WHAT DO WE DO AT SQUAD?
Great at
- Following instructions.
- Repeatable tasks.
- Working lightning fast.
- Not taking coffee breaks.
- Not wanting a raise.
Sucks at
- Subjectivity.
- Exceptions
- And anything it hasn’t been trained on yet.
Great at
- Subjectivity.
- Thinking strategically (sometimes).
- Understanding context.
Sucks at
- Working long hours.
- Being perfectly consistent.
- Not complaining.
Do Things that don't Scale ;)
Case Study 1: Workflow Engine
Workflow Engine v0.1
But.......
It worked for us for ~6 months.
- The team used to build workflow on whiteboards.
- Developers used to write code for translating that workflow into something that system can understand.
- Custom code for each client.
- Developers needed for changes to the workflow.
Workflow Engine v0.2
- The team identified a common pattern in workflows for all clients.
- Each next level depended on the responses/actions in the previous level.
- We baked that thing into the system so similar WFs can be built faster, without a dev's involvement.
- Complex WFs were still hard to do
But.......
It worked for us for ~4 months.
Workflow Engine v1
- Completely configurable and extensible by the Operations team.
- Developers needed only when a new block has to be added.
- Anyone from any team can visualize the workflow.
- Extensibility to include AI models, disaster control mechanism, fail safe, etc.
- Now the same Engine empowers our ETL system.
Do things manually until it becomes a pain, and then automate it.
~ Brian Chesky, Co-founder Airbnb
Case Study 2: Voice
v0.1: Validation
- Users call up the required number.
- Use a recording app to record the conversation.
- Upload it to Google Drive and submit the link to the mission.
We handled 10-100 calls a day,
We validated this for a month.
v2: MVP
- Integrated Cloud Telephony in the app
- Added a new feature on the app where you can just click on a button and we connect you to the person you have to talk to
- Recordings and all other things are now managed by Squad automatically
- The UI of the app was still not optimised for a conversation flow, and we could put more effort to improve the UX of the users
We ran with this version for ~6 months. Adding features that were necessary, noting down requirements all the while
v3: Voice App
- A different section in the app.
- UI/UX completely geared for conversation flow.
- Ability to change the text from English to Hindi.
- More relevant information on the screen.
- More efficiency for the Users.
"Speed is the ultimate weapon in business - all else being equal, the fastest company in any market will win"
Dave Girouard, CEO of personal finance startup Upstart
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By tarun_19
