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Weiss: Startups wait too long to establish explicit product principles

Noah Weiss · Noah Weiss: How to Master Product-Led Growth; Scaling PLG to Enterprise at Google & Slack | E1026 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 16, 2023 · at 13:21

Noah Weiss is the Chief Product Officer at Slack. He shares lessons on why product founders struggle to transition from direct control to decentralized alignment as companies scale.

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“Most companies wait too long to introduce them, whether they call them principles or maxims or design guidelines, it doesn't really matter. But I think it's really hard. If you're a product founder and you're a founder led company, I mean, there's all types of things that are hard as you transition and scale the organization. But I think one of the hardest things winds up being when do you give up enough control that your organization starts building things that you aren't even aware of? And then how do you have enough trust that the people building it are going to build it up to the standard and approach that the company was founded on? And I think that's kind of the leap, but I think most companies wait far too long and the organization starts going slower and slower.”

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