Description
Book SynopsisFrom a Stripe and Google executive, a practical guide to company building and scaling the most important resource it has: its people. A leader at both Google and Stripe from their early days, Claire Hughes Johnson has worked with founders and company builders to try to replicate their success. The most common questions she’s asked are not about business strategy—they’re about how to scale the operating structures and people systems of a rapidly growing startup.
Scaling People is a practical and empathetic guide to being an effective leader and manager in a high-growth environment. The tactical information it puts forward—including guidance on crafting foundational documents, strategic and financial planning, hiring and team development, and feedback and performance mechanisms—can be applied to companies of any size, in any industry.
Scaling People includes dozens of pages of worksheets, templates, exercises, and example documents to help founders, leaders, and company builders create scalable operating systems and lightweight processes that really work.
Implementing effective leadership and management practices takes effort and discipline, but the reward is a sustainable, scalable company that’s set up for long-term success.
Scaling People is a detailed roadmap for company builders to put the right operating systems and structures in place to scale the most important resource a company has: its people.
Trade Review“Claire Johnson gave me some of the best feedback of my career: ‘You don’t ask for help often enough.’ Whether you are a new manager or a CEO, there are going to be moments when you feel alone and need help. Odds are, the advice you need is in
Scaling People. You are going to pull this book off your shelf over and over!"
—Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Just Work“The practical guide to running a world-class organization… Claire has demystified how you run a large, high-performance organization, with clear concepts and practical templates that you can start implementing today.”
—Jason Citron, founder and CEO of Discord “I was excited to learn that Claire Hughes Johnson has taken her many years of operating excellence from Stripe and Google and distilled it into a new book. Scaling People is a key book to be added to the shelf of any people leader and manager.”
—Elad Gil, entrepreneur, investor, and author of High Growth Handbook “
Scaling People is approachable, entertaining, and exceptionally useful, with lots of heart and humor. Claire leverages her years of unparalleled experience to provide a deeply helpful resource to read and revisit again and again.”
—Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures “Through the entire history of startups and entrepreneurship, the world expects founders and young executives to succeed and thrive as their company grows larger and larger. Yet no one takes the time to give them the skills and processes that are necessary to achieve great leadership. Now someone has—hats off to Claire Johnson for writing
Scaling People.”
—Bill Gurley, general partner at Benchmark “If you want to scale your business from 10 people to 10,000 without losing the things that make it special,
Scaling People is the handbook you need.”
—Ravi Gupta, former CFO and COO of Instacart, general partner at Sequoia Capital “There’s a lot of reinventing the wheel in a startup environment. Scaling People offers strong frameworks, sound advice, and tried-and-true processes that any company can use to build stronger foundations and sustainable success.”
—Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, host of Masters of Scale “Claire Hughes Johnson is the ultimate operator. She distills two decades of management and leadership expertise into one accessible volume with real-world examples and actionable guidance.
Scaling People proves that it’s possible to operate in a high-growth environment while simultaneously focusing on and caring about developing people—and that doing so also leads to a fundamentally stronger business.”
—Mallun Yen, founder of Operator Collective “Everything you need to know about building and scaling a company, being an exceptional leader and manager, and getting the best out of your people in one empathetic and enjoyable package—with easy-to-use worksheets and templates to boot.”
—Frances Frei, author of Uncommon Service and Unleashed, professor at Harvard Business School “Claire Hughes Johnson has been in the catbird seat at two companies: Google and Stripe. She participated in Google's transformative journey in the decade following its IPO. Since then, she has helped Stripe develop from a two-floor office into a global, multibillion-dollar infrastructure company on which millions of businesses depend. Two eras, two companies—one Claire.”
—Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia CapitalTable of ContentsIntroduction
- Setting your metronome
- The core frameworks
- Who is this book for?
- How to read this book
- Exercises and templates
Chapter 1
Essential Operating Principles
- 1. Build self-awareness to build mutual awareness
- 2. Say the thing you think you cannot say
- 3. Distinguish between management and leadership
- 4. Come back to your operating system
- Exercises and templates
Chapter 2
Core Framework 1: Foundations and Planning for Goals and Resources
- Founding documents
- The operating system
- Operating cadence
- Exercises and templates
Chapter 3
Core Framework 2: A Comprehensive Hiring Approach
- Recruiting
- Hiring
- Onboarding
- Hiring mistakes
- Exercises and templates
Chapter 4
Core Framework 3: Intentional Team Development
- Team structures
- Diagnosing team state
- Team changes and restructuring
- (Re)building the team
- Creating the team environment
- Team-building complexities
- Diversity and inclusion
- Team communication
- Exercises and templates
Chapter 5
Core Framework 4: Feedback and Performance Mechanisms
- Hypothesis-based coaching
- Giving hard feedback
- Creating a culture of informal feedback
- The formal review process
- Compensation
- Managing high performers
- Managing low performers
- Managing managers
- Managing out, firing, and layoffs
- Some final thoughts on management
- Exercises and templates
Conclusion
You
- Manage your time and energy
- Foster relationships
- Consider your career
Endnotes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
