Will Wu: Over-optimism leads managers to give failing hires too long a leash
Will Wu · Will Wu: Top Five Product Lessons from Creating Snapchat "Discover" and "Chat" | E1111 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Feb 2, 2024 · at 41:45
Will Wu, CPO of Match Group and former Snap executive, reflects on his biggest hiring mistake: letting personal optimism blind him to early warning signs about team culture fit.
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“For me personally, I mean, I think that I can get overly invested in people. I can give people a lot of room To fail because I like to see the best in people, I guess. I'm like a glass half full kind of guy, and my friends always actually give me a hard time about this because I tend to like everyone. Even people who are, who most people severely dislike, I love them because I just like see them for who they are, and I think they bring something special to the world, but I think that does make it so that sometimes I give people a long leash, and, you know, I may need to sort of, like, read the signs from the team earlier to figure out that maybe they aren't a great culture fit, or maybe they're just in this for the money and not that passionate about our mission.”
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