Salvador worked as a engagement manager for McKinsey &amp; Company. Previously he worked in IDEO’s non-profit arm (IDEO.org). He has worked in the energy, healthcare, banking, government and consumer goods sectors across US, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Salvador studied his undergraduate degree in ITESM in Mexico and his Master’s in Stanford University.

Founder & CEO - Autolab

Salvador Zepeda

<h3>A prototyping journey that built a new competitive advantage</h3><blockquote>Adopting prototyping is more than only rapidly testing customer-facing features. Rather, it is an insightful and tangible way to think through internal or external problems in a business.</blockquote>Prototyping is typically imagined as testing a service with the end customer. Its role can be much more expansive, however, because it is actually a widely-applicable way of learning through insightful trial-and-error. Insightful here is defined as finding the cheapest and quickest way to get to truth. Eventually, with enough resources and time you can prototype and learn about everything. The real question is not whether you will get there, it is whether you will get there before others or before you run out of resources. In this article, I will share one of our most challenging prototyping journeys which eventually defined one of our core internal process. We believe that this process is one of the main competitive advantages of our business today.<h3>The Challenge: Managing the Process</h3><a href="https://autolab.com.co/">Autolab</a> is a multi-brand, multi-service car repair chain with the mandate to dramatically improve customer satisfaction and offer fair prices while providing quality jobs for mechanics. During its first months, an experienced head mechanic ran the shop operations based on his best knowledge. Unfortunately, most car repair shops are not customer-centric and Autolab was providing a similar experience to that of the industry. Our three main challenges to improve customer satisfaction were:<ol><li>Jobs were assigned to mechanics with no consideration to specific customer needs, such as delivery times</li><li>The job was assigned to a mechanic only after he was free, thus, making it impossible to estimate delivery times for cars waiting to be served</li><li>The head mechanic was the only person who knew the status of all cars, making it really hard for the customer reps to keep customers updated</li></ol><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:66.29%;"><img src="/uploads/prototyping_first_6f342e0876.png"><figcaption>Image 1. Main customer challenges for satisfaction in the shop operation.</figcaption></figure>Initially, we started under the assumption that the most important problem was to share the information about the status of a car with the team and customers. Focusing on that issue was where the prototyping journey started, but not where it ended. Soon, the scope would be proven wrong.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:68.57%;"><img src="/uploads/prototyping_journey_0b86498b3c.png"><figcaption>Image 2. Operating Philosophies Description.</figcaption></figure><h3>1) Visualizing the state of the car</h3>Hypothesis: If we visualize car status, we could provide quality updates to customersPrototype description: Post-it matrix built on a wall with the process steps (e.g. execution, waiting for parts, ready) as columns and the physical location (e.g. elevator) of the car as rows. Each post-it within the matrix represented a car. The matrix was filled at the start of the day.Results:+ Provided visibility to the status at the start of each day.– Analogue version was difficult to update during the day.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:79.12%;"><img src="/uploads/location_car_2be6dd1d74.png"><figcaption>Image 3: Prototype 1 showed the status and location for each car.</figcaption></figure><h3>2) Real time visualization</h3>Hypothesis: If we keep a shareable car status on real time, we could provide quality and on-time updates to customersDescription: Establish a dedicated role to update car status in real time in Google Slides. Everyone in the team had access to review the status of any car at any moment. There was an adjustment to the matrix: each row became a car. That adjustment allowed us to see the car’s previous steps. Also, we used colors at each step to show whether the car was waiting, in progress of finished.Results:+ Provided visibility to the whole team around car status– Customer feedback showed us that knowing car status was less important than knowing delivery dates (we still couldn’t predict them with accuracy).– Mechanics engaged less with a digital tool.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:76.25%;"><img src="/uploads/dedicated_role_f3bdf6b404.png"><figcaption>Image 4. Prototype 2 included a dedicated role and adjustments to the matrix.</figcaption></figure><h3>3) Job Order Visibility</h3>**Hypothesis:**If we give visibility to a job pipeline per mechanic, we could estimate delivery times better. The job pipeline will let us understand the order in which the jobs would be performed**Description:**Redesign the board to show the car job pipeline for each mechanic. Each column was a mechanic and the post-its represented their job pipeline. Post-its were placed in the matrix after car reception. We went back to an analog prototype (post-its) to increase mechanic engagement.Results:+ Visibility on the order of jobs execution– Order of jobs was not enough to give accurate delivery times – we needed to know the duration of the jobs for each car.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:79.1%;"><img src="/uploads/pipeline_prototyping_11d3b6cbf3.png"><figcaption>Image 5. Prototype 3 shifted focus from car status to job backlog.</figcaption></figure><h3>4) Visibility on job times</h3>Hypothesis: If we included time as a variable in the board, we could estimate the time at which each car would be readyDescription: We added time on the vertical axis of the board. Additionally, we wrote the duration of the jobs in the car post-its to be able to estimate when they would be ready. We also added the committed time to customer to have it in mind when prioritizing jobs. Finally, the post-its became the job orders for the mechanics with a checklist for all services.Results:+ Delivery times became visible and more reliable+ For the first time, we used the committed delivery time as a variable to prioritize all cars– The board could not be scaled to a much larger operation since it was time intensive to write all the information on post-its<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.82%;"><img src="/uploads/how_it_works_2a6bcf782d.png"><figcaption>Image 6. Prototype 4 turn backlog into job orders while increasing time accuracy.</figcaption></figure><h3>5) Blend into existing processes</h3>Hypothesis: If we could eliminate the work required to rewrite the information on the post-it, we could manage a much larger operation with the same dedicated roleDescription: We redesign the client reception sheet to turn it into the post-it (job order). Most of the information in the reception sheet and the job order overlapped. Therefore, we only needed to get a photocopy of the reception sheet and use that as a job order. We added some strings to the board so we could clip the job orders to the mechanic row.Results:+ The board became manageable by one person for a larger operation– Commitments made when booking at the call center were not visible at the shop and were not part of the board management<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.15%;"><img src="/uploads/results_prototype_d20e5fbc21.png"><figcaption>Image 7. Prototype 5 was like a hanging cord for job orders.</figcaption></figure><h3>6) Call Center Integration</h3>Hypothesis:If sales used a similar board, they could consider the shop capacity when making commitments to the customer and easily transmit the information to the shop**Description:**We created a simpler board for next day bookings in sales. On that board, the sales team would place the bookings to ensure that we could serve the cars at the promise times. A picture of that board would be given to the shop at the end of day so they could prepare the shop board based on that.Results:+ Commitments acquired at sales were prioritized by shop operations– Usage of different boards increased the chance of accidentally losing some information<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.82%;"><img src="/uploads/prototype_integration_9d7124acbb.png"><figcaption>Image 8. Prototype 6 included a simplified sales board to book appointments.</figcaption></figure><h3>7) One board for all</h3>Hypothesis: If the sales team and the shop used the same board, we could avoid mistakes when passing information from one board to anotherDescription: We digitized the board and gave access to both the call center and the shop. It became a tool where both could book jobs any day, at any time as long as the mechanic was free.Results:+ Reduce workload and mistakes by having a system that shares information.– Required increased discipline of how the tool is used and creating rules of interaction between sales and shop ops.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:74.71%;"><img src="/uploads/prototype_coding_28f91b44e4.png"><figcaption>Image 9. Prototype 7 was the only prototype that required coding.</figcaption></figure><h3>The System Today</h3>This system became the core of our operation and is the brain of the shop and sales team. Our operation is not perfect today, but this system allows us to serve 550 customers per month with an average satisfaction rate of 4.6 out of 5. Furthermore, we discovered the system’s potential to be a core tool in customer interactions and quality assurance processes. For instance, to improve satisfaction, we added automatic client updates and digital reports for car diagnostics.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:73.8%;"><img src="/uploads/sistem_today_d411256399.png"><figcaption>Image 10. The system sends automatic emails to customers to keep them updated.</figcaption></figure><h3>Final Lessons</h3><h4>Prototyping is never constrained by tech</h4>You can always prototype in analogue ways. You can recreate any digital solution with an analogue solution, especially for internal operations. It will take more effort to run, but much less to set up and start learning. However, an analogue solution might constrain scale since often the complexity of running an operation can grow exponentially. However, for prototyping, you will be safe with analogue most of the time.Customer needs dictate the internal challenge you will solveEven when the prototype is not customer-facing, you are ultimately still trying to solve a customer issue. Our customer does not interact with these prototypes, but their needs still dictated what problems we were solving. In our prototyping, we did not prioritize what we wanted to solve, but what was more painful to clients.If the learnings are clear, prototyping is not reinventing the wheelThe final board looks similar to a tool called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heijunka%5Fbox">Heinjuka</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean%5Fmanufacturing">Lean Op</a>s. One could argue that we could just have read about Lean Ops to get to the solution. However, during our prototypes we learned valuable lessons that reduced rework when building the digital solution. There is value in the struggle to get to the right solution. For instance, we understood how the different users interacted with the board and its post-its. Through these lessons, we defined the rules of the system: workflow, constraints and available information per user.Give enough support to change people’s behavior while prototypingDesigning the boards was the easy task compared to changing people’s behavior. In car shops, the person who assigns jobs typically is the boss. The board for job assignments took that power away from the head mechanic. He resisted it and eventually left. In addition, getting mechanics to be disciplined and consistently using the boards and tools was a long process. When prototyping, give enough support to ensure that a prototype fails because of bad design and not because of poor implementation.<h3>About Autolab</h3><a href="//autolab.com.co/">Autolab</a> is a multi-brand, multi-service car repair chain with the goal to improve service level in the industry, offer fair prices and solve an employment problem. Car owners are subject to the poor service and high prices in the car repair industry. Autolab aims to provide great service and on-budget options. Mechanics have poor employment options: low compensation, no social security and, often, condescending treatment. Autolab wants to provide them with quality jobs, a safety net and recognition. The company started less than three years ago and is part of <a href="//polymathv.com/">Polymath Ventures.</a><h3><a href="//polymathv.com">Polymath Ventures</a> and its unique perspective</h3>Polymath Ventures is a company builder focused on creating and developing scalable companies that serve the growing middle class in Latin America. It differentiates from other organizations by having a methodological approach to entrepreneurship, borrowing tools from management consulting, human-centered design, lean startup, and a variety of other disciplines.Many of Polymath’s ventures operate with real production units such as repair shops, schools, and restaurants. This involves managing staff, real estate, and equipment. Still, we believe that our lessons are relevant for all type of startups.In Polymath Ventures, multiple startups are simultaneously in their early years of development, which provides a unique perspective for observing common challenges. Building and iterating a methodology, sharing solutions across ventures, and surrounded by world-class multi-disciplinary talent, gives us a privileged vantage point.

medium_Vincu_story_1-1.jpg

small_Vincu_story_1-1.jpg

thumbnail_Vincu_story_1-1.jpg

Vincu_story_1-1.jpg

Prototyping beyond the end customer

<h3>Tools for managing growth beyond the founding team</h3><blockquote>As startups grow they struggle to remain agile while learning to become efficient across an increasing number of teams. Doing that requires redefining how ventures work.</blockquote>While growing, startup leaders often struggle to build an organization that provides enough agility to learn fast while creating enough stability to capture efficiencies. On the one hand, startups need to remain agile to enable fast learning cycles to keep their product or service ahead of the market. On the other hand, they also need to ensure enough stability to enable significant efficiency improvements to happen. With growth, the tension between agility and stability keeps building, creating friction between people, resources, and goals. Here we want to expose the way we are solving these challenges at Polymath Ventures to achieve both agility and efficiency at scale, through methodological management practices.<h3>The missing piece nobody talks about</h3>Most literature on startup management focuses on finding product-market fit and fundraising. Focusing on these challenges may be enough for some startups early on in their lives. However, after a certain size, startups will face two new challenges: proving profitability and extending management practices beyond the founding team. Firstly, startups will need to prove a path towards profitability to build the model’s credibility for fundraising and recruiting, while reducing cash requirements for scale. Secondly, as the team grows, startups will need to build a system to extend desired management practices to scale with alignment, standards, and self-improvement processes. We call the latter systems: management systems.<blockquote>“After a certain size, startups will face two new challenges: proving profitability and extending management practices beyond the founding team”</blockquote>For software startups, the moment to face these challenges might come later than for startups with productive units such as restaurants, call centers, and repair shops. In the latter, you need management systems from the start to manage your team and assets since they strongly influence your unit economics, and thus the viability of the business. For software startups coordination might happen organically in a small team, but as soon as they have to deal with multiple teams, management systems will prove necessary. Regardless of their maturity, all startups that grow enough will eventually reach this point.<h3>The nervous system of the organization</h3>Management systems are the systems used to understand current performance and improve future outcomes. Simply put, it is everything that you do to manage the operation, not to execute it. They function as a nervous system: they let you know where and when you are feeling pain or pleasure, and make you react to that. This is nothing less than the process by which an organization learns at every level. Management systems can take many forms such as problem-solving meetings, performance dialogues, and incentive systems among others.<blockquote>“Management systems are everything you do to manage the operation, not to execute it”</blockquote>Using a commercial flight as an analogy, the management systems are the instruments by which you get critical information, the process of reviewing the readings and the standards telling you how to react to the data. Through instruments, you can understand how you are performing and react immediately. You will know whether the flight is on track, underperforming, over-performing, or during an emergency; therefore, you can take actions to continue doing what you were doing well, and adjust what is not working. Finally, after-flight reviews allow you to apply learnings from one flight to the next.In addition to ensuring learning and action, management systems have another key advantage: they make operational talent more scalable. They base performance and improvements on systems rather than individuals. When scaling, the price you pay for not having good management systems is hiring expensive, overqualified staff. In the flight analogy, you will face that challenge when opening new flights. Without management systems, you will need to hire experienced crews for every single flight. Moreover, each crew will develop different practices that might not be aligned with yours. On the other hand, with management systems, you can hire less experienced, cheaper crews and train them to follow your systems.<blockquote>“The price you pay for not having good management systems is hiring expensive, overqualified staff”</blockquote><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:76.83%;"><img src="/uploads/Operating_systems_db1374bffc.jpeg"><figcaption>Image 1. Operating System Element</figcaption></figure>It is important to mention that management systems are not the only element you need to have a successful flight. In addition to them, you will need a well-functioning airplane and a motivated, well-trained crew. Therefore, management systems are one of the three elements of a successful operating system together with the technical system (airplane) and people mindsets and behaviors (crew).<h3>Current Management Systems are not enough</h3>Several operational philosophies, such as Agile Operations (Agile Ops) and Lean Operations (Lean Ops), already offer management systems. None of these we consider complete to run a growing startup. Individually no existing operational philosophy is suited to simultaneously help you adapt to a fast-changing environment and improve operational efficiency.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:76.04%;"><img src="/uploads/Operating_Philosophies_13f1724dec.jpeg"><figcaption>Image 2. Operating Philosophies Description</figcaption></figure>The most common management system used in startups is Agile Ops. Agile Ops developed in tech companies and there are several methods deriving from it, of which the most popular by far is Scrum. This method made important contributions to tech project management by defining roles, a common framework for communication, forcing early releases and creating forums to adjust the plan and scope. This operational philosophy’s main advantage is its ability to deliver projects on-time and on budget by adjusting the scope based on learning by prototyping. This is the most important skill for an early startup. The speed at which startups learn from the market might be their only advantage over large companies.<blockquote>“Individually no existing operational philosophy is suited to simultaneously help you adapt to a fast-changing environment and improve operational efficiency”</blockquote>A startup with productive units needs to rely on these additional management systems, but it is still a startup. Lean Ops by itself is insufficient because it does not enable fast learning cycles from the market like Scrum. Lean Ops helps you reduce waste once you know what the customer wants. It uses tools to balance resources with demand, to eliminate the root cause of problems, to reduce waits, and to perform work faster and with higher quality. In a startup, however, your service is still a work in progress with potentially dramatic changes still coming up. Unfortunately, Lean Ops is much more effective in making an operation efficient than rapidly surfacing customer needs and translating them into a service.Similarly, Agile Leadership can help improve operations. This philosophy was created for military missions where “fog of war” prevents you from obtaining information. Thus, it has tools to ensure preparedness through team alignment, deep understanding of future scenarios and robust contingency planning. At an operational level, it can help train staff and establish standards for unforeseen situations. It will lose value, however, as an operation becomes more predictable. Since it is the best-suited philosophy for dealing with uncertainty, Agile Leadership also has applications in strategic analysis. In other functions, such as product design, though, Agile Leadership will never beat an iterative approach.Finally, Project Management is also not the solution to manage startups either. Project Management helps in defining a clear scope and then ensuring coordination and efficiency in the execution of the tasks among multiple stakeholders. With tools such as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Last Planner, Critical Path and Critical Chain Management, project management defines the final product and keeps execution on-track. These tools are fundamental in an environment where iterating is prohibitively expensive, so spending significant effort preventing changes in scope makes sense. However, in most startups, it is economically viable to develop services, products, and tools in an iterative way.To achieve what we need from each operational philosophy, we need to bring these operational philosophies together under an integrated framework.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:83.57%;"><img src="/uploads/open_philosophies_4881741199.jpeg"><figcaption>Table 1. Ops philosophies and occasions to use them</figcaption></figure><h3>OUR SOLUTION</h3>In Polymath we often run startups that are heavy on operations, such as car repair shops, restaurants, and fleet operators. This has forced us to quickly strive for efficiency while maintaining agility to evolve our services. We want our operations to achieve enough agility so they can adapt fast to the environment, enough stability so they can run an efficient operation, and enough coordination so the whole organization is aligned. To achieve this, we combined into a single framework the fast-learning cycles of Agile Ops, the drive for efficiency and empowerment of Lean Ops and Agile Leadership, and the stakeholder coordination and rigorous tracking of Project Management.<blockquote>“We want our operations to achieve enough agility so they can adapt fast to the environment, enough stability so they can run an efficient operation, and enough coordination that the whole organization is aligned”</blockquote><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:85.29%;"><img src="/uploads/acceleration_management_system_27d929f3ef.jpeg"><figcaption>Table 3. Acceleration Management System</figcaption></figure>We first start by defining primary operating philosophies for each team within a venture (e.g. Lean Ops, Agile Ops, etc.). We believe it needs to be done at a team level because the nature of the work might be significantly different between separate teams. The operating philosophy will serve as an initial hypothesis for the management systems, but it will be a prototype. It is common to see elements of different operation philosophies in the same team. Similarly, if circumstances change the nature of the work, the main operational philosophy should adjust too. Generally, teams doing repetitive tasks (e.g. car repair, selling sandwiches, accounting) will use Lean Ops and Agile Leadership; teams doing improvement projects (e.g. improve the customer experience, develop radically new operating methods) will focus on Agile Ops; and teams managing projects with non-iterative development (e.g. location openings) will use Project Management.Then, to integrate all the teams’ work, we run a company-wide cycle based on Agile Ops and Project Management. In this cycle, we start by defining the company’s priorities and goals, initiatives to execute, and resource allocation. This cycle is supported by tools that allow us to track the activities that each team is developing, to understand the impact that is being captured, and to manage the risks on the execution of the plan. It includes leaders of all teams in the company to ensure coordination. The method combines Agile Ops and Project Management. We use Agile Ops to ensure that we stay adaptable with regards to our top priorities, project scopes, and resource allocation. We use Project Management to give enough visibility to important initiatives, keep track of the impact of the initiatives that we are pursuing, and manage their risks rigorously. Additionally, we are able to connect company objectives with the day-to-day activities with the help of both, Agile Ops and Project Management.This system has allowed us to quickly move organizational focus as our priorities change. It also has been important to establish accountability for initiatives and metrics for every team and every person in the company. All our teams must have a huddle meeting, and everyone must belong to a team; moreover, this mix of management systems allows us to capture what we need from the different operational philosophies, and apply all of them as needed in the same organization. The repair shops and restaurants can work towards efficiency, while our service development or marketing department can be agile.In order to implement this complex model, three critical things must happen. First, leaders in the organization need to believe that the time invested in managing the organization provides greater value than anything else they could be spending their time on. Second, it also requires investing time bringing initial hires up-to-speed in how these systems work inside the organization. And third, it requires a relentless effort in instilling the company’s vision, values and mindset on all team members. All in all, we believe that the net effect of this system is positive. It has been key for us to improve our operational efficiency while we innovate and adapt.This is not a panacea for startups. It is a work in progress that summarizes what we have learned so far. We are sure that it will keep evolving as we grow and learn.<h3><a href="//polymathv.com">Polymath Ventures</a> and its unique perspective</h3>Polymath Ventures is a company builder focused on creating and developing scalable companies that serve the growing middle class in Latin America. It differentiates from other organizations by having a methodological approach to entrepreneurship, borrowing tools from management consulting, human-centered design, lean startup, and a variety of other disciplines.Many of Polymath’s ventures operate with real production units such as repair shops, schools, and restaurants. This involves managing staff, real estate, and equipment. Still, we believe that our lessons are relevant for all type of startups.In Polymath Ventures, multiple startups are simultaneously in their early years of development, which provides a unique perspective for observing common challenges. Building and iterating a methodology, sharing solutions across ventures, and surrounded by world-class multi-disciplinary talent, gives us a privileged vantage point.

medium_Screen-Shot-2015-01-19-at-7.10.27-PM.png

small_Screen-Shot-2015-01-19-at-7.10.27-PM.png

thumbnail_Screen-Shot-2015-01-19-at-7.10.27-PM.png

Screen-Shot-2015-01-19-at-7.10.27-PM.png

So you have product-market fit, now what?

Salvador Zepeda is <a href="https://goo.gl/amdN9W">Autolab</a>’s Founder &amp; COO. “Chava”, as we call him, brings a strong operational toolkit and is passionate about teaching it to his team and wider <a href="https://goo.gl/g4S61f">Polymath</a> creatively. By transforming methodologies such as lean operations, agile operations, and agile leadership into memorable experiences through gamification. He has become a thought leader in the group on not only for operations, but for best practices in adult learning. We had a chat regarding why he does it and how we can improve it.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:72.53%;"><img src="/uploads/Team_Autolab_8525bb23a4.jpeg"><figcaption>Chava and team at Autolab</figcaption></figure><h2>Why are these trainings important?</h2>Trainings create awareness. Awareness is where learning starts, but not where it ends. It is the first step out of three towards becoming skillful. For instance, when you learned to ride a bike you went through this process. Before you have ever seen a bike, you don’t even know that you cannot ride one. The first step is to see someone riding a bike so that you become aware that you don’t know how to ride it. Trainings about operations can be helpful at this stage by showing the tools and their potential impact. The second step is to become consciously skilled; you learn by bike but it still requires concentration and awareness. In this step, on-the-job support works better than trainings since most adults learn by doing. And, the third step, you have biked enough so that you can do it unconsciously. This step is mostly about practice.Trainings are an effective way to light the spark of curiosity and openness about an ops methodology. Gamification just makes it fun.<h2>How did the ops trainings start in <a href="https://goo.gl/g4S61f">Polymath</a>?</h2>We developed the first training, The Hospital Game, because we wanted to create an open mindset with the employees to adopt lean ops. At that point the shop operated based on the personal experience of key mechanics, but with no lean applications. Using gamification in lean ops helped us engage people who may not have been in a classroom in decades, and made abstract concepts such as ops transformation tangible to them. After this success, we continued to develop other games so we could expand the breadth and depth of learning. Finally, after many people from other ventures ask for training sessions, we made the trainings group-wide.<h2>Why is it important to generate openness with operational staff?</h2>Because we needed to convince technical experts to change the way they have worked all their lives.They are not used to having other people telling them how to do their job, especially when they feel that they are the experts. We needed to give them assurance that the proposed methodology was going to lead to a better outcome for everyone.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:72.85%;"><img src="/uploads/Gamification_Hospital_24493989a6.jpeg"><figcaption>An example of gamification: setting up The Hospital Game</figcaption></figure><h2>Why do you use a hospital to teach lean ops to mechanics?</h2>Hospitals are similar enough to auto-repair shops to be relevant, but different enough so that participants will not act as experts. Using a repair shop as the game theme can make people feel like they need to act as experts. A hospital is a new field for them. However, it shares essential operational features with an auto-repair shop. A hospital has beds, doctors and medical supplies. In the auto repair shop: beds are car bays, doctors are mechanics and medical supplies are spare parts. To avoid the expert mindset in trainings, it is helpful to choose a game that shares the essence of the challenges, but does not give people a chance to feel like they know better.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:83.09%;"><img src="/uploads/Autolab_Playing_067d4d5fc4.jpeg"><figcaption>Autolab team playing The Hospital Game</figcaption></figure><h2>Are there other trainings using gamification?</h2>Yes, in addition to the Hospital Game for lean ops, we have a Lego Game for agile operations, and Trip to Mars for agile leadership. Even a theoretical training of ops methodologies will be peppered with short games to illustrate ops tools and identify know when to use each one. Currently we are building another game to teach financial and value management for operational managers.<h2>Where do these methodologies come from?</h2>It is hard to point out one single source for each methodology. They never developed in a single place; rather, the tools and principles developed in a variety of places and throughout time. Then, a group of people integrated the tools and principles into a common framework. For lean ops, Toyota was the integrator and also a main contributor by adding many tools and principles. For agile ops, a group of software development leaders did it. And, the US Military has also developed a management system for missions that is starting to be introduced in business, which we call agile leadership.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:83.31%;"><img src="/uploads/First_workshop_Autolab_6e4a0c604e.jpeg"><figcaption>First Autolab Workshop</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;<h2>Why do you like operations?</h2>First, there are very few things that allow an organization to have as an immediate and tangible impact as operational transformations. Results are generally observable and fast, at least many of them. Second, in operations there is more art than science. There is a great deal of science because there are innumerable number of technical and analytical tools to improve performance. However, in my experience, even more time is spent in making people change the way they think and behave. That is a world full of uncertainty where educated intuitions increase your odds of success, but nothing will guarantee a good outcome<h2>How did working at IDEO and McKinsey shaped what you do now?</h2>Both organizations transformed me, but each one in a unique way. Each firm has a very different philosophy on how to deal with business challenges. They both have tools, a way of approaching a problem and a determined mindset towards a challenge. I am thankful that together they provided me with a repertoire of mindsets and principles to manage a large range of the entrepreneurial challenges.<h2>How do you think learning can be improved in <a href="https://goo.gl/g4S61f">Polymath</a>?</h2>We need to move from occasional trainings to integral development programs. As I mentioned before, trainings are just the first step towards learning. To be serious about development, we need to ensure that people get a chance to learn by doing and get feedback on that. This could take the form of on-the-job mentoring, secondments in other ventures, periodic reviews, among others initiatives. Also, beyond trainings we need to start documenting and sharing knowledge better. I hope we are able to create a knowledge platform soon to share successes and failures.<hr>If you think this type of learning environment is what you are looking for… feel free to <a href="https://goo.gl/mtpMI4">apply here</a>! We are waiting for you.&nbsp;

large_Gamification for ops.jpg

medium_Gamification for ops.jpg

small_Gamification for ops.jpg

thumbnail_Gamification for ops.jpg

Gamification for ops.jpg

Gamification for Ops Improvement: Play The Change

In 2021 <a href="https://autolab.mx/">Autolab expanded its operations to Mexico</a> to continue to lead the disruption of the auto repair industry in Latin America.This expansion comes out of an iteration and pivoting process that started before the pandemic and resulted in fundamental improvements both in the business model and its operation.&nbsp;Mexico is the first country that Autolab expands into, after consolidating a strong model and operation with a presence in 13 cities in Colombia and more than 100 auto repair shops in their network.&nbsp;To unveil all the secrets and learnings about this journey of growth and expansion, we talked to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvador-zepeda-67bab716/">Salvador Zepeda (Chava)</a>, Co-Founder and CEO of Autolab.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:74.63%;"><img src="/uploads/Salvador_Zepeda_94e4c024fa.jpg"><figcaption>Salvador Zepeda “Chava” - Founder &amp; CEO Autolab</figcaption></figure>Chava shared some key insights on growing and scaling a business to another country in LatAm, and the major challenges Autolab has found in its journey.Let us begin by sharing Autolabs' purpose and the basic idea of how they disrupt a traditional industry to better serve Latin America's middle class.&nbsp;Autolab is a digital platform that connects repair shops with car owners offering people affordable and reliable repairs while helping shops grow.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That is why its purpose is based on solving a fundamental problem for each of these demographics.&nbsp;For the shop owners, Autolab provides a reliable acquisition channel while helping them with tools for managing the shop more efficiently as well as support in customer service.For the car owners, Autolab offers great consumer service (which is hard to find in this industry) through technology and customer service at an affordable price.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:77.19%;"><img src="/uploads/Car_phone_mockup_623ac88744.jpg"><figcaption>Autolab's Digital Platform</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;How did we get to this point?&nbsp;Like any other of our ventures, Autolab is the result of a constant iteration throughout our <a href="https://polymathv.com/process">Company Building Methodology.&nbsp;</a>This means that it started with a <a href="https://polymathv.com/ventures/autolab">problem we identified in a specific industry</a> that then led to a variety of business concepts to be tested and validated.&nbsp;The first approach of Autolab was to launch its own network of repair shops in order to have control over the quality of the repair process. This approach worked out for a while but soon they realized it was hard to scale. This, combined with smartphone adoption by the mechanics led to the idea of building a platform.&nbsp;Before the pandemic arrived, the team started to work towards a pivot that would allow them to transform Autolab into a platform to connect current shop owners with potential customers.&nbsp;This approach was not only more effective but also more profitable, not to say that it had a greater impact on the sector by integrating more businesses into a single platform that standardizes some of the major pain points of this industry such as customer service, service tracking, service evidence, warranty, and price transparency.&nbsp;Of course, the pivot forced Autolab's team to quickly iterate their model to focus on automation and refinding their technology so it could integrate more and more repair shops.<blockquote>"A pivot is full of unseen opportunities. That is why the most important part of the pivot is to change the team´s mindset so they seize all those opportunities". Chava.</blockquote>&nbsp;The new model, technology, and vision for the company allowed Autolab to grow its shop visits and revenue by 4X in only a year while increasing the number of repair shops in the network by 7X.&nbsp;Once the team validated that the new approach was working they were ready to scale and raise a <a href="https://polymathv.com/library/articles/autolab-raises-6-5m-usd">funding round of 6.5M USD</a> led by <a href="https://www.bullpencap.com/">Bullpen Capital</a>, allowing them to start thinking about their next step expanding to Mexico.&nbsp;But before going into what happened next, let's recap some of Chava's main learnings from this pivoting and growing process.&nbsp;Key takeaways:&nbsp;Here you have 3+ lessons that Autolab's team shared about their process of finding product-market fit and then starting to accelerate the company.&nbsp;1.&nbsp; Bringing clients is a piece of the growth challenge, but it is far from being all of it or even the most important one.&nbsp;A lot of attention is given to how to bring new clients and make clients return, but little attention is given to building the systems to serve them properly. One often overlooked is to think about the people that you need to serve those additional customers because it is not only about having the right number of people but also at the skill and attitude level that you need them. You need to consider their learning curves and hire them before they are needed or your customers will suffer the consequences.&nbsp;<blockquote>"We now know that the learning curve for the majority of our operational positions is around 30 days, this allows us to hire a new team members and train them so they can be ready to achieve their top performance at the time we need them to do it".&nbsp; Chava</blockquote>&nbsp;2. Building an exponential growth curve feels like investment portfolio managementOne can easily assume that a growth curve is a result of a few channels that are just getting more money injected to bring more customers. However, a growth curve often represents a combination of channels with different maturity and growth rates. You are constantly making decisions around which channels to invest in, not only money but also people. Channels look a lot like investments.&nbsp;There are the channels that always work, the ones that have not worked, but you feel you can still try new things and the ones you have not tried. And you need to make your bet on them. Each channel is like an S-curve and you are building channels on top. And, as some channels lose their ability to bring growth at that speed, you need to be ready with the next channel to keep driving the growth at that pace.&nbsp;&nbsp;<blockquote>"When accelerating a business if you concentrate on a single channel because it was the one that was already working, you will not only saturate it, but you will also lose important opportunities to diversify the strategy as you grow". Chava.&nbsp;</blockquote>&nbsp;3. Growing exponentially implies breaking things and finding effective ways to put them back together. It's important to be ready to see things that worked perfectly become less useful as the company grows.&nbsp;<blockquote>The systems will break, that's a fact. What we did before in a Google Sheets now needs to be automated and developed from scratch. Chava</blockquote>&nbsp;4. BONUS: Last but not least. Culture is at the core of every change. We'll leave Chava to explain this as the most important part of the pivot.&nbsp;<blockquote>"One of the most important transformations that are made when evolving is changing people's mindset. Getting everyone to move at the same pace is one of the biggest challenges in a pivot. Step number 1 is to pivot the way people think, the rest follows". Chava</blockquote>&nbsp;Mexico: A land of opportunities.The reasons behind Autolab's expansion to Mexico go beyond cultural similarities. Although they are foundational to the growth strategy, there are also huge industry insights in play.&nbsp;For starters the number of vehicles circulating in the country. Mexico has around 297 vehicles per 1.000 inhabitants, which doubles Colombia's 126.&nbsp;Additionally, this is an industry that has showcased continuous growth in the last couple of decades. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/698065/vehicles-in-operation-in-mexico/">According to Statista</a>, the number of circulating vehicles in Mexico increased by 26% from 2015 to 2020, as shown in the following graphic.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75.62%;"><img src="/uploads/Captura_de_pantalla_2022_05_03_162649_60d835c977.png"><figcaption>Number of motor vehicles in circulation in Mexico between 1980 and 2020</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;There are of course important cultural traits that connect Colombia and Mexico, such as the high rate of informality and lack of trust in auto repair services.&nbsp;All that, combined with an impressive growing market of about 20 million people only in Mexico City, has positioned the country as the heart of Spanish-speaking Latin America, allowing hundreds of businesses to reach potential customers connecting the region with transformative and technology-based companies.<blockquote>"Mexico is an ideal destination for Colombian startups to expand due to the similarities and size. Up until now, we have 14 repair shops in our network in Mexico City and we are expecting this number to grow exponentially during 2022.This is only the first step, we are learning as much as we can for now, but we do see ourselves expanding our operations to other countries in the region like Peru or Chile". Chava.&nbsp;</blockquote>&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:79.46%;"><img src="/uploads/Image_from_i_OS_470d599cfd.jpg"><figcaption>Autolab's team in Mexico</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;To finalize, let's explore the biggest learnings of opening Autolab's operations in Mexico.&nbsp;Key takeaways:&nbsp;1. Do not underestimate the degree to that people need to understand the model, philosophy, and culture of the company. It is very important because they will be facing new situations often and most things are not in the playbook.<blockquote>"One of the hardest things to standardize is the criteria to be applied to new situations. Large deviations can be generated by slight differences in judgment" Chava.</blockquote>&nbsp;2. A person with company-wide influence needs to lead or accompany the launch. The new country will have needs that you have not anticipated and the easiest way to solve it is often with the team of the other country. That happens when a person that knows the old team, systems and has a high level of influence is there.&nbsp;Accelerating with a methodological approachExpansion and acceleration processes are highly uncertain, everything happens so fast it's hard to be prepared for unforeseen situations. BUT counting on a clear methodology and a group of experienced advisors can be key to a successful growth strategy.&nbsp;That's exactly what we do with our ventures as they grow. We support them, operationally and strategically, so they can thrive.&nbsp;Here are some of Chava's words about working alongside Polymath's team:&nbsp;- Working with Polymath is like being an entrepreneur with insurance. Being an entrepreneur with a certain safety net.&nbsp;- It is in difficult times when we realize that we are not alone and that we always have people who will help us navigate complexity.&nbsp;- We have a network of connections and people who have been established as board members and investors. Most of them have become excellent mentors that I greatly appreciate and investors that are very well-intentioned to advise and share their experience at all times.&nbsp;- The services offered within Polymath itself are foundational: Legal, talent, marketing, finances...Now we have the infrastructure to operate ourselves, working together only on strategic issues,&nbsp; but in the early stages, they were crucial to building what we are now. &nbsp;

Salvador Zepeda

Founder & CEO - Autolab

Autolab takes its business model to Mexico

Prototyping beyond the end customer

So you have product-market fit, now what?