Client

Jinn (HRTech), a product company, is a platform for automating people management for HR managers.

• A young startup with a 3-year history
• High business culture, regular strategy sessions, focus on product and technology
• The company is in an active phase of growth and development, with an emphasis on a product-based approach and the conscious development of management processes.

Request and expectations

Purpose of the session — not just plan the year, but build a strategic route together with the team.

The client wanted:

• Formulate ambitious but realistic goals for the year
• Ensure deep team involvement in the strategic process, rather than imposing goals from above
• Build a clear route to achieving your goals

"It was important for us not just to 'write a plan,' but to create a sense of co-authorship within the team. So that the goals weren't 'imposed from above,' but rather were owned by each member."

What the company didn't expect but got

• Deep clarification of the strategic vision
• Coordination and refinement of the key target audience profile within the team
• Formalization of basic principles and approaches to the product
• A noticeable difference compared to previous experience: instead of facilitation for the sake of the process, the team received management support with high added value and the opportunity for continued collaboration.

"In the past, facilitators would end their work at the end of the session. Here, real strategic consulting began."

Project progress

The work began with in-depth preparation. This allowed us not only to arrive at the session with a blank slate, but to enter the discussion with a well-defined problem space and prepared participants.

Deep preparation

• Interview with the team
• Retrospective and analysis of the previous period
• Identifying hidden contradictions and inconsistencies in understanding strategy
• Synchronizing founders on strategic vision
• Forming a problematic field for the session

“The key for me was to get the work started to sessions. And it really was like that: they worked with us, pulling out of our heads everything that was preventing us from moving forward."

During the strategic session, the focus was on working through:

• strategic vision and its integration into the team’s perception;
• target client portrait;
• problematic area and strategic goals for the year;
• cross-functional initiatives for the next period;
• a format that allowed for the combination of facilitation and management consulting: when necessary, the consultant intervened in the process, guiding the group, helping to avoid formulaic or ineffective decisions, and relying on business practices.

Results

• The company's strategic vision is synchronized between the founders and formalized in a document.
• The target client profile has been refined, and key principles and approaches to the product have been formulated.
• The team began to independently launch initiatives even before the plans were formalized.
• Improved collaboration between functions (for example, marketing and sales began to negotiate without management involvement)
• Recruitment for key strategic roles has begun
• A decision was made to establish a management committee for regular coordination and reduction of information loss.
• There was a desire to continue working in the format of tracking strategic meetings

From a customer review

"The experience was very impressive. The team was impressed, too. For the first time, I felt a desire to continue the collaboration after the session—to hold regular track meetings and review the implementation. And this, perhaps, is the most important confirmation of the value: you don't want to finish the project, but rather continue it. I believe that for all companies that need a strategic session not just for show, but for business results, A.maze.S is an excellent partner."

Valery, co-founder of the company

Summary

For the client, this project was not just planning, but a step towards mature strategic management.
The preparation, session, and management expertise combined to form a powerful growth point:

• The goals became clear
• The team stepped up and took the initiative
• Systemic management decisions have emerged

A strategic session is not a one-time event, but the start of sustainable changes in the company.