1. The product mindset moment that changed everything

Nine months into her new leadership role, Frieda was stuck. Best practices weren’t working, and her team was struggling. Then she read Jessica Zwaan's blog on People Ops as a Product, and everything clicked.  

““Reading that post, I just thought, this is brilliant. This is exactly what I want to try.”

It sparked a total shift in how she operates: from building based on gut, to building based on user research and real needs.

And she didn’t just stop at the blog—she reached out to Jessie directly.

“I sent her an email thinking she’d never respond. Three hours later, she replied and said, ‘Let’s talk.’ That conversation was the start of everything.”

2. Don’t build anything until you map the journey

Frieda’s first move was to map the employee experience end to end. Her team ran journey-mapping sessions and built a sprint-based workflow in Asana to focus their work.

“When someone drops in with a request, we show them the board and say: here’s our current sprint. Let’s talk about where your ask fits.”

It made prioritization clearer—and easier to say no.

They also categorized every task by employee lifecycle stage, helping them spot gaps and decide who should own what.

“We’re all generalists, but that view helped us play to our individual strengths when it came time to execute.”

3. Daily standups didn’t work. Scrumban did.

Daily standups didn’t work for her team. So they built their own rhythm: a scrumban hybrid with bi-weekly sprints and a clear workflow.

“The goal isn’t to follow a playbook perfectly—it’s to build a system that fits your team.”

The outcome? More clarity, better visibility, and space to focus on what matters most.

Their Asana board has five columns—NCT goal, backlog, in progress, blocked, done—and a clear sprint goal for each cycle.

“The ‘blocked’ column was a game changer. It lets us show when we’re waiting on someone else, and it holds the org accountable too.”

4. The best people teams work like scientists

Her people team follows three key principles:

• Maximize impact to mission
• Think like a scientist
• Achieve through others

“The goal is to curate the framework—and let the org run with it.”

Everything they do is tied to business value. And they validate before scaling.

They even conduct employee interviews each quarter to keep a pulse on what’s working and where friction exists.

“We’ve learned that surveys alone don’t give you the full story. Talking to people helps us see what’s under the surface.”

5. Ditch OKRs and try NCTs instead

Sastrify doesn’t use OKRs. Instead, they use NCTs: Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks. It’s helped Frieda’s team stay focused and frame their priorities.

“Even if a goal doesn’t sit with us directly, we ask: which action gets us closer to the mission?”

It’s how they make tough tradeoffs and push back on low-impact asks.

And because every team sees the same company-wide narratives, they stay aligned on what matters most.

“It gives us a shared language and a shared finish line. Everyone knows where we’re trying to go.”

See you next week!

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