Need: The company wanted development discussions to be more useful and lighter. The form felt heavy, and some team members left it entirely unfilled.
Solution: Topaasia content created with AI on a need basis for one-to-one development discussions
Results: Development discussions became more natural and lighter, also with the more reserved team members. Conversations deepened and even difficult issues were easier to raise. Time was saved for both the team lead and the team members.
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Entteri Oy is a Finnish IT services company whose team leads wanted to develop their one-on-one development discussions. A traditional development discussion often relies on forms, advance preparation and long conversations whose outcome easily remains scattered. At Entteri, they wanted to try a different approach: could a development discussion be lighter, more natural and at the same time genuinely more useful?
Tomi Urama has worked as a team lead at Entteri for five years and now leads three teams. Elisa Laatikainen, in turn, moved from the humanities into the IT sector and has worked as a team lead and project manager for two years. Between them they have nearly 25 team members, and both have fresh experiences of what happens when the form is replaced with a Topaasia dialogue.
Starting point: the traditional development discussion felt like heavy raking
Entteri's development discussion process was previously based on a form: the employee fills it in, the team lead reads and prepares, then it is gone through together. The structure is familiar in many organisations.
In practice, the form caused difficulties. Some team members left it entirely unfilled, some filled it in sparsely. The form could feel difficult or even distressing: it wasn't easy to put one's own thoughts into ready-made words, and the statements and scales weren't always simple to interpret in the same way.
Elisa admits that in a traditional development discussion held by her own manager, she too said outright that she hadn't had time to think things through in advance. "The form somehow feels distressing. It's hard to put thoughts into complete sentences or even bullet points," Elisa describes.
Tomi adds that the form works like a rake: everything is gone through and you see what comes up. "It's perhaps an unnecessarily heavy way to get to the things that matter."
A card in hand, not a list of questions
At Entteri, they decided to try Topaasia in development discussions. Adopting it didn't just mean a new tool, but also a new way of thinking about how a conversation should be facilitated.
Tomi tailored his own Topaasia deck, in other words the discussion content, for his product development team with the help of the AI tool. The same deck worked for all 15 team members, which made it possible to compare themes across the whole team after the round.
Elisa approached the matter boldly: she announced to her team members that the development discussion would be held with Topaasia, without any particular advance preparation. She also offered the option of having the discussion with the traditional form, but no one asked for it.
"We just tried it, and it worked. Even with the more reserved team members, an hour and a half passed naturally, and with several of them we could have continued longer," Elisa says.
“There is no going back to the form” - Card-based development discussions exceeded expectations
At Entteri, the biggest benefit of Topaasia wasn't just the time saved, although there was that too. The most significant change was in the quality of the conversation. Elisa sums up the difference by saying it wasn't just that Topaasia achieved the same value faster than the old model. In her view, the value was clearly greater.
"'The same value as before but faster and lighter' is too modest a way to put it. The Topaasia session felt more like a coaching conversation. The team member chose the cards themselves and talked about them. The team lead's role was to listen, ask, spark thoughts and help sharpen what matters. This changed the dynamics of the conversation decisively", Elisa explains.
Time savings
In terms of time, the difference comes down to a simple calculation: the form can take an employee half an hour or an hour in advance, the team lead the same amount for reading, and on top of that a joint session of an hour and a half. In a Topaasia session, this advance preparation isn't needed, and yet the conversation goes deeper.
The difference from the old way: filling in a form or dialogue
With a traditional form, the employee reacts to pre-written statements. In a Topaasia conversation, the employee instead grabs hold of whatever feels important right now. That's why the conversation doesn't stay at the level of “reporting", but moves to genuinely meaningful matters. The form, on the other hand, easily puts words in your mouth: it has 20–30 statements you have to react to
The logic of the cards is different from that of statements. On a form, rating scales ask whether something is going well or badly. A card, by contrast, doesn't require an evaluation, it simply feels important or topical right now. The team member chooses it themselves, so the choice is automatically meaningful. “Topaasia helped me see and hear better which things really mattered to team members, what frustrated them and where they saw opportunities.”
Steers towards the concrete
Topaasia steers towards prioritisation: the session ends with choosing the single most important issue and agreeing on a concrete next step.
"A person can't influence everything at once; the most important thing is to find the one most essential issue," Tomi sums up.
Four reasons why Topaasia worked for development discussions at Entteri
Makes the process more efficient and lighter: one development discussion round for 15 team members can at worst take a month, and there can be several rounds a year. Topaasia significantly lightens the preparation work for both sides.
Lightens the emotional load: the form can feel heavy for both the employee and the team lead. Topaasia lowered the threshold to participate. The card-based approach made the conversation lighter to start, and the team member didn't have to show up with “ready-made answers". The situation is also more natural with quieter team members.
Creates genuine dialogue: Topaasia didn't steer the conversation with ready-made statements or scales. Instead, the conversation was built around the themes the team member raised themselves. That brought more authenticity, presence and psychological safety to the situation. Not just going through a form, but a real conversation.
Tailors to the need: the deck can be built to fit exactly that team or situation. Both Tomi and Elisa built their own decks for their own teams. This made the conversations more on point. When the content is designed around a specific team's work, everyday life and situation, the conversation doesn't stay generic. It feels relevant from the very first card.
Their message: “Try it with an open mind”
Tomi and Elisa recommend trying it without preconceptions.
"I've seen how people start to talk and learn open dialogue. It's wonderful to see. " Tomi says.
Elisa sums up: "In modern knowledge work, everyone needs to be self-directed and see opportunities. Topaasia is a wonderful moment to slow down and awaken deeper thinking. There is no going back to the form."
Thank you Tomi and Elisa and all of Entteri!
Tomi Urama LinkedIn
Elisa Laatikainen LinkedIn
https://www.entteri.com/
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