Standing up a Snowflake Center of Excellence: A Retrospective

Introduction

Over the last quarter, our team set out to execute the “big rocks” of our strategy by standing up two Centers of Excellence (CoE) - one for Snowflake, and one for AI. Given my role as Head of Data, I gladly accepted the challenge of captaining the Snowflake CoE. This article will not focus as much on the outcomes of the CoE (you will see more of that from Ippon in the coming weeks!), but rather on my experience captaining the team.

For those who do not know, a Center of Excellence is a dedicated team or organizational structure that focuses on a specific domain or area of expertise (in our case, the two aforementioned focuses). The primary purpose of a CoE is to drive best practices, foster innovation, enhance skills, and provide strategic guidance across the organization.

CoEs are designed to centralize knowledge, resources, and capabilities, enabling organizations to efficiently and effectively implement standards, methodologies, and tools. They act as a hub for expertise, where specialized knowledge is developed and disseminated to improve overall performance and achieve business objectives. By doing so, a CoE ensures consistency, quality, and alignment with strategic goals, promoting continuous improvement and fostering a culture of excellence throughout the organization.

In this article, I will reflect on the lessons learned. I will share challenges, celebrate successes, and generally share my thoughts. As this is the first time I’ve led a CoE, there was a lot to learn- and hopefully, those lessons will help you, dear reader. 

Setting the Stage for the CoE

As with any new challenge, I was excited and nervous about my new responsibilities. As the only member on the CoE with time actually allocated to my schedule to ensure delivery, I wanted to make sure I was crystal clear on the expectations for my role. Our CTO and I met many times to frame up the business objectives of the CoE, and I felt very supported and eager to get moving. Our scope was clear: To define our go-to-market strategy for Snowflake, to develop a new and unique offering, to facilitate organizational change management both internally to support increased Snowflake activity and externally for clients adopting the data cloud, and how best to support our sales team with all of the above.

With the scope in place, and the role established, it then became time to recruit. Part of what had me so excited to lead this team was all of the leadership opportunities it would provide for everyone on the team. With four focus area leads, a communication lead, and other representatives; we opened up applications for folks to get in on the action. Immediately I was thrilled that we had a significant number of applicants and, because it was a voluntary role, I knew their motivation to excel was already elevated.

Fostering a Collaborative Team

Given that this CoE was “side of desk” for everyone participating, I knew it was crucial to identify the most productive way to work. I work best in a group setting where ideas are flowing and we get to “riff” off of each other, but I know many folks prefer asynchronous heads-down time. To that end, I conducted a brief survey of the team to identify how they’d prefer to work, and far and away the response was “collaboratively with dedicated time.” With that in mind, we developed a cadence whereby the focus area leads, our communication lead, and I would meet weekly on Tuesday to prioritize tasks and identify blockers. Thursdays saw a one-hour block where the whole team and anyone who wanted to could join and swarm on our most pressing issues. During those working sessions, we would form breakout rooms to focus on a few key areas to help push deliverables across the line, or simply hash out some ideas. 

Despite this being a herculean volunteer effort, the ability for folks to work with people in the organization they don’t normally get to work alongside (due to being on different projects, aligned to different practices, or geographically disparate) was a big draw. These working sessions quickly became the highlight of my week as the sheer level of collaboration and fun made the work seem easy. Our productivity was amazing to see and (barring a few minor adjustments as any project sees), our deliverables were hit.

Achieving Milestones & Lessons Learned

Our CTO was crucial in helping develop the charter and maintain our North Star- before we even kicked off the CoE we felt very comfortable with the required deliverables and milestones of the CoE at a high level. Our first 30 days were focused on establishing the CoE, communicating the purpose across the company, and settling into our working cadence. The following 30 were about hammering out the deliverables required to meet our milestones before heading into implementation and then iteration.

Some of the biggest lessons learned involved keeping a team on track for a project that everyone was doing in addition to their “day job”. Everyone involved was participating because they were interested in the project and had a passion for the focus of the CoE. Fortunately, the excitement around the project made finding motivation easier than a project with less enthusiasm behind it. As mentioned previously, I also opted to survey the group at the start of the project to identify how the team would prefer to work. Finding time to set aside each week for collaborative work sessions was challenging, but we simply worked around who was and was not able to come. If one focus area lead had a client meeting, the remainder of the team would swarm on deliverables in a different focus area. In this way, nearly everyone contributed in some way to each deliverable- even if it was merely conversation. 

It would be incorrect to state that deliverables and milestones weren’t sometimes muddy or that dates slipped a bit here and there. While that is to be expected in almost any project; a “side of the desk” effort like this was almost guaranteed to see such slippage. That being said, thanks in no small part to just how fun this project was, the narrowing of scope and missed deadlines were relatively minor. Two of our four focus areas hit every originally identified milestone from day one on time. The other two were somewhat more nebulous once we started digging in and needed slight refinement in scope; though their deliverables were no less impressive or impactful. 

The success of this CoE came down to three factors: 

1. Executive support and guidance from day one. Our CTO spent a lot of time articulating the ask, getting the Captains up to speed, and finally sharing the vision across the organization.
2. The collaborative approach to the work. I feel confident in saying this work was simultaneously fun, extremely engaging, and impactful to the organization.
3. The Focus Area Leads. Each of the focus area leads were empowered to drive their deliverables, make changes as needed, and organize their teams of volunteers. Giving the focus area leads the opportunity to own their work and have a leadership opportunity was a goal of the CoEs and the focus area leads rose to the challenge. 

The personal Rewards

I found this project hugely rewarding for several reasons. First, I got to work with a lot of my fellow Ipponites who I don’t normally get a chance to work with which was great! Every company ever says “Our people are our difference,” but that is absolutely true at Ippon. We hire people who are Collaborative, Open-Minded, Adaptable, Courageous, and Hungry (capitalized here because COACH represents our value set!), and every single one of those values was on display in this CoE. 

Second, I felt good about my approach to leading this team by listening and empowering. In our first meeting I established that I absolutely did not want our weekly check-ins to be me talking for a half hour- and would instead be looking to our focus area leads and participants to drive the conversation. In many of the working sessions, I simply bounced between breakout rooms offering guidance where needed and encouragement always. These working sessions became the highlight of my week as the sheer pride I felt for the teams tackling problems outside of their normal day-to-day was just awesome to witness.

Finally, I knew just how impactful this work was for the entire company. There’s no worse feeling than wondering “Is what I’m doing impactful? Is this helping the team?” On the flip side- there’s no better feeling than knowing the work going on will resonate across the entire organization and make us better. This is work that is both urgent and important, and it was a huge morale booster to be a part of such impactful work at the nexus of what our organization is doing.

In Closing

In conclusion, captaining the Snowflake CoE has been among the most rewarding experiences of my career. It was a true testament to the power of collaboration, leadership, and a shared vision. While challenges were inevitable, the commitment and passion of everyone involved allowed us to overcome obstacles and achieve impactful results. This journey has reaffirmed the importance of building structures like CoEs that not only drive innovation but also foster personal and professional growth across the organization. I look forward to the next steps of the CoE (this was merely phase 1!) as we continue to leverage the power of the community and see the ripple effects of our efforts resonate throughout Ippon and beyond.