BUILDING A BRIDGE ACROSS AN OCEANRachel Wolan, Director of ProductGadi Shamia, COO

September 22, 2016

Who Are We?

Gadi Shamia (@gadishamia)

Chief Operating Officerat Talkdesk

Prior to Talkdesk:

Rachel Wolan (@rachelwolan)

Director of Product at Talkdesk

Prior to Talkdesk

Part 1The Story of Talkdesk:How We Became the David in an Industry of Goliaths

Talkdesk Is The Fastest GrowingCloud-Based ContactCenter Solution

Becoming an “Overnight Success” Takes Years

Born from a Hackathon, five years later Talkdesk is on track to take over the Call Center space

Start Small to Build Believers and Topple Goliaths

It is easier to enter a market when no one else pays attention to it.

Build loyal fans who believe in your vision and want to influence your innovation.

Goliaths are slow to innovate and even slower to

SimpleSelf-Service

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High GrowthCustom Workflow

GlobalMission Critical

Value Proposition Talkdesk Customers

Don’t Just Build What Customers Ask For - Build Conversation Starters

It is hard to strike a balance between delivering what customers ask for, simplifying what you have and looking for opportunities to differentiate.

Focus on Outcomes for Your Customers’ Customer -- Get Your Customer Promoted

Make your customer look like the smartest person in the room by picking the new kid on the block.

Be Chrome -- Not IE6

User experience can be a point of differentiation if the user experience really maps to the bottom line.

Part 2The Story of Talkdesk:How We are Building a Bridge Across the Ocean

Which Bridge Was NOT Built By the American Bridge Company?

You need to focus on the similarities and differences to be successful running multi-site teams.

a. Ponte 25 de Abril in Lisbon

c. Bay Bridge in San Francisco

b. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

Discover Similarities -- Respect Differences

You need to focus on both the similarities and differences to be successful running multi-site teams.

Crisis Builds Confidence and Bonds Teams

Talkdesk reached a breaking point because we scaled our customer base very quickly.

We had to do a complex database migration, plus QA the entire application in the middle of the night.

This was the first time Engineering and Product bonded.

3:30 am

First Who...Then What

In both offices, we focused on hiring the right people to lead and own areas as we scaled. Inevitably as we scaled, a small percentage left our team, even high performers.

The key is getting people in positions where they will be successful.

Transmit Culture Across Offices by Investing In Exchanges

We have systematized “abroad” programs both ways, transplanting product managers, engineers and designers in both Lisbon and San Francisco.

Learn Best Practices from Companies with Similar Trajectories

We read about and met with a handful of companies that had successfully distributed growth phase startups.

Create Autonomy With Activities Not Process

Part of scaling

Shameless Plug

If you’d like to join the Talkdesk rocket ship, we are hiring product managers, designers and engineers!

Thank You!Questions?

Thank You

Come join the 1000s of othersuccessful companies who rely on Talkdesk.