Easee

Introduction

Easee is an Amsterdam-based startup committed to making eye care accessible to everyone. With a clinically proven and certified online eye exam, easee offers a hassle-free alternative to traditional optician visits and boasts over 200,000 users worldwide. Jouke Waleson, easee’s CTO, sought to balance his focus between managing people, improving processes, and driving technical innovation within the organization.

Challenge

After serving as easee’s CTO for four years, Waleson found that his time was increasingly consumed with people management and process improvement, leaving little room for technical innovation. As a tech-driven startup, the need for continuous innovation was crucial, yet finding a trustworthy and competent professional to manage crucial tasks was a significant challenge.

Approach

Invisory stepped in to address this challenge, providing an interim Head of Engineering for two days per week. This professional took over most of the People & Process related responsibilities, thus enabling Waleson to devote more time to technological advancement.

The interim Head of Engineering focused on streamlining software development processes, taking into account the specific requirements of Software-as-a-Medical-Device (SaMD) development as per ISO 13485 and IEC 62304. The individual also coached team members to assume more responsibilities, guided the R&D teams in their product development approach, conducted performance reviews, participated in an MDR certification audit, and collaborated with Waleson and the leadership team to boost value delivery.

Waleson: “As a software leader with a highly technical background, I always knew that people management and process optimizations were not my strongest points. In the initial phases of the company that was good enough, but when we encountered some setbacks I was really out of my depth. Invisory’s Head of Engineering helped me focus on my strengths and worked at such a level of professionalism that I never had to worry about performance reviews, budgets, or team coaching. Our pace of innovation picked up significantly thanks to this.“

Invisory helped me focus on my strengths. I never had to worry about performance reviews, budgets, or team coaching.

Jouke Waleson

Chief Technology Officer

Results

Invisory’s intervention helped easee overcome significant management challenges. By providing a skilled interim Head of Engineering, we enabled the CTO to focus on driving innovation while ensuring the R&D team and processes were effectively managed. Waleson was able to refocus on advancing the technology, leading to several vital innovations and the development of a new product offering. The R&D team at easee saw notable improvements in their development processes, team cohesion, and overall performance, as well as a reduction in attrition. This contributed positively to easee’s growth trajectory.