Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Moving fast and navigating uncertainty | Jeremy Henrickson (Rippling, Coinbase)

June 4, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Jeremy Henrickson, CPO at Rippling and formerly at Coinbase, discusses leading product teams through rapid scaling and uncertainty, drawing from Coinbase's 40x usage growth in 2017 and Rippling's expansion across HR, payroll, IT, and more.

Coinbase's 2017 Hypergrowth

During crypto's surge, Coinbase handled 40x usage spikes, with systems breaking on weekends. Henrickson prioritized security via experts like Philip Barton, focused on immediate fixes while planning for six-month volumes, and resolved debates on uncertainties like Ethereum's viability by adopting a clear company view and committing fully until pivoting. Intense periods accelerated learning despite personal challenges like a new baby, offering long-term career growth when reflected upon.

Velocity at Scale via Teams and Platforms

To sustain speed as companies grow, use small teams with clear missions to minimize communication overhead, per Dunbar's number. Build platforms with clear interfaces to simplify domain decisions. Leaders must dive deep into the hardest problems alongside teams, rather than directing remotely. Ensure teams have balanced seniority and passions, recalibrating as zero-to-one work shifts to scaling; clear product direction then accelerates output as platforms enable more with less.

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What you'll learn

1 `* (03:30) **Coinbase During 2017 Crypto Boom**`
2 `* (09:12) **Maintaining Velocity at Scale**`
3 `* (12:20) **Rippling's New Product Model**`
4 `* (18:03) **Design for Complex Cases, Skip MVP Trap**`
5 `* (23:17) **Compound Startup & Platform Differentiation**`
6 `* (27:09) **Culture of Speed & Leadership Principles**`
7 `* (33:43) **Go and See: Deep Domain Expertise**`

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Brought to you by Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life | Mixpanel—Product analytics that everyone can trust, use, and afford | Lenny’s Job Board—Hire the best product people. Find the best product gigs

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Jeremy Henrickson is Rippling’s SVP of Product, responsible for scaling their product and design team across three continents. Previously, as Chief Product Officer at Coinbase, he oversaw 10x growth of the product and engineering organization and transformed a scrappy startup into a global cryptocurrency platform with tens of millions of users. He began his career at Apple in the 1990s and holds a BS and MS in computer science from Stanford. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Strategies for sustaining focus and momentum at scale

• The case against MVPs

• The problem with frameworks

• “Compound startups” and how this influences Rippling’s product development process

• Advice for founders wanting to move faster

• Why you don’t understand your product unless you’re “in the weeds”

• Hiring practices at Rippling and how young PMs can build fruitful careers

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/moving-fast-and-navigating-uncertainty

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Where to find Jeremy Henrickson:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremyhenricks