{"id":4061,"date":"2021-10-24T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-24T11:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/?p=4061"},"modified":"2021-10-26T08:06:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T06:06:21","slug":"goodbye-babbel-and-love-you-babbelonians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/goodbye-babbel-and-love-you-babbelonians\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Babbel. And Thank you, Babbelonians!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

My 4 \u00bd year journey comes to an end, but it felt like both Babbel & I experienced a decade-worth of change, advancement and growth. I wanted to take a moment to thank every Babbelonian that made it so enriching. And to my family for the leap of faith to change countries again. \u2708\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People \ud83e\udd18\ud83c\udffc<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When asked about the one thing I\u2019ll miss: like countless Babbelonians<\/em>, I pointed to this. You onboarded me to a new culture. You live & breathe our purpose to create mutual understanding – for us and our learners. You are what makes Babbel unique. There\u2019s so many of you to name and I fear missing one out. But you know who you are! Seeing your goodbye messages come far and wide was heart-warming. Sorry for being speechless on the farewell call. Thanks and you rock! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Babbelonians<\/em> helped me blend in a new culture; to learn and reflect on my values and identity. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Product & Leadership \ud83c\udfaf<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When I took over leadership of the PM team early 2018 and was asked to double it, I was still learning to lead at scale. Not every strategy, organisation and process change was straight-forward – especially restructuring into tribes. I want to thank all the PMs for their trust, commitment patience while I figured it. Looking back at how far we\u2019ve come makes me proud: from how & how many decisions we make using data, to how consistent we\u2019ve become at driving outcomes; from lateral transitions to well-deserved promotions. Leading designers and product marketeers was a step change; thanks for the smooth transition. You\u2019ve all been tremendous partners! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scale-up to IPO-ready \ud83d\ude80<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Hacking. Failing. Winning. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank all Impressionists (members of our revenue & growth tribe) for your drive to hack, clean-up and scale. You should be proud of launching free-trial, a platform for new subscriptions like multi-user & lifetime plans, a platform for promotions and iterating on content. Your contribution and strong collaboration with Marketing, CS, etc, chipped strongly into our user & revenue growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I owe a great deal to the inspiring leaders that challenged, inspired, and guided me through it – Martin Keuter (ex-COO), Geoff Stead (CPO) and Julie Hansen (CRO & CEO, US). I learned a lot, but most of all, you helped sharpen my strategic thinking, organisation development and change management skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Partnership \ud83e\udd1d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From that day in August 2017 when our Leadership team was setup, to co-owning company-level objectives. I\u2019ve gained so much from brainstorming, reflecting and having difficult conversations with you all \ud83e\udde1.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Languages are everywhere<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tandem leadership with my partner, Gaetano Contaldi, was the highlight of the last 2 years. Co-leading (and co-parenting) is how we got our IXA farm to join-up on the big-picture, like a mission-driven, empowered unit, even if that meant switching focus from dear poultry to a seasonal crop.\u00a0\ud83d\ude9c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being part of the Product-Engineering and Marketing leadership teams at the same time served as a master class in running a business. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the ProductLeads; from our ski-trip to figuring out strategy 2025 (and a playlist to match).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perspectives & Privilege \ud83c\udf08<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank Babbel for making me part of its high trust, warm & diverse culture. Working directly C-level execs with different responsibilities meant understanding and driving strategy, decisions and impact from 3 perspectives<\/a> \u2014 that of a COO, CPO & CRO \u2014 all critical to long-term success of a product-led organisation. Our push towards DEI awareness & action is incredible and just what the world needs in this moment. Despite speaking 5 Indian languages, I hadn’t reflected on the role of language in who I am, like I did here. Babbel allowed me to offer mentoring & coaching sessions <\/a> and give back that way. It\u2019s a privilege and I\u2019m truly grateful for all the (equal) opportunities I\u2019ve had to learn, perform & grow. \ud83d\ude47\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for stopping by, and keep in touch<\/a>. \ud83e\udd17<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler. My 4 \u00bd year journey comes to an end, but it felt like both Babbel & I experienced a decade-worth of change, advancement and growth. I wanted to take a moment to thank every Babbelonian that made it so … Continue reading Goodbye Babbel. And Thank you, Babbelonians!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,1611],"tags":[1672,1263,146,968,1671,742,1612,1673],"class_list":["post-4061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-reflection","tag-babbel","tag-berlin","tag-career","tag-coaching","tag-goodbye","tag-leadership","tag-mentoring","tag-product"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/goodbye-babbel.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4061"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4106,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4061\/revisions\/4106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prasadgupte.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}