Eeke de Milliano
Head of Global Product, Stripe. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
executiveoperatorfounder@eekedm ↗LinkedIn ↗
She currently leads global product initiatives and expansion at Stripe, having rejoined the company after serving as Head of Product at Retool. Prior to these roles, she co-founded Constellate and spent over six years guiding product strategy during Stripe's hyper-growth era.
2shows
2appearances
71statements
4resolved
4supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
Everything Eeke de Milliano said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
De Milliano: Globally plug-and-play executives do not exist without value alignment
“The other thing that came out in all of these, like, conversations with folks is, like, if your values aren't aligned, there's, like, literally no way it's going to work. I think it's just actually pretty hard for there to be, like, globally relevant execs. Li…”
de Milliano: New executives face massive incentives to change company strategy
“New leaders have in almost every single scenario a huge incentive To say that they need to change the strategy.”
Process is variance-reducing and pulls down an organization's highest performers
“Process by definition is variance reducing. Like you're introducing it because you worry that the variance in your org is too high. Like you want people to sort of meet a certain standard. And the cost of that is obviously is like while you're reducing the sta…”
De Milliano: Bad executive hires drive star employee attrition by destroying trust
“Reason number one why it's bad, but like reason number two why it's bad is because everyone looks at that bad hire or that bad fit, basically. Again, like, I don't think they're generally bad people, but like that person who isn't a good fit, and they look at …”
Patrick Collison designed Stripe's culture guide to repel half of candidates
“And at one point, like, Patrick Ping made me, he was like, hey, like, I really want us to write a guide to Stripe's culture, and I want us to share it with candidates when they join, when they are considering Stripe. And ideally, half of the candidates who rea…”
Stripe's internal culture doc was eviscerated on Hacker News
“There was some controversial, controversial, there was some stuff in there that was basically just like, you got to be willing to work really hard to actually, you know, be successful here long term. Oh my gosh, it was so controversial when it came out on Hack…”
Milliano: Large companies must accept some employees won't work extreme hours
“I do also think it's true that at some point, I don't know, companies get big enough that you have folks who maybe are just not, Up for that, and like, you just have to kind of be okay with that if you want to have that many employees in your company.”
De Milliano: References are useless unless aligned with the hiring company
“My main view on reference is that I actually don't think they're that useful unless you can find someone who has more incentive to tell you the truth than to, like, have the back of the person they're giving the reference on and someone who really understands …”
De Milliano: Identifying poor executive performance is easier than verifying star talent
“No, I think it's easier to see when someone isn't good at their job.”
De Milliano: Team buy-in meetings for executive hires shouldn't have veto power
“And then step three is, you know, let's say they kind of get past that is, okay, now get in buy-in from the rest of the team. That shouldn't be a, like, a decision-making forum. That's more of a, hey, I want you guys to, like, meet this person and get a sense …”
De Milliano: Executive hiring decisions must never be made by committee
“I don't think any important decisions like this can be made by committee. Like they should, I mean, they should use input from all the folks who, you know, were part of the interview process, but ultimately the founder has to decide or the hiring manager.”
De Milliano: Executive hires stretching up succeed more than those stepping down
“I think you're way more likely to be successful when someone is stretching up into the role because they're going to have a chip on their shoulder. And like, you really want them to prove themselves or they want to prove themselves.”
de Milliano: Reorgs by new leaders rarely solve underlying organizational problems
“It feels like you're doing a lot as a new leader because you're doing this big reorg and everyone's talking about it, but Like rarely is that really the answer to solving your problems.”
De Milliano: Incoming execs should immediately fire flagged mediocre employees
“Assess the talent pool pretty quickly. Like, just fire the people that aren't good. Especially if they're not a good culture fit, but also if they're just not doing well. One thing I have experienced myself, but also I've, like, seen with other leaders, like, …”
de Milliano: Multiple consecutive two-year stints signal mercenary executive behavior
“I personally really worry about the, like, the two-year stints, sort of, like, multiple, like, two-year stints. Like, it just actually isn't enough time to show that you've done anything significant, I think, as a leader. So, like, this is a gross generalizati…”
De Milliano: Executives with firing experience execute necessary terminations faster
“Per your point, if the, if you just have to assume that the distribution of failures is, like, pretty much the same across the org, I think it's always a pretty good sign if people have fired a lot. It's only because, like, they're gonna have to in whatever jo…”
de Milliano: Starting an early-stage company doesn't teach executive leadership
“I don't think you learn much starting a company early on about being an executive.”
Aspiring product managers should start their careers in sales
“And to this day, when people ask me, hey, like, what's your advice for going into product management? I'm like, well, you should go get a sales job. I think it's like pretty, pretty valuable.”
Early developer tool startups do not need product managers
“I think actually both in the Stripe case and the Retool case, the thing that both of these companies have in common is you're building for developers. The people who are building the product are the customers in a lot of ways. So like they get it, you know, th…”
Pricing isn't a trapdoor decision because existing users can be grandfathered
“I think a lot of people, for example, think pricing is a trapdoor decision, but actually like it's really easy to grandfather your existing users into some existing pricing model and change pricing for future users.”
Company 'operating principles' are more effective than personal 'values'
“Stripe would call them operating principles, actually, which I think is actually better, because values is almost like, you can't really tell people what to value, like everyone has their own value set, but you can tell people like, hey, here's, Here's how we …”
High performers pair macro-optimism with micro-pessimism on details
“Micro-pessimists, macro-optimists. Yeah, it was just like this idea that like long, in the long term, we expect the curve to go up. Like, we believe, like, you know, we very much believe in the upward trajectory of just about everything, but like, on the sort …”
Retool separated new product teams to avoid core product-market fit drag
“And we eventually decided that we were going to run it as a separate team because we wanted the team to be able to move really, really quickly. And we didn't want it to get bogged down in what are just the realities of running a product that has product market…”
Product teams should build for their best users, not worst users
“Build for your best user, not your worst user. And what I mean by that is, I think it's actually really easy to kind of get stuck or to sort of focus on like, what if there's abuse of this product or think about all the ways in which the product won't be used …”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Eeke's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 IN DEPTHLEDGER | Head of Global Product, Stripe | 1 | 43 | 100% 3/3 | full record on In Depth → |
 LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER | Head of Global Product, Stripe | 1 | 28 | 100% 1/1 | full record on Lenny's Podcast → |