Exo Monthly Software Demo: ExoLink = 🤮 Iris/Essentials = 🥴

Well, that was an entertaining one! Halfway through the ExoLink demo, my only thought was “Good god, I am EMBARASSED to work at this company. Are we really planning to send this out to doctors?!?” Shout out to whoever cut the demo off and put us all out of our misery. Then Iris and Essentials. Ouch. Time’s ticking and we’ve got some massive holes to fix there. Curious how we got here? Me too. I’ve got some ideas to get us started but I am genuinely curious to hear yours as well. 1. Claiming to be a tech startup but not acting like one - The overwhelming majority of Exo has not worked in a true tech startup. Yes, we are based in the Bay Area. Yes, we are not yet public. Yes, we have VC funding. Yes, we are building new technology. But, the culture isn’t there and it’s showing up in our products now. Why? Look to our leadership. Where have they been? GE, Philips, and small startups for the most part. 2. Seniority-Based Decision Making - All too often a decision discussion is finalized with a “because _____ wants it that way”. Insert your favorite manager, VP, etc. here. - Considering #1 above, our “junior” IC’s have some of the best insights and suggestions as they haven’t yet been marred by decades in dinosaur companies (which we ironically are trying to beat) and keep up with the latest & greatest industry-standard tech. - And what happens when these compromised decisions come back to bite us in a few months? Those who are forced to implement and maintain these poorly chosen systems also take the blame. 3. Cheaping Out on Hiring - Oh how we love our contractors here at Exo. At first glance, they are a steal of a deal compared to an engineer based here in the US. But look at their output. Remember what we just saw with ExoLink? How long has that project been going on? I’ve seen undergrad students do better work on a semester’s project. - A select few of our current contractors are great. This small group brings great suggestions from their experience across multiple companies which is usually quickly disregarded. See #2 above. The rest can’t implement anything past tutorials they copy from online, solve a bug that isn’t already fully documented, think more than a layer deep, use basic tools like Git/Linux/AWS, or write code better than GPT-3. - Let’s not forget about our friends up north. Sure, the MEDO team had some good tech and data, but the real win was picking up a team in US time zones at half the compensation. 4. Short-term Priorities - We all get it. Exo’s a startup and pushing to get product out. Things are going to be chaotic. But how is there a new emergency priority on an almost daily basis? - This works for a while. But ignoring building for the future and shortcutting with quick fixes for months on end means we now have both tech debt to pay off while also not having much if any increase in our output capabilities. How many nights of sleep can you skip before you simply crash? 5. Silo’d and Underskilled - If we all take a step back, Exo’s software products are not anything the world hasn’t seen before in one form or another. Hardware is a different story. Yet, the product(s) is a mess and the roadmap is unclear. Work gets blocked or delayed often as most tasks require multiple teams. If whatever you need isn’t locked off from you for access/security/process reasons, then it’s rare to find someone that has even a minimal working understanding of anything outside their immediate domain. These additional requirements are therefore unknown until too late, resulting in last-minute high-priority requests. - How can we expect to build anything great if we continually fail to learn about what isn’t within arm’s reach and instead just keeping throwing it over the wall while also blaming the other team for your delays? At the same time, this is one of the first times I’ve had some hope that we might still be able to turn things around. Sandeep deserves a round of applause for dropping the act and speaking the truth today. Many of us were already thinking what he said, but until that floodgate opened up, everyone has been happy to keep the public charade going. To all of you who have expressed these same concerns one-on-one to me, or who I’ve overheard around the office, or who have hinted at in subtle ways, this is our opportunity. To those that haven’t, what are the rest of us missing? #exo #startup #culture #software #contractor #communications #hiring #leadership