Meeting Title: US x BF | Sprint Retro Date: 2025-07-21 Meeting participants: Emily Giant, Caio Velasco, Demilade Agboola, Amber Lin, Alex K, Uttam Kumaran


WEBVTT

1 00:02:31.520 00:02:32.780 Amber Lin: Hi! There!

2 00:02:34.760 00:02:35.910 Emily Giant: Hello!

3 00:02:37.790 00:02:38.900 Caio Velasco: Oh, amber!

4 00:02:39.240 00:02:41.740 Amber Lin: Hi! Oh, hi, Alex, thanks for joining.

5 00:02:42.070 00:02:48.519 Amber Lin: So this is our sprint retro. We run it every 2 weeks, and

6 00:02:48.986 00:02:55.939 Amber Lin: I think it’s safe. If you if you just want to listen in, then you’ll see everything on the board as well.

7 00:02:56.890 00:03:00.890 Amber Lin: So same as usual, I’m gonna pull up our

8 00:03:02.050 00:03:06.750 Amber Lin: zoom whiteboard, and then we’ll run through our sprint. Retro.

9 00:03:10.700 00:03:11.950 Amber Lin: All right.

10 00:03:18.865 00:03:21.899 Amber Lin: I’m gonna make a new page.

11 00:03:24.640 00:03:29.249 Amber Lin: Okay, I am on page 3.

12 00:03:41.360 00:03:43.969 Amber Lin: Okay. So today is July

13 00:03:47.150 00:03:55.059 Amber Lin: July 21, st okay, so, as usual, I will set a

14 00:03:55.250 00:04:06.710 Amber Lin: 5 min timer. Everybody feel free to add stickies to the different sections, and then after that, we’ll take time to read what everybody wrote and discuss.

15 00:04:07.150 00:04:12.590 Amber Lin: So I’m going to start the timer and we can come back in 5 min.

16 00:08:33.299 00:08:37.049 Amber Lin: Okay, if everybody is

17 00:08:37.199 00:08:50.439 Amber Lin: close to done, I’ll set a 2 min timer and then take some time to look at everybody’s stickies and add add, say, Emoji, or thumbs up if you agree, and then we’ll talk about them together.

18 00:11:41.569 00:11:49.049 Amber Lin: Okay, I think most of us are done. So I’m gonna make a

19 00:11:50.269 00:11:55.279 Amber Lin: a quick section on the side, and everybody can talk about

20 00:11:55.469 00:12:02.749 Amber Lin: what their view is, and we’ll document what we can do better next time.

21 00:12:03.359 00:12:05.469 Amber Lin: So who wants to start.

22 00:12:10.699 00:12:16.579 Amber Lin: Okay, if nobody starts I will call names. Demo.

23 00:12:17.540 00:12:18.180 Amber Lin: Okay.

24 00:12:18.180 00:12:19.905 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, I was about that

25 00:12:20.780 00:12:30.909 Demilade Agboola: again, part of my voice in my trail of times, I think. For the most part, what went well was that we’re able to get numbers

26 00:12:31.740 00:12:36.195 Demilade Agboola: in front of like stakeholders on Felipe in particular.

27 00:12:37.689 00:12:43.440 Demilade Agboola: getting feedback from him and just being able to utilize that

28 00:12:44.240 00:12:52.470 Demilade Agboola: to also iterate off the numbers that we already had, and you know, and all those edge cases.

29 00:12:54.450 00:13:03.000 Demilade Agboola: I think what needs improvement would be things like gets in Perry’s perspective on inventor as well.

30 00:13:03.965 00:13:06.544 Demilade Agboola: But also being aware that

31 00:13:08.400 00:13:15.690 Demilade Agboola: these new perspectives through edge cases and stuff will cause like scope creep.

32 00:13:16.390 00:13:21.680 Demilade Agboola: And we also need to figure out what

33 00:13:22.310 00:13:25.000 Demilade Agboola: what the final state. I’m sorry my voice is.

34 00:13:25.690 00:13:31.464 Demilade Agboola: Figure out what the final state of inventory needs to look like, because,

35 00:13:32.830 00:13:42.960 Demilade Agboola: at what point do we feel like the urban centers team can handle those edge cases versus at what point do we feel like? Everything needs to still be what we do?

36 00:13:43.775 00:13:47.244 Demilade Agboola: Also, we could do with documenting more.

37 00:13:47.960 00:13:55.460 Demilade Agboola: just documenting more to be honest. Things about governance, things, about what’s going on, the models.

38 00:13:55.650 00:14:02.779 Demilade Agboola: new requests coming in, and then for revenue auditing. I feel like we could be.

39 00:14:05.570 00:14:11.740 Demilade Agboola: we just have a bit more clarity and structure, so that things can move a bit a bit. Smoother.

40 00:14:12.170 00:14:12.530 Amber Lin: Okay.

41 00:14:13.780 00:14:15.480 Demilade Agboola: And then

42 00:14:20.330 00:14:25.391 Demilade Agboola: the next that will just be like, basically

43 00:14:26.690 00:14:31.870 Demilade Agboola: I think prior to those sessions will be very helpful. And just being able to get her perspective on stuff.

44 00:14:34.640 00:14:41.810 Demilade Agboola: also, like basically being able to, you know, give more documents. Which is why I set up a documentation. So once there’s more documentation

45 00:14:42.090 00:14:48.440 Demilade Agboola: we can. It’s easier to share certain progress reports and also

46 00:14:49.760 00:14:53.150 Demilade Agboola: being able to roll out more numbers

47 00:14:53.720 00:14:56.940 Demilade Agboola: to the stakeholders, because they I think that they are.

48 00:14:57.060 00:15:04.679 Demilade Agboola: They have been, I mean, thank thankfully. We’re getting numbers across them. But I feel like being able to get the numbers across the stakeholders is

49 00:15:05.010 00:15:09.569 Demilade Agboola: one, the end goal, and 2 is also how we figure out.

50 00:15:11.510 00:15:18.059 Demilade Agboola: the limitations are which some of the numbers so edge cases that we the accounts for and all that stuff.

51 00:15:18.731 00:15:21.530 Demilade Agboola: So yeah, that’s just high level perspective of everything.

52 00:15:21.530 00:15:36.404 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally. And then, based on what you said, we should make sure that I guess, for when we start revenue we should make sure that we know what the stakeholders like know who

53 00:15:37.501 00:15:54.099 Amber Lin: stakeholders are and what they need. For example, like, what what purpose are we building it. For what dashboards do they use? And that goes into defining the end state as well. And I think.

54 00:15:54.290 00:16:05.059 Amber Lin: starting with revenue, we probably should start to work with stakeholders earlier than in the end, because then we probably wouldn’t have so many reworks.

55 00:16:05.300 00:16:11.540 Amber Lin: or having to patch so many things if we included them early enough. Is that the case?

56 00:16:14.913 00:16:17.029 Demilade Agboola: Yes and no, I mean

57 00:16:17.450 00:16:19.569 Demilade Agboola: in the sense of at the end of the day

58 00:16:21.390 00:16:27.180 Demilade Agboola: they can only give you feedback based off numbers that they see and numbers that they have.

59 00:16:28.009 00:16:35.749 Demilade Agboola: Now, potentially what they, what they could help with is the business logic that you are using to implement the first, st like the version one.

60 00:16:35.960 00:16:38.500 Demilade Agboola: so that they help you account for more stuff.

61 00:16:39.203 00:16:43.680 Demilade Agboola: But ultimately some things will always just be a function of like

62 00:16:45.520 00:16:56.560 Demilade Agboola: We’ve given you the numbers, the numbers will do good. Except for this, like 2% of cases where this happens. Therefore, we need to have, you know, a feel safe for that, or we need to have.

63 00:16:56.560 00:16:58.160 Amber Lin: From a different okay, bye-bye.

64 00:16:58.160 00:17:09.829 Amber Lin: I see, I see. So we’ll include them earlier in the review, and then we’ll consult them for business logic, and we’ll probably include that in how we approach revenue.

65 00:17:12.960 00:17:17.769 Amber Lin: Okay, so I’m gonna put it here.

66 00:17:18.500 00:17:32.255 Amber Lin: And then better documentation. What does better documentation mean? And how are we going to implement that like, are we gonna have separate tickets for documentation? Does it mean?

67 00:17:33.516 00:17:39.964 Amber Lin: more frequent documentation, like frequent cadence of sharing documentation. What do you think?

68 00:17:40.630 00:17:43.520 Amber Lin: what? What is something we can do about it?

69 00:17:48.216 00:17:56.420 Demilade Agboola: I think just being able to not want

70 00:17:56.800 00:18:00.679 Demilade Agboola: what exists in different tables, or like what the process is

71 00:18:01.434 00:18:06.580 Demilade Agboola: and just being able to communicate that across allows for.

72 00:18:07.482 00:18:12.669 Demilade Agboola: Better documentation, and also just even like with the governance and looker

73 00:18:13.552 00:18:18.480 Demilade Agboola: in particular. So that, you know, since we’re not necessarily directly responsible for looker.

74 00:18:18.920 00:18:29.859 Demilade Agboola: But we obviously don’t want things to go back to the state that they were previously. So you know, that might not be high priority, but also like being able to say, this is how like you should manage or explore.

75 00:18:30.270 00:18:35.200 Demilade Agboola: and different like looks in looker, and your dashboards, and look and everything.

76 00:18:35.631 00:18:39.950 Amber Lin: Okay, I mean, we have a meeting with stakeholders. This

77 00:18:40.360 00:18:50.870 Amber Lin: this thursday, we can either use it to update them on progress, or we can give a quick little crash course on data governance, and then

78 00:18:51.930 00:18:55.459 Amber Lin: and then we can look at how they monitor how they

79 00:18:56.027 00:19:02.390 Amber Lin: approach data governance after that. And then maybe we can have more sessions about that, too.

80 00:19:05.880 00:19:11.389 Amber Lin: Okay. Kyle, what do you think? What are your thoughts for this sprint?

81 00:19:13.680 00:19:26.840 Caio Velasco: So on my on my end at least, regarding like Pm. Like, as I mentioned over there, meetings were on time, because before sometime we were doing like some more than we should, or talking about other things, so that I think went really well.

82 00:19:27.050 00:19:29.080 Caio Velasco: and the goals were more clear as well.

83 00:19:30.323 00:19:39.939 Caio Velasco: well, I didn’t have my many working sessions with Emily, because I started the revenue part last week, but the one I had was already helpful. So that’s good

84 00:19:42.340 00:19:53.969 Caio Velasco: for what needs improvement? Well, at least, when I started this revenue audit part well, I felt that at some point I was just losing a lot of time trying to understand, like very complex and messy models.

85 00:19:54.428 00:20:00.290 Caio Velasco: And then I didn’t really know like, what would be the clear idea of for deliverable.

86 00:20:00.390 00:20:13.170 Caio Velasco: So then, maybe those things need a bit more improvement. But I think we already have an idea about this technical design document that can be quite helpful for not only revenue, but also other marks.

87 00:20:13.380 00:20:16.869 Caio Velasco: We can even go back to inventory and and do that for inventory.

88 00:20:17.426 00:20:21.430 Caio Velasco: So I think we already have like an idea, for this is the next step.

89 00:20:22.450 00:20:23.820 Caio Velasco: And

90 00:20:24.220 00:20:52.199 Caio Velasco: yeah, well, about the deprecation part. Well, it was in the lots of tables, a lot of explores and views, and everything so definitely that would take time. But at the end of the day I think we also lost a little bit of time in something that would be a later layer of deprecation, not necessarily the the 1st ones. But then, since we were doing those things. We ended up losing a bit of time in terms of just finishing the 1st layers and then seeing

91 00:20:52.863 00:20:58.510 Caio Velasco: but well, at least we know there was also like a lot of things. And we did.

92 00:20:58.920 00:21:02.009 Caio Velasco: But yeah, that would be also improved for next time.

93 00:21:02.150 00:21:05.340 Caio Velasco: But yeah, I think on my end. That’s what I could share.

94 00:21:05.910 00:21:27.229 Amber Lin: Okay, yeah. And on the 1st thing, I think it’s similar to what done a lot of brought up about defining the end state. And I think what we can do is to have phase checks. So before we enter an audit, we need to check. Okay, do we know all the deliverables? Do we have a roadmap and just checking that probably would have prevented, say.

95 00:21:27.440 00:21:55.139 Amber Lin: this week the confusion for you if we had. Did that check and make sure we had someone review that with us. So I think, moving forward, we’ll probably implement that not only for this roadmaps, and also maybe once we pass auditing, are we ready to pass from auditing to building? Or is there so a lot of auditing? We need to do so? Make sure that every phase we enter we’re kind of at least mainly. We feel prepared to proceed.

96 00:21:56.240 00:22:15.499 Caio Velasco: Cool, no perfect sounds sounds good to be in. And yeah, I think along the way also, it’s always important to define scope but just for the sake of everyone being on board with that sometimes no things get more messy or more complicated. So that’s normal. But it’s important to have it, and then maybe I didn’t see that for revenue. Not yet.

97 00:22:15.500 00:22:18.610 Amber Lin: Yeah, I agree. Defining scope.

98 00:22:18.810 00:22:36.040 Amber Lin: I think we kind of just wanted to get started. And we’re in the midst of inventory. So I feel like, because we didn’t want to lose time. Say, lose time designing our approach. We ended up losing some time being lost, so I think it just tells us it’s worth

99 00:22:36.460 00:22:39.420 Amber Lin: spend time on just planning.

100 00:22:43.080 00:22:44.770 Amber Lin: And, Emily, what do you think.

101 00:22:46.212 00:23:01.499 Emily Giant: So I worked very closely with throughout the majority of the sprint, and I feel like we are very much in lockstep with our feedback. I kept erasing mine because I would see that he already wrote it and was like, Okay, I mean.

102 00:23:01.740 00:23:01.980 Emily Giant: moving

103 00:23:01.980 00:23:12.040 Emily Giant: couple that. But I think we had a very similar experience during this sprint. Because of working so closely through inventory. So, having Felipe joining the meetings,

104 00:23:12.660 00:23:36.199 Emily Giant: like dealing with those edge cases that would kind of derail what was essentially a finished product that needed tweaks. I would say specifically for for me. I made a very large deployment that I didn’t deploy right after it was approved, and I think that did cost spin, and it cost some blocking

105 00:23:36.600 00:23:40.299 Emily Giant: caused by me to dum a lot of, because he knew that, like

106 00:23:40.530 00:23:57.169 Emily Giant: the changes went live. And just on a personal note, I need to be much more timely if if a Pr is approved I need to deploy it like then, because things just start changing almost immediately, and then it’s a different

107 00:23:57.300 00:24:12.349 Emily Giant: Pr entirely if you wait 3 days. And so that was a big note. And then because I was so in lockstep with them a lot. I feel like I neglected Kyle quite a bit. This sprint and I feel like

108 00:24:12.970 00:24:24.319 Emily Giant: The working sessions were so necessary for them a lot, and I to get to this place that I was just in that mindset, and then Kaya would write a question that

109 00:24:24.700 00:24:31.079 Emily Giant: in hindsight, as I looked back through, I could tell, was actually blocking him from moving forward. And

110 00:24:31.320 00:24:43.169 Emily Giant: I would think, like, Okay, save it for later. Then I’d look at it the next day, and we wouldn’t have another working session. So I just fell out of lockstep with helping and giving timely answers to Kyle. And

111 00:24:43.660 00:24:45.060 Emily Giant: what that cost.

112 00:24:45.060 00:24:50.069 Amber Lin: Oh, Emily, I think your wi-fi cut out a little bit, but I get I got most of it.

113 00:24:50.490 00:24:52.889 Amber Lin: What was the last sentence you said? Yes.

114 00:24:53.403 00:25:19.109 Emily Giant: I think that either, if extending in terms of how to like, make it a better experience for Kyle next time, and make sure he gets all of the answers he needs. I don’t know if, like having an additional 10 min on our daily call for just he and I to sit and like. I can unblock here any questions as he works on revenue, and we’re still refining inventory. But I do think that there needs to be a like

115 00:25:19.440 00:25:20.790 Emily Giant: face to face.

116 00:25:20.940 00:25:27.859 Emily Giant: 10 min touch base, to make sure I have answered all his questions and put them where he expects them to be.

117 00:25:30.382 00:25:35.320 Amber Lin: additional time, it touch base.

118 00:25:35.630 00:25:51.220 Amber Lin: Okay, I think, yeah, I think we can do that usually I, we have 30 min available, and then we can do the stand up, and then for the remaining 15 min we can talk anything revenue related. Like.

119 00:25:51.940 00:26:00.000 Amber Lin: I think Emily can help answer questions. So a lot of can help answer questions. We can raise any risks or flag any issues.

120 00:26:01.630 00:26:05.760 Amber Lin: I think that’s I think that’s a good approach. If you all agree.

121 00:26:09.120 00:26:26.049 Caio Velasco: No, it sounds good to me, and Emily, remember that and I we are 2, but you are one. So you had the time to to talk to him, and that’s totally fine. And I, when I started, I was trying to just go over the models myself, which was also okay. But for now we can definitely try to

122 00:26:26.220 00:26:32.170 Caio Velasco: to to talk more in those 1015 min. And yeah, and and get things moving.

123 00:26:32.370 00:26:46.009 Caio Velasco: But yeah, no no, on my end. It was all good. I understand that you had to, you know, separate time for other things, and now that I have at least more knowledge on modeling, I think touching base would be actually even more fruitful.

124 00:26:47.860 00:27:06.260 Emily Giant: I appreciate that. I was just reflecting on on Friday, when I was reviewing your Prs. And was like I did not help him enough. I did not answer. I had too many questions. I had backlogged that I hadn’t answered, and I I appreciate your patience. We’re definitely busy, but I can. I can do better.

125 00:27:07.200 00:27:17.009 Amber Lin: Emily based on? I I know who sounds like you’re super super busy. Is there someone else say on the revenue side that can help answer these questions.

126 00:27:18.060 00:27:21.370 Emily Giant: I think Perry would be a really good person to connect with.

127 00:27:21.480 00:27:28.908 Emily Giant: He knows the definition better than anyone, and I think that that’s gonna be something we’ll need to define

128 00:27:29.550 00:27:34.470 Emily Giant: with her. And she’s worked so much with me on the models.

129 00:27:35.390 00:27:42.620 Emily Giant: that she has a really good idea. It might not be in the technical language, but she’ll point you to the right place.

130 00:27:43.150 00:27:46.200 Amber Lin: Okay, do you think we should

131 00:27:46.480 00:28:14.529 Amber Lin: get Perry on the revenue working sessions as well? So we probably got have to add her to inventory for at least a few, and then to start getting her help on revenue. Because, Emily, I think your time is not. Gonna you’re not magically, gonna have more hours. You’re still gonna be cramped as you are this week. So we probably should just include Perry. So that if we have any questions. We won’t be stuck.

132 00:28:16.160 00:28:17.469 Emily Giant: I think that’s a good idea.

133 00:28:17.470 00:28:18.080 Amber Lin: Okay.

134 00:28:18.080 00:28:26.260 Emily Giant: And and since Alex is here I don’t know if we need to, at some point like chat with Kristen, Sam, Pat.

135 00:28:26.370 00:28:29.250 Emily Giant: or any of the other stakeholders that may

136 00:28:29.570 00:28:33.599 Emily Giant: look at revenue differently than the planning team. But I have

137 00:28:34.030 00:28:41.150 Emily Giant: chatted with both Kristen, Sampat and Perry, and I know that, like their definitions of

138 00:28:41.360 00:28:44.780 Emily Giant: like top bottom line discount, etc.

139 00:28:45.260 00:28:49.759 Emily Giant: can vary. And I just wanna make sure that everyone is on the same page.

140 00:28:51.150 00:28:53.220 Emily Giant: But, Alex, do you think? Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.

141 00:28:53.220 00:28:54.609 Alex K: I think it’s worth

142 00:28:55.460 00:29:03.870 Alex K: it should be Dean Kristen and Dean aligning on what that means, and then you know how, however, they direct that.

143 00:29:04.040 00:29:07.089 Alex K: But like those those 3 parties need to

144 00:29:07.720 00:29:15.659 Alex K: align on what that means. And at the end of the day it really only matters about Dean Mark, right. But I think your point about aligning them.

145 00:29:16.480 00:29:19.396 Alex K: Dean Dean, and Kristen

146 00:29:22.030 00:29:22.830 Amber Lin: Okay.

147 00:29:22.830 00:29:29.089 Emily Giant: That’s a good call. I’ll write these names down for you, Amber especially, because there’s 2 games. I’ll tell you.

148 00:29:29.090 00:29:36.979 Amber Lin: Okay, should we book a meeting to align with them? Or is this more of an internal alignment? Okay, so we should book

149 00:29:37.400 00:29:39.299 Amber Lin: need to book.

150 00:29:39.300 00:29:43.129 Alex K: No, I think, Emily, I think you should. I don’t. I don’t.

151 00:29:43.350 00:29:59.339 Alex K: I don’t see a large need for Brainforge to spend time there unless you feel differently. But I feel like this is an internal thing. I think if there are specific questions on certain items, those should be surfaced to them. But I think this is probably.

152 00:30:00.060 00:30:05.720 Alex K: I’ll you know, proposing a definition, Emily, and then.

153 00:30:05.720 00:30:06.240 Emily Giant: Yeah.

154 00:30:06.240 00:30:10.359 Alex K: Getting there and then making sure any questions are handled.

155 00:30:11.150 00:30:20.520 Emily Giant: And it might even be, Alex. Let me know what you think of this to try doing it, Async, since they are like very literal definitions. Okay.

156 00:30:20.520 00:30:22.680 Alex K: Be like, this is an email for sure. Yeah.

157 00:30:22.680 00:30:29.599 Emily Giant: Yeah, okay, I just want things written down. I guess that was my concern about leaving brain porch out of the meeting is that when it’s not like.

158 00:30:30.720 00:30:37.379 Emily Giant: if there is extended discussion within that context. But if it’s in an email, no context will be lost.

159 00:30:40.310 00:30:51.070 Amber Lin: okay, I’ll keep. I’ll make a ticket to keep track of it. So to align on definitions with.

160 00:30:51.890 00:30:54.130 Amber Lin: And Christy.

161 00:31:00.970 00:31:04.960 Amber Lin: okay, sounds good.

162 00:31:05.500 00:31:07.150 Amber Lin: Anything else.

163 00:31:10.775 00:31:14.090 Emily Giant: No, no, I don’t think so.

164 00:31:14.090 00:31:30.990 Amber Lin: Okay, that’s great. So, Alex, I talked to Emily earlier. So we put a time on your calendar on Thursday. It should be 1230 est to go over the roadmap for revenue.

165 00:31:31.490 00:31:37.969 Amber Lin: So I’ve invited Zack you, Emily. Utam and our our team, so

166 00:31:38.350 00:31:42.060 Amber Lin: I’ll put a few as optional, but I would love to have you there.

167 00:31:42.060 00:31:43.849 Alex K: Yep, absolutely. I saw that come in.

168 00:31:44.080 00:31:45.500 Amber Lin: Okay. Awesome.

169 00:31:46.820 00:31:49.329 Amber Lin: Hey? Thanks, everybody. I’ll see you tomorrow.

170 00:31:50.090 00:31:50.880 Caio Velasco: Thank you.

171 00:31:50.990 00:31:51.620 Emily Giant: Thank you.

172 00:31:51.620 00:31:52.400 Emily Giant: You. Bye.

173 00:31:52.400 00:31:53.360 Amber Lin: Bye.