Case study · Leadership & people
Refocusing a Team Through a Market Shift
When one of our largest verticals changed sharply in 2024, I reshaped my organisation into a focused team of seven that kept the core business running and delivered on our 2025 goals.
The context
In 2024, one of our largest verticals changed sharply. We reshaped the organisation to match, and my product, marketing and IT organisation became a focused team of seven: three developers, three marketers and one IT support specialist.
The challenge
I needed to guide people through the change with care, keep the team motivated and make sure a smaller team focused its capacity on what mattered most to the business.
How I approached it
I communicated openly about what was happening and what it meant for everyone in the team. I knew uncertainty would be on people's minds, so I created additional time for one-to-one conversations and addressed individual questions directly.
I then refocused the entire roadmap on work that protected or generated revenue, concentrating the team's effort rather than spreading it too thinly. Where essential work was better handled outside the team, we outsourced or automated it.
What it delivered
The team stayed motivated, and we kept the core business running with seven people. In 2025, we set a goal to halve lead returns without reducing gross margin. We achieved that goal, primarily by improving lead qualification.
Looking back
I learned that guiding a team through a sharp market shift requires both clarity and care. Open communication and additional one-to-one time helped me address uncertainty, while narrowing the roadmap to work that protected or generated revenue gave a smaller team a clear focus.
The principle I carry into future roles is to concentrate limited capacity on the outcomes that matter most while being honest with people about the context. Outsourcing or automating essential work can protect that focus. This experience showed me that a motivated team of seven could keep the core business running and halve lead returns without reducing gross margin.