Fareed Mosavat: preference

Transcript context

…Is there anything else you can recommend to folks to create opportunities for sponsorship? You talked about communication, executing well. Is that just the core of it, like doing a great job and communicating the great job you're doing? This idea that it's what you do and that's multiplied by your ability to show that work and communicate it, and that's the impact that you can have, but you have to have not just impact on the customers, but also on the organization. I think it is impact on the organization, changing the way people think about problems, helping generalize what works and what doesn't work, bringing learnings to the table. For me, I've worked a lot on growth, and I've treated a huge part of my job as not just moving the numbers, but also teaching the organization how our growth model works, how the pieces fit together, what our customers care about, what's working, what's not working, and that creates a lot of, A, leverage in other parts of the organization because they can do better work by having more information, but also, B, trust. Trust from leadership, trust from your peers, and otherwise. So, now, how do you get to that? Some of it is just luck. Someone has got to believe in you. You can create your luck by being good at communicating and solving hard problems. I think the other piece is knowing when you go into an organization, "Is this a role that's important to the company? Is it on the list?" I think it is easier to find sponsors, communicate, and create leverage if the thing you're working on is in the top four or five most important things the company is working on. I find myself drawn to those kinds of problems, and I think that's one way because then, all of a sudden, CEOs notice what you're working on, heads of product notice what you're working on, and your peers notice what you're working on. The other bit is curiosity. I think to be in the seat where people want to sponsor you, I think you have to show a handle on not just what you're doing, but how that relates to all of the things around you. So I call this going two stack levels up, two stack levels down in terms of your curiosity and what you understand, and also, knowing what's to the left and what's to the right. So let's use the example of if I'm working on activation on growth, let's say, or monetization. It doesn't matter. One of those two pieces. When I say two stack levels down, I like to understand how we build customers, how it works in Stripe, what are our dunning policies, what are the technical things that work and don't work in the pieces maybe down to the database. Right? It's like technical curiosity, those kinds of things, but also mental models for what's above you. How do we grow? How does modernization fit into that? What are the trade-offs versus free growth versus paid growth? How important is this to the company? How does it fit into our long-term strategy? Those kinds of things. So it's like the strategic things above you. I like two stack levels because it's like you should understand your boss's priorities and your boss's boss's priorities. Eventually, that means you have to know what the board is thinking, right? ou. I like two stack levels because it's like you should understand your boss's priorities and your boss's boss's priorities. Eventually, that means you have to know what the board is thinking, right? Then, left and right is, "What are the core product teams working on that I could help advise on in terms of modernization or they could advise me on what they're thinking and what might be coming next? How do we fit together with the enterprise part of the business even though I'm working on self-serve? How do I think about sales? Do they have input, like interesting customer conversations or input? It's this curiosity like walking around, getting to know what people are doing, and being seen as an expert. Are you the desk people go to when they have questions? Are you a person that people ask the opinion when you're trying to figure out how the dots connect? I have found for me, maybe this is just because this is a strength of mine, that connecting the dots of how the whole company works and how all the pieces fit together has been one of the ways that I've driven that sponsorship. I think for each individual, you have to figure out what your superpower is and where you can be actually top 10%, and then lean into opportunities and also problems that help you show that and shine it that way.…

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