Engineering's Ability: Lessonly Business Knowledge

Understanding how the business works is critical because it helps you give context to your team’s goals and responsibilities.

If we know how we are impacting the business and why it matters, we will make better decisions.

• How we work
  • Our internal processes, tools, teams, and how it all interrelates
• SaaS metrics
  • The key measures for software as a service (SaaS) businesses.
• Our market
  • LMS vs LXP… QA software vs Coaching software… our target Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), etc

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability with only a small amount of guidance

At milestone one, you are able to converse with peers in your domain (with similar context as you) about where we are as a business today.

• How we work

  • You understand and can converse with ease about our Mission, Vision, and Values
  • You understand and can converse with ease about the Do Better Work method
  • You understand and can converse with ease about the big idea beyond why we do company objectives
  • You understand and can converse with ease about your domain’s processes

• SaaS metrics

  • You understand and can converse with ease about Revenue vs Churn (you can explain the basics of the slides we go over at the All-Hands meeting [specifically the bi-weekly metrics version of that meeting])

• Our market

  • You can name 2 competitors
  • You can name the customers we target (hint, the answer is in the vision)

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability, with no assistance as well as being a trusted active or passive mentor to others

At milestone two, you are able to converse with peers within the P&E department (slightly varying context than you) about where we are as a business today, and how we are doing overall.

• How we work

  • You know our company objectives and the P&E department objectives (if not memorized, you know where to find them and can explain them)
  • You can speak about the differences between the primary three options for all companies similar to ours, meaning venture capital (VC) backed; dividends, IPO, acquisition.
  • You understand and can converse with ease about the high-level aspects of the discovery as well as the delivery processes (what are some things that are left up to the squads and what are some things we’ve decided to standardize on). This includes where one might go to find the status of an initiative (ProductBoard roadmap) or progress of the work-in-progress (Clubhouse milestones, iterations, epics, and stories)
  • You understand and can converse with ease about how at least one other division functions (such as support, enablement, implementations, operations, account management, marketing, solutions consulting, services, etc). Answering questions such as; how do they determine success, and what is something they are experimenting right now to do better work.

• SaaS metrics

  • You understand and can converse with ease about Revenue vs Annual Recurring Revenue and how we view them at Lessonly
  • You understand our packaging and a bit about how we price our product and services
  • You understand and can converse with ease about the differences in the metrics that drive pre-sales and post-sales
  • You understand and can converse with ease about Net Retention

• Our market

  • You can name 2 strategic partners and can explain why the relationship is mutually beneficial
  • You can converse a bit about our ideal customer profile (ICP), and the base personas within (buyer vs enablement vs manager vs learner/rep).

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to multiple squads when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can employ this ability as well as being considered an expert within this discipline

At milestone three, you are able to converse with peers within any department about where we are as a business today, and how we are doing overall, and where we are going/aiming.

• How we work

  • Of the 21 divisions, you understand and can speak with ease about 9+ of them. Answering questions such as; how do they determine success, and what is something they are experimenting right now to do better work.
    • Each squad is considered a division, so hopefully 9 isn’t as daunting of a number as it seems at first sight.
    • Divisions, as of today, include: Empower Squad, Practice Squad, Learn Squad, Skills Squad, Platform Squad, Partnerships Squad, Marketing, Commercial Sales, Enterprise Sales, Enablement, SolCon, Services: Commercial Delivery, Services: Enterprise Delivery, Services: Implementation, Services: Content, Enterprise Account Management, Commercial Account Management, Customer Support, Finance & Operations, Talent, and Recruiting.
      

• SaaS metrics

  • You understand and can converse with ease about the pre-sales and post-sales stages and how they drive the charts we view in the bi-weekly metrics meeting
    • Specifically taking into account on inbound vs outbound, first meeting, referrals, and pilots on the pre-sales side, and seat-based vs SKU-based expansion, reduction, and churn on the post-sales side

• Our market

  • You can converse a bit about what industries we do better or worse in and have a theory as to why.

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to a squad when wielding this ability, and therefore I would put them in situations where they can not only employ this ability but where they set the tone for this at the company level

At milestone four, you are viewed as an expert on where we are as a business today, how we are doing overall, where we are going/aiming, and many of the mechanics of how all of it works together in theory.

• How we work

  • Of the 21 divisions, you understand and can speak with ease about 12+ of them. Answering questions such as; how do they determine success, and what is something they are experimenting right now to do better work.
    • Each squad is considered a division, so hopefully 12 isn’t as daunting of a number as it seems at first sight.
    • Divisions, as of today, include: Empower Squad, Practice Squad, Learn Squad, Skills Squad, Platform Squad, Partnerships Squad, Marketing, Commercial Sales, Enterprise Sales, Enablement, SolCon, Services: Commercial Delivery, Services: Enterprise Delivery, Services: Implementation, Services: Content, Enterprise Account Management, Commercial Account Management, Customer Support, Finance & Operations, Talent, and Recruiting. =

• SaaS metrics

  • You understand and can converse with ease about the pre-sales and post-sales, and have also begun thinking about the concept of the total cost of ownership and how it relates.
    • Specifically taking into account and having some definition of what cost-effective means to you, and can speak to common SaaS metrics such as customer acquisition costs (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), average contract value (ACV), and even how these relate (why is the LTV to CAC ratio important).

• Our market

  • You can discuss with ease all of the market concepts defined in Milestone 3.

I have observed this person showing a consistent, comfortable, continuous, and clear positive impact to not just internal teams but the community/industry in general when wielding this ability, and they are recognized by the community/industry as an expert

You are seen as an expert in Lessonly business knowledge within the industry so much so that you are asked to help craft the objectives of 4+ divisions outside of the P&E department. You’d feel comfortable going on a podcast to discuss how Lessonly is doing and where we are going with the host being a former SaaS CEO (meaning they know a significant amount about how SaaS businesses run and will be asking probing questions).