Meeting Title: Element Omni Project Check-in Date: 2026-03-19 Meeting participants: Uttam Kumaran, Greg Stoutenburg


WEBVTT

1 00:00:26.510 00:00:27.310 Greg Stoutenburg: Hey here, Tom.

2 00:00:27.310 00:00:28.170 Uttam Kumaran: Ayy.

3 00:00:28.170 00:00:28.870 Greg Stoutenburg: Hey.

4 00:00:29.510 00:00:30.690 Greg Stoutenburg: How’s everything?

5 00:00:30.890 00:00:32.420 Uttam Kumaran: Happy birthday.

6 00:00:32.520 00:00:35.319 Uttam Kumaran: It’s good. I just want to survive.

7 00:00:35.320 00:00:36.000 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

8 00:00:36.120 00:00:36.730 Greg Stoutenburg: Alright.

9 00:00:36.730 00:00:37.320 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

10 00:00:38.020 00:00:42.539 Greg Stoutenburg: I’m good, I mean, once you got all this stuff off my calendar, I was like, I was gonna be fine.

11 00:00:42.540 00:00:44.380 Uttam Kumaran: Good, good, good, good.

12 00:00:44.380 00:00:46.169 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah.

13 00:00:46.890 00:01:03.309 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think next week I’ll have some more about, like, how I’m thinking about next quarter, and I think everybody will be… there’ll be a lot more organization, but, like, I just need some cover to go work on that stuff for everybody, so that’s really where I’m like, okay.

14 00:01:03.700 00:01:06.899 Uttam Kumaran: Like, how can I… how can we keep this stuff running?

15 00:01:06.900 00:01:07.220 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

16 00:01:07.220 00:01:16.749 Uttam Kumaran: so that I can go kind of figure out, like, how we kind of scale and give everyone some, like, much more clear expectations. Yeah. But let’s talk about, like, task at hand. Yeah, tell me.

17 00:01:17.110 00:01:19.679 Greg Stoutenburg: Task at hand. Okay, yeah, I’ll still want to talk a little bit more.

18 00:01:19.680 00:01:20.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

19 00:01:20.060 00:01:37.109 Greg Stoutenburg: When I actually have something put together. But just, I… when I saw your note to Amber, I was like, okay, maybe I need to pivot here, too. So, yesterday, the outcome of the call with Jasmine and Robert, where we all came in to talk about the Omni project for Element, is basically, like.

20 00:01:37.370 00:01:49.319 Greg Stoutenburg: let’s… let’s slow down, right? We’ve got an SOW, Shivani’s expectation is not that, like, everything’s just ready to go tomorrow, we’re not gonna rush this, we’re not gonna go slow, but we’re going to be… we’re gonna be precise.

21 00:01:49.320 00:01:50.079 Uttam Kumaran: Nautical, yeah.

22 00:01:50.080 00:02:04.050 Greg Stoutenburg: as we go through, right? Like, because one of the things… one of the takeaways from me for the Eden migration is that, just, you know, you know, copy and paste of Tableau into Omni, is,

23 00:02:04.050 00:02:11.990 Greg Stoutenburg: even that is not as easy as it appears to be. There’s still a lot more work that needs to be done to get those things to parity.

24 00:02:11.990 00:02:18.220 Greg Stoutenburg: And, you know, and that… and that was with a bunch of completed dashboards. Here, they don’t have dashboards at all, so… Yes.

25 00:02:18.410 00:02:21.030 Greg Stoutenburg: So, yeah, okay. So…

26 00:02:21.540 00:02:35.469 Greg Stoutenburg: I wanted to just make sure, though, so… because this morning I was thinking, like, okay, Shivani wants to know, like, when’s everything going to be done? We need to hit this, I want to review this by the end of the week, and then I saw the note to Amber, so I wanted to just check in around expectations for timeframe.

27 00:02:35.470 00:02:36.280 Uttam Kumaran: Sure.

28 00:02:36.410 00:02:37.150 Uttam Kumaran: I think.

29 00:02:37.150 00:02:43.849 Greg Stoutenburg: what can be done well, but before I just, like, put that on paper, you know, if there’s a different expectation from the client, I want to, you know.

30 00:02:43.850 00:02:48.860 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so the only expectation, like, I just want to continue to go back to the

31 00:02:49.190 00:03:07.330 Uttam Kumaran: this client is going to continue to go back and be like, what did we put in front of them? So, we are locked into what we put into that accelerator dock, right? And so what we put there is that, like, we’re gonna connect Omni to Snowflake, we’re gonna build the first topics around, and one to two dashboards.

32 00:03:08.520 00:03:24.440 Uttam Kumaran: Around wholesale and retail. So I think that is the entire scope. What I’m… what happened this week, and sort of where I threw a little bit of a wrench into things, is that Shivani was presenting some stuff to executives, and I was like, okay, well, just, like, see if you can connect one mark.

33 00:03:24.490 00:03:34.980 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, get Blobby running, and it actually worked really well, in that, like, she was able to demo. Now, I need us to go back to, like, that’s… we’re no longer in that mode. Amber…

34 00:03:35.130 00:03:44.360 Uttam Kumaran: in an effort to, like… I feel like she worked on that. She’s now like, okay, I’m gonna go work on an e-com topic. I just put random stuff in a dashboard. I’m like, dude.

35 00:03:44.710 00:03:51.320 Uttam Kumaran: you are gonna wait… you are gonna delete all that shit if we mess up… if we… if we change the topic definitions, so…

36 00:03:51.620 00:03:52.220 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah.

37 00:03:52.220 00:04:04.850 Uttam Kumaran: Stop, like, relax. Yeah, we’re not doing that. The other thing is, like, if she’s going in and changing things, and then blobby, like, it no longer works for, like, what we demoed, or, like.

38 00:04:05.430 00:04:10.790 Uttam Kumaran: Shivani starts poking into things that aren’t working, we’re gonna get jammed. Yeah. So now I really want…

39 00:04:10.830 00:04:28.970 Uttam Kumaran: I really want Amber to follow your lead. Like, Amber is not leading what gets done in Omni, right? And so, the… how topics are organized, how metrics and dimensions are named, what the requirements for the dashboards are, and how… what things Blobby is able to do.

40 00:04:28.970 00:04:29.690 Greg Stoutenburg: is…

41 00:04:29.690 00:04:44.989 Uttam Kumaran: in your hands. And so, I don’t want Amber working on anything outside of, like, what you’ve basically approved, is the theme right now, because then there’s gonna be something you can’t talk to, or something is going to break.

42 00:04:45.230 00:04:47.959 Uttam Kumaran: Either way, bad news bears, you know?

43 00:04:47.980 00:05:06.100 Uttam Kumaran: So I think, like, that is really, like, the net-net of, like, where we are now. I think nicely, though, we have set up Snowflake, things are there, so we’re not… I don’t think, like, in any sense, we’re, like, behind plan. In fact, I was really clear that we are going to…

44 00:05:06.190 00:05:08.470 Uttam Kumaran: Try our best to get this to her.

45 00:05:08.780 00:05:23.620 Uttam Kumaran: something on Monday, and that is, like, that was not scoped. So, like, if anything, we’ve over-delivered, and I’m gonna make sure that’s, like, clear in our presentation today, that, like, we had to take some shortcuts to nail that, but we are going back to a plan. Like, that is…

46 00:05:23.620 00:05:23.980 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

47 00:05:23.980 00:05:25.880 Uttam Kumaran: That is gonna be, like, how I tee up

48 00:05:26.090 00:05:36.640 Uttam Kumaran: the Omni thing. Yep. But otherwise, I… I would like us… I would like to see what are the topics we’re making, like, just those four things. The topics.

49 00:05:36.740 00:05:44.020 Uttam Kumaran: The dashboard… like… Like, blobby working, and then, like, making sure everything is, like, clean.

50 00:05:44.170 00:05:47.349 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Like, that is the… that is the net-net, yeah.

51 00:05:47.350 00:05:57.880 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep, yep. And to be clear, we said in the Omniaccelerator doc, we said time to first value would be weeks 3 to 6,

52 00:05:59.050 00:06:02.289 Greg Stoutenburg: And we said, build one to two dashboards.

53 00:06:02.670 00:06:04.470 Greg Stoutenburg: And that that would take about…

54 00:06:04.730 00:06:11.180 Greg Stoutenburg: 4 weeks. Is that 4 weeks in Chunk 2, or is that from the start?

55 00:06:11.810 00:06:14.429 Uttam Kumaran: Week… week 1 and 2, I feel like…

56 00:06:15.330 00:06:18.830 Uttam Kumaran: it’s up… I think it’s for you to verify, but that seems done.

57 00:06:19.390 00:06:28.039 Greg Stoutenburg: Right. So I first… yeah, yeah, I agree. I… the first time I talked to Shivani was last Wednesday, and she was like, okay, let’s move on this.

58 00:06:28.040 00:06:28.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

59 00:06:28.600 00:06:31.180 Greg Stoutenburg: So, if we… we could…

60 00:06:31.180 00:06:32.349 Uttam Kumaran: Two Wednesdays ago.

61 00:06:34.000 00:06:35.730 Greg Stoutenburg: No, last… the 11th.

62 00:06:36.050 00:06:39.390 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really? Okay, sorry then, maybe it just feels like two weeks, two Wednesdays ago.

63 00:06:39.390 00:06:41.799 Greg Stoutenburg: everything, yeah, you’re running on Brain Forge time.

64 00:06:44.830 00:06:46.959 Uttam Kumaran: So… so I… so I think we…

65 00:06:47.060 00:06:51.060 Uttam Kumaran: We actually, I would say then, I think that’s a good place to start, is that

66 00:06:51.280 00:07:01.470 Uttam Kumaran: like, let’s say we kicked it off that week. Yeah. I think you could then say, I think a good… always is gonna be good to reference this doc and be like, we are on track.

67 00:07:01.470 00:07:04.950 Greg Stoutenburg: Great news. Do you know what I mean? We’re ahead. Great news, we’re ahead.

68 00:07:05.550 00:07:07.060 Greg Stoutenburg: Last Wednesday, and we…

69 00:07:07.060 00:07:22.449 Uttam Kumaran: If you don’t reference back to this stock, then she’s gonna also not reference back to this stock, and then it’s just, yesterday was the goal. So, I think going back to this, showing that, like, hey, I think really hitting that, like, I was out, and you… you should just take credit. Just say, like, I…

70 00:07:22.450 00:07:22.950 Greg Stoutenburg: plan.

71 00:07:22.950 00:07:34.619 Uttam Kumaran: I’m sure the team got this out. I will… you could also say, or I will bring up, that, hey, because you were in Bozeman, and you had this thing with the executive team, we, like, pushed

72 00:07:35.070 00:07:37.679 Uttam Kumaran: This, like, next piece out, but, like.

73 00:07:37.840 00:07:42.500 Uttam Kumaran: we need to sort of, like, not rush shit like that anymore. Yeah.

74 00:07:42.500 00:07:45.049 Greg Stoutenburg: That was just a demo. That was for you to show off, yeah.

75 00:07:45.050 00:07:45.600 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

76 00:07:45.600 00:07:47.130 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah, okay.

77 00:07:47.130 00:08:06.429 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s exactly, like, there’s… none of that is, like, that is exactly, like, why we push things. So I think that is the external management. Yeah. The internal management is, like, just wrangling Amber. I think she’s, like, super interested, and I think because she wants to learn, but she’s gonna get fried on this, and literally, Shivani already wants to move her off.

78 00:08:06.430 00:08:07.930 Uttam Kumaran: So, like.

79 00:08:08.670 00:08:15.240 Uttam Kumaran: like, it’s kind of, like, I don’t know what to do, except be like, yo, you are going to lose this, and then, like.

80 00:08:15.670 00:08:22.160 Uttam Kumaran: So what? Like, you know, you’re screwing yourself and you’re screwing the team. I don’t think she really gets that.

81 00:08:22.380 00:08:24.120 Uttam Kumaran: At how serious it is.

82 00:08:24.120 00:08:24.560 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

83 00:08:24.560 00:08:30.810 Uttam Kumaran: So, that’s sort of one thing where I just want you to give her a lot of guardrails and be like, work on the tickets.

84 00:08:30.970 00:08:31.640 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep.

85 00:08:31.640 00:08:38.829 Uttam Kumaran: And then tell me when the ticket is done, so I can review it. Like, plain and simply, you know? And she’ll do that, like…

86 00:08:39.020 00:08:44.129 Uttam Kumaran: She’s like a machine, but, like, that’s the thing, the machine is sort of like… the Roomba’s sort of running.

87 00:08:44.130 00:08:47.480 Greg Stoutenburg: You turn it on… oh, shoot, I forgot to turn off the Roomba.

88 00:08:47.480 00:08:48.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yeah.

89 00:08:48.360 00:08:48.750 Greg Stoutenburg: I like it.

90 00:08:48.750 00:08:51.240 Uttam Kumaran: Two of us trying to vacuum, like, the carpet threads.

91 00:08:51.540 00:08:52.270 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

92 00:08:52.270 00:08:52.950 Uttam Kumaran: So, I…

93 00:08:52.950 00:08:53.600 Greg Stoutenburg: I just want to make.

94 00:08:53.600 00:08:56.179 Uttam Kumaran: Make sure that, like, we don’t… we don’t… yeah.

95 00:08:56.180 00:09:02.180 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay, now, what is it that Shivani saw that made her concerned about Amber’s work?

96 00:09:02.590 00:09:06.380 Uttam Kumaran: she didn’t see anything, but that is the thing, that’s why I…

97 00:09:06.740 00:09:21.760 Uttam Kumaran: I know that if… so for… a couple things. One, the topics… we didn’t agree on, like, anything about how these topics were gonna get defined. They just threw together the wholesale stuff. The naming conventions around all of them are not really great.

98 00:09:21.760 00:09:22.450 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

99 00:09:22.450 00:09:29.430 Uttam Kumaran: and they’re, like, the dashboards we put up, like, we don’t… they aren’t… there wasn’t a plan for, like, that. I was like, just…

100 00:09:29.710 00:09:33.989 Uttam Kumaran: All I said is, like, see if you can replicate a couple of the views from the spreadsheets.

101 00:09:34.210 00:09:34.530 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

102 00:09:34.530 00:09:37.839 Uttam Kumaran: And see if you can just get Blobby to be say… saying something.

103 00:09:37.840 00:09:38.410 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

104 00:09:38.410 00:09:42.340 Uttam Kumaran: Now, that’s done. We’re good on that. So, I want us to, like.

105 00:09:42.610 00:09:47.569 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t… what I don’t want us to do is… she’s like, cool, I’m gonna go work on the e-com topics.

106 00:09:47.570 00:09:48.640 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, no.

107 00:09:48.640 00:09:49.640 Uttam Kumaran: No, don’t…

108 00:09:49.640 00:09:51.970 Greg Stoutenburg: We’re not done with.

109 00:09:51.970 00:09:53.010 Uttam Kumaran: with the first thing.

110 00:09:53.010 00:09:55.070 Greg Stoutenburg: first part. We’re not done with the pilot, so…

111 00:09:55.070 00:09:58.810 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. So that’s… that’s it. This wasn’t… this wasn’t a…

112 00:09:59.040 00:10:01.369 Uttam Kumaran: This is more of, like, a preemptive, like.

113 00:10:02.100 00:10:09.079 Uttam Kumaran: Like… Got it. Like, yeah. Meaning, if we come across like those topics are done.

114 00:10:09.270 00:10:15.040 Uttam Kumaran: and Shivani starts using them, and they’re not done, then we’re jammed. So today, I really want to share that

115 00:10:15.400 00:10:32.099 Uttam Kumaran: hey, we’re, like, in our pilot phase. We’re still according to plan. What you saw was just an effort to actually get a win for you, but, like, that is, like… you could even blame me. Like, I don’t mind. You can say, like, that is an out-of-plan thing that we, like, tried to push.

116 00:10:32.100 00:10:32.740 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

117 00:10:32.740 00:10:38.429 Uttam Kumaran: And we’re tr… continue to hit on the fact that it’s, like, methodical, there’s, like, an organized plan, like, that’s… that’s gonna.

118 00:10:38.430 00:10:38.900 Greg Stoutenburg: Yup.

119 00:10:38.900 00:10:39.220 Uttam Kumaran: the thing.

120 00:10:39.220 00:10:57.629 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, okay, cool. Yeah, okay, that all sounds good. So, what I’m… what I’ve put together with Cursor, relying on, the project doc, all of our notes, and the meeting yesterday, is, basically, yeah, I mean, we’ll, you know, take credit for Omni’s connected to Snowflake, we’ve got our pilot domain.

121 00:10:57.650 00:11:02.209 Greg Stoutenburg: We’ve got our data mart modeled.

122 00:11:02.360 00:11:11.889 Greg Stoutenburg: And we’re just… this is all just coming from Snowflake, right? For resale and wholesale. It’s all in Snowflake, that’s where it’s coming from. Single source. Okay.

123 00:11:13.300 00:11:32.279 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, okay. So, next steps then are we’re going to rely on the questions that she’s provided, and this is something I stressed to the team on the call yesterday. I was like, hey, Shivani gave us a huge gift by just telling us these are the questions that the stakeholders are going to ask by group. Like, that’s perfect. So she’s given us acceptance criteria, and I’m gonna… I’ll use that phrase on the call today.

124 00:11:32.280 00:11:32.770 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

125 00:11:32.770 00:11:39.630 Greg Stoutenburg: our acceptance criteria for the dashes and Blobby’s performance is answering these questions for…

126 00:11:39.630 00:11:48.880 Uttam Kumaran: I also would… I also would give you one suggestion, is, like, Shivani and others in the company are gonna just fire off random docs. Like, try to move shit into this…

127 00:11:49.090 00:11:54.430 Uttam Kumaran: either into the two docs that matter, the accelerator doc or the data platform sheet, like…

128 00:11:54.750 00:11:59.700 Uttam Kumaran: people can create stuff everywhere, but then express that, like, yo, I’m gonna move this here.

129 00:11:59.700 00:12:00.020 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep.

130 00:12:00.020 00:12:03.440 Uttam Kumaran: Just get her working out of this dock, ideally, so that it’s all here.

131 00:12:03.670 00:12:09.810 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep. It’s there now, and the good news is she wrote them. Yeah, I’m looking at the, version history.

132 00:12:09.810 00:12:10.659 Uttam Kumaran: She wrote that.

133 00:12:10.660 00:12:12.249 Greg Stoutenburg: So, I’m just gonna say…

134 00:12:12.250 00:12:14.660 Uttam Kumaran: But then there’s this other Google Doc that she wrote today.

135 00:12:15.380 00:12:16.310 Greg Stoutenburg: Right?

136 00:12:16.320 00:12:18.540 Uttam Kumaran: Whatever that, like, one I sent this morning.

137 00:12:18.540 00:12:33.140 Greg Stoutenburg: Busy day, yeah, okay. Yeah, I… I saw that. Yeah, so, so here, I’ll say, like, this is what… this is what we’re using as… we’re gonna use these as acceptance criteria for the dashboards and lobby’s performance, and…

138 00:12:33.470 00:12:37.090 Greg Stoutenburg: Going to see it, yeah. And then, yeah, the other one she sent this morning…

139 00:12:37.090 00:12:44.680 Uttam Kumaran: Omni demo examples… yeah, like… I think… I think the… Yeah.

140 00:12:45.510 00:12:52.139 Uttam Kumaran: I’m almost, like, interested in this doc getting merged, At the… as an appendix.

141 00:12:52.260 00:12:53.749 Uttam Kumaran: To the accelerator dock.

142 00:12:54.290 00:12:58.250 Uttam Kumaran: So, you can see that… how she’s trying to organize it.

143 00:12:58.370 00:13:09.890 Uttam Kumaran: Her challenge right now is that the executive team just has, like, is not able to think about this project well, so she’s consistently trying ways to, like, reframe the problem.

144 00:13:10.160 00:13:10.780 Uttam Kumaran: So…

145 00:13:10.780 00:13:12.090 Greg Stoutenburg: You wrote this. I thought you wrote this.

146 00:13:12.090 00:13:17.449 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, she wrote this. So, it is very similar, actually, to what we wrote in the appendix.

147 00:13:17.590 00:13:18.360 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep.

148 00:13:18.360 00:13:24.629 Uttam Kumaran: My suggestion would be… Take this, put in the appendix, and then, in our call today, ask.

149 00:13:25.010 00:13:33.189 Uttam Kumaran: Like, would we want to… like, we basically have wholesale, retail, like, do you want us to, like, start putting docs like this together?

150 00:13:33.470 00:13:33.790 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

151 00:13:33.790 00:13:36.490 Uttam Kumaran: And then that way, we sort of, like, can own that. Yeah.

152 00:13:36.490 00:13:37.120 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

153 00:13:37.390 00:13:48.470 Greg Stoutenburg: Cool. Yeah. Okay, I think we’re… I think we’re in good shape, then, for the call. So, I’ll put together notes, run them by you before I make a deck. Okay.

154 00:13:48.470 00:13:50.479 Uttam Kumaran: What also could be helpful is, like.

155 00:13:50.580 00:13:54.219 Uttam Kumaran: If… if you’re like, hey, it’s gonna take too long to, like.

156 00:13:54.580 00:14:02.360 Uttam Kumaran: like, I don’t think you need to work on the Gantt, but I do think that what would be helpful is you can flash up, like.

157 00:14:02.830 00:14:05.610 Uttam Kumaran: stuff we have in our OmniPilot project.

158 00:14:05.610 00:14:06.280 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

159 00:14:06.600 00:14:11.190 Uttam Kumaran: If that… and that way, you can use cursor and make sure linear is organized.

160 00:14:11.600 00:14:29.860 Uttam Kumaran: Flash that. I think the deck and that is gonna be a much better use of your… of your time. The accelerator doc totally speaks for itself, like, I don’t think we need another Gantt, like, or anything there. So, I think my… I think the short-term ask, because we can… we can have Amber work on stuff, actually, today.

161 00:14:29.860 00:14:30.190 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

162 00:14:30.190 00:14:36.649 Uttam Kumaran: Get the linear tickets in the… linear project, ready to go.

163 00:14:36.650 00:14:39.540 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah. So, like… Yeah, I saw it, yeah.

164 00:14:39.540 00:14:43.090 Uttam Kumaran: OmniPilot, and I think we have, like, there’s, like.

165 00:14:43.090 00:14:44.450 Greg Stoutenburg: There’s a phase after that.

166 00:14:44.450 00:14:47.149 Uttam Kumaran: This is like an… yeah, this is Don, I think.

167 00:14:47.150 00:14:51.060 Greg Stoutenburg: I’m gonna say that’s done, yep. And then we’re in the…

168 00:14:51.060 00:14:54.710 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you can consult… you can consolidate, or whatever, I don’t mind.

169 00:14:54.710 00:14:55.210 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

170 00:14:55.210 00:14:58.860 Uttam Kumaran: And, yeah, and then this is next. So I… I frankly would…

171 00:14:59.360 00:15:03.319 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I would show… I would fill… I would make sure these are filled.

172 00:15:04.100 00:15:13.859 Uttam Kumaran: You could just show her, like, this is how we’re organizing. And you can, dude, you can use Cursor to interact with linear really, really easily. Yeah, yeah. So, I think, like.

173 00:15:14.530 00:15:22.089 Uttam Kumaran: go… one thing I’m thinking broadly on projects is going from SOW to something like the accelerator dock.

174 00:15:22.160 00:15:25.879 Uttam Kumaran: And then that basically matching line for line on

175 00:15:25.910 00:15:29.750 Uttam Kumaran: initiatives, projects, tickets. That way, it’s like…

176 00:15:29.760 00:15:39.280 Uttam Kumaran: the latter is really, really clear, and, like, everything is sort of in the platform, and so it’s easy for us to see those. So, I think the accelerator dock and the

177 00:15:39.280 00:15:50.749 Uttam Kumaran: getting this linear is gonna be your friend. I think if you… as soon as the linear is ready, you can send it… you could be like, yo, go check out the project, I’ll go check it out. That way, you can start assigning tickets to…

178 00:15:50.800 00:15:53.429 Uttam Kumaran: Amber and Jasmine to just start doing.

179 00:15:53.430 00:15:53.840 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

180 00:15:53.840 00:15:58.479 Uttam Kumaran: And then prep for the… and then we can probably do, like, maybe we do a deck…

181 00:15:58.720 00:16:01.419 Uttam Kumaran: We do a presentation, sort of run-through.

182 00:16:01.710 00:16:02.720 Uttam Kumaran: when we meet.

183 00:16:02.950 00:16:19.790 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. Yeah, sounds good. For topic building, I’ll rely on the accelerator doc, because it points to particular tables, and say, you know, Amber, create a retail topic, create a wholesale topic, these would be distinct topics,

184 00:16:19.940 00:16:21.989 Greg Stoutenburg: And, yeah, and then.

185 00:16:21.990 00:16:22.630 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think…

186 00:16:22.630 00:16:23.890 Greg Stoutenburg: Reports based on that.

187 00:16:24.120 00:16:27.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think one thing that could be helpful is…

188 00:16:27.480 00:16:35.470 Uttam Kumaran: Just take, like, a little bit of time and… and think about the element business. Yeah. Like, even outside of, like, Omni.

189 00:16:35.470 00:16:36.050 Greg Stoutenburg: you know.

190 00:16:36.250 00:16:41.720 Uttam Kumaran: So, maybe that’s what we can… we can spend some time later today or tomorrow, but I do think that…

191 00:16:41.950 00:16:50.250 Uttam Kumaran: For topic formation, and for you to get the business context faster is gonna be the main piece here.

192 00:16:50.370 00:17:00.910 Uttam Kumaran: For example, like, understanding, like, what is wholesale in relation to Element, like… Yeah. You know, wholesale is, like, the gym across the street is selling, like.

193 00:17:01.040 00:17:19.470 Uttam Kumaran: hundreds of boxes of Element, right? What is retail? Like, how does retail work? So I think those are some longer, like, over this week and next week, I can spend some time with you to give you, like, the business context more. But that’s why, if, like, as long as the… if the tickets can start to run.

194 00:17:20.609 00:17:25.750 Uttam Kumaran: and, like, the plan is going, that will free you up to sort of get to that level. Yeah.

195 00:17:25.980 00:17:33.330 Uttam Kumaran: And then, it’s not that hard, it’s like, I’m sure… it’s actually, like, because it’s a consumer business, it makes a lot of sense.

196 00:17:33.390 00:17:47.440 Uttam Kumaran: Once I kind of explain, but that way it’ll allow you to start to think about the way these topics are formed, and then for you to start to test Blobby with real questions, but yes, very thankfully, most of that is already here.

197 00:17:47.660 00:17:56.449 Uttam Kumaran: I think Shivani is just gonna wanna see that, like, people who onboard onto… from Brainforge onto this client start to gain a deeper understanding of their business.

198 00:17:56.450 00:18:07.789 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. That’s what… that’s what I think is gonna be another piece where she’s like, okay, are people coming from Brainforge onto here, not only just, like, executing things, but, like, gaining, like, a real understanding for how we operate, you know?

199 00:18:07.790 00:18:10.830 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah.

200 00:18:12.490 00:18:22.540 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, idea. I think in the future when we do this kind of thing, for anyone working on the project, there’s just a… and especially if the client’s going to see it, there’s, like, a… the first ticket is, like.

201 00:18:23.260 00:18:25.049 Greg Stoutenburg: What is this company? What are the.

202 00:18:25.050 00:18:26.610 Uttam Kumaran: How does this company make money?

203 00:18:26.610 00:18:31.819 Greg Stoutenburg: care about, yeah, and just, like, understand this before you look at anything else. And I think they would like to.

204 00:18:31.820 00:18:34.620 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s a… yeah, so that’s something that, like, let me,

205 00:18:35.750 00:18:38.280 Uttam Kumaran: I’m gonna take that as something, because,

206 00:18:38.400 00:18:43.549 Uttam Kumaran: you’ve asked… I think you’ve mentioned before, like, a lot about handoffs. I think we’re getting better.

207 00:18:43.650 00:18:48.300 Uttam Kumaran: Slightly. But still, I think there’s, like, a business context handoff.

208 00:18:48.500 00:18:51.779 Uttam Kumaran: that isn’t happening, but, like, maybe I’ll think about it.

209 00:18:51.900 00:18:52.920 Uttam Kumaran: Weekend.

210 00:18:52.920 00:19:03.539 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah. Oh, and I also want to say, I think that the handoff, that you did for me for this last Tuesday or whatever it was, I thought that was really helpful. Like, hearing things like, here’s what this person cares about.

211 00:19:03.540 00:19:04.140 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

212 00:19:04.140 00:19:07.080 Greg Stoutenburg: That’s what people need to know, I think, when they get onto a project, because, like, everyone.

213 00:19:07.080 00:19:11.319 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, like, what is the idiosyncrasy on this thing? That’s actually, like…

214 00:19:11.480 00:19:13.629 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree, which is why I’m like.

215 00:19:14.380 00:19:28.659 Uttam Kumaran: I… like, learning about Element and learning about ecom will take a sec, but, like, learning… for you, I know learning that… that this person cares about one thing, doesn’t care about another thing, is actually, like, what will get the train rolling short-term, help them build.

216 00:19:28.660 00:19:29.039 Greg Stoutenburg: on the truck.

217 00:19:29.500 00:19:35.620 Uttam Kumaran: And then you’ll gain the business context, but if you come in and immediately like…

218 00:19:35.930 00:19:52.590 Uttam Kumaran: do the thing that that person doesn’t like seeing, which is, like, rush jobs, then you’re fried, you know? She actually said she really, like, she liked meeting you. She’s like, yeah, compared to the other folks that… that I met on your team, like, Greg was really poised and, like, clearly senior, and I’m like, okay.

219 00:19:52.700 00:20:00.600 Uttam Kumaran: So, like, you’re already there, but I… but I just, like, this one I feel particularly stressed about, because…

220 00:20:00.850 00:20:03.639 Uttam Kumaran: We’re negotiating this renewal.

221 00:20:04.130 00:20:04.750 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

222 00:20:04.920 00:20:12.779 Uttam Kumaran: I think they are kind of like a weird… like, she has some, like, weird idiosyncrasies, neuroticism about some of the ways things are done.

223 00:20:13.520 00:20:18.080 Uttam Kumaran: In some ways, they are… they completely derail our work.

224 00:20:19.780 00:20:24.489 Uttam Kumaran: and in other ways, it’s because I don’t think she knows

225 00:20:24.780 00:20:32.510 Uttam Kumaran: how to do a lot of this. Yeah. Right? So she’s, like, offloading a ton to an external partner, or just, like, extra someone that’s not her.

226 00:20:33.340 00:20:41.899 Uttam Kumaran: And we talked about it, so, like, that’s really what we’re fighting against here, is, like, giving her the confidence that, like, we are going to nail it.

227 00:20:42.140 00:20:42.580 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep.

228 00:20:42.580 00:20:46.920 Uttam Kumaran: And then giving her the confidence that what we are going to nail, she can screenshot and send to somebody else.

229 00:20:46.920 00:20:47.430 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

230 00:20:47.430 00:20:59.500 Uttam Kumaran: Right. So it’s one thing for me to be like, okay, we’re on the same page, and then her boss’s boss or the COO is like, what are they doing again? And she’s like, oh shit. Like, what is something I can screenshot and share?

231 00:20:59.500 00:21:07.939 Uttam Kumaran: Right. Or, like, what is a plan? And, like, I think that Omni plan is good, but this is where I want to push on her for, like, if she’s like, oh, the CEO wants to see it some way, I’m like, dude.

232 00:21:08.450 00:21:12.270 Uttam Kumaran: You do that, like, what is… you do that thing, like, what?

233 00:21:12.270 00:21:12.600 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

234 00:21:12.600 00:21:17.930 Uttam Kumaran: What are we… yeah, you know, like, you have to manage up, and we will help you do that, you know, so…

235 00:21:17.930 00:21:24.439 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, good. Okay, I think I know what to do. I’m gonna give her, like, a…

236 00:21:24.600 00:21:31.170 Greg Stoutenburg: I’m just gonna look at whatever the accelerator puts us, and… and sketch it out that way, so that we can continue to look like we’re just, you know, ahead.

237 00:21:31.170 00:21:31.680 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.

238 00:21:31.930 00:21:41.649 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. And that’s gonna put us… I mean, yeah, 500… so, I’ll just say… let’s just say we started last Monday. So, tomorrow concludes week 2.

239 00:21:41.760 00:21:46.580 Greg Stoutenburg: And we are… If we do it that way, we’re right on schedule. So…

240 00:21:46.580 00:21:47.230 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

241 00:21:47.230 00:21:48.420 Greg Stoutenburg: And then…

242 00:21:48.420 00:21:54.190 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then I think what you can say is, like, we moved some of the topic work faster

243 00:21:54.950 00:22:10.179 Uttam Kumaran: But, like, it’s… it’s, like, not at all… I will tell you, I keep… I kept telling her through the whole process we were building the thing earlier this week that, like, this is not final form, like… Yeah. Like, so I really hedged it a lot, but I think that’s gonna be good for us to just reset back on this.

244 00:22:10.180 00:22:10.710 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep.

245 00:22:11.470 00:22:12.450 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

246 00:22:12.450 00:22:14.689 Uttam Kumaran: If we nail today, then I think…

247 00:22:14.840 00:22:19.450 Uttam Kumaran: Tomorrow, we can actually start booking some of the meetings, and start to think about it.

248 00:22:19.450 00:22:33.209 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, okay. So, so the presentation will be, you know, wins that we’ve gotten you so far, including just, you know, what’s been done, and also, you got to show this thing off in Bozeman, like, Bozeman Bozeman? Like, Montana Bozeman?

249 00:22:33.210 00:22:34.220 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

250 00:22:34.220 00:22:34.660 Greg Stoutenburg: Speaking.

251 00:22:34.660 00:22:36.260 Uttam Kumaran: Where are their companies, like, headquartered?

252 00:22:36.680 00:22:38.099 Greg Stoutenburg: Oh, you said that before, that’s right.

253 00:22:38.100 00:22:39.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, it’s like,

254 00:22:40.400 00:22:48.319 Uttam Kumaran: It’s a weird company, dude. It’s, like, sometimes… it’s like, honestly, more and more I learn, it’s, like, kind of like a weird, like, cult company, like…

255 00:22:49.360 00:22:54.560 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I don’t know. I’ll have to tell… I’ll tell you more about it. I’ll tell you more about it later, but it’s like…

256 00:22:54.670 00:23:08.350 Uttam Kumaran: weird characters, they have a weird way of working that’s non-standard, they care about… like, they… they really care about, like, documentation, and, like, these nitty-gritty, but then it’s kind of, like, entirely performative.

257 00:23:08.610 00:23:12.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Like… I know it’s performative, and then she’s like.

258 00:23:12.700 00:23:16.459 Uttam Kumaran: she asked me, she’s like, do we… do you think we have a higher standard for documentation? I’m like.

259 00:23:16.690 00:23:18.880 Uttam Kumaran: I’m like, yeah, by, like, a mile, like…

260 00:23:19.160 00:23:19.550 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

261 00:23:19.550 00:23:29.259 Uttam Kumaran: And I’m like, we do this all fucking day for all types of people, like, this is, like, kind of insane. And I’m like… and… but deep down, I’m like, this is completely performative, like, you have to

262 00:23:29.880 00:23:32.849 Uttam Kumaran: Nobody gives a fuck about, like… Yeah.

263 00:23:32.850 00:23:37.090 Greg Stoutenburg: This document exists so that you can update it. Anytime you’re in that position, like…

264 00:23:37.090 00:23:39.249 Uttam Kumaran: No, and I,

265 00:23:40.800 00:23:58.880 Uttam Kumaran: And so, I’m patching that, while also, she’s like, hey, this, like, one dimension for wholesale partner risk didn’t get updated, I asked you 6 times, and I’m like… so then I… but I messaged today, being like, yo, we don’t have another contract signed, I’m already extending resources, like, it was in the backlog.

266 00:23:59.060 00:23:59.610 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

267 00:23:59.610 00:24:03.890 Uttam Kumaran: We moved it out of the backlog, but, like, Let’s get that thing signed.

268 00:24:03.890 00:24:15.099 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and just, I mean, like, as a note, their product, their core product is a funny thing, too. Like, it’s something that everyone has in their house, so they can just… you can just eat it. Anytime.

269 00:24:15.920 00:24:23.220 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, well, it’s like that… well, yeah, I mean, I… I equate the margins to drugs, like, it’s…

270 00:24:23.520 00:24:35.330 Uttam Kumaran: They’re selling, like, a compound that’s pretty cheap to put together, it’s just a powder form, slight flavoring. It’s an entire… the entirety is brand building. So, in fact, it’s actually a marketing company.

271 00:24:35.330 00:24:36.320 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, it’s a marketing company.

272 00:24:36.320 00:24:41.529 Uttam Kumaran: So what you’ll learn about e-com is that a lot… when they get bigger and bigger.

273 00:24:41.860 00:24:47.860 Uttam Kumaran: It’s no longer a product company. It’s completely a marketing vehicle for something.

274 00:24:48.030 00:24:48.500 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

275 00:24:48.500 00:24:50.140 Uttam Kumaran: In this case, it happens to be…

276 00:24:50.280 00:24:59.000 Uttam Kumaran: powder, like, 3 things in powder form, but it’s about… but then you start getting to, like, what does a brand mean? The fact that they’re paleo influencers.

277 00:24:59.000 00:24:59.500 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

278 00:24:59.500 00:25:00.630 Uttam Kumaran: That’s why I think…

279 00:25:00.870 00:25:10.730 Uttam Kumaran: The meta point when you learn about e-comm is, like, we’re… it’s completely paid for, like, all of your tastes and interests in products and things are completely… someone else’s… is devising that and getting

280 00:25:11.250 00:25:12.809 Uttam Kumaran: Everybody you listen to, to say that…

281 00:25:13.650 00:25:17.440 Uttam Kumaran: Everybody you listen to or watch or consume is saying that they’re a great product.

282 00:25:17.630 00:25:18.160 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

283 00:25:18.160 00:25:21.250 Uttam Kumaran: And then your friends say it’s a great product, so that you think it’s a great product, when in fact.

284 00:25:21.250 00:25:21.860 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

285 00:25:22.310 00:25:24.630 Uttam Kumaran: It was just a product, you know?

286 00:25:24.630 00:25:25.080 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

287 00:25:25.080 00:25:29.389 Uttam Kumaran: But again, those are the things about this business that I think over time, you’ll start to…

288 00:25:29.900 00:25:33.700 Uttam Kumaran: I think that’s… that… this is, like, the kind of the conversation I want to share more about, like…

289 00:25:33.830 00:25:37.810 Uttam Kumaran: What is this… like, how does this business actually work and operate?

290 00:25:37.810 00:25:38.130 Greg Stoutenburg: Hmm.

291 00:25:38.130 00:25:45.470 Uttam Kumaran: You know, so that’ll be the cherry on top. In addition to, like, all these things, then Shivani would be like, tell me how, like.

292 00:25:45.650 00:25:54.149 Uttam Kumaran: some of your other clients worked on this thing, or, like, how do you guys think about this? Then it’s, like, much more fun. And we’re actually selling that as another workstream, like, sort of, like, strategic guidance.

293 00:25:54.310 00:25:54.900 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

294 00:25:55.440 00:25:56.650 Uttam Kumaran: Things like that, so…

295 00:25:56.650 00:25:59.729 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, good. Good. That’s what I was trying to get README.

296 00:25:59.730 00:26:00.080 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

297 00:26:00.080 00:26:08.610 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, cool. Okay, alright, I’ll put this together. In the meantime, we talk to default in an hour and 20.

298 00:26:08.610 00:26:14.010 Uttam Kumaran: I feel good about… I can take a look at the deck. I feel good about taking the entire data work, dude, so…

299 00:26:14.010 00:26:14.350 Greg Stoutenburg: Take it.

300 00:26:14.350 00:26:17.579 Uttam Kumaran: maybe just do that. Do you mind if we, like, lead with that?

301 00:26:17.760 00:26:18.460 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah.

302 00:26:18.460 00:26:21.050 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’ll give you time for product analytics stuff.

303 00:26:21.050 00:26:23.659 Greg Stoutenburg: I mean, I think they know where we’re at with product analytics.

304 00:26:23.660 00:26:34.039 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, they just like you, I want you to be there, I want you to… I want you to see that, and next week, I can hand it to you. It’s not that hard either. I just want to make sure that, because there’s, like, four or five of their internal folks looking at it, so…

305 00:26:34.040 00:26:34.820 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, I’ll just…

306 00:26:34.820 00:26:36.360 Uttam Kumaran: close it out. Okay.

307 00:26:36.360 00:26:36.870 Greg Stoutenburg: Alright.

308 00:26:36.870 00:26:37.420 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.

309 00:26:37.420 00:26:44.069 Greg Stoutenburg: let me build these tickets, and I’ll run them by you, and then I’ll put slides together. I assume, you know, I mean, do we have an existing deck?

310 00:26:44.070 00:26:47.680 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, there… yeah, there is existing slide deck.

311 00:26:47.680 00:26:48.220 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

312 00:26:48.220 00:26:49.779 Uttam Kumaran: Let me just walk you through that.

313 00:26:49.930 00:26:53.380 Uttam Kumaran: shortly. Let me just actually watch you… let me just walk you through that right now.

314 00:26:53.380 00:26:53.960 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

315 00:26:57.530 00:27:06.079 Uttam Kumaran: So, the way I organized it last week, and I think this is the way they kind of want to see this project, and honestly, I’m kind of… I sent them the CSO channel, I’m kind of thinking about reorienting

316 00:27:06.380 00:27:11.299 Uttam Kumaran: a lot of our stuff this way is, like, I start with North Stars, give an agenda.

317 00:27:11.420 00:27:13.100 Uttam Kumaran: And then…

318 00:27:13.720 00:27:21.470 Uttam Kumaran: This is sort of, like, my new format, is, like, project overview, ingestion, modeling, reporting, adoption, documentation, risks.

319 00:27:21.800 00:27:33.870 Uttam Kumaran: So, we go through ingestion, like, what’s being ingested right now, we go through what’s being modeled right now, we go through what’s being reported on right now, so we walk through the retail Google Sheet, the wholesale Google Sheet.

320 00:27:34.400 00:27:43.180 Uttam Kumaran: last week, and we talked about this Omni plan. Okay. And so… and then we’ll talk about risk, so I… this will be, like, a very similar one.

321 00:27:43.350 00:27:45.079 Uttam Kumaran: This week.

322 00:27:45.720 00:27:49.289 Uttam Kumaran: Hold on.

323 00:27:52.200 00:27:55.610 Uttam Kumaran: And we won’t talk about this.

324 00:27:57.210 00:28:00.650 Uttam Kumaran: We’ll talk about this… And…

325 00:28:00.930 00:28:06.090 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll show the Gantt, and then… so yeah, so I will… I actually want to move… this up?

326 00:28:08.020 00:28:11.650 Uttam Kumaran: Because usually these meetings run short, which is actually perfect.

327 00:28:12.950 00:28:19.660 Uttam Kumaran: By design. And… Yeah.

328 00:28:22.040 00:28:25.430 Uttam Kumaran: So this would be great to slide in some stuff on reporting.

329 00:28:25.680 00:28:31.819 Uttam Kumaran: We can then also slot in something on adoption, and then I can take ingestion modeling risks.

330 00:28:33.050 00:28:37.959 Uttam Kumaran: So really, I think the highlight is, like, here, if you could take just, like.

331 00:28:38.460 00:28:46.550 Uttam Kumaran: how, like, what is the OmniPilot? Definitely have an… have awareness on, like, these two, these… the retail Google Sheet, the Wholesale Google Sheet.

332 00:28:46.550 00:28:47.880 Greg Stoutenburg: Yeah, I’m looking at those.

333 00:28:47.880 00:28:49.590 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. And then…

334 00:28:49.690 00:28:59.079 Uttam Kumaran: you can mention, like, the work that the strategy team is doing on devising dashboards and things like that, answering questions. I think the… I think the four things, the topics.

335 00:28:59.280 00:29:08.539 Uttam Kumaran: the, like, documentation stuff, blobby, the dashboards is, like, a good way to orient. I would love if we spent 98% of the time in this section.

336 00:29:08.790 00:29:23.720 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. So, I’m hopeful that it’s a conversation about Omni, it’s a conversation about the AI, what you learn from meeting people, you can refer back to the Accelerator doc, our questions, we, like, pull something up, like, that would be, like, perfect, perfect.

337 00:29:23.720 00:29:26.400 Greg Stoutenburg: Yep. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Sounds good.

338 00:29:26.730 00:29:27.490 Greg Stoutenburg: Okay.

339 00:29:27.490 00:29:28.060 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.

340 00:29:28.060 00:29:28.820 Greg Stoutenburg: Let’s do it!

341 00:29:28.820 00:29:30.700 Uttam Kumaran: Thank you. Talk to you soon. Goodbye.