Charis

Perseverance deserves recognition no matter how lowly the venue.

Today we reduced headcount by 22%. The business is the strongest it's ever been. So I think it's important to be direct about what I'm seeing and why. First, I made this decision and I own it. I did it because the way to operate at the highest level of productivity is changing, and to win the future, ClickUp needs to change with it. Second, this wasn't about cutting costs. Most savings from this change will flow directly back into the people who stay. We'll be introducing million-dollar salary bands. If you create outsized impact using AI, you'll be paid outside of traditional bands. Most importantly, I have the deepest gratitude for those affected. We're doing this from a position of strength specifically so we can take care of people properly. Everyone affected receives a package aimed at honoring their contributions and easing the transition. I only see two options: wait for this to play out gradually in the market or be honest about what I'm seeing and act proactively. THE 100X ORGANIZATION The primary change is that we're restructuring around what I call 100x org. The goal is 100x output. The roles required to build at the highest level are fundamentally different than they were a year ago. Incremental improvements to existing systems won't get us there. We need new ones. That means creating enough disruption to rebuild rather than iterate on what's already broken. The common narrative is that AI makes everyone more productive. It doesn't. Many of the workflows of today, if left unchanged, create bottlenecks in AI systems. These roles will evolve. But waiting for that to happen naturally means falling behind now. The 100x org is actually heavily dependent on people - infinitely more than today. This is only possible with 10x people that have embraced and adopted new ways of working. THE BUILDERS, AGENT MANAGERS, AND FRONT-LINERS — THE BUILDERS: 10X ENGINEERS I don't think most companies have internalized what's actually happening with AI in engineering. The common narrative is that AI makes all engineers more productive. That may be true in isolation, but at an organization level - that is the farthest thing from reality. Here's what we've validated recently at ClickUp: the great engineers, the ones who can orchestrate, architect, and review, are becoming 100x engineers. They're not writing code. They're directing agents that write code. The skill is judgment. AI makes the best engineers wildly more productive, and everyone else using AI slows these engineers down. Think about it - the bottlenecks are (1) orchestration - telling AI what to do, and (2) reviewing - what AI did. Everything is leapfrogged and no longer needed. So who do you want orchestrating and reviewing code? And how do you want your best engineers to spend their time? If your best engineers are spending time reviewing other people's code, then this is inherently an inefficient bottleneck. These engineers can review their agent's code much faster than reviewing human code. The new world is about enabling your 10x engineers to become 100x. The wrong strategy is to push every engineer to use infinite tokens. Companies doing this are celebrating 500% more pull requests. But customer outcomes don't match the volume of code being generated. I call this the great reckoning of AI coding, and every company will face this soon if not already. More code is just another bottleneck to the best engineers, and ultimately to your company's impact as well. — THE BUILDERS: 10X PRODUCT MANAGERS Product management and design roles are merging. Designers that have customer focus, become more like product managers. And product managers that have intuition for UX become more like designers. The bottleneck of user research is gone. It takes us just one mention of an agent to kickoff research and analyze results. The bottleneck of product <> design iteration is also gone. The product builder iterates on their own, along with agents and skills that ensure alignment with quality and strategy. Also controversial today - I believe that the wrong strategy is to have your PMs shipping code - that just introduces another bottleneck that the best engineers will waste their time on. To be clear, PMs should be coding but they should do this in a playground to iterate, validate, and scope. That code should not go to production. Everything outside of managing systems, orchestrating AI, and reviewing output becomes a bottleneck. That's why the other roles that are critical along with these are the systems managers (to reduce bottlenecks) along with a bottleneck you can't replace - customer meeting time. — THE SYSTEM MANAGERS Ironically, the people that automate their jobs with AI will always have a job. They become owners of the AI systems - agent managers. We have many examples of these people at ClickUp. The underlying systems in which we operate are absolutely critical to get right. I think most companies are delusional to think they can iterate on existing systems and compete in this new world. You must create enough disruption so that old systems are deprecated entirely. If there's any definition for 'AI native' that's what it is. — THE FRONT-LINERS In a world that will become saturated with AI communication, the human touch will matter more than anything to customers. This is a bottleneck that you shouldn't replace - even when agents are high enough quality to do video meetings. One-on-one meeting time with customers is something that shouldn't be automated. The systems around the meetings should be - so that front-liners spend nearly 100% of their time with customers. REWARDING 100X IMPACT In a world where companies are able to do so much more with less, where does that excess money go? In our case, much of the savings in this new operating model will flow directly back to those that enabled it. We must reward people that create productivity accordingly. This aligns incentives on both sides. Plus, in a world where your best people create 100x impact, you can't afford to lose them. You should aim to retain these employees for decades. The context they have and their ability to efficiently orchestrate and review will be nearly impossible to replace. Compensation bands of today should be thrown out the door. We're introducing $1 million cash/year salary bands with a path available to nearly everyone in the company if they produce 100x impact by creating or managing AI systems. THE FUTURE Nearly every company will make changes like these. The ones that do it proactively will define what comes next. The future is not fewer people. It's different work, new roles, and better rewards for those who embrace it. We're already seeing entirely new roles emerge, like Agent Managers, that didn't exist a year ago. ClickUp is positioning to lead this shift, not just internally, but for our customers too. I've never been more certain about where we're headed.

El hecho de que YouTube todavía no tenga un rival real después de 20 años, eso es una dominancia increíble.

They're gonna jail us for even daring to dream. They wont stop galamsay but they'll stop dreamers and innovators. What a sick little country.

A country that lags in digital innovation has now decided to put stringent rules on it? In an age where the playing field has never more equal? Make that make sense! #NitaDropThatBill

After this NITA bill, I’ll talk about the national AI strategy too

Nothing else disrupts entrepreneurship than unnecessary regulation

Exactly. Overnight, every founder starts to look for ways to incorporate & hire elsewhere Anyone with talent & sense who has not already “jakpa” will change their mind and begin to look into it People with options will just bounce Perhaps that’s the goal - AI ecosystem capture

@jdghinson Lmfao 🤣

Per the Bill, Meta, Uber, Shopify, in fact all the products you are currently using can’t operate in Ghana😂 Oh it gets worse…Apple, Samsung, can’t sell their gadgets to us because them dey provide ICT products without a license. So they should get a license then? Lol no they can’t because they are not Ghanaian companies😂 Cc: @kwekutech @TheDumbTechGuy

Rwanda sounds nice 🤔 Ghanaian language AI can be built from there @RDBrwanda Really impressive what you have created 👏 Wish more were trying to emulate you 🤝 Is there more room for world class innovators? We will help build Rwanda too with your support 🇷🇼 🫶🏾 🇬🇭

Innovation doesn’t need barriers and middlemen. Make innovation open to all and not a controlled experiment which is bound to fail. Sign this petition, stand with the Ghana Tech Industry. nitastopthebill.vercel.app

nitastopthebill.vercel.app sign this petition if you want to see #NitaDropThatBill

You complain of brain drain then you go ahead to create a bill that limits the brains that haven’t yet been drained.

@pazunre People will just incorporate their business elsewhere because what’s the point , the Ghanaian market is already small

This is terrifying It should be obvious that this would completely destroy Ghana as a tech investment destination Is that the goal?

You will hurt both the innovators and the citizens in Ghana. Personally, I would just close all tech businesses in the country, move it to a different country that does not have these restrictions. But this is not about me. It’s about everyone.

@TheDumbTechGuy @samgeorgegh That’s all! Because what is that bill ah!

I agree. Let's certify politicians. @samgeorgegh are you on board?

@pazunre @GhanaNLP @NITAGhana Whoever drew up this bill and consulted on this, do they know this will just make people do business elsewhere? The Ghanaian market is already small and struggling , then you want to stifle people on top. Like what is the aim? To kill the small innovation people have?

Eiiii, so when @GhanaNLP invented the world’s first Ghanaian Language AI - 5 years before @NITAGhana knew what an LLM or even AI was 😂 - we would have to seek their permission first? 😂 Do we now have to travel back in time and ask for you permission for advancing Ghana? Eiii

@pazunre @GhanaNLP @NITAGhana They better stop this bill, it’s ridiculous and not helping matters

@kwekutech So what is the point of such clauses really? Do they want to stop innovation? The country is already hard as it is , people are trying to be creative and make small changes and they think this will make things better?

section 46 of the bill says: "a person shall not be appointed as an ICT professional in a public or private institution unless that person is certified by the Authority." section 35 says you cannot run a business in the ICT sector without a licence from NITA. section 37 says only ghanaian citizens, or companies that are 100% owned by ghanaian citizens, can apply for that licence. section 35(4): operating a tech business without a licence can get you a fine or up to 2 years in prison. section 90(1): providing ICT services without a valid licence, or claiming to be a certified professional when you are not, carries the same consequence: a fine or up to 2 years in priso

@kwekutech Then all other industries should also come and get licenses to operate in their various fields. What the heck