Octopus: The Story Behind Our New Direction

This summer felt like a year for me, I've grown both as a professional, talent partner, founder, and most importantly a leader.

This summer was difficult to say the least, and I'll also be honest it felt like I have been trying to lift more than I could handle ????♀?

Nonetheless, summer is over and I, I have grown.

I have learned, and un-learned, a lot.

And I'm here to share what I've learned with you, and why it looks so different now when you visit my profile for a virtual coffee.

So let me take it from the top and with all brutal honesty as always.

For a long while, things have been feeling wrong for me; you have been extraordinarily supportive and I'm grateful, still I haven't been able to get the feedback, the criticism I was looking for.

Then during one meeting with a senior decision maker, I saw it.

Back to the drawing board.

However I needed more feedback on both what I've done with my personal brand, and our brand identity with Octopus, prev. OCTO Labs.

So this is one thing I will recommend to everyone, and because I believe in rising by lifting others here's the thread.

If you haven't guessed it, I went on reddit r/linkedin and quite contrary to anonymity I shared my identity publicly, along with a link to my linkedin profile, and asked for feedback, "roast me" was how I put it.

Was I scared? Hell yes.

I found the cure in being myself, and I tried to express my gratitude to the maximum, just like I appreciate and see you for making time to read my thoughts today, dear reader, thank you for being here.

At times like this, I feel grateful that I'm first and foremost and always will be, a writer.

However that thread got 10K+ impressions in just a week and I was able to clear my head and start to make the changes immediately.

For that I am forever grateful.

So let me start by my own personal brand, and how I decided to make the changes I have (and I might tomorrow too, this is the best until I learn what's better, until I learn from you.)

Subcase 1: Personal Brand

One core feedback I got on Reddit was that I was playing "safe" and that my "personal" brand was not personal.

Now I spent an entire summer, and years more, thinking on what personal brand is and is not.

And I'll be brutally honest: it doesn't make sense to me.

I don't think most "personal brands" on LinkedIn are personal – it's like there is this level, this line that we are only making things personal to a societally acceptable level.

With that said, I ran a lot of experiments on LinkedIn for a full year even if the algorithm was on its mood swings at times.

One question I kept asking: what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, why?

To this day, I still don't have the answer.

I did my best to not carry any political or otherwise potentially polarizing conversations here, because your opinion is your opinion, it's my responsibility to you to respect your choices, I can learn from them, but it's not for me to judge you for it and vice versa.

I believe in the diversity of opinions, inclusive and open communication. And that's why I have been always extra careful to make sure I'm using my narrative.

Still that said, one feedback I got is that our brand and mine included spoke to younger professionals, which was not something I would have wanted to do.

And in the light of that one realization I had that all the colors, emojis, breaking sentences, my personal brand was anxiety and insecurities driven.

Being neurodiverse, it's not an option for us to fit in; we're born outliers.

That's why we want to include.

Because we were excluded.

Not purposefully of course, but because our brain works a little differently – and I love that about us!

So because we were excluded, our natural instinct is to include and we do it our way, colors, emojis, inclusive language, being approachable and warm-hearted.

So I'm removing the colors and emojis; because I've confronted my fears, and you've been there for me, in this journey and I cannot thank you, no seriously, ever enough for being here with me, with us, with the tentacle folks.

Of course, what I'm saying is subjective, applies to my case – not every brand that is colorful was anxiety/insecurities-driven; I'm just saying that mine was and that's what I needed to grow, to the next level.

I own my work, I love what I do, I'm literally in love with the small team I'm doing this with, and I'm grateful to have you in this next chapter with me.

And I'm grateful because I'm doing this for you, and your feedback has influenced how I see my own work, our cause, so deeply.

For that, you've been an irreplaceable part of my growth.

Subcase 2: Our Little Octopus Has Grown – The New Logo

Historically, this logo has been a new beginning for us; a new era.

We chose this logo together, and I don't remember another meeting where we were this united in our decision making.

That said, the idea of being a founder, the meaning has changed for me. The meaning of being a leader has changed.

A year ago, I created our first "Brand Identity Guideline" and outlined our mission, the symbolism and why it matters.

I've also applied it heavily on LinkedIn myself too.

Simply, blue represented recruiters and purple represented candidates; if candidates are royal, treated fairly during the application process, recruiters are safe to confidently drive hiring decisions.

As I've been saying, our brand has always sat on the disconnection between the 2.

And now that disconnection is getting worse.

So that's why, even when we simplified we focused our new brand, our now grown Octopus on that disconnection between the recruiter and candidate.

We know there were a lot of you who wanted the cute pink octopus swag, and who knows maybe we'll hand those out in the next few years so we can celebrate how far we've made it together.

For now, we're moving forward.

For this logo, we owe a massive massive thanks to banafshe atighi who's been able to help us remark the re-birth of Octopus, previously OCTO Labs.

She has designed our new logo, typeface, and led to a historical beginning of our new chapter at Octopus, if you're looking for a new designer, she is the one.

And our incredible Product Designer has been the one to recognize her talent, right from the start – if you have the right people by your side, that team can achieve anything.

And that's brutal honesty from my end, tentacle folks have been my dream team.

Keeping things simple is more complex than keeping things complicated, it took us a while but we un-learned, with many thanks to you.

Moving forward, people will be at the centre of our brand because we believe in a healthy partnership between technology and humanity, where humans lead.

Subcase 3: Exciting Update on Our Webinar Series

So we've set ourselves back, and have made the changes to your favorite webinar series, previously known as Candidate Experience Webinar Series, that we started in March and have doubled our audience within 4 months with talent leaders at Wolt, Dyson, Harvard, and many more joining our conversations.

It's been a blast!

The final episode of Season 1 with Isabel Ruiz ?? was supposed to take place in July however StreamYard fell on its face and we were never able to make it happen.

With the new changes, we believe it's now more important than ever that we have Unfiltered Conversations in the Talent space, where we will bring people to you who are building and envisioning the future of hiring.

The new design has been brought to life by yours truly and I really am stoked to share the symbolism behind it.

What makes us human?

Has been the initial question, especially in recruitment, how do we protect what makes us human? How do we amplify it, celebrate it; how do we reclaim what's ours?

And that's exactly what I wanted you to have.

So a few of my favorite symbolisms here are as follows:

• Half Face: Because I believe in recruitment, the other will be the face of technology because we can only humanize recruitment if we have a healthy partnership with innovation.
• This is not quite 'professional looking': you're right, and it should not. Did you know that our mimics are the hardest for AI to replicate? Our genuine emotions; emotional intelligence (EQ) is what makes us human especially in recruitment.

The candidates told me they feel the most comfortable when I smile, when I show human emotions, then they can really feel safe to express themselves in the way they feel comfortable.

That's why you will see many more smiles, weird half faces of my upcoming guests – and I'm stoked for what's coming this season!

And one more thing:

There was a previous episode where the amazing Judit Sáez Gonzálvez joined us and we had a very raw, brutally honest conversation of candidate experience and hiring from both sides.

If you liked the taste of that, then that's what you should expect.

Webinars take an immense effort from both sides, and they should do more; and I genuinely believe our job as hosts, founders, leaders.. Our responsibility is to learn how to have the hard conversations about what matters.

Moving forward, I'm inviting you to have the hard conversations.

In this season of Unfiltered Conversations, we'll have quite a few.

You will have our full support.

Future of hiring has to be human-centric, human-driven and if we don't act now there is no going back.

Thank you so much for reading, and once again welcome onboard to the journey of Octopus, prev. OCTO Labs.

Starting from pre-interviews to assess both skill + values, we are on a quest to change how we hire, for the better, and for the human.

Thank you for reading and I can't wait to meet you in the next chapter,

C.