Grand Opening. JustAnswer launches a new office in Ukraine
How was the idea of becoming an independent office in UA born?
Andy Kurtzig, CEO:
When I visit Ukraine, I always meet with many teams and individuals and ask lots of questions. I am especially interested in making JustAnswer a better employer. In discussions with JA team, I found that there were a number of important things we wanted to do but couldn’t as part of an outsourcing company. For example: We wanted to build our own JustAnswer employer brand; We wanted to recruit more and better; We wanted to have our own office; We wanted to choose our own benefits; etc… When we were smaller, we couldn’t focus on these challenges. But, as we grew, those things started to get in the way of becoming a bigger and better company.
What are the goals for JA’s nearest future?
Adam Cohen, EVP of Engineering:
Our company goal over the next two years is to continue working on our three primary priorities: Quality, LTV and Acquisition, leveraging learnings from our bot technology in the funnel to improve our overall customer experience.
In Ukraine, our primary goal is to continue investing in JA Ukraine to meet the business objectives of JustAnswer. This includes continuing to build engineering, QA, UX, analytics, BSA (Business Systems Administration), and the HALF (HR, Admin, Legal, and Finance) functions. The Optimus initiative will focus on improving the throughput of our engineering teams by incorporating principles from the book Accelerate in our software development process. We are also experimenting with improving strategic planning by bringing our initiative members from around the world together to plan for the coming quarters. We think getting everyone in one location will help with alignment and facilitate productive and creative brainstorming sessions.
To accomplish these goals we will have to build the JA employer brand in Ukraine. We have already started this effort, with our participation in the IT Arena, but we have a lot more to do. And we are looking to grow our UA leadership team, which will create many opportunities for our current staff. With all these improvements and continued travel between our offices, I can say with confidence that in 2020: It’s fun to work at JAUA. 😉
What was the most challenging for you in becoming an independent company in UA and opening a new office?
Nadiya Semen, Director of International Management:
The whole idea of settling the new company in Ukraine seemed to be challenging. There were so many questions to be answered — How to bring new JA Brand to the market? How to keep the current recruitment speed and turnover? Can we be on time and within the budget with the new office? How to handle people’s concerns and what in particular are those? I felt challenged and energized. It was not the first time for me to launch the new IT company in Ukraine. So I knew that it is a long journey but I also knew that it will be a great start and an amazing opportunity. I relied on my team and accurate planning, a tough schedule and a little bit of success for sure.
