Building a team

Lynk (the knowledge network) hired me in 2017 once they realized they needed to revamp the whole team. The CTO was on the way out, the Product team did not exist, and a junior designer was trying his best in an organization of 100 people to make a difference. The engineering team was confused about what and why they were building and why nobody was using what they had already built.

It was time for me to use my network and skills to connect with people and unlock the best talent I could. I remember being on a call late at night with Pandora's ex-CTO, trying to sell him on the idea of moving to Hong Kong and joining this early-stage startup. I did not convince him, but we have a great conversation, connected and stayed in touch.

I successfully hired the VP of Engineering, Head of Product, and Head of Design, and eventually, we found a new CTO. A very senior head of business development joined. The team was revitalized.

We got to work on a new roadmap focusing on Machine Learning (years ahead of the current AI boom) and making products that will actually serve our customers. I put together this simple infographic to guide our product efforts:

We started interviewing customers and our colleagues and, in a few months, got a good picture of where the product-market fit might be.

I was interviewing 5-8 people daily, rapidly building the team. This was when I developed this style of interview, where we drew a timeline and made an infographic of life together with a candidate:

We end up building an extraordinary team. I was very proud:

Top product, design and engineering talent coming together.

For us, it was clear in 2017 that AI will transform the industry, and we were building every aspect of the product around it: brand, design system, engineering stack. This is what great team can achieve: being ahead of the curve and innovating with confidence.