Meeting Title: Q2 Planning and Delivery Standards Sync Date: 2026-03-17 Meeting participants: Brylle Girang, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:29:06.090 ⇒ 00:29:07.020 Brylle Girang: Hello?
2 00:29:09.520 ⇒ 00:29:11.470 Uttam Kumaran: Talk to me. How’s the day going?
3 00:29:13.160 ⇒ 00:29:13.710 Brylle Girang: Crazy.
4 00:29:13.710 ⇒ 00:29:15.300 Uttam Kumaran: Pretty crazy.
5 00:29:16.140 ⇒ 00:29:22.610 Brylle Girang: Can’t imagine how your day is going. I saw your updates on the… on the projects, the linear projects.
6 00:29:22.780 ⇒ 00:29:33.950 Uttam Kumaran: Don’t worry about me, dude. We gotta win, one way or another, so I just… I’m glad to have a crew that we’re all sort of, working on the mission together now, but…
7 00:29:34.220 ⇒ 00:29:41.750 Uttam Kumaran: I think you’re gonna kinda… you’re gonna kinda see what it’s like, I think, a little bit. But it’s okay, like…
8 00:29:41.890 ⇒ 00:29:48.660 Uttam Kumaran: This is… business is sometimes really fun, and then sometimes really hard, and it’s usually both at the same time.
9 00:29:48.780 ⇒ 00:29:53.270 Uttam Kumaran: So… It is what it is, but, like, tell me,
10 00:29:53.400 ⇒ 00:30:03.110 Uttam Kumaran: this is… this is where I also want… it’s really easy in this business to just think about, like, the now, and so I do want to hear your thoughts about next quarter from a high level.
11 00:30:03.400 ⇒ 00:30:10.189 Uttam Kumaran: Because we’re good at… we’re gonna figure out the today and tomorrow. It’s the 3-month plan that, like.
12 00:30:10.690 ⇒ 00:30:22.470 Uttam Kumaran: we’re just trying to get the team to think about one month. Me and you need to think 3, 6, 9 months, you know? But… go ahead, tell me, kind of, like, your thoughts. Sorry to do that, I just had to finish the element then.
13 00:30:23.390 ⇒ 00:30:25.630 Brylle Girang: Yeah, exactly. You know.
14 00:30:26.080 ⇒ 00:30:33.900 Brylle Girang: during my time here, one thing that I have really noticed is that for, like, a data and analytics consultant.
15 00:30:34.180 ⇒ 00:30:37.710 Brylle Girang: We don’t have any data and analytics stuff.
16 00:30:37.850 ⇒ 00:30:43.659 Brylle Girang: Within our teens, right? I think one thing that we’re really missing is
17 00:30:46.140 ⇒ 00:31:02.009 Brylle Girang: is just the understanding of how each person and each person’s time is being spent, is being… is being implemented, right? And I think that also… that is also echoed by the P&L report, where
18 00:31:02.300 ⇒ 00:31:13.929 Brylle Girang: a lot of our time is in stand-ups, then we don’t know what’s happening on the other side, right? We know that 47% are in stand-ups, but…
19 00:31:14.460 ⇒ 00:31:25.240 Brylle Girang: I don’t think we have a clear understanding if the other 53% are actually client work. Unless, you know, they use… they use Clockify, they use operating for that.
20 00:31:25.240 ⇒ 00:31:37.430 Brylle Girang: We do have, like, the reporting tools on our end, we do have the linear estimates, etc, but I don’t think, like, we’re getting enough insights based on that, and at the same time, we don’t have
21 00:31:37.930 ⇒ 00:31:46.069 Brylle Girang: Like, a clear understanding about each person’s performance before problems come up.
22 00:31:46.180 ⇒ 00:31:50.979 Brylle Girang: I was also reading through the history with Ryan.
23 00:31:51.740 ⇒ 00:32:02.050 Brylle Girang: Yeah. Because of what happened earlier. When I was reading through the messages, it felt like we didn’t have a good grasp about
24 00:32:02.190 ⇒ 00:32:03.820 Brylle Girang: What he’s actually doing.
25 00:32:03.820 ⇒ 00:32:04.310 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
26 00:32:04.310 ⇒ 00:32:12.699 Brylle Girang: in his time before he opened up the topic, before he opened up the discussion, right?
27 00:32:12.700 ⇒ 00:32:16.540 Uttam Kumaran: if I could wrap it… if I could wrap this into, like, what is our bet?
28 00:32:16.730 ⇒ 00:32:23.659 Uttam Kumaran: You’re… the bet is that… More visibility into the delivery work?
29 00:32:24.060 ⇒ 00:32:29.580 Uttam Kumaran: I guess, like, yeah, break it down into, like, what is our… what is our hypothesis? Kind of like what we talked about, right?
30 00:32:30.260 ⇒ 00:32:30.820 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah.
31 00:32:30.820 ⇒ 00:32:34.160 Uttam Kumaran: Because I’m with you, I’m totally… I’m totally following, and I’m with you.
32 00:32:34.400 ⇒ 00:32:35.959 Uttam Kumaran: I just want you to kind of…
33 00:32:36.330 ⇒ 00:32:46.619 Uttam Kumaran: if you were to talk… if we were gonna go to that Q2 meeting and tell, hey guys, this is our bet, this is our hypothesis, and this is, like, what we’re gonna do, and here’s what we think the outcome is, it’s like.
34 00:32:46.760 ⇒ 00:32:48.520 Uttam Kumaran: Tell me, kind of, like, in that way.
35 00:32:49.460 ⇒ 00:32:51.409 Brylle Girang: Yeah, okay, sure.
36 00:32:51.560 ⇒ 00:33:05.560 Brylle Girang: Our main bet, so I’m putting this under an umbrella, our main bet is that by Q2 or within Q2, we should have quantifiable metrics for each individual person within the team, especially within delivery.
37 00:33:05.830 ⇒ 00:33:12.179 Brylle Girang: My hypotheses are… I’m still building it, but the first hypothesis is that
38 00:33:12.550 ⇒ 00:33:27.730 Brylle Girang: we’re spending too much time during meetings when everything should be asynchronous. The second hypothesis is that we’re not doing asynchronous updates, so we need to spend more time on meetings just to… just to get things going.
39 00:33:28.070 ⇒ 00:33:34.129 Brylle Girang: The other… the other hypothesis that I’m currently building are all revolving around that.
40 00:33:34.520 ⇒ 00:33:42.179 Brylle Girang: I’m still finalizing it, but that’s, like, the main umbrella that I’m thinking on. Like, how can we…
41 00:33:42.870 ⇒ 00:33:51.519 Brylle Girang: How can you better understand, through actual quantifiable metrics, how each person performs within the delivery team?
42 00:33:52.800 ⇒ 00:33:55.000 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so one thing I want to show you, and I…
43 00:33:55.250 ⇒ 00:34:01.280 Uttam Kumaran: I want to… I’ll kind of probably hand this to you, is we do have a lot of data in RIL.
44 00:34:01.600 ⇒ 00:34:05.600 Uttam Kumaran: And… You can actually go into here and see
45 00:34:05.720 ⇒ 00:34:10.200 Uttam Kumaran: within Delivery Analytics, you can see we have some dashboards already that I built.
46 00:34:10.810 ⇒ 00:34:12.919 Uttam Kumaran: Where you can look at,
47 00:34:13.080 ⇒ 00:34:15.379 Uttam Kumaran: For example, you can look at client health.
48 00:34:16.100 ⇒ 00:34:18.469 Uttam Kumaran: So, it’s looking at all of our clients.
49 00:34:19.900 ⇒ 00:34:27.090 Uttam Kumaran: hours, things like that. So, I think one thing that I can… I want to hand to you is basically ownership over this.
50 00:34:27.420 ⇒ 00:34:35.919 Uttam Kumaran: I think there’s a lot of interesting things we could do here. You can… this is completely bi-coded, meaning, like, I did all of this via cursor.
51 00:34:36.120 ⇒ 00:34:47.320 Uttam Kumaran: So, I think it’s gonna be easy for you to be a team of one and build this. But I think, again… so, like, I’m not worried about the fact that we can get there.
52 00:34:47.800 ⇒ 00:34:54.140 Uttam Kumaran: I think what I am… what I… what I do want to think about doing is… is…
53 00:34:55.370 ⇒ 00:35:04.099 Uttam Kumaran: Thinking about the metrics that matter, and then, yes, being able to leave the quarter… next quarter with, like, a really clear sense.
54 00:35:04.350 ⇒ 00:35:10.909 Uttam Kumaran: of… That at any moment, about a single person in the company, we can answer that, right?
55 00:35:13.460 ⇒ 00:35:33.130 Uttam Kumaran: And then, being to… basically, that’s gonna… that’s… yeah, so that’s, like, the first thing I agree. So, to your point about, like, yes, the visibility is low, I agree. I think we have the infrastructure to solve that, so I think there’s a path for you easily to do that. I’ll let you think about dashboards and things to build.
56 00:35:33.150 ⇒ 00:35:39.819 Uttam Kumaran: But what I want to do as a team, as, like, a delivery team, is also think about, like, what are some of our goals?
57 00:35:39.940 ⇒ 00:35:41.240 Uttam Kumaran: Right? So…
58 00:35:41.370 ⇒ 00:35:53.280 Uttam Kumaran: that’s where Robert sets some goals around time in internal meetings, right? Maybe time in interviews per person. We also will start to set some margin targets
59 00:35:53.900 ⇒ 00:35:59.830 Uttam Kumaran: And I want to set some, like, definitely some, like, linear hygiene and things like that.
60 00:36:00.330 ⇒ 00:36:02.630 Uttam Kumaran: So, I think that’s all on the table, for sure.
61 00:36:04.410 ⇒ 00:36:13.019 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Linear hygiene, that’s going to be super important, because I want us to, like.
62 00:36:13.550 ⇒ 00:36:21.430 Brylle Girang: assign linear as our source of truth. When it comes to, like, understanding where each person’s time goes into, should be linear.
63 00:36:21.440 ⇒ 00:36:38.709 Brylle Girang: etc. But yeah, I would need to think more about what our actual goals will be, and it should not just be… Q2 should not just be about us trying to figure out where we are at. There should be some type of improvement.
64 00:36:38.800 ⇒ 00:36:40.329 Brylle Girang: Within that quarter, too.
65 00:36:41.040 ⇒ 00:36:41.950 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
66 00:36:45.320 ⇒ 00:36:45.940 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
67 00:36:45.940 ⇒ 00:36:46.590 Brylle Girang: Okay.
68 00:36:47.680 ⇒ 00:36:51.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, the other piece, like… Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
69 00:36:52.540 ⇒ 00:36:59.940 Brylle Girang: Yeah, I just wanted to, like, align with you two, with everything that has gone on during the past 3 hours.
70 00:37:00.180 ⇒ 00:37:02.479 Brylle Girang: What could I have done better for you?
71 00:37:08.100 ⇒ 00:37:17.389 Uttam Kumaran: this is where, like, I don’t want us to get… again, I think, like, there’s stuff we’re doing today, and so I want us to turn… turn that part of your brain off for a sec.
72 00:37:17.710 ⇒ 00:37:20.950 Uttam Kumaran: Because, yes, I think there’s ways, like, everyone could have gotten better, but, like.
73 00:37:21.860 ⇒ 00:37:25.889 Uttam Kumaran: Take what’s going on today as a microcosm of, like, a larger problem.
74 00:37:26.030 ⇒ 00:37:29.020 Uttam Kumaran: So one thing that’s happening, and I think, like.
75 00:37:29.130 ⇒ 00:37:32.390 Uttam Kumaran: I’m sort of going back and forth with Clarence on this.
76 00:37:32.710 ⇒ 00:37:39.420 Uttam Kumaran: is I don’t think we have done a great job at setting expectations super clear.
77 00:37:39.620 ⇒ 00:37:42.299 Uttam Kumaran: On, like, the culture of delivery here.
78 00:37:43.540 ⇒ 00:37:45.940 Uttam Kumaran: Like, if I was to take an example.
79 00:37:47.480 ⇒ 00:37:57.819 Uttam Kumaran: I think the Forging the Future document I think it outlined, like, Some pieces about, like.
80 00:37:59.420 ⇒ 00:38:09.249 Uttam Kumaran: it’s outlined, like, what is the standard here, but I don’t think… I think we jumped We jumped past…
81 00:38:09.570 ⇒ 00:38:12.150 Uttam Kumaran: Making sure that all of these were working.
82 00:38:13.090 ⇒ 00:38:14.229 Uttam Kumaran: Too fast.
83 00:38:14.520 ⇒ 00:38:18.890 Uttam Kumaran: Meaning… I think we need… I think we need to…
84 00:38:19.040 ⇒ 00:38:21.969 Uttam Kumaran: Take one step backwards and say.
85 00:38:22.990 ⇒ 00:38:27.629 Uttam Kumaran: Are… is our current group of leaders doing these things?
86 00:38:28.100 ⇒ 00:38:28.700 Uttam Kumaran: Bright.
87 00:38:28.700 ⇒ 00:38:29.130 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
88 00:38:29.130 ⇒ 00:38:30.830 Uttam Kumaran: For example, we have, like.
89 00:38:31.010 ⇒ 00:38:36.659 Uttam Kumaran: what we want the CSO to do. I don’t think that they’re doing all of these items.
90 00:38:37.680 ⇒ 00:38:41.940 Uttam Kumaran: Right? I think many of them have failed to do a lot of this.
91 00:38:42.200 ⇒ 00:38:52.269 Uttam Kumaran: And so, I think the first piece that I want to do is just realign everybody on, like, what the expectations are for the CSOs and the service leads.
92 00:38:52.920 ⇒ 00:38:57.919 Uttam Kumaran: And basically, Most likely, like, decide on whether
93 00:38:58.430 ⇒ 00:39:06.239 Uttam Kumaran: whether bonuses can be unlocked until those are being done, right? And how we’re going to drive towards those being done.
94 00:39:06.360 ⇒ 00:39:13.400 Uttam Kumaran: I think one thing that we saw in the last few weeks is just, like, a real difficulty around, like, getting the
95 00:39:14.010 ⇒ 00:39:21.279 Uttam Kumaran: Getting just the basics, like… I think Greg being out of office randomly, like, was really difficult.
96 00:39:21.420 ⇒ 00:39:24.240 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t think he set up his teams to succeed.
97 00:39:24.740 ⇒ 00:39:29.590 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I think… There’s just a lot of delivery… like…
98 00:39:29.900 ⇒ 00:39:34.809 Uttam Kumaran: there’s just a lot of delivery sophistication that we lacked. Like, we were… it was like amateur hour.
99 00:39:36.360 ⇒ 00:39:42.530 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Like, having to coach Mustafa to send a message to the client is rough.
100 00:39:42.720 ⇒ 00:39:44.379 Uttam Kumaran: Like, I don’t want to do that.
101 00:39:44.640 ⇒ 00:39:51.279 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And so, I think our first goal for me and you is to set the standards again.
102 00:39:52.890 ⇒ 00:39:58.040 Uttam Kumaran: And start there, before thinking about the enforcement, or, like, the day-to-day action.
103 00:39:59.800 ⇒ 00:40:07.179 Uttam Kumaran: So one thing I’m gonna do is try to think about what is the culture of delivery and the standard of delivery.
104 00:40:09.260 ⇒ 00:40:15.849 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’ll think about what goals and metrics allow us to Make that so.
105 00:40:15.970 ⇒ 00:40:19.190 Uttam Kumaran: Right? Or what behavioral changes allow us to make that so.
106 00:40:19.540 ⇒ 00:40:21.369 Uttam Kumaran: I think you now… I think…
107 00:40:21.490 ⇒ 00:40:25.689 Uttam Kumaran: You coming in and getting frustrated is very helpful, because some of these things are chronic.
108 00:40:26.090 ⇒ 00:40:28.090 Uttam Kumaran: And I’ve gotten… I’ve gotten used to them.
109 00:40:28.670 ⇒ 00:40:35.309 Uttam Kumaran: I think for you and Clarence, it’s helpful to hear your perspective, because some of these we have to fix before moving on.
110 00:40:35.440 ⇒ 00:40:39.580 Uttam Kumaran: And I want to make sure that we do that before even, like.
111 00:40:40.130 ⇒ 00:40:43.550 Uttam Kumaran: thinking about time and meetings and things like that. Ultimately.
112 00:40:43.760 ⇒ 00:40:47.609 Uttam Kumaran: Some of these things are, like, behavioral changes we need out of people.
113 00:40:47.770 ⇒ 00:40:52.170 Uttam Kumaran: Like, a good example is what you said, which is people are not giving feedback.
114 00:40:53.080 ⇒ 00:40:54.230 Uttam Kumaran: Right, on the linear stuff.
115 00:40:54.230 ⇒ 00:40:54.770 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
116 00:40:55.120 ⇒ 00:40:58.070 Uttam Kumaran: That’s, like, not fair to you, you know?
117 00:40:58.250 ⇒ 00:41:02.259 Uttam Kumaran: So I think we need to just set those standards first.
118 00:41:02.930 ⇒ 00:41:07.939 Uttam Kumaran: And then we can think about, are there any metrics that we can do that allows us to…
119 00:41:08.550 ⇒ 00:41:11.370 Uttam Kumaran: Ensure that those are… Happening.
120 00:41:11.820 ⇒ 00:41:18.789 Brylle Girang: So, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Just a quick question. When we, like, published this Forging the Future.
121 00:41:19.050 ⇒ 00:41:21.439 Brylle Girang: How did we share this with the team?
122 00:41:22.920 ⇒ 00:41:28.359 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, we did, like, a several, like, 2-3 week rollout, where I had everybody read it, leave comments.
123 00:41:28.500 ⇒ 00:41:33.509 Uttam Kumaran: But the thing, I think, that happened was there’s too much in this, and we already started working.
124 00:41:33.860 ⇒ 00:41:39.779 Uttam Kumaran: So, I had the… this is where, like, Clarence and I are sort of disagreeing right now, because…
125 00:41:41.710 ⇒ 00:41:47.849 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t have any… like, I don’t have any ability to enforce any standards, given my time, right?
126 00:41:48.070 ⇒ 00:41:56.139 Uttam Kumaran: So, what I really need a lot of help with is thinking about how do we enforce the standards, and how do we teach people to do the standards?
127 00:41:56.450 ⇒ 00:41:58.710 Uttam Kumaran: while I continue to run the business.
128 00:41:59.510 ⇒ 00:42:08.630 Uttam Kumaran: And I think when we sent this out, I think the message was clear in that, like, we want to level up, but I don’t think individuals were given the support
129 00:42:09.010 ⇒ 00:42:10.010 Uttam Kumaran: Needed.
130 00:42:11.010 ⇒ 00:42:14.720 Uttam Kumaran: And I don’t think we held people accountable to it.
131 00:42:15.750 ⇒ 00:42:16.150 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
132 00:42:16.150 ⇒ 00:42:17.840 Uttam Kumaran: And we just quickly moved on.
133 00:42:18.520 ⇒ 00:42:21.260 Uttam Kumaran: And so I do wanna, like.
134 00:42:22.790 ⇒ 00:42:24.660 Uttam Kumaran: Have a little bit of a do-over.
135 00:42:25.320 ⇒ 00:42:29.989 Uttam Kumaran: On making this super, super clear to that group about what they’re expected to do.
136 00:42:30.330 ⇒ 00:42:38.850 Uttam Kumaran: We have an ability to understand at any moment whether it’s getting done, and then our decision is, like, what’s not getting done? Can we coach this person into doing that?
137 00:42:40.930 ⇒ 00:42:41.980 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah.
138 00:42:52.250 ⇒ 00:42:55.710 Brylle Girang: Yeah, I think… That’s going to be our goal for Q2.
139 00:42:56.310 ⇒ 00:42:59.879 Brylle Girang: So first, reset the standard, make sure that it’s clear.
140 00:43:00.060 ⇒ 00:43:04.730 Brylle Girang: Second, we need a way to… to monitor.
141 00:43:05.060 ⇒ 00:43:22.460 Brylle Girang: to enforce and monitor these standards, and then three, we need to make sure that we have a system where we can hold our leaders and our people accountable for those standards. And I still believe that, you know, the timing meetings, those kinds of stuff that we have talked about, that still falls under that.
142 00:43:22.460 ⇒ 00:43:23.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
143 00:43:25.130 ⇒ 00:43:25.540 Brylle Girang: Okay.
144 00:43:25.540 ⇒ 00:43:26.270 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree.
145 00:43:26.270 ⇒ 00:43:33.990 Brylle Girang: That makes sense. I totally agree with you, like, you’re doing all the stuff that
146 00:43:34.450 ⇒ 00:43:41.860 Brylle Girang: that’s more important. I’m going to make sure that I handle, like, the enforcement and the accountability part.
147 00:43:42.270 ⇒ 00:43:42.870 Brylle Girang: That’s…
148 00:43:42.870 ⇒ 00:43:43.280 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
149 00:43:43.280 ⇒ 00:43:43.659 Brylle Girang: That’s where I can.
150 00:43:43.660 ⇒ 00:43:44.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
151 00:43:44.060 ⇒ 00:43:44.580 Brylle Girang: the most.
152 00:43:44.580 ⇒ 00:43:56.549 Uttam Kumaran: that’s where I’m like, I wanna… I wanna think about step A, B, and C right now, so that we can drive the quarter, and we can talk about a rollout plan of the new standards, can talk about up-leveling people.
153 00:43:57.020 ⇒ 00:44:03.389 Uttam Kumaran: And then we can talk about measurement. So I want to know on, like, a grid, almost, like, where everybody is.
154 00:44:03.830 ⇒ 00:44:10.920 Uttam Kumaran: We should look at every standard and know where everybody is, and understand how do we get them to get all green.
155 00:44:11.390 ⇒ 00:44:12.160 Uttam Kumaran: You know?
156 00:44:12.580 ⇒ 00:44:17.189 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. That’s it. So I think, like, that’s gonna be what we work on in the next 2 weeks or so.
157 00:44:20.710 ⇒ 00:44:21.900 Brylle Girang: Gotcha, okay.
158 00:44:28.000 ⇒ 00:44:32.470 Brylle Girang: Yeah, we would need to revive, like, the weekly log that we were supposed to monitor.
159 00:44:34.220 ⇒ 00:44:43.730 Brylle Girang: Before that, I think something that we need to clear out, are the assignments for, like, the EP tasks and the new responsibilities for the CSOs and SLs.
160 00:44:43.730 ⇒ 00:44:44.130 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
161 00:44:44.130 ⇒ 00:44:46.229 Brylle Girang: We haven’t touched upon that yet.
162 00:44:46.730 ⇒ 00:44:48.949 Brylle Girang: I’m also thinking, like, how can we…
163 00:44:49.470 ⇒ 00:44:54.950 Brylle Girang: create, like, a better hierarchy for the delivery team, because right now,
164 00:44:55.070 ⇒ 00:44:59.750 Brylle Girang: There’s no proper responsibility when it comes to the individual contributors.
165 00:45:00.090 ⇒ 00:45:11.309 Brylle Girang: who’s supposed to handle, or who’s supposed to be held accountable for the ICs? Let’s say Mustafa, let’s say Amber, is it going to be the CSO? Is it going to be the SL?
166 00:45:12.050 ⇒ 00:45:12.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
167 00:45:12.560 ⇒ 00:45:14.789 Brylle Girang: I just want us to think more about that.
168 00:45:14.940 ⇒ 00:45:17.230 Brylle Girang: Right now, my thought is that…
169 00:45:18.140 ⇒ 00:45:20.699 Brylle Girang: they should be reporting to the SLs.
170 00:45:21.120 ⇒ 00:45:34.589 Brylle Girang: And SLs should be, like, the one mainly responsible for the actual tickets. They should be the one mainly responsible for the timelines, and then the CSOs moving more into an account manager position.
171 00:45:34.900 ⇒ 00:45:52.010 Brylle Girang: should focus on the actual clientele, the relationship. And the CSO should be the one holding the SL accountable, the SL should be the one holding the individual contributors accountable. So, that sort of stuff. Right now, it’s scattered. Our engineers do not know, like.
172 00:45:52.280 ⇒ 00:45:53.110 Brylle Girang: Who to come to.
173 00:45:53.110 ⇒ 00:45:53.590 Uttam Kumaran: I agree.
174 00:45:53.590 ⇒ 00:45:54.460 Brylle Girang: and two.
175 00:45:55.160 ⇒ 00:46:00.439 Brylle Girang: And that’s going to be hard, especially once we set a standard, and they don’t know
176 00:46:01.060 ⇒ 00:46:02.959 Brylle Girang: Who to ask for help, basically.
177 00:46:07.290 ⇒ 00:46:07.840 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
178 00:46:11.020 ⇒ 00:46:11.500 Brylle Girang: Okay.
179 00:46:11.500 ⇒ 00:46:12.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you’re right.
180 00:46:15.650 ⇒ 00:46:20.900 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s why I want to kind of see, like, a little… we should do, like, a responsibility kind of matrix.
181 00:46:21.350 ⇒ 00:46:23.529 Uttam Kumaran: Or, like, the racy, or whatever.
182 00:46:25.160 ⇒ 00:46:28.899 Uttam Kumaran: And then we should also just try to think about all the standards we’re setting.
183 00:46:30.360 ⇒ 00:46:33.590 Uttam Kumaran: And then across both of those, we can start to align people with them.
184 00:46:33.990 ⇒ 00:46:35.610 Uttam Kumaran: And the people that are being hired.
185 00:46:37.250 ⇒ 00:46:38.100 Brylle Girang: Yeah, agreed.
186 00:46:38.340 ⇒ 00:46:46.840 Brylle Girang: Oh, gotcha. Yeah, and this… we should finish this before we, like, grow into… into more people.
187 00:46:47.860 ⇒ 00:46:52.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean, we have a sort of deadline of, like, as fast as we can, but, like.
188 00:46:52.270 ⇒ 00:46:54.319 Uttam Kumaran: The new quarter starts.
189 00:46:54.450 ⇒ 00:46:58.449 Uttam Kumaran: And so, that’s where I want to make sure everything is sort of set up for that.
190 00:46:58.750 ⇒ 00:47:01.640 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, I feel like we’re gonna hit it, so I think we’ll be okay.
191 00:47:03.210 ⇒ 00:47:03.840 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
192 00:47:03.840 ⇒ 00:47:07.340 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, yeah, I think it’s gonna be helpful. What I can do…
193 00:47:07.810 ⇒ 00:47:15.029 Uttam Kumaran: is I can think about the high-level standards, if you want to think about The set of responsibilities.
194 00:47:16.190 ⇒ 00:47:17.600 Uttam Kumaran: And then the measuring?
195 00:47:20.190 ⇒ 00:47:28.889 Uttam Kumaran: I can… I can help you measure whatever you need, so don’t… so don’t worry too much about, like, oh, I… I don’t even know how we do that, like, that’s fine. I feel like…
196 00:47:29.010 ⇒ 00:47:35.889 Uttam Kumaran: But I, I think about… Exactly what you said is, like, what are the responsibilities between both?
197 00:47:36.570 ⇒ 00:47:40.659 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, how do we reasonably enforce it as a team of two?
198 00:47:40.980 ⇒ 00:47:43.839 Uttam Kumaran: Like, how do we reasonably measure and enforce it as a team of two?
199 00:47:46.180 ⇒ 00:47:50.700 Brylle Girang: Yeah, okay, that makes sense, yeah. I need, like, the high-level standards from you, and then…
200 00:47:50.700 ⇒ 00:47:51.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
201 00:47:51.360 ⇒ 00:48:01.900 Brylle Girang: I’m going to be the one to break that down. I won’t care about, like, the actual metrics for now. What I would want to focus on is what do we need to see for that standard to be met?
202 00:48:02.660 ⇒ 00:48:04.040 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
203 00:48:05.580 ⇒ 00:48:08.030 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect. Alright, give me some time, I’ll think about it.
204 00:48:09.010 ⇒ 00:48:10.040 Brylle Girang: Alright.
205 00:48:10.870 ⇒ 00:48:11.760 Brylle Girang: Sure.
206 00:48:11.760 ⇒ 00:48:14.950 Uttam Kumaran: And then I cleaned up all the element linear, so…
207 00:48:15.310 ⇒ 00:48:25.220 Uttam Kumaran: I just did, like, a mad dash. I have some other skills I want to create. For example, I want to create, like, a skill that aligns up the SOW to linear.
208 00:48:26.770 ⇒ 00:48:29.490 Uttam Kumaran: So we can go from SOW
209 00:48:29.770 ⇒ 00:48:34.070 Uttam Kumaran: To the linear, and it lines up with, like, what we promised, basically.
210 00:48:34.070 ⇒ 00:48:34.670 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
211 00:48:34.980 ⇒ 00:48:40.649 Uttam Kumaran: Second is, like, I try to create a skill that aligns up Service line to initiatives.
212 00:48:40.970 ⇒ 00:48:47.339 Uttam Kumaran: Offerings to projects, phases to milestones, deliverables to issues.
213 00:48:47.540 ⇒ 00:48:49.690 Uttam Kumaran: So I added some stuff around that.
214 00:48:50.260 ⇒ 00:48:56.740 Uttam Kumaran: I also wanted to add some skills, which is, like,
215 00:48:57.250 ⇒ 00:49:09.899 Uttam Kumaran: find issues that don’t have any project. Like, every issue… so this is something… the other standards we’re gonna do is, like, every issue has to get tied to a project. Every project has to get tied to an,
216 00:49:10.230 ⇒ 00:49:11.990 Uttam Kumaran: And an… an initiative?
217 00:49:12.870 ⇒ 00:49:16.460 Uttam Kumaran: And so, like, some of those are gonna be hygiene things.
218 00:49:16.460 ⇒ 00:49:17.260 Brylle Girang: We can put…
219 00:49:17.260 ⇒ 00:49:18.100 Uttam Kumaran: the place.
220 00:49:18.230 ⇒ 00:49:21.990 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then every project has to have at least one milestone.
221 00:49:22.340 ⇒ 00:49:25.970 Uttam Kumaran: So I have some of these skills that I worked on,
222 00:49:27.370 ⇒ 00:49:30.459 Uttam Kumaran: And then what I want to do is, like, I want to confirm these.
223 00:49:30.620 ⇒ 00:49:35.880 Uttam Kumaran: And then I want to go and clean up all of Linear. Like, everything that exists.
224 00:49:36.280 ⇒ 00:49:39.420 Uttam Kumaran: I want to just, like, audit and clean up everything. So.
225 00:49:39.840 ⇒ 00:49:47.139 Uttam Kumaran: I want to give, like… and I… ideally, I want to try to do that with the CSOs, but, like.
226 00:49:47.390 ⇒ 00:49:50.790 Uttam Kumaran: We’ll see, like, for default, I can’t wait any longer.
227 00:49:51.350 ⇒ 00:49:57.070 Uttam Kumaran: So maybe we just hand that… the keys off to them to do it? I don’t know.
228 00:50:03.680 ⇒ 00:50:09.780 Uttam Kumaran: But yeah, I feel like we’re getting better.
229 00:50:11.510 ⇒ 00:50:16.810 Uttam Kumaran: So I’m gonna clean up all of default and all of CTA’s linear here in the next, like, an hour or so.
230 00:50:17.260 ⇒ 00:50:20.309 Uttam Kumaran: So at least my clients will be, like, in a really good shape.
231 00:50:20.910 ⇒ 00:50:25.309 Uttam Kumaran: I think where Clarence is challenging me is that we need to go teach.
232 00:50:25.880 ⇒ 00:50:28.030 Uttam Kumaran: We need to mentor the people.
233 00:50:28.280 ⇒ 00:50:29.990 Uttam Kumaran: To go do these things?
234 00:50:31.250 ⇒ 00:50:33.069 Uttam Kumaran: like, and I’m trying to, like.
235 00:50:33.190 ⇒ 00:50:39.230 Uttam Kumaran: I’m trying to understand that, as well as just the fact that, like, we can’t lose some of this money right now.
236 00:50:39.930 ⇒ 00:50:47.960 Uttam Kumaran: If people, like, F things up, So I’m having challenges, like… Keeping both in my mind.
237 00:50:48.680 ⇒ 00:50:52.740 Uttam Kumaran: So just to give you an insight into, like, what… where I’m at.
238 00:50:53.390 ⇒ 00:50:56.239 Uttam Kumaran: Some things are actively falling through the cracks.
239 00:50:59.970 ⇒ 00:51:07.019 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know whether it is, like, a… like… I do believe, truly, that our people can do these things.
240 00:51:07.150 ⇒ 00:51:10.599 Uttam Kumaran: And so I want to make sure that we have not messed up
241 00:51:10.840 ⇒ 00:51:17.170 Uttam Kumaran: The standards we’ve set, the expectations we’ve set, and we are as helpful as we can be to them to do so.
242 00:51:17.860 ⇒ 00:51:22.910 Uttam Kumaran: But we really need to step up. Like, we’re messing up some, like, really, really basic things.
243 00:51:23.120 ⇒ 00:51:27.350 Uttam Kumaran: That as our clients get bigger, they will have very little patience for this, you know?
244 00:51:27.710 ⇒ 00:51:32.469 Uttam Kumaran: So… That’s the sort of overarching thing for us to think about.
245 00:51:32.660 ⇒ 00:51:34.510 Uttam Kumaran: Like, as the clients get bigger.
246 00:51:34.510 ⇒ 00:51:34.900 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
247 00:51:34.900 ⇒ 00:51:40.760 Uttam Kumaran: It’s actually less about the engineering, it’s, like, all about the communication and project management, and the poise.
248 00:51:42.360 ⇒ 00:51:46.420 Brylle Girang: Yeah, agree, agreed. I think one…
249 00:51:47.590 ⇒ 00:52:00.299 Brylle Girang: One quick thing that I’m going to work on is schedule meetings. I know this is against, but we need to do this, at least weekly meetings with our leaders, just making sure that we enforce the standard.
250 00:52:00.840 ⇒ 00:52:04.180 Brylle Girang: up front, I want to make sure that we dedicate
251 00:52:04.300 ⇒ 00:52:08.210 Brylle Girang: time to, like, drill this into them, and then.
252 00:52:08.210 ⇒ 00:52:08.640 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
253 00:52:08.640 ⇒ 00:52:10.669 Brylle Girang: We’re able to get things sorted.
254 00:52:10.790 ⇒ 00:52:14.700 Brylle Girang: we can cancel the meetings, right? We can move on.
255 00:52:14.920 ⇒ 00:52:18.280 Brylle Girang: But yeah, starting next week, I’m going to do that.
256 00:52:18.520 ⇒ 00:52:21.949 Brylle Girang: I’m going to be handling the mentorship of these people.
257 00:52:22.070 ⇒ 00:52:25.420 Brylle Girang: I just need your help when it comes to, like, building.
258 00:52:25.570 ⇒ 00:52:26.910 Brylle Girang: the standards.
259 00:52:28.050 ⇒ 00:52:29.470 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
260 00:52:31.110 ⇒ 00:52:32.510 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, perfect.
261 00:52:34.280 ⇒ 00:52:50.969 Brylle Girang: Yeah, and as we talk about with Robert earlier during the stand-ups, the systems and tools won’t work if we don’t have the discipline to follow and do this thing, so I think that right now, discipline is the main thing that we need to revive across our teams.
262 00:52:51.750 ⇒ 00:52:52.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
263 00:52:55.030 ⇒ 00:52:56.160 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
264 00:52:57.380 ⇒ 00:52:58.510 Brylle Girang: Exciting.
265 00:52:58.680 ⇒ 00:53:00.380 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
266 00:53:01.890 ⇒ 00:53:03.869 Uttam Kumaran: to hear it out.
267 00:53:04.290 ⇒ 00:53:06.970 Uttam Kumaran: It’s just… whatever, we’ll figure it out.
268 00:53:07.120 ⇒ 00:53:08.060 Uttam Kumaran: But,
269 00:53:08.390 ⇒ 00:53:13.229 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, go ahead, and I know you’re heading out for a sec, so I’ll let you know how this next meeting goes.
270 00:53:13.940 ⇒ 00:53:16.960 Brylle Girang: Thank you. I might be able to join, but let’s see.
271 00:53:17.780 ⇒ 00:53:18.550 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
272 00:53:19.240 ⇒ 00:53:21.289 Uttam Kumaran: Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye.