Hi everyone, I'm Jessica (you’re welcome to call me Jessie though!) Zwaan, and I'm excited to share this journey with you!
A little about me:
I am the Author of Built for People a book all about applying product management principles to People Ops work
I am currently COO at Talentful, where we help fast-growing companies build world-class talent teams through embedded recruiting and strategic people operations. Before that I was COO at Whereby and have had a long career in People Ops in the UK and now USA.
I am currently writing my next book about purpose at work—specifically how teams can navigate the complex relationship between company purpose and their own personal sense of meaning
What I'm really doing lately is diving deep into one of the most talked-about yet misunderstood topics in modern work: purpose. We throw the word around constantly, but how do we actually help people connect their individual purpose with what they're building together?
In this community, you can expect me to:
Share the messy, unpolished thoughts that happen before they become "polished content"—the half-formed ideas, the contradictions, the moments of doubt
Walk you through my writing process in real time: the research rabbit holes, the frameworks I'm testing, the conversations that completely change my thinking
Be honest about the challenges of thinking about human beings and People Operations while running operations at a scaling company (often it's harder than it looks!)
Ask the questions I'm wrestling with as I write and while I work, because your perspectives will undoubtedly make my thought process better
My goal is simple: to give you an authentic look at how ideas evolve from scattered thoughts into something that might actually help people create more meaningful work experiences.
This isn't going to be the polished, LinkedIn-ready version of my thinking—it's going to be raw, real, and probably a bit more personal!
So let's start here: when you think about "purpose at work," what's the gap between what companies say and what actually happens day-to-day?