13.349 ⇒ 00:17:15.679 Uttam Kumaran: results on delivery.
166 00:17:16.176 ⇒ 00:17:20.089 Uttam Kumaran: You know that we want to talk through that is related to
167 00:17:20.310 ⇒ 00:17:31.590 Uttam Kumaran: renewals, or if it’s related to even setting up like a measurable health system, like a health score or something for our clients.
168 00:17:32.550 ⇒ 00:17:37.590 Uttam Kumaran: I think a lot of these were so fundamental that they’re almost like kind of
169 00:17:37.720 ⇒ 00:17:42.700 Uttam Kumaran: like I we’re we’re beyond some of these for sure. But I think.
170 00:17:43.270 ⇒ 00:17:51.260 Uttam Kumaran: like for me, my next push would be, how do? How do we? How can we tie some of these into like financial metrics?
171 00:17:52.070 ⇒ 00:17:55.809 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And so the financial metric here would be basically like,
172 00:17:57.220 ⇒ 00:18:02.750 Uttam Kumaran: renewed revenue or expansion revenue would be where I would push it.
173 00:18:07.770 ⇒ 00:18:12.860 Alexander Lubka: Yep, so do you have any. So it sounds like, you know, this looks good. Sounds like we
174 00:18:13.020 ⇒ 00:18:17.769 Alexander Lubka: hit most of it great. There was a lot of transition amber coming in, Nico coming off
175 00:18:18.240 ⇒ 00:18:25.039 Alexander Lubka: good job team, do you have? Oh, 3 q 3 okrs yet? Or this is to start that conversation.
176 00:18:25.040 ⇒ 00:18:30.240 Alexander Lubka: This is to start that conversation. We have Okrs on the sales side
177 00:18:31.800 ⇒ 00:18:36.731 Uttam Kumaran: And so I, I then want to talk with this team about what? What our
178 00:18:37.530 ⇒ 00:18:40.480 Uttam Kumaran: Okr should be on the delivery side.
179 00:18:42.360 ⇒ 00:18:45.790 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So this was really to kind of kick off that conversation.
180 00:18:47.310 ⇒ 00:18:47.900 Alexander Lubka: Great.
181 00:18:47.900 ⇒ 00:18:48.600 Amber Lin: Okay.
182 00:18:50.040 ⇒ 00:18:51.209 Alexander Lubka: Amber. Do you have something.
183 00:18:51.530 ⇒ 00:18:56.770 Amber Lin: We do have. Pmo. Q. 3 plans. I do think some of it does overlap.
184 00:18:56.880 ⇒ 00:19:00.339 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. The Pmo. Q. 3. Funds.
185 00:19:01.280 ⇒ 00:19:01.630 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
186 00:19:01.630 ⇒ 00:19:07.670 Amber Lin: Since we did talk about implementing the Pmo, talking about onboarding new people.
187 00:19:07.780 ⇒ 00:19:19.230 Amber Lin: and talking about measuring project, success, and about time allocations, and also, even with the
188 00:19:19.510 ⇒ 00:19:28.950 Amber Lin: AI Pm stuff. So we talked about that for the project. Pmo, I don’t think we have it in an Okayr format.
189 00:19:29.200 ⇒ 00:19:43.880 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I did a rough, I I think back in June I did a rough go about it for our for the the Pmo as a department, and also for expectations for Amber, specifically, is that what you’re referring to? Amber is the the what I wrote up.
190 00:19:44.180 ⇒ 00:19:44.610 Amber Lin: Yeah.
191 00:19:44.610 ⇒ 00:19:46.550 Alexander Lubka: Just call Q, 3, 2025.
192 00:19:47.930 ⇒ 00:19:53.920 Alexander Lubka: It’s under like, I I commandeer the slide. That was there. Yeah.
193 00:19:55.080 ⇒ 00:20:02.420 Amber Lin: Yeah. So that is what Alex wrote before, and also what notes from our conversation. I think.
194 00:20:02.420 ⇒ 00:20:04.989 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great. Yeah. Okay.
195 00:20:06.320 ⇒ 00:20:07.240 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly.
196 00:20:09.720 ⇒ 00:20:14.720 Uttam Kumaran: So I, yeah, I I do think that there’s certainly something around
197 00:20:15.040 ⇒ 00:20:20.840 Uttam Kumaran: measuring like a numerical score around like Project health
198 00:20:21.120 ⇒ 00:20:23.450 Uttam Kumaran: right? Which could be something that’s like
199 00:20:23.820 ⇒ 00:20:25.900 Uttam Kumaran: a little bit of like an Mps.
200 00:20:26.030 ⇒ 00:20:29.850 Uttam Kumaran: It could be like financial.
201 00:20:30.603 ⇒ 00:20:36.539 Uttam Kumaran: Both the money, the total money in and the margin
202 00:20:38.650 ⇒ 00:20:41.800 Uttam Kumaran: So I do think that it would be really awesome
203 00:20:42.245 ⇒ 00:20:46.070 Uttam Kumaran: to kick that off. It’ll be the 1st time that we sort of did that.
204 00:20:47.800 ⇒ 00:21:14.464 Uttam Kumaran: I also think like something around. I mean, we do have this whole Pmo process. So I wonder if, like putting into action means, like, okay, as part of like a 1 Okr is is securing this this next Pm, making sure that they’re on boarded and following the Pmo within some some amount of time or something like that. The Pm, AI bot! I think it’s up to you guys.
205 00:21:16.210 ⇒ 00:21:18.299 Uttam Kumaran: like I can take like
206 00:21:18.870 ⇒ 00:21:27.409 Uttam Kumaran: a A, and even even putting the delivery Okrs doesn’t mean like this. Team has to own it because there are a lot of dependencies to make sure that this works
207 00:21:30.650 ⇒ 00:21:36.639 Uttam Kumaran: But with these need to be measurable, right? So need to make sure that, like previously, the way I thought about it, was
208 00:21:36.850 ⇒ 00:21:39.989 Uttam Kumaran: the comment that we just had like 5 or 6 like
209 00:21:40.110 ⇒ 00:21:48.510 Uttam Kumaran: tasks that the Pm. Would do commonly, and I was like, one way or another. Pm. Should be able to do those things via AI
210 00:21:49.030 ⇒ 00:21:52.339 Uttam Kumaran: or have AI augment those in one way or another.
211 00:21:52.730 ⇒ 00:21:58.551 Uttam Kumaran: Some we could. We could go one step further and and either measure impact somehow.
212 00:21:59.510 ⇒ 00:22:05.319 Uttam Kumaran: or if we’re comfortable with where the stuff is and we’re like it’s smooth. We don’t need to set a direct goal for it.
213 00:22:05.740 ⇒ 00:22:08.410 Uttam Kumaran: We don’t. We don’t necessarily have to.
214 00:22:12.293 ⇒ 00:22:12.976 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
215 00:22:13.790 ⇒ 00:22:19.459 Alexander Lubka: Okay, yeah, I, so like on the financial one, like, what’s in the what is
216 00:22:19.630 ⇒ 00:22:21.809 Alexander Lubka: in the pipeline for? Q, 3.
217 00:22:21.970 ⇒ 00:22:26.299 Alexander Lubka: Like, what are, what are the projects that are being asked of us to manage.
218 00:22:27.810 ⇒ 00:22:29.729 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So let me show you.
219 00:22:29.730 ⇒ 00:22:30.970 Alexander Lubka: ABC.
220 00:22:31.552 ⇒ 00:22:39.520 Alexander Lubka: I think there was something that I had a question about of Eden. Pm. Pm, asks, I know there’s marketing, Pm. Request asks, and
221 00:22:40.400 ⇒ 00:22:55.250 Alexander Lubka: and Amber has another client. So I’m curious, just like cause like, if if we have an idea of what the roadmap is going to be, then we can measure against. And then we have those contracts or an idea of those contracts. And we can measure against. Okay, how do we maximize those contracts. Is there renewal opportunities there that I’m just. That’s just some things thinking about.
222 00:22:56.460 ⇒ 00:23:02.469 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So let me try to see if I can just get this one of these. Well, let’s see, maybe
223 00:23:06.190 ⇒ 00:23:13.460 Uttam Kumaran: let me just put you okay? So apologies, I’ll just share my screen.
224 00:23:17.253 ⇒ 00:23:26.525 Uttam Kumaran: So for this next Q 3, these are sort of our sales plans. And so basically,
225 00:23:28.750 ⇒ 00:23:31.821 Uttam Kumaran: we’re gonna be trying to aim for
226 00:23:33.240 ⇒ 00:23:35.980 Uttam Kumaran: A few more clients at least.
227 00:23:36.230 ⇒ 00:23:38.799 Uttam Kumaran: probably end up with another 3 to 4.
228 00:23:39.626 ⇒ 00:23:41.509 Uttam Kumaran: These are sort of around
229 00:23:42.110 ⇒ 00:23:46.410 Uttam Kumaran: like, okay, we need to increase the amount of strategy and audits per month.
230 00:23:46.890 ⇒ 00:23:56.149 Uttam Kumaran: We wanna close a partner source lead but in terms of the Pm. Side. I would say the Pm. Is gonna touch. Any. Anything that sales closes
231 00:23:56.360 ⇒ 00:23:58.690 Uttam Kumaran: will be touched by the delivery team?
232 00:23:59.371 ⇒ 00:24:01.880 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So if we expect
233 00:24:02.180 ⇒ 00:24:08.220 Uttam Kumaran: to increase our invoice, Mrr to about 110 k. Our average
234 00:24:08.924 ⇒ 00:24:11.645 Uttam Kumaran: let’s like our our average
235 00:24:12.320 ⇒ 00:24:14.950 Uttam Kumaran: client invoice is around like 10 k.
236 00:24:15.382 ⇒ 00:24:30.819 Uttam Kumaran: so that leaves around 11 clients in one form or another. There will be some that are sort of in this, like 5 K range, because we’re just doing an audit, and then they graduate. And then we, of course, have some like Eden. That’s 30 K urban stem that’s like
237 00:24:31.040 ⇒ 00:24:36.280 Uttam Kumaran: 15 k that are larger, and that we have about 6 months
238 00:24:36.440 ⇒ 00:24:39.852 Uttam Kumaran: or more of of contracted revenue with
239 00:24:41.450 ⇒ 00:24:44.800 Uttam Kumaran: So there is it. They’re like
240 00:24:45.710 ⇒ 00:24:53.910 Uttam Kumaran: there. It will be more demand, like, I guess long story. Short. Yeah.
241 00:24:56.510 ⇒ 00:24:56.800 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
242 00:24:58.530 ⇒ 00:25:00.319 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t have a clear
243 00:25:02.800 ⇒ 00:25:10.410 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t have a clear of like which ones are gonna close when but certainly I know. Yeah, go ahead.
244 00:25:10.410 ⇒ 00:25:16.769 Alexander Lubka: So, you know, like, so, yeah, or is it urban stems and ABC, amber, you’re currently managing.
245 00:25:17.530 ⇒ 00:25:21.720 Amber Lin: Yep, and I know we’re considering me for Eden, too.
246 00:25:22.740 ⇒ 00:25:23.840 Alexander Lubka: I’m sorry which one.
247 00:25:23.840 ⇒ 00:25:24.740 Amber Lin: Eden.
248 00:25:24.740 ⇒ 00:25:25.780 Alexander Lubka: Eden. Okay.
249 00:25:25.900 ⇒ 00:25:30.669 Alexander Lubka: can you tell me a little more about the Eden thing? And who’s is that something that Robert’s working on? Now.
250 00:25:32.090 ⇒ 00:25:32.660 Amber Lin: Yep.
251 00:25:34.620 ⇒ 00:25:44.819 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So Eden, Robert is running Eden entirely now, they’re our largest client, and we’re we’ve currently we’re now bumped up to 30 grand a month.
252 00:25:44.980 ⇒ 00:25:51.999 Uttam Kumaran: We have 3 engineers on there now, and and
253 00:25:52.130 ⇒ 00:25:54.099 Uttam Kumaran: we will likely be adding a 4th
254 00:25:54.679 ⇒ 00:26:19.500 Uttam Kumaran: and yes, it’s it’s probably the biggest outside of just general sales stuff. Probably the biggest sync for Robert’s time right now is that client? But also probably the biggest opportunity for this team to start to tackle some of the larger work. I think. Yeah, with sort of like matter more churning. We do have that opportunity open, and I do think that it’s a good opportunity
255 00:26:19.670 ⇒ 00:26:21.720 Uttam Kumaran: to loop in amber on
256 00:26:22.184 ⇒ 00:26:30.799 Uttam Kumaran: I also wanted to consider that, like I I, the next big role for us to bring on is this sort of mid level? Pm.
257 00:26:32.580 ⇒ 00:26:33.720 Uttam Kumaran: so
258 00:26:33.970 ⇒ 00:26:37.249 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I think it’s up to this crew to balance like what we want to do.
259 00:26:39.030 ⇒ 00:26:47.890 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna like we can sort of wait another, probably week or 2. And I could see sort of what the candidates we’re dealing with are. And maybe it gives us a better sense of planning. But
260 00:26:48.000 ⇒ 00:26:52.731 Uttam Kumaran: I was gonna sort of kick it back to you guys on like, how do we want to plan
261 00:26:53.950 ⇒ 00:26:58.379 Uttam Kumaran: clients coming online like in a month? And like, how does sales talk to
262 00:26:58.500 ⇒ 00:27:03.099 Uttam Kumaran: talk to this team? You know. And and if you guys have thought about that.
263 00:27:03.450 ⇒ 00:27:26.208 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I have in the Pmo plan the initiation phase of engaging Pmo at the end of the sales cycle. So to start to get the Pm’s involved with sales. What the what the scope is, how close do we think we are so that the they can lead into the planning phase so like amber, the Pm. Can start putting up planning documentation. I also put like a responsibility on
264 00:27:27.070 ⇒ 00:27:49.669 Alexander Lubka: on sales to put together a project charter so just initial of that to start so to inform the intake process for amber, and trying to think about what the scope of it? What is the timeline of it? What is the you know? Who’s gonna be working on it? Sort of thing about cap capacity, resourcing? What resource are available. Do we need to like hire any new resources? Do we have what we need? Who needs to come off of what?
265 00:27:49.680 ⇒ 00:27:58.699 Alexander Lubka: So think about that into the planning process. So to answer your question. That would be, I have written that at that. Then the sales cycle that sales engages with Pmo.
266 00:27:59.540 ⇒ 00:28:00.250 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
267 00:28:01.720 ⇒ 00:28:04.620 Alexander Lubka: And so you can. Yeah, it’s already in there. But yeah, if you need for your notes.
268 00:28:06.660 ⇒ 00:28:16.340 Uttam Kumaran: So I think, yeah, that’s certainly something that we haven’t been doing, really, that we could add.
269 00:28:17.810 ⇒ 00:28:22.709 Uttam Kumaran: As part of, hey, this team works, collaborates directly with sales, and puts together
270 00:28:23.130 ⇒ 00:28:26.760 Uttam Kumaran: chargers for every new client that’s coming on board.
271 00:28:29.660 ⇒ 00:28:42.260 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. And if it makes sense to include like amber in a meeting at the end of the sales cycle like, Oh, this is one of our Pm, she’s our one of our top Pm’s. She’s gonna be managing your project once this closes like you put a face to a name, you know, start form that relationship. I think that’d be helpful.
272 00:28:42.760 ⇒ 00:28:47.469 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, yeah, that’s something. I can help bridge the gap on
273 00:28:51.120 ⇒ 00:29:07.010 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. So then, once she has a charter, once she’s starting to form those relationships, she could start to put together, plan the documentation. So when the second you say great, we close this contract, the the it’s starting. If it’s, you know, starting in 2 weeks or something, then she can set up all the rituals that need to be done. She can set up initial. There’s a there’s a process in there for Kickoff.
274 00:29:07.010 ⇒ 00:29:27.009 Alexander Lubka: We’re gonna have to schedule, the project kickoff and the project management plan. So it’s in there in the plan where it’s like, okay, we form this relationship at the end of the initiation plan. We get A, we get a project charter from sales just giving outline. This is scope work. This is the contract that we’re signing with them. And this is, you know, your guidelines that you have, and then Amber can start to probe it when she’s doing her planning. It’s like, okay? Well, it says.
275 00:29:27.010 ⇒ 00:29:41.679 Alexander Lubka: you know, we have 2 resources. Who are those 2 resources going to be? What are we thinking about that? Or it says it’s a 6 6 weeks of work. But, you know, is it feasible to start it on? August first, st you know, based off everything? Is it make when when is a good timeline? So she can start thinking about that and establishing that
276 00:29:41.968 ⇒ 00:30:00.841 Alexander Lubka: so it’s written in there, but engaging with sales at the end of the cycle. And so in getting that charter for initial thing in in the contract or scope of work, however, you want to share with her, so she can start thinking about that, and she has a template now for project management plan. So she knows what questions to ask for resourcing any risks that are identified early on she could start probing.
277 00:30:01.090 ⇒ 00:30:24.500 Alexander Lubka: this this Robert, whoever’s doing the sales like? Okay? Well, like, you see this project coming in, are there any perceived risks, or like once the you know, tech lead that’s on there starts to take a look at it, is it, you know? Is there any things that we should be aware of? Are there any resourcing things, or any holidays like that are in that time period? That’s gonna mess up our timeline. Are there any holidays in some of the other countries that we have resources in that will impact that. So we don’t commit to something that we can’t follow through? On.
278 00:30:25.970 ⇒ 00:30:31.648 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, so this makes sense. I also think, like,
279 00:30:33.660 ⇒ 00:30:37.849 Uttam Kumaran: I know we wanted we were going after like a Pm.
280 00:30:38.280 ⇒ 00:30:45.919 Uttam Kumaran: like coordinator role we also are thinking about, like like Rico, to start assisting with with Pm. Stuff.
281 00:30:46.030 ⇒ 00:30:54.289 Uttam Kumaran: I wonder if, like like, how we should sort of balance both of those which is like
282 00:30:54.390 ⇒ 00:31:09.250 Uttam Kumaran: Rico assisting, or like just like Pm. Coordinator. And then we have this like mid level. Pm, like what success would look like for both of those, and like how we can start to weave those into the Okrs as well.
283 00:31:09.800 ⇒ 00:31:17.290 Uttam Kumaran: Is it that they’re effectively like, for example, Pm. Coordinator, because the Pmo office, right now encompasses
284 00:31:17.872 ⇒ 00:31:22.100 Uttam Kumaran: internal and external projects. A good, a good, measurable Okr is that
285 00:31:22.480 ⇒ 00:31:25.390 Uttam Kumaran: the Pm. Coordinator is taking on
286 00:31:25.790 ⇒ 00:31:30.889 Uttam Kumaran: like 2 internal teams like Pm. Or something like that, right like
287 00:31:31.486 ⇒ 00:31:43.653 Uttam Kumaran: to give you a sense of like what that is internally right. Now, the operations team is just me and Rico, so he could easily just pm, that because it’s just really us doing all the work. And then for the
288 00:31:44.100 ⇒ 00:31:47.290 Uttam Kumaran: marketing team. I’m I’m the Pm. Right now.
289 00:31:47.520 ⇒ 00:31:53.060 Uttam Kumaran: So those are like probably 2 easy ones where we can say, like, both of those are handed off to
290 00:31:54.940 ⇒ 00:31:58.420 Uttam Kumaran: both of those come under ownership of this team, or something like that.
291 00:31:59.130 ⇒ 00:32:02.579 Alexander Lubka: And what does that mean when you say you’re currently pming, marketing.
292 00:32:04.080 ⇒ 00:32:08.729 Uttam Kumaran: When I say, like, we’re currently Pme marketing is that yeah, I’m running sprint planning
293 00:32:09.340 ⇒ 00:32:21.650 Uttam Kumaran: like a sort of light rituals for and we have everything. It’s like ticketing, grooming. Everything for the marketing, internal marketing team. Marketing is is marketing.
294 00:32:21.820 ⇒ 00:32:25.010 Uttam Kumaran: It’s like social design.
295 00:32:25.485 ⇒ 00:32:30.379 Uttam Kumaran: And the website, and then any sort of like promotions that we do like events.
296 00:32:31.790 ⇒ 00:32:36.810 Alexander Lubka: Great. Yeah. I talked to Rico on Friday. He doesn’t.
297 00:32:37.160 ⇒ 00:32:42.539 Alexander Lubka: We can try to. We could train him, but I don’t. He doesn’t have any project experience, as you know, I didn’t. Yeah.
298 00:32:42.670 ⇒ 00:32:43.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
299 00:32:43.590 ⇒ 00:32:46.079 Alexander Lubka: So he we could.
300 00:32:47.030 ⇒ 00:32:48.820 Alexander Lubka: We could. We could train him.
301 00:32:49.240 ⇒ 00:32:54.910 Uttam Kumaran: I would I would kick it back to you. This is where, like, I need a decision from you guys on whether it’s worth it or not.
302 00:32:55.813 ⇒ 00:32:59.090 Uttam Kumaran: Because I like
303 00:32:59.700 ⇒ 00:33:10.780 Uttam Kumaran: my lens is, if people are good at one thing, there’s a good chance. It could be good at another thing, but that’s my lens on everybody like I don’t have a I don’t care much about
304 00:33:10.970 ⇒ 00:33:13.690 Uttam Kumaran: roles I care about like aptitude
305 00:33:13.800 ⇒ 00:33:19.148 Uttam Kumaran: to take on whatever it is. But, like you guys now own the
306 00:33:20.180 ⇒ 00:33:24.470 Uttam Kumaran: the bar for the Pmo office. So if you’re like.
307 00:33:24.940 ⇒ 00:33:32.499 Uttam Kumaran: we can’t. I don’t want any rain. I just don’t want a random person like give us we should go get us a actual Pm, coordinator. Fine.
308 00:33:33.040 ⇒ 00:33:45.610 Uttam Kumaran: Right? That’s okay. I’m willing to. I’m willing to discuss that. But if you’re not pushing back, then I’m gonna throw whoever whoever is next available who has shown some some aptitude and has some bandwidth, you know.
309 00:33:46.090 ⇒ 00:33:47.780 Alexander Lubka: Does he have capacity?
310 00:33:48.550 ⇒ 00:33:50.700 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, he has capacity. Yeah.
311 00:33:51.600 ⇒ 00:33:53.339 Alexander Lubka: Okay, so is he like
312 00:33:53.590 ⇒ 00:34:00.810 Alexander Lubka: cause? I think he works like 8 to 5 East Coast, he said. And is he doing like? Is he, like 20 h allocated to.
313 00:34:01.660 ⇒ 00:34:02.230 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
314 00:34:02.230 ⇒ 00:34:03.070 Alexander Lubka: OP stuff.
315 00:34:03.640 ⇒ 00:34:05.090 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, about.
316 00:34:05.480 ⇒ 00:34:06.270 Alexander Lubka: No problem.
317 00:34:10.610 ⇒ 00:34:12.780 Alexander Lubka: Was that enough capacity to like?
318 00:34:13.179 ⇒ 00:34:21.930 Alexander Lubka: Do manage? Could you, in theory, could one person, you think, in 40 h do the marketing stuff and 2 internal projects.
319 00:34:25.136 ⇒ 00:34:29.199 Uttam Kumaran: But what is the other internal project? Just the.
320 00:34:29.449 ⇒ 00:34:32.250 Uttam Kumaran: It’s just those 2. It’s just the operations and marketing.
321 00:34:32.400 ⇒ 00:34:35.840 Alexander Lubka: Oh, well, no, I’m well. I meant like you’re looking for a Pm. I’m thinking. If you can combine them.
322 00:34:35.840 ⇒ 00:34:43.729 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, see, this is where like I don’t know whether he’s gonna be able to take external client like.
323 00:34:44.080 ⇒ 00:34:47.760 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know whether he’s the one to take on client work.
324 00:34:48.949 ⇒ 00:34:50.089 Uttam Kumaran: Or it would at least.
325 00:34:50.090 ⇒ 00:34:50.780 Alexander Lubka: It would take some.
326 00:34:50.780 ⇒ 00:34:51.460 Uttam Kumaran: Time.
327 00:34:51.580 ⇒ 00:34:52.190 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
328 00:34:59.640 ⇒ 00:35:02.480 Alexander Lubka: And there. Yeah, well, cause there’s nowhere else to put them.
329 00:35:02.970 ⇒ 00:35:05.469 Alexander Lubka: I’m just thinking, like, there’s yeah, there’s really no muscle problem.
330 00:35:05.960 ⇒ 00:35:08.250 Alexander Lubka: Cause like it’s kind of it’s, you know.
331 00:35:08.500 ⇒ 00:35:13.430 Alexander Lubka: It’s kind of strange. But marketing under. Pm, but he’s like he’s pming a marketing work
332 00:35:13.670 ⇒ 00:35:17.850 Alexander Lubka: which in my in my mind isn’t pming. It’s just like he’s doing marketing.
333 00:35:19.200 ⇒ 00:35:29.099 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s tough, because, like typically marketing doesn’t do isn’t organized at all. So they don’t have a Pm. Because they they don’t like
334 00:35:29.630 ⇒ 00:35:34.829 Uttam Kumaran: they’re marketers. They’re sort of like, just kind of vibe and just do stuff. So
335 00:35:36.780 ⇒ 00:35:52.759 Uttam Kumaran: I like, I will say, though, like our marketing team, can you run through the same rigor as we do for other stuff like I don’t mind them having the structure, in fact, like we needed that. And everybody that team is the one that that loves tickets the most out of everybody
336 00:35:52.880 ⇒ 00:35:58.540 Uttam Kumaran: like they. They look at every ticket they they come, they work, we work very async
337 00:35:59.162 ⇒ 00:36:02.300 Uttam Kumaran: they create tickets for literally every single thing.
338 00:36:02.893 ⇒ 00:36:07.170 Uttam Kumaran: So like, yeah. So that’s why I’m kinda like.
339 00:36:08.090 ⇒ 00:36:13.049 Uttam Kumaran: and but I’m also pming it with like an hour a week, or like whatever I have, like.
340 00:36:14.285 ⇒ 00:36:17.350 Uttam Kumaran: and yeah, it’s a
341 00:36:18.900 ⇒ 00:36:24.400 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know. I I find that them having this structure has helped a lot. So
342 00:36:24.830 ⇒ 00:36:29.469 Uttam Kumaran: that and operations is gonna be the same thing. It’s the reason why I want to
343 00:36:29.620 ⇒ 00:36:33.400 Uttam Kumaran: put Pm’s on those is because those are really hard to understand.
344 00:36:33.580 ⇒ 00:36:50.170 Uttam Kumaran: Effectiveness and capacity like are, how? What are what are all the operations? Tasks that are happening in the company like this is something that’s gonna really bite us in the ass down the line if we don’t have track like, hey? What are all the contracts that are going out? What are the common operational tasks.
345 00:36:50.340 ⇒ 00:37:06.509 Uttam Kumaran: and then, like understanding, like our capacity to continue to do those, or how those increase as complexity increases same thing with marketing, and that we want to start to measure the type of work that we’re doing, and whether it’s affecting us getting better sales. So I do think that
346 00:37:06.770 ⇒ 00:37:11.689 Uttam Kumaran: it’s worth having. Pm’s for both those teams. The operations work is just me and
347 00:37:12.340 ⇒ 00:37:21.249 Uttam Kumaran: Enrico really. So it’s pretty easy. But really what that is, just getting everything into tickets and making sure that he has a to do list there, you know.
348 00:37:23.280 ⇒ 00:37:34.631 Uttam Kumaran: so you could. I mean, you could. Also, you could also run a test like you can time box it and say, like, we’re gonna try it for this month. If not, then we we. This is this continues to be an open role.
349 00:37:35.360 ⇒ 00:37:36.230 Uttam Kumaran: yeah.
350 00:37:38.070 ⇒ 00:37:39.970 Alexander Lubka: Okay, Amber, do you have an opinion on this.
351 00:37:41.560 ⇒ 00:38:02.800 Amber Lin: I think Rico is proactive enough to handle the basic tracking tasks that operations and marketing needs operations. He’s doing already. He’s probably reminding Uta. Most stuff he needs to do like. That’s all of that. I’m just gonna introduce linear to him as a tracking tool. To make sure he can organize
352 00:38:02.970 ⇒ 00:38:14.539 Amber Lin: is to do list essentially and for marketing a big part of what we’re doing now is helping hannah, who is managing the marketing team, organize the task she has, because she
353 00:38:14.850 ⇒ 00:38:26.549 Amber Lin: she likes to be very organized. But she’s not the closest with technology. So I think where we could be helpful. And we started to do is help her understand
354 00:38:26.770 ⇒ 00:38:28.929 Amber Lin: how her different
355 00:38:29.220 ⇒ 00:38:41.900 Amber Lin: projects can be laid out, so that they can all remember what they need to do. And Rico, as an additional helper would just help them. Remember, hey? This, we said, we’re gonna do this. This cycle.
356 00:38:42.040 ⇒ 00:38:43.429 Amber Lin: Is this done?
357 00:38:43.720 ⇒ 00:38:50.349 Amber Lin: Just more of a making sure things get done, so I don’t think that will be
358 00:38:50.760 ⇒ 00:38:56.200 Amber Lin: too hard to onboard, and I don’t think it’s exactly project management per se.
359 00:38:57.010 ⇒ 00:39:03.119 Amber Lin: But it’s I do think it’s needed, and he can. I believe that he can do it.
360 00:39:05.990 ⇒ 00:39:07.630 Alexander Lubka: Alright. So do you wanna like
361 00:39:08.000 ⇒ 00:39:16.590 Alexander Lubka: the takeaway from this? Is you wanna take like a month or so to train him on our processes that he can apply him to marketing to see if it’s been tested, to see if it works.
362 00:39:17.680 ⇒ 00:39:45.289 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think what you guys brought up a time boxing is a good idea. I I just booked a meeting with him tomorrow to give him a quick overview of the stuff that he would need. So I think a month is a good goal. So probably by early August we can look at how it’s been going, and if it has been helpful, and if it is something that’s within his capacity to do.
363 00:39:45.890 ⇒ 00:39:47.449 Alexander Lubka: We’ll give you Mid August.
364 00:39:47.450 ⇒ 00:39:49.219 Amber Lin: Okay, that’s valid.
365 00:39:49.220 ⇒ 00:39:59.400 Uttam Kumaran: So I think initiative for Q. 3 could be like marketing and operations running through.
366 00:40:00.950 ⇒ 00:40:02.390 Uttam Kumaran: Get my own office?
367 00:40:03.722 ⇒ 00:40:10.059 Uttam Kumaran: That way. It doesn’t imply like who’s gonna do? It just implies that it should be done.
368 00:40:10.400 ⇒ 00:40:15.440 Uttam Kumaran: and whether it’s rico or not, like we’ll we can hit that whenever we hit that
369 00:40:17.550 ⇒ 00:40:29.150 Uttam Kumaran: and then mid level Pm. Will just be primarily around recruiting this person, and then, like
370 00:40:31.410 ⇒ 00:40:40.760 Uttam Kumaran: having them like on, be on one client by the end of the quarter like. Is that fair? Or or what would be another, like pretty, simple, measurable thing for this person.
371 00:40:43.530 ⇒ 00:40:44.370 Amber Lin: Coordinator.
372 00:40:45.540 ⇒ 00:40:47.340 Uttam Kumaran: For like a mid level, Pm.
373 00:40:47.610 ⇒ 00:40:48.300 Amber Lin: Oh.
374 00:40:49.970 ⇒ 00:40:55.340 Amber Lin: how would that compare to me for me to get a sense of what you mean by mid level.
375 00:40:55.990 ⇒ 00:41:01.821 Uttam Kumaran: I would probably right now we’re filtering. Well, I’ll I’ll I’ll even just show you
376 00:41:03.860 ⇒ 00:41:07.690 Uttam Kumaran: Right now, I basically look for anyone with
377 00:41:08.090 ⇒ 00:41:11.820 Uttam Kumaran: big 4 plus experience in Austin.
378 00:41:12.666 ⇒ 00:41:16.280 Uttam Kumaran: I think that is pnp, certified. Basically.
379 00:41:16.610 ⇒ 00:41:19.079 Uttam Kumaran: that was like, sort of my criteria right now.
380 00:41:23.510 ⇒ 00:41:25.780 Uttam Kumaran: Let me just confirm that?
381 00:41:40.250 ⇒ 00:41:44.059 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So I basically looked like all I basically looked at.
382 00:41:44.270 ⇒ 00:41:48.049 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I’ll just pull. I’ll just pull up exactly what I had them do
383 00:41:50.400 ⇒ 00:41:56.639 Uttam Kumaran: So I had them look at all these companies for these roles
384 00:41:58.146 ⇒ 00:42:01.740 Uttam Kumaran: that had like any sort of thing like this in it.
385 00:42:02.582 ⇒ 00:42:04.430 Uttam Kumaran: That were Austin based.
386 00:42:05.319 ⇒ 00:42:10.919 Uttam Kumaran: Ideally, someone that can come in and take on one of our medium to large clients
387 00:42:12.510 ⇒ 00:42:15.049 Uttam Kumaran: like kind of sort of immediately.
388 00:42:17.630 ⇒ 00:42:21.120 Uttam Kumaran: That’s that’s basically like what I sort of opted for.
389 00:42:24.200 ⇒ 00:42:25.909 Alexander Lubka: Austin’s just a preference of yours.
390 00:42:28.266 ⇒ 00:42:34.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, it does not necessarily have to be Austin. But
391 00:42:35.180 ⇒ 00:42:39.540 Uttam Kumaran: budget wise New York and Sf. Is gonna be tough.
392 00:42:40.510 ⇒ 00:42:46.300 Uttam Kumaran: But I don’t know if you have someone in mind. I mean, you know, we always consider but
393 00:42:47.200 ⇒ 00:42:53.089 Uttam Kumaran: what the reason why I fell. Austin is like if we’re gonna recruit somewhere in the middle of the country.
394 00:42:53.610 ⇒ 00:42:56.940 Uttam Kumaran: There’s a lot of people here who have moved from those places.
395 00:42:59.150 ⇒ 00:43:05.599 Uttam Kumaran: Who would totally, who are probably working at some crappy place here in town.
396 00:43:05.800 ⇒ 00:43:14.660 Uttam Kumaran: and they want to go work at somewhere cool. So I’m gonna go buy them a coffee. It’s literally the the campaign. We’re running right now on Linkedin, so
397 00:43:14.780 ⇒ 00:43:16.620 Uttam Kumaran: I’m sure I’ll find somebody.
398 00:43:16.920 ⇒ 00:43:19.930 Alexander Lubka: You might, you might. You might 5 exit if you offer them butter.
399 00:43:20.310 ⇒ 00:43:24.010 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yeah, yeah. The butter is really where it’s gonna but
400 00:43:24.010 ⇒ 00:43:30.679 Uttam Kumaran: convince them to go. So here, there’s a lot of folks like that, because ntt data is here. There’s a lot of these big
401 00:43:30.680 ⇒ 00:43:31.040 Uttam Kumaran: it.
402 00:43:31.040 ⇒ 00:43:34.530 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, there’s a lot of these. So if I go talk to those people like
403 00:43:35.630 ⇒ 00:43:38.750 Uttam Kumaran: it’s gonna be easy to to convince them to come to come
404 00:43:38.890 ⇒ 00:43:44.169 Uttam Kumaran: at least consider us. So that’s what I but I want someone who’s gonna who’s basically
405 00:43:46.200 ⇒ 00:43:50.600 Uttam Kumaran: like, just gonna continue to raise the bar in terms of our
406 00:43:50.830 ⇒ 00:43:55.349 Uttam Kumaran: executing on our Pmo plan. It could come in and take on
407 00:43:56.030 ⇒ 00:44:03.480 Uttam Kumaran: like an Eden level client or bigger, basically, does. That gives us the confidence to go sell those types of things.
408 00:44:04.910 ⇒ 00:44:12.539 Alexander Lubka: Well, so I think, like, you know, realistically, you’re probably gonna hire somebody towards the end of Q. 3 already takes a long time.
409 00:44:12.700 ⇒ 00:44:13.800 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree.
410 00:44:13.800 ⇒ 00:44:25.060 Alexander Lubka: If I think, if we like, set the goal of hiring a mid level Pm. And you know, onboarding. And then being fully onboarded onto our processes. I think that’s realistic.
411 00:44:26.220 ⇒ 00:44:27.040 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
412 00:44:27.750 ⇒ 00:44:35.880 Alexander Lubka: If they, if we exceed our goal and they, we can assign them to it. Fantastic! I would call that a stretch, but just knowing how prying works. And it’s the summer.
413 00:44:36.980 ⇒ 00:44:43.699 Alexander Lubka: I think you’d probably, you know, realistically, probably be able to hire somebody in, you know, towards the end of that, and maybe late August, or after Labor Day, or something.
414 00:44:44.010 ⇒ 00:44:44.640 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
415 00:44:44.830 ⇒ 00:44:57.320 Uttam Kumaran: so how about like one is just recruiting this person? Second, is like onboarding to our processes, and then a win would be having them propose some changes within. By the end of Q. 3.
416 00:44:57.540 ⇒ 00:45:03.299 Alexander Lubka: Great amber. I’m sorry I I I might have interrupted you. Did you have any more questions on what the mid level Pm. Is.
417 00:45:04.470 ⇒ 00:45:08.640 Amber Lin: Oh, no, I think, hey.
418 00:45:09.248 ⇒ 00:45:20.020 Amber Lin: based on my understanding, they’re Gonna help keep establishing the Pmo and help refine our processes, and they will be managing, say, 2 to 3 big clients.
419 00:45:20.400 ⇒ 00:45:23.339 Amber Lin: or are they going to be overseeing the whole program.
420 00:45:24.400 ⇒ 00:45:30.589 Uttam Kumaran: No, I don’t want anyone who’s not doing work around here, so we don’t. We’re not gonna bring on like a head of pm.
421 00:45:30.970 ⇒ 00:45:34.180 Uttam Kumaran: because that’s all that is
422 00:45:34.320 ⇒ 00:45:43.329 Uttam Kumaran: so I still want someone that’s like me, like basically looking for a challenge. But it’s also interested in establishing processes and building like an office.
423 00:45:46.130 ⇒ 00:46:01.329 Uttam Kumaran: so like this is. But this is where we don’t have sort of like. We don’t have a leveling guide for the Pm. Team right now. But I sort of look at look at this as someone, at least at least at your level. Ideally a little bit more senior, so that
424 00:46:01.550 ⇒ 00:46:05.850 Uttam Kumaran: they can come in and take the Pm. Sort of process to the
425 00:46:06.130 ⇒ 00:46:15.700 Uttam Kumaran: bring in all all of their background into that for us to go sell like 50 to 100 KA month deals right? Like, basically.
426 00:46:17.050 ⇒ 00:46:32.979 Uttam Kumaran: it’s sort of like someone coming in. And and then I’m like, I’ve like, I just if there’s sort of much beyond what I know about this world, which is still not that much that’s sort of what I’d be looking for. And so someone who could really move the bar that we would all be like, yeah, I would love to work with this person.
427 00:46:34.940 ⇒ 00:46:35.870 Amber Lin: You know.
428 00:46:36.010 ⇒ 00:46:36.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
429 00:46:39.850 ⇒ 00:46:40.980 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, they sound great.
430 00:46:41.540 ⇒ 00:46:47.078 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, they do sound great. We’ll find them. I’ll find them. I found everyone else, so we’ll find them.
431 00:46:47.370 ⇒ 00:46:48.010 Alexander Lubka: Right. Give it to me.
432 00:46:48.010 ⇒ 00:46:48.590 Uttam Kumaran: So.
433 00:46:48.590 ⇒ 00:46:49.740 Alexander Lubka: Been pretty good so far.
434 00:46:49.880 ⇒ 00:47:03.050 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so okay, so there’s something around. Pm, and sales. There’s something around sort of people. And
435 00:47:05.550 ⇒ 00:47:10.409 Uttam Kumaran: the Pm Pmo office. I do think that probably yeah, go ahead.
436 00:47:10.590 ⇒ 00:47:19.520 Alexander Lubka: So is the is the desired outcome of the Rico assisting Pm. Coordinator is to like, make a decision on whether we need to make the Pm. Coordinator hire.
437 00:47:19.520 ⇒ 00:47:20.170 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
438 00:47:20.590 ⇒ 00:47:23.209 Alexander Lubka: So like, yeah, okay, so like, you get.
439 00:47:23.710 ⇒ 00:47:28.830 Alexander Lubka: Give him a month to figure it out. If he’s doing well. Great, if not decision.
440 00:47:29.010 ⇒ 00:47:33.109 Alexander Lubka: Definition and done is like a decision on whether we need to pursue the Pm. Coordinator hire.
441 00:47:33.670 ⇒ 00:47:34.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s correct.
442 00:47:34.830 ⇒ 00:47:35.410 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
443 00:47:38.230 ⇒ 00:47:53.660 Uttam Kumaran: like I, I could keep pursuing that role. He just is good. And so I think he’s open to just doing whatever the company needs, and I think he, he is really interested in this role. Let’s see. If it’s not, we’ll go back. That’s fine.
444 00:47:53.920 ⇒ 00:47:54.560 Alexander Lubka: Great.
445 00:47:58.520 ⇒ 00:48:03.489 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I just would rather. I can only focus on like.
446 00:48:04.500 ⇒ 00:48:14.089 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, we’re always sort of recruiting. We can only kind of focus on one of these at a time. It’s a little bit tough. So I just want to make sure that like, okay, if we have a shot at this. Let’s give it a go.
447 00:48:14.390 ⇒ 00:48:20.699 Uttam Kumaran: if there’s no harm. If this doesn’t work out at all. Frankly. So it’s totally fine.
448 00:48:21.180 ⇒ 00:48:22.810 Alexander Lubka: Yup, and then.
449 00:48:23.220 ⇒ 00:48:31.370 Alexander Lubka: like on the sales financial side, like, Is there some sort of okay, are we could put in of like maximizing the contract, or
450 00:48:31.867 ⇒ 00:48:38.560 Alexander Lubka: like a a percentage of that like, is there something like that that we could help with to make sure we’re getting the most of these contracts.
451 00:48:38.960 ⇒ 00:48:40.455 Uttam Kumaran: I mean I would
452 00:48:45.280 ⇒ 00:48:51.279 Alexander Lubka: Or is it like a combination of that? And like the hour hours thing you were talking about, that you want to track a little more granularly.
453 00:48:54.030 ⇒ 00:48:59.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think if I had to pick on one metric it would be gross margin
454 00:49:00.320 ⇒ 00:49:03.249 Uttam Kumaran: like it would be somehow maintaining
455 00:49:04.250 ⇒ 00:49:09.720 Uttam Kumaran: basically looking at every project and making sure that this team owns the gross margin metric.
456 00:49:11.230 ⇒ 00:49:13.810 Uttam Kumaran: Just because, I think, thinking about renewals.
457 00:49:17.160 ⇒ 00:49:22.939 Uttam Kumaran: there could be a number of factors outside of this team’s ownership that would kind of like affect that.
458 00:49:23.090 ⇒ 00:49:36.699 Uttam Kumaran: like some of our clients like, I, I just think, like the gross margin really allows us to say cool. By the end of the quarter we need a clear view of gross margin. We need a clear view of gross margin by client that we can report on every week.
459 00:49:37.300 ⇒ 00:49:42.869 Uttam Kumaran: We need some ability to do forward planning to get like estimated gross margins
460 00:49:43.370 ⇒ 00:49:48.630 Uttam Kumaran: like something around around that. And I think, hooking into gross margin, which again, just revenue, minus
461 00:49:49.130 ⇒ 00:49:52.719 Uttam Kumaran: the amount of contractor. Spend payroll. Spend?
462 00:49:53.660 ⇒ 00:49:55.350 Uttam Kumaran: That would be lovely.
463 00:49:58.620 ⇒ 00:49:59.460 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
464 00:50:00.040 ⇒ 00:50:01.219 Alexander Lubka: That’s not. That’s not right.
465 00:50:06.430 ⇒ 00:50:09.049 Alexander Lubka: Don’t you tell me where I don’t want to commit you to anything.
466 00:50:09.050 ⇒ 00:50:09.849 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
467 00:50:10.460 ⇒ 00:50:14.470 Amber Lin: Oh, I mean, I feel like I’m already committed to it. So there’s.
468 00:50:14.470 ⇒ 00:50:16.490 Uttam Kumaran: Well, you could propose you propose another one, but.
469 00:50:16.490 ⇒ 00:50:17.080 Alexander Lubka: There you go!
470 00:50:17.080 ⇒ 00:50:26.969 Amber Lin: I don’t know if there’s anything to discuss, because cause, this is like we’ve been on board on this. It’s just we’re trying to figure out how to execute the best right.
471 00:50:27.250 ⇒ 00:50:33.510 Uttam Kumaran: I can model. I’ll model whatever you guys need. But I guess this is where, like I’m I look at.
472 00:50:33.740 ⇒ 00:50:41.019 Uttam Kumaran: I look at it in the context of everything. So the the models that I’m building, I’m looking at everything sort of like building the income statement.
473 00:50:41.407 ⇒ 00:50:48.909 Uttam Kumaran: But if you guys give me like, feedback on like, Hey, we need to see a certain type of view I could produce that we already have
474 00:50:49.360 ⇒ 00:50:56.100 Uttam Kumaran: sort of by project. So basically the client, the number of hours and the revenue coming in
475 00:50:56.620 ⇒ 00:51:02.700 Uttam Kumaran: for for any given client on any given day, week, month. So
476 00:51:03.237 ⇒ 00:51:06.180 Uttam Kumaran: I but I I kind of don’t want to
477 00:51:07.305 ⇒ 00:51:15.030 Uttam Kumaran: solve the problem my way. And then, therefore, like I’m on the hook for it more. I’m more I’m interested in like
478 00:51:15.750 ⇒ 00:51:20.879 Uttam Kumaran: this team agreeing on like, okay, at least at one. We want to be able to report out
479 00:51:21.170 ⇒ 00:51:26.249 Uttam Kumaran: gross margin per client per week by the end of the quarter.
480 00:51:26.710 ⇒ 00:51:30.090 Uttam Kumaran: Great. That’s a simple like table that just needs to exist.
481 00:51:30.615 ⇒ 00:51:34.189 Uttam Kumaran: But I also think this is why, like the health score.
482 00:51:34.680 ⇒ 00:51:47.580 Uttam Kumaran: this could be kind of another helpful thing to consider here or we say, Look, our goal is to main is to is to make sure that we are at a blended 50% margin by end of Q 3, or or some some metric
483 00:51:48.055 ⇒ 00:51:53.769 Uttam Kumaran: and if if we need guidance on like, what has that been historically what is reasonable? We could do that.
484 00:51:59.150 ⇒ 00:52:06.579 Amber Lin: Yeah. And then for my side, I want to know when we set a target goal for ours.
485 00:52:06.780 ⇒ 00:52:09.770 Amber Lin: how do we actually make it happen.
486 00:52:11.323 ⇒ 00:52:16.180 Amber Lin: cause I can’t report on it, but I would like to improve on it, but
487 00:52:16.300 ⇒ 00:52:19.730 Amber Lin: improvement feels a little bit hard.
488 00:52:20.660 ⇒ 00:52:25.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, are you part of this.
489 00:52:25.600 ⇒ 00:52:28.400 Amber Lin: Topic to discuss like we don’t have to solve it now.
490 00:52:28.400 ⇒ 00:52:30.379 Uttam Kumaran: No, I mean, part of this is like,
491 00:52:34.910 ⇒ 00:52:38.590 Uttam Kumaran: part of this is gonna be something that has to be done with, like
492 00:52:38.870 ⇒ 00:52:42.559 Uttam Kumaran: the solution architects or the engineering managers. On estimating
493 00:52:42.740 ⇒ 00:52:48.969 Uttam Kumaran: the amount of work and with sales, I’m like, Hey, did we sell? Did? We is a deal big enough for the scope that we got
494 00:52:51.120 ⇒ 00:52:53.940 Uttam Kumaran: right? So this is part of that like resource planning
495 00:53:01.030 ⇒ 00:53:02.090 Uttam Kumaran: like
496 00:53:08.090 ⇒ 00:53:11.389 Alexander Lubka: So I’m oh, wait! What was what was your question? Amber, how do we? How do you
497 00:53:12.480 ⇒ 00:53:15.099 Alexander Lubka: get more out of the contract?
498 00:53:15.100 ⇒ 00:53:26.609 Amber Lin: No, as in currently we’re spending a lot of hours, and our margins are low. To achieve a certain rate, we need to spend less hours. How do we spend less hours.
499 00:53:28.750 ⇒ 00:53:32.729 Uttam Kumaran: So there’s 2 things, though, you can either go to sales you could type, you need to.
500 00:53:33.370 ⇒ 00:53:37.230 Uttam Kumaran: You need like you can. There like this is like what happened on Eden, for example.
501 00:53:37.520 ⇒ 00:53:40.959 Uttam Kumaran: we went to them, and I told Robert we are working way too much.
502 00:53:41.630 ⇒ 00:53:47.339 Uttam Kumaran: We need to cut a 3rd of our hours, or you need to increase by 30%.
503 00:53:47.750 ⇒ 00:53:49.600 Uttam Kumaran: So he did the 30%.
504 00:53:50.000 ⇒ 00:53:54.790 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re also gonna try to cut the hours a little bit, but that’s like
505 00:53:55.560 ⇒ 00:54:01.910 Uttam Kumaran: that had to. That had to come from this team because sales doesn’t have just he didn’t have the purview into
506 00:54:02.604 ⇒ 00:54:08.670 Uttam Kumaran: like if we take him out of the Pm. He didn’t have the purview into like what it’s going to to do the to build a thing.
507 00:54:08.810 ⇒ 00:54:14.940 Uttam Kumaran: So this is where, like there will has to be some realignment where, either on a monthly basis, we have to go reduce.
508 00:54:15.210 ⇒ 00:54:19.530 Uttam Kumaran: or we have to go. Ask for more money right? There has to be a change order.
509 00:54:20.860 ⇒ 00:54:27.749 Alexander Lubka: I guess, to be clear like that’s not your your. The decision making isn’t the Pmo’s responsibility. The responsibility of the Pmo. Is just to report on it.
510 00:54:29.450 ⇒ 00:54:35.350 Uttam Kumaran: The responsibility of the Pmo is that you’re on the hook to achieve the goal percentage.
511 00:54:39.310 ⇒ 00:54:40.040 Alexander Lubka: Well.
512 00:54:41.010 ⇒ 00:54:42.999 Uttam Kumaran: Otherwise like who who’s on the hook right.
513 00:54:43.000 ⇒ 00:54:44.890 Amber Lin: 2 of you said different things.
514 00:54:44.890 ⇒ 00:54:49.150 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I would think that’s you can report on it. And that’s a sales. Isn’t that a sales decision?
515 00:54:50.600 ⇒ 00:54:53.089 Uttam Kumaran: But this is where, like, I would push back. Because
516 00:54:53.560 ⇒ 00:54:56.009 Uttam Kumaran: why did we sell something we couldn’t.
517 00:54:56.380 ⇒ 00:54:59.820 Uttam Kumaran: We couldn’t fulfill for 50%.
518 00:55:01.030 ⇒ 00:55:08.929 Uttam Kumaran: And then, if and then. So that’d be 1st question second, if if we found out later that we can’t do this for 50%,
519 00:55:09.120 ⇒ 00:55:17.270 Uttam Kumaran: who’s on the hook to propose the who is most enabled, with all the data, to propose that change. It has to be the Pmo office right.
520 00:55:18.620 ⇒ 00:55:22.259 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, but we’re not the ones signing the con or, yeah, we’re not executing the contracts.
521 00:55:22.600 ⇒ 00:55:24.720 Uttam Kumaran: But you are part of the
522 00:55:25.090 ⇒ 00:55:28.760 Uttam Kumaran: you are part of the people that approve the sows.
523 00:55:31.420 ⇒ 00:55:34.529 Uttam Kumaran: Right? That’s gonna be part of the Pm. Sales like Charter.
524 00:55:36.420 ⇒ 00:55:39.270 Alexander Lubka: I I didn’t think I hadn’t included that, but it can be.
525 00:55:40.160 ⇒ 00:55:47.320 Alexander Lubka: I usually Pmo the Pmo. Oh, they want. Traditionally, the Pmo. Wouldn’t push back on like the numbers of it
526 00:55:47.850 ⇒ 00:56:03.559 Alexander Lubka: like if you’re if you’re saying like, if sales is proposing like, Oh, I wanna this is a 10,000 a month thing with 2 devs or something like I. I wouldn’t expect Amber to push back on it, saying the gross margins aren’t there? But you think they she should at that point of the initiation process, when she gets the contract.
527 00:56:03.930 ⇒ 00:56:08.559 Uttam Kumaran: I guess my question is, who who would then in our world?
528 00:56:08.860 ⇒ 00:56:10.440 Uttam Kumaran: Because right now.
529 00:56:11.900 ⇒ 00:56:24.849 Uttam Kumaran: what I what I so as for me, I as this is sort of part of like this, I guess it is kind of the solutions. Architect, but then what but I kind of then do some Pm, which is, I’m like, cool, roughly, gonna need 2 engineers.
530 00:56:25.430 ⇒ 00:56:29.779 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m like, okay, we need 2 engineers for, like, probably 20 h each.
531 00:56:29.900 ⇒ 00:56:33.220 Uttam Kumaran: we have these people available. It’s gonna cost about this much.
532 00:56:33.690 ⇒ 00:56:40.769 Uttam Kumaran: This is the price. And that’s why I tell Robert to go put the price at. So most of that equation is like who’s available.
533 00:56:41.310 ⇒ 00:56:43.749 Uttam Kumaran: and what is the scope of the project?
534 00:56:44.520 ⇒ 00:56:46.600 Uttam Kumaran: And then determining, like we could
535 00:56:46.790 ⇒ 00:56:52.870 Uttam Kumaran: conservatively and or liberally find it like, execute it given the scope you told me for this amount.
536 00:56:53.130 ⇒ 00:56:55.639 Uttam Kumaran: but then also during the project.
537 00:56:56.300 ⇒ 00:57:00.180 Uttam Kumaran: looking at, hey, we are executing it for a certain amount.
538 00:57:01.240 ⇒ 00:57:03.040 Uttam Kumaran: We need to make an adjustment.
539 00:57:05.127 ⇒ 00:57:07.909 Uttam Kumaran: I just don’t know. There’s not a 3rd
540 00:57:08.090 ⇒ 00:57:10.560 Uttam Kumaran: like there isn’t a a key.
541 00:57:10.560 ⇒ 00:57:10.900 Alexander Lubka: Person.
542 00:57:10.900 ⇒ 00:57:14.499 Uttam Kumaran: Within sales that could own this. So.
543 00:57:15.960 ⇒ 00:57:19.089 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I see what you’re saying now for, like us, specifically.
544 00:57:21.600 ⇒ 00:57:23.229 Alexander Lubka: So you’re looking for like a
545 00:57:24.090 ⇒ 00:57:28.119 Alexander Lubka: looking for like a Ops financial function within the Pmo. To do the
546 00:57:30.100 ⇒ 00:57:39.050 Alexander Lubka: cause. I I traditionally think of that as like a like an Ops financing like a you know. Somebody would review the contract and be like we weren’t making any money. We’re not making any money off this.
547 00:57:39.900 ⇒ 00:57:42.050 Alexander Lubka: but we don’t have that right now.
548 00:57:42.540 ⇒ 00:57:43.719 Uttam Kumaran: We don’t have that right now. Yeah.
549 00:57:43.720 ⇒ 00:57:44.310 Alexander Lubka: Okay?
550 00:57:44.950 ⇒ 00:57:51.190 Alexander Lubka: So then, okay, then then
551 00:57:51.580 ⇒ 00:57:55.519 Alexander Lubka: the Pmo would come in earlier in the sales process than I initially thought of.
552 00:57:55.680 ⇒ 00:57:59.300 Alexander Lubka: which is fine. If yeah. But then they could do that.
553 00:58:01.040 ⇒ 00:58:03.260 Alexander Lubka: But yeah, it’s just that’s different than I was thinking.
554 00:58:04.770 ⇒ 00:58:06.380 Alexander Lubka: But yeah, I don’t. I
555 00:58:06.510 ⇒ 00:58:11.429 Alexander Lubka: amber. Is that something you’re comfortable do or know how to do? I mean, we can talk about it, and we can go over it. But
556 00:58:12.090 ⇒ 00:58:13.700 Alexander Lubka: because right now that would be.
557 00:58:14.430 ⇒ 00:58:17.540 Alexander Lubka: the goal would be for you to do it, since you’re the only one.
558 00:58:18.070 ⇒ 00:58:25.780 Uttam Kumaran: Well, but it’s also it’s, but it’s not necessarily just for amber to do it. It’s for like either this crew to do it. But I’m I’m sort of doing this
559 00:58:26.560 ⇒ 00:58:35.439 Uttam Kumaran: myself alone now, which is as itself a red flag like. So so it needs to be me and some person, or some group.
560 00:58:35.620 ⇒ 00:58:37.649 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So I think this.
561 00:58:37.760 ⇒ 00:58:48.700 Uttam Kumaran: although I don’t think it’s traditional, and I don’t think it may stick with this crew longer term. I don’t see another more equipped group to to own that
562 00:58:51.310 ⇒ 00:58:53.160 Uttam Kumaran: and it is sort of the
563 00:58:53.980 ⇒ 00:58:57.530 Uttam Kumaran: beyond revenue is the next line item to focus on.
564 00:58:58.750 ⇒ 00:59:10.710 Uttam Kumaran: like, we don’t have a we don’t have like a runaway like software expense problem or like other expenses. This is really the really core expense to manage
565 00:59:12.980 ⇒ 00:59:16.942 Uttam Kumaran: And the reason also why I think this team can manage is we’re starting to do
566 00:59:17.650 ⇒ 00:59:25.230 Uttam Kumaran: analytics on linear tickets. So we could start looking at pacing. How much did it cost for us to accomplish a turn task
567 00:59:25.390 ⇒ 00:59:29.919 Uttam Kumaran: like looking at groups like? That’s why I don’t. I think this is the team to sort of like
568 00:59:30.590 ⇒ 00:59:32.217 Uttam Kumaran: to do that.
569 00:59:33.440 ⇒ 00:59:42.429 Uttam Kumaran: as you’re looking at engineering efficiency and task efficiency, we have the ability to look at the cost it took to do certain tasks. And
570 00:59:44.170 ⇒ 00:59:50.219 Uttam Kumaran: and yeah, but also again, beyond marketing, this is the next largest team, basically
571 00:59:50.460 ⇒ 00:59:52.750 Uttam Kumaran: like, or I guess engineering. But like, yeah.
572 00:59:53.780 ⇒ 00:59:54.790 Alexander Lubka: Good job, amber.
573 00:59:54.940 ⇒ 00:59:58.059 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, but engineering.
574 00:59:58.060 ⇒ 00:59:59.357 Amber Lin: The biggest team.
575 00:59:59.790 ⇒ 01:00:03.661 Uttam Kumaran: I can’t. I can’t have engineering do it because it’s just not. It’s just like,
576 01:00:04.090 ⇒ 01:00:05.940 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, there’s no sense of of.
577 01:00:05.940 ⇒ 01:00:11.549 Amber Lin: I’m comfortable doing it. I think we should. I think it’s a good thing that we talk about it so
578 01:00:11.830 ⇒ 01:00:18.949 Uttam Kumaran: But if it needs to move to Ops finance, then that’s something that we talk in. Q. 4 about that. This needs to move off.
579 01:00:19.250 ⇒ 01:00:25.889 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think, for now what we’re doing at our time allocations meeting is the beginning of this, and.
580 01:00:25.890 ⇒ 01:00:26.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
581 01:00:26.390 ⇒ 01:00:41.159 Amber Lin: The more we do it the more we know what it entails and it could be handed off. I am okay. I’m okay. Starting it. We’ll see in the future if it fits here better, or if it fits as a 3rd person view better, because I am on the project to so to have
582 01:00:41.330 ⇒ 01:00:48.859 Amber Lin: competing perspectives might not be the most helpful. But I can start off to see what this process looks like.
583 01:00:49.770 ⇒ 01:01:00.019 Alexander Lubka: So what? Okay, what we could commit to this quarter? It sounds like is, we can establish the process. We can determine what the margin. The goal, you know gross margin is, and we can start executing on it
584 01:01:00.200 ⇒ 01:01:06.459 Alexander Lubka: and determine at the end of quarter if it’s it continues to be a Pm function. Pmo function, or if it’s another department’s function.
585 01:01:07.840 ⇒ 01:01:08.710 Alexander Lubka: That sound fair.
586 01:01:08.950 ⇒ 01:01:09.970 Amber Lin: Yeah, that sounds good.
587 01:01:09.970 ⇒ 01:01:10.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
588 01:01:13.900 ⇒ 01:01:19.640 Alexander Lubka: So do we? Do you have a goal, gross margin that we should track towards? Or do you want us to establish that as well.
589 01:01:20.210 ⇒ 01:01:26.780 Uttam Kumaran: I want us to establish that I have a goal
590 01:01:27.130 ⇒ 01:01:32.216 Uttam Kumaran: like, but I wanna understand where I want us to look at
591 01:01:33.080 ⇒ 01:01:38.760 Uttam Kumaran: where we are now and then sort of set a baseline for, but probably just like
592 01:01:40.150 ⇒ 01:01:44.059 Uttam Kumaran: 5 points above that, or something accomplishable.
593 01:01:48.700 ⇒ 01:02:03.990 Uttam Kumaran: That’s probably how I would do it, I wouldn’t do 2 sides of again. My goal is, we’re we’re definitely not at my ultimate goal. So I don’t wanna set us up for that. But this will sort of kick start all the measurement necessary to achieve a goal and the conversations of process.
594 01:02:04.210 ⇒ 01:02:06.620 Uttam Kumaran: And if we could just get any lift in that
595 01:02:06.750 ⇒ 01:02:12.279 Uttam Kumaran: on a blended average. Right? So I’m not even gonna I don’t really care
596 01:02:12.730 ⇒ 01:02:18.969 Uttam Kumaran: like if I if I put purely Cfo hat on. I don’t really care
597 01:02:19.310 ⇒ 01:02:25.029 Uttam Kumaran: project to project, although there’s there will be some weighted average. But, for example, Eden.
598 01:02:25.260 ⇒ 01:02:30.670 Uttam Kumaran: if we’re running for 30, if we get 30 K, and we run it for 10 K. It’s 20 K in margin.
599 01:02:30.820 ⇒ 01:02:41.490 Uttam Kumaran: We’re not gonna get that across like 5 5 k projects, right? That we run at 3 K. Each. We’re never gonna get to 20 k, right? So. But so
600 01:02:42.100 ⇒ 01:02:44.289 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t really care if you
601 01:02:44.670 ⇒ 01:02:54.870 Uttam Kumaran: like, I care more about running the bigger projects at a bigger margin than the smaller projects at a bigger margin. So I’m not gonna I don’t. Wanna I don’t care necessarily that we
602 01:02:55.760 ⇒ 01:03:00.569 Uttam Kumaran: set a project project based margin.
603 01:03:00.680 ⇒ 01:03:13.070 Uttam Kumaran: I care more about the entire company across all projects, what we’re doing, and then the next quarter. I can consider some sort of project based minimums. But that’s where it gets a little complicated because we’re I’m happy to eat some margin, beginning
604 01:03:13.240 ⇒ 01:03:16.259 Uttam Kumaran: to get it at the end. There’s project lifecycle
605 01:03:16.470 ⇒ 01:03:19.050 Uttam Kumaran: financials like, I don’t want to get into that.
606 01:03:19.170 ⇒ 01:03:29.429 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m mainly looking at just total project margin, and we can break it down where necessary. But if this team can get the margin from the big clients and eat it on the small clients, I just don’t
607 01:03:30.130 ⇒ 01:03:32.814 Uttam Kumaran: just don’t really care where it comes from.
608 01:03:33.630 ⇒ 01:03:41.229 Alexander Lubka: Well, is there like what is isn’t consult. I don’t know if you measure it like as consulting or like industry, specific or something, but like isn’t isn’t usually 50%.
609 01:03:41.230 ⇒ 01:03:45.352 Uttam Kumaran: I do. Oh, yeah, I do have like so let me show you sort of
610 01:03:47.240 ⇒ 01:03:50.120 Uttam Kumaran: what I like. Kind of go to sleep thinking about.
611 01:03:53.350 ⇒ 01:03:54.600 Uttam Kumaran: and I’ve showed this.
612 01:03:55.224 ⇒ 01:03:57.265 Uttam Kumaran: This is what I look at all the time. But.
613 01:03:57.770 ⇒ 01:04:01.268 Alexander Lubka: This is sort of this, is it? See how quick that was.
614 01:04:01.560 ⇒ 01:04:03.029 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, that’s too quick, man.
615 01:04:05.960 ⇒ 01:04:07.709 Uttam Kumaran: I think this is what you’re looking for. Yeah.
616 01:04:07.710 ⇒ 01:04:09.559 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so like, 40% is like.
617 01:04:09.850 ⇒ 01:04:12.699 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, 40% is legit.
618 01:04:13.030 ⇒ 01:04:13.600 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
619 01:04:16.740 ⇒ 01:04:19.570 Alexander Lubka: well, we get well, what? So? I don’t know.
620 01:04:20.430 ⇒ 01:04:32.409 Alexander Lubka: What’s the current sales cycle. So like you, you know, you go through the you do, Demos. You talk to the people. You’re just like showing the value of stuff we could do. Then you propose something, and
621 01:04:32.540 ⇒ 01:04:36.500 Alexander Lubka: there’s a price on it right? There’s a proposal, and so
622 01:04:37.190 ⇒ 01:04:41.960 Alexander Lubka: are you getting, and the price that you’re giving now, are you getting pushed back to? People seem like that’s fine, like
623 01:04:43.150 ⇒ 01:04:53.460 Alexander Lubka: kind of reaction are you getting? And what and what what kind of margin usually is that? And what kind of reaction are you getting like if it’s currently like 30%. Or you people think you’re crazy. Or people think you’re cheap, like, what do they? What’s general perception.
624 01:04:56.230 ⇒ 01:05:00.619 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a kind of a nuance question, because part of it like.
625 01:05:00.880 ⇒ 01:05:06.309 Uttam Kumaran: part of what we’ve gained from going up market is
626 01:05:06.870 ⇒ 01:05:10.610 Uttam Kumaran: like a bit more like people just care a lot less.
627 01:05:10.740 ⇒ 01:05:15.210 Uttam Kumaran: So in the street. It’s not really like what people care about today. It’s sort of
628 01:05:15.640 ⇒ 01:05:19.669 Uttam Kumaran: almost like where we’re headed, and we are headed in a direction where we’re getting more
629 01:05:20.220 ⇒ 01:05:23.760 Uttam Kumaran: okays on average. Then push back
630 01:05:23.870 ⇒ 01:05:38.000 Uttam Kumaran: like our discount. We’re not. We’re not. We’re not like signing nearly as many discounts. We’ve just in this past 2 months. We signed both our largest rate project 2, 50 an hour, and we signed 2, 6 month deals
631 01:05:38.566 ⇒ 01:05:44.109 Uttam Kumaran: for the 1st time. Right so, and we just increased the 30 k. On Eden. So
632 01:05:44.600 ⇒ 01:05:49.469 Uttam Kumaran: the the pace at which we’re moving towards higher revenue and
633 01:05:49.670 ⇒ 01:05:57.000 Uttam Kumaran: higher billable rate is good. We’re we are also gonna completely rebrand towards
634 01:05:57.520 ⇒ 01:06:14.119 Uttam Kumaran: mid market to large growing organization. So we we stopped working with startups, basically, which can’t afford us, we and we’re only going after the folks that are growing another category of like people that can’t afford us. So the the brand we’re shaping towards that. Like
635 01:06:14.300 ⇒ 01:06:21.885 Uttam Kumaran: we’re, we’re hitting on more stuff around digital transformation. AI digital transformation like larger, bigger things.
636 01:06:22.540 ⇒ 01:06:26.969 Uttam Kumaran: so I. And we’re we’re also increasing our minimum. So right now, we basically
637 01:06:27.280 ⇒ 01:06:29.250 Uttam Kumaran: like for month to month deals.
638 01:06:29.440 ⇒ 01:06:34.106 Uttam Kumaran: I propose 2, 50 an hour, and we work our way downward from there.
639 01:06:34.710 ⇒ 01:06:38.660 Uttam Kumaran: I was. We were like a year ago. We’re just scrounging for like 1, 50 an hour.
640 01:06:40.350 ⇒ 01:06:51.306 Uttam Kumaran: and this is help, because we have case studies. We have Logos, we have a Pm, like, so everything’s pushing this up. And you’ll you could see this in the data.
641 01:06:52.150 ⇒ 01:06:54.958 Uttam Kumaran: the other thing is like our we’re not
642 01:06:56.360 ⇒ 01:07:02.869 Uttam Kumaran: We’re not sort of recruiting more expensive people, either. So like if I was to just like kind of look at
643 01:07:03.440 ⇒ 01:07:06.208 Uttam Kumaran: All the folks that are like
644 01:07:07.030 ⇒ 01:07:13.259 Uttam Kumaran: like billable, for example, and sort of try to set a little bit of like what a baseline
645 01:07:15.620 ⇒ 01:07:17.470 Uttam Kumaran: sort of cost is.
646 01:07:21.780 ⇒ 01:07:24.190 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, we’re we’re hovering around like
647 01:07:26.760 ⇒ 01:07:29.519 Uttam Kumaran: probably 50 bucks an hour or so.
648 01:07:32.900 ⇒ 01:07:37.410 Uttam Kumaran: There is some variance, right? Because we the more expensive people are on the tougher projects.
649 01:07:37.810 ⇒ 01:07:46.639 Uttam Kumaran: And of course, like, I think we’ve done a good job of recruiting internationally, and sort of finding people that
650 01:07:46.920 ⇒ 01:07:53.740 Uttam Kumaran: like, just find people who are growing in their career. So we will have to make some bets on, some on some more senior solution, like right now.
651 01:07:54.244 ⇒ 01:08:02.169 Uttam Kumaran: We’re not building for my time, or Robert’s time is like senior solutions, architect time. So it’s like kind of not. The the answer is a little bit biased. But
652 01:08:02.280 ⇒ 01:08:05.900 Uttam Kumaran: like, if we’re able to hit 200
653 01:08:06.320 ⇒ 01:08:08.780 Uttam Kumaran: per hour like we’re sort of in the clear
654 01:08:09.460 ⇒ 01:08:11.139 Alexander Lubka: Do you, Bill? Do you, Bill? For Pm. Time?
655 01:08:11.930 ⇒ 01:08:13.849 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah, we built for Pm, time. Yeah.
656 01:08:14.030 ⇒ 01:08:14.660 Alexander Lubka: Great.
657 01:08:14.970 ⇒ 01:08:15.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
658 01:08:18.840 ⇒ 01:08:19.550 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
659 01:08:21.310 ⇒ 01:08:24.990 Uttam Kumaran: So I feel like, I mean, I feel like,
660 01:08:26.670 ⇒ 01:08:29.319 Uttam Kumaran: we’re we. We could accomplish.
661 01:08:33.939 ⇒ 01:08:38.199 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I feel like we could. We could we could at least aim for
662 01:08:39.750 ⇒ 01:08:49.639 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, like we could. We look at what it is for billable for billable hours. What is the rate? But yeah, I mean my mind. I’m going for 50.
663 01:08:50.109 ⇒ 01:08:52.520 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know what if we’re there right now.
664 01:08:54.290 ⇒ 01:08:56.099 Alexander Lubka: We could. I mean, we could target 40.
665 01:08:57.380 ⇒ 01:08:58.829 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s why I think it’s fair.
666 01:08:59.170 ⇒ 01:08:59.779 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
667 01:09:02.189 ⇒ 01:09:06.879 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Because and if you look at this right, the next immediate thing to go look at is like utilization.
668 01:09:09.739 ⇒ 01:09:18.449 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t particularly care much about our blended hourly, because we’re always gonna sort of start to. We’re not like bidding for stuff below this, anyway. So
669 01:09:19.333 ⇒ 01:09:21.469 Uttam Kumaran: that’ll net out fine.
670 01:09:22.165 ⇒ 01:09:25.529 Uttam Kumaran: Cause. This is just revenue over the hours.
671 01:09:28.209 ⇒ 01:09:31.529 Alexander Lubka: So as long as we keep our margin fine, I think we’ll we’ll hit this.
672 01:09:32.670 ⇒ 01:09:36.620 Alexander Lubka: Okay, alright. Let’s target 40 then
673 01:09:45.968 ⇒ 01:09:50.279 Alexander Lubka: and then I guess the sales thing we’d have to the charter for sure.
674 01:09:55.610 ⇒ 01:10:00.240 Alexander Lubka: That. Yeah. So for the Pm sales resourcing, planning.
675 01:10:02.040 ⇒ 01:10:06.599 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. So it’s in addition to a charter. It sounds like it. It. We’d also have to be involved
676 01:10:07.170 ⇒ 01:10:09.409 Alexander Lubka: a little bit sooner in that
677 01:10:09.730 ⇒ 01:10:17.320 Alexander Lubka: Ops Cfo function. So we would need a charter to start the planning the planning process. But we also need
678 01:10:18.260 ⇒ 01:10:19.690 Alexander Lubka: to get involved.
679 01:10:20.370 ⇒ 01:10:23.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So let me give you a sense of like the sow process.
680 01:10:23.360 ⇒ 01:10:24.130 Alexander Lubka: Great.
681 01:10:24.130 ⇒ 01:10:27.580 Uttam Kumaran: Which is probably like where this is probably headed, is like.
682 01:10:29.035 ⇒ 01:10:31.410 Uttam Kumaran: We get, we basically pitch.
683 01:10:31.580 ⇒ 01:10:35.630 Uttam Kumaran: We get the scope from the client, and then we arrive at the price. Right?
684 01:10:35.900 ⇒ 01:10:41.769 Uttam Kumaran: That may be something that we need to do collaboratively as part of this crew, or at least like.
685 01:10:42.270 ⇒ 01:10:48.220 Uttam Kumaran: have a shared calculator that we use to do that, or some sort of shared methodology to do that right. Now.
686 01:10:48.640 ⇒ 01:10:53.290 Uttam Kumaran: I basically eyeball it and have a good sense of how long the work’s gonna take
687 01:10:54.159 ⇒ 01:11:16.559 Uttam Kumaran: and when we we don’t, we can’t we? We don’t necessarily are like it’s gonna take like 6 h and 9 h like we have, we, we’re more round numbers unless we can basically unless we’re basically like, it’s gonna you have a fixed retainer. But when we’re in mid market. A lot of people appreciate. If we can go with something that’s like fixed subscription.
688 01:11:16.830 ⇒ 01:11:21.509 Uttam Kumaran: When we get enterprise, as you know, we’re gonna have to move back to hourly.
689 01:11:21.650 ⇒ 01:11:24.630 Uttam Kumaran: But it’ll be like more resources, like you have 3 resources
690 01:11:24.980 ⇒ 01:11:27.720 Uttam Kumaran: for 20 HA week to accomplish some scope
691 01:11:28.330 ⇒ 01:11:31.910 Uttam Kumaran: that I think we’ll have time to actually run through a
692 01:11:32.370 ⇒ 01:11:35.149 Uttam Kumaran: like a sow process with this team. But
693 01:11:37.860 ⇒ 01:11:40.209 Uttam Kumaran: maybe it is like as part of like a
694 01:11:41.410 ⇒ 01:11:44.799 Uttam Kumaran: weekly, or or maybe it is just in slack where
695 01:11:44.930 ⇒ 01:11:49.009 Uttam Kumaran: we now start to share the sows we’re sending out, and
696 01:11:49.500 ⇒ 01:11:53.020 Uttam Kumaran: we at least start to track the reasonings, or like the calculation we made.
697 01:11:53.260 ⇒ 01:11:57.860 Uttam Kumaran: And yeah.
698 01:11:57.990 ⇒ 01:12:01.779 Alexander Lubka: So I’m thinking that we would need to be involved. Then, you know, whenever that
699 01:12:01.950 ⇒ 01:12:06.420 Alexander Lubka: you get to the point, I guess it’s like mid tail cycle. When you get to the point where you’re ready to
700 01:12:07.050 ⇒ 01:12:08.990 Alexander Lubka: share initial scope of work.
701 01:12:09.510 ⇒ 01:12:12.730 Alexander Lubka: I guess once it’s not initial scope of work, I guess it’s more of like
702 01:12:12.900 ⇒ 01:12:21.760 Alexander Lubka: once you get confirmation from the client that it’s a scope of work that you know is agreeable. Then we would get involved in terms of pricing and capacity.
703 01:12:22.010 ⇒ 01:12:22.800 Alexander Lubka: and resourcing.
704 01:12:22.800 ⇒ 01:12:23.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
705 01:12:25.920 ⇒ 01:12:33.499 Uttam Kumaran: the other thing is like, you know, we don’t have like a reusable like epics or anything like that. I feel like this is really the next step there, right
706 01:12:33.650 ⇒ 01:12:36.799 Uttam Kumaran: is like some of the some of the products we’re selling.
707 01:12:37.000 ⇒ 01:12:41.610 Uttam Kumaran: We sell to a bunch of people like and a product analytics audit
708 01:12:42.201 ⇒ 01:12:44.310 Uttam Kumaran: things like that. We, we.
709 01:12:44.840 ⇒ 01:12:46.840 Uttam Kumaran: we do that all the time. It’s actually
710 01:12:47.600 ⇒ 01:12:54.319 Uttam Kumaran: the same, typically the same process. So therefore, this, probably the same basket of tickets every time.
711 01:12:57.160 ⇒ 01:12:58.380 Uttam Kumaran: So.
712 01:12:58.380 ⇒ 01:13:00.479 Alexander Lubka: In this, as part of the sales process.
713 01:13:01.679 ⇒ 01:13:08.790 Uttam Kumaran: No, but I guess, like probably where this heads is that way where we just have reusable epics for common scopes of work.
714 01:13:09.120 ⇒ 01:13:10.269 Alexander Lubka: Oh, I see!
715 01:13:11.620 ⇒ 01:13:16.550 Uttam Kumaran: Like. That’s something that I learned from Flux 7 like one of our advisors.
716 01:13:17.800 ⇒ 01:13:28.900 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know, Amber. If you saw that in there that that handbook. But they had a reusable epics for a lot of the common scopes, and they priced on sprints. So they have, like a lot of reusable sprint epics.
717 01:13:30.190 ⇒ 01:13:33.300 Uttam Kumaran: But like for some of the really.
718 01:13:33.600 ⇒ 01:13:39.040 Uttam Kumaran: for some of the really simpler audits and stuff, I think we could totally do like reusable sprints.
719 01:13:39.270 ⇒ 01:13:44.760 Uttam Kumaran: This kind of gets us into that direction where we’re like, hey, this is a 2 sprints of work.
720 01:13:44.940 ⇒ 01:13:46.779 Uttam Kumaran: 4. We have 2 sprints of work
721 01:13:47.190 ⇒ 01:13:51.689 Uttam Kumaran: for xy type of engineer for this much of their time. It’s this price
722 01:13:52.251 ⇒ 01:13:58.679 Uttam Kumaran: sales is, we’re say, on the sales side to put the other hat on. It’s we’re gonna sell as much as we’re gonna sell as high as we can.
723 01:13:58.830 ⇒ 01:14:03.630 Uttam Kumaran: no matter what right? I just need to know also what’s the lowest we can go
724 01:14:03.800 ⇒ 01:14:09.920 Uttam Kumaran: right. Otherwise. The way it’s gonna work is they’ll do whatever to close the deal, and that’s just naturally the tendency.
725 01:14:10.366 ⇒ 01:14:20.049 Uttam Kumaran: But I don’t think we’ve been doing a lot of that like, and I could. I really pushed to not do a lot of that but I need to know some amount of like.
726 01:14:21.190 ⇒ 01:14:50.800 Uttam Kumaran: If if I can sell something that we can fulfill for 2 K. For 10 K. And sell for 10 K. Not like don’t need to sell for 4, but I also want to know, like don’t sell it. Don’t sell it any less than 4, even if you think it’s going to be like the biggest deal ever or like. That’s the kind of math you have to do where it’s like, damn like. Right now, for example, we’re we’re working. I think I mentioned, we’re we’re about to. We’re signing or about to sign insomnia cookies because it’s a huge logo, and it looks like there’s 6 months of work. Should we take a hit?
727 01:14:51.320 ⇒ 01:14:53.389 Uttam Kumaran: That’s like a conversation
728 01:14:53.750 ⇒ 01:14:59.639 Uttam Kumaran: that like I want to have with the Pm. Team, because then it’s gonna hit your Okr
729 01:14:59.970 ⇒ 01:15:02.700 Uttam Kumaran: on margin in the short term.
730 01:15:02.930 ⇒ 01:15:05.680 Uttam Kumaran: right? And then that should be something like, we’re all okay with
731 01:15:05.810 ⇒ 01:15:08.970 Uttam Kumaran: right? That’s the that’s the balance.
732 01:15:09.290 ⇒ 01:15:11.290 Alexander Lubka: Okay, I get it now.
733 01:15:11.740 ⇒ 01:15:16.009 Alexander Lubka: So what I would do is I’d probably put the gross margin thing under the Pm. Sales. Okr.
734 01:15:17.000 ⇒ 01:15:17.590 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
735 01:15:17.950 ⇒ 01:15:19.969 Alexander Lubka: And I would.
736 01:15:20.910 ⇒ 01:15:23.839 Alexander Lubka: So our goals for Pm. And sales would be to.
737 01:15:23.990 ⇒ 01:15:29.409 Alexander Lubka: I make the charter thing last, because that would be the end of the sales cycle, so I would.
738 01:15:35.390 ⇒ 01:15:38.310 Alexander Lubka: Yep, so I would
739 01:15:42.250 ⇒ 01:15:52.369 Alexander Lubka: start. It’s something along the lines of like engaging with the Pmo. And and sales engaging mid sales cycle. For you know, when statement of work for statement of work
740 01:15:52.560 ⇒ 01:15:54.909 Alexander Lubka: to kind of validate or something like that.
741 01:15:55.263 ⇒ 01:16:08.210 Alexander Lubka: Then we would be involved with the growth. So at least we’re looking at the scope of work we’re starting to get our head around. Who needs to be involved? We’re getting. And then we start thinking about the margins involved with that to see if that you know, it works with our margin goals and stuff.
742 01:16:08.630 ⇒ 01:16:23.639 Alexander Lubka: Then we then we do the math on it. We run the reports. We see if it looks okay, and then if you get an executed contract and everybody’s in aligned. Then we, we, the 2, the 2 groups, put together a charter that can then be used for planning.
743 01:16:24.320 ⇒ 01:16:25.970 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay,
744 01:16:27.580 ⇒ 01:16:29.170 Uttam Kumaran: And then, do you guys like.
745 01:16:30.030 ⇒ 01:16:34.789 Uttam Kumaran: do you guys have like a re, you want to start instituting like a required buffer between these times.
746 01:16:37.440 ⇒ 01:16:41.910 Uttam Kumaran: cause right now, I sell. I basically, we sell like we’ll start immediately.
747 01:16:43.660 ⇒ 01:16:47.510 Alexander Lubka: Oh, between close in the contract and executing on the project.
748 01:16:48.610 ⇒ 01:16:49.270 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
749 01:16:49.270 ⇒ 01:16:51.509 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I would. I would like that. Yeah.
750 01:16:53.523 ⇒ 01:16:56.249 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know if I want to define that.
751 01:16:56.520 ⇒ 01:16:57.210 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
752 01:16:57.210 ⇒ 01:16:59.150 Alexander Lubka: I do I? You do need some time.
753 01:16:59.150 ⇒ 01:17:02.699 Uttam Kumaran: I would more define on like, what? What are the steps in between.
754 01:17:04.300 ⇒ 01:17:23.180 Alexander Lubka: Yeah. So there’s yeah. So once she’s in the planning phase, or whoever’s in the planning phase that, she needs some time, or whoever needs some time to just like put together the documentation. And I I have all the planning steps in the Pmo plan. But you you need, you know a couple of days at least to just plan and make sure we’re all aligned and do a project kickoff and stuff like that.
755 01:17:23.610 ⇒ 01:17:27.429 Alexander Lubka: So you know, couple of days a week or so, depending on the
756 01:17:27.910 ⇒ 01:17:41.439 Alexander Lubka: the scope of the project. If it’s repeatable stuff, if it’s brand new stuff to people like, yeah, I’m always hesitant of, like you execute a contract we started tomorrow. That’s kind of I think that’s like unreasonable, for usually it’s unreasonable, for, like both sides.
757 01:17:41.740 ⇒ 01:17:42.390 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
758 01:17:44.640 ⇒ 01:17:48.600 Alexander Lubka: So it’s it. Yeah, 2 weeks is ideal.
759 01:17:48.770 ⇒ 01:17:52.039 Alexander Lubka: but it’s not always necessary. That’s why I don’t want to like define it.
760 01:17:52.550 ⇒ 01:18:04.289 Alexander Lubka: cause it could be like a repeatable thing, scope of work that people know what’s going on, and we could just like turn around a couple of days and schedule kick off, for you know the next, you know, in a couple of days, then kick the thing off on for Monday or something.
761 01:18:05.640 ⇒ 01:18:09.219 Alexander Lubka: But yes, I I would prefer to not have it start the next day.
762 01:18:10.360 ⇒ 01:18:11.380 Uttam Kumaran: So I think,
763 01:18:15.390 ⇒ 01:18:24.960 Uttam Kumaran: okay, I think what would be helpful is like to even confirm the steps between contract execution
764 01:18:25.380 ⇒ 01:18:29.499 Uttam Kumaran: and kick off like, and just have that
765 01:18:30.100 ⇒ 01:18:35.270 Uttam Kumaran: as this part of the okrs like, I think we should just do a review meeting about those
766 01:18:36.930 ⇒ 01:18:53.499 Uttam Kumaran: and then just confirm that that’s it. Cause that’s also great, like, okay? Immediately, those should get created as linear tickets and get put in somewhere. And the Pm. Team can I execute on those right. Those are reuse, be. And I can also tell you we can find out what it’s like for the audit pro audit
767 01:18:53.820 ⇒ 01:18:56.300 Uttam Kumaran: product versus the larger product
768 01:18:56.710 ⇒ 01:19:00.930 Uttam Kumaran: cause. Also, we have products that we have. We have clients, that transition between both. You know.
769 01:19:02.000 ⇒ 01:19:08.089 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I mean, you could. You could take you just copy and paste what I have for planning like I have, I have, like
770 01:19:08.310 ⇒ 01:19:30.570 Alexander Lubka: we, we need to plan tickets like. So we we need like a kick off internal kickoff to review. Okay, we just got this contract. This is the scope of work of it. Then I you know I have in here, like the Tl. And the Pm. Need to get together and like start creating tickets, start building up their linear board start. You know what the roadmap is. Still. Build out a sprint schedule for as much as they can for the life of the project. You know what? Yeah.
771 01:19:30.570 ⇒ 01:19:38.770 Uttam Kumaran: To give you an example is like, I want the I want Rico on Ops to like book. All that like, if it’s like cool immediately need to be book book. So I think
772 01:19:38.940 ⇒ 01:19:43.060 Uttam Kumaran: part of the through. OQ. 3. Okr, let’s just like, confirm that those steps.
773 01:19:44.270 ⇒ 01:19:44.860 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
774 01:19:45.100 ⇒ 01:19:47.840 Uttam Kumaran: Meaning. Like we we meet between
775 01:19:48.050 ⇒ 01:19:53.290 Uttam Kumaran: this crew sales and Rico. I’m like, when clients move.
776 01:19:53.430 ⇒ 01:19:55.639 Uttam Kumaran: These are the things that need to get booked
777 01:19:56.070 ⇒ 01:20:05.190 Uttam Kumaran: things that cause he already has the one password created linear created email created slack channel created. I want him to just own, like, okay, these
778 01:20:05.290 ⇒ 01:20:09.580 Uttam Kumaran: sort of like these meetings that they get booked. Or these tickets see these like introductory like.
779 01:20:10.090 ⇒ 01:20:17.230 Uttam Kumaran: like logistics, tickets need to be made. And so and then we’re like, cool. This is our process right now. It’s like codified somewhere.
780 01:20:17.820 ⇒ 01:20:19.499 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, he can do. He can totally do this. I mean.
781 01:20:19.500 ⇒ 01:20:25.479 Uttam Kumaran: Because any any tech lead I bring on is then going to be trained on like yours is your responsibility for
782 01:20:25.700 ⇒ 01:20:29.080 Uttam Kumaran: new. This is you. They get started at this point, you know.
783 01:20:29.960 ⇒ 01:20:38.321 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I I’ll definitely go over with him, but I think he could pretty easily just go over. I like I have in here like what the time boxings for the meetings I have like.
784 01:20:38.560 ⇒ 01:20:39.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Cool.
785 01:20:40.980 ⇒ 01:20:44.239 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, take a look at it when you get a chance. But he or he can certainly get it too, and.
786 01:20:44.240 ⇒ 01:20:44.740 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
787 01:20:44.740 ⇒ 01:20:46.309 Alexander Lubka: When when you talk to him tomorrow.
788 01:20:48.590 ⇒ 01:20:49.470 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, great.
789 01:20:53.200 ⇒ 01:20:59.549 Uttam Kumaran: Okay? So I think we basically have like something around recruiting something around this.
790 01:20:59.720 ⇒ 01:21:04.789 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I would say that probably the only other thing that’s kind of like on Amber’s plate is
791 01:21:05.030 ⇒ 01:21:12.319 Uttam Kumaran: like, but basically broad company initiatives. We’re starting to organize around
792 01:21:13.140 ⇒ 01:21:18.199 Uttam Kumaran: like, I don’t know. This is something that has like an exec team. We’re like working on a little bit.
793 01:21:19.510 ⇒ 01:21:23.579 Uttam Kumaran: But I don’t know if this team should own, just like the creation of like
794 01:21:24.410 ⇒ 01:21:29.069 Uttam Kumaran: okr measurement. Like, for example, these initiatives.
795 01:21:29.880 ⇒ 01:21:37.489 Uttam Kumaran: the next step is like they’re going to go into a spreadsheet with someone’s name on the left of them. And then every week in our management meetings, we’re gonna look at
796 01:21:37.890 ⇒ 01:21:42.559 Uttam Kumaran: whether we’re hitting these. We’re like, you’re this is like what we’re gonna
797 01:21:42.950 ⇒ 01:21:50.370 Uttam Kumaran: report out on and look at like they have the of the of the 30 initiatives we had. We got 30. We got 20 done.
798 01:21:51.240 ⇒ 01:21:55.220 Uttam Kumaran: Does do we want this team to own that like.
799 01:21:57.270 ⇒ 01:22:03.630 Uttam Kumaran: So we want. I mean, I yeah, I guess there’s no like exact office. It’s just it’d be me otherwise owning that
800 01:22:03.750 ⇒ 01:22:04.930 Uttam Kumaran: which is fine.
801 01:22:05.100 ⇒ 01:22:06.589 Uttam Kumaran: That’s how it is. But like.
802 01:22:06.710 ⇒ 01:22:12.129 Uttam Kumaran: I want, like, I yeah, I guess I don’t know whether this falls under that purview or not.
803 01:22:14.580 ⇒ 01:22:16.599 Alexander Lubka: I have an opinion. Amber you unmuted.
804 01:22:18.134 ⇒ 01:22:24.860 Amber Lin: No, I just wanted to. I I hear a discussion upcoming. So I unmuted. I want to hear it.
805 01:22:27.330 ⇒ 01:22:31.109 Alexander Lubka: Okay, my opinion is, the department should self regulate.
806 01:22:32.320 ⇒ 01:22:40.695 Uttam Kumaran: Hmm, yeah. Dude. Yeah, believe me, do I wish that, too? But I’m not. I can’t run a science experiment. I’m sorry.
807 01:22:41.424 ⇒ 01:22:46.590 Alexander Lubka: Know. I know we can have this discussion, but that’s my my initial feedback. Is that go.
808 01:22:46.590 ⇒ 01:22:51.069 Uttam Kumaran: I agree. I just think we I mean, but this is where, like as an executive team.
809 01:22:51.640 ⇒ 01:22:54.230 Uttam Kumaran: I will say we are much more.
810 01:22:54.640 ⇒ 01:22:57.050 Uttam Kumaran: We’re getting to more self regulated.
811 01:22:59.200 ⇒ 01:23:05.860 Uttam Kumaran: and if it, if it’s self regulated, implies, then it bubbles up to the top. So like at least there’s someone is there as the like.
812 01:23:06.960 ⇒ 01:23:10.029 Uttam Kumaran: I have the spreadsheet with the okrs, which is fine.
813 01:23:10.430 ⇒ 01:23:11.310 Uttam Kumaran: That’s fine.
814 01:23:12.880 ⇒ 01:23:15.819 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, i 1 1 thing I wanna like I and I know
815 01:23:16.100 ⇒ 01:23:19.809 Alexander Lubka: I understand what’s going on. But one thing I wanna like
816 01:23:20.320 ⇒ 01:23:25.710 Alexander Lubka: prevent from happening? Is the Pmo becoming just like a toolbox, or just like.
817 01:23:25.970 ⇒ 01:23:26.470 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
818 01:23:26.470 ⇒ 01:23:27.899 Alexander Lubka: Where you throw everything at it.
819 01:23:28.920 ⇒ 01:23:34.719 Alexander Lubka: I wanted to, because I don’t want it then to dilute what it’s supposed to be doing of like.
820 01:23:34.720 ⇒ 01:23:45.830 Uttam Kumaran: I guess that. Tell me how you balance sort of like the internal and external, like projects right
821 01:23:46.000 ⇒ 01:23:51.030 Uttam Kumaran: like or or how do you? How do you then differentiate the responsibilities?
822 01:23:51.350 ⇒ 01:23:54.549 Uttam Kumaran: If you then view everything as like a project, basically, you know.
823 01:23:56.040 ⇒ 01:23:59.650 Alexander Lubka: Well, I I actually put in the plan about difference between internal and external projects.
824 01:23:59.650 ⇒ 01:24:03.290 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really. Okay. Well, let’s hold on. Then let me go. Read that, then. Just
825 01:24:06.820 ⇒ 01:24:08.609 Uttam Kumaran: That’s where I don’t know where I.
826 01:24:12.510 ⇒ 01:24:13.499 Alexander Lubka: Think I did right.
827 01:24:14.140 ⇒ 01:24:15.879 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like I read that somewhere.
828 01:24:16.030 ⇒ 01:24:20.350 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I think, I put in, did I put in each phase like what the difference?
829 01:24:35.760 ⇒ 01:24:41.249 Alexander Lubka: I think it’s just I. I probably stay with the methodologies of like client facing versus internal. I.
830 01:24:41.250 ⇒ 01:24:42.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
831 01:24:42.060 ⇒ 01:24:50.660 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so I’m I put it as hybrid for well, I put it as more sub, more prescriptive for client facing. But you know, more agile for internal facing projects.
832 01:24:50.660 ⇒ 01:24:51.650 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yes.
833 01:24:51.650 ⇒ 01:25:07.109 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, so I and I know we’re, you know, we’re scrappy, and whatever I just don’t want it to just turn. And I. So everything there are. There are, of course, internal projects and of internal projects. I still want them to follow process, and I don’t want them to, you know. Go off the rails. But I also understand that.
834 01:25:07.323 ⇒ 01:25:35.549 Alexander Lubka: You know, there need to be more lightweight, like the the Casey thing asking about that like that doesn’t need to run through the whole thing, but it still needs to have process to it versus a client face project. It needs to be more waterfall needs to have more, and it’s going to be hybrid, but needs to be more waterfall and stuff that has steps that it can be repeatable that it can you have documentation you can share with the client that you can validate with the client that you’re that you did the increment of work that you agreed to that. You get to sign off on it. So it definitely has. It’s slowing down for a reason. Yes, you have a client facing project for internal stuff.
835 01:25:35.550 ⇒ 01:25:52.559 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, it could be, you know. It’s more agile. It’s quicker, you know we do it. But we still have to have some process in here. So there’s things like. And I think Amber has comments on here like different levels of project management from like light, medium and heavy kind of I think that’s how you described it. So I definitely want some Pmo, but I just don’t want like.
836 01:25:52.740 ⇒ 01:26:04.319 Alexander Lubka: And so yes, I want to manage. I manage both. It’s gonna be managing both internal and external projects. But I don’t want it to be like, oh, like market, like, you know, marketing stuff like, can you do that, or like recruit, or.
837 01:26:04.320 ⇒ 01:26:04.640 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
838 01:26:04.640 ⇒ 01:26:16.160 Alexander Lubka: This. You can do it, or like whatever like I I want it to. It still needs to be managing both internal and external projects. I don’t want it to be like, oh, like the the trash needs to go out. Can the Pmo do that?
839 01:26:17.510 ⇒ 01:26:19.799 Uttam Kumaran: I guess my feedback would be
840 01:26:20.110 ⇒ 01:26:25.649 Uttam Kumaran: like there is stuff in the company that happens where there is not project management.
841 01:26:26.070 ⇒ 01:26:34.189 Uttam Kumaran: although I’m kind of like always like, why not? Because ultimately, like, I still feel like everything should get tracked. And there’s like some.
842 01:26:34.360 ⇒ 01:26:37.220 Uttam Kumaran: If this all it is, is like a to do list
843 01:26:37.560 ⇒ 01:26:52.070 Uttam Kumaran: plus. And then there’s to do list plus plus plus. And there’s like group to do lists right like this sort of builds on that we. We are running the AI team, the data platform team and the marketing team on.
844 01:26:52.250 ⇒ 01:26:55.970 Uttam Kumaran: And like, basically agile or like kind of light. Pm.
845 01:26:56.680 ⇒ 01:27:04.839 Uttam Kumaran: So I guess my question is gonna be, and I’m and I’m and this is all the complicated I’m running those. And so I guess my my question is gonna be.
846 01:27:05.530 ⇒ 01:27:12.599 Uttam Kumaran: should I go recruit someone like a should I go recruit like a
847 01:27:12.820 ⇒ 01:27:20.760 Uttam Kumaran: technical leader for that? That also does. Pm, but like kind of does their own thing, or we want them to sort of follow these standards even for our internal work.
848 01:27:21.070 ⇒ 01:27:23.029 Uttam Kumaran: And then is that person roll like.
849 01:27:23.360 ⇒ 01:27:25.779 Uttam Kumaran: And is that person involved in this stuff
850 01:27:26.060 ⇒ 01:27:34.300 Uttam Kumaran: like? Initially I we had the Pm’s managing both like internal and external. I don’t think that’s necessarily the best.
851 01:27:34.770 ⇒ 01:27:36.480 Uttam Kumaran: But this is where also I’m like.
852 01:27:36.590 ⇒ 01:27:40.840 Uttam Kumaran: well, if you can, if I can just get you a really like.
853 01:27:41.040 ⇒ 01:27:43.269 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, here’s a good. Here’s a good thought, exercise
854 01:27:43.970 ⇒ 01:27:45.750 Uttam Kumaran: right, and and for amber like.
855 01:27:46.090 ⇒ 01:27:50.699 Uttam Kumaran: let’s say I go to Mustafa. And I say, Hey, how would you like to be the Pm. Of the AI team.
856 01:27:51.590 ⇒ 01:27:58.890 Uttam Kumaran: you could continue to spend 20 h working or 30 h working, but just dedicate 10 h your time to Pm.
857 01:28:00.580 ⇒ 01:28:07.029 Uttam Kumaran: And like. But so so just so like, follow these Pmo standards for our stuff like.
858 01:28:08.510 ⇒ 01:28:12.060 Uttam Kumaran: or should, that team could be completely just like we do, we’ll do whatever we want
859 01:28:12.910 ⇒ 01:28:19.109 Uttam Kumaran: off to the side right? Because I would for me. I would prefer that they benefit from all this stuff that’s on here, because
860 01:28:19.220 ⇒ 01:28:21.940 Uttam Kumaran: our internal projects are going to get more complicated.
861 01:28:22.519 ⇒ 01:28:25.719 Uttam Kumaran: And gonna have more stakeholders involved over time, you know.
862 01:28:26.140 ⇒ 01:28:28.460 Alexander Lubka: And the 3rd option to the Pm. Coordinator.
863 01:28:28.760 ⇒ 01:28:32.709 Uttam Kumaran: The 3rd option is the is the Pm. Coordinator. But that person
864 01:28:34.080 ⇒ 01:28:39.630 Uttam Kumaran: is gonna own marketing. And that stuff, right? Because that’s like those are internal projects.
865 01:28:40.010 ⇒ 01:28:51.339 Uttam Kumaran: I guess this is where like, if the trash taking the trash is important, then it should fall under the work right like I I guess, like I don’t. Wanna. There is work that, of course, like, I don’t want you guys involved in like
866 01:28:52.090 ⇒ 01:28:57.339 Uttam Kumaran: accounting, or like legal or random stuff like that. But
867 01:28:57.630 ⇒ 01:28:59.639 Uttam Kumaran: I think you may think I think
868 01:29:02.140 ⇒ 01:29:09.379 Uttam Kumaran: one. I think we’re rare in that. We are. We have like an internal development team a little bit, and we have marketing team running on sprints.
869 01:29:10.090 ⇒ 01:29:13.140 Uttam Kumaran: Otherwise, like what other internal projects really are, there, like.
870 01:29:14.470 ⇒ 01:29:15.880 Alexander Lubka: Oh, yeah, well, I yeah.
871 01:29:16.140 ⇒ 01:29:22.629 Alexander Lubka: I that’s I’m glad to hear that, because I don’t wanna get a request for like accounting projects.
872 01:29:22.990 ⇒ 01:29:25.009 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, no, in fact, like
873 01:29:25.120 ⇒ 01:29:32.969 Uttam Kumaran: I, though that stuff is like that’s not. That’s the easiest part about all this. It’s just that we have ambition towards
874 01:29:33.090 ⇒ 01:29:43.399 Uttam Kumaran: like, for example, I could run I we could run marketing without, but we would be way. We would have over hired and hit way. Less results without
875 01:29:43.510 ⇒ 01:29:45.199 Uttam Kumaran: some Pm. Function there.
876 01:29:45.850 ⇒ 01:29:51.699 Uttam Kumaran: right? We could not have done the AI stuff that we’re doing without some level of organization.
877 01:29:52.120 ⇒ 01:29:53.240 Uttam Kumaran: And
878 01:29:54.380 ⇒ 01:30:00.649 Uttam Kumaran: I guess this is we can. And we don’t have to make a decision today on that. It’s just, I think, both of those
879 01:30:01.190 ⇒ 01:30:02.810 Uttam Kumaran: benefit from
880 01:30:03.360 ⇒ 01:30:19.340 Uttam Kumaran: running through this org. But also again, I think you made a distinction here that there is internal work. I think my question would be like, what what falls under internal versus external? Is it like the impact? Is the number of people? Is it the complexity?
881 01:30:20.370 ⇒ 01:30:23.520 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Like, yeah.
882 01:30:25.870 ⇒ 01:30:26.380 Alexander Lubka: I.
883 01:30:26.380 ⇒ 01:30:28.610 Uttam Kumaran: The dedicated person. I don’t know.
884 01:30:28.880 ⇒ 01:30:36.229 Alexander Lubka: I think I think of it as resourcing, because I wouldn’t want a tech lead to allocate. You know that much time to pming.
885 01:30:36.660 ⇒ 01:30:37.120 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
886 01:30:37.120 ⇒ 01:30:42.480 Alexander Lubka: Rather get a Pm. Coordinator, or we hire a mid level person that has capacity or something, or.
887 01:30:42.480 ⇒ 01:30:42.950 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
888 01:30:42.950 ⇒ 01:30:51.710 Alexander Lubka: Build that out that function out. Because my in my mind, you know, you’re taking 10. If you’re taking 10 HA week or something for PA. Tl. Taking 10 HA week to pming is not a good use of their time.
889 01:30:51.900 ⇒ 01:30:52.540 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
890 01:30:53.310 ⇒ 01:30:56.499 Alexander Lubka: And there’s probably, you know, depending on the or it could be more expensive
891 01:30:56.880 ⇒ 01:31:02.689 Alexander Lubka: of a Tl’s time, and the Tl. Can make more money, you know, billing on a project than working on some of this internal stuff.
892 01:31:02.690 ⇒ 01:31:03.710 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay.
893 01:31:04.790 ⇒ 01:31:32.889 Alexander Lubka: So I think of it as you build out a Pm. Function, you have a couple of dedicated Pm’s or Pm. Coordinators. They can work on both internal and external things, and they have the expertise they’re trained on this. I want. I want everybody to be aware of it. And I i. 1 of our things is to put together a video for everybody to be be aware of this. And that’s where Amber’s working on like the project plans and the team charters and stuff. So I want everybody to be aware of this stuff and know this is going on, and how it’s going to help them, but I don’t want them to be pro become project managers.
894 01:31:33.360 ⇒ 01:31:35.160 Alexander Lubka: because that’s why you hired them.
895 01:31:35.670 ⇒ 01:31:38.030 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
896 01:31:39.380 ⇒ 01:31:45.210 Uttam Kumaran: so then, I think it’s some. I think it’s also some sort of if we see that internal projects
897 01:31:45.690 ⇒ 01:31:47.300 Uttam Kumaran: are becoming larger.
898 01:31:47.590 ⇒ 01:31:56.069 Uttam Kumaran: and that require a lot more coordination. But I do agree that any I don’t want even the Pm’s that are capable of working with clients to work on internal stuff.
899 01:31:56.710 ⇒ 01:31:57.270 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
900 01:31:57.500 ⇒ 01:32:04.439 Uttam Kumaran: That’s not where the money is made like and so I do think that yeah, it’s probably more of like a pn coordinator
901 01:32:04.580 ⇒ 01:32:06.490 Uttam Kumaran: position to handle those.
902 01:32:07.205 ⇒ 01:32:09.279 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t see us like
903 01:32:10.310 ⇒ 01:32:13.709 Uttam Kumaran: we’re unique in that. I think we have these like internal teams.
904 01:32:13.940 ⇒ 01:32:17.570 Uttam Kumaran: and we have some like sort of cross project teams.
905 01:32:20.010 ⇒ 01:32:31.530 Uttam Kumaran: but you know I don’t know long term. We’ll see like I. I don’t think I cannot. I don’t think I’m going to be able to offload the AI stuff just because it’s kind of like pretty complex, and it requires like understanding of like kind of the whole company.
906 01:32:31.670 ⇒ 01:32:33.370 Uttam Kumaran: But the marketing stuff.
907 01:32:33.650 ⇒ 01:32:37.620 Uttam Kumaran: Maybe it’s just like a brand like someone who leads marketing comes in and just does that
908 01:32:37.910 ⇒ 01:32:45.740 Uttam Kumaran: with the Pm. Coordinator who helps them just get organized better. That’s it. Right? So, okay.
909 01:32:52.410 ⇒ 01:32:56.900 Alexander Lubka: Do we do? We want to do a Pmai bot go Kr
910 01:32:57.040 ⇒ 01:33:01.290 Alexander Lubka: partnering with the AI team on that continuation of what you guys had for Q. 2.
911 01:33:02.510 ⇒ 01:33:06.479 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think it’s up to amber like I think it’s up to. If you see if you can
912 01:33:06.750 ⇒ 01:33:12.360 Uttam Kumaran: see something measurable that we can write down about your time, or
913 01:33:12.650 ⇒ 01:33:16.640 Uttam Kumaran: a set of like capabilities. I’m fine with it.
914 01:33:19.910 ⇒ 01:33:31.860 Alexander Lubka: Also, before you answer that I kinda I’m thinking of this right now as kind of like, there’s a Pm. Sales. Okr, there’s kind of like a Pm. Recruiting Okr. And then, if this is the right place to put some of like the
915 01:33:32.070 ⇒ 01:33:35.570 Alexander Lubka: professional development for amber, too 2 years
916 01:33:35.570 ⇒ 01:33:43.410 Alexander Lubka: like to to get your cake, cause I we had amber, and I talked about some expect her personal expectations for her professional development.
917 01:33:43.834 ⇒ 01:33:46.270 Alexander Lubka: And some other things we put on there.
918 01:33:46.750 ⇒ 01:34:00.049 Alexander Lubka: And so it’s like, is it worth it to have an individual at this point? Is it worth it? Since it’s mostly just Amber and me it working in the Pmo. Is it worth it to deviate or deviate that out or cut that out?
919 01:34:00.050 ⇒ 01:34:06.149 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I would. I would just put it here. I wouldn’t add another layer we just don’t have.
920 01:34:06.940 ⇒ 01:34:15.820 Uttam Kumaran: We don’t have another management layer to sort of keep organized. So I would. We are the team right? So if it’s important to us, then it’s important to the team.
921 01:34:16.270 ⇒ 01:34:23.379 Alexander Lubka: Cool. So yeah, if I I can see like, if we have the sales we have recruiting. And then if you have professional development. Okrs like you could be pretty solid.
922 01:34:23.940 ⇒ 01:34:24.610 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
923 01:34:25.990 ⇒ 01:34:28.040 Alexander Lubka: Unless there’s anything else. Amber you want to include.
924 01:34:29.020 ⇒ 01:34:49.610 Amber Lin: No, I think that’s all. And I think for the AI side, it’s hard for me to gauge how much hours I would originally set spend because I don’t have a standard. I only recently started to have a standardized process. It’s hard for me to give you a baseline estimate how much time I originally spent.
925 01:34:49.610 ⇒ 01:34:55.020 Uttam Kumaran: And I can also take it as an AI team. Okr, we’re already gonna start measuring
926 01:34:55.430 ⇒ 01:34:57.420 Uttam Kumaran: the amount of meetings people spend in
927 01:34:57.920 ⇒ 01:35:01.490 Uttam Kumaran: the amount of slacks people are getting like we’re gonna start to get a sense of that.
928 01:35:01.960 ⇒ 01:35:08.560 Uttam Kumaran: So I could take for them. I’m broadly going to try to affect some metrics, and by.
929 01:35:08.560 ⇒ 01:35:09.060 Amber Lin: Bye.
930 01:35:09.060 ⇒ 01:35:11.489 Uttam Kumaran: Downstream. This team will get affected, you know, so.
931 01:35:11.490 ⇒ 01:35:16.919 Amber Lin: Yeah, I think that’s better, because I can’t make it happen.
932 01:35:17.270 ⇒ 01:35:25.449 Amber Lin: and I can’t make the AI bot happen. So it’s out of my scope to pursue that. Okr, I am the stakeholder and the user.
933 01:35:25.820 ⇒ 01:35:34.549 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, yeah, I would say, where where it will affect you is on gross margin. Right?
934 01:35:35.730 ⇒ 01:35:36.360 Uttam Kumaran: Bye.
935 01:35:36.920 ⇒ 01:35:43.670 Uttam Kumaran: Ultimately your interest in in solving, that is to achieve is to continue to achieve the gross margin metric.
936 01:35:45.600 ⇒ 01:35:51.260 Uttam Kumaran: Right cause if I can get you another 5% and with the same outcome
937 01:35:51.660 ⇒ 01:35:55.969 Uttam Kumaran: like, if I can get you the same outcome with 5% less billable hours because we do it
938 01:35:56.240 ⇒ 01:36:02.719 Uttam Kumaran: because you’re able to put off 20% of your time. The AI, you hit your goal right?
939 01:36:03.110 ⇒ 01:36:10.360 Uttam Kumaran: So that that’s your 3rd lever here. This is the. This is the lever that never existed. Right? It’s the fact that, like previously, you have to increase your price.
940 01:36:10.810 ⇒ 01:36:12.289 Uttam Kumaran: decrease your hours.
941 01:36:13.460 ⇒ 01:36:22.240 Uttam Kumaran: and there was never like a get more efficient with your hours really like that doesn’t really happen like a a switch of a light. Now it actually can.
942 01:36:24.450 ⇒ 01:36:27.709 Uttam Kumaran: So I feel like you have this 3rd option, which is like.
943 01:36:28.050 ⇒ 01:36:33.510 Uttam Kumaran: if those 1st 2 don’t really work like the reducing hours is tough, very, very difficult.
944 01:36:34.840 ⇒ 01:36:40.060 Uttam Kumaran: So we we are. I feel blessed to have this 3rd option that I think that’ll be the real like.
945 01:36:41.290 ⇒ 01:36:45.069 Uttam Kumaran: That’s a win win for everybody, if we can leverage this technology that to help us
946 01:36:45.940 ⇒ 01:36:50.650 Uttam Kumaran: achieve the margin goals, I mean, ideally, we do all 3, and then we have 50.
947 01:36:50.770 ⇒ 01:36:57.169 Uttam Kumaran: But if we can do the sec, if we, the reducing hours, is tough, very, very difficult.
948 01:36:59.970 ⇒ 01:37:02.419 Uttam Kumaran: Because you have to explain that you know.
949 01:37:04.510 ⇒ 01:37:07.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, okay?
950 01:37:08.130 ⇒ 01:37:15.999 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, I guess amber, if you if you want, if you want to list your professional development, I hope it makes sense. We’re we’re a small team. So anyone
951 01:37:16.290 ⇒ 01:37:25.389 Uttam Kumaran: like people’s individual goals are going to ladder up into here unless it’s very, very distinctly different. Just because we don’t have
952 01:37:26.140 ⇒ 01:37:31.979 Uttam Kumaran: like, we’re sort of not governing people individually. It’s really a does a team accomplish the goals
953 01:37:35.230 ⇒ 01:37:41.030 Amber Lin: Well, my main one is just to pass a capm certification. So that’s not too much.
954 01:37:41.480 ⇒ 01:37:42.270 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
955 01:37:42.270 ⇒ 01:37:42.840 Amber Lin: Yeah.
956 01:37:45.720 ⇒ 01:37:51.489 Uttam Kumaran: And then I mean, I guess, Alex, we can also consider putting like tech leads through
957 01:37:52.230 ⇒ 01:37:58.000 Uttam Kumaran: like. I don’t know I was. I was hearing about this thing like mountain ghost software. You heard of these guys?
958 01:37:58.170 ⇒ 01:38:01.199 Uttam Kumaran: They have like a scrum or agile training course like
959 01:38:01.850 ⇒ 01:38:06.112 Uttam Kumaran: we can put a few other people through through this. If you want
960 01:38:08.200 ⇒ 01:38:09.800 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, be fun.
961 01:38:10.250 ⇒ 01:38:12.349 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, it’s just not.
962 01:38:12.710 ⇒ 01:38:13.070 Alexander Lubka: Come!
963 01:38:14.180 ⇒ 01:38:22.420 Uttam Kumaran: Mountain goats. software.com. Yeah, I got this from one of our advisors. Like.
964 01:38:22.790 ⇒ 01:38:27.100 Uttam Kumaran: this is where I think. I I don’t know. I don’t. We don’t have like a sort of a really.
965 01:38:27.880 ⇒ 01:38:30.970 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I guess I can ask a wish to consider this, but
966 01:38:31.310 ⇒ 01:38:33.170 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t think we were gonna develop
967 01:38:35.240 ⇒ 01:38:43.720 Uttam Kumaran: just because we are, we are like a really an engineering focused company. We typically have been able to push off like having like pretty
968 01:38:43.950 ⇒ 01:38:47.700 Uttam Kumaran: having the need for, like great engineering leveling and guidelines, just because, like.
969 01:38:47.840 ⇒ 01:38:51.700 Uttam Kumaran: we sort of are pretty good at not getting bad engineers.
970 01:38:53.110 ⇒ 01:39:00.630 Uttam Kumaran: but I don’t have anything around like tech lead development and stuff like that just because we don’t have any like, we don’t have very senior
971 01:39:00.980 ⇒ 01:39:07.219 Uttam Kumaran: tech people. So if you guys want to have the tech leads, which is probably the closest counter, the closest like
972 01:39:07.490 ⇒ 01:39:11.049 Uttam Kumaran: counterparty, do anything around professional development.
973 01:39:12.040 ⇒ 01:39:21.450 Uttam Kumaran: you can have that here around working better with Pm team like, not around like getting better engineering, but like working better with the Pm team or something like that. Yeah.
974 01:39:21.610 ⇒ 01:39:26.499 Alexander Lubka: Amber. Is there any gaps that you’ve noticed when you’re working with some of your tech leads that they could use to help with.
975 01:39:27.887 ⇒ 01:39:43.072 Amber Lin: I think in terms of tech lead. One part of it is answering more senior questions, which is helping utam, and the other part is helping me with SMS. What should go in cycle should this go in cycle? So more of a planning partner?
976 01:39:43.690 ⇒ 01:39:57.830 Amber Lin: and to answer, Yeah, so most one is on planning, one is answering harder questions, harder questions. I don’t think this current training would help that is just more technical expertise, but when it comes to planning
977 01:40:00.170 ⇒ 01:40:09.010 Amber Lin: like part of this is I. I don’t know what goes into it. Part of it is technical seniority of knowing overall how this plan goes
978 01:40:09.520 ⇒ 01:40:14.460 Amber Lin: and part of it, I guess, is knowing how sprint works. Personally, I.
979 01:40:14.460 ⇒ 01:40:23.240 Uttam Kumaran: It’s also empathy for your team, like, I don’t think a lot of people know why it’s important. Because I mean again, this isn’t my experience, engineer.
980 01:40:23.340 ⇒ 01:40:50.350 Uttam Kumaran: like most people, work with bad Pm’s, and bad and bad or non existent Pm. Orgs. So nobody cares about this at all like it’s just like you get asked to do estimates. You’re like, nobody’s looking at that, anyways. Who cares right? So part of this is like almost like empathy training. For why this works? I don’t think they can’t answer these questions, but maybe, like instilling the framework on like, how should I give a good estimate? Why estimates matter?
981 01:40:50.370 ⇒ 01:40:58.060 Uttam Kumaran: How is a group grooming session like just getting these folks on your team? And really I think this would be like Demo Lade. I mean, I would take it, demo a
982 01:40:58.923 ⇒ 01:41:02.379 Uttam Kumaran: and then I probably ask miguel
983 01:41:02.710 ⇒ 01:41:06.810 Uttam Kumaran: and one other person on the whoever wants on the AI team wants to do that.
984 01:41:07.413 ⇒ 01:41:10.589 Uttam Kumaran: You’re just building fans across the org.
985 01:41:10.590 ⇒ 01:41:10.960 Amber Lin: No.
986 01:41:11.404 ⇒ 01:41:15.045 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Because ultimately, like, I don’t think
987 01:41:15.970 ⇒ 01:41:25.270 Uttam Kumaran: this org is, gonna get the credit it deserves for how much stitching it’s gonna do, and you want everybody just to not question why you’re doing certain things
988 01:41:25.530 ⇒ 01:41:37.999 Uttam Kumaran: and just be like helpful, you know. But I don’t think a lot of our engineers are trained in doing this, because unless you’re at like an Ibm or a company with like really great process, that’s fairly late stage.
989 01:41:38.270 ⇒ 01:41:40.370 Uttam Kumaran: You don’t sort of think about this
990 01:41:40.560 ⇒ 01:41:43.399 Uttam Kumaran: which most of the people we’ve recruited from
991 01:41:44.140 ⇒ 01:41:50.189 Uttam Kumaran: or don’t come from agency background, especially where this is like really important. They come from internal product teams.
992 01:41:50.450 ⇒ 01:41:52.850 Amber Lin: Will they learn this?
993 01:41:53.640 ⇒ 01:42:05.319 Amber Lin: How long would it take to learn this? Because the Dvt was taking forever? But marginally, is there something more important that they learn before they learn this
994 01:42:05.610 ⇒ 01:42:20.539 Amber Lin: as in their own professional development, because overall, I think my teams, at least the ones I work with. I have really good relationship with them. They’re willing to learn. And in each retro we we, a lot of the retro stuff is when we talk about
995 01:42:21.064 ⇒ 01:42:34.810 Amber Lin: how should we do? Estimates? This was not estimated. Well, that went off for longer do we raise different questions, and then they’re pretty receptive to whenever I ask for additional meetings, additional sessions.
996 01:42:34.920 ⇒ 01:42:41.730 Amber Lin: So I think this, it will be a better investment, their time to learn something else, for now my.
997 01:42:41.730 ⇒ 01:42:47.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, I I feel like, yeah, we don’t have to put this on. I don’t mind either way.
998 01:42:48.520 ⇒ 01:42:59.950 Alexander Lubka: Oh, I mean it doesn’t. I don’t know if it’s this class, but we could. I mean part of the Pmo plan and bring it, you know, and and sharing it with them and creating the video is like showing them the value of project management and why we’re doing
999 01:43:00.220 ⇒ 01:43:06.870 Alexander Lubka: so. We can. We can educate them on that. And that could be one of our goals. We can figure out like how we measure that. But
1000 01:43:07.080 ⇒ 01:43:22.300 Alexander Lubka: yeah, we I don’t know. I could take a look at the class, but if, like hamber, if you don’t think like just, I see things like estimations and planning which could be cool. But if you’re saying it’s not, you don’t think they need to run through a class. We can allocate some time to educate them on what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and enforce that throughout the quarter.
1001 01:43:22.680 ⇒ 01:43:41.429 Amber Lin: Oh, yeah. And I just thought of recently, I’m gonna be meeting with Rico to onboard him on basic Pm processes. That could be my 1st 1st try and then I can see what it might be a little bit different for the engineers. But at least then I would have the most basic documentation. Down.
1002 01:43:45.050 ⇒ 01:43:45.660 Alexander Lubka: Cool.
1003 01:43:46.260 ⇒ 01:43:49.439 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I I don’t care if this is an external or internal. I just think
1004 01:43:50.140 ⇒ 01:43:56.470 Uttam Kumaran: salesforce or read to say it once, and then reiterate it through. And it’s a nice asset. If you guys record that to have
1005 01:43:59.740 ⇒ 01:44:02.729 Uttam Kumaran: on exactly like, why, this is important, yeah.
1006 01:44:04.920 ⇒ 01:44:09.999 Uttam Kumaran: cause they’re also engineers. So if they see this as a system, and they see the complexity, they’ll gain a respect for it.
1007 01:44:10.670 ⇒ 01:44:11.420 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
1008 01:44:11.620 ⇒ 01:44:12.210 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
1009 01:44:17.570 ⇒ 01:44:22.839 Uttam Kumaran: okay, cool. So I feel like, I have enough of what I need to start to form this into
1010 01:44:23.863 ⇒ 01:44:26.855 Uttam Kumaran: the Okrs amber
1011 01:44:28.880 ⇒ 01:44:35.269 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m gonna put this alongside some AI team. Okrs that I’m working on.
1012 01:44:37.040 ⇒ 01:44:40.950 Uttam Kumaran: Alright. So basically, if I’m like, I’m just gonna call probably internal platform. Okay, ours.
1013 01:44:44.280 ⇒ 01:44:48.140 Uttam Kumaran: And yeah. And then basically, each of these, we will set up as initiatives.
1014 01:44:49.750 ⇒ 01:44:52.746 Uttam Kumaran: That again, I’ll I’ll set up the spreadsheet for
1015 01:44:53.450 ⇒ 01:44:57.560 Uttam Kumaran: I think I’ll probably not do it in notion to be honest. Probably just do it in a spreadsheet.
1016 01:44:57.880 ⇒ 01:44:59.469 Uttam Kumaran: but pretty easy.
1017 01:44:59.830 ⇒ 01:45:03.969 Uttam Kumaran: And then, yeah, we can sort of probably hopefully have these confirmed by the end of the week.
1018 01:45:05.530 ⇒ 01:45:07.780 Amber Lin: Hmm, okay.
1019 01:45:09.620 ⇒ 01:45:10.509 Alexander Lubka: Sounds good to me.
1020 01:45:11.090 ⇒ 01:45:11.740 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
1021 01:45:13.820 ⇒ 01:45:15.830 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. Anything. Else.
1022 01:45:18.520 ⇒ 01:45:22.080 Alexander Lubka: I think, from you? Probably not.
1023 01:45:22.080 ⇒ 01:45:22.750 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
1024 01:45:22.967 ⇒ 01:45:26.670 Alexander Lubka: Amber we could find. Maybe I can find another time with you this week to go over
1025 01:45:27.540 ⇒ 01:45:28.790 Alexander Lubka: just our agenda.
1026 01:45:30.710 ⇒ 01:45:37.939 Amber Lin: Sure message me anything that I can prepare beforehand. I can record a video on what the current progress is.
1027 01:45:38.060 ⇒ 01:45:41.479 Amber Lin: so that our meeting could be faster. If you want.
1028 01:45:42.260 ⇒ 01:45:42.870 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
1029 01:45:44.090 ⇒ 01:45:46.709 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I’ll find some time. I’ll look at your calendar.
1030 01:45:46.970 ⇒ 01:45:49.949 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me know I should be free.
1031 01:45:50.490 ⇒ 01:45:54.790 Amber Lin: Pretty much all afternoons, because we’re on different time zones.
1032 01:45:55.970 ⇒ 01:46:00.630 Alexander Lubka: Great. Thank you. Yeah, it’s just a couple. I just, we have our agenda from today, things
1033 01:46:00.840 ⇒ 01:46:02.540 Alexander Lubka: they still want to hit with you.
1034 01:46:03.460 ⇒ 01:46:06.960 Alexander Lubka: About like the Pmo stuff, the video thing.
1035 01:46:07.880 ⇒ 01:46:16.200 Alexander Lubka: I think we’d hit the I want to talk to you about the Casey thing. The question so.
1036 01:46:17.430 ⇒ 01:46:29.410 Amber Lin: Oh, oh, yes, that one I think you left some comments with him. I’m also meeting with him tomorrow, so I can get. I can give something basic and.
1037 01:46:29.410 ⇒ 01:46:34.290 Uttam Kumaran: You, wanna you can talk for 60 seconds about it, like, basically, I told him, like.
1038 01:46:34.960 ⇒ 01:46:39.430 Uttam Kumaran: Well, look, I, I sort of like we’re kicking off this project internally
1039 01:46:39.840 ⇒ 01:46:47.099 Uttam Kumaran: about just like leverage overall on time. And so one of the things I said is like, you know, just pretty simply see if you can score meetings.
1040 01:46:47.550 ⇒ 01:46:48.510 Uttam Kumaran: That’s it
1041 01:46:48.880 ⇒ 01:47:12.989 Uttam Kumaran: like. And but probably the people most opinionated about the way meetings go or Youtube like, I mean, I don’t think there’s I mean also me, but like it should go to Youtube first, st and then he’ll develop some possibility score, and then we start to measure something. I think I don’t know if I sent the message, but I should say it’s like not as like Bridgewatery in that like. It’s not meant to.
1042 01:47:13.480 ⇒ 01:47:14.240 Alexander Lubka: That’s right.
1043 01:47:14.240 ⇒ 01:47:28.600 Uttam Kumaran: Destroy people and like, find out that you’re sucking in meetings. In fact, it’s mainly to understand trends around like what meetings are maybe less productive or could be more productive. And we don’t. I don’t think we have a problem. I just think because we’re so small
1044 01:47:28.740 ⇒ 01:47:30.300 Uttam Kumaran: and like.
1045 01:47:30.970 ⇒ 01:47:40.940 Uttam Kumaran: I think we could benefit from understanding that, especially as we try to grow like meeting bloat is going to constantly be a disease that we have to eradicate. So
1046 01:47:41.450 ⇒ 01:47:48.448 Uttam Kumaran: it’s helpful to have that. We have all the data to do it like to basically write a quick score on it. Anyways.
1047 01:47:49.620 ⇒ 01:47:55.479 Uttam Kumaran: and yeah, I think eventually, it will basically be used by managers for meetings for feedback and stuff like that.
1048 01:47:57.040 ⇒ 01:47:58.130 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so.
1049 01:47:58.711 ⇒ 01:48:21.669 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, I get my feedback amber. If you want to talk to him about it tomorrow let me know. But like I I just wanted to. I didn’t want to get too bridge water. I didn’t want to get it too. Heavy. Just keep it lightweight. I also put the comment there like, if it has to be every meeting, if that, if it’s just like this, then like, Stand ups, do you really need that? Or if it’s just like an aggregate of meetings for the week, how you measure it. So I just left that all in there, if you want to review it with them, and let me know.
1050 01:48:22.210 ⇒ 01:48:26.590 Uttam Kumaran: I think what could be most important is, you’ve probably seen it like at a elite
1051 01:48:26.720 ⇒ 01:48:33.150 Uttam Kumaran: level. You could pick out like the the actual stuff that’s helpful from any sort of measurement.
1052 01:48:33.880 ⇒ 01:48:38.089 Uttam Kumaran: And not like causes. People to sort of have like.
1053 01:48:38.090 ⇒ 01:48:38.900 Alexander Lubka: Right.
1054 01:48:38.900 ⇒ 01:48:44.733 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you know, stuff like that is what I’m kind of going for.
1055 01:48:45.600 ⇒ 01:48:52.429 Uttam Kumaran: that, you know. Additionally, like, I’m having the team think a lot about overall productivity. And so
1056 01:48:52.540 ⇒ 01:48:56.279 Uttam Kumaran: the more metrics we have to measure whether our tools are working.
1057 01:48:56.520 ⇒ 01:49:02.530 Uttam Kumaran: we need, we need more of those, whether it’s meeting scores. We’re gonna start looking at calendar analytics, slack analytics.
1058 01:49:02.979 ⇒ 01:49:06.169 Uttam Kumaran: Just as an overall understanding of productivity in the company.
1059 01:49:06.669 ⇒ 01:49:13.799 Uttam Kumaran: So that we that’s the only way I know whether the AI tools are actually doing their their job. Besides, ultimately
1060 01:49:14.450 ⇒ 01:49:17.900 Uttam Kumaran: headcount to revenue ratio, you know.
1061 01:49:18.010 ⇒ 01:49:23.010 Uttam Kumaran: But, like that’s a that’s a very like lagging indicator, and there’s no nuance there. So.
1062 01:49:23.471 ⇒ 01:49:33.799 Alexander Lubka: I put a comment into him like I, are you setting agendas? Is there a clear definition of what you’re trying to get out of the agendas. And do you accomplish that? That’s what I’m thinking, mostly like.
1063 01:49:34.640 ⇒ 01:49:37.090 Amber Lin: We don’t really have set agendas necessarily.
1064 01:49:37.090 ⇒ 01:49:38.430 Alexander Lubka: He said you did.
1065 01:49:39.020 ⇒ 01:49:39.750 Uttam Kumaran: We have.
1066 01:49:39.750 ⇒ 01:49:44.109 Amber Lin: Well, which ones I thought in I most meetings I have are stand ups.
1067 01:49:44.580 ⇒ 01:49:47.507 Uttam Kumaran: We have agendas and notion sometimes, but they’re not like
1068 01:49:47.800 ⇒ 01:49:52.360 Amber Lin: Or set, say, for my project meetings right.
1069 01:49:52.360 ⇒ 01:49:54.679 Uttam Kumaran: So you can infer from a meeting transcript.
1070 01:49:54.680 ⇒ 01:49:57.122 Amber Lin: Yeah, those have their own stuff.
1071 01:49:57.530 ⇒ 01:49:58.230 Uttam Kumaran: But in the meeting.
1072 01:49:58.230 ⇒ 01:49:58.740 Amber Lin: Stuff and.
1073 01:49:58.740 ⇒ 01:50:01.850 Uttam Kumaran: In the meeting Transcript. If you say, Hey, I have an agenda.
1074 01:50:02.630 ⇒ 01:50:12.490 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, then then the transcript is, gonna know, you have an agenda. Right? I think it’s for meetings that like we’ll have to test how it looks like, but for meetings that just start. And then
1075 01:50:13.230 ⇒ 01:50:16.489 Uttam Kumaran: it’s sort of like nobody talks, and it’s like, what are we talking about like.
1076 01:50:16.490 ⇒ 01:50:17.309 Amber Lin: Oh! Oh!
1077 01:50:17.310 ⇒ 01:50:18.070 Uttam Kumaran: I know there’s.
1078 01:50:18.070 ⇒ 01:50:18.600 Amber Lin: Meetings.
1079 01:50:19.130 ⇒ 01:50:23.230 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I know we don’t have them, but then we, the scores, should speak for themselves.
1080 01:50:23.350 ⇒ 01:50:23.800 Amber Lin: Okay.
1081 01:50:24.043 ⇒ 01:50:38.180 Uttam Kumaran: Right like that’s that’s what we’re gonna find out. I mean, I’m not. There’s totally meetings. I’m part of where I come in with nothing. And I’m like, Where are we like? What am I doing? And that’s my fault. And so we should call those out, because and then those will be easy things to be like.
1082 01:50:38.490 ⇒ 01:50:44.470 Uttam Kumaran: okay, does the meeting need to happen? Or should we have a Pm. On this, or like what needs to change?
1083 01:50:45.190 ⇒ 01:50:46.150 Uttam Kumaran: right? Like.
1084 01:50:46.150 ⇒ 01:50:48.430 Amber Lin: It would be really helpful for
1085 01:50:50.350 ⇒ 01:50:57.650 Amber Lin: other meetings than my Pm. Rituals, because rituals in itself has a purpose. But if we’re just calling, what are we.
1086 01:50:57.650 ⇒ 01:51:01.589 Uttam Kumaran: But it’s also not directly for you or me. It’s gonna be for everybody.
1087 01:51:01.590 ⇒ 01:51:02.170 Amber Lin: Yeah, yeah.
1088 01:51:02.170 ⇒ 01:51:08.220 Uttam Kumaran: Meetings right? So it’s like anybody in the company who wants to start leading meetings.
1089 01:51:08.710 ⇒ 01:51:15.190 Uttam Kumaran: I want to give them something to hook onto where they know whether they did a good job without without me having to go.
1090 01:51:15.540 ⇒ 01:51:16.050 Amber Lin: Look.
1091 01:51:16.050 ⇒ 01:51:16.880 Uttam Kumaran: The meeting again.
1092 01:51:17.230 ⇒ 01:51:23.979 Uttam Kumaran: Another example is on the sales side. It’s very common for sales leaders to do sales retros where they rewatch
1093 01:51:24.140 ⇒ 01:51:38.000 Uttam Kumaran: sales, meetings for their Sdrs or their Bdrs. But it’s such a grueling process to go rewatch those and like write down feedback. The next thing is to actually have AI give you a little bit of points of feedback on like how you can improve.
1094 01:51:38.410 ⇒ 01:51:39.380 Amber Lin: Yeah, yeah, I think.
1095 01:51:39.380 ⇒ 01:51:42.169 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s something that could be compiled and delivered per person. You know.
1096 01:51:42.170 ⇒ 01:52:02.859 Amber Lin: Yeah, if we just have a purpose of this meeting. Yeah, I could give give some feedback to start with. And the more people read those feedback, they will at least have a standard of what good looks like and then it could get better from there. So let’s just have something to do it doesn’t have to be perfect. I’m meeting with team frequently. We can modify that later.
1097 01:52:03.730 ⇒ 01:52:04.270 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
1098 01:52:05.250 ⇒ 01:52:05.860 Amber Lin: Okay.
1099 01:52:06.030 ⇒ 01:52:12.260 Alexander Lubka: I think we also had like if Robert and Tom took a look at the plan, and like if there’s any feedback
1100 01:52:13.560 ⇒ 01:52:14.850 Alexander Lubka: from the Pmo plan.
1101 01:52:16.260 ⇒ 01:52:17.809 Uttam Kumaran: I can do that this week.
1102 01:52:17.810 ⇒ 01:52:21.799 Alexander Lubka: Okay, we also had to think in here about like, how do we implement
1103 01:52:21.910 ⇒ 01:52:25.509 Alexander Lubka: parts of this are the plans for non, pm, facing projects.
1104 01:52:26.860 ⇒ 01:52:33.429 Alexander Lubka: and like, how do we do it? For we, a pptg read me spark, plug, Eden and fan, stake.
1105 01:52:35.120 ⇒ 01:52:56.680 Amber Lin: Yeah, I will compile the notes and add it in there a bit. I think we still need to discuss that, Alex. Because gave his feedback on how it’s currently being managed. And I think it’s up to us to think of how that should be managed. And then I think then it’s more of a do you object to this? How are we gonna implement this.
1106 01:52:56.680 ⇒ 01:53:03.750 Uttam Kumaran: It’s also a dependency. Right? If if the natural process is like, we have to get the the hire to, then execute those.
1107 01:53:04.000 ⇒ 01:53:10.813 Uttam Kumaran: That’s okay? Right? Cause. Then that’s all. That’s a that’s a known, we’re actually have a goal that will solve that. But
1108 01:53:13.330 ⇒ 01:53:13.660 Alexander Lubka: Okay.
1109 01:53:13.660 ⇒ 01:53:16.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. In the meantime, like, we’re sort of winging it.
1110 01:53:16.950 ⇒ 01:53:36.629 Alexander Lubka: Yeah, yeah, well, it sounds like before. So and then we had on here for the ones that amber manages dates to implement the processes that we agreed to. So we had ABC for the 14th urban stems for the 20 second based off the sprint schedules. And then, if you wanna do you have a date yet when you’re gonna be taking over Eden? Or is that something you should talk about with Robert.
1111 01:53:37.385 ⇒ 01:53:40.309 Amber Lin: Utah, am I gonna be taking over even.
1112 01:53:40.460 ⇒ 01:53:47.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think that’s something that we, this crew, we should like we should get a meeting on. Sorry. That was another thing I wanted to bring up.
1113 01:53:47.290 ⇒ 01:53:56.050 Uttam Kumaran: we should meet with him and sort of get organized around that so I think maybe it’s a good topic for Wednesday.
1114 01:53:56.170 ⇒ 01:53:57.689 Uttam Kumaran: like managers meeting.
1115 01:53:57.920 ⇒ 01:53:58.620 Amber Lin: Sure. Yeah.
1116 01:53:58.620 ⇒ 01:54:01.730 Uttam Kumaran: We get confirmation. And then, like.
1117 01:54:02.430 ⇒ 01:54:09.080 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s a great project. It’s it’s quite a hairy project. There’s a lot of stuff going on. It’s also our biggest client.
1118 01:54:09.380 ⇒ 01:54:12.914 Uttam Kumaran: So it’s great like. And and
1119 01:54:14.140 ⇒ 01:54:21.379 Uttam Kumaran: yeah, I I feel like, it’s a there’s a lot of stuff there that we can take on. So maybe let’s take it as a Wednesday agenda item.
1120 01:54:21.939 ⇒ 01:54:28.940 Uttam Kumaran: and then based on Wednesday. If we get approval, then we will book that.
1121 01:54:29.260 ⇒ 01:54:34.840 Amber Lin: Okay, I’m gonna put it on in this chat. Wednesday.
1122 01:54:35.010 ⇒ 01:54:38.939 Amber Lin: Send the invitation.
1123 01:54:40.220 ⇒ 01:54:41.510 Amber Lin: Excuse me.
1124 01:54:42.660 ⇒ 01:54:43.430 Amber Lin: Okay.
1125 01:54:43.830 ⇒ 01:54:45.150 Amber Lin: Sounds good.
1126 01:54:46.600 ⇒ 01:54:50.229 Alexander Lubka: Great, and if you just let me in after that, and if you have a synthesis that’d be great.
1127 01:54:51.090 ⇒ 01:54:52.129 Amber Lin: Yeah, we’ll do.
1128 01:54:52.680 ⇒ 01:55:00.450 Alexander Lubka: Thank you. Yeah. I think the Q 3 stuff. I got the recruiting stuff. I got the Eden stuff. Great
1129 01:55:00.650 ⇒ 01:55:02.379 Alexander Lubka: Rico stuff we got.
1130 01:55:03.060 ⇒ 01:55:06.180 Alexander Lubka: I think the only other things on here.
1131 01:55:09.650 ⇒ 01:55:10.540 Alexander Lubka: Yeah.
1132 01:55:11.250 ⇒ 01:55:22.910 Alexander Lubka: alright, we can probably just a sync. I had questions, yeah, Casey stuff. We talked about. The only other thing like I have is if we’re gonna be if we’re still doing the loom video for this week for Friday’s team meeting on the Pmo.
1133 01:55:24.320 ⇒ 01:55:25.430 Amber Lin: Oh.
1134 01:55:26.840 ⇒ 01:55:35.330 Amber Lin: we could do that. I would like to talk about what goes into that video. I feel ready to record it. I just need to know what goes into it.
1135 01:55:37.356 ⇒ 01:55:42.119 Alexander Lubka: In my mind. I’m thinking that it discusses. You know
1136 01:55:42.520 ⇒ 01:56:03.201 Alexander Lubka: what we’re trying to achieve. Why, we’re trying of the Pmo. Like to establish processes to make teams more efficient. To make things clear for clients, to form this relationship with clients. Why? So? Why, we’re trying to do it and how we’re gonna be implementing it and how it’s gonna impact them, and how we want to partner with the team to
1137 01:56:03.810 ⇒ 01:56:21.709 Alexander Lubka: to build this out, and that we initially, we’re asking for feedback. So sharing the having the video, then sharing the plan with them. And like we have in the plan of like giving them like a week or so to just like, if they ask any questions they may have, or any modifications that they may need before we start implementing this for some of the projects with the 1st one being on the 14th
1138 01:56:22.910 ⇒ 01:56:23.930 Alexander Lubka: ABC.
1139 01:56:24.500 ⇒ 01:56:25.330 Amber Lin: Okay, so.
1140 01:56:25.330 ⇒ 01:56:39.239 Alexander Lubka: Kind of going over. Why, why, how the timeline we have that we’re asking for that. The ask out of the of the meeting is just to take a look, and if they can provide us any feedback, and that we’re planning on starting to implement, start to roll this stuff out on the 14.th If
1141 01:56:39.610 ⇒ 01:56:40.630 Alexander Lubka: he’s in agreement.
1142 01:56:41.430 ⇒ 01:56:42.160 Amber Lin: Okay.
1143 01:56:42.280 ⇒ 01:56:55.389 Amber Lin: yeah. My for the foreseeable risk, I see, is that the team might not have any feedback, or they’re more shy to give feedback, or there might not be like they wouldn’t know how to give feedback
1144 01:56:55.850 ⇒ 01:56:57.390 Amber Lin: like. That’s my concern.
1145 01:56:57.620 ⇒ 01:57:16.150 Alexander Lubka: Then that might be the case, and that’s I want to give them the opportunity to give feedback. And you can say you can even say like, you know how you get feedback is like, if anything seems weird to you, if you have any questions on things. But even at that point. If they just if you go through that and they don’t have any questions throughout the week. I bet they’re gonna have questions when you start changing shit.
1146 01:57:16.150 ⇒ 01:57:21.240 Amber Lin: Yeah, that that’s what that’s is. Most likely. What’s gonna happen.
1147 01:57:21.240 ⇒ 01:57:42.270 Alexander Lubka: And that’s fine until they like experience it. But I but before that, before you make a change without like, I want you to be clear about that. We’re doing this, why, we’re doing it so at least when they say like, why, this just change, you know. So at least you give them a you give them the feedback, or you give them the information you give them the opportunity for feedback, and then, when they say like, Why, this change you.
1148 01:57:43.850 ⇒ 01:57:44.787 Alexander Lubka: Here’s my video.
1149 01:57:45.100 ⇒ 01:57:47.629 Amber Lin: Yeah, okay, valid. I I like that.
1150 01:57:47.790 ⇒ 01:57:49.400 Amber Lin: So.
1151 01:57:50.040 ⇒ 01:57:50.520 Alexander Lubka: And it’s.
1152 01:57:50.990 ⇒ 01:57:54.920 Amber Lin: Trying to create a video. If you have any instructions.
1153 01:57:55.070 ⇒ 01:58:02.759 Amber Lin: feel free. I I don’t know if you’re gonna make the video, I’m gonna make the video. We can do Async and see. Get the 1st draft going.
1154 01:58:03.030 ⇒ 01:58:05.530 Alexander Lubka: Okay, that sounds good to me.
1155 01:58:05.530 ⇒ 01:58:07.380 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me write that down.
1156 01:58:07.940 ⇒ 01:58:10.589 Alexander Lubka: Okay. Then I think we could do the rest of it. Async, during the week.
1157 01:58:10.910 ⇒ 01:58:11.690 Amber Lin: Okay.
1158 01:58:14.710 ⇒ 01:58:18.420 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ll look at the project documentation you put together. Thanks for saying that to me.
1159 01:58:19.280 ⇒ 01:58:21.199 Alexander Lubka: And yeah, I think we’re pretty good for now.
1160 01:58:21.640 ⇒ 01:58:22.919 Alexander Lubka: Good session guys.
1161 01:58:23.440 ⇒ 01:58:27.119 Uttam Kumaran: We started working on the linear grooming AI Bot. By the way.
1162 01:58:27.120 ⇒ 01:58:28.520 Amber Lin: Yay!
1163 01:58:29.660 ⇒ 01:58:30.230 Uttam Kumaran: So.
1164 01:58:30.230 ⇒ 01:58:34.829 Amber Lin: Exactly know what that is, but it sounds very exciting. I think I think I have an idea.
1165 01:58:34.830 ⇒ 01:58:40.580 Uttam Kumaran: There’s like 2 things, one, it’s gonna auto flag tickets that that are active, that need grooming. And then.
1166 01:58:40.580 ⇒ 01:58:41.270 Amber Lin: Oh!
1167 01:58:41.270 ⇒ 01:58:48.560 Uttam Kumaran: It’s gonna propose, like what it should be. And 3, rd you’re gonna be able to add the bot directly in linear.
1168 01:58:48.700 ⇒ 01:59:05.289 Uttam Kumaran: So like, you know, you know, when you’re in a meeting, you’re like shit. I can’t write this ticket, but like I need to just put like 5 notes down, you could put the 5 notes down and then hit at Rainforge Bot, and it will just modify the ticket versus taking those notes, going to Gpt and coming back.
1169 01:59:05.530 ⇒ 01:59:08.280 Amber Lin: Does it have context for our client hubs.
1170 01:59:08.450 ⇒ 01:59:09.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yes.
1171 01:59:09.620 ⇒ 01:59:11.210 Amber Lin: Yay, that’s what I need.
1172 01:59:11.590 ⇒ 01:59:14.620 Uttam Kumaran: So all of it is using the client Hub agents now.
1173 01:59:14.620 ⇒ 01:59:15.014 Amber Lin: Okay.
1174 01:59:15.410 ⇒ 01:59:17.279 Uttam Kumaran: So like as those get better
1175 01:59:17.840 ⇒ 01:59:19.990 Uttam Kumaran: sort of everything downstream gets better.
1176 01:59:19.990 ⇒ 01:59:27.629 Amber Lin: And I’ve already been using our linear summaries, the slack messages to write my emails. So that’s already been pretty good.
1177 01:59:28.050 ⇒ 01:59:29.390 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really nice!
1178 01:59:30.230 ⇒ 01:59:34.910 Amber Lin: It’s all I sent Casey a few other. The amount of the
1179 01:59:35.020 ⇒ 01:59:38.780 Amber Lin: version I sent out to the client so a little bit different.
1180 01:59:38.780 ⇒ 01:59:46.520 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really good. Good. Yeah, that’s the feedback I need, which is like, Hey, I took it. And it was like, Got me 40% of the way there. Here’s what like, 100 looks like.
1181 01:59:47.070 ⇒ 01:59:49.600 Uttam Kumaran: get the get, make the difference happen. You know.
1182 01:59:53.670 ⇒ 01:59:54.500 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
1183 01:59:54.500 ⇒ 01:59:56.440 Amber Lin: Okay, sounds good.
1184 01:59:56.690 ⇒ 02:00:01.630 Amber Lin: But then, if you have time, send me how to navigate for financial models, I need.
1185 02:00:01.630 ⇒ 02:00:04.070 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, yeah, okay, I will. I will. I will.
1186 02:00:04.310 ⇒ 02:00:07.510 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, right?
1187 02:00:08.380 ⇒ 02:00:09.370 Alexander Lubka: Bye, guys, thanks.
1188 02:00:09.590 ⇒ 02:00:10.290 Amber Lin: Bye.