Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO of Stripe)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2023

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Brought to you by Linear—The new standard for modern software development | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. | Dovetail—Bring your customer into every decision.

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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-tactics

Where 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-toolkit

In 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 manager

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When I say to people at Stripe in our on our onboarding I used to run a session I was like if you're not sure who the decision maker is one it's probably you
0:06.8	and I'd rather you act that way than not because're going to like slow the whole company down.
0:14.0	Follow a process and get it done.
0:16.0	And don't forget to actually make a decision.
0:18.0	And if you don't know the decision maker is and you're worried it's not you, just ask.
0:22.0	Like, don't get stuck too many people get stuck and it
0:26.7	makes your like work terrible right I mean what do we all care about progress impact momentum? I mean if anything I would say about like
0:39.2	advice to people generally is be a force for positive momentum and you will it will be actually a real
0:46.1	career maker.
0:50.1	Welcome to Lenny's podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard-won experiences building and growing today's most successful products.
0:59.0	Today my guest is Claire Hughes Johnson.
1:02.0	Claire was most recently chief operating officer at
1:04.8	Stripe for the past seven years where she helped scale them from a small startup to
1:08.8	the legendary company that it is today. Before that she spent about 10 years at Google where she was
1:14.2	VP of self-driving cars, VP of global online sales, director of sales and
1:18.8	opts for Gmail, YouTube, Google apps, and AdWords. that, she was in politics.
1:24.0	She's also on the board of PupSpot and the Atlantic.
1:27.0	And this week she's releasing an incredible book called Scaling People,
1:31.0	which in my opinion should be, and likely will be on every founder's
1:34.4	bookshelf. In our conversation we dig into many of the meaty topics that her
1:38.4	book covers including building your operational cadence, defining your company's personal operating principles,
1:44.4	your company's operating system,
	...

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