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Maximising autonomy, without silos
"Implementing Talkspirit brought clarity to our organisation. Everyone understands who handles what, who to contact, and defines their own responsibilities. Result: employees are more autonomous — they propose solutions instead of waiting for someone else to." — Fabio Monte, circle lead & captain, QoQa
Maximising autonomy, without silos
Community e-commerce, Swiss style
QoQa is a Swiss community e-commerce platform. Every day, a selection of products at attractive prices — and a close relationship with its "Qommunity," involved in many projects. Since its founding in 2005, the company has grown to 1 million users, 230 employees (the "otters"), and €160 million in revenue in 2023.
Freedom, but with a framework
From the start, QoQa wanted to give its employees total freedom, in an entrepreneurial spirit. Appealing on paper — but without explicit rules, that freedom sometimes tipped into tension or micromanagement.
Freedom without a framework
Extended company-wide, the model structures projects but siloes teams. COVID remote work made the fragilities worse.
Freedom without a framework
Extended company-wide, the model structures projects but siloes teams. COVID remote work made the fragilities worse.
Freedom without a framework
Extended company-wide, the model structures projects but siloes teams. COVID remote work made the fragilities worse.
Holacracy, with support
Why Talkspirit: centralised functionality (no more need for several tools), an ergonomic interface that eased adoption, and an agile setup that keeps adapting.
From Scrum to silos
QoQa tests Scrum in IT, with good results (sprints, retrospectives, reviews), then extends it company-wide. But the model unintentionally reinforces silos — and COVID, by shifting everything to remote work, exposes these fragilities.
The choice of Holacracy
To combine freedom with the end of silos, one answer stands out: Holacracy, powered by Talkspirit.
Coaches and training
QoQa relies on certified Holacracy coaches (Nova Consul, Ivolve, and Sémawé) and trains its teams on the model's principles. Talkspirit is introduced gradually.
Documenting roles
First step: creating the QoQa circle and its sub-circles (Supply, Operations, Marketing…), appointing a lead per circle, then defining roles and their responsibilities together. Day to day: dynamic org chart, OKRs, projects, tactical and governance meetings, proposals.
Clearer, more autonomous, more engaged
What Holacracy, powered by Talkspirit, changed.
Who does what, visible to everyone
Every employee knows exactly what's expected of them, and can instantly identify who's responsible for what in the organisation.
Every employee knows exactly what's expected of them, and can instantly identify who's responsible for what in the organisation.
Solutions instead of waiting
Teams take more initiative: they raise their tensions in meetings and propose concrete solutions, instead of waiting for someone else to act.
Teams take more initiative: they raise their tensions in meetings and propose concrete solutions, instead of waiting for someone else to act.
Tensions get resolved fast
Addressed collectively in tactical or governance meetings, tensions are handled and resolved faster.
Addressed collectively in tactical or governance meetings, tensions are handled and resolved faster.
Involved in decisions
Employees feel more involved and heard in decision-making processes — the model fuels engagement.
Employees feel more involved and heard in decision-making processes — the model fuels engagement.
We showed the auditors what we were already doing every day in Talkspirit. Living governance wasn't a side project: it was built into the way we work.
Thanks to the organisational map built in Talkspirit, everyone knows who does what and what their responsibilities are. This transparency helps each person better understand the direction the company is taking, and lets us align our efforts to fulfil our purpose.
Talkspirit played a key role in clarifying roles, responsibilities and cross-team collaboration within our hierarchical organisation. [...] The tool has also transformed the way we run our meetings. In the past, our meetings were often unproductive. Today, they are better structured, roles are clearly defined and decision-making is far more efficient.
Having a strong intention to change wasn't enough. We needed a tool capable of supporting the practical workings of this new organisational approach.
Organisational clarity and agility allow everyone to fully apply their skills and reach their full potential. It gives people wings. And every organisation needs that.
Adopting Holacracy has helped us gain autonomy and clarity. Employees know what's expected of them, so they can make decisions without constantly seeking everyone's approval. [...] The result: our trust index now stands at 89 out of 100!
In the past, we would have managed with emails, but the documents would have ended up scattered all over the place. With Talkspirit, we share files directly in an organised, structured and centralised way. The latest updates are gathered in a single place, so we can discuss them in real time and act as quickly as possible.
Talkspirit brings us closer to our teams, fuels collective intelligence and makes day-to-day information sharing far smoother.
Pooling our strengths makes each of us stronger. Within our network of SMEs, Talkspirit is an essential driver of transformation and agility.
Talkspirit allows every employee to fully unlock their talents. If someone has skills in several areas, they can take on different roles without being boxed into a single job description. This flexibility in roles also strengthens our agility — an essential asset in today's VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous).
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