The Most Important Meeting on My Calendar

As CEO, I get pulled in a lot of different directions. But there is one meeting I never miss. Every other Friday afternoon, via videoconference, Saatva’s chief digital product officer and his teams showcase the work they have been doing on our e-commerce site for the prior two-week period. Everyone in the company is invited; typically more than 100 of our 350 employees attend live, and we share a recording for those who can’t make it. For me, it’s the most exciting 90 minutes on my calendar.

The pandemic has been tough on businesses and workers, but one of the bright spots of the past two years is discovering new ways, like these showcases, to keep employees engaged and connected. Before we pivoted to remote work, getting more than a hundred people in 25 states together on a biweekly basis would have been a logistical nightmare. But we do it now without missing a beat, and we are so much better as a company because of it.?

Processes are more transparent. Site functionality improvements, design changes, A/B test results, even the nitty-gritty back-end engineering required to support our accounting and finance operations—it all gets shared and opened to questions from anyone in the company. Even if what is presented doesn’t immediately impact someone’s work, the process breaks down silos and speaks to the role every department plays in the company’s success. More information also leads to faster and more nimble decision-making.?

People are more motivated. Seeing all of the incredible work their colleagues are doing gets everyone excited (and maybe sparks a little healthy competition too). It’s a way for everyone across the company to be involved, whether by contributing ideas, learning about tools and experiments that they can use in their own projects, or just supporting their teammates by showing up. Especially now, when most of our employees are working remotely, it’s built-in time for connection and a celebration of teamwork.?

Products are more inclusive. A bonus of these meetings is that they also function as focus groups with 100 customers. The participants are from different backgrounds, in different cities, with different interests. For a consumer brand like ours, that’s incredibly valuable. Because we control every aspect of our business in-house—from product design to distribution to marketing and now physical retail—we can use those perspectives to make better decisions about what we sell and how we sell it.?

I still believe that nothing beats face-to-face interaction, and our teams get together at least once a quarter for live, in-person meetings. But these video showcases have been so popular that we’ve started doing similar sessions, on a monthly or quarterly basis, for our marketing and analytics teams, open to everyone at Saatva. Granted, it would be easy for the practice to get out of hand, especially in larger companies. But providing a regular forum for different areas of the business to share their wins—and be open about what they learned from their flops—is the best tool I’ve ever seen to foster the kind of motivation, unity, and pride that propels an organization forward.