Playing the Long Game Sustainably

This is the third of what we hope will be a long-running annual Silver Fern letter. Our goal with the letter is to review the past year, share our expectations for the upcoming year, and publicly process what we're learning.

Playing the Long Game Sustainably

The title of our letter last year was Playing the Long Game. This year, we repeated the title but added Sustainably to the end. The addition of Sustainably came after much reflection in Q1 and Q2 of 2023. We were running the Company through constant sprints instead of proper marathon training, expending tremendous effort with little to show for it.

Like Boxer, the horse in George Orwell's Animal Farm, our response to every challenge was "I will work harder." But the "I will work harder" mantra is limited by time and energy, so we performed inconsistently for our Clients. Sometimes we delivered, sometimes we didn't, and always we felt like we were behind. We felt it most acutely in Q4 of 2022 and Q1 of 2023 when failures in one part of our business left us gasping. Try as we might, we couldn't catch up. "I will work harder" stopped working.

Oddly, the failures coincided with equal or greater successes in other parts of our business. This dichotomy set us on an emotional rollercoaster, but also helped us identify solutions. The areas where we were failing most were utterly devoid of systems and processes. We had no means for being consistent.

Fortunately, the business coaching mentioned in last year's letter shifted our thinking and provided tools to modify our system-lite approach. We improved the systems and processes that were working and implemented new ones where none existed. We applied Kolbe to get the right people in the right spots on our team; we implemented Scrum properly; we documented and improved our CI/CD practices; and we created prioritization methods such that actionable tasks tie to company-level priorities, strategy, and vision. Out of a collection of free-wielding individuals, we became an aligned team.

While we have many additional improvements to make, we can now do so while delivering consistently and sustainably. We're pleased with the progress and eager for more. Here's a review of the past year and intentions for the upcoming year:

The Past Year

What we aimed to do.

Improve the customer experience.
- We are committed to making our onboarding and support world-class. How can we make it better?
- In-app user guides? We're exploring options.
- More on-site visits? These seem to help users most.
- Improved training structures. We're iterating constantly!
- Better proposals. Purchase a new product to see the updates 🙂
- Major investment in product development.
- And more!
Release new Work Suite products (FORECAST™, ANALYZE™, FULFILL™).
- +$1.0M investment expected in the next 12 months.
Streamline feature releases and versioning for existing products.
Hire 3 - 4 Developers and 2 - 3 Client Partners.
- Silver Fern Jobs
Unveil our new website.

What we did.

Revamped our Onboarding Process.
- Updated Sales proposals.
- Onboarding Guides to guide the Onboarding Process.
- Increased on-site visits. We even have a PRODUCE™ summit planned in Q4 for existing Clients!
Released FORECAST™ v1.0, PRODUCE™ v4.0, nearing release of FULFILL™ v1.0, major updates to RESTOCK™ and Mobile Applications.
Implemented CI/CD improvements to streamline releases.
- Apps can now be downloaded via the Microsoft Store: Microsoft Apps - Silver Fern.
- Updates come with Release Notes.
Hired a Developer, Support Specialist, and Senior Account Executive.
Acquired SilverFern.com domain.
Released our new website!

The Upcoming Year

What we aim to do.

Simplify and scale our processes to deliver quickly and consistently.
Invest heavily in product development. See our product initiatives here (updated quarterly) (UPDATE: this has changed due to our implementation of Scaling Up. We plan to share quarterly product updates via email & blog posts for now).
Standardize and enhance our integration layer.
Hire for 2-4 roles.

Until Next Year

Our continued desire is to build Silver Fern for many years to come. It's hard but fun. Though imperfect, we're learning and growing each year. Thank you for joining us on the journey.

Until next year,

Adam, Kevin, Stephen

Past Letters

2021
2022