Hilary Damant
Chief of Staff
Are you an innovative company, breaking new ground, with so much to do you just don't know where to start?
If so, you could benefit from my help, as your Chief of Staff.
If you're looking for some help to get everything a bit more organized, kick-start some initiatives, and make sure everyone is onboard then look no further.
I am a highly versatile and logical individual with a deep passion for problem-solving and a focus on operational excellence. I simplify complex concepts and avoid unnecessary jargon, firmly believing in the importance of measuring what needs to be managed. With a solid background in both technology and project management, I organize and execute tasks that deliver results and have a keen eye for detail. I understand what is good enough for now and have a network of contacts who can provide a deeper level of experience when required.
If I sound like someone who could help you navigate through some of your challenges on a fractional, project or interim basis then let's chat.
Recent Achievements
01.
As a member of the senior leadership team, actively contributed to company strategy and communications, cross functional OKRs, HR initiatives and financial planning to help the company grow from fewer than 10 employees to almost 100.
02.
Built a team of 6 to drive onboarding, training and renewal of worldwide customer accounts; defined and baselined customer health and time to value, defined delivery strategy and content for customer documentation.
03.
Supported the development of a team of 7 to provide 24x7 support for all customers; established dashboards and reviews to drive service improvements.
04.
Reduced AWS monthly costs by 30% within 3 months; established operational processes to ensure continued cost monitoring and efficiences.
05.
Increased the sales pipeline by obtaining Cyber Essentials and ISO27001 accreditations; embedded security KPIs, roles and responsibilities to maintain and improve security operations, data privacy and compliance.
06.
Obtained AWS and GCP partnership status; qualified for financial credits and established processes to ensure compliance with industry best practices.
Testimonials
"Hilary is an exceptional team player with a track record of delivering results across many areas including security, cost-cutting, training, analytics and operations."
"Hilary is as close to being indispensable as anyone I have known. Most especially for any young company at the start-up or scale-up stage."
Services
Let me save you time and money by helping you to avoid some of the common of pitfalls ecounted by technology startups. From my own experiences at Harbr ($38.5m Series A Company, backed by Dawn Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Crane Ventures, I learned what worked well, what could have been done better and what really mattered.
Senior Leadership
It is so important to measure what needs to be managed and to use objective data points to drive almost all other decisions.
How I can help
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Work with the CEO and leadership team to establish company goals, values, objectives and key results.
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Facilitate meetings and workshops to learn from key results and make data-driven decisions.
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Initiate company communications to ensure a common focus and a supportive, learning culture.
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Collaborate with delivery teams to identify key performance indicators and to optimize business processes.
Special Projects
Initiatives and ideas generated by the CEO and leadership team may often be sensitive, cross functional, under-resourced or not yet fully formed and need a safe pair of hands to execute.
How I can help
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Establish a scope, deliverables, timescales and team for each initiative.
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Effectively engage with external teams and processes to achieve goals.
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Manage issues and risks and communicate clear progress or blockers to success.
Customer Success
Customer Success is a mindset for the whole company and a dedicated customer success team is one contributor to that success.
How I can help
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Develop and nuture a dedicated Customer Success team with clear roles and responsibilities.
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Create a culture where all teams understand what is needed to make a customer successful.
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Establish processes and materials to support effective onboarding and product adoption, including product documentation.
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Encourage the publication of customer case studies to drive sales pipeline.
Support and Incident Management
Unplanned issues can be a huge distraction to the company and provide a poor customer experience.
How I can help
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Setup a light weight service desk with the basics ITIL processes in place to allow it to scale.
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Establish key performance indicators to identify and learn from trends.
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Create incident management processes to comply with security requirements.
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Introduce a culture that provides a positive experience to customers at all touch points.
Security and Risk Management
Security is an important consideration for all technology companies and an independent certification may be a pre-requisite for engaging with prospects.
How I can help
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Establish a light weight Information Security Management System to identify and manage security risks.
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Drive cloud compliance with industry benchmarks.
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Initiate the journey to become ISO27001 certified if/when necessary.
Cost Management
Cloud services can be extremely cost effective and can also get out of hand very quickly. There is a reason why Jeff Bezos has a rocket.
How I can help
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Review and understand the requirements for cloud costs being incurred.
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Kick start a cost savings program supported by a cost-focussed objective.
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Work with cloud partners to request all appropriate financial credits.
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Introduce processes to regularly audit the use of software.
Contact
Hilary Damant
Chief of Staff
If you think we could work together on a fractional, project or interim basis, or if you would like to know a little more about me then don't hesitate to get in touch.
My email address is hilary.damant@sculptedocean.com
I am primarily based in the UK.
Details of my employment and eduction can be found on LinkedIn.