Executive Summary

In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn “Joe” Menninger interviews Jenny von Podewils, the co-CEO and co-founder of Leapsome. Leapsome is a company that helps organizations build exceptional teams based on data. Their clients include Spotify, Monday.com, Bolt, Nortvolt and others. Jenny shares the journey of Leapsome, from its inception to becoming the winner of the Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the German Startup Awards 2023. They discuss how Leapsome uses AI and data analysis to support managers in areas like goal setting and feedback. They also delve into the importance of effective performance management and talent development. The episode provides insights into Leapsome’s products, success stories, and their current hiring.

The Evolution of Performance Management: “A lot of sort of the bad traditional performance management has been mainly backward looking. Right?” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

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Improving Feedback Conversations with AI: “So we help you. You put a couple of prompts in, like, the review where you write. You see the contextual information of the feedback you’ve previously shared, the goals of that person. And we actually help you to then draft, like, really effective feedback to then prepare really effective feedback Conversations with that little AI augmentation to make your job as a manager easier.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

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Performance Measurement and Employee Development: “Like you can’t measure performance, when people don’t even know what’s expected of them.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

German Startup Awards 2023

This interview is in media partnership with the German startup association (Bundesverband Deutscher Startups https://deutschestartups.org/). Their German Startup Awards #GSA23 honor each year outstanding female and male founders and investors in special categories. You can learn more about the winners in our interview and on this website: https://germanstartupawards.de/rueckblick/rueckblick-2022

We already covered most winners of the #GSA21 and #GSA22

Interviews Winners 2021

Interviews Winners 2022

Questions Discussed in the Interview

1. How does Leapsome address the challenges of organizational alignment, scaling, and people enablement?
2. What are the key features of Leapsome’s product and how do they contribute to building exceptional organizations based on data?
3. Can you describe Leapsome’s journey of growth and their decision to raise funds for international expansion?
4. How has Leapsome effectively integrated AI features into their platform to support drafting effective OKRs, feedback, and analyzing survey data?
5. Which well-known organizations are already using Leapsome and what benefits have they experienced?
6. What are some common poor practices in performance management and talent management that Leapsome aims to address?
7. How does Leapsome’s approach to performance management differ from traditional methods, and what benefits does it offer for employees and managers?
8. Can you share some of the best practices for onboarding and training that Leapsome supports in Mike’s new job?
9. How does Leapsome encourage continuous development and growth for employees through regular conversations and feedback?
10. What opportunities are available for investors and early-stage startups looking to work with Leapsome?

Building Successful Organizations: “And one way we empower that is actually doing that with engagement surveys, pulse surveys, pretty much measuring the pulse of the organization listening to your employees that often do know what works and what doesn’t work, but not stopping there.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

The Video Podcast is set to go live on Thursday, November 2nd, 2023

Alignment: “Like, is there clarity of where we’re going, what every department, every team is expected? Like, people need clarity what’s expected of them and how Their work fits into the bigger picture in order to succeed in organizations.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

The Audio Podcast is set to go live on Thursday, November 2nd, 2023

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“The Importance of Building an Effective Product: ‘We were so successful with the product we’d launched that we were able to actually grow out of cashflow very fast Very effectively.’” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

The Founder

Despite the business focus at St. Gallen, Jenny von Podewils (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennypodewils/) was determined to pursue her passion for tackling global challenges. Inspired by her politics teacher, she developed a keen interest in diplomacy and wanted to make a difference on a global scale.

With this goal in mind, Jenny enrolled in St. Gallen’s international relations program, which seemed like the perfect path to her desired career. However, she soon discovered that the school had a strong emphasis on business studies. Undeterred, she decided to make the most of her situation and use her business education to her advantage.

Throughout her time at St. Gallen, Jenny developed a unique perspective that blended her passion for global issues with a strong business acumen. This combination of skills and knowledge set her apart and opened doors to exciting opportunities.

After completing her studies, Jenny went on to co-found Leapsome, an innovative company aiming to revolutionize employee feedback and development. As the co-CEO, Jenny brings her deep understanding of business and her unwavering commitment to addressing global challenges to the forefront, driving the company’s success.

Jenny von Podewils is a shining example of how one’s passion and determination can shape their path, even in the face of unexpected obstacles. Her journey from aspiring diplomat to co-CEO is a testament to her resilience and unwavering desire to make a positive impact on the world.

Building Exceptional Organizations Based on Data: “So we really also wanted to help company to really build and iterate and continue to build, really exceptional organizations based on data.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

The Startup

Leapsome (https://www.leapsome.com/blog/announcing-leapsome-for-startups), co-founded by Jenny von Podewils, is a remarkable startup that has made significant strides in the realm of organizational alignment and people enablement. What sets Leapsome apart is not only their unique approach to building exceptional organizations but also their impressive growth trajectory. Initially, Leapsome was able to bootstrap its operations and grow effectively without external funding. However, recognizing the need for international expansion and moving upmarket, they decided to raise funds in early 2022. Their success in bringing on Insight Partners as an investor stands as a testament to their exceptional vision and potential. This funding will undoubtedly fuel their continued growth and propel them even further in the market.

Leapsome’s achievements extend beyond their fundraising endeavors. Their product, which caters to alignment, effective meetings, and people and manager enablement, has garnered attention from renowned organizations such as Spotify and Volkswagen. By using AI features to draft effective objectives and analyze feedback and survey data, Leapsome empowers managers with actionable insights for driving team success. Furthermore, Leapsome understands the pitfalls of traditional performance management and talent management practices. They have built a platform that prioritizes clarity, behaviors, and competencies, while also embracing a people-centric approach through various perspectives like peer and self-assessment. With their innovative solutions and continued commitment to excellence, Leapsome stands at the forefront of revolutionizing organizational success.

The Importance of Alignment and Success in Organizations: “In order to succeed, a company needs to be really, really strongly aligned, whether it’s a phase of growth or a phase of transformation.” — Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome

Venture Capital Funding

Leapsome is currently not fundraising. They closed a 60 M US$ Series A funding in March 2022. Their investors include Insight Partners, Visionaries Club, and Creandum.

They are currently not actively fundraising, but you can reach our to Jenny directly via her LinkedIn profile.

Hiring!

The company is hiring in Germany and the US. Find their open positions here: https://www.leapsome.com/careers

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Further Readings / Additional Resources

• Leapsome on G2 https://www.g2.com/products/leapsome/reviews
• https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/leapsome/company_financials

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The Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:

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Automated Transcript

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:00:00]:

Hello, and welcome, everybody. This is Joe from Startuprate .o, your startup podcast, YouTube blog, and Internet radio station from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in English. Today I do have another guest here with me, Jenny, the winner of the Female Entrepreneur 2023 for the German Startup Awards, co CEO and cofounder of Livsum. Hey, Jenny. How are you doing?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:00:24]:

I’m really happy to be here with you today.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:00:27]:

Totally my pleasure. We may say that this interview is supported by StartupRaven succumb. A startup journey can be a tough one, but it doesn’t have to feel like you’re alone on your quest. Invest in other success with us joining our community of entrepreneurs who are building amazing things every day no matter how big or small their ideas may seem at first glance. Best way to register early is start up raven.com. And we may also say that this Interview is in cooperation with the German startup association, Bundeswehrband Deutsche Startups, and the German Startup Awards. They honor each year outstanding female and male entrepreneurs and investors in special categories. You can learn more in the link down here in the show notes.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:01:17]:

And, of course, there is a playlist for our interviews from 2021 and 2022. That is now all out of the way. I was actually, we talk about the So person first, when I’m looking at your background, I was wondering, are you currently in NYC?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:01:39]:

Yes. I am. I’m sitting here. I’m actually working from home today out of Brooklyn. Our office is over in Manhattan, but I had Early meetings, so I didn’t make the commute today. So you you you see tiny bit of my my, place if you’re on the YouTube channel.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:01:56]:

It reminded me a little bit of a brownstone what you’re showing there in the back so that that was my first hint. But Before we get to your US expansion, US location, I’ve been looking at your LinkedIn profile, which is linked down here in the show notes. You’ve gotten quite around. You’ve been in St. Gallen, in Lund, in Geneva, and in Oxford. What drove you to study at all those universities?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:02:22]:

That’s a good question. So when even going back to school, I think the most influential teacher I’ve had in school was my politics teacher. And I think he ultimately sparked a lot of interest in me in tackling some of the Big global challenges. And when I finished high school, I ultimately wanted to become a diplomat. So I ended up going to St. Gallen because They had an international, relations study that seemed to be like a really cool way to move into that direction. However, St. Gallen is a very business heavy school.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:03:01]:

So in the end, I actually ended up studying politics or international relations and economics, like a dual dual degree Was also a lot of exposure to business studies. And, Geneva and Lund were were just semesters abroad. Always liked to explore new things, Try new things and had the opportunity to do that twice, which was a lot of fun. And, then I actually took a year in between my undergrad grad and my post grads and actually did an internship both with, the UN as well as, and the diplomatic service and figured out, like, I really do want to work on these big global challenges. However, I do need, Like I’m very impatient. I needed another way to have impact faster. And the 3rd internship actually did at the time was, it was a carbon, carbon origination and trading companies under the Kyoto Protocol. That was a way to basically build Projects that reduced CO2, in, in certain countries often with a development impact and then actually sell those carbon credits to ultimately finance these projects.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:04:08]:

And I thought it was so cool because it’s very impactful, but it was very entrepreneurial, organisation. And that got me hooked to, doing, yeah, doing having impact through a business and an entrepreneurial path. And my studies in Oxford were actually very much focused on environmental change and management. So that’s the continuation of that from a from a studying perspective.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:04:32]:

And now you you have to take the leap together with us because then you ended up in a sales role. How on earth this Did that happen?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:04:42]:

Very clear progression. So

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:04:45]:

I I’m Curious how this clear progression comes along.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:04:51]:

So after Oxford, I ended up starting to work for a clean tech or green tech startup. Again, like, really cool impact driven costs. We were working on building pretty much the the missing piece to get to a 100% renewable energy future by pro like, by building battery storage and smart controls and algorithms, getting them onto a grid. And ultimately, thereby being able to stabilize the grids, in in every sort of, like, shorter moment, which is something you that’s Historically done by rotating masses of of of, power plants. So it’s very impactful it was a very impactful technology, very cool Startup and founders. And I joined the company in a fairly undefined role. And then actually ended up sliding into, like, a Missionally business development, but then increasingly sales roles. So I never planned my career in sales.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:05:44]:

And I think a lot of people actually coincidentally end up in a sales role. But I really loved it. Like, it was very entrepreneurial early stage sales, but I learned so much doing that on the job. And, yeah, I think it’s been a A really, really great foundation as a founder that you actually have had exposure to sales, in the past.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:06:03]:

Let’s See if there’s really a linear progression here for for for for the very simple reason because the next Thing you have been doing is then ending up in a newspaper here in Germany, site, also known as the number one place where you would advertise if there’s a chair open to become a professor at a university or stuff like that?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:06:31]:

Yes. That’s one business area they’re very strong in. So I, got the opportunity to work as Chief of staff, Rafferent Geschef Zurung for, the CEO of Zaitverlag. And again, like the, the sort of like continuation was it’s a very Impact oriented business in the sense that I believe quality media. And I would say that Zayed, like the Flextrot product is probably Still by far the best publication, within Germany. And I believe that, quality, Newspapers are quality, journalism. I mean, it doesn’t matter what form, is the force pillar of democracy. So again, very impactful, calls.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:07:13]:

And I got the opportunity to be exposed and work on a lot of transformation and change projects. And I thought it was actually a really interesting challenge, after being in the startup world to see how more established business actually works And what some of the challenges, actually are there. And there’s actually, I can talk about that in a second. Some similarities between the startup and the Seitz Verlag, challenges that I saw that actually led to why Liebesen exists. And, yeah, so it was again, like Really strong, impact orientation. It’s still relatively sort of like entrepreneurial organisation in certain ways. And, yeah, an opportunity to have impact, to learn fast, and work with really, really great people.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:08:01]:

And then as you as you already said 2016, you cofounded Leapsum. Actually, That that is quite some time that are now 7 years. Do you think at the time you would still be around, let’s say, 5 or 7 years after founding the company?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:08:21]:

I know it’s that every founder has a big vision. And, I mean, we had a really big drive to succeed. I don’t think you start a company necessarily if you don’t believe you can make it. So we very much had this, this, this drive and this this vision ahead of us. And, obviously, there also is always the risk of failing. But, I mean, I think we we got pretty far.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:08:48]:

I think so as well. And 5 years after founding the startup, You made the 1st investment. Everybody would think, yeah, a few 1,000,000 here and there, but actually you then raise just from Nowhere series a of 60,000,000 in US dollars. Can you take us a little bit longer journey when you started out until this funding? And what Libsom actually does?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:09:14]:

Yeah. So I mean, ultimately, Kaitan Amensberg and I founded Leadsom because of the challenges we’d seen in previous organizations. And I mean, going back to sort of these previous experiences I mentioned, I think in order to succeed, a company needs to be really, really Strongly aligned, whether it’s a phase of growth or a phase of transformation. And what do we mean by alignment? Like, it’s how do you march to the same tune? Like, does everybody know where we’re heading as the company? What my department, my individual role isn’t ultimately getting there. So we’d seen like a fuzziness in that alignment in previous organisations we worked for. And that was one of the things we wanted to tackle. In addition to that, if you want to be successful as an organization, you don’t just need an aligned workforce, but you also ultimately need an organization and an environment in which people can succeed. And this was also something where we saw like how hard it is to scale that, how hard it is to Also keep evolving the organization the way you need it when, when you’re under the pressure to transform.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:10:15]:

So we really also wanted to help company to really build and iterate and continue to build, really exceptional organizations based on data. Like what do people need to be successful in this organization? What that means from a product perspective, I can talk about in a second. In addition to that, 3rd challenge we’ve seen in these previous organizations we worked for is, where we As individuals, as managers really supported to to grow and develop alongside the challenges we had ahead of us. And that’s sort of like people enablement in the core. Like, do people know their strengths? Do people know where they stand? What’s expected of them? Where they need to sort of like grow, develop? That’s also something that often really didn’t work in the organizations, we worked for. So we ultimately, with LEAPSM, we’ve built the tool. Kaitan and I were missing these previous organizations we’ve worked for. And we started the company out of Kaitan’s Kitchen in end of 2016 and started to like really start with the question of what makes people successful in organizations and thought about different processes, just the different starting points.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:11:19]:

And I think back in the time, we always would have had the assumption that we might be raising in a year or 2 when we have the 1st product, 1st TrackGen. But what ultimately happened is we were so successful with the product we’d launched that we were able to actually grow out of cashflow very fast Very effectively. So when we actually then finally decided to raise, and I can talk about why we did that. We were benchmarked against a lot of other startups of how long it took us, for example, to get from 1 to 10,000,000 ARR. And despite not having, VC funding, we actually were In the top tier of companies when it came to the speed of our growth, just by having been able to hit a pain and build a product that, serves this pain very, very effectively. So we didn’t necessarily we we didn’t bootstrap, to growing out of our cash flow From a dogmatic standpoint but we were able to do that in a very effective way. And then 20, early 2022 We basically asked ourselves, like, what do we need to unlock the next stage of growth? Like, how do we get to 100,000,000 ARR? Like, what are the things that, that need to change? What Do we need to invest in? And we basically decided like, we really want to double down our international expansion. We want to double down and moving more upmarket.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:12:35]:

We already had really Exciting customers in, in, in the sort of like bigger segments, like a Spotify, for example. That was an already an early customer. And so in order to to double down on some of these additional growth, hypothesis expansion moving up market. We decided it would now actually be helpful to have additional cash to invest upfront. And that’s basically the point in time when we just decided to to bring an external funding. And we did a very lean round, quite successfully brought Insight Partners on board. They’re incredible software investor, actually also helpful beyond the money. And yeah, we great partners.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:13:17]:

Very, very happy to have them also. Creandum and Visionaries are great funds. Awesome. Incredible smart people. And, yeah, that’s that’s been a bit of of of of the story there. And I haven’t talked about the product, but I can do that in the the later stage.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:13:31]:

Yes. I would I would give you a lead into the product because you said with the cofounder, you had a few assumptions. What makes companies successful? Can you walk us through those assumptions and how you struct how you build a product out of that?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:13:50]:

I mean, it’s it’s basically the I’ve I’ve I’ve implicitly meant I mentioned them those already. So the first one for me is, alignment. Like, is there clarity of where we’re going, what every department, every team is expected? Like, people need clarity what’s expected of them and how Their work fits into the bigger picture in order to succeed in organizations. And some of the the ways we we support that as, breaking strategy down into goals, into OKRs, but also staying aligned all the way to the daily doing through really effective meeting management. And that’s I think you said we’re an HR platform or something along those those lines. And we would actually I think we’re often considered HR tech. But ultimately, we actually consider ourselves something technically beyond because that really goes into how do we enable managers To do their role well, how do we enable the c level to ultimately execute on their strategy? And that’s the 1st dimension. That’s the alignment piece.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:14:48]:

The 2nd piece is How do we build organizations in which people can succeed? And in order to do that, we need to first measure what works and what doesn’t work. And one way we empower that is actually doing that with, engagement surveys, pulse surveys, pretty much measuring The pulse of the organization listening to your employees that often do know what works and what doesn’t work, but not stopping there. Like, so basically, we aggregate that data in real time. We, we help you to segment that data where certain challenges in the organization, where things improving, deteriorating. But even going a step further and making that, data, actionable in order to suggest, like, what’s your next Smartest step in, actually, in terms of actual to order in order to actually improve, your organization and be that environment and build that environment in which people can be successful. Swole. And then the 3rd dimension, and I would actually even divide that into 2, is people enablement and manager enablement. So people enablement, and, going into that maybe an element of that as performance management Really starts with generating clarity of what’s expected of people.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:16:01]:

Like you can’t measure performance, when people don’t even know what’s expected of them. So generating that clarity, What is expected of you in your role, Joe? And then also, working, basically providing, clarity, What’s expected maybe in the next role? What are competencies? What are career ladders? Making sure there’s instant feedback, Continuous feedback, but also we take a step back in a certain point in time to review where you’re at, what worked, have you delivered on these expectations? But also what are your next steps? And then supporting the individual also with the dev pushing through on development objectives, pushing through on learning. And that’s basically what we do along the High employee journey, like you get support being onboarded. You have first feedback interactions maybe 3 months after being onboarded Continuously as part of your your 1 on 1 check ins, but then maybe biannual three sixty to have an even more holistic view on where you’re at and where you can go next. And then from a manager perspective, it’s it’s somewhat similar. But it’s it’s it’s it’s really something we we aren’t Optimized for the HR persona. Obviously, we serve the HR persona because they set up a lot of these these processes. But we’ve truly always optimized to be, I was set up to optimize for the end user.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:17:16]:

So the individual, but also the manager. Manager have really hard jobs. There’s a lot that’s expected of them. So helping them to really understand how how how they’re leading their team, what are the strengths and the people of their, of the people on their team, What are people struggling with and really helping them through the combination of that alignment data, managing their meetings, Having understanding of the competencies and the development tracks of their team, knowing what works and what doesn’t work on the team through the survey data, we really help managers to actually, make their jobs easier. And actually, a really cool continuation of that is we’ve also been integrating a lot of AI features. And, so in multiple parts of the platform. So we help you to draft good OKRs, with with AI. Like, if don’t know how to put it right, like, put a couple of prompts, and we help you, to actually get get those right.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:18:13]:

When people write reviews, for example, like a lot of people for a lot of people, it’s much easier to, to edit rather than to start on a on a blank sheet of paper. So we help you. You put a couple of prompts in into, like, the review where you write. You see the contextual information of the feedback you’ve previously shared, the goals of that person. And we actually help you to then draft, like, really effective feedback to then prepare really effective feedback Conversations with that little AI augmentation to make your job as a manager easier. And also in a similar way, like, For example, we have some organizations like a Spotify, Northwold, parts of, like, Mercedes Benz or Volkswagen, Very big organizations in North America, in different parts of Europe, where you have surveys that run with, I don’t know, 5 1000, 10000 employees. And right. Like we also help you to not just understand the quantitative data, but we also now aggregate the qualitative data with AI.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:19:15]:

So you have an instantaneous understanding of what are the comments, what is the sentiments across certain themes to really make that Really rich qualitative data of the comments of people instantaneously actionable and helpful. And I think this is where All of the advances we’ve seen in generative AI unlock like a huge new level of really in augmenting the HR professionals, the HR business partners, The managers to truly do their jobs more effectively.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:19:43]:

When you’ve been talking about that, I saw a lot of buzzwords and, went through my own experience as a consultant as well as an employee. And you’ve been Talking about the line went with strategy. There are barely any companies out there. We can tell they do have a strategy. A lot of people mistake an Excel sheet as a strategy, but that is just the result of a strategy. And personal experience, I’ve seen many organizations where they have, like, instant and surveys, Yammer was around and stuff like that. But it appears, that they just eliminate the negative feedback. They they they just ignore the negative feedback.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:20:35]:

Yeah. There are some negative pieces here. We just ignore them And everything is is hang out. Every everything is wonderful. And we do the those surveys, on a regular basis, says the manager. It just doesn’t doesn’t say, well, you know, there’s a lot of negative feedback. They just they just say, oh, that that’s a that’s an stream. We just eliminate this one and that one and this one, and then you get a good result.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:21:02]:

So, I’ve I see the usefulness of the tool but you have to apply it really. People enablement and manager enablement. I’m I’m really traumatized by that one because in the past, especially as a consultant, you get mostly measured by KPIs that you yourself probably cannot influence. Most depends on If you’re on project and if you’re on project, depends on what projects the company gets. That also depends on the partners and the directors and how they want to staff it. So that’s the, I would say 80, 90, 95% of your performance and you can totally not influence it. So there are definitely companies with this really can work, but there is a big, big lot of potential to really just make a bad company continue in their ways. Do do you have some experience how companies are actually use it to to to really improve to get over this because, especially in Germany, I have seen that people are just introducing new tools, But they don’t change the way they do stuff.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:22:23]:

They don’t change the mindset. They don’t change, anything. It’s just a new tool, and they do the same stuff with it.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:22:32]:

No. I agree. And I think that’s part of the I mean, I would say that’s part of the challenge of the topic. And it’s also like a huge driver Behind our growth, right? A lot of people have been burned by terrible performance management, terrible talent management. And I think there’s a lot of, Well, like there has been and there’s still unfortunately are a lot of really, really poor practices, and, processes out there. I mean, ultimately that’s the reason like Needham isn’t just the software for people enablement, OKRs, modern performance management, employee engagement. We actually aren’t like an empty software, but we have a stance. So we actually have a perspective on how these things are done in an effective and a pretty much the right way.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:23:19]:

And just to make it very tangible, like for example, what you’ve mentioned. So I think A lot of sort of the bad traditional performance management has been mainly backward looking. Right? So you only said like, So like you haven’t met your met your target for billable hours, for example. So purely backward looking, not looking at the underlying causes, Like not putting that into any perspective. Whereas modern performance management we see is often like there’s obviously we need to take talk about, sort of like how did I mean, first of all, again, it starts with clarifying the expectations. So what do I expect of you to be successful in your role? Is billable hours one element of that? But maybe what are the, the leading behaviors that ultimately leads to that, happening? Like do you have good time management? I mean, that’s a very basic one. Are you Spending enough time maybe prospecting new projects, for example, like just a lot of clarity on what’s expected of you. And then in addition to that, it’s also much more forward looking and competency oriented, right? What are the underlying behaviors for you to be successful in your role, for you to grow into the next role, right? Maybe in this stage that’s actually supporting, if you’re a consultant, it’s maybe supporting proposals being effective in identifying Haines of future clients making strong sales pitches versus maybe the next step on the career ladder you’re working towards is like, Actually leading the sales process with with potential future consulting clients.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:24:55]:

So just generating that clarity, not just on or having the conversation what worked well in the last period, but being very clear on what the underlying competencies and behaviors are and what you need to develop to potentially if you want to grow into the next scroll. And, that’s 1, I would say, key characteristic where the the old and the new systems differ. In addition, not this

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:25:16]:

made this experience Because they they have expectations defined so wide, you could drive a Boeing through. And, then you have Trainings, that should enable you to get competencies, but actually it’s just, skills on the job that you need. And you don’t have, like, a real development program in many companies. That is that is something you’re working on?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:25:43]:

Exactly. So maybe just to finish quickly the performance piece. So I think in addition to that, rather than just getting, like, reviewed by your manager, often, I think modern processes Take different perspectives into account. So while your manager might see you in certain situations, maybe also generate or, like, including certain level of peer feedback, Ensuring you also have an opportunity to truly, share, like, your perspective, your self assessment. I think those are different building blocks, and I could Go to further ones that differentiate the old bad from the more modern people centric process. It ultimately really help, Lead to better performance. And and to your point, like, if we look at at at, this from an employee process. Let’s say we have Mike.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:26:28]:

Mike is a consultant, and, Mike started a new job. And, on Deepgram, like, he’s Getting support with his onboarding. So first of all, he’s, guessing certain trainings to be accustomed to the key processes, the key things he needs To learn, some of that might be digital, some of that might be certain mentorship sessions or trainings with other folks from the within the company. So he’s, first of all, getting all the support he needs to understand, like, what’s what what what he needs to be successful in his role. Then after, Then he we might support my kind of manager to have, like, a weekly 1 on 1 check-in with a really clearly defined agenda. Like, I personally always like to Start with, like, a check-in. How are you doing? Clarity of, like, what’s what do you need support from me on, direction, coaching? What are just updates for me? What are some of the the the the bottlenecks you need support on? So I’m starting to have these conversations between the manager and and Mike, on an ongoing, ongoing basis. Then maybe after 3 months, he has his 1st probation check-in or 3 months check-in.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:27:34]:

And they will review, like, do you have everything you need to be successful in your role? Do you have clarity of what’s expected to him? Let’s review how you’re making Progress on the things that are expected of you. Let’s rate you or, like, give give you feedback on the certain the competencies you need to be successful in your role. And then we have a joint conversation around that, potentially also incorporating peer feedback to a very good understanding where where Where Mike is Mike has a good understanding where he is. And then we let you to define, for example, like, a development objective. So Mike knows what I’m strong on this part. And it’s very important for people to know their strengths to build on. Maybe there’s other, areas he needs to compensate on. And maybe we set two development objective, once that’s strengths oriented.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:28:16]:

So Mike can focus, like, to really double down on the strength because that’s gonna be his superpower in our team. And I, as a manager, now have that clarity. Like, Mike is the superstar when it comes to Excel modeling. So I’m gonna, later when I think about attributing work or initiatives in the team to really build upon that understanding. But maybe there’s like, Mike is really bad at Project management. And he does need to work on that a tiny bit to be successful in that consultant role. Then I’m when I’m done in, we jointly define these development objective And leaps them pushes them into your 1 on 1 again. So you have these regular conversations maybe on a monthly basis again to make sure we don’t just set them and they’re in some, system that nobody checks in and everybody forgets about them that become actional.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:29:01]:

They actually really help you to to continuously work on and with Sweden. And then we can review it again maybe in 3 or 6 months. And we have another, like, more holistic step back touch point. And that’s exactly the kind of System that helps Mike and his manager to be aligned and for Mike to truly succeed in this role.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:29:22]:

That that that would be really cool if if performance management at one point really works like that. Everybody would like to learn more, we link your company website down here in the show notes. We’re already talking a little bit longer than usual For this simple reason, that’s an important topic for a lot of people. We know, especially a lot of entrepreneurs are listening, and they just Built, a little bit of model how this could work together here. We usually end with 2 Final questions. One of them, are you currently looking to hire people?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:29:59]:

Yes. We are. We’re always hiring. And, maybe we can link our careers page in the show notes so that people have the best up to date view and all the exciting positions we’re hiring for in Berlin and New York.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:30:12]:

We actually have a lot of new listeners. I think we we will may pass 200,000 listeners in our podcasts this month. So we what we usually do, we have 1 blog post on Medium. Go down here in the show notes. There you find the Medium blog post and there you find all the relevant links For the very simple reason, it’s a nightmare to change a link or comment once it’s out there. That’s why we are linking to the medium blog. And secondly, you raised, a series a round back in 2022. Would you be willing to talk to new investors?

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:30:46]:

I mean, we’re pretty laser focused on execution. So we’re not actively fundraising. But as I do know the investor community folks Do generally always reach out no matter what. I think we just always need to be very intentional, given How, many things are going on and we can’t do everything at the same time, how much time we can allocate to to to certain things.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:31:11]:

Mhmm. Great. So, bottom line, if they are interested, they should reach out. We link your LinkedIn profile down here in the show notes. And if they’re helpful, they may even get some feedback from you guys. Congratulations again on winning German style award female entrepreneur of the year 2023.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:31:31]:

And maybe to if I may actually try, mention one more thing. We actually have start leads them for startups, program where we have really attractive discounts for earlier stage companies. Because we know I think part of what made us successful as Leadsom, how we got thus far is because we’ve done, we’ve been eating our own dog food. Like we’ve been really, truly working on that alignment, that Building a great organization and people enablement piece. And we want to give back to that early stage startup community. So we have the leads in for startup programs. Maybe we can also send over that link. And, yeah, no, it’s a lot of fun to talk to.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:32:07]:

It’s also downshoot Nashville.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:32:09]:

Awesome. And congratulations to you for this amazing reach And, yeah, listenership, if that’s the right word.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:32:18]:

Yeah. Totally fine. Thank you very much. Totally my pleasure.

Jenny von Podewils — Co-CEO — Leapsome [00:32:22]:

Awesome. Thanks, Joe.

Jörn “Joe” Menninger [00:32:24]:

Have a good day. Bye bye.