What was said
What this says
Current to 13 Oct 26Hannah Lowe ran the demo on Thackwray's sample orders and returns data. Kelly Swainston liked the returns insight. Josh Pearce raised connector breakage and permissions, and Hannah promised written follow-up on both.
What happened: Hannah showed a brand page with orders, grouped returns and review notes, and a drafted service review summary. She also showed a healthy brand to prove it does not invent problems.
Customer view: Kelly saw that wrong-item returns were the customer's own fault, the kind of thing she wants to know before a review. Josh wanted to know how much work it is to keep connected, given a past field change silently stopped a feed for a week.
Commercial: Lewis confirmed Growth covers the users with room to spare and will send the quote with the VAT position. The decision date remains Fri 21 Mar 2025.
Watch: Permissions between competing brands are unconfirmed. Hannah owes a written answer after checking with the security lead.
Themes
Current to 9 Oct 26Who was there
BB-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
Current to 9 Oct 26- Hannah Lowe to send written follow-up on permissions and connectors, and export the draft review labelled as sample data.
- Lewis Kerr to send the quote with the VAT position clear.
- Josh Pearce to review the Snowflake setup that week.
Risks
Current to 9 Oct 26- Brand-level permissions are unconfirmed and Kelly Swainston says leakage across competing brands would matter.
- Josh Pearce has had a connector silently stop loading before and would own checking it.
- Steven Holroyd missed the demo and has only the draft review and a briefing to go on.
Opportunities
Current to 9 Oct 26- Growth tier fit is confirmed on users, with eight connectors available for warehouse, helpdesk and Microsoft 365.
- Josh Pearce's lightly used Snowflake account may make implementation straightforward.
Transcript
- Lewis Kerr NoneMorning, everyone. Kelly, Josh, can you both hear us?
- Kelly Swainston NoneMorning. Yes, loud and clear. Josh, you're muted.
- Josh Pearce NoneSorry. Morning. I'm in the small meeting room so it might echo a bit.
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt's fine from here. Good morning, I'm Hannah, I'll be doing the walkthrough today. Before I share anything, what do you most need to know by the end of the hour? It saves me showing you things you don't care about.
- Kelly Swainston NoneFrom my side, whether a client manager can open a brand and see the orders, the returns tickets and the review notes without going anywhere else. That's it, really. What did the brand see, and what did we do about it.
- Josh Pearce NoneMine is different. I need to know where the data goes, who can see what, and how much work it is for me to keep it connected. I'm the one who gets the call when a feed breaks.
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood, that's a clear split. I'll do Kelly's first because it makes the architecture easier to follow, then spend proper time on yours, Josh. Lewis, are you happy for me to share?
- Lewis Kerr NonePlease. I'll stay quiet unless somebody asks about commercial terms. Just to say, Steven couldn't make it this morning, but I'll brief him afterwards.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight. You should see my screen now. This is the brain, running on the sample of orders and returns tickets you sent over. I've loaded the two brands Kelly picked. The first is the one she described as healthy, the second the one she described as, I think, a headache.
- Kelly Swainston NoneThat's the polite version.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo let's start with the headache. I'll open the page for that brand. Orders for the period at the top, then the returns tickets underneath, grouped by reason, then the notes from the last service review on the right. Nothing here has been re-keyed, it's all read from your sample.
- Kelly Swainston NoneCan you go back a second. That grouping by reason, is that something we set up or is it coming from the helpdesk?
- Hannah Lowe NoneTo be precise, it's using the categories that already exist on your tickets. If your team applies them inconsistently, they'll show up inconsistently. The short answer is it reflects what's in the helpdesk. The longer answer is that we can help you tidy the categories during implementation, but that's your decision, not ours.
- Kelly Swainston NoneHa. They are applied inconsistently. Go on, show me.
- Hannah Lowe NoneLet me ask it a question the way a client manager would. I'll type: which returns reasons have gone up for this brand over the last few weeks, and which orders do they relate to?
- Hannah Lowe NoneIt takes a few seconds. Right, there. It's telling us damaged-in-transit and wrong-item have both increased, and listing the orders behind each, with a link to the tickets.
- Kelly Swainston NoneWrong item. That's ours, not the courier's. That's exactly the sort of thing I'd want to know before the review, not during it.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's why I wanted to show you on a brand with an actual problem. Would it help if I asked it for a draft of the service review summary?
- Kelly Swainston NonePlease.
- Hannah Lowe NoneSo, summary for the review. It's pulling the order volume, the returns pattern, and the open actions from the last meeting. Now, one caveat. It's a draft, and it cites where each line came from, so the client manager checks it rather than trusting it blindly.
- Josh Pearce NoneCan I just check, when it says it came from the last meeting notes, is that a document it's reading, or something typed into the brain?
- Hannah Lowe NoneA document. In this case a note from your shared drive, so it's reading it where it already lives. Nobody types anything into the brain itself.
- Josh Pearce NoneGood. That's one less thing to look after.
- Kelly Swainston NoneCan it do the healthy brand the same way? I want to see that it doesn't invent problems.
- Hannah Lowe NoneFair test. Same question, different brand.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThere. Returns are flat, nothing new in the reasons, and it says so. It doesn't have to find a story for you. If there's nothing, the answer is nothing.
- Kelly Swainston NoneGood. That's what I wanted to see.
- Lewis Kerr NoneKelly, can I check one thing while we're on the client manager side? How many of your team would need to be doing this regularly? I'm thinking about whether Growth is the right fit on users.
- Kelly Swainston NoneAll the client managers, so well inside what you described. A few from the operations side occasionally.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThen Growth covers it with room to spare. I won't suggest anything bigger that your usage doesn't support. I'll put the exact numbers in the quote.
- Hannah Lowe NoneRight, Josh, let me move to yours. I'll switch to the architecture. It runs inside your own Snowflake account. BB-Demo doesn't hold a copy somewhere else. Connectors read from your systems into your Snowflake, and the brain sits on top of that.
- Josh Pearce NoneWe do have a Snowflake account but it's not heavily used. Is that a problem?
- Hannah Lowe NoneNot at all, a lightly used account is often easier because there's less to work around. The short answer is it's fine. The longer answer is I'd like to see how it's currently set up and who administers it before I commit to anything, and I'll put that in writing after this call.
- Josh Pearce NoneThat's me. I administer it, though I'd say administer is generous.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThen we'll be speaking a fair bit. So, connectors. For your scope I'd expect the warehouse system, the helpdesk, and probably Microsoft 365 for the documents and mail. Growth includes eight connectors, so you'd have room to add things.
- Josh Pearce NoneWhat happens when one breaks? We changed a field name in the warehouse system last year and something downstream stopped for a week before anyone noticed.
- Hannah Lowe NoneThat's the failure I'd worry about as well. A connector that quietly stops loading is worse than one that fails loudly. In the product you can see, per connector, whether records are still being indexed, and a flat line is the thing to look for. I'll show you the page.
- Hannah Lowe NoneHere, each connector, last load, and the trend in records indexed. If a source changes shape and the load stops, this is where it shows. I'd also suggest someone on your side owns checking it. It's not magic, it needs an owner.
- Josh Pearce NoneThat'll be me again, then. Fine. What about timing? When's it refreshed?
- Hannah Lowe NoneNightly. The refresh is complete by 07:00 local time on business days, on every tier. So the client managers have it before the morning stand-up.
- Kelly Swainston NoneThat works. Reviews are mostly late morning anyway.
- Josh Pearce NoneAnd permissions. If a client manager only looks after two brands, can they see the other brands' tickets?
- Hannah Lowe NoneGood question, and I'd rather be careful. The brain respects the access it's given at the source and the roles we set up for you, but how fine-grained you can go for your particular systems is something I want to confirm rather than guess at. Let me check the detail with our security lead and I'll put the answer in writing, with an example for your two brands.
- Josh Pearce NoneAppreciated. I'd rather you said that than say yes.
- Kelly Swainston NoneThat matters, actually. The brands compete with each other in places. I'd not want one client manager's view leaking across.
- Hannah Lowe NoneUnderstood. It goes top of my list for the follow-up.
- Lewis Kerr NoneCan I pick up the timeline? We've pencilled Friday 21 March 2025 as the point where Steven would want to make a decision. Working back, Hannah's written follow-up on permissions and the connectors is the next piece, then the quote, then Steven.
- Kelly Swainston NoneSteven will ask who's using it, as usual. I'll tell him client managers every week. I'd like to be able to show him a real draft review, if I can have the one from today.
- Hannah Lowe NoneI'll export the headache brand's draft and send it with my notes. It's on sample data, so label it that way for Steven.
- Kelly Swainston NoneWill do. Thanks, Hannah, that was really helpful.
- Josh Pearce NoneYes, thanks. Useful. I'll look at the Snowflake side this week so we're not guessing.
- Lewis Kerr NoneThen I'll send the quote over today, with the VAT position clear. Thanks, all. Speak soon.