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BUILDING A BRIDGE ACROSS AN OCEANRachel Wolan, Director of ProductGadi Shamia, COO
September 22, 2016
Who Are We?
Gadi Shamia (@gadishamia)
Chief Operating Officerat Talkdesk
Prior to Talkdesk:
Rachel Wolan (@rachelwolan)
Director of Product at Talkdesk
Prior to Talkdesk
Becoming an “Overnight Success” Takes Years
Born from a Hackathon, five years later Talkdesk is on track to take over the Call Center space
Start Small to Build Believers and Topple Goliaths
It is easier to enter a market when no one else pays attention to it.
Build loyal fans who believe in your vision and want to influence your innovation.
Goliaths are slow to innovate and even slower to
SimpleSelf-Service
Ente
rpri
seM
id-M
arke
tSM
B
High GrowthCustom Workflow
GlobalMission Critical
Value Proposition Talkdesk Customers
Don’t Just Build What Customers Ask For - Build Conversation Starters
It is hard to strike a balance between delivering what customers ask for, simplifying what you have and looking for opportunities to differentiate.
Focus on Outcomes for Your Customers’ Customer -- Get Your Customer Promoted
Make your customer look like the smartest person in the room by picking the new kid on the block.
Be Chrome -- Not IE6
User experience can be a point of differentiation if the user experience really maps to the bottom line.
Which Bridge Was NOT Built By the American Bridge Company?
You need to focus on the similarities and differences to be successful running multi-site teams.
a. Ponte 25 de Abril in Lisbon
c. Bay Bridge in San Francisco
b. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
Discover Similarities -- Respect Differences
You need to focus on both the similarities and differences to be successful running multi-site teams.
Crisis Builds Confidence and Bonds Teams
Talkdesk reached a breaking point because we scaled our customer base very quickly.
We had to do a complex database migration, plus QA the entire application in the middle of the night.
This was the first time Engineering and Product bonded.
3:30 am
First Who...Then What
In both offices, we focused on hiring the right people to lead and own areas as we scaled. Inevitably as we scaled, a small percentage left our team, even high performers.
The key is getting people in positions where they will be successful.
Transmit Culture Across Offices by Investing In Exchanges
We have systematized “abroad” programs both ways, transplanting product managers, engineers and designers in both Lisbon and San Francisco.
Learn Best Practices from Companies with Similar Trajectories
We read about and met with a handful of companies that had successfully distributed growth phase startups.
Shameless Plug
If you’d like to join the Talkdesk rocket ship, we are hiring product managers, designers and engineers!