Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Lenny Rachitsky
Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO of Stripe)
1 hour 21 minutes Posted Mar 5, 2023 at 1:01 pm.
Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. | Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision.—Claire Hughes Johnson is the former COO at Stripe, which she helped scale from a small startup to the legendary company it is today. She also spent close to 10 years at Google, where she filled several executive roles, including VP of Global Online Sales and Director of Sales and Ops for Gmail, YouTube, Google Apps, and AdWords. Claire shares invaluable insights from her upcoming book, Scaling People, on how to successfully build and scale organizations. We talk about the importance of building self-awareness, and Claire gives tons of tactical advice on how to say things that are hard to say, as well as how to improve your internal communications, and so much more.Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-stripe-tacticsWhere to find Claire Hughes Johnson:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chughesjohnson• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-johnson-7058/Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Referenced:• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212• John Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbcollison/• Patrick Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/• Discord: https://discord.com/• Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/• High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People: https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100• Myers-Briggs personality types: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/• Enneagram types: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions• Disc assessment: https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc• Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Business-Build-through-Values/dp/1622032020/• Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/• Eeke de Milliano on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-foster-innovation-and-big-thinking-eeke-de-milliano-retool-stripe/• Running an effective meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiaFW874q8• Gokul’s S.P.A.D.E. framework: https://coda.io/@gokulrajaram/gokuls-spade-toolkitIn this episode, we cover:
Claire’s background
How writing Scaling People helped Claire crystallize learnings
How she got started writing her book
Advice that changed the way she operates
The lack of job titles at Stripe
Scaling your organizational structure
What founders need to think about in the early days
Personal operating principles
How to crystallize your own values to gain self-awareness
Advice for saying uncomfortable things
Being an explorer, not a lecturer
Come back to the operating system
Organizational structure using Claire’s house metaphor
Why some chaos is normal
Founding documents you need
The components of a company’s operating system
Finding the right cadence
COOs and which types of businesses need them
Advice on scaling quickly
The importance of internal communications
Running effective meetings
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Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. | Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision.—Claire Hughes Johnson is the former COO at Stripe, which she helped scale from a small startup to the legendary company it is today. She also spent close to 10 years at Google, where she filled several executive roles, including VP of Global Online Sales and Director of Sales and Ops for Gmail, YouTube, Google Apps, and AdWords. Claire shares invaluable insights from her upcoming book, Scaling People, on how to successfully build and scale organizations. We talk about the importance of building self-awareness, and Claire gives tons of tactical advice on how to say things that are hard to say, as well as how to improve your internal communications, and so much more.Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-stripe-tacticsWhere to find Claire Hughes Johnson:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chughesjohnson• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-johnson-7058/Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Referenced:• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212• John Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbcollison/• Patrick Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/• Discord: https://discord.com/• Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/• High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People: https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100• Myers-Briggs personality types: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/• Enneagram types: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions• Disc assessment: https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc• Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Business-Build-through-Values/dp/1622032020/• Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/• Eeke de Milliano on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-foster-innovation-and-big-thinking-eeke-de-milliano-retool-stripe/• Running an effective meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiaFW874q8• Gokul’s S.P.A.D.E. framework: https://coda.io/@gokulrajaram/gokuls-spade-toolkitIn this episode, we cover:(00:00) Claire’s background(04:47) How writing Scaling People helped Claire crystallize learnings(07:58) How she got started writing her book(11:11) Advice that changed the way she operates(15:18) The lack of job titles at Stripe(19:01) Scaling your organizational structure(23:46) What founders need to think about in the early days(26:38) Personal operating principles(29:04) How to crystallize your own values to gain self-awareness(34:29) Advice for saying uncomfortable things(37:12) Being an explorer, not a lecturer(43:57) Come back to the operating system(47:17) Organizational structure using Claire’s house metaphor(50:50) Why some chaos is normal(52:45) Founding documents you need(58:30) The components of a company’s operating system (1:01:31) Finding the right cadence(1:04:48) COOs and which types of businesses need them(1:11:30) Advice on scaling quickly(1:13:56) The importance of internal communications(1:16:03) Running effective meetings(1:17:17) Advice for aligning and making decisions as a managerProduction and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe