Connect Podcast
00:12:24 · Fred, Vlad Yatsenko
[00:12:24] S2: Doesn't work. Yeah. [00:12:25] S0: Doesn't work. That's true. There's no way to... There's there's no reason, you know, to force it. Right? So one of the principles always just that we have in Revolut is level of openness and transparency. Yeah. Whenever I say something, I should be able to... Or not just be able, but always explain it as well. Why do I want my team to do certain thing? Why is that important? The why is, I think that's what keeps the understanding of the purpose. Yeah. People as well engaged and connected versus corporate environments where that's why we see people living and coming to this. You don't even listen why and if you can actually impact us in any way.
00:13:12 · Adam, Fred
[00:13:12] S1: You can expand that concept too. Right? So, like, the quest for continuous relevance in a growing company is always really interesting. But it's also a great mentality to just bring for your product too. Right? Because there's... Mhmm. Obviously, today, Revolut is relevant because you're growing, you understand the market, but there's a very real future where five years from now, ten years from now, that quest for relevance will become one of the important lifebloods of Revolut. Right? Like, how are you not resting on your laurels and adapting to what the new situation is, new market, the new competitors coming in? So I think instilling that culture at the beginning with people of like... Especially when you hire someone when you're at 200 people, that role is super different than when you're at 800 people. So continuously pushing for relevance in the people level, I think I imagine that would trickle down into the company as well when you need to make sure that Revolut seeks to be relevant over a long period of time. [00:14:09] S2: Absolutely. So focusing on the why is like a key takeaway of like what's helped you maintain relevance and probably that as I had mentioned, like probably something that your team has picked up for them, for those that maintain relevance. Is there like a few things that you would tell yourself when you started, if you could talk to yourself then? To be more decisive sometimes handling people issues. Yeah. Not to drag that, like Yeah. Over time. Yeah.
00:14:09 · Fred, Vlad Yatsenko
[00:14:09] S2: Absolutely. So focusing on the why is like a key takeaway of like what's helped you maintain relevance and probably that as I had mentioned, like probably something that your team has picked up for them, for those that maintain relevance. Is there like a few things that you would tell yourself when you started, if you could talk to yourself then? To be more decisive sometimes handling people issues. Yeah. Not to drag that, like Yeah. Over time. Yeah. [00:14:37] S0: Yeah. For sure. Just super costly. Yeah. If if there's a problem, it's better to to address it early before it grows, you know? Yeah. But I'm not not living because these these are the aspects. These are not systems where you just go record it and then behave differently. Right? With with people, it's been different. It takes time. [00:14:59] S2: Different machines.
00:14:59 · Fred, Vlad Yatsenko
[00:14:59] S2: Different machines. [00:15:00] S0: Yeah. That would be the one thing I would say. Yeah. That's super useful. But at the same time, what I learned as well is maybe on the not individual level, but more wider level, on an organization level, found that Conway's Law is great. Have you heard of Conway's Law? No. It's a concept maybe more in computer science, where your organisation structure according to the law should be matching your system architecture. If those are not in match, then you have problems in your organisation. Especially in our world where our whole business is technology around some tech, right? Yeah. It's important that these things are aligned, organizational structure, the people structure and the system structure. The way I learned to think about those things as well as, and found a lot of parallels how people processes and system processes are similar as well. Why we want autonomy, why we want to be distributed, like the the relevance of this, match. Mhmm. [00:16:09] S2: People in the system [00:16:10] S0: are are [00:16:10] S2: in sync or or... [00:16:11] S0: It's it's big because, again, to... This is where we achieve maybe our kill and with ability to maintain pace. Yeah. This is this is one of the key things. Nice. Nice. Nice. [00:16:23] S2: What are the key rituals, if any, that you've used over the years that you're using now with your team to to maintain culture tight and to to pass on the key messages that you need to pass on to your team from time to time? [00:16:36] S0: How do I do it?
00:16:36 · Vlad Yatsenko, Fred, Adam
[00:16:36] S0: How do I do it? [00:16:38] S2: Do you have key rituals like team meetings I'm not speaking [00:16:42] S0: to rituals to be honest. I'm against rituals. If there's a ritual you have to think about it. Why do I have a ritual? It should be more like natural. [00:16:54] S2: Tend not to have those. [00:16:55] S0: If something is not natural, then it's like, okay, should we try this? And then we try to do it until becomes natural. Because rituals to [00:17:04] S1: me is like more of this kind of mindless exercises. Right. [00:17:08] S0: Right. Pro logical reasoning Yes. Versus... You know? [00:17:14] S2: Yeah. Yeah. That seems like your type indeed. Yeah. [00:17:16] S0: So so, [00:17:17] S1: like, follow traction of something. Right? Like, if something works... If a stand up works for a team, then, like, it'll happen because there's traction on [00:17:23] S0: there. So, Paul, one of the things I say, like, people ask, oh, what do you do agile? You know? What is your Oh, yeah. Development process like? Yeah. Like, I was like, what what do you mean by that? Yeah. Or maybe you have scrum, like Yeah. No. We No. Scrum is [00:17:38] S2: We we get we get shit done. That's the idea. Right? [00:17:40] S0: Yeah. Some teams would use some elements of scrum. Other teams would do something else. But the this general principle, we want to deliver value as fast as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And then you adapt your process depending on people's experience, the combination. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:40 · Vlad Yatsenko, Fred, Adam
[00:17:40] S0: Yeah. Some teams would use some elements of scrum. Other teams would do something else. But the this general principle, we want to deliver value as fast as possible. Yeah. Yeah. Right? And then you adapt your process depending on people's experience, the combination. Yeah. Yeah. [00:17:58] S2: That's the ultimate agile, I feel, in the spirit. It's like you don't even talk about it. You just... [00:18:03] S1: I end up talking about it because, again, new people [00:18:07] S0: join the organization, it's like... It's like this pattern of bringing... We've done this, why don't we do that? It's like this process of kind of education and going through experience, why we're not doing this, or why we're doing it differently. [00:18:22] S2: Sometimes for your team, it's important to pass on some messages or some alignment that are more than the day to day operations, let's say. Do you have methods that you use to do that? Do you... Or you just work like closely one on ones with your direct reports? How do you I have go on for one