In this blog post, hear from one of our newest employees Lynn Howell, Senior Lean Strategist. From KaiNexus Customer to KaiNexus Lean Strategist, hear about Lynn's journey.

My name is Lynn Howell, and I'm the Senior Lean Strategist here at KaiNexus. Additionally, I am a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and have previously worked as an internal continuous improvement specialist and consultant.

In my previous roles, my responsibilities included project facilitation & management, leading continuous improvement events, and coaching 1:1 on helping leaders reach goals. There were administrative tasks such as scheduling meetings, team management, and data analytics as well.

In one particular role as an Internal Continuous Improvement Specialist, I worked with KaiNexus as our organization's improvement platform. I saw the value it brought to my organization and missed using it when I moved to other organizations. Organizations not using Kainexus could not easily see continuous improvement systems work, resulting in a lot of redundancy and a lack of momentum. I saw how KaiNexus could take things to the next level and improve the continuous improvement work that an organization is doing. I was thrilled when the position became available at KaiNexus as Senior Lean Strategist, and I jumped at the chance to work here.

I jumped in my first week by joining all my new coworkers in Austin, Texas, for KaiNexus' Annual Company Meeting. It was overwhelming; however, the passion of the leadership and the rest of the departments gave me goosebumps. I had so much to learn, but everyone was welcoming and kind. It helped me learn a little about each of the departments and roles.

One thing that stuck with me is how KaiNexus has core values and gives you the tools and resources to meet the expectations. A few values include being organized and taking initiative. I was introduced to the tool Todoist as a way to manage tasks I need to complete, and I liked the ease and systemic approach so much that I now use it for home life. KaiNexus assigned tasks during orientation to offer ideas to improve the onboarding process, and I was encouraged by my leader and upper management to bring up any ideas for improvement.

After the Annual Meeting came to a close, my first focus was working through the standard work assigned to me in KaiNexus for onboarding. The tasks I had to complete for onboarding were set up in a way that required little guidance. Additionally, I started meeting with my peer mentor from another team, the Solutions Engineer team. My mentor has been a great resource to learn from, and she is open to whatever questions I have. 

The next few weeks were full of jumping onto calls with our Customer Success Management team and customers and learning more about the flow. I wanted to know how to collaborate with KaiNexus employees and the customers. I also started to focus on listening/watching old A3 and Optimization Review calls to understand the generalized flow, grasp the expectations of my role, and learn more about customers.

As I moved into the 60-90-day range on the job, I started gaining some independence as a Lean Strategist. The Lean Strategist role supports our internal team by coaching and facilitating internal improvements. Secondly, we facilitate conversations about high-level strategic visions for each customer's continuous improvement goals. We want to ensure that KaiNexus partners with our customers to support each customer's goals.

I am helping accomplish this by leading the Strategic A3 conversations, partnering with the CSMs to ensure our work supports the end vision, and leading the Optimization Reviews. I work cross-departmentally - with the CSM and the Solution Engineer team - and the customer to ensure each customer instance is the most optimal version and experience of KaiNexus. 

Overall, the first 60 days have been a whirlwind. It's been mentally challenging—in a good way. I'm encouraged to think through my work and feel comfortable speaking up to improve processes. I leave each workday with a sense of accomplishment.