Animalz is a content marketing agency that specializes in B2B SaaS content. The company delivers high-quality content marketing to enterprise businesses, startups, and VC firms and has grown rapidly since its founding in 2015.
The Problem
When Animalz was founded in 2015, the team was small but mighty: for years, just three people managed the scope of the company’s operations. That meant that for years, corporate knowledge and processes lived within these employees’ collective memories.
“We didn’t have any way to document or process or remember, as we were learning and growing,” says Animalz People Ops Associate Paige Picard, who has been with the company since 2015. “We were having to constantly invent everything about the company, and without any way to synthesize information, it was really hard to teach later employees [about Animalz and its processes].”
Paige and the team knew this was unsustainable, particularly as Animalz was preparing to scale rapidly over the coming years. “Knowledge-sharing is important because our company is a remote team,” explains Paige. “We are an international team spanning across 10 different time zones. So a lot of the time, the person who might best be able to answer your question might not be online.”
Animalz also encourages asynchronous communication as a way to protect team members from responding to questions all day. “Having a knowledge management system really helps people feel empowered to look up information for themselves,” says Paige.
The Solution
Serendipitously, Animalz found the solution it needed within its own client base — Tettra. Animalz, which had been conducting content marketing work for Tettra, began using Tettra’s product as the agency grew.
“I can’t even imagine how we would be compiling information, storing information, compiling SOPs [without Tettra].”
“We’d probably be using a combination of Google, email, Slack, and oral communication,” says Paige.
Instead, Animalz partnered with Tettra to create a knowledge management platform that connects and unifies its many remote employees. Tettra has become a central repository for the documents, policies, and procedures that keep Animalz running—and it has become a trusted and time-saving resource for employees who need answers to common questions.
The Results
Tettra has streamlined operations at Animalz, empowered the creation of new programs, and reduced reliance on veteran team members for responses to frequently-asked questions.
“Tettra has paved the way for so many important programs at our company. Now, for example, our employee onboarding program was made possible because of the documentation that we had stored in Tettra. It’s been a huge asset for connecting and creating processes, as well as connecting people from all over the world.”
That’s been particularly important recently, as Animalz has more than tripled its size in short order. “Processes, people, and things are changing all the time—and multiple times within the year,” says Paige.
“Having version control and the capability for anybody to request an update or ask a question has immensely helped, especially the people ops team, keep all the information up-to-date.”
Likewise, Tettra has empowered employees to answer questions for themselves, which has in turn saved time for Paige’s team. “The people ops team is inundated with questions about policy, company, process, equipment, you name it,” says Paige. “Tettra really cuts down on the noise for our small teams, so people can go look up those questions rather than ask us.”
The benefits in that type of self-service are twofold: first, they allow members of the people ops team to turn their time and attention to higher-value tasks. Second, they endow the rest of the company with a sense of agency.
“It can be very vulnerable to ask questions in public channels, in Slack,” says Paige. “A lot of people prefer to do their own research or find an answer for themselves…and [Tettra empowers them] to look up information for themselves.” Tettra also integrates with Animalz’s Slack channel, which allows the people ops team to access employee requests for information or updates more quickly and results in more accurate, up-to-date documentation.
Tettra has helped the Animalz team save time, reduce repetitive questions, and empower employees with quick access to important information. All of this results in a better experience for Animalz employees.
“Partnering with Tettra was the best decision for our team,” says Paige. “I can’t imagine the amount of institutional knowledge that would have ben lost without having a central knowledge management system.”
Tettra has laid a solid foundation for Animalz as the company continues to scale. “I would recommend Tettra to any growing company that is experiencing all the regular growing pains that growing companies do,” says Paige.