Anchor Day · March 19, 2026 · Cologne
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Every goal you'll see today traces back to these.
"For the first time in our company's history, strong new players are entering our market and are intensifying the competition. Speed is essential if we want to keep innovating and continue to lead the market."
— Lode, CIO
→ This drives KR 1.3 - Lead Time & Flow
"Would I spend my own money on this? That question is a healthy filter. An owner does not say 'I see the problem, but this is not my job.' If you see a defect - even a small thing like wrong spelling - call it out and find the person who can fix it."
— Henrik, CFO
→ This drives KR 1.4 - Ownership & North Star Architecture
"Not novelty for its own sake. It's about constantly questioning what is possible and what can be done better. We have a strong ambition to become a truly AI-first ePharmacy - not because it's trendy, but because it enables better experiences and smarter processes."
— Theresa, COO
→ This drives KR 1.1 - AI Adoption and KR 1.4 - North Star Architecture
"Diverse in opinion, united in action. We encourage different perspectives and healthy debate, but once a decision is made, we act as one. Our greatest successes have always been driven by strong collaboration."
— Theresa, COO
→ This drives KR 4.1 - Export Excellence and KR 3.1 - Mentoring
"Every action makes an impact. It is not just about doing the right things. It is about showing that our actions lead to real, measurable results."
— Olaf, CEO
→ This is the filter for all KRs - if we can't measure it, we're not doing it
"True customer obsession. This principle speaks to the heart of our mission. We are not just selling and delivering products. We are here to build long-term relationships with our customers."
— Dirk, CCO
→ This is the foundation. KR 2.2 - Security Hygiene and everything else serves this.
| KR | Focus | Effort | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.3 | Lead Time & Flow | Heavy | Tier 1 |
| 1.4 | Ownership & North Star Architecture | Medium | Tier 1 |
| 1.1 | AI Adoption | Medium | Tier 2 |
| 4.1 | Export Excellence | Heavy | Tier 1 |
| 3.1 | Mentoring & Continuous Improvement | Light-Medium | Tier 2 |
| 2.2 | Security Hygiene | Light | Tier 2 |
Tier 1 = strategic priority, significant investment · Tier 2 = important, lighter lift
What we're NOT doing: Platform reliability (KR 5.1), EM accountability metrics (KR 4.2), engineering rhythm (KR 3.2), product mindset (KR 5.2 - covered by 1.4). Focus means saying no.
We optimize for flow over busyness.
You are fast. When you work, you ship. PR cycle time is excellent.
Often under 30 minutes
Well above industry P75
The waste isn't in your work - it's in the spaces between the work. Queues, dependencies, deploy batching.
KR 1.3 isn't about making you faster. It's about removing the friction between you.
| Team | Pattern | Peak Week | Typical Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay Zilla | Consistent engine - carries most of the deploys | 28 | 10-20 |
| Pay Kong | Bursty - 27 one week, 0 the next | 27 | 0-3 |
| Anvil | In planning phase - about to start implementing | 8 | 0-1 |
🚨 This trend needs to reverse. Target: ≥12 deploys/week as a floor, then ≥25% above baseline by Q4. Anvil will add volume as they move from planning into implementation.
PR cycle time says we're fast. End-to-end lead time tells a different story. Where does the time go?
This is fast. ✅
→
7× slower than the PR itself
That's not terrible - but it's 7× our PR cycle time. The difference is pure waste.
Smaller, more frequent deploys would eliminate these spikes entirely.
Target: ≤2 hours from commit to production, consistently. That means: no batching, no long-lived branches, no queue time. Ship it when it's ready.
Baseline established → ≥15% reduction in p50 by Q4 (DX)
Commit → production
Back to ≥12/week floor, then ≥25% increase by Q4 (DX)
Teams of 3-4: WIP ≤ 2 tickets in progress
Measured weekly in standup
Remember: This is a flow problem, not a people problem. You are fast. We need to unblock you.
Systems have explicit ownership, well-defined boundaries, minimal unmanaged dependencies.
Today, invariants are enforced in the wrong services. Implicit aggregates have no owner. Orchestration logic is tangled with domain rules across service boundaries. This is what slows us down and makes changes risky.
Each team has a documented domain boundary: what they own, what they don't, handoff points
Baseline by end of Q2 - catalog of all cross-boundary domain logic
The "before" picture
Misplaced domain logic ≥25% reduced by Q4
Invariants moved, leaked objects replaced, rules consolidated
Business outcome: Checkout feature change requires ≤2 teams involved (today: often 3-4)
⏩ We'll deep-dive the North Star Architecture this afternoon.
AI is embedded in how you think, build, review, and improve software.
The goal is better software, higher quality, faster delivery. AI is a tool to get there, not the destination. This is not about adopting AI as fast as possible - it's about using it deliberately to make your work better. That needs careful ownership and steering by you, the teams.
copilot-instructions.md or AGENTS.md) in ≥90% of T1/T2 services by Q2PR cycle time ≥15% reduction in repos with AI context files vs. those without
Proves AI adoption -> faster delivery (DX measurable)
You are excellent. Now let's export that.
I'll say it directly: you are strong engineers. The data shows it, the PR cycle times prove it, and the quality of your work speaks for itself. The question isn't "are you good?" - it's "are you making other teams better too?" Your excellence shouldn't stop at your team boundary.
100% of you have discussed your competency expectations - what "great" looks like at your level - in Q1 1:1s. Documented in 1:1 notes.
We deliberately grow each other to raise our collective standard.
This isn't about ticking boxes. It's about building a culture where getting better is normal, not exceptional.
Our response to incidents builds trust instead of fear.
This is the lightweight KR. We're not building a fortress - we're making sure we can respond well when things go wrong. Trust comes from preparation, not perfection.
This is achievable. Pick the service, write the runbook, run the drill. Done.
KR 1.3 (Flow) gets faster when KR 1.4 (Ownership) reduces cross-team dependencies
KR 1.4 (North Star) is the architecture that enables KR 1.1 (AI) context files to be meaningful per domain
KR 4.1 (Export Excellence) is powered by KR 3.1 (Mentoring) - P4s mentoring outside your domain
KR 2.2 (Security Hygiene) is the foundation - you can't ship fast if you can't respond to incidents
The flywheel: Clear ownership → faster flow → more time for learning → stronger engineers → better architecture → clearer ownership → ...
Pick 1-2 KRs that resonate. Volunteer as DRI or contributor. The goals are set - how we get there is up to you.
If a target feels unrealistic or a measurement is wrong, say so. Propose a better way. The targets should make sense to you.
PayKong's PaymentContext enables Anvil's orchestrator. Mentoring lifts all boats. Cover and move.
"The best work comes from people who feel personally responsible for making something great - not because someone told them to, but because they decided to."
30 minutes - open floor
THE 6 KRs
1.3 Lead Time & Flow
1.4 Ownership & North Star
1.1 AI Adoption
4.1 Export Excellence
3.1 Mentoring & Learning
2.2 Security Hygiene