Shishir Mehrotra is the co-founder and CEO of Coda, and formerly head of product and engineering at YouTube. In this episode, he shares his insights on growth strategy, how he evaluates talent, a peek at his upcoming book The Rituals of Great Teams, why reference checks are the most important step in the interview process, and so much more. Join us.
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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:
• Coda: http://coda.io/lenny
• Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny
• Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/
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Where to find Shishir Mehrotra:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shishirmehrotra
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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Referenced:
• The Rituals Of Great Teams Brain Trust: https://coda.io/@shishir/join-the-rituals-of-great-teams-braintrust
• Bing Gordon: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/people/bing-gordon/
• Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752
• PSHE Diagram: https://coda.io/@shishir/pshe
• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/1627652736
• Only Murders In The Building: https://www.hulu.com/series/only-murders-in-the-building-ef31c7e1-cd0f-4e07-848d-1cbfedb50ddf
• Wanda Vision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WandaVision
• Fidji Simo: https://twitter.com/fidjissimo?lang=en
• Daniel Elk: https://twitter.com/eldsjal/?lang=en
• Reid Hoffman: https://twitter.com/reidhoffman?
• Mamoon Hamind: https://twitter.com/mamoonha
• Quentin Clark: https://twitter.com/quentinclark
• Sarah Guo: https://twitter.com/saranormous
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In this episode, we cover:
[0:00] Teaser
[4:13] Shishir’s background at Google and current role at Coda
[7:53] How Shishir got on the Board of Spotify
[8:58] Black loop and blue loops and how Coda uses this internal diagram
[9:52] The black loop is how a product is naturally shared
[12:15] The blue loop is the emotional loop on why products are shared
[14:55] Why you should think in loops instead of funnels
[18:20] Mining for your business’s loops by looking at what you tell job candidates
[24:37] Shishir’s upcoming book The Rituals of Great Teams
[26:30] The 3 Golden Rituals Of Teams
[27:10] Coda’s Golden Ritual: Dory and Pulse
[31:29] Shishir’s most impactful rituals: Arianna Huffington’s Reset, Gusto’s incredible hiring call, and Coinbase’s RAPIDs.
[40:38] How do you find your own team’s rituals
[42:50] How to change things when change is hard
[45:01] Airbnb’s unique rituals
[46:45] A back story on YouTube and valuing consistency over comprehensiveness
[53:00] Eigenquestions: What it is, how to use it, and examples of it
[59:05] One of Shishir’s favorite *retired* interview questions
[1:03:11] How to evaluate talent, a story about YouTube and breaking down PSHE
[1:15:20] How to approach reference checks and what questions to ask
[1:24:33] Favorite books
[1:25:50] Favorite shows/movies
[1:26:50] Favorite interview questions
[1:28:44] Who in the industry Shishir respects as a thought leader
[1:30:10] Go-to karaoke song
[1:30:40] Where you can find Shishir
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Production & marketing: https://penname.co/
