Meeting Title: EP Team Weekly Planning Sync Date: 2026-01-27 Meeting participants: Mustafa Raja, Amber Lin, Pranav Narahari, Clarence Stone, Sheshu Chandrasekar


WEBVTT

1 00:02:42.580 00:02:43.520 Pranav Narahari: Hey, guys.

2 00:02:44.600 00:02:45.880 Clarence Stone: Hello, hello!

3 00:02:46.630 00:02:47.470 Amber Lin: Hi there.

4 00:02:48.160 00:02:48.800 Mustafa Raja: Yay.

5 00:02:53.980 00:02:55.909 Pranav Narahari: Clarence, you’re in San Antonio, right?

6 00:02:56.360 00:02:57.200 Clarence Stone: Yep.

7 00:02:57.910 00:02:59.950 Pranav Narahari: How’s, the weekend been for you?

8 00:03:00.320 00:03:05.420 Clarence Stone: Dude, it’s freezing, this is unreasonable. There’s nowhere else to move.

9 00:03:05.740 00:03:17.419 Pranav Narahari: Yeah. I didn’t, I hung out with, like, friends for the first time, like, since Friday yesterday, and I was just like, that’s insane that I’m in Austin, and, like, that’s what I’m experiencing right now.

10 00:03:18.280 00:03:24.669 Clarence Stone: Yeah, we have, like, 2 or 3 solid weeks of winter, where, like, you can’t really do much.

11 00:03:24.980 00:03:30.159 Clarence Stone: and it’s, I don’t know, it’s starting to feel like more every… every year.

12 00:03:30.810 00:03:32.349 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, yeah.

13 00:03:34.260 00:03:38.569 Pranav Narahari: Even today, I lost power, actually, for, like, 3 hours. 2 hours, maybe.

14 00:03:44.320 00:03:49.270 Clarence Stone: No way, like, just… Well, I guess it’s cold. Our grid sucks.

15 00:03:49.980 00:03:51.290 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, yeah.

16 00:03:54.400 00:04:00.409 Pranav Narahari: I just thought today would be like, okay, things are, you know, getting better. I thought we were, like, we’re past the worst of things.

17 00:04:04.570 00:04:08.540 Clarence Stone: No, it’s gonna be cold again this weekend. I don’t know if you saw, there’s another cold front.

18 00:04:08.870 00:04:12.199 Pranav Narahari: Oh man, I did not see that.

19 00:04:12.890 00:04:14.550 Clarence Stone: We’re not out of it yet.

20 00:04:14.720 00:04:15.610 Pranav Narahari: Oh, man.

21 00:04:19.959 00:04:28.079 Clarence Stone: And if you recall, like, the worst cold that we had was in February, right, when we had that snow apocalypse. So, we still have another month.

22 00:04:29.200 00:04:34.350 Pranav Narahari: Oh, shoot, I wasn’t in Austin last February, so… Okay, that’s…

23 00:04:34.350 00:04:34.890 Clarence Stone: Oh, no.

24 00:04:34.890 00:04:36.440 Pranav Narahari: what I want to hear.

25 00:04:36.440 00:04:39.200 Clarence Stone: February of 21. It was really fun.

26 00:04:39.200 00:04:39.840 Pranav Narahari: one.

27 00:04:40.010 00:04:41.290 Pranav Narahari: Oh, okay, okay.

28 00:04:42.590 00:04:44.920 Clarence Stone: It was the last time it snowed in San Antonio.

29 00:04:46.230 00:04:47.660 Pranav Narahari: Jeez, wow.

30 00:04:48.250 00:05:01.820 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, so I moved to Austin in, Jan 2023, and then I was here until, like, end of 2024, and then I just came back for, like… I’m just gonna be here for, like, 2 months, and then probably going back to Massachusetts.

31 00:05:02.170 00:05:04.929 Clarence Stone: Oh, you’re… you moved from Massachusetts?

32 00:05:05.440 00:05:07.190 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, that’s alright, that’s where I grew up.

33 00:05:08.280 00:05:10.040 Clarence Stone: Wearing masks, can I ask?

34 00:05:10.480 00:05:12.819 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, Central Mass, Worcester, I don’t know if you’ve.

35 00:05:12.820 00:05:14.260 Clarence Stone: Oh, okay. Yeah.

36 00:05:14.260 00:05:14.780 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.

37 00:05:15.110 00:05:16.169 Clarence Stone: Cool area.

38 00:05:16.520 00:05:19.930 Pranav Narahari: Okay, yeah, you’ve… have you been around there, like, in the…

39 00:05:19.930 00:05:26.579 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I grew up in Jersey. My parents had a, beach house in, the Cape.

40 00:05:26.960 00:05:27.820 Pranav Narahari: Oh, no way.

41 00:05:28.600 00:05:30.790 Clarence Stone: So, I used to go there every summer.

42 00:05:31.200 00:05:34.060 Pranav Narahari: Gotcha, gotcha, okay. Yeah, Jersey’s not too far.

43 00:05:34.610 00:05:35.749 Pranav Narahari: I have family there.

44 00:05:39.210 00:05:40.620 Clarence Stone: Edison.

45 00:05:41.500 00:05:43.650 Pranav Narahari: Oh, you have… you were living in Edison?

46 00:05:43.650 00:05:50.340 Clarence Stone: No, I was gonna ask you, is your family in Edison? Because, like, the food there is amazing.

47 00:05:50.340 00:05:54.590 Pranav Narahari: No, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, there is, there’s a lot of people in Edison,

48 00:05:54.940 00:05:58.860 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, the food is… the Indian food is insane there, it’s so good.

49 00:05:59.080 00:06:07.049 Pranav Narahari: But, no, my family lives in New Brunswick. I’m adopted Indian. Oh, really?

50 00:06:07.050 00:06:09.629 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I grew up eating Indian food. Like, it’s just…

51 00:06:09.630 00:06:10.020 Pranav Narahari: So, like.

52 00:06:10.020 00:06:12.689 Clarence Stone: I’m outside of the border, so… yeah.

53 00:06:12.690 00:06:18.439 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, yeah. No, I bet, like, being in New Jersey, like, there’s so many different Indian restaurants there, like…

54 00:06:18.550 00:06:20.660 Pranav Narahari: It’s… it’s actually, like, surprising.

55 00:06:21.910 00:06:22.570 Clarence Stone: Yeah.

56 00:06:23.900 00:06:29.150 Clarence Stone: Yeah, it’s, Edison’s where you go for the good food. New Brunswick, you said? That’s by Rutgers, right?

57 00:06:29.370 00:06:32.980 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, near Rutgers. I think it’s, like, 10, 15 minutes from Rutgers.

58 00:06:35.370 00:06:37.700 Clarence Stone: Those are all my old stomping grounds.

59 00:06:37.700 00:06:40.729 Pranav Narahari: I ran away to avoid paying taxes.

60 00:06:41.350 00:06:44.280 Pranav Narahari: Yup, yup, that makes sense. And, cold, I bet.

61 00:06:45.030 00:06:48.699 Clarence Stone: It’s not the cold, it’s more the shoveling the snow.

62 00:06:49.880 00:06:53.090 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, the… that’s… that’s part of it, yeah.

63 00:06:53.430 00:06:55.900 Clarence Stone: It’s… It’s brutal.

64 00:06:56.320 00:06:57.150 Clarence Stone: Yeah.

65 00:06:58.830 00:07:00.020 Pranav Narahari: I’m with you there.

66 00:07:05.010 00:07:06.319 Pranav Narahari: How’s it going, Shaishu?

67 00:07:10.260 00:07:12.400 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sorry, I was speaking on mute. Hey, how’s it going?

68 00:07:13.800 00:07:15.050 Pranav Narahari: All good, all good.

69 00:07:16.900 00:07:19.329 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Just, it’s been pretty busy.

70 00:07:19.810 00:07:24.110 Sheshu Chandrasekar: just, you know, juggling between Slack channels and stuff like that, so…

71 00:07:27.730 00:07:36.270 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, that makes sense. I was, talking to… actually, maybe we… Cheshu, maybe we were all talking about this on Friday when we were in, the WeWork.

72 00:07:37.430 00:07:40.759 Pranav Narahari: Like, how it’d be cool to, like, set up, like…

73 00:07:41.070 00:07:45.870 Pranav Narahari: you know, working blocks, so, like, Slack isn’t as, like…

74 00:07:46.210 00:07:49.020 Pranav Narahari: we don’t get that slack anxiety, you know? Like, if something comes.

75 00:07:49.020 00:07:49.510 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.

76 00:07:49.750 00:07:50.550 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Right.

77 00:07:50.550 00:07:58.080 Pranav Narahari: You know, completely context-switched to… To reply, but… Yeah, something to think about.

78 00:08:04.330 00:08:06.379 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I know, that… that makes a lot of sense.

79 00:08:07.830 00:08:16.200 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Maybe we can add in our Google Calendars. I notice in Utom’s calendar, sometimes, like, just working blocks, and I really like that you started implementing that system.

80 00:08:16.930 00:08:22.999 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, I think I’m just… I’m gonna start doing that for… I might just update my calendar for the rest of this week, and then future weeks.

81 00:08:30.910 00:08:33.310 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Awesome, so are we waiting on anyone else right now?

82 00:08:35.950 00:08:39.119 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Because I believe Casey is out, if I’m correct.

83 00:08:40.370 00:08:43.719 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, Casey’s feeling sick, so he’s probably not gonna make it.

84 00:08:44.250 00:08:46.390 Clarence Stone: Okay, I think we’ve got everyone, then.

85 00:08:50.280 00:08:54.409 Mustafa Raja: I think Ashwini is missing, but I think it might be late for him.

86 00:08:55.610 00:08:56.670 Clarence Stone: For who?

87 00:08:57.010 00:08:58.210 Mustafa Raja: for Ashwini.

88 00:08:58.210 00:09:06.060 Clarence Stone: Oh, Ashmini, that’s right, we are missing Ashmini. I mean, those two are the ones that I really want to make sure are here as well.

89 00:09:09.300 00:09:17.469 Amber Lin: Would you guys want to find, a time in the US morning section? That would probably be better for both of them.

90 00:09:18.340 00:09:23.500 Amber Lin: Like, this is a pretty late time for Asian and Asia and Europe time zones.

91 00:09:25.820 00:09:26.830 Pranav Narahari: That works for me.

92 00:09:27.560 00:09:28.250 Mustafa Raja: Yeah.

93 00:09:28.420 00:09:29.180 Amber Lin: Yeah.

94 00:09:30.750 00:09:36.050 Amber Lin: Oh, and Pranav, you were talking about working blocks. I usually block off

95 00:09:36.210 00:09:39.930 Amber Lin: So for me, like, after 2PM,

96 00:09:40.070 00:09:44.869 Amber Lin: Or after 12, if you can do it, and I bunch all of my meetings in the morning.

97 00:09:45.100 00:09:48.310 Amber Lin: Because that works with people’s time zones better anyways.

98 00:09:49.050 00:09:50.810 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, that makes sense.

99 00:09:50.810 00:09:51.540 Amber Lin: Yeah.

100 00:09:51.850 00:09:53.340 Pranav Narahari: I’ll probably start doing that.

101 00:09:54.920 00:10:01.489 Amber Lin: Yeah. Do we want to move this meeting to, say, Tuesday morning?

102 00:10:03.240 00:10:06.240 Amber Lin: Because I don’t want to keep missing Ashrini.

103 00:10:06.400 00:10:07.800 Clarence Stone: Yeah, let’s…

104 00:10:07.800 00:10:08.440 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah.

105 00:10:08.890 00:10:22.599 Clarence Stone: Let’s try to move it to, like, sometime later this week, though, because I do want to get a planner session in, Amber. I agree with you. Let’s try to find a time that works for everybody. I didn’t even know that, like, this conflicted with other people’s time zones.

106 00:10:22.600 00:10:33.309 Amber Lin: Okay, awesome. Who’s the… let me check. Utah’s the owner of this meeting, so I don’t think we can move it. Maybe if we transfer it to…

107 00:10:33.820 00:10:37.450 Amber Lin: Someone on the ops team, and then they can move it.

108 00:10:38.070 00:10:43.140 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I’m chatting with you, Tom, right now, we’ll figure out… Oh, okay.

109 00:10:43.140 00:10:51.769 Amber Lin: Yeah, seems like Wednesday morning’s pretty open, yeah, probably tomorrow or Thursday.

110 00:10:52.430 00:10:59.709 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I need it to be Thursday if I’m gonna be in, because I have a full-day session with a client tomorrow. Okay.

111 00:11:00.200 00:11:05.000 Clarence Stone: Sounds good. But I can bump anything on Thursday to make this meeting happen, so…

112 00:11:05.670 00:11:14.310 Amber Lin: Yeah, let me see… okay. Thursday, I see that you have… Okay.

113 00:11:16.540 00:11:21.720 Amber Lin: Well, it seems like Thursday at, like… Hmm…

114 00:11:22.030 00:11:30.489 Clarence Stone: So the super early times that I have blocked, you can book them. Like, I just didn’t want to take a meeting before 8 AM.

115 00:11:30.490 00:11:38.859 Amber Lin: Yeah, I… same here. I wouldn’t be able to make that. Let’s see…

116 00:11:39.080 00:11:41.860 Clarence Stone: Because then we have the stand-ups, and then I have.

117 00:11:41.860 00:11:43.099 Amber Lin: I was thinking…

118 00:11:43.750 00:11:51.079 Amber Lin: I was thinking if we can just put it after the stand-up, but then it would be 30 minutes. Do you need a full hour?

119 00:11:53.270 00:11:55.799 Clarence Stone: I think I do…

120 00:11:55.800 00:11:58.309 Amber Lin: Okay. Okay. I think we should…

121 00:11:58.670 00:12:06.699 Amber Lin: Would you find a time and just make sure to… let people know, I think… I think it’s…

122 00:12:06.860 00:12:09.460 Amber Lin: Probably the…

123 00:12:10.250 00:12:21.520 Amber Lin: My 10 AM, so your 12pm, seems like that’s open, except for Srini’s and Shishu’s session. So, if you guys can move that, I think that would work on Thursday.

124 00:12:21.520 00:12:23.739 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, I can move it, you can just go ahead and propose it.

125 00:12:23.740 00:12:24.430 Amber Lin: Okay.

126 00:12:24.660 00:12:25.479 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I’ll let Fishman.

127 00:12:25.480 00:12:26.709 Amber Lin: I’m gonna move it there.

128 00:12:27.920 00:12:28.484 Amber Lin: Mmm…

129 00:12:37.240 00:12:40.160 Clarence Stone: Alright, I’m gonna block that time on my side, too.

130 00:12:40.160 00:12:40.880 Amber Lin: Okay.

131 00:12:41.330 00:12:50.250 Amber Lin: So, I only moved this week’s session, I’m gonna check for a better time, for weeklies.

132 00:12:50.920 00:12:51.500 Clarence Stone: Yeah.

133 00:12:51.500 00:12:56.690 Amber Lin: Next week, because we might… do you want to have it earlier in the week? Does that make sense?

134 00:12:56.900 00:13:00.359 Amber Lin: Or should we have it later in the… later in the week?

135 00:13:03.660 00:13:09.970 Clarence Stone: I don’t care either way. I, you know, I wanna pick a time that’s gonna… where people are gonna show up, I think.

136 00:13:10.250 00:13:10.930 Amber Lin: Okay.

137 00:13:11.280 00:13:19.120 Amber Lin: Okay, then once… I think I just need confirmation from Ashrini, so once we meet on Thursday… You think?

138 00:13:19.500 00:13:20.930 Amber Lin: Then we’ll confirm.

139 00:13:22.310 00:13:23.220 Amber Lin: Okay.

140 00:13:25.280 00:13:32.440 Amber Lin: Alright, that’s all from me. We’ll meet on Thursday. Anything else we need to prep before then?

141 00:13:32.640 00:13:43.270 Clarence Stone: Yeah, I’m not gonna waste a moment of having everybody on this call, so since everybody’s on this call, I might as well share with everyone what’s gonna happen with these calls.

142 00:13:43.420 00:13:55.480 Clarence Stone: So, there’s been a huge, set of requests from EPs asking for, exact list of things that they need to create or generate, and,

143 00:13:55.480 00:14:17.140 Clarence Stone: you know, once you guys have some time in these projects, you’ll realize that it’s not possible for anybody to give you a determinate list that’s fully comprehensive of work products that are related to any given project. But what I can do is express to you how important your role is, by giving you an example of what that,

144 00:14:17.150 00:14:31.910 Clarence Stone: that role is going to be asked of within the organization. So, if you’re an engagement planner, here’s a list of questions that people will probably ask you, and you should definitely be able to answer and know. So, based on that, I created this,

145 00:14:32.130 00:14:49.080 Clarence Stone: list of questions, and you’ll notice it’s pretty straightforward. It’s things that you should expect to be able to ask each other, right? So, like, where are your project files being stored? Right? Where’s, tell me about your project. What’s in the SOW? What does it involve?

146 00:14:49.080 00:14:53.129 Clarence Stone: Right? Like, where can I find your Gantt chart? Where are you keeping your timelines?

147 00:14:53.130 00:15:12.150 Clarence Stone: all the way to more complex questions, like, you know, how are you making sure that the team is meeting high-quality standards for deliverables? Or, how do you know how the client’s feeling about your project right now, right? So I created this assessment, and what’s going to happen is.

148 00:15:12.380 00:15:37.079 Clarence Stone: Amber’s gonna walk through each of these sections and walk you guys through how she thinks about it, how she’s approaching these challenges, and we’re gonna have a discussion to make sure that everybody understands how to at least answer these questions in relation to their projects. And guys, trust me, by doing this, we will have solved the actual checklist of things that EP should be doing on a day-to-day basis monitoring.

149 00:15:37.080 00:15:43.919 Clarence Stone: during your engagement. So, for everybody on this call, well, technically, specifically Mustafa and Pranav.

150 00:15:43.920 00:16:07.569 Clarence Stone: please take a look at this document. I’m going to drop this in our EP chat. This is how I will be testing whether or not you have the right documents. So, Mustafa, I’m not going to ask you to say, hey, show me, you know, your Gantt chart and explain it to me. I’ll be like, hey, tell me about what’s going on on your project. Tell me where the progress is, right? Show that to me. And you might just bring up that Gantt chart to explain it to me.

151 00:16:07.570 00:16:32.460 Clarence Stone: I want to show you guys that these work products are not things that I’m just asking you to do just because, right? This is… this is not because we want to give you busy work. I want to show you that it helps you answer really critical questions that is essentially the glue that keeps this team together and moving forward. So, we’re going to try this approach, but I… I will say again, like I said last

152 00:16:32.460 00:16:33.940 Clarence Stone: week, you know.

153 00:16:33.940 00:16:57.170 Clarence Stone: you should be driving towards getting all the documentation related to your projects up to date. And if it’s not happening, or you have questions, or you have follow-ups, or concerns, please reach out to me, please talk to your team, please take steps to communicate with each other, because if I don’t know exactly how I can help you, I’m not sure, you know, what to build for you, what process to put into place.

154 00:16:57.170 00:17:06.080 Clarence Stone: we, like, we all want you guys to succeed. So, yeah, the silence is sometimes scary. I sort of want to update on how things are going from y’all’s side, so…

155 00:17:06.280 00:17:24.890 Clarence Stone: with that, I don’t want to close this meeting without asking, Amber, Mustafa, Pranav, each one of you, how are things going? Do you need help? Do you need support? And what’s going on on your projects that… that you may need support on? So…

156 00:17:24.960 00:17:27.530 Clarence Stone: Well, we’ll start with Amber, she’s first on my list.

157 00:17:30.910 00:17:39.619 Amber Lin: Since last time we met, I’ve been able to, organize my Notion a bit more, so that will help

158 00:17:39.940 00:17:47.620 Amber Lin: people know what documents are still active. I think something that I was able to do that was helpful was to

159 00:17:47.700 00:18:04.990 Amber Lin: Make sure that things that’s no longer active have an archive status, and be able to hide that using the database views. So, next time somebody gets onboarded to ABC, I will be able to say, hey, these are all the documents you need.

160 00:18:04.990 00:18:15.960 Amber Lin: This is for the architecture, this is for the client context. If you read these 5 documents, you’ll be good to go. So, I think that’s the progress I have.

161 00:18:17.160 00:18:18.770 Clarence Stone: Awesome, that’s amazing.

162 00:18:23.240 00:18:25.900 Clarence Stone: Pranav, Mustafa wants to go next.

163 00:18:26.290 00:18:44.419 Mustafa Raja: Yeah, so for my project, the project is, going pretty good. In terms of Notion, I did update a few things in the Notion, document, but I think I need to, do some more over there to be able to, point anyone onboarding to

164 00:18:44.470 00:18:49.619 Mustafa Raja: A section of it, so they have the full image of what’s going on.

165 00:18:51.090 00:19:00.370 Mustafa Raja: we have all the Gantt charts, and a pretty good Google Drive set up, so I feel pretty good about that.

166 00:19:03.520 00:19:04.800 Clarence Stone: Cool, sounds good.

167 00:19:07.250 00:19:08.360 Clarence Stone: Pranav?

168 00:19:08.710 00:19:14.209 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, and for me, also feeling pretty good about the past week’s progress,

169 00:19:14.670 00:19:26.290 Pranav Narahari: things were a lot more busy in the first couple weeks, because we were finishing out, like, the Gantt charts for, like, Phase 2 and Phase 3 for Lilo, but since then, we’ve started Phase 2, and so, like.

170 00:19:26.330 00:19:38.050 Pranav Narahari: the Gantt charts have been relatively, like, you know, unchanged. There’s been a little bit of scope change, but that hasn’t really affected timeline at all, so… hasn’t been too much to worry about.

171 00:19:38.120 00:19:50.279 Pranav Narahari: one thing that I’ve been thinking about today that maybe it’s a good time to bring it up is, Utam mentioned, so he’s currently listed as, like, the CSO for Lilo, but he’s becoming, like.

172 00:19:50.740 00:19:59.639 Pranav Narahari: passing that over to me, like, slowly and slowly, and I think this week was, like, he’s, like, basically, like, pretty hands-off on Lilo.

173 00:19:59.920 00:20:06.289 Pranav Narahari: And I think I’ll be filling in as CSO there, and I believe that means that…

174 00:20:06.580 00:20:12.139 Pranav Narahari: because I’m pretty sure, like, one person shouldn’t be both EP and CSO,

175 00:20:12.260 00:20:28.279 Pranav Narahari: And so I think I’ll need to, like, off-board as EP, and so maybe, like, what does that look like? To me, that’s kind of just, like, transferring all of these, like, materials to who would likely be Casey as the EP for this client.

176 00:20:28.540 00:20:36.759 Pranav Narahari: And so that’s just kind of, like, top of mind for me right now. But in terms of just, like, managing the client as an EP, everything seems pretty good.

177 00:20:39.960 00:20:47.950 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, I guess one thing, though, for Instagan, I had to, like I mentioned, there was a little bit of, like, scope updates for Phase 2,

178 00:20:48.370 00:20:52.560 Pranav Narahari: I felt pretty confident with, like, our resourcing for,

179 00:20:52.920 00:21:08.740 Pranav Narahari: the next couple of weeks that we’d be able to, like, we’d be able to still hit goals, even with the additional scope. So, I just added it to, like, Instagant, just, like, we have, like, an ad hoc, section where I just added 2 more tasks, or 3 more tests in there.

180 00:21:08.890 00:21:17.849 Pranav Narahari: I think that sounds like the right thing to do, if you guys have any, like, notes on that, how I should be, like, tracking that.

181 00:21:18.100 00:21:22.259 Pranav Narahari: Let me know. But, yeah, no, no, nothing else other than that.

182 00:21:22.830 00:21:26.279 Clarence Stone: So, was Lilo the project that went from 10 to 20?

183 00:21:28.160 00:21:30.089 Pranav Narahari: 10 to 20…

184 00:21:30.290 00:21:32.039 Clarence Stone: In engagement size per month.

185 00:21:32.650 00:21:33.140 Clarence Stone: Yeah.

186 00:21:33.140 00:21:35.269 Pranav Narahari: Yes, I think so. I’m pretty sure, yeah.

187 00:21:35.270 00:21:56.040 Clarence Stone: So, one of the things that popped up that Utam seemed a little annoyed with was that, like, he was getting pings from the client where it wasn’t entirely clear to the client what the scope change was. So, if it helps, here’s a pro tip, Pranav. Like, you know how you were building out, like, different,

188 00:21:56.320 00:22:05.569 Clarence Stone: like, outcomes for your Gantt chart, where you’re like, hey, if we do this fast, it looks like this. If we do it, you know, with the normal timing, it looks like this.

189 00:22:05.660 00:22:12.369 Clarence Stone: I would have created a separate Gantt to fit that new 20K a month engagement.

190 00:22:12.370 00:22:31.809 Clarence Stone: So that, like, if there was ever any questions, at least in the short term from the client, you can say, hey, this was our previous agreed-upon velocity and arrangement, and now that, you know, it’s a 20K engagement, and we’re supercharging this engagement, this is the new, up-to-date, like.

191 00:22:32.350 00:22:34.260 Clarence Stone: you know, Gantt chart.

192 00:22:34.710 00:22:37.159 Clarence Stone: Right, so you can show them side by side.

193 00:22:37.670 00:22:41.329 Clarence Stone: And say, this is why, you know, your delivery is going to be faster.

194 00:22:42.620 00:22:59.230 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, that makes sense. So, what happened was, yeah, I initially, I guess, scoped it for… I didn’t know what the numbers were, I just knew, like, it went from, you know, slower to faster. So, like, so that initial, like, just slower, I guess,

195 00:22:59.360 00:23:09.489 Pranav Narahari: cycle, I built out the Gantt chart, assuming, I think, like, 30 hours per week, and now it looks like it’s doubled, so, like, probably 60 hours a week, and I think…

196 00:23:09.770 00:23:14.480 Pranav Narahari: In that call, Utam just, like, updated the Gantt chart, like…

197 00:23:14.620 00:23:21.799 Pranav Narahari: Directly, and so maybe what we should have done is just, like, created, like, a copy, and then, you know, condensed the…

198 00:23:22.580 00:23:30.779 Pranav Narahari: this… the… the Gantt chart to, like, reflect the… the new… Like, week-to-week progress.

199 00:23:31.520 00:23:41.910 Clarence Stone: Yeah, and that’s okay, you know, to just go in and update it. It’s just, like, communicating that back to the client is important, so,

200 00:23:41.910 00:23:42.740 Pranav Narahari: Gotcha, yeah.

201 00:23:42.740 00:23:56.279 Clarence Stone: you can cover what your original plans were, but, like, you can bring that back up and just say, like, this was the old one, this is the new one, right? Make sure you really send that message home to the client that they’re getting way more, like.

202 00:23:56.780 00:23:57.440 Pranav Narahari: Right.

203 00:23:57.440 00:24:03.760 Clarence Stone: for the double in fees, you’re going 100% faster, essentially, right? So, like…

204 00:24:03.780 00:24:04.700 Pranav Narahari: if…

205 00:24:04.760 00:24:11.140 Clarence Stone: if I saw a message like this, right, you know, because Utam dropped the message right in the chat,

206 00:24:11.140 00:24:11.460 Pranav Narahari: Right.

207 00:24:11.460 00:24:28.629 Clarence Stone: And it pretty much says, like, this is great for all the other, you know, planners that are listening, right? So basically, I’ll read this line for line. Just want to make sure you’re tracking what we agree to, as I don’t think we’ve made any progress on forecasting, which was the main goal of the 20K this month.

208 00:24:28.790 00:24:30.109 Clarence Stone: Right, so…

209 00:24:30.110 00:24:50.670 Clarence Stone: I, like, I would, in the next touchpoints with the client, directly say, hey, this was our prior, you know, project plan, this is our new project plan, notice that it does have a huge focus on forecasting, like we promised, and it is much faster, like we promised, right?

210 00:24:50.670 00:24:51.200 Pranav Narahari: Yep.

211 00:24:52.110 00:24:52.909 Clarence Stone: And then…

212 00:24:52.910 00:24:54.309 Pranav Narahari: I totally agree, yep.

213 00:24:54.310 00:25:03.369 Clarence Stone: Like, and if they’re still doing this, you can keep doing this on your slide deck, saying, like, originally projected for this date, and now we’re giving it to you this week.

214 00:25:04.500 00:25:08.680 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, let me… let me find that data, because I think one thing I didn’t do…

215 00:25:08.680 00:25:14.409 Clarence Stone: They’re gonna complain about this, like, you can just rub it in their face until it becomes obvious that they’re getting it faster.

216 00:25:14.680 00:25:24.840 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the thing is, too, like, with this client is… and the progress is, like, we are, like, ahead of schedule, I would say.

217 00:25:25.320 00:25:29.979 Pranav Narahari: like, with, with even, like, the faster timeline. So…

218 00:25:29.980 00:25:49.060 Clarence Stone: So this is another great planner topic. Like, you… you are the gatekeeper to the velocity of what’s happening in your team. And I did catch Utam say that last week, that, you know, you guys are working really fast, and you can… it’s totally fine to slow it down. So if you see velocity exceeding, right, like.

219 00:25:49.320 00:26:05.690 Clarence Stone: you can dial it back down and say, hey, let’s double-check our work, let’s take, you know, a couple sprints to review, the scope or, like, review the work that we have to do. If you’re ahead of schedule, use that time to improve quality, too. That’s another lever you have.

220 00:26:06.240 00:26:06.770 Pranav Narahari: Yep.

221 00:26:10.940 00:26:22.719 Pranav Narahari: That makes sense. Yeah. So, yeah, yesterday, yeah, when I saw Utam get that DM from, the client, yeah, what I did was basically send them, like, immediately, like, a Slack message to kind of…

222 00:26:22.830 00:26:39.330 Pranav Narahari: give them, like, that end-of-day update on the main feature that they were hoping to get, which they’re still getting, but maybe they weren’t getting updates on. And then, yeah, what I’m realizing, too, with, like, this client, like, what they actually care about versus…

223 00:26:39.620 00:26:49.119 Pranav Narahari: and matching that with the updates that we give. Like, there’s certain updates that we give in the Slack channel, and, like, they just don’t even respond to it, when I feel like, oh, that’s actually, like.

224 00:26:49.600 00:26:56.240 Pranav Narahari: you know, they’re pretty good updates. So, yeah, it’s a little bit of, like, a learning process there that.

225 00:26:56.390 00:26:57.820 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, getting better at.

226 00:26:58.760 00:27:06.860 Clarence Stone: Okay, cool. Yeah, so, I mean, I think this is a good topic to remind everyone on the planner call. It’s like, like, that… that…

227 00:27:08.510 00:27:21.270 Clarence Stone: factor of controlling what is, you know, being performed on a project, on a week-to-week basis, month-to-month basis, right, is on you guys as the planners.

228 00:27:21.270 00:27:35.110 Clarence Stone: And, for example, Mustafa, like, dude, you did such a great job with the slide deck, right? But I noticed you said, I made it for you guys. No, Mustafa, you didn’t make it for them. You’re a leader on this… on this project, just like they are.

229 00:27:35.180 00:27:53.750 Clarence Stone: You’re making it together with that team, okay? Like, I want you to know that you own that. That’s okay for you to say, like, hey, this is mine, and I’m contributing this, let’s build this together. Like, there should be a level of agency and power that you guys should feel in having this leadership role. Like, you can make decisions like this.

230 00:27:54.770 00:27:56.000 Clarence Stone: That makes sense.

231 00:27:56.000 00:27:56.570 Mustafa Raja: Yep.

232 00:28:00.250 00:28:16.959 Clarence Stone: Cool. Well, that’s what I wanted to share. Didn’t want to let this meeting go to waste, but because we’re having another one, I figure we could probably end early, unless you guys have anything. Does anyone have anything else? Amber, Vernav? Mustafa? Sesh?

233 00:28:19.470 00:28:23.500 Pranav Narahari: One kind of clarifying question I have is,

234 00:28:23.820 00:28:39.889 Pranav Narahari: I should probably either clarify with you or Utam, like, who is going to be the EP for Lilo now, since I’ll be moving as CSO, right? I just assumed that we’re not supposed to be both, because I feel like I remember in, like, when you were introducing the structure, that one person shouldn’t have multiple of these roles.

235 00:28:40.520 00:28:47.840 Clarence Stone: We’re cracking. We’re not gonna… we’re not gonna throw you the wolves, man. We already talked about who… who would be your backfill, so…

236 00:28:47.840 00:28:48.360 Pranav Narahari: Okay.

237 00:28:48.400 00:28:50.830 Clarence Stone: And that’s supposed to be Casey?

238 00:28:52.300 00:28:56.749 Clarence Stone: Well, let’s play this game. Who do you want to take over as EP for you?

239 00:28:57.520 00:29:06.089 Pranav Narahari: I think anybody would be fine. I think it makes the most sense for it to be Casey, since, Sam is already SL, and it’s just the three of us.

240 00:29:06.280 00:29:10.319 Pranav Narahari: But, you know, if anybody else wants to join, I know, like.

241 00:29:10.670 00:29:16.569 Pranav Narahari: other people maybe even wanting to join, like, the delivery team, so… I’d be happy with anybody.

242 00:29:18.700 00:29:36.200 Clarence Stone: Okay, well, right now, it’s planned to be Casey, but I haven’t had a chance to really catch up with him, like, I’ve seen him once on one of these calls, so I’m just a little worried that, you know, he might have his plate full, or, you know, he’s not catching the,

243 00:29:36.250 00:29:43.750 Clarence Stone: best practices of being an EP yet, so that was my initial reservation so far, but…

244 00:29:43.830 00:29:53.239 Clarence Stone: you know, we’ll see how it goes, and I’m gonna double-tap on this as a line item for my sync with UTAM later on today, but… Okay.

245 00:29:53.390 00:29:53.970 Clarence Stone: AC.

246 00:29:53.970 00:29:58.949 Pranav Narahari: Sounds good. One other thing that I would mention, too, is, like, I feel like in…

247 00:29:59.490 00:30:04.259 Pranav Narahari: EP role… so, like, Casey on this project is, like, currently only, like, 10 hours per week.

248 00:30:04.520 00:30:13.719 Pranav Narahari: Which… I’d probably… like, he’s been doing, like, great development work, and so… probably, like, not spending…

249 00:30:13.990 00:30:26.320 Pranav Narahari: like, cutting out, like, part of that 10 hours to be an EP would be beneficial. I don’t know how much he could honestly, like, do in terms of, like, week-to-week progress if he’s working less than 10 hours.

250 00:30:26.470 00:30:33.269 Pranav Narahari: So… yeah, that’s another thing to consider, since he’s only, you know, most of his time is spent on ABC Andy, like…

251 00:30:33.270 00:30:43.200 Clarence Stone: So, let’s do a planning exercise, it’s a good point. How many hours were allocated to UTAM for the planning pieces of a CSO role?

252 00:30:43.740 00:30:44.880 Clarence Stone: Only left.

253 00:30:46.300 00:30:51.029 Pranav Narahari: That’s a good question. I really don’t know.

254 00:30:51.920 00:30:52.480 Clarence Stone: Yeah.

255 00:30:52.850 00:30:53.980 Clarence Stone: So…

256 00:30:54.580 00:31:03.869 Clarence Stone: you know, that’s where I would start with answering that planning challenge, right? Because those hours now get flowed to you as the CSO.

257 00:31:03.870 00:31:04.480 Pranav Narahari: Right.

258 00:31:05.080 00:31:08.649 Clarence Stone: and the hours that you were using for planning now go to KC.

259 00:31:09.570 00:31:10.250 Pranav Narahari: Right.

260 00:31:11.650 00:31:17.030 Clarence Stone: And that’s how you would figure out how many hours Casey has in addition to his current 10.

261 00:31:17.950 00:31:19.879 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, so I would say…

262 00:31:20.060 00:31:24.380 Pranav Narahari: for EP, probably, like, 5 hours per week, like, I would say, like, maybe, like.

263 00:31:24.750 00:31:29.840 Pranav Narahari: an hour of my day can be thought of as, like, EP work, if I’m…

264 00:31:30.650 00:31:34.919 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, since I’m working, like, full-time, basically, on Lilo,

265 00:31:35.560 00:31:38.400 Pranav Narahari: So, that would be basically half of…

266 00:31:39.520 00:31:42.879 Pranav Narahari: Casey’s, like, capacity per week for Lilo, which I think is a lot.

267 00:31:42.880 00:31:48.109 Clarence Stone: I’m saying… I’m saying you’re gonna add those… those 5 hours to his… to his timeline.

268 00:31:48.850 00:31:50.130 Pranav Narahari: Oh…

269 00:31:50.130 00:31:57.030 Clarence Stone: He gets 5 more hours, you get 5 less, but you get the additional hours that you get for Muton.

270 00:31:59.890 00:32:01.340 Pranav Narahari: Right, okay.

271 00:32:01.580 00:32:04.219 Clarence Stone: Right? You have those 5 hours as an EP.

272 00:32:04.670 00:32:08.660 Clarence Stone: That planner 5 hours goes to the new planner.

273 00:32:09.060 00:32:12.969 Clarence Stone: And the CSO time that sat with Utam now become yours.

274 00:32:15.230 00:32:19.200 Pranav Narahari: That makes sense. But, with Casey.

275 00:32:19.350 00:32:29.030 Pranav Narahari: he already spent, like, I don’t know if he’s willing to spend more than 40 hours per week, and I think he’s already spending 30 hours on, ABC Andy.

276 00:32:29.150 00:32:33.740 Pranav Narahari: So, if you’re spending, then, 15 hours on Lilo, like…

277 00:32:33.740 00:32:38.360 Clarence Stone: Amber, do you need him for that many hours a week?

278 00:32:38.820 00:32:39.550 Clarence Stone: On Andy?

279 00:32:39.550 00:32:44.299 Amber Lin: Currently, he should be… I think we have allocated about 20 hours?

280 00:32:44.620 00:32:45.870 Amber Lin: Oh… Oh.

281 00:32:46.220 00:32:50.349 Amber Lin: But he is also working on Lilo, right?

282 00:32:51.340 00:32:52.580 Pranav Narahari: He is, yeah.

283 00:32:52.580 00:32:55.530 Amber Lin: Right, so that should be… that should add up.

284 00:32:55.720 00:32:59.759 Amber Lin: And Lilo, I remember we said, like, 15-ish?

285 00:33:00.110 00:33:01.190 Amber Lin: So…

286 00:33:02.560 00:33:06.039 Pranav Narahari: Oh, okay. I thought he told me 10, but I can sync up with him.

287 00:33:06.340 00:33:06.990 Amber Lin: Okay.

288 00:33:07.660 00:33:12.829 Clarence Stone: Yeah, so from what I see here, he’s got 10 allocated to Lilo, 20 to Andy.

289 00:33:12.830 00:33:19.849 Amber Lin: Yeah, he used to work a bit for internal as well, so I think that’s where the 30 is coming from.

290 00:33:20.330 00:33:20.980 Pranav Narahari: Gotcha.

291 00:33:20.980 00:33:31.600 Amber Lin: But internal work usually is low priority, so if you need time, I think he can talk to Gabe for his internal allocations.

292 00:33:31.840 00:33:33.970 Amber Lin: And then we can adjust.

293 00:33:35.810 00:33:37.470 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay.

294 00:33:38.520 00:33:46.910 Clarence Stone: And for Nava should be absolutely fine, because the hours that opened up for Utam are actually going to Gabe for the platform work.

295 00:33:49.290 00:33:53.619 Clarence Stone: So we’ve just equally swapped all three of you guys, if you think of… Okay.

296 00:33:55.680 00:33:56.310 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.

297 00:33:56.370 00:33:57.530 Sheshu Chandrasekar: That makes sense.

298 00:33:58.110 00:34:02.640 Clarence Stone: So, so, like, it should be totally fine, because whatever…

299 00:34:02.810 00:34:07.410 Clarence Stone: like Casey was working on with Gabe, Now it goes to Utah.

300 00:34:08.260 00:34:09.630 Pranav Narahari: Gotcha. Okay.

301 00:34:12.770 00:34:13.670 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, see.

302 00:34:13.670 00:34:18.919 Clarence Stone: Perfect topic for this call. You guys are all planners here. This is… this is when you guys hash out these things.

303 00:34:19.810 00:34:23.599 Clarence Stone: Gotcha, okay. Get those hours!

304 00:34:24.020 00:34:25.170 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.

305 00:34:26.420 00:34:30.640 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Hey, so a quick question, it sounds like we’re still not able to find who’s…

306 00:34:30.770 00:34:35.070 Sheshu Chandrasekar: working on what and how many hours. Is that, like, a… still a major bottleneck?

307 00:34:35.679 00:34:39.159 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, I guess it still requires, like, a conversation.

308 00:34:39.159 00:34:39.829 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Okay.

309 00:34:39.830 00:34:49.050 Pranav Narahari: within, like, this meeting, basically. If it’s not already, like… like, because, yeah, this is, like, my only time, really, that I talk to, like, Amber or Mustafa throughout the week.

310 00:34:49.300 00:34:55.309 Pranav Narahari: And I can always just message in the channel, I guess. But… yeah.

311 00:34:55.810 00:35:07.170 Pranav Narahari: Right now, like, that information… I guess isn’t operating? Yeah, so it probably isn’t… Check there.

312 00:35:07.170 00:35:11.939 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Last week, we… We just need to create, like, a cadence of some sort to keep that going, and…

313 00:35:12.090 00:35:12.850 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Updated.

314 00:35:14.260 00:35:15.100 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.

315 00:35:16.850 00:35:17.440 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it.

316 00:35:18.420 00:35:24.009 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Well, how’s it… how’s it going right now? Like, do you guys Slack each other, saying, hey, like, I’ve updated?

317 00:35:24.240 00:35:25.600 Sheshu Chandrasekar: the operating…

318 00:35:25.730 00:35:30.719 Sheshu Chandrasekar: I have these bottlenecks, or any… do you guys talk, like, async? Like, how does that work?

319 00:35:33.140 00:35:38.579 Pranav Narahari: So how I’ve been doing it for Lilo is that…

320 00:35:38.920 00:35:42.449 Pranav Narahari: I think of it as, like, a sprint to the milestone.

321 00:35:42.600 00:35:43.980 Pranav Narahari: And so

322 00:35:44.180 00:35:58.929 Pranav Narahari: I have all the tasks in there, and I think for this milestone, we feel pretty confident that we’re gonna, you know, definitely hit it within the allotted time. So, I haven’t had to think about resourcing as much. You know, if I felt like it was a really tight schedule.

323 00:35:59.050 00:36:02.059 Pranav Narahari: then it might… things might be different.

324 00:36:03.070 00:36:09.190 Pranav Narahari: So, yeah, to answer your question, yeah, I haven’t asked them, like, oh, is your operating right?

325 00:36:10.010 00:36:19.459 Pranav Narahari: I did briefly ask, just, like, to Casey and Sam, like, what is your allocation for Lilo? And that’s where, yeah, Casey told me about 10 hours, Sam told me, like.

326 00:36:19.500 00:36:33.369 Pranav Narahari: he splits his time evenly between ABC and Lilo, but since Lilo is kind of picking up from, like, a dev perspective more than I think ABC is right now, like, he’s kind of weighing more hours on the Lilo side.

327 00:36:33.650 00:36:39.709 Pranav Narahari: But… Yeah. So I have, like, a rough kind of idea of, like, what our resourcing is at.

328 00:36:42.130 00:36:45.250 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it. Okay, so you guys still do communicate, but it’s just not, like.

329 00:36:45.470 00:36:50.340 Sheshu Chandrasekar: You just don’t see it in front of you, it’s just… this is… Do virtual and just conversation.

330 00:36:50.920 00:36:51.540 Pranav Narahari: Yeah.

331 00:36:52.080 00:36:52.660 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Got it.

332 00:36:56.710 00:36:59.669 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Yeah, that’s all. I don’t have any other questions, but…

333 00:37:00.220 00:37:03.379 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Sounds like things are on track and going well at the moment.

334 00:37:04.830 00:37:08.170 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, things are definitely going well for Leela right now, so… not really…

335 00:37:08.170 00:37:08.910 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Perfect.

336 00:37:09.210 00:37:10.669 Pranav Narahari: Not a… not a concern.

337 00:37:14.880 00:37:19.719 Clarence Stone: Awesome! Well, cool. We’ll regroup on this on Thursday. Hopefully everyone can show up.

338 00:37:21.260 00:37:23.160 Pranav Narahari: Yeah, sounds good. Thanks, guys.

339 00:37:23.750 00:37:24.219 Sheshu Chandrasekar: Thank you.

340 00:37:24.220 00:37:24.620 Mustafa Raja: Thank you.

341 00:37:24.620 00:37:25.450 Amber Lin: Awesome.