Root cause analysis of why growth stalled. Identified executional and operational gaps across capacity, capability, go-to-market, and product. Prioritised the top problems to address in Q4.
Mapped our competitive landscape, suppliers, sales channels, and customer segments. Ran a "perfect competitor" design exercise to pressure-test our strategic positioning and ICP focus.
Collaboratively defined the attributes that make someone successful at Plexus — and the failure modes to screen out. Reviewed our hiring process and agreed improvements to how we hire, test, and onboard.
Deep dive into the Plexus Brain platform — architecture, current agents, and the roadmap. Explored the future org model in an AI-first world. Conducted a live SaaS spend audit and people analyser exercise.
Set company-level Q4 OKRs. Debated and refined targets for growth, Plexus Brain adoption, and functional productivity. Functional leads presented straw-man objectives for review and iteration.
The group reached clear consensus: we're not losing to macro or competition. We under-resourced sales and marketing for ~9 months, lacked focus, and allowed hiring quality and velocity to slip. The opportunity is real — we just haven't executed against it.
The "perfect competitor" exercise sharpened our thinking on ICP and go-to-market. Mid-market, English-speaking, common law, high contract-volume industries — with PLG as the motion that removes friction from the buying journey.
Brain isn't a tool — it's the new operating system for the company. Every function will run through it. The question isn't whether to adopt it; it's how fast we can get all 7 functions live and measuring productivity impact.
Agents do the work. Humans supervise, orchestrate, and make decisions. Growth comes from compounding technology output — not adding bodies. Higher-calibre people with tech aptitude and pace of learning will deliver more than a larger team ever could.
We agreed on what great looks like at Plexus: growth mindset, high agency, gets the job done, low ego. We also agreed our hiring process hasn't been rigorous enough in screening for these — and that's changing now we have a clear profile.
Across every session, a consistent thread: we move too slow, tolerate underperformance too long, and don't hold actions tightly enough. The OKR framework, zero-based budgeting, and functional roadmaps are all designed to fix this.
| # | Action | Owner | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Rebuild and launch the growth model plan — MQL, SQL, activity targets and ARR all tied together. Relaunch the growth strategy review meeting. | Luke | Growth |
| 02 | Activate Promo Wizard zero-touch sign-up on the website — free trial front door live this quarter. | Cadell | Growth |
| 03 | Codify and publish the Ideal Employee Profile in plain, digestible language — not "high agency," but outcomes-oriented language every manager and candidate can understand. | Hannah | People |
| 04 | Update the culture deck to reflect the agreed Ideal Employee Profile traits. | Hannah | People |
| 05 | Re-weight the hiring scorecard in Hiring OS to reflect priority attributes. Recalibrate interview questions to probe growth mindset, agency, accountability, and coachability. | Hannah | People |
| 06 | Train all hiring managers — including new L2 managers — on the full hiring process: profile, interview questions, reference check rigour (including back-door references), and red flag recognition. | Hannah | People |
| 07 | Add the Vivid Vision to the candidate recruitment journey as a filter and culture signal. | Hannah | People |
| 08 | Review ALL staff against tech aptitude criteria — agree individual timelines and exit decisions for those who don't meet the bar. Not limited to flagged individuals; whole-org review. | Hannah | People |
| 09 | Design and launch recruitment incentive with Prosource — $10K bonus per successful hire within 30 days to accelerate hiring velocity. | Barnsey | People |
| 10 | Set up Plexus Brain roadmap delivery trio: Cadel (CPO) + Clint (Engineering) + executive sponsor. Own the platform roadmap and deployment architecture. | Cadel / Clint | Brain |
| 11 | Every functional leader to reimagine their org chart — list roles AND agents. Submit to leadership for review and comparison. | All Leads | Brain |
| 12 | Zero-based headcount budgeting: every functional leader to complete the headcount review — ask why each role exists, whether it will exist in 12 months, and what needs to replace it. | Ellie | Brain |
| 13 | Exit DocuSign: assign an engineer to build the replacement. Target ~$140K annual saving. Business case: Panda Doc or equivalent at ~30% of current cost as interim. | Barnsey | Brain |
| 14 | Execute Salesforce → HubSpot migration. Map the schema, confirm timeline, and reduce Salesforce licence cost (explore headless/no-UI option in interim). | Andy | Brain |
| 15 | Cancel Zoho (deprecated automation solution, ~$2K/year). Confirm Outreach cancellation has been actioned. | Barnsey | Brain |
| 16 | All leads responsible for identifying and actioning spend reductions in their function. Confirmed cancellations only count toward the cost savings KR — send the emails. | All Leads | Brain |
| 17 | Define a "customer / product operations" role — broader remit combining support, community, documentation, and potentially junior engineering. Begin replacement process for Chris. | Barnsey / Cadell | People |
| 18 | Finalise and distribute company Q4 OKRs. Lock the company-level KR targets: new ARR, expansion ARR ($400K+), GRR (gross losses below $200K/qtr), MQLs (130 at 30% SQL), trial signups (50), Brain DAUs (32). | Hannah | OKRs |
| 19 | Model expansion numbers — reconcile cross-sell (CM→MM, DM→PW) and pricing uplift scenarios to validate the $400K target. | Ellie | OKRs |
| 20 | Functional leaders: submit straw-man OKRs (max 3 objectives each) including a functional productivity measure as a KR under the Plexus Brain objective. | All Leads | OKRs |
| 21 | Designate a quarterly owner for the Market Map. Formalise it as a document updated before each offsite — competitors, channels, customers, suppliers, macro forces. | Andy / Luke | Market |