Meeting Title: Monthly Service Line Reviews - Analytics and Strategy Date: 2026-04-15 Meeting participants: Brylle Girang, Demilade Agboola, Uttam Kumaran, Jasmin Multani, Jasmin Multani
WEBVTT
1 00:09:06.550 ⇒ 00:09:07.570 B: Hey there, mate.
2 00:09:12.400 ⇒ 00:09:13.240 Demilade Agboola: Alright, bro.
3 00:09:20.830 ⇒ 00:09:21.830 Demilade Agboola: Can you hear me?
4 00:09:23.330 ⇒ 00:09:24.580 B: Yeah, yeah, I can.
5 00:09:25.160 ⇒ 00:09:26.699 Demilade Agboola: Oh, okay, nice, nice, nice.
6 00:09:27.170 ⇒ 00:09:29.040 B: Let’s just wait for Jasmine and Totem.
7 00:09:52.220 ⇒ 00:09:53.389 Uttam Kumaran: Hey guys, can you hear me?
8 00:09:53.740 ⇒ 00:09:54.330 B: Yep.
9 00:09:56.050 ⇒ 00:09:57.140 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
10 00:10:01.140 ⇒ 00:10:06.019 Uttam Kumaran: Cool, so B, today was just gonna be Demi and, who else on our side?
11 00:10:06.020 ⇒ 00:10:06.690 B: Min.
12 00:10:07.450 ⇒ 00:10:08.799 B: The man, Jasmine.
13 00:10:11.520 ⇒ 00:10:13.989 B: I am sending her a chat.
14 00:10:18.710 ⇒ 00:10:24.419 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I know everybody’s busy, so today I’m just gonna kind of review with everybody, like, what I’m gonna be looking at.
15 00:10:24.690 ⇒ 00:10:27.169 Uttam Kumaran: Sort of this month, it just…
16 00:10:27.400 ⇒ 00:10:35.280 Uttam Kumaran: do… we don’t have to spend a ton of time, but I’m also gonna show people how I’m gonna do the first pass at allocations.
17 00:10:35.400 ⇒ 00:10:42.690 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and could talk about, like, okay, what am I gonna… how am I gonna be reviewing things at the end of the month for each service?
18 00:11:08.060 ⇒ 00:11:11.479 B: I sent Jasmine a chat, but no response yet.
19 00:11:12.450 ⇒ 00:11:28.020 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. I think on my side, I just wanted to, you know, share, like, I think, Demi, the biggest things that I’m gonna be looking at, you know, when I do a service review at the end of the month, is gonna first start with,
20 00:11:28.170 ⇒ 00:11:31.010 Uttam Kumaran: Just, like, what are… what were the escalations?
21 00:11:31.170 ⇒ 00:11:40.350 Uttam Kumaran: I think it’s… we’ll kind of start with, like, okay, what were the issues, and then we’ll talk about, sort of, leverage creation. So, kind of on my side, what that means is I’ll be looking at, like.
22 00:11:40.460 ⇒ 00:11:44.239 Uttam Kumaran: All the tickets that came out of your service.
23 00:11:44.340 ⇒ 00:11:53.779 Uttam Kumaran: I’ll be looking at, like, kind of the average time it took to execute those, and then we’ll kind of review together what the, like, what were some of the escalations.
24 00:11:53.880 ⇒ 00:12:05.310 Uttam Kumaran: for example, like, hey, there was this… there was a AE ticket that came out that someone took, and it took longer than expected, the requirements were unclear, the PR didn’t get reviewed.
25 00:12:05.530 ⇒ 00:12:10.419 Uttam Kumaran: So we’ll be going through, sort of, like, what I’ll broadly describe as just, like, defects, right?
26 00:12:10.570 ⇒ 00:12:19.219 Uttam Kumaran: So those are ideally codified in tickets. I’m starting to also note down when I kind of get involved on tasks.
27 00:12:19.380 ⇒ 00:12:24.019 Uttam Kumaran: And so, at the end of the month, we’ll sort of do, like, a retro just on your service.
28 00:12:24.260 ⇒ 00:12:28.510 Uttam Kumaran: And so that’s, like, on the defect side. Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
29 00:12:28.820 ⇒ 00:12:36.050 Demilade Agboola: like, when you say get involved on tasks, do you mean, like, get involved, like, things broke, or do you mean, like, I…
30 00:12:36.050 ⇒ 00:12:38.140 Uttam Kumaran: The second. The second one.
31 00:12:38.240 ⇒ 00:12:40.199 Demilade Agboola: And we need you to hop on a task.
32 00:12:40.990 ⇒ 00:12:43.540 Uttam Kumaran: The second one, for this section, yeah.
33 00:12:43.790 ⇒ 00:12:44.970 Demilade Agboola: Alright, gotcha.
34 00:12:44.970 ⇒ 00:12:46.480 Uttam Kumaran: So more of, like.
35 00:12:46.860 ⇒ 00:12:53.389 Uttam Kumaran: When there’s an escalation, where, like, the head of delivery gets involved to sort of, like, remediate.
36 00:12:53.640 ⇒ 00:12:58.500 Uttam Kumaran: that’s the things that we’ll be reviewing. So…
37 00:12:58.700 ⇒ 00:13:02.359 Uttam Kumaran: But we will talk about capacity planning also in this meeting, so…
38 00:13:02.540 ⇒ 00:13:07.490 Uttam Kumaran: Does that make sense, in terms of, like, the first part of it is gonna be just, like, where did things break?
39 00:13:07.670 ⇒ 00:13:09.890 Uttam Kumaran: This, this month.
40 00:13:10.390 ⇒ 00:13:19.029 Uttam Kumaran: Ideally, linear, and the transcripts, and then escalation logic are the… the sources of…
41 00:13:19.180 ⇒ 00:13:26.330 Uttam Kumaran: Of course, like, I talk to all the CSOs, so I’m aware of, like, The general pulse, but, like.
42 00:13:26.670 ⇒ 00:13:31.169 Uttam Kumaran: Does that make sense for, like, the first part of, like, what we’ll kind of go through?
43 00:13:32.030 ⇒ 00:13:34.279 Jasmin Multani: What do you mean by transcripts?
44 00:13:35.850 ⇒ 00:13:37.769 Uttam Kumaran: Like, all of the meeting transcripts.
45 00:13:38.290 ⇒ 00:13:39.340 Jasmin Multani: Oh, okay.
46 00:13:40.370 ⇒ 00:13:42.269 Jasmin Multani: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense on my end.
47 00:13:44.940 ⇒ 00:13:45.460 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
48 00:13:46.280 ⇒ 00:13:49.480 Uttam Kumaran: So… The biggest… yeah, go, guns.
49 00:13:49.970 ⇒ 00:13:51.660 Demilade Agboola: I was just gonna say, yeah, I think that’s fair, that’s valid.
50 00:13:52.960 ⇒ 00:13:53.610 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
51 00:13:53.920 ⇒ 00:14:04.280 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s gonna be the first part of the call, and again, what I’ll be looking for is also how easy is it for me to actually find those things, so…
52 00:14:04.280 ⇒ 00:14:17.619 Uttam Kumaran: kind of another piece I’ll be looking at next is sort of, like, organization. Like, is everything being tracked in linear? Are the people in your service, do they feel, and is it clear and operating, like, where they’re assigned?
53 00:14:19.370 ⇒ 00:14:27.680 Uttam Kumaran: And those are… that’s sort of the next pieces I’ll be looking at. Like, how is… how is sort of, like, how are the tickets that are coming out of your service?
54 00:14:27.800 ⇒ 00:14:34.179 Uttam Kumaran: Like, organized? Are there clear requirements? Do people who are executing tasks from your service feel like
55 00:14:34.410 ⇒ 00:14:43.899 Uttam Kumaran: okay, they have what it’s necessary to actually execute. And then, really, a lot of that is just me looking at linear and operating.
56 00:14:45.510 ⇒ 00:15:02.330 Uttam Kumaran: I feel like that’s pretty straightforward from my side. I think there’s probably still some mechanics on getting everybody up to speed on using operating, but really, to put it really simply, does your team know where they’re assigned, and are they able to execute the tasks assigned to them?
57 00:15:03.460 ⇒ 00:15:06.160 Demilade Agboola: Slight pushback on that,
58 00:15:06.320 ⇒ 00:15:18.670 Demilade Agboola: given that we’re not necessarily immersed in every single project in that sense, given that certain things are up to the CSOs to, like, say, hey, we need this service, and then we can hop in to…
59 00:15:18.980 ⇒ 00:15:22.810 Demilade Agboola: Guide how that service is delivered.
60 00:15:23.160 ⇒ 00:15:27.399 Demilade Agboola: If something isn’t, like, properly assigned.
61 00:15:27.910 ⇒ 00:15:32.130 Demilade Agboola: And then that kind of goes under the radar until too late.
62 00:15:32.630 ⇒ 00:15:35.190 Demilade Agboola: How does that, like, reflect, basically?
63 00:15:36.420 ⇒ 00:15:46.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so maybe I’ll… maybe I’ll ask you, like, let’s say a CSO like Greg is on another client and is like, hey, I need to deliver DBT work here, right?
64 00:15:46.880 ⇒ 00:15:57.130 Uttam Kumaran: I guess I would ask you, like, how do you think he should engage with you, and, like, what do you think your expectations would be? Because my expectations of you guys
65 00:15:57.730 ⇒ 00:16:08.430 Uttam Kumaran: is not gonna change, meaning, like, I’m expecting those same minimal defects, so given that expectation, what do you think you would need from the CSO? Like, let’s roleplay it a little bit.
66 00:16:09.540 ⇒ 00:16:18.749 Demilade Agboola: I mean, it’s okay, so in this scenario, because I actually had another scenario in mind, but in this scenario, I would expect that, like, if there’s a ticket assigned, we should have it flagged.
67 00:16:19.130 ⇒ 00:16:27.210 Demilade Agboola: Appropriately, by the necessary service, so that will pop up on the service board, and then it’s easy to keep track and say, hey, this is what’s going on.
68 00:16:27.350 ⇒ 00:16:38.659 Demilade Agboola: In this, and minus that, it would be really… like, if that doesn’t exist, it would be really hard to keep track of every single time that service is being used across multiple clients. So that would be the.
69 00:16:38.660 ⇒ 00:16:40.160 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, so…
70 00:16:40.280 ⇒ 00:16:53.380 Uttam Kumaran: Perfect. So I could build… so that, you can… that should be out this week. Like, I went through and actually labeled all tickets with the correct subservice, and I’m gonna create a job that sort of does that in the morning.
71 00:16:53.770 ⇒ 00:17:03.960 Uttam Kumaran: So you can assume that at any moment, you should, like… and I’ll take responsibility for the fact that, like, the labeling mechanism works.
72 00:17:04.050 ⇒ 00:17:16.700 Uttam Kumaran: And you should be able to see everything that’s appropriately labeled, you know? Additionally, those CSOs can label it as that service. Like, they should. I’m gonna help them a little bit with this process.
73 00:17:17.369 ⇒ 00:17:23.739 Demilade Agboola: Okay. The second thing, and kind of the scenario that I was thinking of, is, you know how we had a conversation with,
74 00:17:24.619 ⇒ 00:17:27.129 Demilade Agboola: Diana on the default team.
75 00:17:27.269 ⇒ 00:17:34.599 Demilade Agboola: And we got feedback on things, and we’re going to use that to, you know, revamp the dashboard. Some things are going to be…
76 00:17:34.709 ⇒ 00:17:40.259 Demilade Agboola: Some modern-y stuff, some things are just, like, going to be pure, like, BI reporting stuff.
77 00:17:40.719 ⇒ 00:17:49.609 Demilade Agboola: In scenarios where, like, things get mislabeled, or things are assigned as a BI thing when there actually is a modeling requirement.
78 00:17:50.449 ⇒ 00:17:54.759 Demilade Agboola: If things are not, like.
79 00:17:55.119 ⇒ 00:18:04.849 Demilade Agboola: like, if the modeling ticket needed to make the BI reporting happen isn’t built quickly enough, or, like, things just get modeled, or, like, no one calls out for help quickly enough.
80 00:18:05.379 ⇒ 00:18:08.989 Demilade Agboola: How do we catch that, or how do we flag that?
81 00:18:10.450 ⇒ 00:18:28.520 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so I think that’s a good scenario where there’s, like, two situations that are happening. Like, one is your… the CSOs should ultimately be the ones creating those… those tickets, or saying, hey, I need this basket of work, I need to work with the service lead to create this ticket, right?
82 00:18:28.590 ⇒ 00:18:36.509 Uttam Kumaran: So ultimately, I would say that’s on the CSO to make sure that the ticket is created and assigned properly. If they need help.
83 00:18:36.510 ⇒ 00:18:37.030 Demilade Agboola: -
84 00:18:37.260 ⇒ 00:18:41.700 Uttam Kumaran: With the assignment, they should raise a flag, like, hey, client asked me for this.
85 00:18:41.790 ⇒ 00:18:51.950 Uttam Kumaran: I don’t know what service this is, right? They should raise their hand, so you’re not gonna be on the hook for that if they fumbled the ticket creation.
86 00:18:52.010 ⇒ 00:19:08.409 Uttam Kumaran: Do you see what I mean? But if the ticket’s created, and it’s clear, like, hey, this is a strategy ticket, this is a dashboard creation ticket, Oddvate can work on this, then it enters your world as, like, okay, this is a ticket that is assigned to my service, that is
87 00:19:08.910 ⇒ 00:19:10.759 Uttam Kumaran: within my purview.
88 00:19:10.910 ⇒ 00:19:22.609 Uttam Kumaran: You know what I mean? So, I’m gonna rely a lot on communication, like, they’re gonna be on the hook for the work getting out, so if they fumble the ticket, that’s on them, right? Like, if they fumble the ticket, and if they don’t…
89 00:19:22.610 ⇒ 00:19:39.440 Uttam Kumaran: give you the proper… they don’t also tell you, hey, this ticket is taking a while, and instead, right at the end, they’re like, the ticket didn’t happen. I’m gonna be like, you didn’t escalate fast enough, right? Like, did you escalate to the IC? Did you talk to Demi? Okay, then finally, did you talk to me? If none of that happened, then, like.
90 00:19:40.030 ⇒ 00:19:46.670 Uttam Kumaran: That’s on the CSO, right? So I’m not… I’m not asking you to be, like, proactive in identifying, like.
91 00:19:47.320 ⇒ 00:19:54.959 Uttam Kumaran: I guess I’m not asking you to be proactive in, like, reading the CSO’s mind and, like, understanding the service, but once a ticket is created.
92 00:19:55.440 ⇒ 00:19:57.989 Uttam Kumaran: I’m like, okay, that’s within the service, right?
93 00:19:59.320 ⇒ 00:20:03.929 Demilade Agboola: Alright, just wanted to clarify so that, like, there are not, like, question marks over these sort of things, because, like.
94 00:20:03.930 ⇒ 00:20:04.660 Uttam Kumaran: Totally, totally.
95 00:20:05.200 ⇒ 00:20:06.139 Demilade Agboola: be an issue.
96 00:20:07.090 ⇒ 00:20:07.750 Uttam Kumaran: Totally.
97 00:20:12.410 ⇒ 00:20:18.019 Jasmin Multani: Question on that, so how can we… since you guys have been here for longer,
98 00:20:18.280 ⇒ 00:20:35.189 Jasmin Multani: let’s say that the CSO is getting slammed, so how can we as SLs be more proactive in pinging the CSO, like, hey, I noticed, you know, haven’t gotten tickets, like, is the silence because there’s really nothing, or, are you slammed and I can, like, lean in?
99 00:20:37.370 ⇒ 00:20:45.620 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, that’s a great point. I think, like, maybe my question to you is, like, can we break down what are some of the, like, feelings, or…
100 00:20:45.770 ⇒ 00:20:52.320 Uttam Kumaran: like, measures that you would use to be like, is this CSO slam? Because that will help me figure out if I can
101 00:20:52.440 ⇒ 00:20:57.979 Uttam Kumaran: Somehow proactively flag that for you, or if we can talk about more of, like, what are those signals?
102 00:20:58.110 ⇒ 00:21:05.819 Uttam Kumaran: Because I have some per… I have some signals that I… I can share, but yeah, I’m interested in, like, if you have any on the top of your mind that you may be thinking about.
103 00:21:06.740 ⇒ 00:21:24.970 Jasmin Multani: I mean, last week was very intense for me, especially in a lockdown, and I didn’t realize I was in the thick of it until it was too late. So I think when you… regarding, like, Element, you were like, oh, I’m racing access and escalation. That was, like, 10 AM already for me. So…
104 00:21:25.210 ⇒ 00:21:31.640 Jasmin Multani: that was that point, and then with Eden. That was also where I was like, hey, I’ve already communicated this.
105 00:21:32.050 ⇒ 00:21:38.670 Jasmin Multani: out, Amesh. We had a whole meeting about this, what’s going on, and then…
106 00:21:38.670 ⇒ 00:21:39.370 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
107 00:21:39.620 ⇒ 00:21:42.709 Jasmin Multani: Sweeney, like, it was only till at 7am that…
108 00:21:43.220 ⇒ 00:21:50.350 Jasmin Multani: the unified model happen. I’m not calling out names to put pressure, but I am saying that, using the.
109 00:21:50.350 ⇒ 00:22:04.430 Uttam Kumaran: No, you could feel… and this is actually great, feel free to be, like, the SL on the project, the CSO, the IC, because I’m also the same way. Like, we are people assigned to those roles, but we… there are clear expectations, so you’re totally fair to be like.
110 00:22:05.090 ⇒ 00:22:14.980 Uttam Kumaran: this person on the project, but it’s also, this is, like, a really high-trust environment, so everybody’s attacking the problem, and we’re just setting expectations, but sorry, yeah, feel free.
111 00:22:14.980 ⇒ 00:22:18.089 Jasmin Multani: No, and I’m also just tracking this to be like, okay.
112 00:22:18.420 ⇒ 00:22:34.390 Jasmin Multani: is the… maybe, maybe I’m not getting an accurate scope of how much time things really do take end-to-end. So maybe I’m not tracking the SLAs, pushing out the SLAs correctly. So that’s why I’m also tracking, like, okay, so this thing landed at 7am, how long should the…
113 00:22:34.390 ⇒ 00:22:34.820 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
114 00:22:36.440 ⇒ 00:22:36.900 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
115 00:22:36.900 ⇒ 00:22:45.309 Jasmin Multani: That’s why I’m tracking that. I just feel like, even in, like, like, heads up, last week was my first full-time week, I’ve noticed.
116 00:22:45.310 ⇒ 00:22:45.690 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
117 00:22:45.690 ⇒ 00:22:53.880 Jasmin Multani: things get slammed, but I’m also, like, I don’t know temperature check, how much of the eating frustration is
118 00:22:54.010 ⇒ 00:22:56.319 Jasmin Multani: Overlapping with my full-time.
119 00:22:56.440 ⇒ 00:22:57.990 Jasmin Multani: Sure.
120 00:22:58.380 ⇒ 00:23:05.200 Uttam Kumaran: So this is where, like, I think one thing… one thing you’re gonna find is that if you’re on the team, you’re on the team, meaning, like.
121 00:23:05.430 ⇒ 00:23:18.519 Uttam Kumaran: we’re… we’re… you’re… I’m gonna… I’m gonna be playing two hats, especially with you and Garrett. I will call you on the phone and be like, how can I help? You’re ramping. I will also send a note being like, this thing is late.
122 00:23:18.630 ⇒ 00:23:22.759 Uttam Kumaran: Because I’m trying to get you there, but it’s no attack.
123 00:23:22.900 ⇒ 00:23:34.890 Uttam Kumaran: on you or anything, it’s just… we are, like, the ship is going, you know? Luckily, hopefully, the people in a year from now that join Brainforge get a little bit more grace.
124 00:23:34.890 ⇒ 00:23:47.169 Uttam Kumaran: But this is where we are. So, that’s the situation. Don’t take it personally, but take it seriously, I think is what I’ll say. The second thing is, like, what I think we all are trying, and I’m gonna keep using this word, intuition.
125 00:23:47.230 ⇒ 00:24:02.899 Uttam Kumaran: as consultants and as operators, you’ll have these gut instincts about a project. I’m actually more interested in you guys generating the gut instinct and then figuring out the signals than relying too much on, like, oh, let me… like, for example.
126 00:24:03.110 ⇒ 00:24:07.330 Uttam Kumaran: Let me, like, run a script that, like, looks at linear tickets that are, like, 4 days, like.
127 00:24:07.930 ⇒ 00:24:13.929 Uttam Kumaran: I’m telling you, if you have a feeling on a client that’s… it’s like, there’s usually two things. One, there’s no noise.
128 00:24:14.160 ⇒ 00:24:15.620 Uttam Kumaran: That’s not good news.
129 00:24:16.240 ⇒ 00:24:19.350 Uttam Kumaran: Another thing is, like, if there’s a heavy deadline.
130 00:24:19.450 ⇒ 00:24:28.669 Uttam Kumaran: And now people are better at, like, saying there’s a deadline coming, there’s a deadline coming, and we get to the deadline, and there’s nothing, that’s also, like, kind of a good sense.
131 00:24:28.670 ⇒ 00:24:40.740 Uttam Kumaran: The other piece is just, it’s all communication, right? So a lot of it is just the fact that, like, hey, I’m unclear of my expectations right now. Instead of toiling through figuring it out yourself, just say it.
132 00:24:41.430 ⇒ 00:24:47.030 Uttam Kumaran: Because everybody will help you. The problem… this is just what happens, and I think it’s just because
133 00:24:47.030 ⇒ 00:25:02.790 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not… I wasn’t even used to doing this at my past companies, being like, saying out loud, hey, I don’t know what’s going on. It’s actually here, I’m… we’re trying… I want more people to say that. I want people to be like, yo, this is kind of crazy, like, I… can I just… someone give me some clarity?
134 00:25:02.880 ⇒ 00:25:04.359 Uttam Kumaran: Then I’m like, perfect.
135 00:25:04.630 ⇒ 00:25:14.219 Uttam Kumaran: Totally. You know, I think what happens is we’re all really, really good, and we’re all really, really amazing ICs, and we’ve taught ourselves to, like, chase proms solo.
136 00:25:14.220 ⇒ 00:25:25.479 Uttam Kumaran: But then we keep chasing, and then there’s a… there’s a team around us. And so part of it is, like, everybody being open, but also for you guys to identify that in your service line. You will have people that do the same thing.
137 00:25:25.500 ⇒ 00:25:37.679 Uttam Kumaran: instead of flagging that they’re stuck, they will keep going. Like, I know Ashwini does this. I know a lot of us have this tendency. So you kind of have to feel like, hey, this person’s been doing this for 2 days.
138 00:25:38.850 ⇒ 00:25:42.030 Uttam Kumaran: There is nothing that should take 2 days.
139 00:25:42.560 ⇒ 00:25:55.819 Uttam Kumaran: And that’s my… that’s typically my internal dialogue, and then I send a message, hey, notice this was taking a while, where can I be helpful? If the answer is, oh, don’t worry, I’m still working on it, that’s not a good enough answer for me.
140 00:25:56.100 ⇒ 00:26:04.089 Uttam Kumaran: Then I’ll be like… then I’ll go one step. It’s taking two days, like, I would like to see a resolution, the team needs to see a resolution, like.
141 00:26:04.300 ⇒ 00:26:20.620 Uttam Kumaran: can we hop on 15 minutes? Like, do you have a play? Like, are you delayed? You want to hand it off? Like, I just give people the outs. But part of this, again, is this intuition building. I will backfill you guys with all the tools, like, the signals and things like that, they will come.
142 00:26:20.920 ⇒ 00:26:24.630 Uttam Kumaran: But the raw intuition is something that you’ll develop.
143 00:26:25.020 ⇒ 00:26:37.669 Uttam Kumaran: you’ll develop this temperature of the client, you know? And like, that’s what I want, like, I think care is gonna help with a lot of that, but us as leaders on these clients should start to… to develop that.
144 00:26:37.780 ⇒ 00:26:38.530 Uttam Kumaran: You know.
145 00:26:39.020 ⇒ 00:26:58.550 Uttam Kumaran: Does that make sense? It’s kind of an esoteric answer, but it is that, like, feeling like things are slow, you know? Like, you… everybody knows this from work, like, things are slowing down, or this project’s getting delayed, or I don’t really know the status, like, that is not a good thing for any of us on the call to feel, like, you know?
146 00:26:59.000 ⇒ 00:27:00.590 Uttam Kumaran: Those are red flags.
147 00:27:01.470 ⇒ 00:27:02.340 Jasmin Multani: -
148 00:27:04.250 ⇒ 00:27:14.609 Jasmin Multani: Yeah, I think the name of the game is just, like, really dialing in on our coworkers’ personalities, and then, figuring out…
149 00:27:14.910 ⇒ 00:27:15.810 Jasmin Multani: Just having more.
150 00:27:15.810 ⇒ 00:27:17.670 Uttam Kumaran: Some people are really open to being like.
151 00:27:17.930 ⇒ 00:27:22.129 Uttam Kumaran: I’m stuck. Like, Amber is good at being like, I’m fucking stuck.
152 00:27:22.470 ⇒ 00:27:26.890 Uttam Kumaran: Perfect! But, like, I know that, like, Mustafa doesn’t do that, right?
153 00:27:27.320 ⇒ 00:27:34.380 Uttam Kumaran: So what I do is, because I know Mustafa doesn’t do that, I let him run, but then I have to remind him, like, yo.
154 00:27:34.820 ⇒ 00:27:41.059 Uttam Kumaran: you’re, like, spinning your wheels on this, you need to escape. Part of that is, like, I need to do what we need to do in the week.
155 00:27:41.330 ⇒ 00:27:53.400 Uttam Kumaran: But then this is where I’m gonna go to the service lead that is overseeing his work and be like, hey, Mustafa has this tendency to just, like, dig deep and, like, keep going, instead of asking for feedback fast.
156 00:27:54.050 ⇒ 00:28:01.150 Uttam Kumaran: We need to help him change that. Like, he needs to be more open to asking for feedback and see that that’s gonna help him succeed.
157 00:28:01.260 ⇒ 00:28:09.859 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And that’s not a negative. In fact, the more feedback you ask, the faster you’re gonna move, the more on target you’re gonna be, the more work you’re gonna get.
158 00:28:10.440 ⇒ 00:28:10.890 Jasmin Multani: Yeah.
159 00:28:10.890 ⇒ 00:28:16.500 Uttam Kumaran: And, like, so we’re gonna have two conversations in the moment. It’s like, what needs to get, like, band-aided, like, right now?
160 00:28:17.520 ⇒ 00:28:27.109 Uttam Kumaran: And I feel so lucky that now you guys are here for me to work with you on, like, how do we do the… how do we nurture the people to actually see that that’s a really positive quality?
161 00:28:27.690 ⇒ 00:28:30.190 Uttam Kumaran: You know, and that’s what I want to think about.
162 00:28:31.030 ⇒ 00:28:35.340 Jasmin Multani: Yeah, I think in that example, it’s a matter… sorry, go, Demi? You can go ahead.
163 00:28:35.340 ⇒ 00:28:38.370 Demilade Agboola: I was just gonna say, like, it kind of feels like it’s more of a…
164 00:28:38.690 ⇒ 00:28:49.020 Demilade Agboola: So instead of, like, necessarily going into, like, every single thing, it’s kind of, like, your services, the things that you need to work on if you feel like things are taking longer than
165 00:28:49.140 ⇒ 00:28:50.210 Demilade Agboola: They should.
166 00:28:50.340 ⇒ 00:28:57.689 Demilade Agboola: And you talk to, like, the ICs on your team, and everyone’s like, well, like, I’m blocked because of this, like, ticket upstream.
167 00:28:58.100 ⇒ 00:29:01.720 Demilade Agboola: It will just be helpful to be able to reach out to the SL and just be like, hey.
168 00:29:01.860 ⇒ 00:29:21.450 Demilade Agboola: this is currently blocking this, and, until, like, that goes out the way, I won’t be able to hit this deliverable. And I guess that, just being able to have that sort of conversation also allows for, like, more transparency, so the SL can be like, okay, I’m gonna follow up on this as well, with the IC responsible, or…
169 00:29:21.950 ⇒ 00:29:33.649 Demilade Agboola: they might have run into some issues that needs to be communicated, but, you know, hasn’t been, and then they can communicate and say, hey, unfortunately, maybe the API has some issues, or whatever is going on with the issue.
170 00:29:34.030 ⇒ 00:29:37.509 Demilade Agboola: And that allows you to be able to also then
171 00:29:37.630 ⇒ 00:29:45.540 Demilade Agboola: Like, that can be seen, and then the CSO can then also maybe communicate either an extended timeline, or just, like.
172 00:29:45.540 ⇒ 00:29:46.550 Uttam Kumaran: Exactly.
173 00:29:46.750 ⇒ 00:29:49.509 Demilade Agboola: And we still do it within this time, and you can have this sort of.
174 00:29:49.510 ⇒ 00:29:58.240 Uttam Kumaran: Because the CSO, dude, is gonna… what the CSO takes off of us is the client, like, facing stuff, of like, yo, we missed the deadline.
175 00:29:58.500 ⇒ 00:30:15.750 Uttam Kumaran: That is awkward, that is emotional, and that’s on them to deal with that, but they need to trust us that we are coming to them early and being like, this thing got blocked, or so-so, my team is out, or like, look, there’s no playbook, so it took longer, right? And the earlier that can happen, the faster they can…
176 00:30:15.870 ⇒ 00:30:25.249 Uttam Kumaran: craft a story to still guide the project forward. It’s really when we get into these bot… when we get these, like, 24-48 hour moments where there’s, like, something that needs to get pushed.
177 00:30:25.360 ⇒ 00:30:34.409 Uttam Kumaran: and there’s, like, a cascade of, like, delays, is where we get jammed. And so part of this is, like, on Mondays, being like, yo, what is, like, P0 to happen this week?
178 00:30:34.750 ⇒ 00:30:44.819 Uttam Kumaran: and happen this week means probably happened by, like, Thursday, right? Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday. That way, they can get ahead of it, and present, and whatever. So, like, let’s just…
179 00:30:45.360 ⇒ 00:30:56.440 Uttam Kumaran: literally on Mondays, like, I’m… on some of my clients, I’m like, this needs to happen, these are the only things. If we’re finding ourselves working on any other thing, we should drop it. So… so… but this is the relationships that we kind of have to build, you know?
180 00:30:59.940 ⇒ 00:31:12.820 Uttam Kumaran: Cool. The second piece, like, I want to talk about is, like, capacity, and Jasmine, you’re lucky, you just have a bunch of team now, so, like, I’m telling Robert, like, this team has a lot of capacity now. I think where I want to think about it more is, like.
181 00:31:13.260 ⇒ 00:31:20.850 Uttam Kumaran: And this is… this is something I think we’ll work on in the next few months, is, like, your relationship with me and with sales, and seeing, like, what’s coming down the pipe.
182 00:31:21.180 ⇒ 00:31:26.059 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And seeing how existing clients are expanding, for you to then say.
183 00:31:26.680 ⇒ 00:31:32.349 Uttam Kumaran: I either need… I just need, like, more hours, or I need some specialization.
184 00:31:32.580 ⇒ 00:31:42.520 Uttam Kumaran: Right? And so these are the conversations I think we’ll also have on a monthly level, is like, how do you feel about your team’s capacity? Do you feel like some people are more efficient than others? And how do we solve that?
185 00:31:42.820 ⇒ 00:32:02.270 Uttam Kumaran: In this new era, I will tell you, I am gonna really try to avoid to solve capacity problems, but, like, I need to find more people. Because I’m telling you, the answer’s always gonna seem like that’s the answer, and I really want to call… I just… just from all my time in startups, and especially at this company, like.
186 00:32:02.740 ⇒ 00:32:08.060 Uttam Kumaran: There are a lot of other leverage grading activities we could try before hiring.
187 00:32:08.180 ⇒ 00:32:12.249 Uttam Kumaran: Put it another way, like, the more links in the chain.
188 00:32:12.570 ⇒ 00:32:20.579 Uttam Kumaran: the more risk there is. The more information has to cascade, and the more one-on-ones you need to have, it’s like, it’s not…
189 00:32:20.680 ⇒ 00:32:24.670 Uttam Kumaran: A fantastic thing for us to immediately be, like, we need to grow the team.
190 00:32:25.920 ⇒ 00:32:32.530 Uttam Kumaran: In fact, it’s gonna be harder and harder to join Brainforge, because the bar is going higher and higher. So…
191 00:32:33.420 ⇒ 00:32:49.440 Uttam Kumaran: That being said, we have a lot of AI stuff that we can help with. I think we’re gonna see that communication and better communication patterns could probably get you 20-30% more efficiency. I think even helping your team manage their time better.
192 00:32:49.610 ⇒ 00:33:06.600 Uttam Kumaran: help you manage up a little bit is gonna also be, like, really, really effective. So we’ll talk about capacity, you know? I think on this call, we have opposite sides of the spectrum. Demi is sort of one man on the AE side, Jasmine, you have a bunch of people on strategy. Both of you have
193 00:33:06.660 ⇒ 00:33:15.380 Uttam Kumaran: interesting challenges due to those facts, right? Like, Jasmine, you just joined, and now there’s a lot going on. Demi has been here, but he just has, like.
194 00:33:15.380 ⇒ 00:33:29.690 Uttam Kumaran: there’s still a lot going on, he doesn’t have the people. And so you’ll see that, like, we’ll have these interesting conversations about talent, but I’m not gonna change my bar for the fact that people who are at the team need to be really, really amazing.
195 00:33:29.720 ⇒ 00:33:33.370 Uttam Kumaran: And… That, if we’re hiring.
196 00:33:33.520 ⇒ 00:33:41.110 Uttam Kumaran: It… there’s really gotta be, like… it’s gotta be, like, really painful, because adding more people to the chain,
197 00:33:41.380 ⇒ 00:33:43.880 Uttam Kumaran: Just adds more and more attacks.
198 00:33:44.140 ⇒ 00:33:52.500 Uttam Kumaran: It’s not… and it’s… it’s not a… it’s… it’s not a pressure on, like, hey, we need to slim existing people, it’s actually just, like.
199 00:33:52.970 ⇒ 00:34:07.210 Uttam Kumaran: I want us all to identify that it’s easy to be like, I need 3 more people, because it seems like I need 3 more people. Instead, it’s like, okay, are there other methods for us to remove meetings, for us to attack, like, what the real problem is? Does that make sense in terms of capacity?
200 00:34:08.510 ⇒ 00:34:21.059 Jasmin Multani: Yeah, and to add to that, that I rarely see leaders, addressing, is the amount of context switching an individual has to do when they’re on something. So, even when, in my past experience.
201 00:34:21.610 ⇒ 00:34:24.500 Jasmin Multani: When there’d be crazy attrition.
202 00:34:25.010 ⇒ 00:34:31.250 Jasmin Multani: Crazy attrition and a team, and the workload is the same, and we are expected to, like.
203 00:34:31.550 ⇒ 00:34:32.979 Jasmin Multani: Increase our workload.
204 00:34:32.980 ⇒ 00:34:33.400 Uttam Kumaran: that on.
205 00:34:34.329 ⇒ 00:34:46.459 Jasmin Multani: yeah, I’ve literally been on a team that… the attrition went from 16 to 3, and the workload was, like, inherit everyone’s work, and then ramp up, like, launch out more detections, and…
206 00:34:47.159 ⇒ 00:34:50.379 Jasmin Multani: They’re detection, so they’re scalable, but the issue was
207 00:34:50.519 ⇒ 00:34:59.399 Jasmin Multani: everyone started leaning… even my external stakeholders were leaning on me to be the subject matter expert, even though my title was Be on the technical side.
208 00:34:59.529 ⇒ 00:35:06.179 Jasmin Multani: Literally, like, people who are supposed to be on the humanities side were asking me to be See?
209 00:35:06.309 ⇒ 00:35:07.309 Jasmin Multani: Staff up on that.
210 00:35:07.310 ⇒ 00:35:07.650 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
211 00:35:07.650 ⇒ 00:35:10.749 Jasmin Multani: So I think that has been,
212 00:35:11.240 ⇒ 00:35:25.770 Jasmin Multani: I think as time goes on, that’s what we have to gut check. It’s like, what is the person context switching on? If they’re, like, if they’re staffed on the same project, but they’re asking… being asked to increase their skill and skill range.
213 00:35:25.990 ⇒ 00:35:29.790 Jasmin Multani: Even if they’re on the same project, or the same client that they’ve been on.
214 00:35:30.110 ⇒ 00:35:42.089 Jasmin Multani: that’s gonna increase their context switching. They’re increasing their hat. Now people are gonna start assuming that they’re gonna have… that person’s gonna be the final say on certain things.
215 00:35:42.670 ⇒ 00:35:46.490 Jasmin Multani: And… scaling out… Through tech.
216 00:35:46.680 ⇒ 00:36:03.029 Jasmin Multani: scaling out the technical skills is very different than scaling out through subject matter expertise. And, I wonder if we’re gonna get into that as we increase into this… as we, ramp up on supply chain stuff for Element. Yeah.
217 00:36:03.140 ⇒ 00:36:23.049 Jasmin Multani: Shivani’s already like, was July too aggressive? And Robert and I, like, we’ll handle it. But internally, I’m like, oh my god, like, knowing how… when I was fully staffed and had all the resources, even then, it was, like, so painful to get something pushed out into quarters.
218 00:36:23.340 ⇒ 00:36:25.509 Jasmin Multani: like, a small segment, I was like.
219 00:36:25.700 ⇒ 00:36:34.789 Jasmin Multani: yeah, she might be onto something, but obviously I didn’t say that. But even then, I’m like, okay, I anticipate there’s gonna be more context switching.
220 00:36:34.790 ⇒ 00:36:47.419 Jasmin Multani: From here to July, and I’m trying to, like, predict out, like, what is the context switching gonna look like, who’s gonna be staffed on what, monitor how effectively…
221 00:36:48.140 ⇒ 00:36:49.209 Jasmin Multani: Can they learn things on their.
222 00:36:49.210 ⇒ 00:37:01.779 Uttam Kumaran: So this is where I think, like, I want you to think about your team and then yourself, right? So my job is to help you. So if you’re like, yo, I’m in this crazy moment, that’s when you should call me and be like, I’m in a crazy moment, I need help.
223 00:37:01.960 ⇒ 00:37:06.590 Uttam Kumaran: Then, I think, like, it’s sort of like, help yourself first, and then.
224 00:37:06.590 ⇒ 00:37:07.000 Jasmin Multani: Yeah.
225 00:37:07.000 ⇒ 00:37:12.760 Uttam Kumaran: understand, like, what your team… but also, everybody at Brainforge is really smart. Have them manage up.
226 00:37:12.850 ⇒ 00:37:31.140 Uttam Kumaran: Like, have them come to the table, to you, with where they need help. Like, and I think that’s something that I needed to learn a lot in the past year, and I think, like, you should expect that out of your team. I also agree, though, like, there may be moments where we don’t have subject matter expertise, and we need to go higher, or we need to get someone fractional.
227 00:37:31.140 ⇒ 00:37:35.120 Uttam Kumaran: or whatever. That’s totally fine, but what I don’t… what I…
228 00:37:35.120 ⇒ 00:37:40.450 Uttam Kumaran: What I care less about is you coming up with the solution, instead of just coming with the problem of, like.
229 00:37:40.730 ⇒ 00:37:58.570 Uttam Kumaran: hey, there’s a supply chain thing, we have nobody on the team that knows anything about supply chain, what’s… what’s the play we can run? Because I will give you 10 different options, like, we can call, we can phone a friend in if it’s just a small thing, we can get someone fractional if it’s a longer-term thing, we can hire.
230 00:37:58.600 ⇒ 00:38:09.880 Uttam Kumaran: So, I can help you on those problems, if you identify, like, hey, this is what we need. But on the context switching thing on a day-to-day basis, yeah, this is a tough environment for that.
231 00:38:09.930 ⇒ 00:38:10.840 Uttam Kumaran: For sure.
232 00:38:10.910 ⇒ 00:38:17.879 Uttam Kumaran: So I think everybody on leadership, we should talk more about what each of our strategies are to
233 00:38:18.060 ⇒ 00:38:20.210 Uttam Kumaran: to limit that, like, I know Demi…
234 00:38:20.250 ⇒ 00:38:33.850 Uttam Kumaran: does a lot of focus time. I’m, like, the worst, so, like, I’m not a good, role model for managing context switching at all right now, so… but I have, like, I still, like, I’m very aware of the problem.
235 00:38:33.860 ⇒ 00:38:47.279 Uttam Kumaran: So my job is to make sure that everybody has the tools necessary to solve, and you’re not left in the dark, but I’m telling you out loud, this is a heavy context-switching environment. I won’t do what those people said, which is, like, figure it out. This is a tough situation.
236 00:38:47.280 ⇒ 00:38:54.869 Uttam Kumaran: So, we all are going to deal with this, but we’re all humans, we have different ways of dealing with this, you know?
237 00:38:55.470 ⇒ 00:39:03.350 Jasmin Multani: Yeah, and then even in that context where, like, hiring was not a solution at all, and they’re just like.
238 00:39:03.350 ⇒ 00:39:04.459 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
239 00:39:04.750 ⇒ 00:39:09.169 Jasmin Multani: Even in those, the solutions, and I’m just sharing this now, so we have
240 00:39:09.950 ⇒ 00:39:26.799 Jasmin Multani: steps before hiring, it was like, okay, go to archive.org, read through those papers, those academic papers, where subject matter expertise folks are pushing out things, where they’re also being like, okay, how do you leverage LLMs to scrape
241 00:39:27.400 ⇒ 00:39:29.750 Jasmin Multani: Firearm information.
242 00:39:29.750 ⇒ 00:39:30.070 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
243 00:39:30.070 ⇒ 00:39:43.610 Jasmin Multani: a gun. I don’t know how to build a gun, but they’re like, yeah, you have to learn how to build a gun and learn how people are selling that. So I was like, okay, let me go towards these academic papers. And the truth is, like, things like supply chain.
244 00:39:44.090 ⇒ 00:39:49.220 Jasmin Multani: It’s an old-school business industry that definitely has folks.
245 00:39:49.980 ⇒ 00:39:53.120 Jasmin Multani: posting about it. So,
246 00:39:53.340 ⇒ 00:40:05.059 Jasmin Multani: just giving reassurance that, like, there are ideas that we could use before hiring, and even hiring will not be a solution, because it’ll be the same problem.
247 00:40:05.060 ⇒ 00:40:06.109 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I agree.
248 00:40:06.970 ⇒ 00:40:11.990 Uttam Kumaran: But see, even hearing that, like, even hearing how those people handled it, I’m like, I’m just…
249 00:40:12.090 ⇒ 00:40:17.220 Uttam Kumaran: like, way better than those folks. Like, I’ll solve the problem. We’ve done so much.
250 00:40:17.340 ⇒ 00:40:21.709 Uttam Kumaran: with so little here. I have so many ways of solving that problem for you.
251 00:40:21.710 ⇒ 00:40:22.990 Jasmin Multani: Okay. Thank you.
252 00:40:22.990 ⇒ 00:40:29.310 Uttam Kumaran: You know, but again, a lot of this for the… if you think about it from the client’s perspective, as long as we have a long trust battery built up.
253 00:40:29.540 ⇒ 00:40:36.740 Uttam Kumaran: We have time. It’s when we, we, like… I fucked up 5 times in a row, and then it’s like, we’re in a jam.
254 00:40:36.980 ⇒ 00:40:49.480 Uttam Kumaran: So part of this, I tell this to CSOs, is like, build up the trust, dude, because you’re gonna need it for the time where we get jammed. Like, and so that’s sort of what I’m… what I’m… what I’m telling them, yeah.
255 00:40:52.170 ⇒ 00:40:57.990 Demilade Agboola: Also, I might need to just… side note, slight, side note, in terms of, like…
256 00:40:58.540 ⇒ 00:41:06.489 Demilade Agboola: how we could potentially, like, utilize, like, Jasmine’s service. I know we currently have a client, Magic Spoon.
257 00:41:07.180 ⇒ 00:41:10.339 Demilade Agboola: And right now we’re in, like, a maintenance project.
258 00:41:10.480 ⇒ 00:41:15.180 Demilade Agboola: With them, but we’re trying to sell them, and try to show them that, hey, we could do more.
259 00:41:16.070 ⇒ 00:41:22.910 Demilade Agboola: I think, potentially, I could, you know, sync with you, get an idea of some case studies, especially in their, like, industry.
260 00:41:23.110 ⇒ 00:41:32.179 Demilade Agboola: And kind of push it to them and be like, hey, these are the cool things we can do for you, but we’ll need to, like, ramp up our contracts from just, like, a maintenance…
261 00:41:32.430 ⇒ 00:41:34.040 Demilade Agboola: 10, 15 hour a week.
262 00:41:34.150 ⇒ 00:41:37.339 Demilade Agboola: Project to something bigger, and we can just do…
263 00:41:37.340 ⇒ 00:41:37.680 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
264 00:41:37.680 ⇒ 00:41:39.619 Demilade Agboola: Just, like, cleaning the basic stuff.
265 00:41:41.030 ⇒ 00:41:49.790 Jasmin Multani: Okay, CPG context. Yeah, cool, cool. As we’re building out stuff for Element, even within a few days of discovery calls, we’ve gotten some, like.
266 00:41:50.480 ⇒ 00:41:57.429 Jasmin Multani: fruitful ideas, and we floated it to Shivani. She looks pretty excited for the things that were…
267 00:41:57.540 ⇒ 00:42:04.480 Jasmin Multani: gonna help, brainstorm next with, so I can… Let’s, do Monday.
268 00:42:05.230 ⇒ 00:42:09.070 Demilade Agboola: Okay, sounds good, sounds good. I know, like, we do…
269 00:42:09.200 ⇒ 00:42:14.089 Demilade Agboola: When we signed a pre-contract, or we contracted with them, we did mention, like, okay, we’ll try to…
270 00:42:14.210 ⇒ 00:42:18.710 Demilade Agboola: Reestablished talks after, like, 3 months to kind of, bump up the contract.
271 00:42:19.030 ⇒ 00:42:23.249 Demilade Agboola: And so, just having, like, coming with case studies, so we can just be like, hey, this is…
272 00:42:23.810 ⇒ 00:42:27.720 Demilade Agboola: This is why it exists so far, but just imagine us doing this, and this, and this.
273 00:42:27.970 ⇒ 00:42:31.369 Demilade Agboola: So we can upsell them on why they should fork out.
274 00:42:31.370 ⇒ 00:42:31.740 Jasmin Multani: Yeah, huh?
275 00:42:31.740 ⇒ 00:42:35.570 Demilade Agboola: Like, 15,000 more.
276 00:42:36.780 ⇒ 00:42:46.750 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so this is where, like, I think, Demi, like, the more you can think about that and then come to me on, like, how should we facilitate a conversation with sales, because if you come with a play, Robert will give you the…
277 00:42:47.060 ⇒ 00:43:01.969 Uttam Kumaran: Robert will help you drag the rest out, right? So if you come with the play, like I talked about, in terms of DSOs, like, if you’re like, hey, this is Mary, this is what Mary cares about, I guess Josh is her boss, or whoever that guy is, if you’re like, here’s the… here are the players.
278 00:43:02.170 ⇒ 00:43:03.970 Uttam Kumaran: Here’s, like, what we tried.
279 00:43:04.290 ⇒ 00:43:22.649 Uttam Kumaran: here’s, like, what I think we could do. Help me wrap this into a… into a bow, he’s gonna… he’s gonna do it. That’s actually how I… I work with Rob, because he’s much better at, like… I’m not good at the packaging, I’m good at, like… yo, that person’s, like, my best friend now, and so we just need something that she can get through the door.
280 00:43:22.710 ⇒ 00:43:27.069 Uttam Kumaran: And so if you can come with that, like, sort of story.
281 00:43:27.310 ⇒ 00:43:31.219 Uttam Kumaran: He’s gonna help… he’ll help… well, sales will help package it for you and get the deal over.
282 00:43:32.070 ⇒ 00:43:34.540 Uttam Kumaran: And even, like, come with you to that, right? So, like…
283 00:43:34.820 ⇒ 00:43:38.169 Uttam Kumaran: That… that’s… that’s where I think it… that’s… that’s really effective.
284 00:43:39.440 ⇒ 00:43:48.069 Uttam Kumaran: So, last… last piece in terms of… in terms of, like, service reviews, I’ll be looking at is just leverage creation. So, I think somewhere this morning, I’ll just be looking at, like.
285 00:43:48.270 ⇒ 00:43:53.600 Uttam Kumaran: How is it creating playbooks, creating skills? How do you feel creating specs and docs?
286 00:43:53.690 ⇒ 00:44:08.899 Uttam Kumaran: for the first month or two, I think we’ll just, like, I think for, especially for this month, and going into next month, really what I’m hopeful is you guys just hit the floor. Like, you’re able to know everybody on your team really well, you know where people are allocated, and you know the tickets and the defects.
287 00:44:08.970 ⇒ 00:44:20.210 Uttam Kumaran: Then, once you have that on a day-to-day basis, that’s, like, the floor of, like, Maslow’s hierarchy. Then, we’ll start to think about, like, leverage creation, and, like, we’ll start to look at capacity.
288 00:44:20.500 ⇒ 00:44:22.690 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’ll start to look at, like, leverage creation.
289 00:44:22.840 ⇒ 00:44:24.970 Uttam Kumaran: I like, how are we doing on playbooks?
290 00:44:25.080 ⇒ 00:44:34.249 Uttam Kumaran: automations, things like that. I’m gonna ask about every single one of these in our review calls, but understood that, like.
291 00:44:34.460 ⇒ 00:44:48.100 Uttam Kumaran: right now, our job is to just hit the foundation across the company in terms of delivery, and then we’ll make sure we have the capacity, and then we’ll start to add leverage. But I think back to, like, the first part of this conversation.
292 00:44:48.290 ⇒ 00:45:05.189 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not gonna stop asking about all those things, even though I know those things are all gonna be hard to do. So just bear with me, and, like, understand that it’s coming out of a place of, like, we are going to achieve those, and, like, let’s… we’re gonna all be critical of, like, the problem.
293 00:45:05.210 ⇒ 00:45:09.599 Uttam Kumaran: And for my job is to go get us more money to hire
294 00:45:09.730 ⇒ 00:45:23.550 Uttam Kumaran: you know, like, have a strong capacity, like, for us to have really tough problems, and then really for me to support you guys in these processes and these expectations. That’s why I think, Demi, you’ve been… you have a good job. I think Pranav
295 00:45:23.550 ⇒ 00:45:38.789 Uttam Kumaran: Yesterday, I had some good, like, feel free to give me feedback, or pushback, or manage up to me as well. Like, I’m able to move a lot of things around and get things done, but one thing that’s tough at the company is that I feel like I sometimes don’t get enough feedback.
296 00:45:38.940 ⇒ 00:45:51.549 Uttam Kumaran: And so I’m gonna be sending a lot of things your way, come back and be like, hey, I’m on the ground, this thing you tried to do is not working, like, what should we do? Right? I’m like, I need to see that, because I’m no longer…
297 00:45:52.010 ⇒ 00:46:01.619 Uttam Kumaran: on the ground everywhere, and that’s gonna continue. But what you guys need from me is, like, this global expectation setting, you know, and that’s what I’m… that’s what I’m here to do.
298 00:46:04.520 ⇒ 00:46:05.989 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, that’s fair, that’s fine,
299 00:46:12.830 ⇒ 00:46:17.739 Demilade Agboola: I’m also just, like, just something to just think about, if not necessarily, like, now, is just, like…
300 00:46:17.850 ⇒ 00:46:21.879 Demilade Agboola: Since a lot of services are, like, interconnected.
301 00:46:22.330 ⇒ 00:46:25.520 Demilade Agboola: Do we need to come up with, like.
302 00:46:25.700 ⇒ 00:46:28.760 Demilade Agboola: structure around, like, handover and how that looks like.
303 00:46:29.260 ⇒ 00:46:38.060 Demilade Agboola: Doesn’t necessarily have to be, like, a formal thing, per se, but just an understanding of what that looks like, and how we ensure that things don’t slip between the cracks.
304 00:46:39.950 ⇒ 00:46:43.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, handover between, like, you and ICs, or between who?
305 00:46:44.640 ⇒ 00:46:47.539 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, just handover between services, actually, not necessarily, like, ICs.
306 00:46:47.540 ⇒ 00:46:48.549 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay, okay.
307 00:46:49.230 ⇒ 00:46:50.230 Demilade Agboola: Just so that…
308 00:46:50.230 ⇒ 00:47:03.759 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and this is where, like, I’m interested in, like, yeah, I think, as you guys know, like, I’m just, like, chatting in Slack, whether… I would recommend that you call service leads and move things between services if you need.
309 00:47:04.020 ⇒ 00:47:08.750 Uttam Kumaran: We can do… I… I hesitate to put more recurring stuff on.
310 00:47:09.240 ⇒ 00:47:14.560 Uttam Kumaran: Because I would rather promote ad hoc huddles, Like, when you need it.
311 00:47:14.750 ⇒ 00:47:18.510 Uttam Kumaran: And then I start to establish those relationships, personally, you know?
312 00:47:20.270 ⇒ 00:47:27.979 Demilade Agboola: Yeah, that’s fair. I was just curious as to, like, for instance, if Wish, does some data platform stuff for, like, the AI team.
313 00:47:28.240 ⇒ 00:47:36.499 Demilade Agboola: Just so things like that. It’s not a thing of, like, hey, we’re expecting this, but it’s been ready for, like, 2 days, and, like, that…
314 00:47:37.340 ⇒ 00:47:43.479 Demilade Agboola: slips of the crack. Ultimately, that could just be a CSO thing, so the CSO just kind of keeps track on how things are moving.
315 00:47:43.590 ⇒ 00:47:50.910 Demilade Agboola: So that they are aware of when one thing gets done, and it’s now time for the other service to come in.
316 00:47:51.050 ⇒ 00:47:58.160 Demilade Agboola: So it might not necessarily be on the SLs, it could just be a CSO thing, but it’s just, like, things around that, so that things don’t slip between the cracks.
317 00:47:59.110 ⇒ 00:47:59.690 Uttam Kumaran: Okay
318 00:48:02.160 ⇒ 00:48:13.410 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, and the other thing I’m telling the CSOs is, like, work with IC, work with the CSO, and then escalate to me, but do those in rapid succession, so that I can, if it ends up coming to me, I can help out, you know?
319 00:48:13.650 ⇒ 00:48:32.929 Uttam Kumaran: I’m telling the CSOs the same thing, work with the IC, work with the SL, escalate to me. I’m… I expect there… what I’m hopeful… I’m expecting there to be more escalations that aren’t driven through me, or aren’t sourced by me. Does that make sense? Like, I know there are issues, and I would like the team to bubble them up, versus me
320 00:48:33.240 ⇒ 00:48:35.659 Uttam Kumaran: Jumping in and being like, there’s an issue here.
321 00:48:35.760 ⇒ 00:48:42.189 Uttam Kumaran: So, that way, I can start to pattern match and think about how is the system supporting these issues?
322 00:48:42.470 ⇒ 00:48:58.199 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s a flip I would really love to see in the next, like, 3-4 weeks, is that y’all feel comfortable and feel ownership over, like, hey, there’s this issue. Like, Pranav is having an issue with Sam right now, and I’m like, okay, I’m telling both of them, like.
323 00:48:58.290 ⇒ 00:49:16.389 Uttam Kumaran: You guys have to hash it out, and then escalate, but escalate with some clarity on where you need me. So right now, I’m just seeing that there’s just no hustle on this one thing. Like, you guys are meeting once a day, and then, like, four days go by, and, like, what do I… what am I gonna do about that? So that’s the conversations that I want to have.
324 00:49:16.450 ⇒ 00:49:25.500 Uttam Kumaran: You know? And I want to be able to give you guys the plays to try. But I think laddering it from the IC to your leadership counterpart to then me, is a good way to think about it.
325 00:49:28.080 ⇒ 00:49:29.069 Demilade Agboola: Okay, sounds good.
326 00:49:31.960 ⇒ 00:49:36.980 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, alright, I’ll give you guys some time back, let me know.
327 00:49:37.160 ⇒ 00:49:38.310 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, it can be helpful.
328 00:49:40.260 ⇒ 00:49:41.460 Demilade Agboola: Alright then, sounds good.
329 00:49:41.860 ⇒ 00:49:43.500 Jasmin Multani: You already are. Thank you.
330 00:49:43.500 ⇒ 00:49:46.949 Uttam Kumaran: Of course. Thank you, guys. Bye.