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Only Way To Fail

By: Garret Richardson Tyler Samples Darin Kelkhoff James Maes
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  • Summary

  • Three nerds and a business guy discussing the weekly adventures, fun, and struggle of scaling a high-tech startup. (and other loosely related matters.)
    Copyright 2020 All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • S03E05 - Hiring and Diversity with Executive Director of People - Ari Gerber (and How to Properly Cook Steak)

    S03E05 - Hiring and Diversity with Executive Director of People - Ari Gerber (and How to Properly Cook Steak)
    May 28 2021
    Description  This week Ari has all the vision, James has all the passion, Garret has the “squeakiest wheel”, Darin is fully vaccinated, and Tyler wants to learn. All of that and the group discusses hiring and embracing diversity. Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Christmas music - “Carol of the Bells” Reverse searing steaks Oil, Butter, Rosemary and Thermapen Smoking meat 00:04:10 - Show Start Week 4 with Ari 00:04:20 - Follow-Ups  Lucy Update It’s Lucy’s 18th birthday...and she’s still kickin’ Question from Garret: Is there a correlation between a lack of clear vision articulated through the teams and teams hesitant to make decisions? Hearing “no” may create some timidness Maybe after so many no’s they stop trying to get yes 1000 no’s for every yes (but can’t just be a blind no) How do we keep teams aligned with what’s most important for the company “I don’t know if Garret knows what Follow-Ups are” 00:20:21- The Headlines Darin Product L10™ - 4.25 (Darin scored it a 3) Without the V/I on product team - felt a little “at the effect of” Tried to IDS™ an issue that’s about James Made a decision not to release (people didn’t know) Strategic Product Team On track to completing a sprint Got a plan to get back into order speed release Started as not really a plan Bringing more intentionality to development Getting away from a shotgun “scatter shot” approach to UAT Personal Second Covid-19 Shot this week Important to pass that message out No side effects Bathroom remodel coming next week Tyler Planning (or at least some version of planning) Most non-standard 1 off process At risk client stuff continues Garret LT L10™ trumped by planning this week Unconventional planning but got through it all Identified 8 Rocks Detailed to the degree required for team handoffs Stand alone IDS™ session for retail L10™ L10™ cut short due to some buy-in concerns and not having V/I available for the discussion 3PL L10™ scored a 4.0 IDS identified a lack of 3PL references for 3PL prospects Ari Vacation Ari mode is setting in Even had my coffee delivered this morning Quarterly planning was a 5.0 score Ari used all the shapes and emojis during planning 8 Rocks is a little terrifying Got to be with team leads all of Wednesday rescoring functional assignments Garret also got to start and end each day with me...which he loved Sales Integrator Carter is playing “Hiring Ari” this week taking over the employee search James - Takes the easy road out 2 weeks in a row 00:37:03 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari part 4 - Hiring   What does hiring look like for us Especially in this high growth pivot The next 90 days could be pivotal How do we not become a great place for only “middle aged white tech guys” The company James and Darin want to be at is diverse in race, gender, sexuality, background, etc… How do we not become Basecamp? Ari dives into how we hire Relaunched job descriptions Launched a careers website page Tells the story of who we are and our people The interview process Screening Team Interview “Reverse Interview” Reveal who we are to a potential employee CEO and Core Values Starts with really bad jokes then 3 simple questions How do we continue to keep our culture as we scale? How are we set up to attract people we want? How do we hire more diversity? Blind screening - remove all personal identifiable data prior to an in person interview DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Statement Diving into the desire for diversity (age, race, gender, sexuality) and creating the best reality What reactions do we get when explaining how we run our company and ourselves in interviews? Pinpoint (not a sponsor of the show) as our backend hiring tool (runs our process) What lessons can we take from Basecamp Not a company I ever want to be Question from Ari: How do you as leaders of the company lean into creating diversity? “If you don’t want to discuss tough topics at work, it implies you’re okay with the world around you” Question from James: How much do you all feel you are being drug along in this vs have your own passion for it? The small things matter Seemingly small micro-aggressions add up “One small thing, makes the next thing slightly more acceptable” The small things we can do can create a ton of space for others “StarTrek has shown us the way. 01:34:54- Questions and Long Answers  None this week since Garret did them in follow ups 01:35:03 - End of Show  We love external validation, so share 01:36:20 -  After Show - Darin found an iOS shortcut to set wallpapers on your devices The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 42 mins
  • S03E04 - Career Planning with Executive Director of People and Investor Relations - Ari Gerber (and being hard to work with)

    S03E04 - Career Planning with Executive Director of People and Investor Relations - Ari Gerber (and being hard to work with)
    May 13 2021
    Description  This week Ari brings the passion, Tyler loves the passion, Darin used to be Tyler’s manager, Garret doesn’t integrate, and James is hard to work with. All of that and Ari discusses Career Planning at Infoplus. Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Power tools: “It’s nice to have the right tool for the job” Festool! Is James hard to work with? 00:04:15 - Show Start Week 3 with Ari 00:04:35 - Follow-Ups  Listener Becca - Darin, thank you for normalizing mental health. “If I took pills for my thyroid I would talk about that, so if I take pills for my brain I’m going to talk about that”. Listener Becca - James, you told Darin you lost trust in him. Is that out of anger and is it still true? …”I know exactly who Darin is and I trust him completely” Listener Becca - Where does everyone feel they stand with the 15CoCL? Not mentioned as often as it was in season 1. Listener Becca - You never provided a link to Support Engineer Jackson’s music Boom - Now We Have! Listener Becca - Lucy update? Comforting news - Lucy’s cries are that of confusion and not pain 00:21:33- The Headlines Darin Strategic Team Live with Support in Hubspot Kicked off new sprint  Create the sales machine monitoring system Dashboards and metrics in Hubspot Clean up a few things with Hubspot Put together a proposed plan for the Order Speed changes One on One with Tyler Identified a potential GWC™ issue as scrum master Managed not to speak about the fact I used to be Tyler’s manager ...but Darin’s talking about it Virtual podcast bro hug between Tyler and Darin Tyler Product L10™ - scored a 4.4 Assigned a series of ToDo’s to get the scorecard back to a good place T2 Support is stretched thin One on Ones complete Got into a lot of important topics that helped a lot of employees Continued to push the Same Page meetings Garret Completed 5 of 6 1 on 1’s Ranged from: Just want some clarity on a few things 90% employees sharing To a PrinciplesYou joint assessment Opened my eyes to several ways Ari and I can work better together LT L10™ - scored below a 4 so no need to report Issues Career Planning ToDo not done and how we can get it back on track 3PL and Retail Team L10’s™ - both scored a 4 3PL dove into good issues around sales process Retail dove into lead quality issues IDS™ on V/I dynamic not working within Infoplus Garret’s not a great integrator (not a quad 1 thing for Garret) Real time follow up:  Why is there a negative connotation to identifying what’s not your Quad 1 “I think it comes from the struggle to let go” Could it be fear around financial stability / health? Ari  Getting ready for “super fancy official” launch into funding Taking my first vacation (disconnected from work) in over a year Hiking and forest hot tubs Taking on planning Monday / Tuesday for the leadership team How to lean into Rocks only planning Being a “one person” department - what is this trying to teach me “Behaviors that got me here, don’t serve me at the levels I’m at and to grow” James (collective jaws hit floor) has no headlines 00:55:03 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari part 3 - Career Planning We developed a version one, but Ari has taken it to version 2.   Ari what do we mean by career planning? 18 month Executive 24 month employee How do we continue to make our employees lean into that Zone of Genius? How do we continue to reward them? 24 Month employee 12 months to master what you are currently doing (get to all 5’s on your FA) 12 months to execute a career plan to move to the next level ⅔’s are classes dictated by the path / ⅓ are electives you get to chose Completion = New Seat, New Title, Pay Increase 18 Month executive We will always hire executives Employees can apply but no dedicated / ensured path VP and Director Teams will = Visionary / Integrator teams over a functional area or department Executive Director = Visionary and Integrator in a single person Tyler - “I love the passion here” A couple of employees have an old version of a career plan or moved titles recently, how do we handle these in the new career plan launch? “This is stupid I don’t have a career plan, I don’t need a career plan, this is the best career plan meeting I’ve ever had” 01:12:41- Questions and Long Answers  Listener Brandy (to everyone) - Do you feel the podcast has helped you in any way? Darin - “rubber duck debugging” Have given us an entirely different mindset - not trying to solve problems, just sharing and talking   Tyler - “very strange” Employees quoting our podcast on how to solve a problem Garret - “this would be your turn to answer” Takes the place of the “fireside” chats Ari - “I know Tim doesn’t like to be on podcasts” Helped the co-founder (plus “post founder”) dynamic Yes...Tyler and I made up the concept of...
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • S03E03 - D&E’s™ - What Are They and How We Do Them (and Ari is Back this Week))

    S03E03 - D&E’s™ - What Are They and How We Do Them (and Ari is Back this Week))
    May 6 2021
    Description This week James feels vindicated, Darin steps in for Tyler, Garret talks Vaccines, Tyler joins in late, and Ari has tiny pockets. All of that and special guest Ari Gerber discusses D&E’s with the guys.  Show Notes  00:00:00 - Pre Show Ari’s back Connection vs Relationship Vaccine updates 00:02:07 - Show Start No Tyler has us unable to find a path to Follow Ups 00:02:46 - Follow-Ups  Ari’s tiny pant pockets Ari’s podcast gold moment - “claw hands” UN mandate needed for larger pant pockets Ari brought “cupcakes” to work Lucy(?) update - apparently I’ve spelled it incorrectly all this time Luci headed for an annual checkup 00:07:27- The Headlines Darin Strategic Sprint Release 1 for 2 on releases so far in 2021 Support migration to Hubspot is released Not without some hurdles in the lead up A day late, but done “If you drag a wagon over the same dirt path the rut gets deeper” Taking a couple days off Darin attempts Tyler’s headlines Product L10™ - “I don’t like that we judge a week by L10™ score so refuse to score it” Whole scorecards a joke Product team is lacking a vision (or vision alignment) Real time follow up: If not the most important meeting, then what do we score Score may determine if it’s reported Garret LT L10™ - scored a 4.4 (Garret did leave early) Issues V/I relationship isn’t working currently Best meeting in all of 2021 with James this week Retail and 3PL Sales L10’s™ - scored 4.8 and 4.0 At Risk Customer process Got product enhancements narrowed down ( presenting to James next) Ari -  “I don’t have the most important meeting of the week so won’t report that score”. Been a week of Sand Investor conversations continue to progress First investor call with a female Hiring - screening and interviewing in Support 1 on 1’s coming next week “Managers get to shut up and listen” (in a great way) PrinciplesYou (new psychological analysis for Ari) James and Darin have already taken and compared the assessment Tyler showed up (questions why we’re still on headlines) Tyler and Darin debate who’s responsible for the score of an L10™ Tyler Same page setup with Tactical Team Leader Mo Missing the mark on vision has led to non decisions Meeting with Garret created lens of priorities If everything’s important, they’ll all fail “The power of no” All fueled by a preceding meeting with James Vision, Vision, Vision James (1 to 5 headlines) Seriously only 2 headlines Wednesday boarding meeting was either the best, or worst meeting ever Finally past just “kicking the can down the road” Feeling almost vindicated (see this was the issue all along) Haven’t held up his end of the D&E process with Tyler and Garret Garret gives him an out Entire situation devolves into a terrible car racing metaphor 00:45:14 - Topic 2 (1) - Ari is back discussing D&E’s™ D&E™ Deep Dive with Executive Director of People - Ari Three parts of a D&E™ Incredible overview on executing a great D&E™ Pre-work Issue Resolution Identifying issues Realtime follow up - Ari, Where do these issues come from in a D&E™? Biggest change this year in the process… Every issue must be resolved Q&A from the guys What underlying themes or issues did you see that came out of D&E’s™? Understanding of Core Value meanings Were there specific Core Values that came up more often? Doing what it takes Positivity and Optimism Delegate and Elevate (D&E’s™) seems literal. Did you find functional assignments to actually delegate or abandon Oh there weren’t a whole lot of cases of Delegating and Elevating in these meetings. Is a different name for the meeting,  more fitting now. What was the biggest change vs this previous D&E’s What’s the difference between team lead and manager? What do you see as the biggest improvement prior to the next round of D&Es Clarity between scrum master and team lead Where did Garret go? 01:33:00- Questions and Long Answers  Carry over to next week 01:33:05 - End of Show  01:33:28 -  After Show - How weird does doing this podcast feel? The Credits Hosts, Garret Richardson, Tyler Samples, Darin Kelkhoff, and James Maes Show Notes by Garret Richardson Proofing and Title by Darin Kelkhoff Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Brenton Wainscott
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    1 hr and 36 mins
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