Victor Kardash: “Відбій повітряної тривоги!” або у вас є кілька годин на deploy (UA) UA Online PMDay 2023 Spring Website - www.pmday.org/online Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/startuplviv FB - https://www.facebook.com/pmdayconference

1. “Відбій повітряної тривоги” або
у вас є кілька годин на deploy
By Viktor Kardash 2023

2. - COO of Selzy
- former PM
- former PHP TL
- former PHP Developer
About me
Victor Kardash

3. Marketing communications service
(email/sms soon chatbots/landings)
What is ?
Before the war - about 150 employees
(most in Ukraine)
Remote first company
(... sinse covid time)
Now - about 80 employees
(most in Ukraine, but now + Brazil, Cyprus, Thailand etc.)

4. before the war
About 150 employees
(most in Ukraine)
4 product teams + Core team
All teams - cross-functional
3 product projects + 1 sub-product + 2 core projects
Remote first company
(... sinse covid time. We have an office but visiting is not mandatory.)

5. 2022-02-24

6. everybody was going to have a barbeque
Nobody believed the war could broke out
We weren’t ready at all :(
no relocation
(too expensive for whole team)
no evacuation busses
(costs a lot or without guaranty)
no any rented living space
(we thought about Chernivtsy but no one wanted to
move there)
… everything was on people’s shoulders

7. First 2 months … passed by …
evacuation and permanent bad news
bomb shelters sometimes several times a day
total brain fart and apathy
volunteering a lot
… BUT …
we had a support from the company
УКРИТТЯ
IT Army

8. І гдє оні сєйчас в Кієвской області?
Іх нєт!
Почєму?
Потомушо получілі ….

9. Part of the team quit.
Incl. some of key people

10. Let’s get back on track!
1. Communications
2. Possibilities
3. Challenge

11. Point 1: current colleagues
The only effective way to fix problem is to identify it first and then fix it!
We conducted a lot of communications …
1:1 meetings (a lot of small talks with colleagues who really need it)
team calls (small teams, department calls)
global meetings with CEO

12. Point 2: changing positions
As some of our colleagues have quit, we should replace them.
- promotions
- teams reformation

13. Point 3: hiring new people in Europe
Looks like it’s not a piece of cake like we thought
much higher salaries
different tax system
very narrow market (PL, RO a bit bigger)
tech skills were not good enough
Problem with English (???)

14. Point 4: hiring new people in Brazil
First Brazilian colleagues
different mentality
(Fix: explanation + control + furious dismissal)
we had no internal documentation in English
(Fix: translate critical + help of new people)
we weren't ready to communicate in English
(Fix: regular meetings + team buildings)

15. Point 5: have people busy!
survive
(but it’s common challenge)
teams rebuilding
(mentioned in p.2)
new markets
(Brazil, USA, India, Angola? :) )

16. before Vs during the war
About 150 employees
(most in Ukraine)
4 product teams + Core team
All teams - cross-functional
3 product projects + 1 sub-product + 2 core
projects
Remote first company
(... sinse covid time)
About 80 employees
(most in Ukraine but ….)
1.5 product teams + small core team
product team - cross-functional
1 big feature + support & hotfixes

17. We started to deliver
some value!

18. WTF ???

19. Again ???

20. Let’s get back on track: part 2!
ecoflow/bluetti/bandera power
update notebooks
PON in office and at home
additional coworking rooms with stable power
deploy with backup-deployer
owl-working
async work

21. Plans for bright future

23. Plans for bright future
global English classes (target b2+)
full communications and documentation transfer to English
form 2-nd full functional product team
more colleagues from target markets countries
Email marketing => Marketing communications

24. Thank you!