Saumil Mehta
16 statements across 1 episodes · 5 bullish · 3 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Aug 31, 2023 by Saumil Mehta · across every show →
On the record as a speaker too: Saumil Mehta's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Everything said about Saumil Mehta, oldest first
Aug 31, 2023 negative
Mehta: Senior leaders managing only two direct reports signals broken org design
“What we've seen through this crazy hiring spree over the last four years is that you've got kind of managers reporting to managers and like four levels of the management chain. You're going to have two people reporting to each other and you look at it on our o…”
Aug 31, 2023 positive
Mehta: Square leaders must welcome escalations from outside their teams
“One of the things that I'm very vocal about internally is the importance of good escalations. Like I want good escalations to come to me from all over the company, certainly folks in my purview, but also folks outside of my purview.”
Aug 31, 2023
Mehta: Scaling requires teaching decision-making principles, not just delegating authority
“The only way you scale is if over time you Push better decision making through the organization, but it doesn't happen magically. It doesn't happen by just saying, well, this used to be my decision. Now it's your decision. Like that's just one piece of the puz…”
Aug 31, 2023
Mehta: Execute reorg rollouts within 48 hours to stop rumor mills
“In terms of we're ready to go and we've announced it to the whole company, if you will, that time window is usually in the neighborhood of 48 hours or less. And so we want it done in a very concentrated burst because with so many people involved, despite every…”
Aug 31, 2023
Aug 31, 2023
Mehta: Inadequate manager briefing documents during reorgs cause communication breakdown
“If you didn't equip that manager with all the right whys and the right talking points and all the FAQs, now all of a sudden you've left that manager in an awkward spot where now they are basically guessing, filling in the blanks. And now all of a sudden you ha…”
Aug 31, 2023 positive
Mehta: Initial org designs must have only boxes and arrows, omitting names
“And so our principle is the first iteration that I want to see in an org design, it's only going to have boxes and arrows. I don't want to have any people names on it, like no people name, period. Show me multiple options, but never show me people names. And t…”
Aug 31, 2023
Aug 31, 2023 neutral
Mehta: In transparent orgs, leadership hears about reorg failures within four weeks
“And in a hyper empowered company with a huge degree of transparency, like square is, if something's going wrong, I will almost always hear about it. And if something is going right, I may or may not hear about it, but you know, if it's going wrong, I will hear…”
Aug 31, 2023 neutral
Mehta: Org design is just one management tool for driving roadmaps
“Org design is effectively one among several tools in your management toolbox in order to drive change, in order to drive progress, in order to drive a roadmap, and in order to drive a P&L. And treat it no differently than a tool in the toolbox. Use it appropri…”
Aug 31, 2023 negative
Aug 31, 2023 positive
Mehta: Square CEO Alyssa Henry reviews and critiques all submitted materials
“Alyssa reads everything. And I mean everything. And she's not above any real piece of work and nothing is beneath her at some level. Like if there is a material, a piece of material that is being put in front of her or is in her queue, she will get to it. It m…”
Aug 31, 2023 positive
Mehta: Product marketing serves as connective tissue across GM silos
“Then you have the product marketing teams that frequently also serve as the glue because product marketing teams sit in between GTM teams and the product development teams. And so they serve as a bridge between the GM and the GTM functions, but also between ea…”
Aug 31, 2023
Mehta: Every org design has goals, trade-offs, and compensating mechanisms
“Any org design, it's going to have goals. It's going to have trade-offs and it's going to have compensating mechanisms. And you just have to pick what you're going to achieve and how you're going to solve for the trade-offs that come with it.”
Aug 31, 2023 negative
Mehta: Reorgs must avoid creating 'junk drawer' teams without explainable charters
“So one of our Kind of little rules here is don't end up with a junk drawer team because that team is going to be miserable, right? And like the manager there is going to be like, why did you like give me this junk drawer team? And the PM is like, I don't want …”
Aug 31, 2023 positive
Mehta: Square uses written principles to test span of control ratios
“We have written principles on how we want span of control to work in the context of work design, how we want ratios to work in the context of work design, and we can test against those principles, and we can measure even against those principles, and we do.”