Lenny Rachitsky: evaluation

Transcript context

…This is, again, this is classic to building large organizations, but I actually believe in, especially when it comes to products, to really set ambitious goals but then try to over-deliver on them, really set what are you trying to, there's almost like the opposite where people are underplaying it and over delivering, I don't understand what you're trying to do. For me it's like we are here to make an impact. We're here to really set our goals to something really massive. And when I'm trying to visualize this, I see a mountain, you see the peak and the peak exactly how it looks like, you see base camp, you know how to start and maybe the middle of the mountain is kind of blurry, but you'll figure this out. But at least you know the peak you're trying to share, share the peak, share where you're headed to and I think it's just a much more exciting way to build product. It's a much more inspirational way for folks to be part of the product process kind of thing. I was just chatting with Vlad who worked at Airbnb for many years. He was actually my former manager at Airbnb and he reported to Brian for a long time and we talked about this trait that Brian also is really good at, is just setting crazy high goals. 10 X the goal that you thought you had and what would it take and it worked really well for Airbnb. So I love that you're doubling down on the same idea. Is there an example that comes to mind of one that you, some ambitious goal you set internally at LinkedIn that people are like, "No way," and then it ended up being effective? Actually there's a lot, when I think about our LinkedIn feed and thinking about when you started off, it was hard to imagine what that product could be because it was more of a promotional in nature product and I was like, no, is going to be a place where millions of people and not just tens of millions will come daily. And that's insane. That makes no sense based on the numbers today, but I don't start building from the numbers today. I start from [inaudible 00:15:04] I start backwards. I'm like, what this could be, what is the potential here? So how many professionals exist in their role? How many of them would love to find a place to share and engage with content? And this is my starting point. I start from there. So I don't start from the existence to set my ambition. I start from what this could be like based on really inspiration and excitement. Again, it's not detached from reality completely, but it's also not hooked to it. But then Basecamp could be a good start. You're not asking you to make it the next day, but if you don't have that ambition, there's no way you're going to hit that. There's just no way. And there's so many products across LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a 20 plus year old company that many folks did not give it a chance in almost every phase of it. And I think if anything, it's one of those that just keeps getting better and better every year. And part of it is you keep the landmark on. This really has the potential to do so much for so many people. It's really an economic platform. So if you play from that, one billion members, that's actually pretty small where we can actually go,…

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