Back to Holstee, for a sprint

I’m back at Holstee as an individual contributor, for an eight-week run of focused sprints.

I stepped back from operations in January 2025 after 15 years. The business has run without me since (more on that year off in a future post).

The team is autonomous now, which is what made this return so appealing. I’m using the opportunity to put into practice some tools I’ve been playing with recently. I plan to implement this in two distinct two sprint series:

Sprint Series 1: Operational Efficiency. We’re a resource-strapped team with big ambitions. The goal is to free up bandwidth by automating maintenance-y work.

Sprint Series 2: Growth. Holstee has big upside on top-of-funnel and conversion. Nearly all of our revenue today comes from the email list and partnerships, so that’s where the growth work concentrates.

While I don’t see this as a long-term role, stepping back in as an IC feels as freeing and fun as I could imagine. The impact is already so satisfying and I’m excited to document the progress as I go!

*Shortly after writing this I read that being a high impact individual contributor (HI-C) is the new career flex. I didn’t do it for the flex, but the framing fits.