Jason Citron calls alignment a 'four-letter word' and demands opinionated decision-makers
Jason Citron · Jason Citron, Co-Founder/CEO @Discord: The Untold Story Behind Scaling to 200M Users | E1230 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Nov 25, 2024 · at 13:46
Jason Citron is the Co-Founder and CEO of Discord. He outlines his management philosophy regarding leadership, corporate decision-making, and organizational alignment.
0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 7.7s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I now say alignment is a four letter word. Like I don't want alignment. I want highly opinionated people making decisions and then being accountable for them, right?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jason Citron
Jason Citron explains why Discord rejected Microsoft's acquisition offer
“Microsoft has been a really fantastic partner for us. And there certainly are things that we could have done together with them that we can't do independently, but ultimately it was about You know, controlling your own destiny, I suppose, and really seizing th…”
Jason Citron calls scaling Discord to 1,000 employees his biggest management mistake
“That period for us when we went from 200 to a thousand in basically two and a half years was the moment in time when I think I made the most management mistakes at Discord. And a lot of it is, is where basically I hired a lot of people and because it was a new…”
Jason Citron personally selects all Discord product projects top-down
“I pick all the projects Very tops down on what the strategy is and how we're allocating resources, how these things are sequencing together over time so it, it's coherent to our users.”
Jason Citron says 20-person synchronous product reviews become performative ceremonies
“Most things don't actually need a lot of participation in discussion. Like the team has done a tremendous amount of work and they're trying to get feedback from me and the forum of the, of a 20 person product review turns it into like this bizarre ceremony.”
Jason Citron expects new Discord executives to do zero work for 60 days
“The short version is that I don't expect them to do any work for the first, like, 60 days. They come in and they just need to learn. I just want them to meet the people, learn what we're doing, figure out why we're doing things, and every day what I expect the…”
Jason Citron predicts AI will let 20-person teams build games like Elden Ring
“I mean, I think it's gonna dramatically lower the cost to create incredible content, which means that if you don't, which means you're gonna get, I think you're gonna get games like Elden Ring that are made by teams of, like, 20 people, not 300, and then it's …”