Jason Lemkin: evaluation

Transcript context

…I'd say, yeah, that PM could put something on the roadmap if they think it's important. The reason I'm a little confused, just because I want to get it right, is what I'm hearing, which maybe isn't what you said. What I'm hearing is, a junior IC rep is talking to a more mid-level product person about the roadmap, and you want to have that. That's one of the reasons we actually go to the office. Because those discussions don't happen on Zoom, Lenny. They don't happen. And you want those discussions to happen, but you don't actually want them empowered. You want them to say, "Listen, I will talk to my boss." That's the right answer. It's too confusing. This stress between product and sales is a good thing. It's a sign of a well-run B2B company when there is stress between product and sales. It's a good sign. If there's no stress, you're not in enough deals. You're not in enough deals if there's no stress. But the stress has to have enough process, even in a startup, that it doesn't break because your question alludes to the fact it can break organizations again and again. People get people resented on either side. This is one thing where the answer has to be, "Look, we can chat about it over lunch. We can chat about this, and actually, you've got a good idea. You're an individual contributor. I'm going to tell my boss, on Monday, that I think we should do that. I'm going to use a little social capital and say we should do this," but you got to push the decisions up. That's as far as you're going to make recommendations. Otherwise, instead of that one stressful conversation with the VP, you've got a hundred, you've got 10 times a hundred, and again, they're fun lunch conversations, but they'll wreck you. So the advice there is, basically, "Talk to your manager, I'll talk to my manager. They need to hash this out. It's not my call."…

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