how i have multiplied by 4 my turnover in 2 years by theodo at lean it summit 2014

P ris, France 16 & 17 October, 2014

Copyright © Institut Lean France 2014

Lean IT Summit ®®

How I have multiplied by 4 my

turnover in 2 years

The origins: Allomatch

X4 my turnover - Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle 2

Benoît Fabrice

We had 2 strong assets early on


A team of engineers A startup incubator

2009: the early days of our first mission


From 3 weeks…

…to 3 days!

2009: the early days of Theodo


Our first project

Frustration defines the first years


Unhappy

clients

Financial

danger

Fixed price

contracts

At the end of the projects,

clients want to change

everything

Choosing the 3rd path


REJECT the status quo

BRING some real value to:

• the customers

• the employees

• the company

Lean IT Summit ®®

BUSINESS MODEL

8 X4 my turnover - Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle

1. Is our technical team good enough?

2. Is our development methodology efficient enough?

3. Do we develop the right features to make our clients happy?

4. Do we invest enough in nurturing our relationship with our

customers?

5. Are we too expensive?

6. Do we select the proper clients?

7. Are we in the right market?

2011: clients are unhappy


A set of hypothesis

Scrum

The starting point: we question our methodology


What do web leaders do?

Agile

Development time

Developed Features

The experiment: Suivi +


x 3

=



5 days

24 h



Client :

I have no time!

Theodo dev:

I’ll be the Product Owner!

No real feedback before the

actual end of the project

A week time span to answer a

simple question

How to involve the client in the project?


Invoice = time spent

The client wants a productive team

The client should get involved

However we have hard time selling this new model


Every client prefers the flat fee model

No

Thank

You

The Youcare experience: a classic end of fixed price project


Changes

requests

No work for free « Let’s work on a

time spent basis »

“You are the experts, you should give no

choice to your client but impose the model

that will lead his project to success”

Adrien Falcon - Cofounder Youcare

But a drink at the end of the project challenged our commercial strategy


“However: If you had obliged me to work the

agile way, I would have probably said no”

It was a hard decision to make


The Theodo dilemma

x4 0.8 M€

1.2 M€

3.000 K€

5.000 K€

2011 2012 2013 2014

Turnover

But we eventually decided to adopt this model for all new projects


0.8 M€

1.2 M€

3 M€

5 M€

2011 2012 2013 2014

Turnover



x4

0.8 M€

1.2 M€

3 M€

5 M€

2011 2012 2013 2014

Turnover



x4 70% loyal

clients

30% new

clients

ready to recommend Theodo

Our clients are satisfied


Client recommendation: a key KPI

99%

Lean IT Summit ®®

HIRING


Quality before quantity


We hired « Damien »

Project in danger

Team demotivation

Company’s reputation at stake

Our initial recruitment process in 2011


HR Interview 2h interview with the CTO

Job offer over the phone

What did we miss?

Would you hire a magician without asking

them to show you some magic tricks?

Joel Spolsky gave us the answer


Of course not !

We added technical tests to our recruitment

process


Technical test HR Interview Interview with the

CTO + technical test on computer

Pair Programming

Logic test Interview with the

CEO Job offer over the

phone


process




Pair Programming



phone

50%


process




Pair Programming



phone

50%

We hired 30 highly skilled developers

since

To sustain our growth, we had to learn how to

recruit fast


Needs in 2011 Needs in 2014

In 2012, we lose 50% of the candidates we want




Pair Programming



phone

50%

50%

50%

We investigate why the candidates are not

choosing us as their future employee


« Wage is not high

enough »

« The office is not

cool enough »

« The company is

too small »

« You don’t provide

healthcare

benefits »

« I cannot picture a

clear carreer path

within Theodo »

« The location is

not convenient for

me »

We decided to meet them in person for the offer




Pair Programming



phone

50%

50%

50%

We decided to meet them in person for the offer




Pair Programming


CEO Job offer in

person

50%

50%

10%

90% !

2013: a recruitment success


2014: we have more to learn


5

Lean IT Summit ®®

SALES


In 2013: loss of €130K due to a lack of staffing


A developer without a project is a triple waste


HUMAN

SKILLS

MONEY

What am I

doing

here ?

Our standard is 100%

staffing level

October 2013: Out of 5 Business Developers, only

1 is selling developers


Days sold by business developer

347 255

3905

136 0

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

antoineh baptistem julienl lucien beryll

Go and See: no understanding of the job


Do the business developers know their purpose?

What is your job?

Sell architect

missions ?

Sell scrum

training ?

Sell HR

consulting ?

Sell conception

workshops ?

What I expected: « have a

100% staffing level! »

Sell

developers

teams ?

We clarified the objectives


We made up the « green/red box » concepts

Busy developer for the week

Developer without a project

for the week

We made it visible, set clear incentives


We made it visible…

€ = …

…first to the Sales’ Team …then to the whole Company

We simplified the

Business Developers’

incentives

2014: 4 performers instead of one in 2013


Days sold by business developer

347 255

3 905

136 0

1 652 1 399

2 539

718

1 470

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

antoineh baptistem julienl lucien beryll

2013

2014


Staffing crisis

Short-term danger is

still looming

Go & see: nobody is addressing the problem


« I’ve got pipeline for this one ! »

« My lead is ready to sign the

purchase order ! »

What did I do yesterday ?

What am I doing today ?

…

We think of concrete actions to take and create

communication tools


What projects are

they working on?

What projects have

they worked on?

What are their

assets?

What am I doing today…to get the next available developers on a project ?

Business Developers are now geared to fully

contribute to the company


Developers available < 5 weeks

Long-term projects to secure

Staffing crisis guidelines

Strategic alignment

Result : 100% staffing level in 2014 & empowered

team


We are not scalable: only the founders are bringing

new business


Bruno, Business Developer

« Fabrice and Benoît, they create

leads like magicians »

Benoît & Fabrice Sales team

14 DEALS 2 DEALS

« They have an incredible network »

Pierre-Olivier, Business Developer

2013

Spent 10 working days

We try prospection: massive fail


Generated 2 leads

Converted into €2k

But Pierre-Olivier makes an interesting discovery

X4 my turnover - Benoît Charles-Lavauzelle

10 days 50 contacts 1 lead (MLP) 0,5 sale(starter)

0,5 day 20 contacts 1 lead (Bayard) 0 sale

1 day 4 contacts 0 lead

3 days 20 contacts 1 lead (Num1) 0 sale

2 days 10 contacts 5 leads 2 sales

Julien

50%

Days spent | # contacts | leads | #sales | leads/contacts

Client acquisition pipeline in june 2014

52

Bruno

Poj

Beryl

Lucie 2%

5%

0%

5%

We invest in networking


Networking 1-to-1 training Networking board :

objectives & activity

Lean IT Summit ®®

CONCLUSION


Developing people is my key to success


Define success

Teach basic gesture

Resolve problems

Call to action


… What is your

job ?

how i have multiplied by 4 my turnover in 2 years by theodo at lean it summit 2014

Leadership & Management