Resigning from my position as VP of Engineering at OneFootball Labs

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. Lots of discussions, of self-reflection, which concluded in my resignation from my position as VP of Engineering of OneFootball Labs. 4.5 years after joining OneFootball, 1 year after starting OneFootball Labs from scratch. This post will serve as a succinct career update.

Crossed Timelines🔗

Mid November 2022, I started feeling really tired and uncertain about the business plan we were working on for 2023. I met with members of C-level to start discussions on what we could change. I have shared on Dec 2 an extensive feedback document which had the following structure:

• Explicit ask
• Why should anyone care?
• Historical narrative
• Data-Driven Diagnostic
• Decision-Making Principles
• Suggested Next Steps

I have spent the most of December socialising that feedback and trying to push for changes in that direction. That process went well but lead to no tangible changes or signals that changes were to come. On Dec 21, I handed in my resignation letter.

In parallel, OneFootball had 2022 board meetings on Dec 7 to 9. The outcome on Dec 9 was the layoff 62 people (and even more if you include contractors and volontary departures). Since then, 1-star Glassdoor reviews are flowing in, blaming C-suite management and the web3 part of the business.

With my 3 months notice period and my 3 weeks non-spent holidays, this then set my last day to be Friday March 10th. I had 10 weeks or 5 sprints to ensure a smooth transition.

This process was a personal one, and OneFootball can look forward to a good 2023. In this blog post, I'm only interested in logging the key dates so that I remember what a whirlwind 2022 has been, specifically December.

Annoncing the news to my teams🔗

On Thursday Jan 12, 2023 I have announced the news to my teams. I have decided to split this in 3 calls:

1. my direct reports from the Tech and Data teams (8 people)
2. other OneFootball Labs employees not reporting to me that are part of the Tech and Data teams and which I collaborate with daily (8 people)
3. calls with the externals that I collaborate with daily part of the Blockchain Engineering and Martech teams (10 people)

In those calls, I gave more or less the following speech and then answered immediate questions:

• I've resigned
• It's a personal decision, and my last day will be Friday March 10th
• After that, I will be recharging and reflecting on my journey so far
• While I'm excited about my next step, I'm also sad to leave you in 2 months
• I'm proud of what we've built together
• I'm proud of the tech itself (typesense, sanity, airbyte and more) but also the processes (our team values workshops, many pairing sessions)
• I will be hard at work in the next 2 months ensuring the transition
• You can reach me anytime
• Thanks again for the last year at Labs

After that, I received heart warming messages and transitioned into making sure the announcement didn't shook my teams too much. I am now looking forward to making hte next 2 months count and ensure the transition is the smoothest possible.

Resources🔗

1. An update from OneFootball founder and CEO, Lucas von Cranach
2. Onefootball Reviews: What Is It Like to Work At Onefootball? | Glassdoor