Independent consultant
Anna Sogrina
People systems · Organizational design · Agile coaching
I work with tech companies on the people side of how they're built — from building HR from scratch to fixing what stopped working as the organization scaled.
15 years in HR. Since 2020, I work at the systems level: diagnose first, design a solution, run a pilot, iterate.
01 — Background
About
I started as a sole HR manager at a 150-person company and spent 8 years growing with it to 600 people — building every part of the HR function along the way, working across engineering, sales, marketing, and operations, and at one point taking a new software development department from 0 to 50+ engineers.
In 2020 I moved into fintech as the first HR hire, built the full people function from zero, and started applying product thinking to organizational problems.
Since 2023 I've been working as an OD partner for a distributed engineering organization of 300+ people — diagnosing structural problems, building systems, running Agile-based change cycles, and designing organizational transitions.
The type of work I find most useful: building something that doesn't exist yet, or fixing something that stopped working. Once a system is running and stable, I'd rather hand it off to someone who will maintain it well.
I hold ICAgile certifications in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) and Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF), and I'm a certified Management 3.0 practitioner.
02 — Services
What I do
Diagnostic conversation
Free, 30 minutes. You describe the situation — what's not working, what you've tried. I ask questions. We figure out whether I can help and what that would look like.
Mentoring for managers
Individual sessions for line managers and directors. You bring a current work situation — a problem in the team, a difficult decision, something that's not going the way you expected. We work through what's actually happening and what to do about it. No fixed curriculum — it follows what you actually need.
Consulting: from problem to plan
You bring a situation. I investigate: what's happening, what's underneath it, what would actually change it. You leave with a root cause diagnosis and a concrete action plan. Typically 2–5 sessions.
Training and workshops
Manager education programs — behavioural interviewing, feedback culture, leadership fundamentals, hiring quality.
Strategic sessions, facilitation, offsites
I design and run strategic sessions, team discussions, and offsite programs from scratch — agenda, format, facilitation, follow-up. Based in Valencia, available across Europe for in-person events.
Project work & fractional
One defined problem, built end-to-end. Or ongoing partner — strategic HR and org design without a full-time hire.
03 — Selected work
Cases
01Building HR from scratch — fintech startup
Building HR from scratch — fintech startup
First HR hire. No processes, no frameworks.
Started with interviews across the whole company to understand how things actually worked. Defined company values with the team and C-level — used them as the actual basis for recruitment and performance management.
A year in: 50% of technical interviews ended in an offer. By the time a candidate reached a manager, they were already a strong fit.
Also hired and trained an HR person to run the system after the build phase.
02Launching a development department from zero — IT company
Launching a development department from zero — IT company
Company decided to build in-house software development. No engineers, no processes.
Took the department from 0 to 50+ engineers: defined hiring criteria, built the selection process, ran all interviews. Built internal people processes for a technical team inside a company that hadn't had one.
Also launched an internship program — still running.
Parallel workstream: sole HR for ~600 people across engineering, sales, marketing, operations, and finance.
03Internship program as a hiring channel — 300-engineer org
Internship program as a hiring channel — 300-engineer org
Goal: sustainable pipeline of junior engineers, faster and cheaper than market hiring.
Designed full program: candidate profile, selection, onboarding, development structure, conversion criteria.
43 interns hired. 86%+ converted to full-time. Cost per hire: 3–4× lower than market equivalent.
04Making compensation decisions transparent
Making compensation decisions transparent
Salary increases depended on whether your manager advocated for you.
Built a four-layer grade review: peer committee from outside the team, manager input, anonymous team feedback, predefined bands. 13 competencies, 7 levels, technology-agnostic.
60 reviews completed. All salary decisions in R&D now go through the system.
Launched at 50% threshold — adjusted to 75% based on actual behavior data.
05Making a distributed team function like one
Making a distributed team function like one
Starting point: "We don't have a team. We have contractors who happen to work for the same company."
Over three years: Leadership CoP (41 managers), engineering Slack channel (254 members — 18 months to feel real), 6 Communities of Practice, monthly informal calls (45 regulars), mental health support.
The VP of Engineering stopped saying "contractors."
04 — Outcomes
By the numbers
technical interviews → offer, after hiring system redesign
interns converted to full-time
grade reviews completed
years in HR
05 — Fit
When it makes sense
You're building a people function that doesn't exist yet. Something stopped working as the company grew. Managers need support with team dynamics, trust, difficult conversations, or understanding their role. Your hiring process takes too much time and produces inconsistent results. You need a facilitator for a strategic session or offsite. You want to move toward more self-organizing teams. Or something else — these are examples, not a complete list.
06 — Contact
Get in touch
Write directly. Briefly describe the context and what you're trying to change.
Based in Valencia, Spain. Available across Europe for in-person work.