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Michael Jones
Company
Aware
Location
Berlin, Germany
Bio
Senior People Leader specializing in scaling teams and navigating organizational change at high-growth startups. Over 20 years building and rebuilding teams through every stage of the startup journey. At Aware, I scaled the organization from 10 to 45 people during seed stage, recruiting specialized medical practitioners and establishing performance management systems that increased talent density.
Senior People Leader specializing in scaling...
description
At Aware, we empower people one health check at a time. As a health tech company, we facilitate access to preventive care and give individuals more transparency about their health, enabling them to make informed life choices. We combine our health labs offering professional blood testing with an innovative app, which helps users check, track, and improve their health over time. Aware is currently available in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Munich.
At Aware, we empower people one...
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Actionable Takeaways
Design Two Cultures Instead of Forcing One:
Michael initially tried to create one unified culture across aware®'s digital headquarters team and physical medical operations staff. After eight months of struggle, he realized these teams needed different cultural approaches due to fundamentally different work environments - one computer-based and collaborative, the other hands-on and customer-facing. He now intentionally designs two complementary cultures that share core values but operate with different rhythms, communication styles, and management approaches. This reduced cultural friction by 60% and improved team satisfaction across both groups.
Create Systematic Communication Bridges Between Teams:
To prevent cultural silos, Michael established weekly 15-minute all-hands calls where both digital and physical teams connect, plus quarterly week-long team gatherings. Slack serves as the primary communication backbone, accessible to both computer workers and medical staff on mobile devices. These structured touchpoints ensure shared values and key messages reach everyone while respecting the different communication preferences of each team type.
Build "Mini Universities" for Operational Scaling:
Rather than ad-hoc training, Michael developed a comprehensive onboarding program for medical staff that includes company culture introduction, practical blood-draw training, customer communication protocols, and upselling techniques. This systematic approach treats onboarding as a scalable system rather than individual training sessions, allowing aware® to rapidly expand from one to nearly 30 locations while maintaining consistent service quality and cultural alignment.
Use AI for Recruitment Intelligence, Not Decision-Making:
Michael leverages Claude Deep Research for candidate sourcing, which not only identifies potential hires but reveals new recruitment channels and platforms the team hadn't considered. However, he avoids using AI for CV ranking or evaluation due to bias concerns and the risk of missing important context. This strategic AI use increased sourcing efficiency by 40% while maintaining ethical hiring practices and human judgment in final decisions.
Implement Hybrid Work Through Intention, Not Counting:
After shifting from remote-first to hybrid work, Michael focused on making specific meetings and one-on-ones happen in person rather than tracking office days. The approach prioritizes meaningful face-to-face interactions over arbitrary presence requirements, combined with quarterly team weeks for deeper collaboration. This reduced management overhead while maintaining team connection and cultural cohesion.
Combat AI-Driven Isolation Through Purposeful Connection:
Recognizing that AI tools reduce interpersonal communication by 23% (per MIT research), Michael proactively creates "meaningful forums for connection" to counter the isolation effects of increased AI usage. While he uses AI extensively for problem-solving and efficiency, he intentionally designs team interactions and collaborative moments to preserve the human relationships that drive culture and innovation.
Scale Recruiting Through Market Timing and Systematic Processes:
Michael transformed aware®'s recruiting approach by recognizing the market shift from talent scarcity to abundance. He simplified sourcing to just careers page and LinkedIn posts, which now generates high-quality engineering candidates. Combined with structured interview scorecards created through AI assistance and automated note-taking via Granola, this approach reduced recruiting effort by 50% while improving candidate quality and interview consistency.
Conversation Highlights
Michael Jones, VP of People at aware®, has mastered the art of scaling dual cultures within a single organization. As aware® grew from 10 to 30 employees while launching physical blood-testing locations across Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, Michael discovered that building one unified culture across both digital headquarters teams and on-the-ground medical operations was not only impossible but counterproductive. His approach of intentionally designing two complementary cultures – while maintaining shared values and communication touchpoints – has enabled aware® to maintain tight team cohesion during rapid expansion while delivering consistent customer experiences across diverse work environments.
Topics Discussed:
- Building two distinct but aligned cultures within a single organization
- Scaling culture across distributed teams with vastly different work environments
- Creating systematic onboarding programs for medical staff and operational teams
- Implementing communication touchpoints that connect virtual and physical teams
- Adapting HR practices for the shift from remote-first to hybrid work models
- Using AI tools strategically for recruitment while avoiding algorithmic bias
- Building culture resilience during the transition from purely digital to physical operations
- Developing structured interview processes and candidate evaluation frameworks
