Meeting Title: Project Review Walkthrough Date: 2026-03-24 Meeting participants: Brylle Girang, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:14:13.290 ⇒ 00:14:14.260 Uttam Kumaran: edited.
2 00:14:15.070 ⇒ 00:14:18.039 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I feel, I feel, like, a lot better. It took me, like…
3 00:14:19.130 ⇒ 00:14:26.210 Uttam Kumaran: 3-4 hours, and then I talked to… took me a couple weeks, but I feel like I finally am, like.
4 00:14:26.510 ⇒ 00:14:27.990 Uttam Kumaran: 80% there.
5 00:14:28.710 ⇒ 00:14:35.749 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah, it is a lot clearer. I think it was a good move that we’re moving
6 00:14:36.000 ⇒ 00:14:40.009 Brylle Girang: On the standards first, before trying to, like, fix
7 00:14:40.200 ⇒ 00:14:45.909 Brylle Girang: The problems, because overall, the system is what needs fixing, right? Yes.
8 00:14:47.430 ⇒ 00:14:48.280 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and…
9 00:14:48.280 ⇒ 00:14:48.800 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
10 00:14:48.800 ⇒ 00:14:53.129 Uttam Kumaran: Honestly, it’s gonna… it’s gonna take a little bit to roll out,
11 00:14:53.270 ⇒ 00:15:04.590 Uttam Kumaran: So… and there’s gonna be some things I can roll out this quarter, but ultimately, like, this is where I wanna review your L&D plan, and then make sure that that’s all, like.
12 00:15:06.090 ⇒ 00:15:12.649 Uttam Kumaran: it matches with, sort of, what I’m proposing, because I want a deep plan to promote
13 00:15:12.850 ⇒ 00:15:15.129 Uttam Kumaran: the standards, right? So…
14 00:15:15.130 ⇒ 00:15:15.730 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
15 00:15:15.730 ⇒ 00:15:19.499 Uttam Kumaran: we can go through that, or I can… I have to review yours, but we can go through that, too.
16 00:15:20.420 ⇒ 00:15:25.040 Brylle Girang: Yeah, I might need to update that, the, the, the, the new…
17 00:15:25.040 ⇒ 00:15:26.079 Uttam Kumaran: That’s fine, that’s fine.
18 00:15:26.080 ⇒ 00:15:26.890 Brylle Girang: That you’re sharing.
19 00:15:26.890 ⇒ 00:15:28.550 Uttam Kumaran: I think having the way…
20 00:15:30.010 ⇒ 00:15:38.060 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I think have it the way you have it. I’ll just read it, I want to read it as it is, and then I can think about, like, how to map it more.
21 00:15:39.350 ⇒ 00:15:43.530 Brylle Girang: Yeah, so I’m going to make sure that it matches, like, the…
22 00:15:43.580 ⇒ 00:16:00.030 Brylle Girang: the floor, the expectations, and, like, the checkpoints model that we’re doing for the delivery team. I think that’s going to be… Okay. That’s going to be a good uniform across all standards that we’re going to set for not just the delivery team, but the
23 00:16:00.160 ⇒ 00:16:02.520 Brylle Girang: Across the whole business.
24 00:16:04.210 ⇒ 00:16:06.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, I agree. Okay.
25 00:16:09.220 ⇒ 00:16:18.350 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and then the, the, you know, I’m working on also, like, how do we start to have logs for certain things? Like, can we log escalations?
26 00:16:18.610 ⇒ 00:16:23.840 Uttam Kumaran: Like, can we make sure that we have, like, how… can we identify the risks faster, and then…
27 00:16:23.970 ⇒ 00:16:28.880 Uttam Kumaran: One thing I haven’t finished is, like, what are the different checkpoints?
28 00:16:29.810 ⇒ 00:16:35.750 Uttam Kumaran: But… I feel like it’s getting more clear overall.
29 00:16:36.940 ⇒ 00:16:39.979 Uttam Kumaran: Like, what those could be.
30 00:16:41.090 ⇒ 00:16:43.409 Uttam Kumaran: So yeah, there’s a lot… there’s a lot in there.
31 00:16:45.380 ⇒ 00:17:05.219 Brylle Girang: Yeah, my only thought, and something that I’m thinking about, is when it comes to, like, excellence, coaching or excellence, I’m thinking if this is something that we should set up front, or if this is something that we’re going to explore later, but I was thinking about our previous discussion about knowing where the mark is.
32 00:17:05.550 ⇒ 00:17:09.369 Brylle Girang: My only fear is that if we only set the floor.
33 00:17:09.890 ⇒ 00:17:14.270 Brylle Girang: At first, then people might be playing across the floor.
34 00:17:14.470 ⇒ 00:17:17.349 Brylle Girang: Or during the first 3 months or so.
35 00:17:17.680 ⇒ 00:17:29.660 Brylle Girang: So I think I prefer that we set the excellence or, like, the ceiling as soon as possible, so that people can immediately start working.
36 00:17:31.290 ⇒ 00:17:33.310 Brylle Girang: through that ceiling. Does that make sense?
37 00:17:33.310 ⇒ 00:17:41.679 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I mean… I mean, part of it is, like, yeah, I was… I was going back and forth to this morning, because a lot of my standards were either one or the other.
38 00:17:41.880 ⇒ 00:17:53.640 Uttam Kumaran: like, some things were failure prevention, and some things were excellence creation, right? Like, for example, like, tie up loose ends. That’s not about excellence, that’s just about, like.
39 00:17:54.750 ⇒ 00:17:56.439 Uttam Kumaran: Like, preventing failure.
40 00:17:57.330 ⇒ 00:18:00.170 Uttam Kumaran: And so…
41 00:18:00.440 ⇒ 00:18:07.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I also… I’m not exactly sure, like, on one hand, this is where I’m thinking, like, maybe this quarter is all about, like.
42 00:18:08.260 ⇒ 00:18:11.640 Uttam Kumaran: Just getting the standards right, you know?
43 00:18:11.640 ⇒ 00:18:12.380 Brylle Girang: Okay.
44 00:18:12.380 ⇒ 00:18:13.989 Uttam Kumaran: This quarter is about excellence.
45 00:18:14.170 ⇒ 00:18:17.789 Uttam Kumaran: Because right now, we are missing the floor.
46 00:18:18.050 ⇒ 00:18:24.129 Uttam Kumaran: And I want to be very clear with the team that this is gonna be, like, a back-to-basics quarter.
47 00:18:24.920 ⇒ 00:18:26.520 Uttam Kumaran: Where we’re just…
48 00:18:26.520 ⇒ 00:18:26.920 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
49 00:18:26.920 ⇒ 00:18:30.030 Uttam Kumaran: Making sure… just making sure that, like.
50 00:18:31.780 ⇒ 00:18:38.310 Uttam Kumaran: that everybody hits the floor, you know? Because I want to remove people who can’t hit the floor.
51 00:18:38.500 ⇒ 00:18:39.270 Uttam Kumaran: First.
52 00:18:39.270 ⇒ 00:18:39.590 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
53 00:18:39.590 ⇒ 00:18:42.919 Uttam Kumaran: Then it’s gonna be, something on… on…
54 00:18:43.090 ⇒ 00:18:46.870 Uttam Kumaran: How do we actually get to… Excellence.
55 00:18:47.450 ⇒ 00:18:49.770 Uttam Kumaran: And how do we coach people there, you know?
56 00:18:50.820 ⇒ 00:18:52.479 Brylle Girang: That makes sense. That’s just… yeah.
57 00:18:52.480 ⇒ 00:18:59.909 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I don’t know, that’s sort of what I’m thinking. Right now, ultimately, like, I’m also gonna set up…
58 00:19:00.090 ⇒ 00:19:05.699 Uttam Kumaran: bonuses in a different way, like, I think this quarter is just gonna be about hitting standards.
59 00:19:05.810 ⇒ 00:19:15.280 Uttam Kumaran: And bonuses are only gonna be available for revenue, like, for people that hit, like, delivery source opportunities, but there aren’t gonna be…
60 00:19:15.710 ⇒ 00:19:22.200 Uttam Kumaran: like, I don’t know if I’m gonna do other bonuses right now, because I just want to make sure that people can hit standards first.
61 00:19:22.510 ⇒ 00:19:28.449 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m gonna think about, like, okay, what are the CSO bonuses versus what are the…
62 00:19:28.890 ⇒ 00:19:32.790 Uttam Kumaran: SL bonuses. Bye.
63 00:19:33.220 ⇒ 00:19:38.760 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and in that folder as well, what I tried to do is just make everything, like, one blog page.
64 00:19:38.880 ⇒ 00:19:41.969 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m gonna work on, like, a very… I’m gonna work on an infographic.
65 00:19:42.100 ⇒ 00:19:43.579 Uttam Kumaran: Same thing later today.
66 00:19:45.650 ⇒ 00:19:54.460 Brylle Girang: Yeah, I think it’s really helpful that it’s in the forge, like the Figma file that you created. It’s going to be really helpful if everything is just there.
67 00:19:55.580 ⇒ 00:19:57.840 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, I’m gonna turn that into a website.
68 00:19:58.420 ⇒ 00:20:02.440 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah, the website, exactly. Is that going to be, like, the new platform?
69 00:20:02.600 ⇒ 00:20:04.230 Brylle Girang: The new internal platform?
70 00:20:05.290 ⇒ 00:20:07.100 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I’m gonna put it somewhere.
71 00:20:07.600 ⇒ 00:20:10.640 Uttam Kumaran: That way, it’s very, very easy to reference and bookmark.
72 00:20:11.500 ⇒ 00:20:14.399 Uttam Kumaran: And it’s gonna live update, I think, with, like,
73 00:20:15.750 ⇒ 00:20:19.760 Uttam Kumaran: Based on our… so that’s so… another thing I’m working on today is, like.
74 00:20:20.550 ⇒ 00:20:28.129 Uttam Kumaran: In parallel, I’m trying to roll this out to all teams, and so I would… I want every single team lead
75 00:20:28.280 ⇒ 00:20:30.950 Uttam Kumaran: to put together a project plan for Q2.
76 00:20:31.380 ⇒ 00:20:32.370 Uttam Kumaran: And so…
77 00:20:32.370 ⇒ 00:20:32.880 Brylle Girang: Gotcha.
78 00:20:32.880 ⇒ 00:20:38.939 Uttam Kumaran: on my side, you know, I have my clients, but I also have platform, I have executive team.
79 00:20:39.310 ⇒ 00:20:45.159 Uttam Kumaran: And then… I want to make sure that you’re… you have… have a plan.
80 00:20:45.420 ⇒ 00:20:49.189 Uttam Kumaran: And we kind of wrap that up. Kayla and Rico to have a plan.
81 00:20:49.450 ⇒ 00:20:56.410 Uttam Kumaran: And then I need Robert to work on the plan for… For Eden.
82 00:20:56.780 ⇒ 00:21:11.790 Uttam Kumaran: And so, I’m just trying to push as much as possible, so that we can… so then, the other thing I’m gonna do, maybe this weekend, is I’m gonna move all of our, like, spreadsheet reporting into Supabase. So, OKRs…
83 00:21:11.950 ⇒ 00:21:18.829 Uttam Kumaran: AORs, I’m gonna just… we’re not gonna do them in Google Sheets, maybe this week or next week. I have a plan to sort of migrate all that.
84 00:21:19.190 ⇒ 00:21:24.460 Uttam Kumaran: So, you won’t have to worry about maintaining Google Sheet. Instead, it’ll be like a UI.
85 00:21:24.730 ⇒ 00:21:26.690 Uttam Kumaran: To go change things.
86 00:21:28.340 ⇒ 00:21:28.970 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
87 00:21:29.620 ⇒ 00:21:30.900 Brylle Girang: That would be amazing.
88 00:21:31.010 ⇒ 00:21:34.139 Brylle Girang: Okay, can’t we use Omni for this?
89 00:21:35.920 ⇒ 00:21:41.159 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we can use Omni for some of the reporting, but I’m more interested in, like, the two-way things, like…
90 00:21:41.470 ⇒ 00:21:48.940 Uttam Kumaran: Hey, this… this thing changed, and I have to go update my, like, notes on my OKRs, right?
91 00:21:49.070 ⇒ 00:21:54.309 Uttam Kumaran: We will use either… we will… but see, the other piece is that Omni is not fully…
92 00:21:54.460 ⇒ 00:22:00.410 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not fully, buildable via the… Code.
93 00:22:01.050 ⇒ 00:22:02.220 Uttam Kumaran: So…
94 00:22:03.120 ⇒ 00:22:14.919 Uttam Kumaran: this is the thing, like, none of the things I mention, I’m gonna… I’m not… I’m gonna do myself. Like, I can’t… we don’t have other capacity, so everything has to be AI. Like, I’m… every… every single piece.
95 00:22:15.140 ⇒ 00:22:22.190 Uttam Kumaran: like, I cannot touch a single UI, cannot write a single line of code for any of this, so… Yeah. If a tool doesn’t allow me to do it.
96 00:22:22.320 ⇒ 00:22:25.369 Uttam Kumaran: through the CLI, like, not gonna do… I’m not gonna use it.
97 00:22:26.100 ⇒ 00:22:26.850 Uttam Kumaran: Makes sense.
98 00:22:26.850 ⇒ 00:22:27.440 Brylle Girang: Makes sense.
99 00:22:27.440 ⇒ 00:22:31.819 Uttam Kumaran: And then I’m also, yeah, and then I’m also gonna present a platform roadmap today.
100 00:22:32.360 ⇒ 00:22:36.490 Uttam Kumaran: And that way I can take…
101 00:22:37.380 ⇒ 00:22:44.999 Uttam Kumaran: I can start to do the, I can start to use… Casey and Sam’s extra time.
102 00:22:48.980 ⇒ 00:22:52.669 Brylle Girang: Yeah, is it going to be, like, fully focused on open work?
103 00:22:53.900 ⇒ 00:22:57.389 Uttam Kumaran: No, dude, we… I mean, we have, like, 50 projects I need to do.
104 00:22:58.870 ⇒ 00:23:01.009 Uttam Kumaran: What do you mean? Just open work?
105 00:23:01.010 ⇒ 00:23:02.680 Brylle Girang: No, no.
106 00:23:02.680 ⇒ 00:23:03.370 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
107 00:23:03.370 ⇒ 00:23:05.140 Brylle Girang: Yeah, so I think.
108 00:23:05.140 ⇒ 00:23:06.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, where is that?
109 00:23:06.070 ⇒ 00:23:06.430 Brylle Girang: Hilarious.
110 00:23:06.430 ⇒ 00:23:15.140 Uttam Kumaran: There’s one project on… there’s one project on open work. Wait till you see… if you thought my… everybody’s roadmap, my roadmap is gonna show you that
111 00:23:15.260 ⇒ 00:23:17.210 Uttam Kumaran: What’s really possible?
112 00:23:17.320 ⇒ 00:23:17.950 Uttam Kumaran: like…
113 00:23:17.950 ⇒ 00:23:18.620 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
114 00:23:19.470 ⇒ 00:23:33.389 Uttam Kumaran: Right? I want to show you that everybody is underestimating what can actually be done. I’m gonna do an amount of work that nobody’s ever seen with a team… with a team of, like, people that are part-time.
115 00:23:33.620 ⇒ 00:23:41.940 Uttam Kumaran: Like, because I want to show what’s possible. Like, you have to think bigger. Like, I’m going to work on so many projects.
116 00:23:42.240 ⇒ 00:23:53.280 Uttam Kumaran: at the same time, and it’s going to be, like, it’s gonna set a new standard for, like, what’s possible for AI-driven development. Yeah.
117 00:23:53.470 ⇒ 00:23:59.290 Uttam Kumaran: And the fun part is, it’s gonna all help the whole company, right? But that’s my biggest point, is that, like.
118 00:24:01.210 ⇒ 00:24:07.150 Uttam Kumaran: I have… because we don’t have anybody, like, I have to… I have to try and use every AI tool
119 00:24:07.310 ⇒ 00:24:12.310 Uttam Kumaran: Use agents as much as possible, and then assign the toughest problems to…
120 00:24:12.680 ⇒ 00:24:15.400 Uttam Kumaran: Casey, Casey and, and Sam.
121 00:24:16.530 ⇒ 00:24:18.410 Brylle Girang: That makes sense. Yeah.
122 00:24:18.410 ⇒ 00:24:19.170 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
123 00:24:19.170 ⇒ 00:24:21.429 Brylle Girang: That is exciting. I am stoked.
124 00:24:22.080 ⇒ 00:24:27.149 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so that’s why I’m like, keep sending me things you need, because ultimately we’re gonna…
125 00:24:27.700 ⇒ 00:24:35.950 Uttam Kumaran: I think we’re just gonna see the pace go higher and higher and higher. I mean, the other piece is, like, and one thing I was gonna tell you is maybe as part of L&D, like.
126 00:24:36.330 ⇒ 00:24:38.890 Uttam Kumaran: We talked about change management, right?
127 00:24:39.180 ⇒ 00:24:43.999 Uttam Kumaran: And I think that’s something that… that I feel like maybe you’ll have to own.
128 00:24:44.780 ⇒ 00:24:51.750 Uttam Kumaran: you know, more… Specifically, as well, over time, like…
129 00:24:51.970 ⇒ 00:24:58.520 Uttam Kumaran: if the platform team ships things, how is the L&D team helping people adopt and get trained up, you know?
130 00:24:58.900 ⇒ 00:25:10.390 Brylle Girang: Exactly, exactly. Now, I think that’s going to be, one of the primary focus for L&D, and funnily enough, that was also my last project from my last company, like, making sure that
131 00:25:10.420 ⇒ 00:25:20.549 Brylle Girang: Changes are being absorbed really efficiently by everyone, and not just, you know, we’re not just shipping updates and then it being thrown into the void.
132 00:25:21.310 ⇒ 00:25:24.039 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and I want this to be two teams, because…
133 00:25:24.260 ⇒ 00:25:28.539 Uttam Kumaran: Someone who’s good at training is not always good at building, and vice versa, so…
134 00:25:28.540 ⇒ 00:25:29.350 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
135 00:25:29.350 ⇒ 00:25:36.480 Uttam Kumaran: Instead, what I want is, like, we need to take training very, very important, otherwise it becomes, hey, here’s this thing, here’s this thing.
136 00:25:36.910 ⇒ 00:25:43.010 Uttam Kumaran: So, that’s gonna kind of be, like… and L&D’s not just on new platform stuff, right? It’s gonna be, like…
137 00:25:43.510 ⇒ 00:25:45.779 Uttam Kumaran: Could be anything. Yeah.
138 00:25:46.420 ⇒ 00:25:47.270 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
139 00:25:49.260 ⇒ 00:26:00.039 Brylle Girang: Okay, that makes sense. I am excited. So, officially, I’m going to be, like, the pioneer person for Brainforge learning and development.
140 00:26:01.800 ⇒ 00:26:05.080 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, if I… if the project plan looks good, yeah, hell yeah.
141 00:26:06.360 ⇒ 00:26:06.950 Brylle Girang: Okay.
142 00:26:06.950 ⇒ 00:26:10.940 Uttam Kumaran: I mean, I… that is my… that’s my hope. I think it fits…
143 00:26:11.050 ⇒ 00:26:19.950 Uttam Kumaran: your personality, I think it also fits where you… you can grow. I also think it, like, creates a good separation of concerns.
144 00:26:21.060 ⇒ 00:26:21.670 Brylle Girang: Yeah.
145 00:26:21.910 ⇒ 00:26:29.100 Uttam Kumaran: And then, so that’s the thing, I want to confirm the plan today, and then I want to see how Mustafa and Amber can fit into it.
146 00:26:29.570 ⇒ 00:26:36.749 Uttam Kumaran: If they need to, or if they can’t, you know? So, that’s what I’ll kind of look into today.
147 00:26:37.360 ⇒ 00:26:50.249 Brylle Girang: Okay, okay. I sent the first draft over, but I’m still trying to, like, iterate on it. So one thing that I’m trying to really think through is, like, BHAGs. Have you heard of BHAGs?
148 00:26:51.640 ⇒ 00:26:52.320 Uttam Kumaran: No.
149 00:26:52.700 ⇒ 00:27:01.809 Brylle Girang: So this is something that I have been practicing since my previous company. I call it, like, big, hairy, audacious goals.
150 00:27:01.810 ⇒ 00:27:03.930 Uttam Kumaran: Yes, yes, yes, I’ve heard of that, yeah.
151 00:27:04.360 ⇒ 00:27:11.220 Brylle Girang: My goal here is to make my goal, like, unattainable within the short term, but it’s going to push us
152 00:27:11.350 ⇒ 00:27:14.790 Brylle Girang: really, really forward in the long term, but that doesn’t.
153 00:27:14.790 ⇒ 00:27:15.160 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
154 00:27:15.160 ⇒ 00:27:33.519 Brylle Girang: I’m going to, like, fail every time, but I want to make sure that the progress that we’re going to make is actually progress that will push us really, really far in the future. So I’ve… right now, I don’t think I’m in that level when it comes to the project plan that I made, so that’s where I want to go through.
155 00:27:34.600 ⇒ 00:27:35.620 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay.
156 00:27:37.690 ⇒ 00:27:38.300 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
157 00:27:38.300 ⇒ 00:27:38.920 Brylle Girang: Texas?
158 00:27:38.920 ⇒ 00:27:42.269 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, you’re gonna see that that’s how I’m gonna propose the…
159 00:27:42.820 ⇒ 00:27:45.169 Uttam Kumaran: Delivery team’s goals as well, so…
160 00:27:47.010 ⇒ 00:27:52.910 Brylle Girang: Perfect. This is… this is clear. I think that, you know, this helps me a lot, because
161 00:27:53.440 ⇒ 00:27:57.069 Brylle Girang: I have my own road to, like, pave.
162 00:27:57.180 ⇒ 00:27:59.209 Brylle Girang: through. This is amazing.
163 00:27:59.990 ⇒ 00:28:00.930 Uttam Kumaran: Perfect, okay.
164 00:28:02.500 ⇒ 00:28:05.549 Uttam Kumaran: Alright, I’ll see you on this SL meeting. Are you on there?
165 00:28:05.890 ⇒ 00:28:07.430 Brylle Girang: Yeah, yeah, I’m on there. Thank you.
166 00:28:07.500 ⇒ 00:28:09.329 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, I’ll see you there. Okay, bye.