My challenge in Superhog is going to come with a lot more freedom and lot more responsibility than the previous positions I've held. The crown is heavy, and so it's both my time to shine and to not fuck up.
One of the habits that I value a lot, have almost never seen successfully applied in companies, and have seen successfully applied to some degree in Mercad~ao (thanks João) is writing things down. A lot. Everywhere. All the time. Organized repositories of text all over the place. Basically, every time you are about to open your mouth to say something, you should instead or also write it down.
I'll start on the eve of my arrival by writing down some thoughts on stuff I need to do.
- Social wise
- Make contacts: I need to have a couple of coffees with a lot of people:
* Global KPIs : https://guardhog-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/ben_cotte_superhog_com/EU9p7oaSBGRFoYGlJkfsMqwBt6sCRfF-jd0_3zkUYJxV2Q?e=k7ad02
* Data used in Sales and Account management : https://guardhog.sharepoint.com/:x:/s/Guardhoggroup/EZXCzc8ftM5JrOm43UpCh5QBrB05Rrq6MDJ7-j-B8pjHJQ?e=4o4JnG
* Data used in Finance : https://guardhog-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/ben_cotte_superhog_com/ERZWA02zJlxAi8akJmzVz40BQ3sjwARt1EYUnP6Y4-sbZg?e=maj0dU
* Data used in Product : https://guardhog-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/ben_cotte_superhog_com/Ed1Wt4-T-9FIodoJEkmYUzMB3VzalxzPTsiYcrQOm1ik1g?e=qZhW9Z
* Invoicing Process : https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMirYfDg=/
- Make current operations work properly now that we have resources (backfill). Andrew's opinion is they were understaffed for long and that explains why things are not working out smoothly.
- Integration with PMSs to white-label the solution and turn them into sales funnels
- Crazy R&D ideas, mostly around Guest-centric services
- How do you envision my team, who do I report to?
- Data is not a squad, it's cross functions
- Serves both Ben C and Matt, but with different styles
- We rely a lot on engineering and Ben R, so we need to tag along nicely and they need to keep us in mind.
Elaine leaves mid february.
Amanda joining and taking care of the financial processes and bookkeeping until a finance director joins in.
End of march is end of financial year. Next year books will be on Iplicity.
Actions
- Andrew is very concerned about the invoicing process and the choice of accounting tool and now I understand why. If any of those two, are not worked out properly, they will lead to a very nasty situation. I need to judge my role in those fast and get evereyone aligned.
---
Stuff we couldn't go through, let's discuss next meeting:
- Is the P&L somehow decentralized?
- How do you and Humphrey split responsibilities?
- Things I've liked so far
- Good attitudes, good spirit
- Product is clear
- Lots of room for improvement
- If the product is making money with the current simplicity, we can surely do better
- Systems are growing uncontrolled, this will bite us in the ass soon and will hurt people's work
- The huge proportion of new joiners is going to be a cultural challenge
- Data is in a bad shape, I don't have data
- What do you think about my plan?
- Couple of weeks listening in
- Ceremony to kickstart the team
- Team proposal
- Backlog
- Building out our infrastructure as well as working on hot things. Balance between immediate stuff and building for the future
- Is there something that concerns you? Anything you are scared of? Any issue that keeps you up at night?
- I'll be eager to grab a lunch or to hear more about both you and Humphrey. I care about the plans at the top, it's one of the main reasons I'm here and not at a big corp
## Meeting with Clay
Onboarding and PMSs
- Every host gets manual onboarding. This is a pain point
- Clay fully takes care of PMS integrations. The most relevant bit of this happens to be managing onboardings, since there isn't much trouble once the integration is done for each PMC.
- product management at SH https://www.notion.so/knowyourguest-superhog/Product-Management-at-Superhog-c8e6401f2e8e4383a9a9f4a7c5a3443b
- Mixpanel: invite sent. Note we’re working out a bug at the moment which is blocking us from judging our accurate usage and moving forward with upgrading to the paid version/using it properly!
- I'm worried about only having two cycles to play around + Elaine leaving. I dislike this being the first thing to jump to, but I think it will have to be so
- I'm afraid untangling this doesn't look like only a data issue and it's going to be complex dancing altogether
- Ben thinks there is indeed a high level of complexity, which is natural due to the way the bookings and money flows work and due to resolution process
- The issues with payment problems and manual retries are also part of the issue. The current dual payment providers situation is part of the problem.
- Ben has a very good acceptance of the fact that product changes in dashboard might be required to get this in good shape.
- I see a general pattern of shadow IT and short-comings in Dashboard being tackled with system+organization patches everywhere. This will bite us back eventually (is kind of already)
- [X] Basic set of cutlery to keep in our office https://www.amazon.es/BEWOS-cubiertos-cuberteria-inoxidable-Lavavajillas/dp/B0BZXZJ31Y/ref=sr_1_10?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=13L3AVL2USBKQ&keywords=cuberteria&qid=1701420382&sprefix=cuberteria%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-10&th=1
- [X] A few locks for lockers to make life easier for new joiners: https://www.amazon.es/Combinacion-Diyife-Impermeable-Archivadores-Herramientas/dp/B08Y6D1Y38/ref=cs_sr_dp_n?__mk_es_ES=%EF%BF%BDM%EF%BF%BD%7D%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD&crid=8ESI3Q3APIBJ&keywords=candado%2Btaquilla&qid=1701419900&sprefix=candado%2Btaquilla%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-6&th=1
- [X] Share onboarding list with Ben C.
- [X] Open ticket for broken chair
- [X] Sit down with Lourdes?
- [X] Start the Data space in Notion
## Meeting with Ben R. and Ben C.
- I propose
- Notion for Data team homepage (not for heavy, internal technical docs)
- New project in devops, one board, as many repos as needed in there
- We go for space Notion
- We go for space Confluence
I include myself in Superhog devops
- try to follow naming convention for repos
- I can create repos and boards freely within the project
## Emergency PBI release call with Ben R. and Lawrence
- Loads of tables
- Views specific for reporting
- Good idea with decoupling
- Denormalized
- Direct transactional server queries. Load doesn't seem to be a problem for now.
- Not overwhelming
Server and database are parametrized in the workspaces and automatically picked up.
Are there any instructions to set up a local environment for the Superhog SQL database?
- [ ] Documentation on how to change and release PBI changes
- [ ] Documentation on the reporting views
- [ ] Documentation on setting up local environment of superhog SQL db
## Meeting with Lourdes
- What is your kingdom
- Resolutions
- Different for waiver and DPP
- Scope begins when the host raises an issue
- Teams and processes under your products
- Resolution Center on Dashboard, visibile by hosts. But big PMCs that come through integrations use emails or forms. So no that useful.
- Airtable used as backend to handle this, but everything is very manual
- Planning on managing processes through Hubspot.
- Elise is the manager, Chloe will step in when Elise leaves for maternity. About ~6 people in total.
- Systems and data
- Completely in the dark regarding metrics and analysing their processes.
- Current tools:
- Spreadsheets in Airtable
- Forms
- Dashboard Resolution Center
- There is some PBI report hidden somewhere, feed with manual data.
- [X] Sit down with Ana (once her scope is more clear and she's in control)
## Ben Cotte initial explorations
Ben sent me some of the materials he has been building around assessing data in superhog last week. I'm listing some of them there to make sure they don't fall through the cracks and I can come back to them when needed.
Links to the videos shared by Ben with different areas:
Global KPIs : https://guardhog-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/ben_cotte_superhog_com/EU9p7oaSBGRFoYGlJkfsMqwBt6sCRfF-jd0_3zkUYJxV2Q?e=k7ad02
Data used in Sales and Account management : DataMgtReview - Sales & AM.xlsx
Data used in Finance : Data Meeting.xlsx
Data used in Product : DataMgtReview_Product.xlsx
Invoicing Process : https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMirYfDg=/
Ajunto igualmente el inicial draft hecho por Trust Keith, pero tendras que hablar con Louisa de legal para que te pase la ultima version (o que pida ella la ultima version)
A Data Flow map built by the external legal provider for GDPR purporses:
[Superhog - Data Flow.pdf](other%2FSuperhog%20-%20Data%20Flow.pdf)
## Meeting with Ben C. around Product Ownership in Data
My briefing to him:
---
The Data Team is going to be a slightly different squad with a few members capable of doing technical work and building stuff. As all squads, is going to have a limited capacity and an infinite demand. Hence, like any other team, we will have to build a backlog, groom it, and prioritize it.
Because of this, I strongly believe that Data requires Product Management and its mindset. I’ve seen many companies fail at this, providing PO to most squads but not to Data “because it’s different”.
Nevertheless, I think Data it’s truly different. I think Product Management looks a bit different for Data than it will for the other tech squads for the different product domains. This is because of things like:
- In my experience, building data products like dashboards or one-shot, adhoc analysis is very different than building “regular” software products. There are commonalities, but also quite a few differences.
- There is a lot of foundational work that is necessary, yet doesn’t really fit nicely into one single product (like grunt work in the guts of a Datawarehouse, which is necessary to support many different reports for many different areas).
- The cross-functional nature of the team means that it has many different clients with different needs. This is challenging from a product management POV because you are fighting a multiheaded hydra.
- Data is less free than many other tech teams because it depends a lot on existing systems and teams to build it’s own stuff. We build on top of other’s work, and so have to manage these dependency relationships.
Those where some thoughts. All of this leads me to ask myself:
- Should there be a dedicated PM for Data? Is this an impossible task because it’s simply too much for a single brain?
- Should instead all PMs be able to add stories to Data’s backlog? What about needs that go across domains/teams? And about areas that don’t have a PM (like Finance)?
- Perhaps Data should have multiple backlogs? Or perhaps it’s an overkill?
- Should I simply act as the Data PM for now? How sustainable will that be?
I’m asking myself these questions because:
1. Well, it’s an important topic, it should be well thought and I think your take on it is vital.
2. If there are headcount implications, we need to agree on them and get things rolling. Whatever we decide, I would like to bring to the Data Kickoff meeting on the 14th.
---
Ben:
- Internal Data team manages internal work independently
- Important need for a roadmap
- Product Board: make a data roadmap there
- Data Analyst with a strong product view acting as a product owner
- Begin with 3 and add more by justifying with a roadmap
## Meeting with Andrew about headcount
My notes:
---
Hi Andrew,
On the Data kick-off meeting for the 14th, I would like to present some plans in terms of what the data team should look like, people wise. I think it would be unwise to wait until then to show my cards, because hopefully that meeting is more about aligning visions that about discussing a lot. So, I would like to share my current thoughts to see how they align with yours and with overall budget/headcount constraints and plans.
@Ben Cotte, @Ben Robinson also looping you in for transparency, feel free to chime in.
My thoughts:
- I think there is a lot of Data work to get done (which is great news because it’s a lot of good coming for the company).
- I’m obviously not gonna get much done on my own. I see backlog for a nice 4 heads (including myself). I would look for another Data Engineer and a couple of Data Analysts.
o The additional Data Engineer would be more on the strong code, modelling, infra side of things. This is important because we have a lot to build in this area, and because solely relying on me is a terrible idea for many reasons.
o The Data Analysts would be sitting closer to Product/RevOps/Finance/etc, working on top of.
o Nevertheless, there is some degree of overlap between the skillset and capabilities of both profiles, and I would like to get people with a good multi-hat attitude for these early stages.
o I would also be in favour of going for experienced profiles at this point. I don’t think this is a good time for someone to learn on the job. More junior profiles might provide better value/cost when the team is more mature and things have settled a bit.
- BTW, I’m aware there was an open search for an experienced analyst but, from the lack of news, I’ve assumed that’s not progressing or at least not close to completion?
- Besides this, I see the need for some extra work to be done in Product (somehow closer to Ben C.) and Infrastructure (somehow closer to Ben R.) The lines here are fuzzy. This doesn’t need to necessarily be part of the Data Team strictly speaking, but the Data Team will need some of this. I’m planning on discussing with both Ben’s next week to align.
So, converging, @Andrew Boldt:
- Does this make sense to you?
- Is going out and hiring 3 extra people now aligned with what you are planning/willing to invest in Data?
Please, feel free to provide feedback and tear it to the ground if necessary. We can sit and talk whenever if needed. I would like to have some, even if it’s rough, we have agreed on for Thursday.
---
- Thursday plan
Senior Data Analyst (the brains: sitting closer to the business)
Let's adjust the third position depending on what we find for the Senior Data Analyst
For the meeting: Matt Ben Ben Andrew
Humphrey is just flying around
Leo goes off the hook
## Surprise meeting with Iplicit
We meet with Tim Coles.
My points:
- API seems rather limited. Are there any other export systems? Couldn't find anything in the documentation.
- Integration plugins with any data sync tools like Fivetran, Airbyte, etc.
---
Reason of the meeting: what would the implementation project look like:
1. Contract signed, no resources assigned until that happens
2. Kickoff (couple hours)
3. Solution Design Meeting (a few hours)
- they help us determine how to configure Iplicit
- Someone to handle integration
- PID -> Document with the outcome
4. Sandbox environment
- Start moving data
5. Training and testing phase
- Training over Teams
6. Go live
7. A bit of extra support from their side afterwards
- Can I have some material on Data Migration
- Do we keep sandbox environment?
Andrew expects me to take care of this Data migration.
Andrew: "We will import data to Iplicity on a monthly basis"
Some thoughts:
- Exporting data out of Iplicit doesn't seem very important. We are going to end up doing the billing and charging logic outside of the system and then dump it in through the API, so it will be out anyways.
## Meeting with Beth
- Marketing website
- New strategy atm
- More aligned with Account Management and other RevOps
Email marketing
Hubspot
- I don't have a full picture of customer lifecycle
- See details on active user in Dashboard
- Integration between
- Number of guests that we screen, screen funneling
- How are you going to organize work in the finance team? Should I go to you or Elaine?
- Situation is up in the air
-
- Invoicing process
- I'm here to help with the data side of things
- Besides, I have an interest in Stripe and Acquired, Data wise
- Can I steal Jamie freely, should I channel it through you?
## 14th Presentation Notes
Goals
- Project that I'm in control
- Impress with my calm and thoughtful planning
- Secure my headcount
- Secure my rights over other teams
- Ensure my vision is shared by the TMT
Script
- Agenda
- What I've seen
- What I propose
- Next actions
- Discuss, debate and agree
- Past few weeks
- I've been doing my little tour
- I've started working on cataloguing our data and data products
- Diagnostics
- General vibe: we are in a sweet moment. The child is turning into a man, and we are starting to see some cracks in his clothing (Hulk picture)
- Concerns
- Operations issues: non-standardized process, hard to measure, hard to improve on
- Product issues: common-sense is the only driver, no analytical approach. No mature pricing strategy.
- Sales: nose driven methodology. Lack of basic data to drive marketing and sales (CLV, segments, analytics on channels, sales agents performance metrics, etc)
- Finance: invoicing.
- Technology: lack of data infra. People are integrating data with blood, sweat and tears.
- Good stuff
- Product works
- Good tech culture, mature engineering team
- Human capital is looking great to me
- Strong bet on product management feels promising
- Sales is nose driven, but it seems to be a very good nose given the results
- Do you think I've missed any important points? Any disagreements
- Data Team vision
- Responsibilities
- Supervise data across the org: catalogue and document all relevant items
- Build and own infrastructure to service needs that don't fall nicely within anyone's domain: DWH, integration of external data sources, etc.
- Build stable data products: reports, dashboards, APIs, etc
- Provide brainpower for highly complex analysis
- Build data literacy across the company
- Not:
- Own every little reporting need and become a blocker
- Act as a release valve to product short-comings
- Overcome bad process and system designs with miracles
- What does success look like
- Data is easily accessible for those who need it
- We have capacity to build data products with speed and quality
- Production systems run with good uptime
- We have the foundations to attempt more sophisticated projects (ML/AI, advanced statistical and optimization models, etc)
- Powers
- Be involved early when needed
- Impose certain standards on data owners in terms of documentation and practices
- Enforce agreements with upstream dependency owners (Robinson, don't break my columns please)
- Other parts of my philosophy
- We have a backlog, limited capacity and thus we need to prioritize, like any other team
- Not every question deserves being answered
- I'll be annoying on my dependencies
- Tell me if my vision fits what you expect of my team
- Plans
- Short-term (weeks)
- First batch of cataloguing and documenting
- Take control of important reports
- PBI
- Hubspot
- Global KPIs
- etc.
- Assist in the invoicing issue from the data side of things
- Get into important loops to provide the data point of view
- Product design
- Standardization of operational processes
- Company software decisions: stripe vs acquired, new accounting software, etc.
- Perform a first approach at grooming a data products backlog
- Start hiring
- Mid-term (months)
- Build new data products to cover different areas
- Build data infrastructure: DWH, integration solutions, better reporting tools
- Data trainings outside the data team
- Future
- Maintain and scale
- Advanced Data Products: ML&AI
- I don't know what else, I don't like looking that forward unless strictly necessary. Life's just too messy.
- Hiring
- Another data engineer
- 2 Data Analysts
- Seniority. No place for people who don't know what they are doing at this stage. I would rather have a few experienced hands than an army of newbies.
- Some timings and next actions
- Hiring
- Timebox data cataloguing and documenting
- Controling existing reports
- Timebox
- First round of grooming with the different areas to build up backlog
-
## Product Catchup Meeting
Survey - What platform are we using? Hubspot, although the team is tempted about Typeform.
They think exporting data from Hubspot is going to be challenging. The Airbyte conenctor seems to support it though.
- Lourdes VPN status says disconnected, yet logs indicate that it is connected
- I found this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1282475/azure-vpn-client-not-working-on-mac-book-2023-m2
- Running this command fixed it for Lourdes: `/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license`. All is fine if user sees `Install of Rosetta 2 finished successfully.`
