CASE STUDY #1
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CLIENT FEEDBACK
Threshold for success was high. Work8.co exceeded our expectations on quality of talent onboarded. Demonstrated thorough expertise in the autonomous systems and robotics technical requirements. Moved fast with accuracy in the candidates recommended. Thank you, Tim, and work8.co, the team you have helped us build will accelerate both the XL-AUV program and Anduril’s broader growth as a COE.
CASE STUDY #2
BCGX is the corporate venture builder division of the Boston Consulting Group. Their global teams work with clients to launch businesses that solves societies biggest challenges.
With a strong design driven innovation culture and in-house expertise across Growth, product, venture building and software development they have launched more than captive startups for the world’s largest corporates.
THE BRIEF
Retained by the APAC Managing Partner to manage the recruitment of the transition that would take over from the BCGX team that had launched a new digital insurance business on behalf of a global insurance client.
The BCGX team that had built the start-up business number over 20 experts across Executive Leadership, Insurance Technical Product Management, Digital Product Growth, Application Development, and Testing.
Managing the recruitment of a full start-up team in a short period of time was complicated by the need to secure talent that not only satisfied the Insurance client requirements, but also the stringent recruitment standards of the BCGX process
JOB FUNCTIONS
•CEO
•Head of Digital Product
•Insurance Technical Expert
•Growth Manager
•Application Development Manager
•Front End Developer
•Back End Developer
THE SOLUTION
Prioritizing the search order with both the BCGX team and the insurance client was the initial focus. The CEO, Head of Product, and Insurance Technical expert (based on difficulty to find them) and Growth Manager were first up.
A systematic research initiative covering successful local (Australia) and International InsureTech business was conducted + Local teams that had demonstrated results in the non-Insurance digital B2C market. In total 217 potential candidates were approach and assessed by work8.co. 4 potential CEO’s, 8 Head of Product, 3 Insurance Technical Experts, and 4 Growth Managers were headhunted and presented to the BCGX team. Candidates went through a 3 round interview process + case study presentation and a preferred candidate for each role was selected.
The preferred candidates were then presented to the Insurance client CEO and executive team. All were approved as the preferred candidates.
The application development positions proved to be challenging based on the supply / demand realities of the software development talent market. Work8.co identified and secured an existing team of 3 that came across as a unit.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
Tim did an excellent job under significant time pressures. The standard of candidates we were looking for needed to meet our BCGX standards and our clients.
The candidates shortlisted were of an exceptionally high quality and the client immediately endorsed our preferred selections. Tim moved fast, was up to speed on a complex dynamic with our client and managed the end-to-end process with the efficiency of a seasoned professional Talent partner.
BCGX SEARCH ACTIVITY DATA
CASE STUDY #3
PowerTec is an independent family-owned technology venture offering game changing products in the power and microgrid sector.
Founded by an industry heavyweight Michael Jansen, who previously led multinational power and utility grade solutions businesses across the APAC region, who saw unique opportunity to accelerate the move toward sustainable energy consumption at scale with a high-quality product that was a fundamental leap in innovation.
A prime example of bootstrapping Australian start-up that has taken the lead in a critical sector through homegrown design, development and manufacture of world leading technology innovation.
THE BRIEF
Retained by the founder and CEO on a single role search to recruit a Principal Software Engineer / Product Owner who would be tasked with re-architecting the software stack for the core product.
The complexity in the search was the breadth of expertise we required to adequately navigate the system that went from PLC industrial controls on one side, through embedded software / Firmware, into the cloud-based application that incorporated complex algorithms, to a raspberry Pi user interface.
Add to that the safety critical nature of the products - operating within large scale electricity networks that required failsafe software changes to be implemented first time, without interruption to production systems – and we were looking for a unicorn.
JOB FUNCTION
Principal Software Engineer / Product Architect
THE SOLUTION
Advertising channels had failed, the CEOs professional networks came up empty, so there were really only two options available to us.
A)Formal market mapping exercise to headhunt candidates that met the search criteria
B)International search and candidate sponsorship.
Solution A was deemed the most appropriate. Identifying companies that that could potentially have people with skills across the full product stack was challenging. There were abundant opportunities for people with the PLC and industrial control / embedded software side, and to a less extent people with cloud applications that used algorithms to control industrial hardware, but the combination of both with GUI experience on raspberry pi was almost non existent.
We knew this was going to be a large research exercise. The CEO and I put together a target company list of approx. 70 companies based on analysis of relevant industry verticals and participants in industry conferences and associations. In total 300+ potentials were identified, approached and engaged. A significant number met half the requirements however did not have the sufficient depth in the other to take a product lead role. We tested this with 4 interviews.
A number of candidates with ideal skill sets were found, however a combination of compensation expectations that were prohibitive for a start-up Or they were unwilling to relocate to Melbourne.
After 3.5 week and just as we were beginning to consider an international search the near consistent outreach paid off. A candidate we approach that was not interested had a former colleague who’s own start up had failed to secure funding was considering options. Skills matched, interviews were swift (as they are when a role/search aligns this well) and the client stretched the budget to accommodate such a good fit.
CLIENT FEEDBACK
We knew this was going to be a difficult find. The critical nature of the role and its potential impact on the long term success of our core product meant there was little room to compromise on either tech experience or the seniority. We needed someone that could take ownership of major architectural decisions around the future of our core product.
I had worked with Tim earlier in my career and knew him to be highly capable with a genuine understanding of complex technology. As a start-up, funding is always tight, it's never ideal to have to pay fees to recruit in a small team, however in this case engaging Tim and work8.co to help was the right move.
In under a month he found us the unicorn we were looking for. I am pleased to say that the candidate has worked out very well, exceeding our expectations and continues to have a major impact on our product and customer success.
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