The Full Circle

On the topic we have been avoiding this whole time: the rise and fall of our co-owned company.

In the last episode of this season, we took the dogs to the Buda Hills to have a surprisingly chill conversation about the emotionally loaded subject of our experience with co-ownership, distributed decision-making, and trust.

The path we took:

• A journey back in time to 2015: the pitch to join a co-owned company, and what made us say yes.
• The era of building end-to-end product agency / venture builder hybrids.
• The beanbags and foosball tables of every 2010s office, aka hiring developers before the bootcamp boom.
• The motivational powers, technicalities, and challenges of co-ownership.
• Experiments with flat organizations and distributed decision-making, and the ups and downs of our implementation of holacracy.
• And the downfall: why we left, and what we are taking with us - about PLCs, amazingly productive meetings, and contract-backed trust.

Further reading:

• https://www.lab.coop/
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NVNYM4C
• https://www.holacracy.org/
• https://blog.crisp.se/2015/06/07/henrikkniberg/no-i-didnt-invent-the-spotify-model
• https://blog.lab.coop/holacracy-from-scratch-40e1f01e9030
• https://blog.lab.coop/share-more-to-have-more-why-lab-coop-is-an-employee-owned-holacracy-governed-company-c85915ae3168

Ps. We are going on a little summer break now and will be back with our next season in September. We're experimenting with some shorter outtakes and thought-nuggets on Instagram until then. Also, we are all ears - if you want to chime in, have some feedback, or have a topic in mind that you would love to hear about next, hit us up at @paths.puddles.products!

★ Support this podcast ★

Creators & Guests

Host

Anikó Vera Fejes

I'm a software developer who tried a lot of things but ultimately decided to hide from the world in the woods.

Host

Juli Mata

I work in product, and I come from (product-service-system) design. I focus on help linking product to business strategy these days.

What is Paths, Puddles, Products?

Trails to innovation: Wandering in design, development & business on foot

Welcome to the Paths, puddles, products podcast, where we explore the paths and puddles of innovation. We are a duo of international product designers with over a decade of experience working in diverse industries, and we're here to share our insights, stories, and takeaways with you.

Join us as we walk and talk about the realities of product design, debunking myths and shedding light on the good, the bad, and the ugly. We'll go beyond the buzzwords to give you a true picture of what it's really like to work in design, development, and business.

And don't forget, just like hiking, it's not just about the destination - it's about the journey. So grab your headphones and come walk with us.