Raaz Herzberg: preference

Transcript context

…The other point you made is that you were the person, nobody was saying this thing that was this elephant in the room, almost of, "What are we even building? I don't understand what's happening here." I read somewhere that you were like, you told, "I need to quit. I don't understand what this is, and I'm not the right person for this role," and it turned out, nobody understood exactly what was going on. Can you share that story? It's funny, because it's a story that some of the founders tell, and they tell differently. They tell, "She came to us, and she was like, we have to rethink," but that was not my perspective at all, right? My perspective was genuinely, "Okay, I have to confess, that was my perspective." I was sure that I was the only one not understanding. It's hard to get the courage, I guess. Sometimes, it's hard to get the courage to say, "Actually, I don't understand." But I think by now, in my career, it's my favorite question. I feel like I say, "I don't understand," a lot of times a day. I think, if you build a company with the right type of culture, in a sense, then it's not a shame to say, "I don't understand, or please explain again." It's having that culture in place that enables it. And I also have to say, when I think of the founding team, and the founding team in Wiz, Wiz is a very flat organization, in some ways. It's not about seniority, it's really about driving impact, and everybody can have a seat on the table, and voices are heard. And I think it also reflects really highly about them, just giving me the seat at the table, in a sense, to be even able to say, "I don't understand." Then, when I'm saying I don't understand, not actually being open to, "Oh, maybe we have to also think again." I think that tells a lot about the culture, even, to this day. But it's definitely, for me, it's a very learned quality over my progression of my career, actually allowing myself to be more vulnerable, more easier in saying, "I don't understand, or I don't know." I love this lesson so much. One, partly because you said it's really scary to be the person that's like, "I don't understand," right? That puts you, that's a very vulnerable thing to say, because you're like, "What? She doesn't get it. Maybe she is not as smart as we thought." That can't be easy, to be the person doing that. The other thing is this reminds me of Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn CPO, has this really great phrase, "We may be wrong, but we're not confused." I feel like that's exactly what you're saying here.…

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