Shane Koller joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about adopting a product mindset in HR, how Ancestry’s people team built their “product roadmap”, and why even great HR programs fall short when they’re not connected.
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(07:35) Shane’s journey from psychology to Chief People Officer
(10:31) How Ancestry became the leader in family history and genomics
(13:13) Powerful storytelling: Connecting people with their family histories
(15:51) The moment Shane realized HR should run like a product team
(22:07) Adopting a shareholder mindset within the People function
(27:27) Identifying and prioritizing employee experience moments that matter
(33:15) Measuring success: Key metrics for people teams
(36:55) Restructuring the HR team to operate like a product organization
(43:45) Why CEO alignment is crucial for transforming HR
(47:06) Lessons learned from Ancestry’s "fail fast" moments
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.