Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…I am reluctant to overgeneralize, and I would say I know many founders who are in startup mode are like, "I know what I need to build. The problem is that I need people who can help me execute." And I think that's right. And so everything's a trade off. But remember, imagine that you could have that Swiss army knife at your disposal. Maybe you've got an MVP out the door, and you're looking to make your first major iteration, or like many startups, you need to pivot. This is where it's like, "Hey, you don't have to do that alone." We deify startup founders who pivot appropriately, but I think that is what we would might call moral luck, where we deify the ones who got it right, and even though they made exactly the same decisions as the one who got them wrong. And the fact of the matter is, if you have an insights person with you who has that Swiss army knife of tools, you're not in it alone. You don't have to guess. Ultimately, it will still come down to a tough decision that you and founders have to make, but you can have evidence that bears on that decision, which you wouldn't be able to get any other way. To close out on this, and I have just a couple more questions on this thread, I think one of your big messages to researchers is, "You can be empowered. It's up to you to do the right sort of research and to move your career in the right direction, not become a researcher people don't need." And there's this quote that you have at the top of your post, where a lot of the reaction, or I guess the way you put it is, "I know what you're thinking, they just don't get it. We're so misunderstood. Our plight is to deliver insights that users use to drive business value while we're forgotten, never driving the roadmap, no seat at the table, consistently miscast, only to be laid off in the end." And what I'm hearing from you is like, "You can change that. You can push back on doing research that isn't actually contributing." But let me ask you, what's your lasting, I don't know, advice you would leave researchers with to be successful? Yeah, it's tough to be operating in a broken system, and so I feel that response, where you feel kind of powerless, but I think that's not likely to lead us past this moment to the next evolution of research. So that's where it's like I don't blame any researcher at all for being in the spot they're in. It's been a tough go. However, crying about our lot is not going to get us anywhere. So I think the point of the article for me, and this is advice I give companies all the time when I do consulting with them, is like, "Hey, we can set this up in a different way, which responds to the current environment in a way which will drive a huge amount of impact." Now, that takes companies making the right choices. It also takes researchers owning up and developing skills, pushing back, understanding what research can have the most value, developing the skills, and the knowledge, and language around the business, becoming more influential, being excellent communicators. It's one of the things I would evaluate the most in hiring, especially research leaders, because I needed them to show and teach by example, is like isn't just rigorous research. It's like if a tree fell in the forest and no one was there to hear it, you need to communicate it effectively, and you need to do it in a way that's appropriate to the audience. Because If I'm talking to you, Lenny, it's different than I'm talking to Brian Chesky at Airbnb. And so I got to be able to give that presentation effectively, and get right to the heart of it, and speak the right language. And so if you're a researcher, it's not hopeless. Actually the discipline, the future is so bright, and we can help it along by continuing to develop these different skills as companies build a model that's more inclusive.…

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