Zoom is all about keeping businesses and people connected. With the COVID-19 crisis, however, this mission took on a new level of imperative. The company had been in high-growth mode for the past several years. And as Zoom’s business evolved, the operations team, led by Hilary Headlee, recognized it needed systems that could scale with this growth and be nimble in the face of changing market conditions and new corporate initiatives. Zoom needed an automated lead-management system that could help the company quickly scale to keep up with its rapid growth, and LeanData was the company’s top choice.

By adopting LeanData’s solution for lead-to-account matching and routing, Headlee and the team were able to meet unprecedented demand for Zoom’s services, allowing the organization to scale its lead-management systems and processes with the speed and agility needed to respond quickly to the businesses, schools and individuals when they needed it most.

Can you share any particular achievements you are most proud of in your current role?

Like many companies, Zoom has faced a “new reality” the past few months in 2020: We were all sent home to do our work, during a global pandemic and without weeks of notice to plan accordingly. We were also helping to connect the world during the pandemic to their family, friends, school, work, church, hospitals and more.

During this time, Zoom did see an unprecedented demand for our services to support families, friends, schools, businesses, governments, hospitals, churches and more. Almost overnight, our focus shifted and all that mattered was three things: Getting all leads responded to as soon as possible, all orders provisioned for access immediately, and our revenue team informed on the changes to make that happen. On good days, this can be tricky, with such an increase in demand and delivery timeframes, it tests your processes, your systems, your communication, and your change management effectiveness.

Even though we were helping and that is a positive feeling, it was stressful at the same time. I would share the following with my team during some tough moments: We can untie, or we can unite. And every day, we chose to keep uniting and keep helping connect the world. For that, I am most proud of not only my own team, but of every team we partnered with to just keep going.

Can you share any details about how your team, or individuals on your team, have helped drive innovation? How have you maintained your collaboration and innovation despite the current WFH reality? 

One of the positive challenges from having so many more and new customers, meant we had more and new problems to solve and also more and new questions to answer. What I mean by that is, no one had the “answer key” or prior experience on how to do what we needed to do. We were in unchartered waters and this meant that all ideas need to be shared to solve the problems we were facing.

Innovation can be stifled by many things, but we quickly shifted our focus to having ultimate teamwork and trust. Though the clock was against us, we also knew the impact of not solving the problems could impact so many people who needed Zoom. Every day, we would have new problems to solve and we would toss out ideas, bat them around, turn them away, bring them back again, turn them down again, start over and so on … until we could greenlight them — sometimes all in the same call. We always anchored on being honest because there was no time to waste, but always with care, our core value at Zoom.

Much of our team was already in different locations and as such, meetings were always on Zoom before WFH. After we were all at home, it shifted the dynamics to just being in the same size square in a Zoom meeting window. (Ha ha!) What we dialed up was our written collaboration; shared documents to ideate and execute on items. We also use our own Zoom Chat to communicate; it ranges from formal items like critical announcements and updates to GIF wars on what’s the funniest.

In the midst of Covid-19, what are some lessons you’ve learned that will impact or influence the future of your work?  

While I want the pandemic and sheltering-in-place to end, these past few months have been such an overwhelming reminder that (1) customers matter more than anything, (2) teamwork is powerful, (3) good communication is tough, but so key and (4) kindness really, truly matters.

Zoom has always anchored around delivering customer happiness and these past few months are no different. When we ground ourselves around “what do customers need,” it becomes clearer and more quickly on what we need to do for our frontline teams.

Teamwork should be easy, but it can be hard. Leaning in with your team and asking for help can be hard, but it is always worth it. You really can accomplish more, do it faster and better together.

Effective communication is one of the hardest skills to master; not only making sure it resonates but is even read by your teams during such busy times. Finding a way to cut through the noise is critical and best topped off by listening to the changing needs around communication.

It’s a really tough time right now for so many reasons. An extra minute before starting a meeting to see how folks are doing, or to all get water, or even to take some deep breaths (we have done a two-minute mediation on our team before a big meeting) can be simple ways. We have employed “Thank You Thursday,” where we reach out to our interlock teammates who are making a difference. Softening up a chat with an emoji can even go a long way for folks to “hear” you in this typing world.

If anything, getting back to basics has been the best way to keep going in the tough times: Customers first, collaborate, communicate and care.

What sources for inspiration help you stay excited and invigorated in your work?   

Internally, we have a “Women At Zoom” employee resource group and it has been so powerful to connect while we are all at home. We share stories, learn from other experiences, present on superhero powers and simply understand the strengths we bring to the table as women. It has been a true lifeline during this time.

LinkedIn is always a source of inspiration: Such great new content and ideas are coming out every day it seems. The quantity and quality of the operations communities popping up has been amazing as well. Reading solid publications like HBR and listening to SaaS podcasts also help keep the ideas flowing on what to do or how to view things. And just old-fashioned conversations with other operations leaders at companies has been rejuvenating. You can compare notes on problems, learn new ways of how they do things and just find commonality that is sometimes needed in a smaller discipline.