Building the Next Generation of Leaders at Ably
About Ably
Ably is the definitive realtime experience platform, built for scale. Powering more WebSocket connections than any other pub/sub platform, Ably serves over a billion device connections monthly. Businesses like HubSpot, NASCAR and Webflow trust Ably to deliver the critical realtime infrastructure behind live experiences including chat, collaboration, notifications, broadcast and fan engagement. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, Ably is a Series B company with approximately 120 employees globally and has raised $80M in funding from investors including Insight Partners and Dawn Capital.
The challenge
Ably had a cohort of talented, high-performing team managers who were excelling in their roles, but there was a significant gap between them and the leadership team.
There was no formal pipeline for emerging leaders, no structured thinking around who was next to step up, and no programme specifically focused on developing leadership capability rather than management skills. Ably's existing training had served the business well at an operational level, but had never addressed the bigger question: what does leadership look like at Ably, and how do we develop it deliberately?
The business risk was clear. Without meaningful investment in this group, Ably risked widening the leadership gap: fewer ideas feeding through from below, less capacity to push the business forward, and a growing retention risk among high-potential people who wanted to grow but weren't being supported to do so.
“If you don’t provide these opportunities, there’s a real retention risk. These people want to grow and you want to be able to support that.”
— Emily, People Team, Ably
What Had Been Tried Before
Ably had standard management training in place, which was working well for day-to-day needs. But it had never specifically focused on leadership, specifically the distinction between managing well and thinking and acting as a strategic leader. This programme was Ably's first deliberate investment in that space.
Before approaching Esendia, Ably had explored other providers. The options available were structured, off-the-shelf programmes that weren’t going to be catered to Ably. For a small, fast-moving tech company with a small team of emerging leaders, something more tailored and flexible was needed, not a corporate leadership package designed for a much larger organisation.
Why Esendia
What set Esendia apart was the willingness to co-shape the solution from the start rather than presenting a fixed package. Other providers came with pre-built programmes; Esendia came with a collaborative process, working with Ably to define what leadership actually meant in their context before designing anything.
Esendia also brought prior knowledge of the business, having worked with Ably previously, which meant less time was spent on context-setting and more on genuinely useful design. The combination of flexibility, personalisation and a proven track record made the decision straightforward.
“It wasn't just here's a set-up programme. It was: let's understand what we're actually trying to do first, and then build a plan around that.”
— Emily, People Team, Ably
The Programme
Esendia co-designed and co-delivered a twelve-month Emerging Leaders Development Programme with Ably’s People team, combining diagnostics, blended workshops and structured peer coaching groups. The programme was deliberately blended, alternating in-person and virtual delivery, individual and group learning to maximise development impact while respecting the demands on a busy, small tech team. From the outset, the design was co-shaped with Ably: Esendia brought proven workshop content and facilitation expertise, while the overall shape was built around Ably’s specific context and leadership ambitions.
1. Diagnostics
An initial 360° feedback assessment was deployed at programme start using Esendia’s leadership development platform, giving each participant a structured, evidence-based view of how their leadership was experienced by others. Hogan personality profiling was delivered by Ably’s People team, with a 1:1 session following both assessments to help each participant make sense of their data and connect the insights to their own leadership context. A repeat 180° assessment at programme end provided a before-and-after measure of development.
2. Workshops
A series of workshops were delivered across the year, a mix of in-person and virtual, covering topics such as Leadership Foundations, Storytelling, Creative Problem Solving and Good Strategy. Every session was developed around the practical challenges the team was actually facing, not generic leadership theory. Sessions were facilitated by Esendia using its top-rated leadership workshop content, with learning paths and mini-activities developed to sustain application between sessions.
3. Peer Coaching Groups
Facilitated peer coaching groups were delivered by an experienced Esendia facilitator, both in person and virtually, bringing the emerging leaders cohort together to tackle real challenges, share perspectives and build a peer network. These sessions consistently received the highest participant ratings of any programme component. As Emily noted: “It sounds like it would be such a simple thing to just put a meeting in with those people, but the outcome and the impact that they have is really powerful. If you don’t have an expert doing that, you’re just not going to get the same results.”
4. 1:1 Sessions with Ably’s People Lead
Following the diagnostic phase, each participant had a 1:1 session with Ably’s People Lead to make sense of what the data was telling them, translating the 360° and Hogan insights into a personal development picture and priorities for the programme ahead. This grounding conversation ensured every participant started the group programme with clarity about their own starting point.
The Results
Programme impact was evaluated through a structured end-of-programme survey covering component value, development outcomes, session quality and recommendation score. The findings were consistently strong across all measures.
100%
agreement across all seven development outcomes
8.25
out of 10 average recommendation score (range 7–10)
360 Data
rated peer coaching groups as Very Important, the #1 component
Every participant agreed or strongly agreed that the programme had broadened their leadership styles, increased self-awareness, strengthened confidence, helped them lead their teams more effectively, improved cohort collaboration, strengthened trust and psychological safety, and built a stronger sense of collective ownership.
Session quality was equally strong: 75–100% of participants strongly agreed across all seven quality indicators, with creating a safe learning environment achieving a perfect 100% Strongly Agree rating.
The peer coaching groups stood out as the clear highlight, rated Very Important by every participant. Qualitative responses consistently named peer learning as the most valuable part of the programme: coming together with colleagues to tackle shared challenges, hear different perspectives and reflect on common leadership experiences.
The programme also created something less tangible but equally significant: strategic breathing space. Participants described the opportunity to step back from day-to-day pressures and address bigger questions as genuinely impactful, a reflection of how rarely high-potential leaders in fast-growing companies get structured time to think at that level.
“Gave me the opportunity to step away from the day-to-day and explore the bigger issues and ways to resolve them.”
— Programme Participant, Ably
Impact Beyond the Original Scope
The programme’s impact extended well beyond team dynamics. Individual coaching sessions gave SMT members a rare space to address broader leadership challenges they would not otherwise have had the opportunity to explore, accelerating their personal development alongside the team work.
The programme also surfaced important insights about how different personality types engage with coaching. Recognising the differing needs of introverted and extroverted leaders, the team adapted their approach in real time, an example of the responsive, genuinely tailored nature of the engagement.
“Two of them are already part of the ELT now. The other two have really stepped up and are leading their own teams. People have just really earned that status.”
— Emily, People Team, Ably
The Partnership
Emily describes the working relationship with Esendia as a genuine partnership rather than a supplier engagement. A defining feature was the responsiveness and flexibility throughout: when schedules shifted, as they inevitably do in a fast-moving tech business, Esendia adapted without disruption, always finding a solution quickly.
Regular check-ins between sessions were particularly valued. Rather than a programme that ran on autopilot between workshops, the ongoing dialogue meant each session felt well-prepared and purposeful, and gave Ably confidence that the programme was tracking in the right direction.
“Esendia brought a lot of knowledge, a lot of structure, and turned an idea into a programme that delivered a lot of value.”
— Emily, People Team, Ably
What’s Next
The Emerging Leaders programme has demonstrated that structured, tailored development can create real and rapid progression, with two participants into the ELT within the programme window is a compelling proof point. With the foundations firmly in place, Ably and Esendia are exploring how to build on this work in the next phase, deepening individual development through one-to-one coaching and expanding the leadership pipeline as the business continues to grow.