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Expanly

The Expanly Playbook

Last Updated: 3.8.2026

This playbook explains how Expanly works. We are building the Control Layer for Retail Growth, with a shared business-facing interface that connects commercial strategy and advertising execution. Our mission is to ensure that growth investment follows the priorities the business has chosen.

Our framework is simple: Discover where money actually goes. Define what matters to the business. Deliver strategy into execution, every day.

Expanly is built to work across markets. We operate on a remote-friendly model, anchored by our headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. This structure gives our teams the conditions to do their best work. We bring our leadership and product development teams together in Helsinki for direct collaboration. Our sales and customer success teams work in the markets they serve. This keeps our core team connected and puts our commercial teams close to customers. Our culture is built on trust, autonomy and clear expectations.

This playbook is a public view of how Expanly works: the principles we use, the tools we rely on and the habits that keep a small team aligned. Read it, question it and tell us when something no longer reflects reality. We build our product iteratively, and we build our company the same way.

I. Our Hybrid Foundation: The "Why" and "How"

A. Our Philosophy: Blending Collaboration and Global Reach

We are building a global product for global clients. Our leadership and product teams collaborate from Helsinki, while sales and customer success work close to the markets they serve. This model supports direct collaboration and local customer understanding.

Helsinki collaboration, local market reach: Our goal is to grow first in the Nordics and then globally. We organize the team around two complementary needs:

  • A Helsinki Headquarters for Innovation: Our core product and leadership teams are based in our Helsinki HQ. This deliberate co-location is essential for the deep, fast-paced collaboration required to build a category-defining product.
  • A Global Remote Team for Market Reach: For our sales and customer success teams, we hire people directly in the markets they serve.

Strategic and Capital Efficient: In the early stages of a SaaS company, every resource matters. Our hybrid model allows us to allocate capital intelligently. We invest in a focused Helsinki headquarters to serve as our innovation hub, while avoiding the overhead of physical offices in every market. This structure keeps investment focused on the product, customers and the team doing the work.

Deep Focus for Intelligent Work: The problems we solve are complex. Building the Control Layer, a platform that gives clients strategic control over their growth investment, requires deep, uninterrupted focus from our team. Our processes and communication structures protect time for that work.

B. Our Core Principles in Action

These principles guide how we work together and make daily decisions.

  • Be the Client's Champion: Our success is a direct result of our clients' success. Every decision we make should be weighed against the question: "How does this help our clients win?"
  • Driven by Outcomes: Impact is the measure. We set clear goals and trust people to decide how to deliver.
  • Ownership is Decision Rights: Our positioning, "Reclaim Decision Rights over growth investment", also shapes how Expanly works internally. At Expanly, you own your domain. You get the context and goals you need, then the decision rights to execute.
  • Transparency by Default: Decisions that affect several people belong in a public channel or shared document. This allows everyone to understand the "why" behind the "what."

C. Communication Principles

  • Documentation First: We record important decisions and working practices so people can find the context they need. If the answer is missing or outdated, flag it and help fix the source.
  • Asynchronous by Default: We default to communication that does not require an immediate response. Real-time meetings are a valuable resource, used intentionally, not as a default.

II. Working at Expanly: Communication and Tools

Clear communication keeps a hybrid team moving. Using the right tool for the job helps us protect focus and preserve context.

A. The Right Tool for the Job

Google Workspace (Company Knowledge & Working Documents)

  • Purpose: The central repository for company knowledge, strategies, processes and documentation.
  • Good for: Collaborative documents, financial models, data analysis, presentations, meeting notes, project plans and shared file storage.
  • Key Habit: Keep shared folders organized and update the relevant document when a decision or process changes.

Slack (The Digital Office)

  • Purpose: Informal, real-time conversations and quick social interactions. It's our hallway and our water cooler.
  • Good for: Quick questions, urgent alerts, daily standups, and non-work-related chatter (#random).
  • Not for: Making decisions, official task assignments, or storing important information.

Linear (The Product Development Engine)

  • Purpose: The single source of truth for product development, including bug tracking, feature development and the product roadmap.

HubSpot (The Growth Engine & Customer Success Hub)

  • Purpose: The single source of truth for all customer-facing activities, including sales, marketing, and customer success.
  • Good for: Managing our sales pipeline, tracking deals and logging communication with prospects and clients.

B. Asynchronous by Default: Protecting Time & Focus

  • Send the Whole Thought: A useful Slack message includes the question, context, deadline and what you need from the reader. "Hi" can be friendly. It should not be the entire message.
  • Default to Public Channels: This makes information accessible to everyone and prevents knowledge silos.
  • Acknowledge and Set Expectations: A simple emoji reaction is a great way to acknowledge a message.

C. The Art of the Meeting: A Deliberate Choice

Meetings are the most expensive form of communication. We treat them as a deliberate choice, not a default. Every meeting must have a clear owner, agenda, and desired outcome.

D. Our Communication Cadence

  • Daily Async Standups (Slack): Each team posts a brief update in their Slack channel by 10:00 local time. Standard format: Yesterday, key accomplishment; Today, main focus; Blockers, anything preventing progress. If there are no blockers, write "None."
  • Weekly Team Syncs (Synchronous): Each functional team has one weekly tactical meeting.
  • Weekly "Company Pulse" Meeting (Synchronous): Our one mandatory all-hands meeting, held every Friday. Standard agenda: 1) Key Topics from each department; 2) KPI Snapshot; 3) Open Q&A.

E. Foundational Policies for Global Communication

  • Our Official Language is English: All written communication in shared channels (Slack), documentation (Google Workspace), and internal tools must be in English.
  • Our Reference Time Zone is EET/EEST (Helsinki Time).

III. Growth & Development: Our Build-Measure-Learn Cycle

We build, measure and learn across product, sales, marketing and customer success. Insights move between teams so decisions can improve over time.

A. Product Development: The "Build" Engine (Scrum)

The Product team operates in a lightweight Scrum framework, managed in Linear.

  • Sprints: Two-week cycles.
  • Linear Board: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, In Progress, Review, Done.
  • Key Events: Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups (async in Slack #dev-standup), Sprint Review, Retrospective.

B. Marketing & Sales: The "Measure" and "Learn" Frontline

  • Hypothesis Testing: Every sales call and marketing campaign is an experiment.
  • Data Capture: HubSpot is our lab notebook.
  • The Output: Key learnings feed the Lean process.

C. Customer Success: Closing the Learning Loop

Customer Success provides important feedback on how our product performs with actual, paying users.

  • Real-World Validation: HubSpot is our system of record for customer-facing activity and communication.
  • The Feedback Loop: Insights from Customer Success flow directly back into the product backlog in Linear.
  • The Voice of the Customer Channel (#voice-of-the-customer): A dedicated Slack channel where we share noteworthy feedback, including testimonials, insightful feature requests and key learnings. Every employee is encouraged to follow this channel.

IV. Daily Life & Practices: Growing Together

Our success is built by our people. We are as intentional about our people operations as we are about our product development.

A. Onboarding: The First 90 Days at Expanly

  • Before Day One: New team members receive the necessary hardware, a personalized onboarding plan and access to the core systems relevant to their role.
  • Week One: Immersion. Your first week is for reading the playbook, understanding the product strategy and company goals, and meeting the people you will work with. A dedicated tutor helps you find context and ask questions.
  • The 30-60-90 Day Plan: A clear ramp-up plan is agreed with the manager during the first week.

B. Feedback & Growth: Continuous Improvement

  • Feedback flows in all directions. We encourage direct, constructive, and kind feedback.
  • Clear Writing is a Core Skill: The ability to communicate ideas clearly in writing is a core competency.

C. Well-being & Flexibility

  • Flexible schedules: Outside core collaboration meetings, team members have control over how they organize their time.
  • Communication Boundaries: We use Slack's "Do Not Disturb" features and respect them.

D. Building Connection: We Are More Than Just Our Work

  • Virtual Social Spaces: #random for sharing hobbies, weekend plans, and anything non-work-related.
  • Annual Company Retreats: The entire company gets together in person to work on company-wide priorities and strengthen relationships across the team.
  • Helsinki-Based Collaboration: The office is a hub for strategy sessions and deep project work.
  • Remote Team Workshops: Remote-first teams also meet in person when focused collaboration would materially improve the work.
  • Cross-Functional Summits: Remote team members may be brought to Helsinki for key planning sessions.

A Living Document

This playbook captures our current best answer to how Expanly should work. It will change.

As Expanly grows, the team will learn, adapt and improve. If something here is unclear, outdated or wrong, raise it. The person who finds the gap is encouraged to help fix it.

Openness only works when people are willing to challenge the source.

Welcome to Expanly. Let's get to work.