Anonymous
Problem: company-wide focus shift came with the layoff. Instead of global expansion, the company steer towards operation efficiency. My team need to drop projects for expansion and aggressively prioritize cost reduction projects. Action: I was invited to a meeting with eng and product leaders to fully understand the reason and new goals for the shift; I also made sure I understood how the new priorities aligned with the company’s plan to success. Then for each sub-team owning a sub-area, I explained the company’s plan to success under the new macro economy, new strategy of operating with efficiency and impact on the team’s roadmap. I had 1-1s with eng to make sure they bought into the new vision and plan. Some eng had doubts in some of the new operational goals - for doubts on technical goals I had deep dive sessions with engineers to assure them that the goals are realistic and reasonable; for doubts on company’s mission I explained to them that the realignment is just a temporary set up and that focusing on operation efficiency in short term would better prepare us for the company’s vision in the long run. I also shared the new focus for other teams and how they fit into the company’s new plan to success along with our teams’. Results: the team was in general aligned on the new vision, some even said that it made more sense than the previous one; the team switched gear to execute the refined project roadmap within 2 weeks.
