What I wish I knew before joining Uber
As a 21-year-old, if you were to tell me that I will juggle mafia intimidation, the launch of a new product, a leak in the new office, and a personal development conversation for someone in my team, all within 1.5 hours, I would think they’re nuts!
However, this scope, intensity, and task switching were a regular Thursday when I was at Uber.
What a wild ride it has been. I came as the youngest member of the team, barely 21, and left as a veteran 6 years later. Time flies, but feels like a dog years' worth of experience.
I accidentally became famous for the "stop and smell the flowers" phrase and I can't see a better-suited opportunity for it. So please walk down memory lane with me for the 10 most memorable moments (that I couldn’t have even imagined!) of these last 6 years at Uber:
1 - First day on the job
It's early summer 2016, and my first day at Uber was answering tickets in the back of a van, on our way to support the biggest music festival of the year on the Croatian Coast. Learning how to use Zendesk for support tickets on the fly, arranging a secret party on the boat called UberWaves, and doing tickets long into the night for Ultra Music Festival.
2 - Humble beginnings
Seeing the number of online drivers go from 49 to 50 on in Zagreb was a huge milestone! That and monitoring the marketplace like a hawk until the morning on every NYE and jumping to help with outages and wild surges in other friendly markets. Because you need to expect the unexpected during the biggest night of the year.
3 - Before it was cool!
We did Youtube live onboarding sessions for new drivers and partners before Instagram had stories! And those who joined in person would usually not leave without signing up - they would even run to their car to bring their driver’s license, so we can help them upload it. There was also a painfully manual project of moving away from POS devices and physical receipts which was a constriction and hassle for all parties, where we digitalized it and started a domino effect of digital invoicing across EU markets.
4 - Early glory days
After launching a hub in Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik (+9 summer pop-ups), we focused on our CX trifecta at the time, 3 teams, 30 people from in-person support, in-app, and an in-house call center for conversion. Accomplishing wonders, building a lean, mean, thriving machine with stellar numbers I won’t disclose. Let’s just say that an eligible* person interested in driving would usually only need to sleep once before completing their first trip.
*given that they meet needed requirements, and standards and have clear documents
5 - “If you can’t handle the heat, get away from the kitchen” test
Things got heated. Casual threats to my team members and me, violence towards drivers, and one viral video of a taxi driver showing his naked behind to an Uber driver ended up in national news. Death threats and the first burned vehicle in Croatia. We went above and beyond and provided exceptional care to the partners affected by taxi road rage and physical violence by partnering with on-call security for them to call + financial, medical, and psychological support.
6 - Big bold bets and the story of UberBoat
The first to launch UberBoat as a product. Tricky to do since there isn't really a road at sea you can follow with GPS. It managed to attract world journalists from the most prestigious magazines (such as NY Times, Business Insider, Vogue, Reuters, etc.). Later we helped the US team replicate UberBoat, so they can go help people after the hurricane floods in Texas. And to think that the product initially almost didn't work due to a critical bug the night before the launch!
7 - Race with time and new regulation
Huge transition** for Uber partners. We hired 100 people in 10 days to help. Ran a pop-up center with >5k daily visits across 3 cities for a month. Battling impossible deadlines for a law*** whose details we didn't know yet and still securing >70% of supply the night of the deadline. Riders only noticed a 2 min higher wait time for a few weeks.
**Think industry, company classification, vehicle & document requirements, licenses, and more
***FYI law is announced 1 week before, but it takes 3 weeks to open a company, bylaws for vehicles requirements are effective from midnight on the day they are announced
8 - R&R - Reorgs and Risks
Several reorganizations, many milestones, and even more changes. From the birth of modern in-person support in Italy and major regulatory wins to changes in leadership in Croatia, resilience, and competition. From the Greek story of victory and growth of the amazing team, the reinvention of CX in Israel, and the renaissance of the market.
Not everything was shiny and nice. Impoundments, protests, incidents, death and bomb threats, mafia intimidation, and collaboration with the police more times than I can count. 5 driver support hub relocations, 3 major water pipe leaks (one happened the night before launching that hub!), and of course, a cherry on top: a couple of earthquakes in Croatia and Greece.
9 - Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!
First COVID lockdowns starting from Italy, shifting our business model within 24 hours from in-person to 100% virtual, pivoting more than they did in Friends, and doubling down on the team to keep our strong and positive spirit. Even years later, I look fondly at silly moments and laughter with the team in the darkest of times. We made sure our team was safe haven when the whole world was upside down.
10 - Looking ahead, and the New Generation of Customer Experience (CX)
Slight reorganization again - taking over Next Generation (NextGen) projects for Southern Europe and continuing to lead the Rest of Southern Europe (of RoSE 🌹 for short). We did big things and were the first in EMEA to pilot 2 new approaches to support - proactive in Spain and video chat in Portugal. We tested it out and helped create the foundation for everyone else to follow across EMEA. On top of that, the official creation of Key Account Management for partners across Southern Europe with one goal in mind: to build strategic advantage in a hypercompetitive market.
And that’s a wrap!
I've led hundreds of people and the hardest thing about leadership was always the fact that my trials & errors impact real people. You try to do the best you can with what you have, then learn and improve.
When I look back, I'm proud and endlessly embarrassed of who I was - that's the price of growth. If you don't cringe just a little, you might be doing something wrong.