Meet Jin-su from the Product Team! : I'm not confident — not confident that I'll fail to make Dalpha a success.

🙋‍♀️ Hi Jin-su. First, could you give us a quick introduction?

Hello. I'm Choi Jin-su, currently working as both a PO and SW Engineer on the Product team. In Dalpha's early days, I joined as the first frontend engineer and started building the visible things like the Dalpha homepage and AI Store, then transitioned into a PO role, and I've been working as a PO ever since. Even now, when there aren't enough resources to hit the team's goals, I still jump in on frontend or small backend development tasks myself. I'm currently on the Product team, but along the way I've worked across several teams like MAI, Life-cycle SW, and LENS, handling a wide range of work.

💁‍♀️ What's your biggest concern at Dalpha these days?

It's probably a concern shared not just by me but by all Dalpha team members. In broad terms, my biggest concern is how Dalpha can grow even more steeply than it is now. Dalpha has many sharp weapons not only in technical capability but also on the business side, like AI consulting, but there's a lingering frustration that we haven't fully put those weapons to use yet. I'm always thinking about how we can make good use of Dalpha's various weapons to satisfy customers and connect that to real growth and revenue.

As the Product team lead, I think a lot about how my team members can keep working in a sustainable and enjoyable way without burning out. Given the nature of a support organization, the Product team easily hits moments that feel relatively less rewarding or more draining, so how to get through those periods well and keep the whole team's momentum is always a homework problem for me.

💁‍♀️ I'm curious about the mindset you bring to your work at Dalpha. Do you have a goal of your own?

There's only one reason I chose Dalpha among many startups and have stayed for almost three years now. I really want to achieve a big success. And among all kinds of success, I have an ambition to grow a startup together into a huge success, and to play an important role in that process.

I care a lot about what kind of success it is. What I truly want to achieve is to build a startup that creates real, tangible value. The moat or value that typical platform companies have often ends up relying on first-mover advantage over time, you know? Things like platform market share or the edge of having claimed the market first. But that kind of success doesn't really differentiate you much from later entrants, and personally it doesn't feel all that appealing.

I dream of a true big-tech company that creates value that didn't exist before. Whether B2B or B2C, a company that technically delivers users value that never existed before. Just like OpenAI created value through GPT that didn't exist before, I want to make that kind of impact too. When I first came to Dalpha, and even at this very moment, I believe Dalpha is a company creating value that didn't exist before. And I'm running hard because I want to play a meaningful role on that journey.

💁‍♀️ You've taken on team leader roles since Dalpha's early days. Is there an insight you'd like to share?

Even though Dalpha is my first company, I took on a leadership role fairly early on, and I learned a tremendous amount. Looking back, there were plenty of clumsy moments, and I'm still learning even now, but through all that experience there are roughly two things I came to deeply realize.

The first is that the more a task allows for genuinely diverse attempts, the better it is to follow the opinion of the person doing the actual work. For work where the right answer isn't clear or many approaches are possible, following the opinion of the team member actually doing the work often led to better outcomes. In the past, as a PO I focused on setting the big direction, so sometimes I prioritized my own opinion, but through a lot of trial and error I learned that I can be wrong too. I also felt that when work moves forward under the lead of the person doing it, not only the results but also the insights that come out of the process become far more diverse.

The second is that conveying context to your members really matters. Since I'm in a support organization, quite a few things are decided by external factors like company-wide direction or client requests. Sometimes decisions are made top-down. In those cases, I felt I shouldn't just relay the decision but had to sufficiently share why that decision came about, what conditions we considered, what options there were and why we chose this one and so on. Especially when an external request runs counter to the direction our team had been thinking, if you don't transparently explain that context, it's hard for the team to align. I think I realized it's far healthier to share the process with the team, keep multiple options open, discuss with the team, and then decide and get through it together.

🙆‍♀️ When was the hardest, most draining moment working at Dalpha? How did you overcome the tough moments?

This connects to the realization I mentioned earlier. It was really hard when friction arose with team members in situations I hadn't intended. When the team had to carry out work decided externally by an unreasonable client request or company-wide direction, there were even cases where I myself couldn't fully accept the request, and in those situations, because I just told the team 'we have to do this' as the lead, there were moments where the pushback against the decision came back to me personally. In those moments, even though I wasn't the one who made the decision, when conflict arose with team members I think I felt drained and resentful.

Looking back now, I think it was all my own immaturity. At the time I felt a lot of resentment, but really it was that I lacked an understanding of the lead's role. In the end, if I'm the lead, the harder a decision is for the team to accept, the more I should have fully explained the context and also worked to change the situation so the team could come to terms with it — but I think I didn't do that well. I came to understand that rather than one-sidedly relaying 'we have to do this,' it's far more important to share 'why we have to do this' and 'what the current situation is,' and to lead the mood toward 'this might be a bit tough, but let's get through it together.' At some point I felt that even when something arose due to external factors, saying 'well, I'm not the one who decided it' is ultimately just an excuse.

I used to think only that 'the person who's best at the work becomes the lead.' Especially in a PO-centric organization, there was a strong perception that 'the lead is the person who sets the product direction well.' But working with many people as a lead at Dalpha, I realized that the quality of getting the team to come together well toward a single goal is what matters most in a lead.

🙋‍♀️ What do you think 'Dalpha-ness' is? What kind of team member is a Dalpha-like member?

People may think differently, but the Dalpha-ness I have in mind is a smart person who genuinely loves their work and works hard.

If a team member doesn't love the work or doesn't work hard, the whole team is affected. Because of that one person, you end up creating rules that didn't exist before, and even during task distribution or weekly meetings you start agonizing over 'how do we somehow get them to do the work.' I think that cost is too big to ignore. Being able to work with team members full of passion for the work — where you don't have to worry, 'is this person just slacking off?' — is a huge stroke of luck, I think.

The second is smartness. The smartness I have in mind isn't limited to the PS ability the Dalpha team talks about. There are many kinds of smartness, and in the end I think there's a qualitative sense you feel when working together. Someone who's easy to work with, and whom you trust when you hand off a task. That's the person I feel is truly smart. Conversely, someone who makes you uneasy so you keep checking on them or keep having to intervene — that's not it. Dalpha is a gathering of people who are smart in their own ways, and being able to draw the big picture and work smartly together with them is something I really love.

I don't know how long this Dalpha-ness can be maintained, but I think if even one thing goes off, the team's atmosphere could change drastically. So personally, I hope this Dalpha-ness can be maintained as long as possible. I mean it sincerely.

🙆‍♀️ When do you feel energized and excited on the team?

Naturally, since I'm a PO, I make a lot of planning proposals, and I feel really energized and excited when team members get thrilled and pour out ideas during planning meetings. I find myself thinking, 'our team is having fun working,' or 'I prepared this planning meeting well.' On the flip side, when I make a planning proposal and people just say 'Yeah~ sounds good~' without lively discussion, it's a bit of a letdown. I think I feel greater satisfaction and joy when we exchange opinions fiercely, even when opposing views come up.

🙋‍♀️ Finally, a word for your team members!

First, to everyone on the Product Team. You've been working so hard lately. With frequent personnel changes and an ever-growing workload, I'm deeply grateful that you've held up so well. I don't get to do one-on-ones often, but I really hope you know that my affection and care for the Product team always run deep.

To all Dalpha team members, there's something I really want to say. Watching Dalpha grow each year, I feel the team is maturing. That said, I also think some of our confidence has faded compared to before. How should I put it — rather than the 'if we do it, it gets done' spirit, it seems we more often analyze or look up to external cases? Looking back, when the team was small, the whole team was insanely immersed and shared the attitude of 'I'll do a little more and solve the whole team's problem.' Some team members still carry that spirit, but as the team grew, I feel some regret that we couldn't share that experience with those who newly joined.

I think teams with weapons as sharp as Dalpha's are rare. Inside Dalpha there have been so many genuinely sharp discussions that stay ahead of the market. And even now, I think we're a team with truly outstanding ability to read the market, find logical solutions, and execute quickly. But the problem we're trying to solve seems even tougher. Over the past two and a half years we've worked fiercely, yet we still haven't found a clear-cut solution. Luckily, no one has solved business AX yet, but one thing I'm certain of is that it's a problem that will definitely be solved soon. Let's push forward a little more fiercely and a little more sharply. I believe that as we work together, the problems that wouldn't budge will be solved one by one, and we'll create value that didn't exist in the world. Let's go!