Meeting Title: FrameForge PMO Position Screening Date: 2025-08-28 Meeting participants: Guillaume Foutry, Amber Lin
WEBVTT
1 00:01:45.300 ⇒ 00:01:46.190 Guillaume Foutry: Hi, Amber.
2 00:01:46.330 ⇒ 00:01:47.349 Guillaume Foutry: Can you hear me?
3 00:01:47.350 ⇒ 00:01:48.690 Amber Lin: I can hear you.
4 00:01:49.730 ⇒ 00:01:50.730 Guillaume Foutry: Chris, how are you?
5 00:01:51.000 ⇒ 00:01:53.530 Guillaume Foutry: I’m good. How are you? What time is it for you?
6 00:01:54.180 ⇒ 00:01:56.760 Guillaume Foutry: I’m in Baltimore, so it’s, like, 12pm.
7 00:01:57.030 ⇒ 00:01:58.090 Amber Lin: Oh, okay.
8 00:01:59.080 ⇒ 00:02:23.039 Amber Lin: So this is usually a quick first-round screening. It will take about 20 minutes or so, and if we progress, there’ll be next round interviews with, our PMO advisor and our CEO, which will be more on the technical side, and just seeing if the technical skills are what we’re looking for, but this interview is mostly to get
9 00:02:23.040 ⇒ 00:02:28.850 Amber Lin: To know you a little bit more, and for you to ask questions to see if our position is a fit for you.
10 00:02:29.650 ⇒ 00:02:30.650 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, great.
11 00:02:30.650 ⇒ 00:02:31.550 Amber Lin: Yeah.
12 00:02:31.550 ⇒ 00:02:56.420 Amber Lin: So to start off, just a quick intro. I watched your Loom video, and we were very impressed, so we wanted to move on to this interview. And so I joined FrameForge about 5 months ago, and I started as a project manager, and now, I’m helping them set up the PMO and look for the people to run this department. So this position, you wouldn’t be reporting to me, you would be
13 00:02:56.420 ⇒ 00:02:59.720 Amber Lin: reporting directly to the CEO, and…
14 00:02:59.720 ⇒ 00:03:08.969 Amber Lin: You’ll also be overseeing, future project coordinators or, project managers that might come in.
15 00:03:10.580 ⇒ 00:03:12.490 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, that sounds really exciting.
16 00:03:12.640 ⇒ 00:03:24.020 Amber Lin: Yeah, so to start off, not sure if you answered it in the Loom video, but did you talk about what your career goals would be in the future?
17 00:03:25.170 ⇒ 00:03:31.270 Guillaume Foutry: I think there was a question about what would excite me and when the goals be.
18 00:03:31.270 ⇒ 00:03:31.590 Amber Lin: Hmm.
19 00:03:31.590 ⇒ 00:03:43.239 Guillaume Foutry: … I think the… in terms of goals, what would be rewarding for me… will be to…
20 00:03:44.340 ⇒ 00:03:52.769 Guillaume Foutry: as I explained, I like to build things and help people, and have an impact, and I want my work to be meaningful.
21 00:03:52.950 ⇒ 00:03:57.120 Guillaume Foutry: So, I think a goal would be to… Build.
22 00:03:57.160 ⇒ 00:04:00.520 Guillaume Foutry: An exciting product that can make a difference.
23 00:04:00.550 ⇒ 00:04:13.250 Guillaume Foutry: in people’s life, would it be from a social perspective, or in their work, in terms of, you know, facilitating, helping them make better decisions with the data they have? That’s what I was doing in my previous work.
24 00:04:13.250 ⇒ 00:04:26.790 Guillaume Foutry: At Cooper Smith, I was a program manager there for 5 years. It was a small consultancy specialized in data management and data infrastructure and data tools, but mostly for the health sector.
25 00:04:26.790 ⇒ 00:04:38.680 Guillaume Foutry: And so I was the interface between the technical team and, you know, the clients and, you know, finance and administration, and that’s something I really enjoyed.
26 00:04:38.680 ⇒ 00:04:50.939 Guillaume Foutry: So, in terms of goals, from the immediate goals, I would really enjoy to be, like, in a small, fast-paced organization, working on building exciting new tools that
27 00:04:51.620 ⇒ 00:05:09.640 Guillaume Foutry: as I say, like, help make a difference, help people make better decisions, help people better run their business. I’m just a curious person, I like to discover new things, I like to learn new things, and so what’s really important for me professionally now is just to keep on learning, and I think the field of AI is moving
28 00:05:09.700 ⇒ 00:05:23.269 Guillaume Foutry: So quickly, and it’s hard to keep up with, that, yeah, I like to get more proficient on the AI field. That’s something I’m spending a lot of time, my personal time, but it’s something I like to do more about.
29 00:05:23.510 ⇒ 00:05:36.900 Amber Lin: I see. And for your long-term career, do you want to stay in project management, or do you want to move on to, say, portfolio management, or do you want to manage a team of project managers? Like, what is that goal for you?
30 00:05:36.900 ⇒ 00:05:44.389 Guillaume Foutry: So in terms of long-term… so I have… I’ve done all of that, so I was a… I was a portfolio manager, I was managing
31 00:05:44.620 ⇒ 00:05:54.529 Guillaume Foutry: up to 6 different projects in different countries. My previous role as well was my… I was a product manager, so I had one product, but I oversaw the deployment in
32 00:05:54.980 ⇒ 00:06:08.609 Guillaume Foutry: three different markets, and started, like, market exploration market, 2 additional markets. So these are things I did and I enjoyed, and so… and also, I do enjoy managing a small team of people. So, yes, in terms of goals, I’d like to…
33 00:06:08.800 ⇒ 00:06:12.910 Guillaume Foutry: Maybe you… as you, as you laid out, maybe you move to, like.
34 00:06:12.970 ⇒ 00:06:22.790 Guillaume Foutry: or go back to, like, portfolio management. One thing I’m also exploring, or, are thinking about is more like chief of staff position.
35 00:06:22.790 ⇒ 00:06:39.070 Guillaume Foutry: Because I also have, like, a little experience in, you know, product management, budget resource management, version management, engaging with clients, engaging with a lot of stakeholders in organizations, so that’s also a position I’m, looking into, and I’m thinking about maybe the next 5 years. Sorry?
36 00:06:39.310 ⇒ 00:06:40.659 Amber Lin: A chief of staff position?
37 00:06:40.660 ⇒ 00:06:44.739 Guillaume Foutry: Yeah. Yeah, that’s something I’m thinking. I’m thinking not necessarily right now.
38 00:06:44.740 ⇒ 00:06:53.419 Amber Lin: But it’s something I started reaching out to people in my network about, hey, I’m thinking of a chief of staff position, what am I missing? What should I do?
39 00:06:53.420 ⇒ 00:06:59.949 Guillaume Foutry: What should I talk to, like, just trying to, you know, build a path toward that kind of position.
40 00:07:00.400 ⇒ 00:07:16.319 Amber Lin: Actually, I have a… I was just at a webinar yesterday about a chief of Staff position. Let me send you the link. They should have the recording on their website, so this woman, she was a Chief of staff at Google and Intel,
41 00:07:16.320 ⇒ 00:07:17.169 Guillaume Foutry: Oh, okay, thank you.
42 00:07:17.170 ⇒ 00:07:18.330 Amber Lin: so the…
43 00:07:18.460 ⇒ 00:07:27.710 Amber Lin: I think the webinar was pretty helpful, and she answered some pretty good questions, and then she also has coaching, but just a resource that I found.
44 00:07:27.710 ⇒ 00:07:31.090 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, yes, yeah, because I find it’s like a…
45 00:07:31.720 ⇒ 00:07:44.909 Guillaume Foutry: correct me if I’m wrong, but I find it’s a new role that has emerged, like, the last 3 to 5 years, and it got a lot of interest, but the path towards that role is not necessarily clear, at least for me, and so that’s something I’m potentially interested in, yeah.
46 00:07:44.910 ⇒ 00:07:47.259 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally. …
47 00:07:47.580 ⇒ 00:08:10.829 Amber Lin: Okay, and then for the next few questions, I mostly just want to ask about, your most recent experiences, get a sense of what you’re doing, and, if that’s something you want to continue to do. So right now, I see you’re serving as a project management consultant. Yeah. Mostly remote,
48 00:08:10.830 ⇒ 00:08:13.880 Amber Lin: For different companies, or is it just for one?
49 00:08:14.240 ⇒ 00:08:24.770 Guillaume Foutry: So, I’ve… I’ve mostly worked on, like, small projects for a different set of companies. One consultancy, right now I’m helping, like, an, …
50 00:08:25.460 ⇒ 00:08:38.600 Guillaume Foutry: international NGO with their fundraising and communication efforts. It’s just, just bringing some structure and organization as a PM, helping them define what are the goals you have, what are the resources you have, where do you want to go to.
51 00:08:38.600 ⇒ 00:08:46.899 Guillaume Foutry: How can we go from A to B? How can we define, like, a work plan? Just helping them bring some rigor and help the founders think about.
52 00:08:46.900 ⇒ 00:08:47.450 Amber Lin: Heidi?
53 00:08:47.690 ⇒ 00:09:02.909 Guillaume Foutry: a sense of vision, because right now, they’re spreading in any direction, they don’t have the resources, I’m helping them to align and build a plan and implement. So I’ve been doing that for a few months. In total transparency.
54 00:09:03.090 ⇒ 00:09:15.070 Guillaume Foutry: I had transitioned to a new job with the federal government, and I got dodged. That’s the verb, the word now. And so, after that happened, I… I just… I just, okay, let’s just work freelance.
55 00:09:15.070 ⇒ 00:09:30.580 Guillaume Foutry: for some time, to just expand my network and seek new opportunities at the same time, which is the reason I applied to the position with you guys. I was just really, really curious. You know, I’m a project manager through and through. A lot of the
56 00:09:30.600 ⇒ 00:09:50.489 Guillaume Foutry: tasks or activities or objectives that you described in the description are things I have done, I’m doing, or enjoy doing. I mean, if you ask all my previous employers, they will tell you I’m very dependable and very organized. And so I was like, okay, that sounds interesting. And also the idea of working for a small
57 00:09:50.490 ⇒ 00:09:58.220 Guillaume Foutry: company, a startup, working on AI, working on the just bleeding edge of what’s happening right now is interesting.
58 00:09:58.230 ⇒ 00:10:00.450 Guillaume Foutry: Personal level.
59 00:10:01.910 ⇒ 00:10:03.680 Amber Lin: I see. …
60 00:10:04.290 ⇒ 00:10:23.600 Amber Lin: That’s awesome. I do want to tell you a bit more about our, our company in a bit. I just want to finish these questions, and then I know you have questions about the firm, so I’ll answer those there. I know you were a digital health advisor, for… I think that’s also a NGO, or that’s a government organization, or a….
61 00:10:24.340 ⇒ 00:10:35.080 Amber Lin: position? Okay, I just… probably I’ll just ask about Cooper and Smith. I guess my question usually I start with is, what did they hire you for?
62 00:10:36.600 ⇒ 00:10:46.150 Guillaume Foutry: That’s a good question. They hire me because of… My… Knowledge…
63 00:10:46.580 ⇒ 00:10:57.909 Guillaume Foutry: of digital health, and the market, and the potential customers. They hired me because I had proven that I could, develop…
64 00:10:58.310 ⇒ 00:11:08.440 Guillaume Foutry: and implement a project at scale. The project I was working on for Cooper Smith, we designed a mobile application that was digital job aid for nurses in public clinics.
65 00:11:08.860 ⇒ 00:11:14.370 Guillaume Foutry: And so when I took over the project, they were in 200 facilities, and when I left, they were in over 1,000.
66 00:11:14.650 ⇒ 00:11:14.970 Amber Lin: Mmm.
67 00:11:14.970 ⇒ 00:11:21.219 Guillaume Foutry: And in the meantime, we had improved the application tremendously. I mean, it was 3 very intense years.
68 00:11:21.240 ⇒ 00:11:27.280 Guillaume Foutry: We had a small team of, like, software engineers, data people, doctors, medical doctors.
69 00:11:27.280 ⇒ 00:11:41.600 Guillaume Foutry: And just working all together to redefine the app and test it, because, you know, it’s a medical field, like, it got to work. Like, it has to work if you want to get the authorization to deploy. And so… and at the same time, as we were doing all of this, we had to look for fundraising.
70 00:11:41.690 ⇒ 00:11:54.949 Guillaume Foutry: So we managed to raise funds from the Global Fund to, like, I think 3 million, I don’t remember exactly the amount, but to deploy in more facilities. And so when I left, not only we were in one market, but we had, like.
71 00:11:55.130 ⇒ 00:12:08.489 Guillaume Foutry: launch pilots or prototypes in two other markets, and as I mentioned earlier, I was also talking to other public regulators in different countries to get the authorization to start in two additional markets.
72 00:12:08.540 ⇒ 00:12:23.340 Guillaume Foutry: So yeah, they hired for, like, you know, my knowledge of the markets, my knowledge of stakeholders, the experience in project management, not only, like, just a project, but the ability to raise additional funding and to pilot different projects at the same time.
73 00:12:23.360 ⇒ 00:12:34.800 Guillaume Foutry: Because not only I’ve become, like, the regional director, but there’s also a lot of work with, like, HQ and the innovation team, and, you know, trying out a lot of new ideas and products.
74 00:12:34.810 ⇒ 00:12:45.870 Guillaume Foutry: So, I was at the intersection of many departments, many teams, and I think they hired me for the ability to just run a portfolio of projects.
75 00:12:46.080 ⇒ 00:12:47.530 Amber Lin: Okay.
76 00:12:47.800 ⇒ 00:12:59.290 Amber Lin: … I see. And… Let’s check… …
77 00:12:59.830 ⇒ 00:13:08.600 Amber Lin: What would you say was a low point, at that position? Because, you know, I know you were there for 5 years, and that’s a very long time.
78 00:13:10.950 ⇒ 00:13:15.050 Guillaume Foutry: Low points… …
79 00:13:17.350 ⇒ 00:13:30.659 Guillaume Foutry: I mean, maybe not a low point in the sense of things were not going well, but a low point in terms of the workload was really heavy, and it was challenging, is that I was working on
80 00:13:31.000 ⇒ 00:13:36.480 Guillaume Foutry: I had one main project about, you know, a $5 million project over…
81 00:13:36.820 ⇒ 00:13:55.280 Guillaume Foutry: 2 and… yeah, $5 million over three years, let’s 3 years, and I was managing smaller projects, like, you know, two, three, four hundred thousand dollars over one year. That was manageable, one big project and a few smaller projects, and it was all good. And then they asked me if I could just take over another
82 00:13:55.380 ⇒ 00:14:15.219 Guillaume Foutry: $5 million project, on top of what I was doing. And that was really hard, because the other project was already in Gong, and it was not going very well, so I had to shift most of my attention and time to the new one, and then managing all the other ones. And so, it was a very intense…
83 00:14:15.490 ⇒ 00:14:22.500 Guillaume Foutry: initial 6 months, but I think after that, after I had put, like, some essential
84 00:14:23.420 ⇒ 00:14:42.260 Guillaume Foutry: I don’t know, pillars, steps, it helped a lot. And that was about, you know, aligning people. I realized there was a lot of misalignment internally and externally on the project, so forcing people to just align, writing things, defining priorities, and then defining a work plan and defining activities.
85 00:14:42.440 ⇒ 00:14:47.939 Guillaume Foutry: The prioritization of the backlog, because this software development team was
86 00:14:49.120 ⇒ 00:15:03.029 Guillaume Foutry: They were not oriented in the right direction. They were pushed to do something, but then this is not what the client wanted. So it was just… it was a lot of simple project management things, but it was very time-consuming. And I think what I brought was a lot of clarity.
87 00:15:03.070 ⇒ 00:15:07.400 Amber Lin: And I was… also, I brought a lot of hindsight, because I had not been there.
88 00:15:07.400 ⇒ 00:15:09.179 Guillaume Foutry: for the first year, so I could just…
89 00:15:09.900 ⇒ 00:15:21.459 Guillaume Foutry: I had no skin in the game in the sense that, nothing was my fault or was all my action. I could be this neutral person that was brought in and say, like, hey, what about this, what about that, should we change this tuition and stuff?
90 00:15:21.460 ⇒ 00:15:35.829 Guillaume Foutry: So that’s not… that was not a bad time, it was just all heavy workload, and that was to be anticipated, and after 6 months, things normalized, and I could spend less time on that project, and start delegating to the project coordinator that was there.
91 00:15:36.560 ⇒ 00:15:37.589 Guillaume Foutry: I hope I answered your question.
92 00:15:37.590 ⇒ 00:15:46.600 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally. And on that, I have a follow-up. You said there was a project coordinator. How big was your PM team, or how big was the PMO?
93 00:15:47.370 ⇒ 00:15:50.390 Guillaume Foutry: So there was…
94 00:15:53.940 ⇒ 00:15:58.989 Guillaume Foutry: I think we’re about… Let’s see, 3 to 4….
95 00:15:59.910 ⇒ 00:16:02.160 Guillaume Foutry: I was the older…
96 00:16:02.320 ⇒ 00:16:09.059 Guillaume Foutry: more senior project manager. Then we had, like, a bit of a more junior person, and then we had two
97 00:16:09.490 ⇒ 00:16:15.540 Guillaume Foutry: Project coordinator. I would describe the setup that way. It was very fluid, because we had…
98 00:16:15.690 ⇒ 00:16:24.169 Guillaume Foutry: Some key core projects that were, like, bigger projects, and then a lot of smaller projects, and so, like, some people were just there as consultants, brought in when needed.
99 00:16:24.300 ⇒ 00:16:25.559 Amber Lin: Mmm, I see.
100 00:16:26.090 ⇒ 00:16:35.990 Amber Lin: Did you guys have a PMO set up? What was the, PM processes or the governance structure like?
101 00:16:37.270 ⇒ 00:16:53.190 Guillaume Foutry: We didn’t necessarily have a PMO per se, because we’re, like, really small, and also, like, the field we work in was so unpredictable and changing. We just had, like, some core principles that we agreed on.
102 00:16:53.530 ⇒ 00:16:57.869 Guillaume Foutry: Just to keep some flexibility regarding, you know.
103 00:16:58.280 ⇒ 00:17:02.480 Guillaume Foutry: We define strong processes for finance and admin, because we had to.
104 00:17:02.650 ⇒ 00:17:17.849 Guillaume Foutry: and there’s no other way around that. And then for the product management, we just had an agreement on, like, the tools to be used, the communication mechanism, the frequency, the cadence that we would use.
105 00:17:17.849 ⇒ 00:17:23.930 Guillaume Foutry: On the project, like, you know, when we start a project, when the project is going, when the project is closing, …
106 00:17:24.420 ⇒ 00:17:44.219 Guillaume Foutry: a process for closing the project… for closing the project, you know, documents that have to be submitted, like, kind of… more like a kind of checklist. The reason is, is that, again, we’re a small company and working in, you know, with clients in West Africa, everything is so unpredictable, it changes by the day, by the week, that we couldn’t have, like, very rigid structure.
107 00:17:44.360 ⇒ 00:18:02.850 Guillaume Foutry: And so basically, some projects were more structured and more defined than others. We, just to keep things working, as I said, we had a set of principles, we had agreements that we would review, I don’t know, every quarter, we’ll sit down, all the PM, and be like, hey, is this still working for us? Should we change it? Yes, no.
108 00:18:02.850 ⇒ 00:18:08.919 Guillaume Foutry: Or there’s this new tool, should we try it? Yes, no. But we voluntarily tried to keep it
109 00:18:08.940 ⇒ 00:18:19.129 Guillaume Foutry: at a very light, structure. So, no… to answer your question, long story short, no PMO, but just a set of agreements and checklists and minimal processes.
110 00:18:19.460 ⇒ 00:18:22.120 Amber Lin: Okay, sounds good. …
111 00:18:23.960 ⇒ 00:18:33.459 Amber Lin: Okay, we’re almost at the end. I have around, let’s say, 5 more minutes free, then I want to make sure that I can answer your questions as well.
112 00:18:34.320 ⇒ 00:18:43.319 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, so I did some research about the company. The company seems fairly young, but growing very quickly.
113 00:18:43.320 ⇒ 00:18:45.290 Amber Lin: What is….
114 00:18:45.290 ⇒ 00:18:46.240 Guillaume Foutry: …
115 00:18:47.470 ⇒ 00:19:03.820 Guillaume Foutry: what is the visibility you have about this role? What is the runway you have about the company? I mean, I work for a really small company, but they always manage to have some kind of, you know, visibility on the financial situation and on the runway, and I’m just curious, like, you’re growing a lot, but how…
116 00:19:04.170 ⇒ 00:19:06.440 Guillaume Foutry: How your future looks like? What does it look like?
117 00:19:07.110 ⇒ 00:19:15.249 Amber Lin: You’re talking about financially, say, if the company wants to go IBO, get acquired, like, that type of information?
118 00:19:15.250 ⇒ 00:19:34.430 Guillaume Foutry: more about how confident you feel about the future, what is the runway you have? Like, can you say yes, you know, if you come here and that, you know, things are good, and we can make sure that you’re with us for a year or two years, or, oh, things are kind of uncertain, or… I’m just trying to get a sense of, like, the visibility you have on….
119 00:19:34.430 ⇒ 00:19:34.980 Amber Lin: Hmm, I see.
120 00:19:34.980 ⇒ 00:19:36.030 Guillaume Foutry: On your finances, yeah.
121 00:19:36.030 ⇒ 00:19:55.390 Amber Lin: Understood, yeah. So, since I joined 5 months ago, the company definitely has grown a lot. We added a few new personnel, because when I joined, it was about, say, 10 people with some part-time folks. Right now, we’re at about, say, 15 people, and when I joined, we had about
122 00:19:56.050 ⇒ 00:19:57.280 Amber Lin: Six?
123 00:19:57.650 ⇒ 00:20:17.680 Amber Lin: 6 clients, approximately, some bigger, some smaller, and right now we’re at about 10, with the same distribution of client life cycles, so I would say that, the sales engine has improved a lot, the internal ways of work has improved a lot, and I don’t see them going out of business.
124 00:20:17.680 ⇒ 00:20:26.580 Amber Lin: Anytime soon. Actually, I see them growing a lot, and if you get a chance to talk to the founder, he has a really great vision for the company that I.
125 00:20:26.580 ⇒ 00:20:26.930 Guillaume Foutry: Okay.
126 00:20:26.930 ⇒ 00:20:34.899 Amber Lin: We’re an AI-first company, and I… we do use that a lot in our work, and as a consultancy, it’s very important for us
127 00:20:35.350 ⇒ 00:20:43.450 Amber Lin: improve the speed of our work and reduce the margins, and as a PM, that’s something I look over as well. And so, having
128 00:20:43.450 ⇒ 00:21:06.240 Amber Lin: those processes makes me a lot more confident that, okay, this company is going to grow and is going to improve, because there are different things are growing revenue and then growing, your profitability. And with those metrics, I do believe down the line they would want to get acquired or, become VC-backed, but I think with our progress on…
129 00:21:06.740 ⇒ 00:21:16.120 Amber Lin: revenue growth and also our margins. I do think that’s a plausible target, maybe, say, 5, 6 years down the road. I’m pretty confident about the company.
130 00:21:16.560 ⇒ 00:21:32.570 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, thank you. The other question is that this is a remote-first role, and so how do you do remote in the company? Like, do you have a quarterly yearly retreat? How do you do your onboarding? You know, I was remote before with Coopersmiths.
131 00:21:32.600 ⇒ 00:21:38.100 Guillaume Foutry: And, I’ve learned a lot from experience, and so I’m just curious about how you do it on your end.
132 00:21:38.560 ⇒ 00:21:49.320 Amber Lin: Yeah, so our team, our clients are all US-based, so our… I’m based in the U.S, our two CEOs are based in the US, and I only have
133 00:21:49.320 ⇒ 00:22:06.019 Amber Lin: I think one or two other people based in the US. The other people are in Asia, some of them are in Pakistan, and some of them are Europe. So our team is all over the globe, and how we work remote is we just require that you have
134 00:22:06.020 ⇒ 00:22:10.710 Amber Lin: About 4 hours overlap with U.S, I would say, Eastern Time.
135 00:22:10.710 ⇒ 00:22:14.580 Amber Lin: Which, I think you’re based in the Eastern time, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
136 00:22:14.580 ⇒ 00:22:35.210 Amber Lin: And we don’t require you to do a 9-to-5 or a set days of work, as long as work gets done, and things are communicated, and say for PMs or present at client meetings, at any internal rituals, so as long as we fulfill that, you’re free to adjust your working hours. And then how we do remote is that
137 00:22:35.460 ⇒ 00:22:42.799 Amber Lin: I think at least for the US team, we meet, … I joined about 5 months ago, and…
138 00:22:42.800 ⇒ 00:22:54.300 Amber Lin: So far, we met in LA, I think, for a Q2 planning, and then, the CEO flew me out to Austin, where he was based, to meet one of our clients.
139 00:22:54.300 ⇒ 00:23:05.510 Amber Lin: So I think if you’re based in the US, there will be a lot more opportunities to meet the team in person, and we’re working on getting the international folks here sometime as well.
140 00:23:07.510 ⇒ 00:23:09.659 Guillaume Foutry: Okay, okay, alright. …
141 00:23:09.830 ⇒ 00:23:16.310 Guillaume Foutry: One other question is, like, what are you looking… there’s a job description, and it’s a good one.
142 00:23:16.420 ⇒ 00:23:23.319 Guillaume Foutry: In your words, what are you looking for? Like, how do you define success for that person? I’d like to hear it.
143 00:23:24.670 ⇒ 00:23:27.899 Amber Lin: Yeah, so I think for this role.
144 00:23:28.030 ⇒ 00:23:35.410 Amber Lin: We… this person on… once they’re onboarded, one, they will manage some projects.
145 00:23:35.550 ⇒ 00:23:51.120 Amber Lin: Because I don’t think we’re at the scale where we can afford a full-time, PMO manager. So this person would still manage some projects, probably more strategic projects, and then they would oversee the development of processes for the
146 00:23:51.120 ⇒ 00:23:56.049 Amber Lin: for the PM team. We have some in place, but we would like to iterate them and improve them.
147 00:23:56.050 ⇒ 00:24:17.829 Amber Lin: We would also like to oversee the delivery metrics of, okay, are projects delivered within these timeframes? Are all the tickets have all the metrics? Are we delivering within our margins? And how is the client satisfaction? Are we providing good work and good service to the companies? And those are the metrics that this person should oversee.
148 00:24:19.740 ⇒ 00:24:20.500 Guillaume Foutry: Okay.
149 00:24:20.720 ⇒ 00:24:26.759 Guillaume Foutry: So you said this person will initially oversee, like, a few projects, like, how many?
150 00:24:28.180 ⇒ 00:24:32.849 Amber Lin: I would say probably each PMO will oversee around 3 projects.
151 00:24:33.370 ⇒ 00:24:34.370 Amber Lin: …
152 00:24:34.820 ⇒ 00:24:43.699 Amber Lin: I would say they’re not as big as your 5 million projects. I think our biggest project right now is about $30K per month. So…
153 00:24:43.700 ⇒ 00:24:55.010 Amber Lin: probably overseeing projects around, like, one or two around 10 to 30K, and then maybe a smaller project, or say 10K-ish.
154 00:24:55.550 ⇒ 00:24:56.320 Guillaume Foutry: Okay.
155 00:24:56.550 ⇒ 00:25:12.239 Guillaume Foutry: Just one last question, if we had the time. I’d like to ask that to every company I’ve interviewed with. I can get a sense through the website and talking to you, what you’re good at. What are you not good at as a company, as an organization? What could you do better?
156 00:25:12.720 ⇒ 00:25:14.470 Guillaume Foutry: What are you trying to do better?
157 00:25:16.020 ⇒ 00:25:39.049 Amber Lin: I think overall, as a company, what we’re trying to do now and get better at and improve on is our internal processes and hiring the right people, because in the past, we had a lot of contractors come in and out, and they were not dedicated to the completion of the work, which is very understandable. Their goal was to earn the money for the hours, and we understand that.
158 00:25:39.050 ⇒ 00:25:47.809 Amber Lin: And so, right now, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to find a team of top performers, trying to find a team that cares about the work, and…
159 00:25:47.810 ⇒ 00:25:50.730 Amber Lin: … wants to…
160 00:25:50.980 ⇒ 00:26:06.840 Amber Lin: own the work and take it to the next level. So one of it is on recruiting and hiring. And the other part right now, what we’re focusing on is on delivery, and hence why we’re hiring for this role. So we want someone to make sure that the work we deliver
161 00:26:07.080 ⇒ 00:26:18.989 Amber Lin: It’s good quality, which usually is not a problem, but also that we do it within budget, do it so that the company has still a margin of profit left, and that we do it in a way that
162 00:26:18.990 ⇒ 00:26:28.450 Amber Lin: We’re reducing the cost down the road, as in we’re summarizing the lessons learned, and then implementing processes that reduce the cost in the future.
163 00:26:29.770 ⇒ 00:26:32.699 Guillaume Foutry: Oh, that’s… that sounds really interesting. …
164 00:26:33.220 ⇒ 00:26:36.709 Guillaume Foutry: I don’t have more questions, I see that we’re 6 minutes over time.
165 00:26:37.070 ⇒ 00:26:38.150 Guillaume Foutry: So….
166 00:26:38.780 ⇒ 00:26:45.150 Amber Lin: Yeah, totally. I really enjoyed talking to you. I think, one thing that I want to bring up is you said you want to work with.
167 00:26:45.150 ⇒ 00:26:51.129 Guillaume Foutry: Oh, I’m sorry, you’re breaking in, your voice is getting, like, robotic. Do you mind repeating? I couldn’t hear you very well.
168 00:26:51.130 ⇒ 00:26:54.220 Amber Lin: Oh, all good. I remember you said…
169 00:26:54.330 ⇒ 00:27:08.300 Amber Lin: you wanted to work on a company with a product, we don’t really have a product in the company. We service consultancy, so we provide data services, we provide some AI services, so we don’t necessarily have.
170 00:27:08.300 ⇒ 00:27:09.700 Guillaume Foutry: Okay.
171 00:27:09.700 ⇒ 00:27:13.880 Amber Lin: So I just want to bring that up, if that’s something that’s important to you.
172 00:27:14.380 ⇒ 00:27:18.689 Guillaume Foutry: I’m in… You know, I, I, I, I….
173 00:27:18.850 ⇒ 00:27:21.939 Amber Lin: I think the most important… the key things to me….
174 00:27:22.110 ⇒ 00:27:28.069 Guillaume Foutry: is that I’m working in a team of smart people, we’re all pulling in the same direction.
175 00:27:28.480 ⇒ 00:27:33.369 Guillaume Foutry: Leadership states very clearly where we’re going and what needs to be done.
176 00:27:33.540 ⇒ 00:27:39.169 Guillaume Foutry: And our work… … Makes sense and has an impact.
177 00:27:39.940 ⇒ 00:27:44.079 Guillaume Foutry: Like, if it has this… and there’s the opportunity for, like, growth and progression.
178 00:27:44.080 ⇒ 00:27:45.300 Amber Lin: Like.
179 00:27:45.300 ⇒ 00:28:03.589 Guillaume Foutry: I… as I said, like, I enjoy building digital tools, I enjoy, like, solving problems, and I think what you are doing, it’s just a start. That’s… that’s my understanding, like, the company is just getting started, and the field of AI is moving so quickly, so much, that I think it’s just…
180 00:28:03.920 ⇒ 00:28:11.319 Guillaume Foutry: this is the right time to be flexible and try a lot of things. And that… that is exciting. That is really, really, really exciting.
181 00:28:11.700 ⇒ 00:28:24.460 Amber Lin: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time. I’m gonna relay this to the CEO and my PN advisor, and then I think they’ll get back to you within, a week or two.
182 00:28:24.580 ⇒ 00:28:26.770 Amber Lin: So you’ll be back within that time frame.
183 00:28:26.770 ⇒ 00:28:27.719 Guillaume Foutry: No problem.
184 00:28:28.030 ⇒ 00:28:29.489 Amber Lin: Alright, thank you so much.
185 00:28:29.490 ⇒ 00:28:30.630 Guillaume Foutry: Well, thank you so much, have a great day.
186 00:28:30.630 ⇒ 00:28:31.850 Amber Lin: Bye.