My guest today is Archie Puri. Archie is the Chief Product Officer at Galileo following a long and successful career as a product leader and General Manager at Braintree Payments. In this conversation we discussed how calligraphy set her foundation for becoming a product manager, signs of a low performing organization and the power of declaring your company values to your team. Archie is filled with wisdom and I took away some new ways of thinking about management and leadership. I hope you enjoy this one!

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Archie’s LinkedIn

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Show Highlights

(2:08) - Calligraphy as a foundation for good product work

(5:18) - Archie’s story at Braintree

(11:25) - Her first reality check as a manager

(14:50) - Signs to look out for when the organization is not running smoothly

(17:40) - The power of declaring your values

(19:43) - Great leaders she’s worked with

(23:00) - Diversity & inclusion

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My guest today is Michele Zanini, co-founder of the Management Lab and co-author of Wall Street Journal best seller ‘Humanocracy’.

Michele has spent his entire career understanding how organizations can best enable their people to succeed. From starting his career studying the rise of agile terrorist organizations in the late 90s to conducting in-depth research with companies driving management model innovation globally today, Michele is a wealth of knowledge.

In this episode we discussed the features of bureaucracy, how ‘Humanocracy’ is different and plenty of real-life examples along the way.

After reading his book I was so impressed that I had to reach out and have him on the podcast. I have so much respect for Michele and we cover many of his novel ideas in this conversation. I hope you enjoy it!

Humanocracy.com

Humanocracy Book

Michele’s Twitter

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Show Highlights

(1:46) - Michele’s early work at The Rand Corporation studying terrorist organizations

(4:48) - Why copying management models wholesale does not work

(7:28) - How the needs of companies have changed as it relates to management models over the years

(11:14) - What ‘Humanocracy’ is

(13:38) - The case for ‘Humanocracy’

(18:48) - Best examples of companies in the post-bureaucratic vanguard

(25:38) - How to enact change in your organization to enable ‘Humanocracy’

(30:32) - “Explain that Tweet” speed round

(31:04) -  Why supervisors should not be in charge of performance reviews

(31:53) -  Reasoning for Quibi’s downfall

(34:04) -  Why collaboration software is not a panacea for enabling dynamic organizations

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My guest today is Lindsay Verstegen, the Chief People Officer at Shoprunner. Pretty quickly it’ll become clear to you that Lindsay’s career leading Human Resources and People teams has allowed her to think deeply about people dynamics - she could probably teach a class on behavioral psychology. Some topics we discussed were vulnerability, the role of personal accountability and common traits in great leaders.

My respect for Lindsay only grew after this conversation and it’s reaffirmed my perspective that a strong People leader is crucial for all organizations. I hope you enjoy this one!

Lindsay’s LinkedIn

Shoprunner.com

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Show Highlights

(1:31) - How her passion for the arts prepared her for a career leading People functions

(5:27) - Where does a culture of vulnerability come from?

(10:18) - Understanding your personal accountability in a relationship dynamic

(11:39) - Common traits in good leaders

(15:24) - Managing hypergrowth within an organization

(19:02) - What is culture?

(24:01) - Social justice / political issues in the workplace

(30:21) - The future of building teams

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For more episodes and access to our bi-weekly newsletter with key takeaways, subscribe for free at reorgpod.com or follow me on Twitter @itsdanwu

My guest today is Lance Li - CEO and Co-Founder of Aerospec technologies. Lance is an amazing founder and operator and in our conversation you will get an intimate look into the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Lance shares his thoughts on fundraising’s role in entrepreneurship and why and how you can turn employees into business owners and decision makers. My entrepreneurial minded listener’s are going to like this one. Enjoy!

Lance’s LinkedIn

Aerospec

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Show Highlights

(1:48) - Having entrepreneurial parents

(3:56) - Fundraising’s role in entrepreneurship

(8:40) - Pros and cons of winning pitch competitions

(9:30) - The evolution of Lance’s role as a founder

(10:46) - Leadership styles

(12:10) - Equity ownership’s role in motivation

(13:45) - Fostering culture as a founder

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My guests today are Ganesh Datta and Nikhil Unni. They are the co-founders of Cortex, a solution that helps engineering teams reduce the complexity of their services and backed by Sequoia and YCombinator (W20). In this episode we discussed how three technical co-founders divide responsibilities at an early-stage company, the importance of aligning your team to business outcomes and the headwinds and tailwinds that come with a remote-first world.  I really enjoy speaking to founders and I think you'll find our conversation interesting!

Ganesh’s Twitter / LinkedIn

Nikhil’s Twitter / LinkedIn

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Show Highlights

(2:17) - Founding story of Cortex

(5:03) - Division of responsibility amongst three technical co-founders

(8:33) - Channeling early employee excitement into ownership

(9:23) - Cortex’s spin on retros

(11:59) - History of microservices and their impact on organizations

(15:11) - How engineering teams organize around microservices

(16:22) - Organizational agility from monoliths

(17:40) - COVID’s impact

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For more episodes and access to our bi-weekly newsletter with key takeaways, subscribe for free at reorgpod.com or follow me on Twitter @itsdanwu

My guest today is Harrison Wheeler. Harrison is a Design Manager at LinkedIn and one of the most thoughtful and outspoken design voices in the industry. Before LinkedIn, Harrison scaled the design team at BaseCRM, which was acquired by ZenDesk in 2018. In this conversation we discussed  what “having a seat at the table” means, being accountable to your customers, building teams and culture and the importance of speaking up on social justice issues in the workplace. Harrison is a good friend of mine and every time I chat with him I always gain a new and unique perspective. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Harrison.

Harrison’s Twitter / LinkedIn

Technically Speaking

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Show Highlights

(5:37) - Having a CEO with a design background

(7:05) - Accountability and design’s role

(9:32) - Working with international and remote teams

(13:15) - Product Managers and their role in empowering teams

(15:30) - Building teams and culture

(20:46) - Systemic racism in the industry - “The Design Community Must Not Stay Silent”

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For more episodes and access to our bi-weekly newsletter with key takeaways, subscribe for free at reorgpod.com or follow me on Twitter @itsdanwu

My guest today is Mark Tattersall, VP of Product Management at LogicGate. Mark is one of the best product managers and leaders I’ve had the pleasure to learn and work with. Our conversation covers a wide range of topics from importance of setting direction, healthy tensions needed in working relationships, hiring for growth stage startups, the importance of autonomy, elastic thinking, and culture. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Mark’s LinkedIn

View Mark’s writing at www.ProductPolymath.com

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Show Highlights

(2:43) - LogicGate background

(5:37) - How LogicGate organizes their product and engineering teams

(8:14) - The “three in a box” model and it’s healthy tension

(12:07) - Staffing and hiring for a product organization

(15:55) - Autonomy and empowering product management teams

(22:40) - Elastic: Unlocking Your Brain's Ability to Embrace Change

(27:31) - The slippery slope of culture building

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For more episodes and access to our bi-weekly newsletter with key takeaways, subscribe for free at reorgpod.com or follow me on Twitter @itsdanwu

I’ve got a question for you - think about a difficult situation or project at work that you’ve recently dealt with. Now think about if that could’ve been solved with better alignment across your company, less bureaucracy or more inspiring leadership and culture.

I don't think you're the only one here.

From speaking to friends and colleagues, it seems these problems are all too common - and the results are not good: low employee productivity, misaligned incentives and ultimately an inability to serve your customers.

This show is for people who are interested in hearing how the best companies think about structuring their work, teams and culture.

In each episode, you'll hear founders, operators and industry experts share stories on how they empower their teams to get results.

Welcome to The Reorg.

Learn More

Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter for key takeaways and updates at reorgpod.com.

If you have any feedback or want to be a guest on the show, I'd love to hear from you! You can email me directly at [email protected].

Follow us on Twitter at @ReorgPod

Follow Dan at @itsdanwu