Jessica Mah Meets World

An Agile Culture is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

This article was originally published on July 31, 2015 via my LinkedIn profile.

We started inDinero Full Service three years ago like any other startup in San Francisco. Our office was full of picnic tables for desks, the kitchen was stocked with pizza and Gatorade for nourishment, and we were just a quick walk to artisan coffee around the corner for stamina. While these early times had frustrations of their own, I had no idea the far more complex headaches I’d face after making the decision to open other inDinero locations. I found myself filled with fear that there would be disconnection between teams and that distance would exaggerate any chinks in the armor, ultimately imploding our foundation.

Even though I wanted to, I couldn’t let my nightmares hold inDinero back. There were many reasons we HAD to open new locations, the biggest of all being talent.

The Nuts and Bolts

Our major failures from phase one of inDinero had to do with culture. We were everything TIME magazine has said about millennials… and then some. We could visualize our long-term dreams for what we wanted inDinero to become, but nothing had the muscle to make it full circle. When we pivoted we started rebuilding with the basics and formed a value-based foundation which we have integrated into every level of the inDinero that exists today.

It’s all Relative, Stay Open to Interpretation

The most successful shared culture allows each office to express their individuality. inDinero’s culture is framed by what is important to the organization, but each location has the freedom to interpret that. The goal of expanding was not to replicate  SF, but to carve out an identity and everything we can learn from that. Both our Portland and Philippine offices have distinct identities, and while we maintain the same core values, each office has a different way of expressing that personality which is what we really welcome and gives us the added bonus to steal best practices from each other.

An example of this stems from our “all team, same team” core value and the fun events we encourage to keep teams integrated and thriving. Fun is a part of our function and a priority. Each office has formed a culture committee that knows the resources and budgets available to have fun - they get to decide how those are applied for their office. There’s no difference between the different parts of what we’re built upon, and the key is “all team, same team.” All colleagues are the same, which means equality across functions as well location.

Never Settle! Go Where the Quality Is

This may come as a shock— I know it did to me— but San Francisco (inDinero’s home base) is not everyone’s idea of the promised land. While we still see a bevy of young hungry sales reps and IT/software engineers that call the City by the Bay their mothership, it’s a very desolate market for expert skill level in other job functions–client services, accounting, marketing to name a few.

There was no way we were going to dazzle our clients if we settled for what we saw in front of us. Our business model only works when we hire great people who are passionate about what they do and can communicate effectively. So we researched and found our sweet spots for higher caliber candidates elsewhere: in Portland and the Philippines.

Our Makati (Philippines) office has been up and running for about two years now and Portland (Oregon), while just a few months old, is standing almost 30 strong in client service, account management, accounting, engineering, recruiting, admin, sales, and marketing roles and is looking to double in the next six months!

Finding the Formula

My tested and replicable recipe for building a great office from scratch is also stupidly simple. The first hire is always a General Manager to run the office, second is a Talent Manager to head up local recruiting efforts. Those are my two allies on the ground. In a GM, I look for a good listener with creative ideas about culture and what an office environment should look like. I can tell I’ve found the right person once I get a sense of their parental instincts. If I think to myself “I would want this person to be my parent” they are the perfect fit! Being a GM is a very nurturing but demanding role and takes someone with a strong work ethic who sees colleagues as an extension of their family and feels comfortable integrating their team into their life.

The first few months have always been critical and taken a lot of blood and sweat, but once things were running it was easy to trust my GM on the ground. At that point you can be more hands-off culturally and focus on staying involved in team building and hiring.

Communication Is Your Only Strategy

A large chunk of my fears from the start of our expansion stemmed from my anticipation of forming and addressing processes and tools for effective communication. We’ve remained flexible and kept a curious eye on the best practices for addressing time change, long distance communication, and training:

Time Differences - While our San Francisco and Portland offices are both on Pacific time, the Philippines are 15 hours ahead. We adjusted the Philippine offices to open at 6am (3 pm PT) to allow for about 2 to 3 hours of overlap each day. So far, they’ve given nothing but positive feedback about the change and are loving the benefits earlier mornings provide (easier commute, more personal time in the afternoon, etc.).

Long Distance Communication - It’s 2015. If you’re thinking email will be enough for your widespread business, think again. We saw huge improvements in cross-office team communication when we moved from email to strictly real-time messaging (Slack is our chat solution of choice). We also use Skype and Google Hangouts liberally for anything from daily group and one-on-one meetings to our quarterly all-staff kickoffs. Simply using these tools in day-to-day communication has brought all of our offices closer together.

That’s not to say we’ve gone off the digital deep end. We’re building new traditions, like pairing any interested stateside employees with a counterpart in the Philippines for an old school pen-pal club!

Removing Management Barriers - Traditional hierarchy doesn’t fit our team model. Instead, we’re following our own brand of organizational structure, Entreocracy, which eliminates the need for managers to dictate stifling processes and liberates each individual to find the path of least resistance and make the most impact. Employees don’t have to wait for someone else to explain how to do something, instead they can take initiative to find out what will work best for collaboration.

We can only do this because we hire champions who come into their roles with big ideas and solid experience, and we want to tap 100% of their potential in growing our company. Each person’s voice is the most valuable asset they can bring as an employee and we’re very upfront about that expectation in every role.

We aren’t perfect

Our organizational chart still has some blanks to be filled and there are still the occasional cultural differences across offices that we need to adjust for. We are also working on more ways to organically achieve impromptu, spontaneous conversations. Our hope is that as we continue to break the virtual ice, these relationships will grow in the most logical ways.

Every piece of our strategy and core values comes back to our clients and finding the best way to service their needs. Whether we’re looking for top talent to dazzle on the phone, on our website, or elsewhere, from their first impression on they know they’re working with employees who have the gumption to do what it takes to dazzle them each day.

You Only Have Yourself to Blame - CEO, hire thyself

This article was originally published on July 1, 2015 via my LinkedIn profile here.

It’s not a tough concept to grasp–the best way to avoid turnover is to hire the right fit from the start. Which is why I’m always surprised by how little attention many CEOs give to recruiting. As co-founder of inDinero, I’ve worked hard to build the company in  my vision, based on my values, so looking for myself in job candidates is a great way to hire individuals who will thrive. But how do you pick your counterparts out of the pack?

First, look inward

Self-awareness and emotional intelligence are step one. As I started building inDinero (for a second time), I read many books on recruiting and interviewing while personally looking through countless job descriptions to list the attributes and skills that spoke to me. It was this act of writing and picking top traits that allowed me to decipher the criteria for future teammates that were actually important to me (hunger, moxie and monster work ethic) and outweighed a list of competencies.

Communicate your values in your job posts

If you look at any of our job postings you’ll see how much we have to say about our existing culture and the passion we demand from each role. You can clearly sense that we’re looking for champions who are going to bust ass to be the best at their jobs, not a workhorse who clocks in and out each day to collect a paycheck. You can also see examples of what I mentioned before, which is that skills are important but personal drive is emphasized overall because that’s what we value the most. By clearly outlining the mindset and the personality traits that are beneficial, you’re going to attract the right individuals.

Work closely with talent managers

So much of how we’ve been able to successfully rebuild the inDinero staff came from my involvement in the process. As CEO, I consider myself a part of our talent team and I ensure we are as effective as possible when hiring. Even if you outsource your staffing needs, be sure that your recruiters know a lot about you and can speak to your vision and the qualities you admire–personally and professionally.

Do your due diligence to follow up with all interviewers. Consider their pros and cons and what stood out to them in their meetings. Pose critical questions and make sure your team is answering honestly. We’re built on the concept of “all team, same team”, so I feel it’s essential to get buy-in from multiple players. At the same time, we never want to settle so I apply firm pressure on all hiring decision makers. Before we had this system we had some close calls and hired a few folks that talked a big game but flopped when they hit the court. Those mistakes come with a big price and our hiring managers now know that their reputations are at stake each time they send a candidate through to the next round.

Gather information (and lots of it!)

This goes beyond interviewing and checking references. I realized that not everyone could interview well and by giving people other chances (tests, surveys, projects, etc.) I could see how they handle actual scenarios that relate more to their work performance.

This starts from the application process where we ask more questions about job history, personal passions, workflow, style, and other aspects of their life that might not be on their resume/cover letter or come up in an interview. As we move forward we ask more questions, get more samples, and listen to stories about their work. The right candidates are forthcoming with information and see it as a bonus opportunity to impress us and toot their own horn. The better picture we get of their achievements and success, the more we can see how their history can benefit our future.

Personally meet candidates before you hire them

Applicants for each role at inDinero complete at least three to four interviews, starting with the talent manager, hiring manager, technical/culture screening and then finally with me. Since the beginning, I’ve been involved in the interview process and while recently that’s gotten more challenging, to this day, I still do as many final interviews as I can. That’s not to say our recruiting team hasn’t given me push back for slowing down the hiring process. Do I do this because I have control issues or lack trust? No, I do this strictly to ensure quality and because I am genuinely interested in each person I employ.

By this stage, it’s less about finding the right candidate and more as a way to ensure my recruiters aren’t getting complacent after finding so many winners. I care deeply about making every department at inDinero as successful as possible and with each one growing exponentially at the same time, it’s important for me to be a net, company-wide. Our hiring squad is no exception, and while they’ve proven to have the exceptional ability pick out top talent, we’re all still learning as we grow.

So what’s the number one thing I look for when hiring?

Drive and Passion. Someone who is clearly enthusiastic about what they are doing. There are experienced people out there just clocking in for their paycheck and only focus on their job for career’s sake. As you can probably tell, we’re not interested in that.

When I started inDinero, I didn’t do it because I was some accountant looking to make a few dollars in dot com. Not even close. I was a dreamer who saw ideas that couldn’t get off the ground. I identified the major roadblocks and ventured deeper looking to find a solution. Inspiration and purpose beat preparation, so I don’t want to see candidates who just check boxes. I want teammates who have the hunger and cojones to do whatever it takes to get the job done without excuses.

A Fresh Start

I started my blog back in 2006 while studying at Simon’s Rock, the Early college.  At its peak, my blog was getting over 80,000 visits a month from people who wanted to hear my thoughts on business and life.  It’s embarrassing for me to read my old posts because they were written by a naive and inexperienced version of myself.  I’ve decided to take them all down and to start my blog with a clean slate.  From now on, the posts on this blog will have the perspective of someone who has had the experience of actually hiring employees, growing out a business, and seeing numerous setbacks and challenges along the way.

Stay tuned.