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Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

Episode #5

Product Lead & Founding ML Engineer

Community Notes (X)

⚡Execution🔍User Research🎯Product Strategy

📝Full Transcript

19,600 words
Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:00): The work that you guys do has had such a tremendous impact on the way the world works. I want to start with just giving people a brief understanding of what is Community Notes. Keith Coleman (00:00:09): Someone on X can see a post. If they think it's misleading, they can propose a note that they think other people might find informative. Other people can then rate that note. Jay Baxter (00:00:18): We actually look for agreement from people who have disagreed in the past. And what we see is when people actually have that sort of surprising agreement, that's what makes the notes so neutral and accurate and well- written, really, overall. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:31): There's many people that are very polarized. How do you deal with people that are super anti-vax, super Jan 6? Keith Coleman (00:00:36): One philosophical thing that's important is that we want all of humanity to participate and sometimes people are surprised by that. We have all of humanity. We then have the data to understand what notes will be helpful to actual humanity. Every post is eligible for notes. We shouldn't exempt Elon. We shouldn't exempt government figures. We should be like everyone... Even advertisers can get notes. Jay Baxter (00:00:58): There have been external studies run by people totally independent of us who have found that if you take a post with or without a Community Note, that actually people's agreement with the core claims in the post does change if they see it with a note versus without. Lenny Rachitsky (00:01:13): Is there anything else along the lines of just working for Elon within an org Elon runs that might surprise people? Keith Coleman (00:01:18): If I were to start a company in that company, it would be even leaner than I would've made it before. I've been amazed with just how much the team is able to accomplish with a small group and I think because of a small group- Lenny Rachitsky (00:01:33): Today, my guests are Keith Coleman, Pro...

📚Methodologies (3)

⚡ Execution

A dynamic operational model that rejects rigid long-term planning (like quarterly OKRs) in favor of high-frequency goal setting and execution. The team aligns daily via a simple shared document and recalibrates their roadmap as often as bi-weekly based on immediate data feedback.

Core Principles

  • 1.Dynamic Goal Setting: Set milestones based on current data, not calendar quarters.
  • 2.Thermal Focus: Maintain a small, autonomous team with 100% focus on a single mission.
  • 3.Low-Overhead Coordination: Use lightweight tools (e.g., Google Docs) over complex project management software.
  • +1 more...

"We set our goals very dynamically... We might change our roadmap multiple times in two weeks based on what we see."

#continuous#calibration,#development
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The Agency-Control Graduation Framework

by Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

🔍 User Research

A meritocratic user progression system that ensures quality by requiring contributors to prove their judgment before earning the power to create content. Participants must first demonstrate the ability to identify helpful notes (rating) before they unlock the agency to write them.

Core Principles

  • 1.Earned Agency: Writing is a privilege unlocked by proven rating competence.
  • 2.Bridging-Based Validation: Quality is defined by agreement across polarized groups, not just majority vote.
  • 3.Continuous Qualification: Privileges are lost if a contributor's output consistently fails to be helpful.
  • +1 more...

"If you write one that people normally disagree find not helpful, you actually will ultimately lose your ability to write and have to earn it back."

#agency-control#graduation#research
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Problem-First Workflow Analysis

by Keith Coleman & Jay Baxter

🎯 Product Strategy

A rigorous development lifecycle that starts with a fundamental problem definition and demands distinct proof-of-concept validation at every stage before scaling. It avoids adopting industry norms (like human fact-checkers) unless they survive the problem analysis.

Core Principles

  • 1.Problem Obsession: Focus entirely on solving the core issue (e.g., info quality) rather than business metrics.
  • 2.Stepwise Proof: The product must prove its value hypothesis at each stage (Mockup -> Pilot -> Scale).
  • 3.First-Principles Design: Reject existing solutions (Trust & Safety teams) if they don't solve the scale/trust problem.
  • +1 more...

"We were very disciplined... about having the product prove itself at every given point."

#problem-first#workflow#analysis
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