Our team is growing rapidly as we get ready to take the next big steps on our SaaS growth journey! One of the newest members of our team is Peeter Kiis, Product Owner.
He joined our team during spring 2023 and is now developing our product management processes further, and making sure that we are building the right things in our SaaS product – in a smart way that delivers the most value to our customers.
Let’s delve into the three biggest reasons that made Peeter become interested in joining Fondion’s growth journey. Were they just fancy promises during the recruitment process – or have these things actually come true in his daily life a few months in?
Three observations about joining Fondion
#1 Solid team with strong industry knowledge
As someone who moved to Finland from Estonia years ago, Peeter has kept a close eye on the job market and made ongoing observations about it. He came across Fondion on Linkedin when browsing what’s currently available in the market.
“When I came across Fondion, something about it immediately clicked for me. After a couple of interviews with the Product Lead, Jarmo and the Tech Lead Kimi, Fondion seemed like a solid team and left quite a strong impression on me”, Peeter says.
In the SaaS startup scene, there are many young founding teams that are focused around the latest trends and, for example, the possibilities of AI.
“There’s nothing wrong about joining a new industry because of fancy buzzwords and hot trendy stuff – these young teams often learn as they go but with that comes the heightened risk of failure. But the vibe I got from Fondion’s team was that they have a very deep understanding of their domain, the construction industry”, Peeter says.
“Instead of getting a startup idea overnight and throwing VC money at it – they have developed their knowledge by working in the industry for years, and built a SaaS product that solves the most critical problems of the industry. This explains the traction Fondion has got already after just 2 years.”
The goals of the Fondion team seemed very clear to Peeter from the get-go.
“Talking to people at Fondion, everyone seemed to know clearly what the expectations for them were, and what they were going to do next. ERPs, such as Fondion, in general tend to be complex and difficult to pick up. Still, after a 5-minute pitch, I had an understanding of what the product does even if I had no previous experience from the construction industry. The team’s communication about it was top notch”, Peeter says.
#2 Product of many possibilities
First, after his BBA degree in 2016, Peeter transitioned his career to project management, and moved forward to product management and development. He ended up shifting his focus towards the startup environment in his career.
“I have worked as a Product Manager in the B2B SaaS sector also before Fondion. In terms of product and startup cycle, I’ve picked up one thing that is especially important: focus”, Peeter says.
During the first two years of a startup journey, it can get pretty stressful when everything is shaky. You don’t yet know if the customers are going to stay, nor what is the most impactful value generator you can offer them.
“Fondion’s product has been around only 2 years now. It usually takes quite a while to reach the product-market-fit, but Fondion has already established themselves in the market because the product delivers so much value to the customers”, Peeter says.
“What I’m seeing is that the fundamentals to building a great product are in place. But now rather than scaling up and trying to satisfy everyone – we are thinking about bringing the focus back to where Fondion’s strengths lie. We are on the verge of figuring out what the most valuable core offering of the product is.”
“It usually takes quite a while to reach the product-market-fit, but Fondion has already established themselves in the market because the product delivers so much value to the customers.”
Now, Peeter and his team are focused on enhancing the product and making sure it is the best quality, doesn’t have a lot of bugs, is visually attractive and easy to use. The current focus is on the Finnish market, being the best in business and answering to the needs of the construction industry.
“When that target is reached, we can start moving to the international markets. From there, there are a lot of possibilities as the construction industry is huge globally! True market capitalization depends on what we are going to focus on, that’s the key!”, Peeter thinks.
#3 Transparent culture means talking about the problems, too
It is an interesting time to join Fondion’s journey for sure. According to Peeter, you can have a lot of impact and learn tons both personally and professionally. One of the things that helps people to learn is the culture that is genuinely open for feedback.
“Fondion’s founders understand the value of a great culture and building it intentionally. It’s not about what they write down in a company handbook, but how they themselves act on a daily basis.”
“Even the founders are super open for feedback. They are the subject matter experts, but they are always listening to others and making decisions based on what they hear – not who says it. This is valuable in bringing the best in people and their strengths. If you notice something to improve, you can do it, and if you feel comfortable taking responsibility for it, the better!” says Peeter, who didn’t have previous experience in the construction industry.
Peeter mentions that already during the recruitment process, there was open and honest communication about what the overall role and challenges would look like. He felt like what he sees is what he’s going to get, because the founders were super honest about the problems there would be, too. On top of the day-to-day Product Owner role, there would be a lot of processes to develop.
Already during the recruitment process, there was open and honest communication about what the overall role and challenges would look like. – “They were happy sharing the challenges as well. This led to me knowing about all the problems I would be facing in my role.”
“They were happy sharing the challenges as well. This led to me knowing about all the problems I would be facing in my role. For example, one of the challenges was that on a day-to-day basis there was friction with the product team being a bottleneck to product development. The development team was waiting for tasks to develop, when often it’s the other way around. Knowing this helped me to understand what I need to put a lot of focus on: the delivery pipeline needed to be further improved, and this would perhaps require changes from the whole organization”, Peeter says.
Now that Peeter is working on these things, it has become obvious that it might still take a while to get things running smoothly – and with plenty of conscious effort. Still, that didn’t come as an unpleasant surprise to him. Transparency in Fondion’s culture means talking about the challenges openly from the get-go, too.
“A lot of it comes from the maturity of the founders, they understand the value of a great culture and building it intentionally. It’s the founders who establish the foundations for the culture, and it’s not about what they write down in a company handbook, but how they themselves act on a daily basis”, Peeter says.
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