# Overview [Rocketium's platform](https://rocketium.com) has a number of [products](https://docs.rocketium.com) that work in tandem to automate, simplify, and scale the design process. One product makes this all possible - our culture. Our culture is planned, measured, and improved much like our other products. Like every product, our customers and prospects interact with our culture. We feel it is important to document this product next to the rest of our products. Below are the elements of our culture that we will cover. We would love to hear your feedback and inputs on improving this product. Please write to us at .\ \ If you wish to become a part of Rocketium's team & culture, check out the available opportunities at [careers.rocketium.com](https://careers.rocketium.com/jobs). # Prime Directives Rocketium's culture code ## Overview Prime Directives are principles that guide our thoughts and actions every single day. The name is a reference to [Star Trek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive) that has an inviolable guiding principle of the same name. We created the [V1](/culture/code/v1) of our Prime Directives in 2019 when we were a team of \~20. During one of our quarterly hackathons, we split into groups to come up with this list that was representative of what we already do and aspirational enough to push us to do more. By striving to be better every day, we became a wholly different company in the two years since we crafted these Prime Directives. As the team grew, we realized we needed to revisit our culture code. In our first hackathon of 2022, we did the same exercise to come up with our newest Prime Directives. Similar to how our product keeps evolving, our Prime Directives will keep evolving as we scale our team. Diversity of ideas, opinions, beliefs, and behaviors that are brought in by every new team member will continue to shape how we think and operate. ## Prime Directives ### Exceptional at our craft šŸŒŸ We are at work for at least a third of our waking hours and want it to be more than just a way to pay our bills. Our work gives us a reason to be exceptional. We like smart and talented people and want to be the smart and talented people that our teammates look up to. We appreciate first-principles thinking and a fresh approach but we do not want to learn our craft on the job. We are here because we are already very good at what we do. We do not need anyone else telling us how to do our jobs. We are proud of our craft and make sure anything we put our name on has enough elbow grease put into it. We expect the same from others with whom we work. We say no so we only sign up for something we can ship with high quality. #### **How we use this Prime Directive in real life -** * **Hiring the best** - Our interview process for each role involves evaluating future teammates for their ability to enhance our current capabilities. This keeps us on our toes and builds a team that helps us become the best version of ourselves. Settling for what we get now has never worked for us and so we wait instead of compromising. * **Interviews about turpentine not style** - Picasso said that ā€œwhen critics get together they talk about style but when painters get together they talk about where you can get the best turpentineā€. We hate interviews that test our theoretical knowledge because anyone can Google that. That is why when we interview, we focus on real problems that we have solved and those that showcase the craft we hone on a daily basis. * **Rewarding the exceptional** - We are proud of every teammate and love the outcomes we achieve every day. However, there are folks who go way beyond what is expected of them. When this happens, we go way beyond rewarding them without caring about their years of experience or seniority. The same holds for appraisals where generous raises are based on market rates even if no one is expecting them. **Below are real examples of how our team members live upto being "Exceptional at our craft"** * [**Akhil Yellanki**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilyellanki/) *(Visual Designer)*, became the backbone of Rocketium's product marketing function, in less than 6 months of joining the team. His expertise in creating visual magic captured the attention of not just fellow team members but also all our customers and prospects. Lightning-speed delivery of high-impact deliverables without compromising an inch on quality has been his most exceptional skill. ### Strive to be better every day šŸ“ˆ Being exceptional at our craft does not mean we are static and self-satisfied. We believe perfection is a journey and not a destination. We are happy about our work but know there is more we can do. Anything we ship is a compromise between ā€œdoneā€ and ā€œperfectā€. We keep looking for ways to get better at our craft. We are OK with failing but we learn from our mistakes. Our past achievements feed our ego but not at the expense of knowing that we are still far away from being the best version of ourselves. #### **How we use this Prime Directive in real life** * **Co-pilot program** - Just as airline pilots have co-pilots, anyone at Rocketium can pick another teammate as a co-pilot. Co-pilots help in learning new skills, having a friendly chat, or enhancing our experience in any other way. The program skips all hierarchy and encourages everyone to mentor and seek mentorship. More details of this program [are here](/process/co-pilot-program). * **Monthly reviews and biannual appraisals** - Everyone meets their manager once a month to share and receive feedback. Things change fast at startups and we use this as an opportunity to ensure that there is no mismatch between what we are focusing on and what our manager thinks we are focusing on. These reviews are also an opportunity to talk about our individual competencies and how they contribute to our career goals. **Below are real examples of how our team members live upto "Strive to be better everyday"** * [**Avisha Choudhary**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/avisha-choudhary-3b4a4212a/) *(Sr. Customer Success Manager),* went above and beyond in becoming a self-driven learner. Over a period of months, she did everything in her capacity to build an understanding of Rockeitum's analytics solution. She did not shy away from volunteering for projects beyond her usual scope of work and displayed a strong persistence in striving to be better with each challenge. ### Share openly and often šŸŽ™ Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We believe that our ideas get better under the sunlight of each otherā€™s feedback. In sharing with others, we sharpen our thinking and improve our craft. Our ego makes us seek inputs from multiple experts to make sure what we ship is exceptional. The same goes for improvement areas in our teammatesā€™ work. We share our feedback directly so they can benefit from our unique viewpoint. Feedback is a gift and we make sure we give it often and thank others who give it to us. Being too nice can actually be a bad thing. #### **How we use this Prime Directive in real life** * **Anonymous monthly Q\&A** - We have learned by action that trust-building starts from giving everyone the opportunity to be candid without the fear of being judged. As humans, we are psychologically built to think of the repercussions first and impact second. To focus on impact first, we invite the team to share any questions on their mind anonymously prior to our monthly Open House. These questions can be directed towards specific individuals, specific teams, or the entire team. * **Openly sharing when someone quits** - Businesses often see open acknowledgement of team members leaving as a threat. They assume it influences others to think about their own future with the company. The reality is that news reaches everyone anyway and trying to hide it just makes things worse. Whether a teammate leaves us voluntarily or we part ways due to performance reasons, we make sure we share this openly with the rest of the team. During farewell celebrations, we share all the good we did together instead of focusing on why they are leaving. **Below are real examples of how our team members live up to "Share openly and often"** * [**Shivramakrishnan V**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamshiva/) *(Program Manager),* continues to ace the art of constructive criticism that has proven to be helpful for fellow team members as well as the product. Shiva has always been vocal with his feedback and understands the impact it can create. As someone who focuses on finding the fixes to problems rather than complaining about them, sharing openly & often comes naturally to Shiva. ### Empathy is our superpower šŸ‘« Most of our work involves convincing someone to do something - join our team, buy our product, use our new feature, refer us to your friends, invest in us, ā€¦. An inside-out way to convince someone is to focus on why *we* want it and what benefit *we* get from it. We believe in the outside-in way, where we figure out the benefit for others in doing what we want. Empathy allows us to put ourselves in their shoes and focus on their hopes, dreams, and challenges. We tap into this superpower to see reasons beyond our own motives. This empathy is not all goody-goody but extends to doing the right thing for someone even if it causes short-term pain - sharing negative feedback, nixing a project, turning down a potential customer. These tough decisions become easy when we know we are doing this for someone elseā€™s best interests. #### **How we use this Prime Directive in real life** * **#RefuelDay** - Working at a fast-growing startup can be both stimulating and exhausting. One of the challenges with building a team of high-performing folks is that they often prioritize work above all else. Just because we do not ask does not mean we do not need a break. To make it easier for us to prioritize ourselves and not our work, we give ourselves one long weekend every month. We call this a Refuel Day. It helps us refuel, declutter, and come back recharged. * **Ultra-flexible notice periods** - Everyone hates waiting months for their future team members to join. But those same companies expect their teammates to serve months of ā€œnotice periodā€ before they move on. No one enjoys being forced this way and we empathise with our teammates who have decided to move on. Depending on what they are owning and how quickly they can transition their responsibilities, they have the option to move on to their next adventure in days not months. **Below are real examples of how our team members live upto "Empathy is our superpower"** * [**Anand Hrushikesh**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandhms/) *(Senior Engineering Manager),* has consistently been unanimously called out by most of his team members for being an empathy champion. His approachability and the quality of active listening have done wonders in building trust with team members and customers. Anand does not jump into recommending immediate solutions but rather focuses on first understanding the problem of the speaker by putting himself into their shoes. May it be personal or professional support, he has always been there for his team members in action and in spirit. # V1 {% hint style="info" %} This is the first version of our Prime Directives that we created in 2019. {% endhint %} ## Overview Our 9 Prime Directives are grouped according to whom they serve - **Self**, **Team**, **Community**. They can be summarised in one line:- > Do exceptional work as a team to make others successful. ## Masterplan Our Prime Directives tie in with Rocketium's 3-step masterplan. 1. Build exceptional products. šŸ›  2. Grow big by making our customers bigger. šŸ“ˆ 3. Use our fame and fortune to make others around us successful. šŸŒŽ ## Prime Directives ### Self * Strive to be better every day šŸ“ˆ * Move fast āš”ļø * Do exceptional work šŸ… ### Team * Set and achieve audacious goals šŸŽÆ * Be honest and transparent šŸ” * Win with your team šŸ‘« ### Community * Make customers your North Star šŸŒŸ * Imagine a better future and create it šŸ”® * Pay it forward šŸŒŽ ## Prime Directive details Below are real examples of how our team lives each Prime Directive. ### Self #### **Strive to be better every day šŸ“ˆ** * Nitya (*Product Marketing Manager*) conducted a series of meetings to seek feedback from different teams so she could improve the new website she was launching. * Aniket (*Software Engineer*) sent a survey every month to people he worked with so he can identify areas where he can do better. * Karthik (*Designer*) is not a UI designer but he took 1:1 coaching sessions on user interface design so he could give the right inputs to the product team. #### **Move fast āš”ļø** * Somya (*Principal Software Engineering Manager*) releases features for internal testing so he can get early feedback that lets him launch a much better version faster. * Rohit (*Creative Director*) conceptualised and animated an impressive video in just two days so we could share it with our customers in time for holiday season. * Rajeev (*Senior Software Engineer*) had only three weeks to launch a slick new design experience in our product. Not only did he achieve this well in time, he also cleaned up a lot of old code that would have created issues in the future. #### **Do exceptional work šŸ…** * Manu (*Head of Demand Generation*) came up with the concept for our first ever online event. He coordinated with a large media company, heads of marketing and design at e-commerce giants, and hundreds of attendees to make it a massive success. * Anish (*Senior Software Engineer*) and Gowtham (*Senior Software Engineer*) suggested the difficult but necessary step of choosing a new programming language that will simplify future product development. They put in extra effort to train the rest of the team on this technology. * Sarthak (*Product Specialist*) was a new member of the sales team when he was tasked with putting Rocketium in front of the largest consumer Internet companies. His methodical approach led him to bring in the highest number of deals several weeks in a row. ### Team #### **Set and achieve audacious goals šŸŽÆ** * Shubham (*Senior Software Engineer*) built and launched a complex product in just a week so we could have it ready in time for a big presentation. * Bhawna (*Enterprise Account Executive*) got Rocketium a foot in the door with one of the largest airlines in the world who had almost chosen a large enterprise competitor of ours. She nailed the pitch and multiple follow-up meetings over several weeks to win them over. * Ravish and Prabhat were interns at Rocketium when they had to work on a few complex features that were going to be used by hundreds of advertisers in one of the biggest online events. Their thorough development and testing led to one of our most successful product launches. #### **Be honest and transparent šŸ”** * Sanjith (*Lead Designer*) conducts monthly meetings with teams he works with to share and seek candid feedback on how they can work better. * Kirti (*Marketing Manager*) made a minor mistake while sending an email campaign. She owned up to that mistake and created a process to ensure that such mistakes are handled before any customer sees them. * Santosh (*VP Engineering*) proactively does a deep investigation whenever a serious bug affects our customers. He shares this with the leadership team along with steps to avoid this in the future. #### **Win with your team šŸ‘«** * Pavan (*Designer*) celebrates his teammates' efforts by creating a slick video every week showcasing their work. * Akshay (*Customer Success Manager*) and Sofia (*Customer Success Manager*) work closely with the product team to prioritise issues so impactful work gets done first while smaller issues are not forgotten. * Shivani (*HR Manager*) streamlined the way we conduct daily stand-up meetings after she got feedback from the team that the earlier format was not adding value. ### Community #### **Make customers your North Star šŸŒŸ** * Avinash (*Enterprise Account Manager*) digs into customer code himself even though he does not have a software background just so he can save them a couple of days of back-and-forth. * Saurabh (*Senior Finance Manager*) waived monthly fees for a customer for few months because they were going through financial distress. * Tushar (*Product Specialist*) and Sandeep (*Product Specialist*) have recommended competing products to a few customers because they are better suited to solving their specific problems. #### **Imagine a better future and create it šŸ”®** * Sateesh (*Senior Software Engineering Manager*) built an innovative Photoshop integration during a hackathon and today it is one of the most critical pieces of our product. * Akkshaya (*Associate Product Manager*) was the key force behind two new product lines and delivered products that solved pain points that customers could not even describe at first. * Nitin (*Software Engineer*) and Sukirti (*Associate Product Manager*) worked closely to develop a unique way to adapt any design to multiple sizes in a few milliseconds by combining the existing design with reference designs. #### **Pay it forward šŸŒŽ** * Vidhunnan (*Product Designer*) conducts free online mentoring sessions on UI design for aspiring designers. * Srijan (*Enterprise Account Manager*) actively works with a non-profit to provide education and career guidance to children from under-served communities. * Karan (*VP Business*) taught the basics of Customer Success to founders and executives of early-stage companies. # 8-4-5 working hours ## What is the 8-4-5 schedule? At Rocketium, we work from **8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 5 days a week**. We started this schedule a few years ago when a colleague told us that she stays back at the office till 8 p.m. to avoid traffic snarls. The team realised that we could save hours of time spent in traffic by shifting our work timings by a couple of hours. We saw significant improvement in our productivity and well-being after we moved to this schedule. We face challenges in maintaining this schedule as our team, product, and business has expanded. However, we improve our processes instead of abandoning 8-4-5 as its benefits outweigh its challenges. ## What are the benefits of 8-4-5? ### Higher creativity Most of our team's work is creative. In creative work, more hours do not always mean better outcomes. In fact, we perform worse when we are exhausted. Creative work also benefits from a change of setting and context. We recharge our creativity, motivation, and willpower by spending time on things outside our core work. ### Better well-being Starting work early is a great keystone habit that improves many other habits. We wake up early, eat more regularly, and sleep early. This creates a more healthy lifestyle. By wrapping up work at 4 p.m., we get several hours every day to spend with friends, family, or our hobbies. This lowers stress and leads to more emotional well-being. ### Improved collaboration and inclusiveness We work best when we collaborate with others. Our team, other teams, and customers help us become better. We maximise the number of hours we work together by starting the day at the same time. We avoid people being left out of conversations by ending the day at the same time. ### Better processes Whenever we notice ourselves working longer or different hours, we probe into the reasons because they help us improve how we work. These reasons are usually a sign of a broken process that we can fix. Too many meetings? Too much work per person? Poor documentation? Limited training? Noisy office? All are things we should fix rather than doing away with our 8-4-5 schedule. ### More time saved We start and end our day earlier than most people. This means we see far less traffic on roads, restaurants, and everywhere else we go. This means we save 1-2 hours every day that we can use for creative work, friends, family, hobbies, or anything else we want. ## FAQ ### Do I *have* to start at 8 a.m. if I work very late the previous day? No. We drop a note to our team and others who depend on us so they know we will start late. They would rather have us at our 100% for a few hours than us at our 50% for the entire day. ### Should I respond to internal Slack discussions outside 8-4-5? We keep an eye on Slack but do not feel obligated to respond outside 8-4-5. We are always available for a call if someone wants to reach us for something critical. ### How should I deal with team meetings and calls outside 8-4-5? We rarely set up meetings or calls outside 8-4-5. We may do this in rare cases when there are no better options. We discuss ways to avoid this with the team if this happens frequently. ### Should I respond to customers outside 8-4-5? We keep an eye on customer communication and respond if something is urgent and important. We put ourselves in our customers' shoes to figure out the best course of action. Am I OK to wait for a few hours if a product I rely on is not working as expected? Clearly not. Am I OK to keep facing issues even if the issue is resolved quickly? Also clearly not. Every customer communication is a chance for us to examine our processes and improve them. ### What should I do if my work regularly requires working longer hours? We discuss the reasons and potential solutions for this with our manager. Longer hours are usually a symptom of other issues - too much work, not enough training, low self-service in the purchase or usage of our product, impossible response time standards, and so on. Each solution has its own tradeoffs. That is why it is important to bring this up when it happens and identify a solution. We lose too many benefits if we abandon the 8-4-5 schedule. ### What should I do if my work regularly requires working different hours? We discuss the reasons and potential solutions for this with our manager. Different hours are usually needed if our work is exclusively with prospects and customers in another time zone. The solution might be to make our buying process and product more self-service so prospects and customers can help themselves. Another solution could be to build a team in another geography so they can work in local timings to help prospects and customers. Yet another could be to shift 8-4-5 by a few hours. Each solution has its own tradeoffs so we and our team discuss the best approach. ### What should I do if I have to work in a separate shift? This is one of the solutions to the previous question. Working hours that are different from the rest of the team gives us fewer hours to collaborate. Given the importance of collaboration and shared experience, we do our best to figure out how to interact and learn from other teams. Though 8-4-5 becomes 10-6-5, 12-8-5, ..., its reasons and benefits stay the same. # Engineering culture ## Engineering has a different culture? We came up with our [Prime Directives](/culture/code) as a team. We live them daily with every action. Engineering does not have a different culture but what we do is different enough that we want to call out its quirks and specialisations. Engineers are warriors. We hone our craft over years of careful study and practice. We want to win the respect of our fellow warriors but, more importantly, we want to fight alongside warriors we respect. It is important for us to know how our fellow warriors operate. * Do they obsess over the shiniest new weapons or do they stick to rusty old tools? * Do they rush into battle or do they while away hours debating at the war table? * Do they go for individual glory or are they mindless cannon fodder for the general? This document details how we warriors work. ## **Principles** ### Exceptional at our craft šŸŒŸ * We do not expect our teammates to tell us what we can Google. We learn most everything on our own and rely on our teammates for the extra special something that only they know. * We are proud of the work we do. We are happy to receive every code review comment we get and every bug someone finds because it makes us better. But it hurts that someone else found it before us. * We do not stick to our sandbox. We fix something that we see broken even if it is not our code because it is *our code* and *our product*. * We do not shy away from hard problems or rusty parts of our codebase. We find a way through them, not around them. * Duct tape and chicken wire can only take us so far. We aim for durable solutions that stick around for a long time. Rewrites are fun but they also mean we messed up the last time around. * We measure twice and cut once. We are thoughtful about architecture, scale, usability, and testing so our users always smile and our on-call never frowns. * We work on projects that we are passionate about instead of tasks that someone happens to assign to us. This means we raise our hands and pick projects. Even better, we come up with projects that make a difference to users and our team. * We go on quarterly hackathons, where we take on fun and ambitious projects and work on them at a kickass venue. Our best features and friendships have come from hackathons. * We use any opportunity we get to give ourselves the technical edge. This can mean building new technology from scratch, coming up with novel algorithms, or warping existing tools to solve problems they were not meant to solve. ### Strive to be better every day šŸ“ˆ * We try to be the engineer others in the team look up to. We want to think deeper, have better ideas, test more, and ship faster. * We are voracious learners. We learn from books, courses, and videos like everyone else. We add to this learning from other engineers, other teams, and users. * We seek out the tough code reviewers and product users. We walk them through our code and features so we make them even better before shipping. * We ask for feedback that helps us become better. We do not wince at tough words but welcome them with open arms. Feedback is a gift that we never refuse. * We keep things as simple as possible be it in architecture, code, user experience, or words. Complexity is a shield that we do not hide behind. * We avoid premature optimization and over-engineering. We ship incrementally so we get quick feedback and users get quicker value. * We are in touch with the latest tools, techniques, and technologies. We bring them in when it is the right time even if it means a whole lot of unlearning for the team. ### Share openly and often šŸŽ™ * We voice our questions, concerns, or alternatives before it is too late. We prefer a quick discussion early instead of a complete rewrite later. * We understand projects deeply before we start them. We ask a lot of whys so we believe in the work we are doing. We push back until we are convinced of the impact, scope, or timelines. * We share improvements to features, technologies, or processes. Our best ideas have come from passionate engineers regardless of their designation or tenure. * We spot issues and difficulties early on and communicate them fearlessly. We defuse a ticking bomb, not run away from it. * We share the good news and progress on our work just as regularly. This ensures that we get more feedback and generate more excitement for the launch. * We are in touch with the code, tools, other teams, and users. This means we are in the best position to challenge assumptions, ideas, and processes. We take this responsibility seriously. * We keep an open mind to new perspectives and ideas even if it means changing how we work or killing our favorite ideas. ### Empathy is our superpower šŸ‘« * We give as much as we take. Even the most junior team member teaches the most senior team member something useful. * We follow a straightforward framework to think about everything we do - Problem -> Feature -> Impact. We start with the problem we are trying to solve for someone before jumping into implementing the feature. We then measure its impact to validate if we got it right. * We make mistakes that we feel bad about. But instead of just beating ourselves up, we go deeper into what caused it. Not just the immediate reason but what caused the immediate reason. And what caused that reason. Until we find multiple improvement areas. More at [Toyota's Five Whys approach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_whys). * We share. A lot. Slack notes, screen recordings, wiki pages, and more to help others know what we know even if they join years later. Our first instinct is to search the wiki rather than asking the person next to us. * We do not look at someone's designation or seniority before listening to them. Anyone is free to praise the good and share the not-so-good. * We do week-long on-call rotations where we are in the line of fire for issues and outages. This creates a deep empathy for our users, customer-facing teams, and other engineers who face the heat because of our coding mistakes. * We do not rely on filtered inputs from other teams. We get on calls with our users to understand how they work and how our product solves their problems. ## Summary Rocketium is a product company and so engineers are the heart of the company. We build the features used by leading business and design teams around the world. We are responsible for delighting or disappointing our users. For delivering or delaying business results for our customers. We do not take this lightly. Our product makes our users be more productive and work more creatively. And that is why we keep reflecting on and sharpening how we work. We will keep updating this document as we learn more in the coming days. ## Credits * **Lead contributor** - [Anish Kargaonkar](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anishkargaonkar) # Overview ## Background From our earliest days, we were very clear that Rocketium's responsibility is to enable continuous learning and growth for everyone in the team. We were careful about defining roles and responsibilities granularly so everyone can focus on being excellent in one area before expanding into more areas. This helped in our hiring process and regular performance discussions. However, as the team grew, we felt the need to define career paths so everyone has clarity about what it takes to be excellent in each area. This helps in creating a six-month or longer roadmap. Identify areas where we are already strong and those that need work becomes obvious. Promotions, role changes, and hikes become more objective. ## How we created our career paths We followed these steps to create our career paths:- 1. **Research** - We reviewed job postings of other companies to see common patterns in designations, roles, responsibilities, and requirements. We read articles about career paths for individual departments. *Time taken: 4 days* 2. **1:1 conversations** - We spoke with founders and operators from other companies to learn more about how they do this today, how they have evolved, and what they are still lacking. *Time taken: 2 days* 3. **First principles thinking** - We neither wanted to reinvent the wheel nor did we want to use something ill-suited to our culture. We thought of the lifecycle of each department and used it to come up with broad areas of impact. *Time taken: 5 days* 4. **Feedback** - Once we had the first draft of the career paths, we shared it with the team to get their inputs on how we can improve. We also shared it with experts in our network for their suggestions. Finally, we are open-sourcing our career paths for the community's inputs. šŸ˜€ *Time taken: 2 days* ## Common areas of focus across teams ### Knowledge * **Junior** - Be familiar with our product capabilities, new features, and changes. Get to know competing offerings, both direct and indirect. Be aware of industry trends through reading and expert interactions. Learn different customer use-cases and success stories * **Mid-level** - Regularly interact with other teams to know upcoming product and process changes. Participate in customer conversations to improve understanding of their needs, vocabulary, and decision-making criteria. Interact with peers from other companies to learn how they work and challenges they face. * **Senior** - Bring in industry veterans and experts to increase your and the team's knowledge of products, competitors, and industry. Regularly benchmark our products against competitors to keep us competitive. Be known as an industry expert in a few areas. ### Process * **Junior** - Follow the processes laid out by your team. Share feedback to improve the processes in your team. Be open to feedback and seek it out from your team. Be clear about the goals and success metrics before you start anything. * **Mid-level** - Train the team to follow the process. Regularly share feedback within the team to help them improve how they work. Conduct regular introspection to seek feedback from the rest of the team. Set clear goals and success metrics for every project by discussing with other teams and customers. * **Senior** - Identify bottlenecks in productivity. Design processes to remove these bottlenecks. Find ways to improve inter-team collaboration. Regularly measure and improve processes across teams. ### Team * **Junior** - Be a positive, enthusiastic teammate. Show ownership of areas you have picked up and deliver. Communicate regularly and often, especially with bad news. Share feedback and course corrections if you think we are in the wrong direction. * **Mid-level** - Set high expectations from teammates. Be a positive role model who inspires their team. Participate in the hiring process and ensure we build a great team. Mentor junior teammates and ensure they are successful. Resolve conflicts within the team. * **Senior** - Set challenging goals for teams that push them to work better. Build a mindset in the team of teamwork, customer orientation, excellence, and focus. Create awareness about our culture, work, and benefits to build a strong talent pipeline. Help individual teammates create a strong brand for themselves. Ensure teams are happy, motivated, and productive. # By team {% content-ref url="/pages/-MCBhcj8XM1nMN6iY0vJ" %} [Customer Success](/career-paths/by-team/customer-success) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M\_ephZ10vj1O1YoZuQS" %} [Design](/career-paths/by-team/design) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-MCBho2Lm9IKDD\_FUZjY" %} [Engineering](/career-paths/by-team/engineering) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-MCBhwQ0wcPVYUjbAGM9" %} [Marketing](/career-paths/by-team/marketing) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-M\_epf3KBcn0r0Oa8DcE" %} [Product](/career-paths/by-team/product) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-MCBiFIWqnLK18z2xz1T" %} [Sales](/career-paths/by-team/sales) {% endcontent-ref %} # Customer Success Customer Success at Rocketium is involved at multiple stages of the customer lifecycle. We felt that the best way to create a career path for the team was to think of what they would do at each stage. This is in contrast to mapping this to the company's values, an approach we saw most companies following. When we tried that approach, we found it difficult to come up with clear examples that showcase impact and growth. ## On-boarding ### Pilot #### Basic * Set up accounts with the right product and workflow configuration * Collate and share information required to get started * Share progress with decision-makers to keep everyone updated * Propose changes if you identify gaps in the onboarding process * Record success metrics diligently #### Mid-level * Work with the sales team to understand customer context and goals * Pre-empt common questions and roadblocks * Define success criteria for the customer and set up necessary cadence to track progress * Build a rapport with the various customer stakeholders * Nudge as needed and ensure there is enough momentum during the onboarding process * Set up follow-up cadence to ensure customer expectations and internal team performance is aligned * Define problem statements and work with internal teams to address problems in a timely manner * Ensure documentation is up-to-date #### Advanced * Collaborate with key business stakeholders to set the right expectations for the pilot * Work with internal stakeholders to ensure a successful pilot * Build a rapport with senior stakeholders and decision-makers * Identify business drivers and metrics that Rocketium can influence. Drive internal and customer teams towards these metrics * Get prospects to modify pilot goals if needed * Close deals as per schedule and set up account for success ## Customer Success ### Operations #### Basic * Respond to customer queries in a timely and congenial manner * Report bugs to product team and ensure quick resolution #### Intermediate * Analyse common questions and make changes so customers do not have to ask these * Analyse bug patterns and suggest changes that can prevent this in the future #### Advanced * Work with the product team to ensure seamless collaboration for bug resolution * Suggest process improvements as necessary ### Projects #### Basic * Get involved in customer projects and understand the various stakeholders / activities involved * Execute projects tasks in a timely manner #### Intermediate * Brainstorm with the product team to come up with the right experience for new features * Manage timelines with customers and internal teams * Solve customers problems even if we are not building new features for them * Triage features and politely convey to customers if certain features are not being taken up * Capture customer requirements clearly * Proactively communicate new features that could be useful to other customers * Have a clear understanding of customer workflow to identify efficiencies #### Advanced * Help in prioritizing features across accounts * Identify potential features that can make customers' lives easier * Get feedback from customers about new feature ideas * Get pilot customers for big new features ### Success #### Basic * Identify opportunities where more value can be added to customers across existing features and templates * Share template ideas that are relevant to the customer #### Intermediate * Monitor usage and reach out to customers if there are warning signs * Conduct regular calls to understand progress on success metrics * Come up with product improvements based on customer conversations #### Advanced * Monitor accounts at a company level and have a pulse on overall customer challenges * Ensure customers are seeing 10X value of their subscription fees * Collect feedback on product and service. Identify areas to create value ## Renewal ### Churn #### Basic * Have a pulse on customer satisfaction through regular interactions * Prevent avoidable churn due to mistakes from our side * Reduce customer friction #### Intermediate * Have strong intuition about customers who will churn in a few months * Proactively suggest changing success metrics if it can create success for customers and prevent churn * Cross-sell new products and projects to offset churn from one use-case #### Advanced * Speak to business stakeholders to manage a churn situation * Escalate major churn concerns with company leadership ### Upgrades #### Basic * Assist customers who are looking for more capabilities or usage to upgrade * Monitor usage to identify customers who have the potential to upgrade #### Intermediate * Create cross-sell opportunities by identifying new use-cases that customers can adopt * Share ideas with customers that can create more success for them while increasing their usage or adoption of our products #### Advanced * Suggest process improvements that let them use our products more effectively and get better returns for their spend ### Referral #### Basic * NA #### Intermediate * Get case studies from customers who have seen success with us * Get customers to write reviews and spread the word for us * Create a healthy pipeline from happy customers * Reach out to happy customers who can refer us to other customers #### Advanced * Engage key customers as influencers who can get us large customers * Showcase key customers in events and gatherings to create a halo effect # Design ### Basic and intermediate * **User and competition research, design sprints, product roadmap** * Conduct user interviews to identify problems, generate new ideas and possible solutions, and build the product roadmap with PMs * Refine requirements basis user research, and customer requests to write the product roadmap for both existing and future customers * Work with PMs to ideate on user experiences, design wireframes and prototypes based on user stories and PRDs * Work with PMs to validate new flows and design ideas with users * **Competition research** * Study competition, deconstruct their features and user experiences * Stay on top of trends and new areas of competitive/ adjacent products * Ideate with PM and PMMs to refine positioning w\.r.t competition * **Development cycle** * Deliver final designs for feature development as per the sprint cycles * Work with engineers to explain designs and fix design bottlenecks * Work with engineers to create a thorough UI test plan for new features and adjacent areas that would be affected * **Release and feedback** * Do UI reviews and suggest changes before release * Help PMs with release notes, videos, and screenshots for internal communication * Conduct design spotlight sessions to educate team members about new tools and techniques, and processes * Work with PMs and customer-facing teams to highlght benefits to existing and potential customers, and create feedback mechanism * Create a plan for feature improvements and help with product roadmap ### Advanced * **Strategy, roadmap, user research** * Be the owner of all design that interfaces an average user of the product, not limited to applications, but extending to website, and other off-site presence of the brand * Find new areas of improvement in product experiences, user journey, brand narrative based on customer interactions, and observing trends in the domain * Work with partners and experts outside the team to setup best practices * Work with PMs to define broad feature areas for long term roadmap * Work with marketing team to define the brand narrative, and product positioning * Define the user experience flow for large feature groups and work with PMs and designers to identify areas of improving user journeys * Conduct design sprints and workshops within the company to educate internal team members about new trends, and interal design processes * **Product development cycle** * Work with engineering team to identify opportunities for improving development process and coordination between teams * **Release and feedback** * Own the design review process before roll-out of complex and interconnected product features * Work with PMs to spot patterns of poor or excellent usability from metrics * Interact regularly with customers to understand how our products can be improved * **Hiring** * Build and manage the product design team # Engineering To create the engineering career path, we looked at the different stages in the lifecycle of a feature. We felt that this was a much better approach to outline all the responsibilities and areas of impact for our engineering team than just the company's values. ## Architect ### Idea #### Basic * Understand requirements shared by the team #### Intermediate * Work with business teams to prioritise the right features * Refine requirements so we are building the right features for both existing and future customers #### Senior * Work with business teams to define feature areas * Suggest new areas based on customer knowledge ### User experience #### Basic * Consider all user touch points and areas of impact * Ask the right questions to understand what has to be built #### Intermediate * Improve the user experience through discussions #### Senior * Define the user experience flow for large feature areas and products ### Technical architecture #### Basic * Think about what is needed to build this capability * Document the technical architecture * Get feedback from other team members #### Intermediate * Review architecture of junior team members * Find elegant solutions to complex problems * Reduce complexity and promote reuse #### Senior * Be comfortable in architecting large systems and products * Use the right tech stacks or SaaS solutions for a quick and future-proof solution ## Build ### Development #### Basic * Build features and fix bugs following standard coding practices #### Intermediate * Identify ways to reuse code and create components so we add only what is needed * Build features faster with cleaner code #### Advanced * Take on large complex projects and build them elegantly ### Feedback #### Basic * Share regular progress with product and business teams * Make changes as needed based on the feedback #### Intermediate * Do a demo with relevant teams for early feedback * Share previews with customers for their feedback #### Advanced * Do detailed customer interactions to identify issues and opportunities before extensive development ### Testing #### Basic * Add or update automated tests for the feature * Ensure feature and adjacent areas are tested thoroughly #### Intermediate * Create a thorough test plan for the feature #### Advanced * Create a testing framework that continuously tests and identifies problems before they happen ## Deploy ### Deployment #### Basic * Work with the team to deploy the feature on time #### Intermediate * Create a deployment and migration plan for complex features * Collaborate with business teams to identify the right time and approach to deployment #### Advanced * Orchestrate the roll-out of complex and interconnected systems * Ensure there is no downtime, data loss, or other negative impact from any deployment ### Communication #### Basic * Inform relevant teams about the changes with video and screenshots #### Intermediate * Work with business teams to communicate benefits to existing and potential customers * Update documentation and public references as needed * Update training and on-boarding material #### Advanced * Create a sense of excitement about new capabilities and improvements within the company and with customers * Conduct online and offline sessions to ensure customers are aware of the features and use them the right way ### Validation #### Basic * Add relevant metrics and create dashboards #### Intermediate * Review metrics regularly to see if features are used well * Get regular feedback from business teams about the usability and effectiveness of feature #### Advanced * Spot patterns of poor or excellent usability from metrics * Interact regularly with customers to understand how our products can be improved # Marketing We looked at the stages of the customer lifecycle as a guide to create the marketing team's career path. ## **Demand Generation** ### **Process, team management, strategy** #### **Basic** * Be the gate-keeper for all the tools and reports for demand generation * Create dashboards, reports for all campaigns * Work with the creative team to deliver high-quality collaterals required for such campaigns #### **Intermediate** * Collaborate with the leadership to execute the strategy and programs (lead generation, advertising, sponsorships, events, digital marketing, branding, ...) * Establish closed-loop analytics with sales to understand how our inbound marketing activity turns into customers * Continually refine our process to convert customers * Optimize our marketing automation and lead nurturing processes through email, content, and social channels * Provide short-term market forecasts, reports, and trends to assist in acquisition activities #### Advanced * Work with sales team to set the lead pipeline goals * Manage performance and training of the demand generation teams ### **Research & execution** #### **Basic** * Identify new channels and share insights (secondary research) * Support with tactical tasks assigned for activities (content creation, channels, tools, reports) * Own social channels and increase brand awareness through regular posts * Run campaigns to support various objectives in the marketing funnel and increase site traffic to all landing pages. #### **Intermediate** * Design scientific experiments to grow new leads by converting site traffic * Assess campaign requirements, establish best practices, distribute tasks to execute campaigns with high accuracy and quality * Design competitor strategy to earn share of their prospectsā€™ attention * Build and manage SEO and content strategy for owned properties (including Academy) and set up a long-term growth engine * Own marketing automation tools to improve engagement, conversion, and product retention #### Advanced * Plan quarterly budgets, goals, and framework for objectives and key results * Identify new techniques, methods of inbound marketing and develop teams to execute on such experiments * Forecast trends and set roadmap for new marketing activities * Identify areas and execute plans for improving brand presence (events, PR) that assist in lead generation ## **Product marketing** ### **Strategy & Collaboration** #### **Basic** * NA #### **Intermediate** * Work with the demand generation and product teams to develop core value proposition for different products and personas * Work with sales team to come up with strategy, documentation, and process for product demos * Study competition, deconstruct their messaging and proposition, find and relay our competitive advantage in all collaterals, and scope of improvement to product teams * Work with the product team to refine value proposition, ideal customer profile #### Advanced * Be a guardian of product positioning, messaging, and overall go-to-market strategy * Utilize outside knowledge of the market, product, product strategy, and competition to enable marketing and sales teams * Build Rocketium's brand in the outside world with webinars, events, PR ### **Execution** #### **Basic** * Support in content creation and review * Repurpose content and maintain updated versions in different repositories #### **Intermediate** * Develop high-quality content highlighting product value, benefits, customer testimonials, reviews for enabling the growth team (landing pages, videos, articles) and ensure that it is aligned with the sales strategy * Develop content (decks, webinars, whitepapers, videos) for sales team to attract new customers and close more deals * Work with the creative team to ensure high-quality output for all marketing and sales collateral #### Advanced * NA # Product ### Intermediate * **Product strategy, roadmap, user and competition research** * Conduct user interviews to identify problems, generate new ideas and possible solutions * Work with business teams to prioritise customer requests for new features * Refine requirements basis user research, and customer requests to write the product roadmap for both existing and future customers * **User experience and design sprints** * Work with design to ideate on user experiences * Write user stories and create wireframes and mockups * Validate new flows and design ideas with users * **Competition research** * Study competition, deconstruct their features and user experiences * Stay on top of trends and new areas of competitive/ adjacent products for building long term roadmap * Ideate with PMMs to refine positioning w\.r.t competition * **Development cycle** * Work with designers to finalize UI/UX for owned features * Work with engineers to build features and fix development bottlenecks * Do a demo with relevant teams for early feedback * Share previews with customers for their feedback, and regular updates with business teams * Work with engineers and create a thorough test plan for new features and adjacent areas that would be affected * **Release and feedback** * Work with design team for UI review and incorporate any changes * Work with the engineering, and business teams to plan release dates, launch features on time, with utmost quality * Create release notes, videos, and screenshots for internal communication * Conduct product spotlight sessions to educate team members about new releases every week * Equip AMs & sales team to communicate benefits to existing and potential customers, and collect feedback * Work with PMM and sales team to create user documentation, update training and onboarding material for internal teams, and provide inputs for marketing communication * Add relevant metrics and create dashboards for feature usage * Create a plan for feature improvements and update product roadmap ### Advanced * **Product strategy, roadmap, user research** * Find new areas based on customer interactions, working with partners, and observing trends in the domain * Work with business teams to define broad feature areas for near term roadmap * Work with different teams to identify bottlenecks and improve processes. * Define the user experience flow for large feature groups * Work with PMs and designers to identify areas of improving user experience * Work with partners and expert outside to help in UX improvements * **Development cycle** * Work with senior engineering leaders to identify opportunities for improving development process and coordination between teams * Do detailed customer interactions to identify issues and opportunities before extensive development * Guide PMs to create feedback frameworks, and initiate activities for successful launches * **Release and feedback** * Orchestrate the roll-out of complex and interconnected product features * Create a robust communication forum for discussions between business, engineering, and design team for continuous improvement of product quality and product usage * Create a sense of excitement about new capabilities and improvements within the company and with customers * Conduct online and offline sessions to ensure customers are aware of the features and use them the right way * Spot patterns of poor or excellent usability from metrics * Interact regularly with customers to understand how our products can be improved # Sales This document provides details on the various paths available for Sales team members and the expectations at each level. ## Business Development Representative A Business Development Representative (*BDR*) is responsible for bringing in qualified leads. They find prospective customers, reach out to gauge people's interest in Rocketiumā€™s products, and set up meetings for Account Executives. ### Levels * BDR * Senior BDR

Career path for Business Development Representatives

### Responsibilities #### Knowledge * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Understands our product and the various use-cases well. Is able to link product features to customer pain points. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Has a deep understanding of nuanced use-cases. Spends time with marketing and design team members to learn about problems first hand. Comes off as an expert in conversations. #### Communication * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Emails are crisp and personalized. Experiments constantly to improve results. Builds creative sequences. Cold calls are smooth and sound more like a conversation than a sales pitch. Demonstrates a deep sense of empathy for the prospects challenges and is honest about our ability in solving them. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Email writing skills are exceptional. They follow high standards of outbound sales communication mixed with creativity. Personalization triggers are on point. Cold calls are smooth and highly personalized. Is able to establish a rapport. Provides guidance to other team members and enhances their emails / cold calling. #### Operations * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Organizes and prioritizes lead and account lists. Has a good hold on outreach activities and ensures they are regularly completed. Uses LinkedIn to engage with prospects and post stories. Constantly optimizes the process based on results. Research skills are impeccable. Identifies the right prospects and personalization triggers. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Distills the entire outbound process into a science and has optimized the schedule to deliver bast outcomes (calling times, emailing times). Has built a brand on LinkedIn talking about the issues and challenges of prospects. Is able to smartly pick up activities that are high ROI. Research skills are impeccable. Uses research in creative ways to capture attention. #### Attitude * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Is highly motivated and constantly tries to improve performance. Constantly experiments with tactics. Is resilient during bad days. Is able to seek help and guidance as needed. Seeks training to improve the craft. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Is able to motivate others in the team. Someone who the team looks up to. Collaborates closely with cross functional teams to drive improved performances. Constantly focuses on learning outside of conventional means. #### Target achievement * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Hustles to hit targets. Plans well to ensure targets are achievable. Escalates to senior team members if targets seem unrealistic. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Is able to consistently hit and overachieve targets. Is able to work with senior leadership to drive target achievement throughout the team. ## Account Executive Once you have some experience in sales, an account executive position is a natural next step. This role is focused on figuring out prospective customers' needs and entails giving demos, running presentations, educating leads on a product or service, addressing a buyer's questions, figuring out exactly what people need to convert, and finalizing the sale. ### Levels * Account Executive * Senior Account Executive

Career path for Account Executives

### Responsibilities #### Knowledge * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#knowledge). * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#knowledge). Is not just a subject matter expert, but also able to use this knowledge to build a partner / influencer network. #### Communication * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Email writing skills are exceptional. They follow high standards of outbound sales communication mixed with creativity. Cold calls are smooth and highly personalized. Is able to establish a rapport. Demos are structured well and are personalized based on a well informed discovery. Is able to handle objections around pipeline, opportunities, sales plan, and targets. Is able to inspire confidence in sales plan. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Emails and calls are guided by a deep understanding of the customers' specific context and pain points. Is able to mix follow ups and engagement tactics well to further along the sales process. Demos are a high-bandwidth conversation. They are educational and build a sense of urgency amongst prospects. Provides guidance to other team members and enhances their emails / calling. Has built a brand on LinkedIn talking about the issues and challenges of prospects. #### Operations * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#operations). Uses LinkedIn to engage with prospects and post stories. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#operations). Is able to use CRM metrics to closely track pipeline movement #### Stakeholder management * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Is easily able to work with BDRs and peers to generate opportunities. Works well with various internal teams. Is able to clearly map users, product validators, and approvers. Works well with each one of them to drive the sale through the funnel. Is on top of the sold accounts and is part of all QBRs and renewal discussions. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Is able to collaborate with BDRs and peers to influence the broader sales goals of the team. Is able to champion the cause of other teams. Builds deep rapport with customer stakeholders and sets the right expectations with each one of them. Is able to preempt hurdles in closures and works with internal / customer stakeholders to overcome them. Works closely with Customer Success to secure referrals. #### Attitude * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#bdr-attitude). * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#bdr-attitude). #### Target achievement * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#bdr-targets). * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from a BDR](#bdr-targets). Is able to close large enterprise accounts. Is able to use data to accurately forecast target achievement. ## Business Development Manager As a Business Development Representative (BDR) Manager, your job is:- 1. Lead a team of BDRs to create qualified opportunities for the sales team 2. Train other members of the BDR team 3. Take on operational and administrative tasks to help the BDR team perform and exceed expectations. You will be a source of knowledge and best practices amongst the BDRs, and will help to train, onboard, and mentor new BDRs with the help of the BDR Enablement team. ### Levels * Team Lead * BDR Manager * Senior BDR manager ### Responsibilities #### Knowledge * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from an AE](#knowledge). * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from an AE](#knowledge). #### Operations * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Plans operational activities of the team well in advance to ensure operations are running smoothly. Plans are extremely structured an organized. Reviews activity metrics on a daily basis and measures the relevant leading KPIs. Uses check-ins and meetings to provide guidance, review metrics, and address blockers. Works closely with cross functional team like Marketing and Account Executives to further business development objectives. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Has the operations of the team distilled down to a science. Is proactively analyzing metrics to identify bottlenecks. Constantly seeking outside in perspectives to improve the process and technology used. Builds a business case for top management. Is always on the look for identify new channels for business development and operationalizes the required processes. Continuously uses data to analyze various cuts of information to present trends and opportunities to the rest of the team. #### Coaching * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Is able to identify, interview, and recruit sales talent. Raises the bar with each new hire. Creates sales development resources including ICP, call scripts, and prospecting emails to ensure the consistency and effectiveness of our messaging. Heavily documents learnings, insights, and supporting material. Schedules weekly 1:1 with team members to go over emails and call recordings. Works with BDRs towards their individual career goals. Constantly shares best practices and tactics with the team. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Is deeply vested in BDRā€™s career aspirations. Builds individual plans for their growth. Uses tools and advanced techniques to collects insights on email scripts and calls. Documents and shares learnings across the team. Is ferocious with structured documentation. Continuously records learnings. Is able to take average performers and give them the confidence and guidance to become exceptional. Has a strong brand on LinkedIn as a BDR leader. Is constantly writing about best practices and is a thought leader in the space. #### Target achievement * :thumbsup: **Meets expectations** - Everything that is [expected from an AE](#ae-targets). Is able to ensure each member of the team is hitting their individual targets. * :trophy: **Exceeds expectations** - Everything that is [expected from an AE](#ae-targets). # People # Journey from a Megacorp to a Startup A candid chat with our Principal Engineering Manager - Somya Bhargava What entices you to work at a startup?; How did you adapt to a first-time manager role? - We were able to get some answers for ourselves from [Somya](https://www.linkedin.com/in/somya-bhargava-21177a53/) and what he had to say will definitely encourage first-time managers. Also, if youā€™re someone who has had apprehensions about working for an early-stage startup, these responses can prove to be gold for you. ![](/files/-M_vSMh-e4finA-9PeOV) **From a large multinational to an early-stage startup, what changed for you?** Asking "what changed for me" will be an understatement. This shift transformed the way I worked! Right out of college, I started my career in a large organization. The initial few years went smoothly, but I soon became aware of everything lost amidst multiple levels of hierarchy and approvals. Although processes and structure help keep a balance while working with a large team, it can be limiting if you pursue speed and innovation. At my previous organization, I remember building quite a few exciting solutions which never reached real users. At [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/), I could see many of my 'pet-project' features go live and get used by end users. I started to build solutions and could also experience users' journeys. These were the kind of experiences that I had missed being at a workplace that did not give me enough proximity to my users. I was elated when I came closer to seeing the impact I was leaving on the product and its users! **Hiring the first few members is a crucial decision for any startup. How was your first interaction with Satej (our co-founder & CEO), and how did the interview process go?** The [selection process](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/hiring) turned out to be very different from what I had experienced earlier. Most companies follow a standard process of asking algorithm questions followed by probing into the design and structure of codes. When I met [Satej](https://www.linkedin.com/in/satejs/) for an in-person interview, he mostly asked me questions about areas I would be expected to work in. While hiring managers at many other companies only focus on evaluating you for what you have done, here was someone trying to understand what I could do. This approach stood out! Besides the formal interactions during the process, I was also influenced by Satej's calm and composed demeanor. As they say, beyond where you work, it is important to have the right kind of people to work with. Of course, I did not take the decision of joining Rocketium in a jiffy. Given that I was going to take a big leap from leaving behind an MNC to work for an early-stage startup, I had my own set of insecurities, but the decision was a calculative risk that paid off big! I was too young to miss such a chance! I felt the people that I was collaborating with were trustworthy, and I believe no other opportunity at that point in time could have brought me closer to achieving my aspirations as Rocketium did! Six years later, I am glad Satej took the decision of hiring me, and I am equally glad that I joined this dream team. ![](/files/-M_vXYqyBXcSdBVO4Bmz) **Your first stint as a Manager started at Rocketium, how did you go about adapting to this new role?** I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. As cliche as it may sound, we all know - "With great power, comes great responsibility". I have been lucky to be around inspiring people throughout my career! People whom I could look up to. So when I was myself entrusted with the opportunity to be in a role that demands a high level of accountability, I wanted to do all it takes to be the best version of myself. In the past 3 years, being in a managerial role has not only given me an opportunity to build my team members' careers but also evolve as a person. I have imbibed the best practices I learned from my managers, and have tried my best to put them into practice. Every new team member has only added to improving my understanding of people, and thereby, my effectiveness as a manager. Also, being a first-time manager of the people I was already working closely with, only made it simpler for me. **What is your approach towards building and maintaining trust within your team?** I have no second thoughts as I say this, but the team makes it effortless for me. The [culture](https://culture.rocketium.com/culture/code) we have built over time helped us attract like-minded people. Most of the new members we've had over years were introduced to us by then teammates. Successful referrals and a contagiously peaceful work environment acted as a driver for me to win the team's trust and the other way around. Trust, kindness, and honesty matter to us more than any team member's pedigree. You ought to be thoughtful but kind to board our rocketship.
# Going from Entrepreneurship to Intrapreneurship A candid chat with our Senior Product Marketing Manager - Jatin Rastogi Entrepreneurship isnā€™t everyoneā€™s cup of tea. The responsibilities and accountability that come along with it, weigh higher than the success and money. Also, the perseverance never gets to take a back-seat. Jatin Rastogi, a Product Marketing Manager at [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/) and also an entrepreneur, finds a perfect balance between both his priorities. In a candid conversation, [Jatin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jatin-rastogi/) enlightened us about his career transition and shared a lot more about his experience with Rocketium. ![](/files/-MEgFvPqbL71lCi8V91S) **Moving from being an Entrepreneur to a Product Marketing Manager sounds like an interesting transition, how did this shift happen? Especially when you still have responsibilities towards your own start-up.** **Jatin:** It's true that I have responsibilities towards the company that I started as well as my role at Rocketium. But, the good part is that at no point I had to compromise either. After graduating, I started my career as a Software Developer. I was still pursuing my first job when the idea of launching a video production company came into my mind. That is when I launched Wildbeez Interactive with a few friends from college. What worked for us was that we had a very strong alumni network in terms of supporting startups. Some time down the line I left my first job and was simultaneously managing my duties as a Digital Media Specialist at National Entrepreneurship Network and a Founder at Wildbeez Interactive. While my startup was doing great, working with a lot of product clients made me curious about trying my hand at Product Marketing. More than anything else, I also realized that there was much more out there that I needed to learn. This is when I started looking out and found an opportunity with [Rocketium](https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketium/?viewAsMember=true). **What according to you are the similarities between your current role and the one as a Founder?** **Jatin:** Quite a few that I can think of. Let me tell you about the ones on top of my mind. 1. The one that stands true the most is that I get to work with people from diverse specializations. Having been a software developer myself, I easily understand the language of tech teams while empathizing with the problems & challenges of all others. 2. At my own startup, Iā€™ve closely worked with design teams. This developed a design sense in me. Now, at Rocketium a lot of similar [marketing](https://culture.rocketium.com/career-paths/marketing) collaterals, illustrations, case studies, decks, etc. are more or less owned by me. 3. The third is, the ability to quickly switch context. Being a Founder with a small team, I had to be all ears to every team member and boost every teamā€™s development regardless of its nature. This stands true for my role at [Rocketium](https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketium/?viewAsMember=true) as well. The fact that we arenā€™t a very large team, gives us the liberty and opportunity to be able to flexibly communicate cross-functionally. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/HzFb3bpg3LoIAUtCVPT5ZXLcFEmRHBuID6zdgEXt4QjXp4Pi1vSp3nChRWdQS4FplgjPakZiBdXChXh7aIBNp1hDxUyLhPtvd-9h8RKM-NBRyv_XKH4zoXqaWfMnQz4e_vTKd5s) **How do Rocketiumā€™s products help customers in the current time?** **Jatin:** The biggest feedback that we receive from customers is for productivity & predictability. A lot of our current customers wanted to [create video](https://rocketium.com/api/) assets in bulk and were doing so by using traditional adobe tools. They spent excess time and money unnecessarily. Here is how Rocketium has helped in making the pipeline more productive. Suppose you have a team of 10 [designers](https://rocketium.com/is/solutions/visual-designers/), each one of them has their own style of design and aesthetic sense. In such cases with the help of Rocketium, you can ensure that all of their outputs have a similar aesthetic while sustaining their uniqueness. We have large e-commerce enterprises as our clients and they use Rocketum to create templates. These templates help sellers to create product banners while sticking to the e-commerce platformā€™s design style. This way, we have simplified and streamlined the making of creatives for our clients. With communications at the center of every business right now, our product has paved the way for quick actions by clients. ![](/files/-MEgKX5MuDeBBAWL2Il8) **You seem to be living a busy life, with the ownership of your current role and your own startup that you support in parallel. How do you like to spend your time off work?** **Jatin:** There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing. One of them is playing the flute. Iā€™m not formally trained in it but learned it over time. Photography is also something Iā€™m keenly interested in. Although an amateur photographer, Iā€™ve done some professional shoots, not for money but for my own contentment. Off late, Iā€™ve not been able to pick up my camera and spend time capturing nature. Hoping that travel falls back to normal soon so my camera and I can go back to experience the serenity. I also enjoy listening to music. When I was really young, there was an uncle in my neighborhood who used to love listening to Ghazals & classical music. I grew up spending quite some time with him and learned about a lot of legendary musicians and singers from him. I guess my love for traditional music comes from there. ![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rcxe9rNY8T6mM1dt5GZGYGscQV89FK4X7P_1OQnPxX0BE4BlX4bQoI0XG6qP3GRzgf31ol1EGYlU-PnG9C0jH_Cdm7wolpbXtjgbzKgv3qydRkOKlvh_GDRyNC6rHRrncPeCA9o) **Last but not least, our readers would be keen to know why you think** [**Rocketium**](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/culture) **is a favorable place for someone to work?** **Jatin:** Iā€™ve worked at a large company in the past where I was just one drop in the ocean. I would never know how my contributions were making a bigger impact on the organization. [Working at Rocketium](https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Overview/Working-at-Rocketium-EI_IE1918018.11,20.htm) turned the tide for me. At times, Iā€™m awed by the level of transparency that we practice here. You wonā€™t believe we have a Slack channel where an update on every payment made to the company is shared with everyone. Even the details about the funding that weā€™re trying to raise and the impact weā€™re making on the current business environment are available openly. Everything that is directly or indirectly of importance for Rocketium, is made important for its employees too. And one thing that I personally believe stands out for the success of our product, is the super amazing level of [customer satisfaction](https://www.capterra.com/p/158516/Rocketium/). It is unbelievably insane how hard our teams work on addressing their concerns. If there happens to be an issue from the clientā€™s end, the priority immediately shifts to it. For me, the credit for this exceptionally good performance on customer satisfaction goes to the Account Management team. The clear vision of how your work is making a difference and how youā€™re growing with each contribution is immense. Isnā€™t that what all of us look for in our [careers](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/jobs)?
# From the lens of the first employee at Rocketium A candid chat with our first employee and Senior Engineering Manager - Sateesh Gandipadala When you have just launched your startup, in addition to the idea, market-fit and investment, the decision of choosing the first employee is equally crucial. For a founder to be all by themselves and make an individual believe in their vision, especially when there is no one else to vouch for it yet, is one of the toughest challenges. Something similar happened when our Founder & CEO [Satej Sirur](https://www.linkedin.com/in/satejs/) met [Sateesh Gandipadala](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sateesh-gandipadala-79146314/) and offered him an opportunity to join as the first employee of Rocketium. We asked Sateesh a few questions to know his side of the story and what makes him choose [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/) every day. ![Sateesh Gandipadala](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/WaN6vnkj_rF3HZbkvOS_qouwQOn48qpf8iuqS5ftcQ5L8Vc_K6u791Us0s2XQRufxrYTHNOhizGTWEBDd8mCayLPjTzQ8SrHw3QUzvOCNqLaq9nCDYbvtBHd2fTd_fTqH5mVadQ) **Do you mind sharing your career trajectory and what brought you to Rocketium?** **Sateesh:** Of course, why not! So, my professional journey began in 2008 when I completed my Masters in Computer Applications. It was at the same time when the recession had hit India.It was difficult for fresh talent like me to find a job in the corporate world. During that time I found a prospective opportunity and joined NIIT (Vizag) as a Software Trainer. I also worked at one another Engineering college as a Professor until late 2009. One of my friends was a game developer and his company was accepting applications. I grabbed that opportunity as a chance to learn. Eventually, I developed an interest in the field of game development. After working in the gaming industry for almost three and a half years, I started feeling stagnation in my growth and realised that I needed to expand my horizon. Following my gut, I started looking for new opportunities again in 2015 and that is when I met Satej. I was approached via a consulting firm that was hiring for Rocketium. The fact that the Rocketium is a [startup](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rocketium), was itself a captivating for me. I knew I wouldnā€™t get another opportunity to work on an idea from scratch and develop out of the box skills. Then, I was scheduled for a meeting with Satej and that was the end of any second thoughts that I may have had. The extent of transparency with which he explained Rocketiumā€™s purpose and the offered role, was enough to win my trust and join him in the journey. **Being the first employee, youā€™ve witnessed the product and the team grow first hand. Being in the position of a Full-Stack Developer, can you tell us about the journey of how Rocketium has evolved over the years?** **Sateesh:** Many people do not know that Rocketium didnā€™t start with the product that it has become today. In the beginning, we were a platform where users could send their story and we helped them create mini-games. But, soon we realised that the concept wasnā€™t aligning well with the market need. The idea to transform Rocketium into a software that helps in designing videos & images easily came from one of our users. After researching some more, it made us realise that the need was widely felt among many customers. Over time, as we continued receiving feedback from users, we kept iterating and developing the productā€™s capacity. Initially, we built [Rocketium Studio](https://rocketium.com/is/free-online-video-maker-for-social-media/) with two variations which were built on frontend & JQuery. The tool was made in a way that used AI on the backend to produce aesthetic creatives. In some time we had a new UX team in place and they designed the new product on ReactJS. As the business progressed, we thought of building something that could also be used by agencies and enterprises instead of just individuals. We focused on companies that didnā€™t have enough time and resources to develop an AI-enabled designing product of their own, while Rocketium was already in the functioning stage and helping hundreds of users. This gave us an opportunity to develop an [API](https://rocketium.com/api/) and later the white-label creator. We kept the feedback loop open for customers and continued to innovate & develop as per their needs. **It has been 5 years since you joined. What makes you continue to choose to work with Rocketium every day?** **Sateesh:** I donā€™t think I have to think twice before answering this. As we encourage our employees to be selfish about their careers, I have three major reasons. 1. **Challenging projects.** When I joined as the first employee, I knew I had a lot to be accountable for. But the best part was, this took my learning and knowledge to another level. Until today, the charm of working on challenges is the same as it was five years ago.
2. **Transparency beyond expectations.** In all these years, there has never been an 'I don't know whom to ask' moment for me. Also, businesses are not always about the good news but bad news as well. What makes Rocketium special is that our founders donā€™t shy away from acknowledging and openly discussing down times too. And this stands true for all members at Rocketium.
3. **Rich learning.** The amount of learning that individuals gain here is something that isnā€™t taught at a University. The scope of oneā€™s skills isnā€™t limited by their role or position here. I remember knowing nothing about using data in derivations for software product development, nor did I have an understanding of the concept of marketing funnels. But being here exposed me to fields of learning that I would have never practiced elsewhere. With all this and much more to the list, there isnā€™t a doubt why I would not choose [Rocketium ](https://www.linkedin.com/company/9402873/admin/)every single day. **Working with a startup comes with its own share of challenges and extended workload, sometimes. Speaking of that, how do you manage to keep a sound balance between your personal and work life?** **Sateesh:** I admire the kind of planning, organizing, and optimization with which our whole team works. I donā€™t think there has ever been a time when I really had to compromise between my personal and professional life. We follow an 8:00 am-4:00 PM work schedule which gives me ample time to spend with my family and personal interests. Speaking on behalf of the development team, there can often be crunch time. But we make sure to plan in advance to avoid any last-minute hustle. Every Monday, we huddle-up to discuss the priorities for the week. Daily morning stand-ups also help in ensuring that weā€™re working at the right speed. So by the end of the week, each one of us has enough room to complete our checklist and spend the post-work hours and the weekend in peace. ![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/PRq7KBqRSTZUSVf_u1r0DLj2iB2uHc1HSU-GEaIS3sbvU0LZfdIElaW7LS174Sy-pLl4hzvxBe6YCPVHDuMQ8uOldXw-CNeoVbzo-ZxwWKn1SbfEzhYHVCtgY09kcFRM56M1zXc) **What advice would you give to job seekers looking to join** [**Rocketium**](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/jobs)**?** **Sateesh:** I would say, the candidates should just be themselves and not put up an act of chicanery during the interview. The [founders ](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/people)and the leadership team at Rocketium are as transparent as they can be with every aspect of the business. It is justified for them to expect this from prospective employees too. I can also guarantee that along with over the top learning from experts, you will also receive a fair share of rewards & recognition for your efforts. We do not restrict our recruiters to only hire from premier institutes. Our approach is to evaluate an individualā€™s problem-solving skills. We try to gauge how an individual reads the user experience and how well can they contribute to building a world-class product. # Not just another workplace, but one that nurtures growth A candid chat with our Senior Enterprise Account Manager - Srijan Kumud [Srijan Kumud](https://www.linkedin.com/in/srijan-kumud-1b87b2b0/) joined Rocketium in 2017 when the idea was just two years young. It was the belief system of the founders that ingrained the confidence in him to be a part of a plan that is more than merely a business. With this thought of associating with an organization that has a broader perspective, Srijan found his calling. Itā€™s been three years since. Curious to know more about Srijan and his life at [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/), we drove into a candid chat with him. ![](/files/-MEueR1FefEUxwI75jP0) **What has it been like for you to** **be an Enterprise Account Manager at Rocketium?** **Srijan:** I started my career as an Analyst at a legal & tech consulting firm. It was only later that I realised how much contentment I found in building relationships. This marked the beginning of my career as a Sales & Business Development professional. When I joined [Rocketium](https://www.linkedin.com/company/9402873/admin/), it was the Sales team that I first became a part of. As our clientele grew, I got an opportunity to accept the responsibilities of an Enterprise Account Manager. I canā€™t really sum-up in words how amazing the learning curve turned out to be. Currently, I manage over 30 accounts and these include some of the large enterprises. I work with stakeholders across different teams - [Product](https://rocketium.com/is/easy-to-integrate-whitelabel-product/), [Design](https://rocketium.com/is/creative-automation/), [Engineering](https://rocketium.com/api/), Sales, etc. This role allows me to be the Brand Ambassador of Rocketium. I also act as an advisor for the clients, which gives me fulfilment. **What according to you is the key driving force behind Rocketiumā€™s speedy growth?** **Srijan:** The credit for this one hands-down goes to our promptness in analysing, evaluating, and executing what customers need. One of our [prime directives](https://culture.rocketium.com/culture/code) is ā€˜Customer is our north starā€™, and all this while weā€™ve actually been living by that. When you build a product on your own, you tend to equip it with a few key features, but with our close-knit relationship with users, we receive first-hand feedback that helps in constant improvement. This not only keeps our customers happy, but it also helps us stay ahead of the competition. Another key driver of Rocketiumā€™s growth is the ability to adapt since day-1. We started off as a platform for mini-games and soon after many interactions with our customers, we realised that there was a greater need for an easy way to create videos & images at scale. That is how we pivoted and expanded our product suite with the introduction of API and White Label creator. Also, needless to say, our product and development teams are to be immensely credited. They have built the product on a strong but agile base which ensures its competence to evolve. We think of it as lego, where we give you the building blocks and you can mould it the way you want. ![](/files/-MEueZtXItCdY5B4LDYq) **If youā€™re stuck in a problem at work, whom do you see as the go-to person and why?** **Srijan:** It would be an injustice to mention only one name here. Our teams and culture are so cohesive that I need not think twice before walking up to anyone for support. Working as a Key Account Manager can sometimes get exhausting due to the nature of responsibilities. But my colleagues and seniors ensure that it doesnā€™t take over my physical and mental health. I remember this one time I was overloaded with work and my manager [Karan Rao](https://www.linkedin.com/in/raokaran/) told me that I need to shed the burden and took up some of my work. There have also been times when [Satej](https://www.linkedin.com/in/satejs/), our Co-Founder has pinged to ask why was I working on a weekend. How often do you find a workplace where you get this level of support from your seniors? Everyone at Rocketium is a go-to person for help regardless of the nature of the problem, or hierarchy. **Is there something that most people donā€™t know about you?** **Srijan:** Well, that is a difficult question for me to answer. Most of my colleagues are like close friends. Once I befriend people, I generally donā€™t hesitate to let my casual side out. But if I have to think about it hard, I guess there is one thing that many of my current and ex-workmates donā€™t know. I am very passionate about contributing back to society. My parents run an NGO back in my hometown Bhopal, for about 10 years now. Iā€™ve been actively supporting them and have personally tried to render support to similar organizations. ![](/files/-MEuedWleiLUBRwDTO5m) **Our secret sources have told us that youā€™re an amazing singer, what is your favourite music genre?** **Srijan:** Iā€™m surprised how you happen to discover that detail! But oh well, not that Iā€™ve really tried to keep it a secret. Yes, music is something that really takes my heart away. Back in my graduation days at BITS - Pilani, I was also a part of the music club and enjoyed singing. Not to forget mentioning that I still do! I love humming to Bollywood songs. If Iā€™ve to name one favourite genre, I would say Sufi. Lately, Iā€™m also trying to spare time for learning to play Guitar & Keyboard. ![](/files/-MEuf-5l5iqK0Wpsl_fq) **What message would you like to give someone who is seeking a career opportunity with Rocketium?** **Srijan:** What we have at [Rocketium](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rocketium) is above many others in the startup ecosystem. Be it professional or personal growth, work culture, learning curve, or the opportunity to simply voice our ideas. Honestly, I have friends working at some of the best organizations in India and weighing it against their experience I can confidently vouch for the promising culture weā€™re practising here. What influences me the most is that nobody is trying to create a boss-subordinate culture. Be it employees or an intern. Satej & Anuragā€™s leadership style shows that one doesnā€™t need to be hard-boiled or spiteful to be a CEO or to gain followers. Our foundersā€™ vision includes watching each one of us become a leader. Yes, I agree Rocketium is not a billion-dollar company yet but we'll get there soon, one milestone at a time. The idea is for you to create something of your own, build yourself and find within us a family away from home.
# Do what you love, and love what you do A candid chat with our Content Marketing Manager - Vineetha Shetty It takes courage, persistence and resilience to pursue your passion. While it may sound like a piece of cake, the path isnā€™t always as rewarding as we expect it to be. It takes a great deal of acceptance and acknowledgement of oneā€™s own flaws to be open to learning something new. The story of our Content Head - [Vineetha Shetty](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vineethashetty/), is one such example. She began her career as a Test Engineer and as her flair for content developed, she took a leap into starting a career in Marketing. Here we walk you through how she transitioned into becoming a Content Marketer and how she ended up joining [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/). ![](/files/-MEudqYJjsknciDxuHew) **You began your career as a Test Engineer and after about 4 years you moved into Marketing. What really drove this transition?** **Vineetha:** Yes, thatā€™s true. Like any other fresh engineering graduate, I was really excited to begin my professional career when I got a job at Mindtree via campus placements. I continued to work there as a Test Engineer for close to 4 years. I always had a flair for writing. In fact, content and creatives were something that excited me a lot. It seemed like I did become an Engineer but wasnā€™t destined to remain one. I had a friend who was an official reporter for Bangalore Royal Challengers, and I was highly intrigued by her work. It made me think about pursuing journalism & marketing as a career. To quench my thirst for learning, I signed up for a Digital marketing course on DigitalVidya. One day, I connected a startup through a friend and that is when the second innings of my career began. I joined that startup as the individual contributor for Digital Marketing and this opportunity gave me an extremely solid foundation. From that time until today I have worked with different advertising agencies, collaborated with multiple clients and joined Rocketiumā€™s in itā€™s a journey, in Dec 2019. **Knowing that you did have an offer from another organization that was comparatively larger in size, why did you decide to join Rocketium?** **Vineetha:** The work culture at startups fascinated me. When I interacted with the panel members and the leaders during the interview process, a connect was established right there! This interview was completely different from all others that I had ever attended. The questions that I was asked were mostly to evaluate if I am the right [cultural fit](https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Overview/Working-at-Rocketium-EI_IE1918018.11,20.htm). The evaluation was not limited to what experience I had from the past but what I wanted to do. The founders wanted to know more about me as an individual, and that immediately struck the chord. ![](/files/-MEue0V4V_uWHSN0ifl6) **What do you love the most about your job?** **Vineetha:** [Content](https://rocketium.com/academy/) is something that allows you to express. You create a piece that captures the user's interest and that is surely not an easy deal. Suppose if you had to write a poem, you will need to think through and choose the right words, phrases, metaphors, similes, etc. that resonate with the reader. The use of data analysis for developing content strategies has also opened doors for new learning opportunities and experimenting. It is about how we tactfully integrate content & technology. The amalgamation of all these challenges, makes me love my job more. **In a short span of time that youā€™ve spent at** [**Rocketium**](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rocketium)**, what makes you believe that you made the right choice?** **Vineetha:** Even though it has been only a few months since I joined the team, there have been many junctures that made me feel confident about my decision. Although I head the content, Iā€™m free to move around and learn as much I want from any other function. Be it Sales, Account Management, Business Development or anything else. The recognition for contributions is very transparent and there hasnā€™t been a time when I would have been made to feel anything less than valuable. The motto of our leaders says ā€˜You grow, we growā€™. They encourage their employees to think about their careers selfishly and focus on growing, either with Rocketium or outside. They work with us and are not afraid to learn with us. Until today, I havenā€™t experienced a dull moment with Rocketium and with the kind of atmosphere we work in, I donā€™t think there would be any in the coming times either. ![](/files/-MEue6zvU8T3ldNP6gFX) **If we announce a last-minute day-off for tomorrow, how would you want to spend your impromptu free day?** **Vineetha:** I would like to answer that assuming weā€™re all back to the normal world where Corona isnā€™t a nightmare anymore. I have a one-year-old daughter and my heart goes for her! If I suddenly get a free day, I would definitely want to spend time playing with her. Other than that Iā€™m a huge fan of sports too, I was an athlete as a kid. I love playing badminton, tennis and cricket. So, I would also like to spare some time playing my favourite sport - Badminton. And after all of that, if I still have some time left, I would love to go around driving with my husband and trying new cuisines at restaurants.\ \ **What message would you want to share with someone who is looking forward to working with Rocketium?** **Vineetha:** I would say Rocketium has a highly competitive and results-driven environment. At the end of the day, it is about how you contributed. Not to forget mentioning, that doesnā€™t mean you arenā€™t allowed to fail here. Failure is a part and parcel of anything that we do, what makes the difference is if you stood up to try again. Sometimes what happens is that we have a lot of passion and fire within us but do not know how to move forward in the right direction. All you think about is growing. This is where the Rocketium team helps you. They know how the industry needs are changing and will do all they can to upgrade your skills. If you think you can take problems as a challenge and are open to saying ā€˜Yesā€ to learning what you never did before,[ Rocketium](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/jobs) is the place for you.\ \
# Being yourself at work is not a myth A candid chat with our Engineering team member - Abhishek Rastogi Our first job always has a special place in our hearts. The first time we are no more seen as a student and are entrusted with greater responsibilities. The first time we get to call a spot our own work-desk. The first time when a colleague who was just an acquaintance becomes a buddy for tea breaks. [Abhishek Rastogi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/princu7/), one of the youngest members of our [Rocketium](https://www.linkedin.com/company/9402873/admin/) family joined us as a Software Engineer in March 2019. While in a way this is his first job but still, not literally his first job. Confused..? His responses below from a candid conversation will reveal the story for you! ![Abhishek Rastogi](/files/-MF3rKKkYbhCMeBT_erT) **Letā€™s begin by pulling off the curtain from the confusion first. So, is Rocketium the first company you started working at?** **Abhishek:** Haha Sure! No, Rocketium is not my first company. Even before I had graduated, I was working as a remote employee for a German company. In the last year of my engineering, I came across an opportunity on AngelList to which I applied and I eventually earned that offer. It was after 1.5 years of working with them that I realised it was time to take a step ahead. I needed to look for some mentoring and guidance to upscale my career further. Working remotely all the time was beginning to get on my nerves. So one day, in one of the Slack communities that I am a part of, I posted about looking for new opportunities. Fortunately, a then employee of [Rocketium](https://rocketium.com/) was also a part of that community. He saw that post and reached out to me. He explained all the nuances of the opportunity and everything that it had in store for me. And well, the rest is history. I became a part of the engineering team here in March 2019. **Moving to Bangalore was new for you. There was also going to be a huge shift in the nature of the work environment considering that you had only experienced remote work before. What do you have to share about this whole experience?** **Abhishek:** The change was quite big but not discomforting. Moving to a new city far away from Lucknow, came with its own set of opportunities and challenges. Like anyone else, I had also heard a lot about three things that identify Bangalore - opportunities for techies, traffic, and weather. Right when I relocated, I chose to find an accommodation closest to the office. Eventually, the new city and new environment fell in place. The experience of moving to a physical work environment after working remotely for 1.5 years, came with its own share of inhibitions and excitement. But I knew I had to do this to bring back my social life, self-discipline, and earn a lot of new learning. ![](/files/-MF3uJuNHPKp7Ecly3B8) **Which part of working at Rocketium is the most favorite to you?** **Abhishek:** Let me start by sharing something honestly here. I had always heard of the work environment at Indian companies as very alarming. More than the success stories, it was the horror stories that crowded my mind. Incidents where your boss tries to overpower you, or where youā€™re forced to stay quiet and follow the instructions of the top management. All of these notions held me back from trusting the value propositions that companies made while hiring. But joining Rocketium brought all my fears to a stand-still. Despite being the youngest, my abilities have never been deduced from my experience. It is my potential that Iā€™m recognized for. There is freedom of not only ideas but also of choosing projects and timelines. And not to forget mentioning, never have I ever been micro-managed. From everyday processes to finances, to sales figures, to hiring criteria, there is transparency in the tiniest of things! It is this unprecedented freedom to work that I enjoy the most! ![](/files/-MF3uy4UUKgINaDj_CmN) **When not busy coding, what can you be often found doing?** **Abhishek:** With the 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. work schedule I happen to find ample time for myself. Most of the time I can be found at the gym, working out and lifting. Other times I usually practice playing the guitar. Iā€™m also an avid reader of fiction. A big fan of modern mystery novels. At present, Iā€™m reading Agatha Christieā€™s collection of short stories. Trust me theyā€™re really good, I recommend you read them too! **Do you think Rocketium is a good place for a budding Engineer to start their career?** **Abhishek:** There is no way I wonā€™t recommend young engineers to work at Rocketium. I joined with my own share of insecurities which vanished over time. I was even more comfortable after I got to know the team more. The [leaders](https://angel.co/company/rocketium/people), the [culture](https://culture.rocketium.com/), the mentorship, everything is just so right and makes me visualise a better tomorrow for myself. At least from my point of view, one doesnā€™t often find a workplace where everyone is collectively aiming towards a business goal and at the same time building you as a person too! Rocketium lets your voice echo, welcomes your opinions, and blesses you with mentors for life.
# Hiring Details of Rocketium's hiring process ## Guiding principles These are a few guiding principles for the hiring team at Rocketium. * **Treat candidates the way you want to be treated** - Interviews are a source of stress even for the most confident and accomplished candidates. We have all been on the other side of the table with good and bad interviewers. Be the sort of interviewer that you want to have. * **Candidates are evaluating you as much as you are evaluating them** - Do not make the entire interview a one-way evaluation. Give candidates the opportunity to learn more about you, your work, and your vision. * **Give feedback when you can** - Not everyone likes getting feedback especially if they did poorly in an interview. Feedback is a precious gift that few people give. Skip the "Your profile did not fit with the role" and give real feedback that tells candidates why you were unable to proceed further with them. * **Standardise what you evaluate and how you do it** - It is good to tailor the conversation so it does not feel robotic. However, it is important to maintain a standard set of evaluation criteria that depend on the role and seniority to avoid subtle biases. This also simplifies the debriefing process by ensuring that everyone is talking the same language. * **Prioritise culture fit** - Our [Prime Directives](/culture/code/v1#prime-directives-grouped-by-stakeholders) are a good guide to the sort of person who will be successful at Rocketium. They are broad enough to encourage diversity of thought and action but specific enough to disqualify people who will likely not see Rocketium as the right place for themselves. ## Stages in the hiring process Rocketium's typical hiring process involves the following steps:- 1. Discovery call (Video/Phone call) 2. Interview I (Video call) 3. Take-home project (Case-by-case basis) 4. Interview II - Team Interactions (In-person) 5. Other Interactions ### Discovery call This call is with our people success team or the hiring manager. The purpose of this call is to establish a broad fit for both, you and us. We try to establish whether we meet your expectations of role, culture, responsibilities, compensation, and any other areas important for you to know before investing time into the process. We intend to understand how can the role you're interviewing for help in meeting both of our expectations. During this conversation, you can also learn about some of our product's use cases, the kind of customers we work with, team size & structure, and more... ### Interview I These interviews happen with one or two teammates at a time and are intended to understand your technical grasp of competencies imperative for the role. This is also a good opportunity to brainstorm ideas and have a good back-and-forth about how your experience from past projects can bring innovative solutions to the problems we're trying to solve. ### Take-home project (case-by-case basis) This is a controversial topic. As a candidate, we would hate to do "homework" for every company we speak with. However, we believe this is a critical part of the process. We make sure projects are representative of the eventual work that you will do at Rocketium. Sometimes, these projects are nothing more than a planning exercise for your actual job. This gives both parties clarity about what you will eventually do, how you will do it, what support you need, and if this partnership will eventually be successful. We try to be respectful of your time - we pick projects that will take 3-5 hours of effort and let you tell us when you will complete it. This stage is not mandatory for all roles and is looped in the process for positions that demand a kickstart for deeper technical discussions. For e.g. Product, Sales, Customer Success. ### Interview II - Team Interactions (In-person) We believe in more than just hiring employees ā€“ we're building a team of exceptional performers. That's why we've designed the second stage of our interview process to be a unique and interactive experience, tailored to bring out the best in our candidates. During this stage, you'll have the opportunity to connect with as many stakeholders as possible. You'll engage in meaningful conversations and learn about the pain points and opportunity areas in each of their functions. But, it's not just about the formalities. It's about having genuine conversations, sharing ideas, and demonstrating your ability to adapt and collaborate with different teams. It's not just about impressing us with your skills and qualifications; it's about showing us who you are, and your thought process. The end goal is for you to present you to put your learnings together and present them in the form of a solution as a whole. ### Other interactions We typically schedule time with members of other teams with whom you will work or founders. This gives them an opportunity to evaluate culture fit and candidates the opportunity to get a sneak peek of the other teammates with whom they will work. This is a good place to have candid conversations about what they like, what they saw change, and what they would like to see change. {% hint style="info" %} **Note:** The nuances in each of these stages can be influenced by the seniority of the position or the nature of the function youā€™re interviewing for. {% endhint %} ## Interview tips This advice is specific to Rocketium because of [how we operate](https://culture.rocketium.com/culture/code). Other companies may not respond the same way that we do. However, we think this is good career advice in general. * **Be clear about why you are looking for a change** - We are not looking for the "right" answer. What we care about are the specific reasons that made you consider moving instead of changing things in your current role. For all you know, Rocketium will have the same conditions that made you leave your current role. Being as open as possible here will help us avoid pitfalls down the road. * **Read up on the company, especially its culture** - You are more than your home, car, gadgets, and other belongings. The same way, a company is more than its offices, revenue, or stock price. The company is the people who are working in it. This means it is critical for you to know how they work and why they work a certain way. [Our culture code](/culture/code/v1) captures some of our guiding principles. * **Remember that you are making a big investment** - Investors invest in multiple companies but you work only for one at a time. In many ways, you are making a far bigger investment than investors by committing your reputation, time, and mind space to the company. Do your research and ask enough questions so you are convinced this is the right step. # Onboarding A guide to what a new team member's onboarding looks like at Rocketium Every new team member's success is a responsibility we both share. We provide them with all the right resources that can help in building on our 3-step Master Plan aimed at personal and organizational growth. In return, we expect them to take a plunge into different aspects of how we think and absorb the parts they feel the most connected with. The sooner both of us start visualizing our growth together, the more successfully we reach there. All new team members at Rocketium go through a multi-stage process of getting to know the industry, product, teams, tools, and practices over 2-4 weeks. These onboarding phases are divided into five sections: **ā€¢** [**Industry**](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/on-boarding-process#industry)\ **ā€¢** [**About Rocketium**](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/on-boarding-process#about-rocketium)\ **ā€¢** [**Team**](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/on-boarding-process#team)\ **ā€¢** [**Product**](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/on-boarding-process#product)\ **ā€¢** [**Role**](https://culture.rocketium.com/process/on-boarding-process#role) We call this combination of learning content **Rocketium University**. ### Industry We accept the fact that sales automation, marketing automation, or supply-chain automation are established categories, unlike [creative automation](https://rocketium.com/academy/what-is-a-creative-management-platform-cmp-vendor-guide/). Creative automation is still an alien concept to most organizations even if they need it the most. Every time we ask a new person what they understand about our industry, the answers are often different and interesting. Also, our teamā€™s background is fairly diverse so not everyone knows about B2B, SaaS, or startups. We realized that there were folks who brought commendable talent but were new to these concepts. This is where we had to start! We put together a series of articles and videos to help team members get up to speed on startups, SaaS, campaign lifecycle, and creative automation. This was a combination of curated articles and content that we created. ### About Rocketium Before a team member gets to know the team and the product, they need to understand why Rocketium exists in the first place and what is the problem that we are solving. In this section, the walkthrough starts with an introduction to digital marketing and digital design software. For anyone to learn about Rocketiumā€™s product value proposition, they need to know the challenges of marketing and design teams. Concepts like campaigns, channels, A/B testing, and analytics are a part of the everyday vocabulary of marketers. Learning about some of these helps new team members in understanding what is important for our customers. The same goes for design teams, their workflow, tools they are familiar with, and how they use them in their daily work. Lastly, we use the *Problem > Feature > Impact framework* to educate our team about the key problem that we are solving, how our features are solving them, and what impact we are able to create with this feature. We do this by going into the details of how campaign operations are carried out and the workflow followed by marketers and designers. ### Team The last mistake an organization would want to make while on-boarding new team members is not exposing them enough to their teammates across departments. At Rocketium, we start introductions with different teams right from the first week. In the past two years when remote onboarding has been at its peak, team catch-ups have played a big role in making new team members feel engaged and included. During the first two weeks, new team members are made to catch up with each team and team leads. The session with team leads gives them an inside look into the goals for each team, what they do on a daily basis, and how they add value to our users. The session with each team is an ice-breaker and a way to foster more cross-team collaboration. A few examples:- * **Marketing** team shares how our customers run campaigns, the metrics they track, and how they use of creatives impacts their ROI * **Customer Success** team shares our key customers, how we onboard them, how they collaborate with product teams to make our customers win * **Product and Engineering** teams share how they prioritize new features, analytics that goes into choosing the right improvements, and our roadmap ### Product Regardless of which team anyone joins, we encourage everyone to know the fundamentals of Rocketiumā€™s product. While some teams need deeper knowledge than others, basic and intermediate levels of learning are common for all. Advanced product training happens for select team members depending on their role. Rocketium is a product for growth-stage marketing and design teams. Every product learning module uses the Problem > Feature > Impact framework to help new team members learn both the why and what of our features. Each of these modules is followed by a short assignment that allows teammates to try the feature to gain practical experience of how it is used by our users. To encourage product learning among all team members even beyond the onboarding phase, the Product and HR teams collaborate with all teams through the Product Learning Tracker. It is updated with details of major new features that teams can review weekly and stay up-to-date with demo videos. ### Role After two weeks of general learning, we start with functional learning. It is by this time that new team members get a hang of the basics and are ready to start learning more about their team and role. Each team has its own onboarding goals and processes. A few examples:- * Customer-facing teams like **Sales** and **Customer Success** focus on case studies, call reviews, customer understanding, tool walkthroughs * **Design** team focuses more on our brand guidelines, advanced product training * **Product** and Engineering teams focus more on roadmap, advanced product training, dev environment setup * **Marketing** team focuses on customer understanding, campaign overview, content plan ## Reflection Throughout the onboarding, new team members attend a daily catch-up with their managers to share what they are learning and their thoughts on improving the process. After every learning module, they fill out reflection forms that have a few questions so team members can summarize what they learned and what other ideas they have. This helps them retain what they learned better and also helps us improve the onboarding process. A few examples of the reflection forms:- ![](/files/1pWCfu88BV0pakOwMlNy) ![](/files/15QcUHUnyRfT6p5KNO8M) # Performance Philosophy The philosophy of Performance Management at Rocketium ties back to all four of our [Prime Directives](/culture/code). * Enabling the team members in identifying their stronger competencies and rewarding them for being **exceptional at their craft**. We do this by reflecting on the impact areas and how their efforts brought a positive change. Also, identifying everything they could do differently to leave an even bigger impact. * Integrating the development areas with the growth plan. Every team member is encouraged to push above their limits while **striving to be better every day**. The goals are structured in a way that theyā€™re constantly aiming towards pushing you to meet the bar one level above. Team members who perform multi-levels above are rewarded in line with it. * We can only become aware of our strengths and development areas by **sharing openly & often**. Managers are expected to share timely clear and pointed feedback to avoid unpleasant surprises. Calling out low-quality deliverables or unmet expectations is expected to be as clear as the praises for exceeded expectations. The sharing of clear feedback goes vice-versa, to ensure the effectiveness of the manager as well. * Each feedback shared, tough decision taken, or a goal planned, is modelled keeping in mind that **empathy is our superpower**. We take into consideration all the possible ways of doing things rightfully such that they are in the best interest of the individual, and the team. If the interest of either is breached, we should know that our intent has failed. ### **How do we manage performance?** Performance management at Rocketium is done is done in more ways than one. * **Monthly 1:1s -** All managers perform 1:1s with each of their direct reports, on a monthly cadence. These check-ins are leveraged for discussing the progress on goals, status of priorities, clear feedback about met/unmet expectations, mental well-being, and work-life balance.
* **Semi-annual reviews -** We run performance reviews twice a year *(H1:Jan-Jun, H2:Jul-Dec)*. The outcomes of these reviews are both tangible (*role change, salary change, more ESOPs*) and intangible (*clarity on expectations, performance mapping with peers, ā€¦*). The incremental feedback, improvements, and quality of deliverables over 6 months, cumulatively account for the outcomes in these reviews. Sometimes, they adopt further ways if it adds value to them. ### **Indicators of high performance** * Consistently keeping up with the timelines and performing above your level * High-quality deliverables with close estimations and requiring little to no revisions * Maintaining the table stakes high *(showing up on time in planned meetings, displaying accountability, taking ownership of mistakes, promptness in responding to critical requests)* * Building trust and showing empathy towards fellow team members *(Keeping away from gossiping, spreading false rumours, being unapologetically rude)* * Setting up fellow team members for success but supporting them in their dependent goals ### **Indicators of high performance of a manager** All of the above and - * Consistently sharing clear feedback * Documenting the feedback towards improvement areas * Displaying the aptitude to timely act upon the improvement of low performing team members * Creating a cordial work environment for the team members and keeping away from *resorting to micromanagement, not being open to listening to ideas, not taking feedback positively* * Respecting the space and mental wellbeing of the team members ### **Next steps for the Manager if they see signs of underperformance in a team member** * Reflect on their past performance records before making any strong judgements * Share feedback with them and try to understand if they are going through any personal crisis * Understand if there are any extrinsic factors at work that are affecting their performance * Resort to one or all of the options mentioned in the next section #### Basis the severity of performance negligence, all or some of the below options will be chosen - 1. **Feedback -** When a manager notices signs of underperformance, they are expected to immediately bring them up with the team member. There should not necessarily be a waiting period until the monthly 1:1 for sharing such feedback. Given that these signs can affect a team memberā€™s eventual performance evaluation during the 6-monthly cycle, there should be no blind spots left behind. This feedback should also documented on the performance management platform during the check-ins so it can be referred back to during the review cycle.
2. **Performance Improvement Plan *****(PIP)*** - This is to clearly mark the areas where a team member has consistently missed meeting expectations and the manager wants them to work towards helping develop those. The intent of a PIP is to believe that the team member will consciously acknowledge the gaps and put efforts into improvement.\ The manager can choose to skip the PIP and decide on taking step-3 if the performance gap is large and the team member has not been showing the intent to fill that gap. In a case where the manager chooses to implement a PIP, they need to meet the following prerequisites - 1. There should have been a written note of recurring feedback from the past 2. A 1:1 discussion along with the written details specifying - 1. *What was expected?* 2. *What was missed?* 3. *What needs to be done in order to make this PIP successful?* 4. *What will be the duration of this PIP?* 5. What happens if the team member is unable to meet the expectations of the P*IP?* 3. Looping the people success team in the conversation thread about PIP. This is to help the people team prepare for the necessary next steps in advance and also to touch-base with the team memberā€™s improvement. If the team member has not been able to meet all goals stated in the PIP but has made significant progress, the manager at their discretion can choose to extend the duration of the PIP. This should again be for a stipulated no. of days agreed upon.
3\. **Parting Ways -** This should be the last step if the team member has not shown progress or the intent to progress, even after multiple nudges. If the team member fails to meet the expected goals listed in the performance improvement plan, we will unfortunately have to part ways with them. If a team member has been underperforming behaviourally, the manager can decide to part ways with them without necessarily putting them on a performance improvement plan. Disciplinary actions can also lead to parting ways with a team member. The people success team is kept in the loop before a decision is shared. # Co-pilot program Details of Rocketium's voluntary peer support program ## Background Our March 2020 Open House was the first one after the pandemic-induced lockdown started. We had never experienced forced work-from-home before. Not to mention the human toll outside of our professional lives. A few Open House questions were around the support that we could get and offer each other during these times. This gave us an idea to create **Rocketium Co-pilot**, a way for peers to help each other not just emotionally but in other areas that could help them be the best version of themselves. ## Summary * **Take-off** - Voluntary participation for pilots and co-pilots * **In-flight** - Open agenda, structured catch-ups, continuous feedback * **Landing** - Pilots or co-pilots can stop when the time is right ## How it works ### Take-off Someone seeking a co-pilot is a "pilot". They are the primary person responsible for getting the "plane" safely to its destination. Everyone needs outside help and perspective to get better so we encourage everyone to seek a co-pilot. Anyone can help others in this journey so we encourage everyone to be a co-pilot if they can. Neither pilots or co-pilots are limited by their department or seniority. However, participation in the program is voluntary. Not everyone is clear enough about their goals to seek help or has the time and skills to offer help. To ensure a match between pilots and co-pilots, we ask pilots to fill out a 2-question survey (*see below*). If the requested co-pilots agree, then we match pilots and co-pilots to start the program.
### In-flight Pilots and co-pilots agree on a cadence and format for their discussions. We have seen weekly, biweekly, and monthly sync-ups. People do it in person, over the phone, or on video calls. We encourage doing this during work hours but some people prefer after work while others prefer weekends. The time and regularity depend on what both pilots and co-pilots are comfortable with. The topics of discussion are broadly in the areas covered in the survey - friendly chat, industry knowledge, soft skill training, learning skills, or career guidance. The most common topics have been industry knowledge, career guidance, and soft skill training. Both pilots and co-pilots take the sessions seriously to ensure success. Co-pilots share reading material or small projects that pilots can do between two sessions to put some of the discussion into practice. On the other hand, co-pilots also train themselves on the topic so whatever they share is useful and substantial. There is also continuous feedback between pilots and co-pilots to ensure that these sessions actually add value. ### Landing Co-pilot sessions end for a few reasons - achieved objectives, no interest, lack of time. Obviously, the preferred outcome is the first one but we understand that not all projects can be successful. It is important to recognise when the sessions are no longer adding value for either participant and then taking corrective action. This can include ending the sessions. Pilots and co-pilots go on to work with each other or someone else in the coming days because, ultimately, the program is to help each other be the best version of ourselves.