FAQ

Q: Why did we create Jelled?

We started Jelled because we wanted to find a better way to manage an operating plan (a pain we personally experienced - as well as observed with our friends and colleagues who are in leadership roles in public and private companies)

Very often the company’s operating plans (the what) are not accurately connected to people and headcount (the how) in planning and throughout execution. Because of that, it makes risk management and overall decision making very challenging, resulting in a less optimal outcome for the company, the management team, customers and employees.

The purpose of Jelled (hence the name) is to enable program management teams to excel in execution by better plan and track headcount deployment as well as stay in alignment with their functional counterparts like product and engineering managers.

Q: What is the Jelled platform?

Jelled is a program management platform that allows program management teams to create operating plans, optimize headcount deployment across high priority initiatives and track ongoing progress to ensure alignment between functional teams.

Q: What Jelled platform is not?

While Jelled platform aggregates data from project management systems and CRM systems for overview on plan progress, it is not a project management system nor a CRM system.

Q: How is Jelled different?

Jelled takes a different approach in planning. Jelled as a product focuses on what the plan aims to accomplish, how to accomplish the plan as relates to headcount and track ongoing progress and status. From start to finish, you have everything you need to manage operating plans in one place from plan creation to headcount management to observability.
In creating operating plans from a strategic plan, Jelled introduced the first-of-its-kind headcount management capability tied to goals / initiatives. With the ability to manage headcount right within your operating plan, you can finally weigh different options and understand whether the plans are viable.

Q: How is Jelled different from OKR Systems?

Jelled platform is methodology agnostic and does a lot more than OKR software. If your organization has already adopted or is planning to adopt an OKR methodology - you can use Jelled platform to support it.

We wrote a white paper diving deeper into advantages and limitations of only relying on OKR methodology in managing the organization below.
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Why is the OKR system not getting the job done?

Q: Can I accomplish what Jelled does using software I already have?

Not exactly. While teams today use many tools or just spreadsheets - the single source of truth connected to most important data - such as people, headcount, project workstreams and customers is lacking making it difficult if not impossible to operate with up-to-date information in real-time, compare options and manage arising risks effectively.

Here is some information we put together outlining capabilities and limitations of many common tools as compared to Jelled.

Q: Why should I consider Jelled?

If you want to easily plan headcount for your initiatives and track ongoing headcount deployment, you should consider Jelled.
If you want to understand if the priorities of your initiatives align with the deployment of your headcount, you should consider Jelled.
If you want to know if your plans are viable based on existing headcount, you should consider Jelled.
If you want better employee engagement, you should consider Jelled.
If you want to create a superior feedback loop in your execution to your plan, make timely adjustments to your execution, and overall better decisions in operating, you should consider Jelled.

Q: What's the value you can get out of the system?

From Day 1

I can quickly understand what the plan aims to accomplish
I can understand the headcount it takes to accomplish the plan, available vs. new headcount needed
- I can generate a list of headcount request easily from the system
- I can create a list of approved headcount for the recruiting system
I will have a summary of the top level initiatives with their respective headcount and cost breakdowns
- Create a plan cost breakdown
- Create headcount breakdown
I can compare multiple plans aimed at the same outcomes but with different initiatives and headcount plans to understand best options for the team

Progressively

I can have a true single source of truth reflected in our plan of record
The status / progress in our plan of record is auto updated via integration with project management and CRM systems
I can understand critical paths and bottlenecks as the plan gets executed and conditions evolve (employees join or leave, customers come aboard or churn)
I can game plan different resourcing and outcome scenarios to come up with the best plan or modify existing plan for the most optimal outcome

Q: What do you need to do to get to this value?

Initial implementation

Employee record that pertains to the teams I want to create plans for, either via integration or import; if you’d like to have cost by initiatives, we’ll need to include employee salary data
A plan you’d like to work with
A modest amount of time from the plan owner or the team to enable the best possible on-boarding experience

More mature accounts

Integration with HR system
Integration with project management system
Integration with CRM system

Q: How long would it take to initially get Jelled set up and running?

1 week.

References

Competitive analysis
Whitepaper - Why is OKR not getting job done

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