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July 11, 2024 • 2hr 35min
Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead)
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Jeff Weinstein is a product lead at Stripe, where he helped grow their payment APIs to hundreds of billions in volume and transformed the way founders start companies with Atlas. In this episode, Jeff shares insights on customer obsession, product craft, effective metrics, and building new products within large companies.
Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead)
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Key Takeaways
- Go-go-go ASAP + optimistic, long-term compounding approach: Jeff advocates for injecting energy to make immediate progress while also taking a strategic long-term view to build foundational capabilities over time.
- Customer obsession is critical: Deeply understanding customer problems and needs should drive product development. Jeff recommends practices like study groups to embody the customer perspective.
- Focus on burning customer problems: Prioritize solving issues that customers would "pause their entire day" to have fixed. This indicates true product-market fit.
- Use metrics to drive impact: Choose metrics that directly measure the value provided to customers. Make dashboards easily accessible and review them frequently as a team.
- Automate administrative tasks: Stripe Atlas aims to turn company formation and administration into software, allowing founders to focus on building their business.
- Build diverse teams intentionally: Jeff emphasizes the importance of building diverse teams from the start, as it becomes increasingly difficult over time.
- Getting things done in big companies: Focus on customer stories, create visual prototypes, show tangible progress, maintain momentum, and demonstrate the business case.
Introduction
Jeff Weinstein is a product lead at Stripe, where he helped grow their payment APIs to hundreds of billions in volume and transformed the way founders start companies with Atlas. In this episode, Jeff shares insights on customer obsession, product craft, effective metrics, and building new products within large companies.
Topics Discussed
Jeff's Background and Approach (0:00)
Jeff discusses his educational background, including attending a "hippie dippy" K-12 school that encouraged critical thinking. This experience shaped his approach to learning and problem-solving:
- Preference for challenging himself, even if it meant potentially performing poorly
- Willingness to study things that may later be proven incorrect
- Valuing intellectual curiosity over rote memorization
Go-go-go ASAP + Optimistic, Long-term Compounding (10:16)
Jeff explains his philosophy of combining immediate action with long-term strategic thinking:
- Go-go-go ASAP: Inject energy to make immediate progress and inspire others
- Long-term compounding: Build foundational capabilities that compound over time
- Example: Stripe's approach to expanding global payment methods, which required both immediate action and long-term infrastructure building
The Importance of Craft and Quality (15:38)
Jeff emphasizes the critical nature of product craft and quality, but with an important caveat:
- Craft and quality are "desserts" that come after solving a real customer problem
- Focus first on finding problems that customers will "pause their entire day to solve"
- Avoid the trap of perfecting a product that doesn't address a burning need
Effective Customer Communication Strategies (24:15)
Jeff shares his approach to gathering customer feedback and insights:
- Actively engage with customers on social media and via email
- Use silence to encourage customers to share their most pressing issues
- Ask open-ended questions about customers' daily challenges
- Bring customer feedback directly into team meetings and Slack channels
The Importance of Speed in Customer Interactions (28:57)
Jeff stresses the value of quick responses to customer feedback:
- Treat customer outreach as a "gift" and respond rapidly
- Be willing to interrupt meetings to address customer concerns
- Aim to turn detractors into promoters through swift, empathetic responses
Narrowing Your Focus (33:19)
Jeff provides strategies for managing high volumes of customer feedback:
- Appreciate the "problem" of having too much customer interest
- Use lightweight filtering techniques (e.g., asking for screenshots or bullet points)
- Create time-bound programs (e.g., "bug finder program") to focus feedback
Why You Should Pay Attention Only to Paying-Customer Feedback (36:53)
Jeff argues for prioritizing feedback from paying customers:
- Paying customers provide the most relevant and actionable feedback
- Avoid being swayed by feedback from friends or non-paying users
- Use pricing discussions to uncover true priorities and value
Practicing Silence When Communicating (40:24)
Jeff shares techniques for using silence effectively in customer conversations:
- Allow space for customers to share their most pressing issues
- Use open-ended questions about daily challenges
- Practice asking "what would it take for this to be worth $X?" to uncover true value
The Role of Metrics in Product Success (45:33)
Jeff discusses the importance of choosing the right metrics:
- Select metrics that directly measure value provided to customers
- Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback (e.g., tweets)
- Use metrics to force trade-offs and drive decision-making
- Example: Atlas's focus on "companies with zero support tickets" as a key metric
Empowering Teams with a Single Metric (54:08)
Jeff explains the power of rallying a team around a single, impactful metric:
- Choose a metric that directly relates to customer success
- Use the metric to prioritize work and measure progress
- Empower team members to solve problems independently based on the metric
Picking the Right Metric for Your Audience (58:23)
Jeff provides advice on selecting and presenting metrics:
- Choose metrics that resonate with your target audience (e.g., founders for Atlas)
- Align metrics with your go-to-market strategy
- Use clear, motivating names for metrics (avoid technical jargon)
The Importance of Metric Hygiene (1:05:10)
Jeff emphasizes the value of well-maintained, accessible metrics:
- Keep dashboards consistent and easy to read
- Make metrics easily accessible to the entire team
- Regularly review and discuss metrics as a team
- Use a central metrics system (e.g., Stripe's "gometrics") for consistency
How Stripe Uses "Study Groups" for Product Improvement (1:11:33)
Jeff introduces Stripe's innovative "study group" practice:
- Cross-functional teams roleplay as customers using Stripe products
- Participants must forget all internal knowledge and embody the customer perspective
- Focus on empathy and understanding, not problem-solving
- Use insights to drive product improvements and prioritization
Stripe's Atlas: Simplifying Company Formation (1:37:20)
Jeff discusses the evolution and impact of Stripe Atlas:
- Mission to increase global entrepreneurship by simplifying company formation
- Continuous automation of administrative tasks (e.g., 83(b) election filings)
- Integration with government processes and banking partners
- Impact: One in six new Delaware corporations started through Atlas
Automation and Operational Efficiency (1:50:38)
Jeff shares insights on Atlas's approach to automation:
- Focus on automating processes that can be standardized
- Leverage third-party expertise where appropriate
- Continuously evaluate make-vs-buy decisions
- Use automation to accelerate company formation and first revenue
Diversity and Team Building (1:55:13)
Jeff emphasizes the importance of building diverse teams:
- Intentionally create diverse candidate pools from the start
- Recognize that diversity becomes harder to achieve as the team grows
- Diverse perspectives lead to better product decisions and outcomes
Building New Products Within a Large Company (2:03:09)
Jeff shares strategies for launching new products in established organizations:
- Focus on customer stories and burning problems
- Create visual prototypes (e.g., storyboards) to communicate vision
- Show tangible progress quickly (e.g., "proof of existence")
- Maintain momentum through small wins
- Demonstrate the business case and economic viability
Lightning Round (2:21:10)
Jeff shares rapid-fire responses on various topics:
- Recommended books: "High Output Management," "Orbiting the Giant Hairball," "7 Powers"
- Favorite TV/movies: "How To with John Wilson," "The Quiet Girl"
- Favorite products: Raycast, CleanShot
- Life mottos: "Go-go-go" and "Let's make some mistakes"
- Advice from Stripe founders: Focus on the hardest problems, maintain your unique voice
Conclusion
Jeff Weinstein's insights provide a masterclass in customer-centric product development, effective metrics, and building innovative products within large organizations. His emphasis on combining immediate action with long-term strategic thinking, deeply understanding customer needs, and leveraging metrics to drive impact offers valuable lessons for product managers and entrepreneurs alike. The success of Stripe Atlas demonstrates the power of simplifying complex processes and the potential impact of reducing barriers to entrepreneurship globally.
