In the 1970s, Total Football was born in the Netherlands. Developed by Rinus Michels, this strategic approach to football (or soccer as you may know it) revolutionized the way the sport was played. It imbibed a traditionally rigid game with fluidity, versatility, and adaptability. Total Football relies on movement and awareness. Players need to understand what every other position the field does and be skilled enough to take over that position when needed. It erased traditional positions such as midfielder, defender, or attacker, and instead made it each team member’s responsibility to play in the position they needed to at the drop of a hat.
What, you may ask, does Total Football have to do with Stephanie Larson’s role at Nutromics? Individuals usually have fixed, highly specialized roles in a large company. In a start-up, however, highly specialized roles are accompanied by a requirement for flexibility and adaptability. As a Senior Operations Analyst in a start-up though, you have to be a Total Footballer, constantly blurring the lines between traditional positions to maximize company efficiency in the right place, at the right time. For Nutromics, Stephanie is this Total Footballer.
“In this role, you get to move vertically through the company to close information gaps and streamline processes. You find yourself anywhere from facilitating strategy development with the executive team, to communicating that strategy with the teams, to translating that strategy within a team into tangible deliverables. Moving from big picture to tactical action. You go where you’re needed.”
Vision and purpose: Stephanie’s move to start-ups
Stephanie’s journey to Nutromics started with a step into the unknown. Her husband, Mikel Larson, had recently joined Nutromics as a Lead Mechanical Engineer. Stephanie joined him in his move across the world, equal parts excited and unsure about the adventure that lay ahead. During this time, she had an opportunity to see Mikel’s journey at the company unfold and so when a role opened, she felt that applying was a no-brainer.
Reflecting on what drew her to Nutromics, Stephanie shared, “I’ve never had a vision statement resonate with me more. Continuous diagnostic monitoring is revolutionary for medicine. In my opinion it is one of the first steps towards personalized medicine that the world has ever seen.”
“To have our platform potentially extend across every analyte that exists in the human body, plus some that don’t endogenously exist, it would change the way healthcare works. It would be a true step towards preventative care. When I realized that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I felt like I needed to be here”, she continued.
Nutromics was Stephanie’s first foray into the world of start-ups. Prior to this she worked for the United States Government, a world where systems, processes, and roles are well-established and regimented. By contrast, a few weeks into her role at Nutromics, Stephanie realised that she had the ability to be as versatile as she needed to make things happen. “Every start-up knows we have to do more with less. There isn’t a lot of room to work on anything that isn’t ‘the most important thing’. My goal is always trying to find the most impactful efficiency improvement and if something is keeping me from that, the team will discuss priority and flex to make the vision a reality”, she said.
At the same time, the transition from a system where everything is known and predictable to one where it is not, isn’t inherently instinctive. Commenting on this she said “Things are quite new and formative in the start-up world which means sometimes things that you feel should ‘just work’, don’t. It can be frustrating. But it’s amazing to be in Operations and work on making things ‘just work’ because I know it is actively making it easier for people to contribute and making their work more efficient. They can focus less on something like ‘How do I connect all these datasets?’ and focus more on leveraging those insights for actual product development.”
Off the Pitch: Total Football Strategy in Startup Dynamics
At every step of her role at Nutromics, Stephanie has applied principles of Total Football to ensure success for herself and the organization.
The first principle was that of learning. Stephanie was the first hire in Nutromics’ Operations team. In her first few days, she spent a lot of time trying to understand Nutromics as an organization as well as every team within it. She soaked up information like a sponge as she learned each team and their processes and systems, and then identified what improvements could potentially be made to each. In her role, she rotates into teams as needed, as an extra member focused on building and deploying process-based solutions. Working in a start-up gives her the added advantage of directly seeing the impact of her work.
“Every day I show up here I know I am making a difference – creating capabilities that didn’t exist the day before. That can be hard to know in a much larger organization. I can see the direct impact of my work here and can pinpoint all the efficiencies that have gone up”, she commented.
Focusing on understanding every tactical position in the team has translated into a unique ability for Stephanie to connect these with the broader strategy. Sharing how, she said “At first, I was focusing more on tactical work and looking at the specifics – what protocols are we using at every scientific step and who actions them. Now I am looking at the bigger picture. So, understanding our strategy, helping to build our financial models, or clarify the way our product will be used by end users and how that impacts our regulatory pathway. I get to be a part of the bigger picture a lot sooner than any previous workplace.”
The second principle was that of versatility. Being part of a small team can get lonely sometimes,, but, the way Stephanie sees it, her team is whoever it needs to be in the moment to get the job done. “Business processes involve everyone, it’s not just me. For example, it’s me plus the dozen or so members of our Sensors team because we’re trying to understand how implementing a new system impacts each of their processes. I love having the flexibility to work with other teams”, she said.
The final principle was that of adaptability. Working in a start-up means that there will be times that you have to go beyond your job title or explore areas you haven’t worked in before. “When you’re looking for a job with Nutromics, really ask yourself ‘Am I willing to roll up my sleeves and “sweep the floors”?’ Are you willing to go beyond what is in your job title? We have people within the technical realm that work on embedded systems, and embedded systems experts that are in the labs doing electrochemistry because that will help the company succeed and help them learn more about their own systems”, she shared. This is where Stephanie believes people have the opportunity to grow the most – both professionally and personally.
When Total Football was first introduced as a strategy, it took years to develop tactics that allowed the team to succeed. The players had to constantly work with the coaches and ask themselves “What does the team need me to do here to succeed?”. It was a lot of hard work that ultimately resulted in Michels’ team, AFC Ajax, winning eight titles and four cups.
Stephanie’s efforts have had a similar trajectory at Nutromics. Years of hard work and a flexible approach has saved the business countless man hours, boosted efficiency, and secured grants. And she’s only getting started.
“Nutromics has easily been the most challenging work environment I’ve ever experienced. There’s ambiguity around every corner, but I’ve loved bringing clarity to the organization where I can. Challenging as it is, it has also been the most rewarding by far. Where else would I find such a great combination of opportunity and impact?”, she said.