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Back again with a solocast after close to a 6 month break! I give a an update on half year business performance as well as talking about what's planned for the second half of the year. 

In these solocasts I share everything I am learning as a fist time founder bootstrapping to £1 mil AR.

Some of todays themes:

• Product updates
• User discovery
• Profitability
• Brand refresh / re-alignment
• Scaling SapienX beyond me!

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay 

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

In this episode, Sarah Power, Head of People and Operations at Vable, shares her journey of building a thriving remote-first culture in a high-growth environment.

From operationalising company values like kindness and ownership to balancing parenting with work, Sarah offers practical advice and personal stories that highlight the importance of transparency, flexibility, and psychological safety.

Discover how Vable fosters advocacy through positive employee experiences, values-based hiring, and progressive People Experience (PX) practices.

A must-listen for anyone navigating the intersection of culture, leadership, and remote work!

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from:

Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🧠 Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana

PayFit - Payroll and HR software that powers your business and its people -  See it in action! 👀

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Sarah: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Sarah Power | LinkedIn

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

Kicking off this year with a look back on 2024, in fact a look back on the first 3 years as a Solopreneur, from revenue and cashflow to product and community, all documented in this reflective episode.

Enjoy - Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from:

Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠 Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

PayFit - Payroll and HR software that powers your business and its people -  See it in action!

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

This week, Luke chats with Dart Lindsley, strategic advisor of People Experience @ Google and Co-founder of 11fold, a company formed to help companies design, build and deliver work that makes employees feel alive. Dart has over 25 years of experience in HR, business architecture, and PX product design, and is leading the charge on transforming how organisations think about work and the employee experience 🌟

This conversation is packed with actionable insights for People Leaders looking to take PX to the next level!

Some of the Key Themes:

Reframing employees as customers and work as a product 🚀
Dart shares why the traditional HR model is broken and how seeing employees as customers who “buy” work as a product transforms the way we approach PX.

The manager’s role as designer and broker of work 💡
Luke and Dart explore how managers can be equipped to design meaningful work experiences and balance the needs of the business with those of employees.

Why the “cost” of work matters as much as its value 🗣️
Understanding the trade-offs employees make to work with your organisation is key to creating experiences that attract, engage, and retain top talent.

Scaling PX in high-growth and large organisations 🤝
Dart shares his practical, scalable framework for aligning work experiences with individual needs

A seriously good conversation which goes deep! Enjoy!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Dart: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Dart Lindsley | LinkedIn
Website: 11fold
HBR Work as a Product Article: Reimagining Work as a Product

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

Boooooom 💥Back once again with the ill behaviour 😎

This week, Luke chats with Alice Burks, Director of People Success at one the fastest growing global People Tech scale-ups, Deel 🚀... in fact, not just in People tech; Deel is one of the the fastest-growing start-ups in history 😱

Meet Alice 🌟Prior to Deel, Alice was Global Head of Learning at DICE and Global Leadership Development Partner at Trustpilot... Safe to say, this conversation is packed with actionable PX insights for People Leaders in high-growth companies!

The challenges of scaling fully remote global teams🚀

Alice shares some of the challenges and benefits of managing a fully remote, globally distributed workforce, particularly within the context of a rapidly scaling company like Deel.

How Deel approach global and remote onboarding💡

Luke and Alice discuss the importance of structured onboarding and how Deel approaches this focusing on both operational and experiential aspect.

The role storytelling plays in People Practices🗣️

From a background in advertising, PR and TV Production, Alice knows all about the power of storytelling and the role of storytelling in HR and people practices, particularly in communicating the value of initiatives and aligning them with company culture, and end user “language fit”.

Deel’s approach to values-based hiring🤝

Hiring is hard at the best if times, but, fully remote and global makes this particularly challenging for companies like Deel. Alice speaks about how Deel place the emphasis on values-based hiring and the importance of cultural (behaviour, motivation, working preferences etc) alignment when recruiting for a rapidly growing, remote-first company.

Enjoy!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Alice:
LinkedIn: Alice Burks | LinkedIn
Website:

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

This week, Luke chats with Kinfolk co-founder, Jeet Mukerji. As a former Product Manager and current co-founder building HR Tech, Jeet has a TON of valuable insights to share about how People Teams can leverage Product Management principles to be more strategic and drive value + growth.

Meet Jeet 🌟 Band Manager turned Product Manager, turned People Tech Co-founder... Jeet brings a depth of knowledge from Product to the People space which not many others can! 

Product Management Lessons for People Teams🚀 From Double Diamond design, user-centric solutions focus, to prioritisation of work - There are so many great tactical and practical insights shared by Jeet which People Leads can carry straight into there work in PX product design.   

The Application of Tech and AI in HR 🤖  Luke and Jeet explore the wealth of HR / People Tech in the market right now and what People Leads need to be aware of when assessing and selecting what Tech to utilise to solve specific problems... oh, and AI. Obviously there is some AI chat too 🤪

People Data integrity, accuracy and ethicacy💡The key to leverage tech effectively ultimately resides in the quality of data we feed it. Jeet shares a little about the importance of focusing in the integrity and accuracy of People data and of course, how to remain ethical with how you are using People data to make decisions.

Enjoy!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Jeet:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Jeet Mukerji | LinkedIn
Website: Kinfolk: People Enablement. Automated. (kinfolkhq.com)

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

This is part 2 of my conversation with Lauren Gomes, experienced VP People and pioneer of People Experience as a Product.

In part 1 we explored Lauren’s career and the reality of life in the People team in hyper-growth start-ups / scale-ups. In Part 2, we get much more practical and tactical focusing on defining and getting started with PX as a Product 🤘🏻

Meet Lauren 🌟 Lauren is a People Experience leader who honed her craft during ASOS & Booking.com’s remarkable hyper growth phases, before finding her home in scaling start ups. She’s known for growing and transforming People teams; embedding the concept of People Experience as a Product and accelerating the speed of cultural change 5x QoQ.

Operationalising PX as a Product 🚀 Lauren talks about the operational aspects of Product-Led PX, sharing her experiences and strategies for integrating product principles into People Operations. She emphasises treating the employee experience as a product and utilising employee / user feedback to shape the PX product to create impactful employee experiences.

Team Structure and Role Clarity 🏢 Lauren explains her approach to structuring People teams to support a product-led strategy. She details the differences between traditional people partner roles and her concept of People Experience Design teams. This structure emphasises the importance of dedicated roles for different aspects of people operations, from talent acquisition to employee experience, and the critical role of co-creation with employees.

Practical Advice for Implementing Product-Led PX 💡
For those looking to implement a product-led PX approach, Lauren offers actionable advice:

1. Visualize Work and Prioritize: Clearly define and organise your projects based on impact and alignment with business goals.
2. Align with Business Priorities: Ensure your People strategies are in sync with the company’s strategic goals.
3. Co-Create with Employees: Engage employees in the development process to ensure initiatives resonate and are effective.

I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Lauren:
LinkedIn: Lauren (Mason) Gomes | LinkedIn 

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

In this episode Luke chats with Lauren Gomes, experienced VP People and pioneer of People Experience as a Product.

Meet Lauren 🌟 Lauren is a People Experience leader who honed her craft during ASOS & Booking.com’s remarkable hyper growth phases, before finding her home in scaling start ups. She’s known for growing and transforming People teams; embedding the concept of People Experience as a Product and accelerating the speed of cultural change 5x QoQ.

Life as a People person in a hypergrowth start-ups 🚀 Lauren shares fascinating insights into the realities of being part of, and leading, People functions in a start-ups and scale-ups on the serious come up! From headcount hypergrowth to scaling People ops at pace, I loved hearing Lauren’s career journey and highlights along the way.

Career transitions and Imposter Syndrome 🫣 From the outside, looking through the window at someone achieving great things, it can be easy to assume they have it all together and they are supremely confident… Well, that isn’t always the case and Lauren shares vulnerably her own experience of imposter syndrome, specifically focused on her current phase of career transition from in-house VP to Fractional VP.

Creating content and Personal Branding ✍️ With Lauren currently dipping her toe into the waters of content creation, Lauren picked my brains on how I got started with creating content on LinkedIn - I shared some tactical and practical advice which helped me out in the early days. 

This is pt. 1 of r a 2 part conversation - tune in next week for the second instalment which focuses on the tactical and practical embedding of People Experience as a Product🤘

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

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Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Lauren:
LinkedIn: Lauren (Mason) Gomes | LinkedIn 

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

This week on the PX Espresso Hour, Luke chats with John Faulkner-Willcocks, co-founder of OpenOrg, about his "squiggly" journey into the People profession, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and balancing fatherhood and work.

Meet John 🌟 John shares his transition into the People space from a non-traditional background, how to make culture tangible and the unique challenges as an entrepreneur and a father.

Key Themes:

Squiggly People / HR careers 🐍 Many of us find our way into a People roles via non-linear “HR” career paths. John shares his own “squiqqly” journey from which led him to start-ups, product and then People!

Parenting and work 🐣 the relationship between work and working parents is off! This is something I speak about frequently. John shares his experience as a working parent, in traditional work and now as an entrepreneur.

Making Culture Tangible 🛠️ We delve into the need to define culture beyond values and behaviours, making it more tangible. John shares his experience driving culture change in traditional companies and aligning everyone's understanding of culture.

The Power of Community 🤝 John highlights the value of listening and engaging in communities to gain insights and build connections. He shares how this approach has been instrumental for him and his co-founder, Adam, in their startup journey.

OpenOrg 🌐 John talks about how OpenOrg provides resources and support for people and culture leaders, aiming to foster a better workplace environment.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a parent, or simply interested in modern workplace practices, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review! ⭐ Enjoy the episode? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform. Stay tuned for more episodes of the PX Espresso Hour!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of the PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

-------------------------------------------------

Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact John:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: 📖 John Faulkner-Willcocks | LinkedIn
Website: Open Org | Build a More Trusted, Transparent World of Work
 Free Resources: Open Org Resources

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay

Send us a text

This week, Luke chats with Katja, founder of Shape Up HR, about progressive people practices, product-led PX design, Agile HR, and HR tech.

Meet Katja 🌟 Katja shares her journey from working in startups to becoming an HR tech and process design expert. She discusses the rapid learning opportunities in startups and the career growth they offer, along with the challenges and benefits.

TomTom’s Product-Led PX Design 🗺️ Katja provides insights into TomTom’s approach to people experience design. Their People Products team focuses on understanding problems deeply before finding solutions.

HR Tech Essentials ⚙️ With an abundance of HR tech options, Katja highlights the importance of focusing on core HR processes and data quality before implementing new technology.

Agile HR Practices 🌀 Katja emphasizes flexibility, continuous improvement, and psychological safety in HR. She shares tips on adopting agile practices, like progress over perfection and fostering a culture of experimentation.

Key Takeaways:

• Startups offer rapid learning and career growth.
• Prioritize core HR process design and data quality before new tech.
• Embrace a product-led approach for better people experiences.
• Agile HR is about flexibility and continuous improvement.
• Amsterdam leads in progressive HR practices.
• Psychological safety in teams encourages innovation.

Whether you’re an HR professional or just curious about modern People practices, this episode is packed with valuable insights.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review! ⭐ Enjoy the episode? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform. Stay tuned for more episodes of "The PX Espresso Hour"!

Catch you next time! ✌️

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Support for this episode of The PX Espresso Hour comes from Sana - an AI company transforming how organizations learn and access knowledge 🤖🧠

Take a look👀: Unlocking knowledge with AI | Sana (sanalabs.com)

-------------------------------------------------

Contact Luke:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Luke O'Mahoney | LinkedIn
Website: Sapienˣ | People First Product Led (sapienx.co.uk)

Contact Katja:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: Katja Vincetić | LinkedIn

About Shape Up HR 💼 Shape Up HR helps companies adopt modern HR practices through consultancy and advisory services.

If you like the podcast, you may want to sign up to the PX Espresso Newsletter ☕ the weekly newsletter for People people who think like Product people.

Music by Rockot from Pixabay