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Brian Tolkin

Episode #45

Head of Product and Design

Opendoor

⚡Execution📈Growth & Metrics👥Team & Culture

📝Full Transcript

13,479 words
Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:00): You've worked at two businesses that have done incredibly well combining product in ops. Brian Tolkin (00:00:03): Uber always has this mentality and Opendoor does two of the product operations, twin turbine jet plane where you can fly the plane on one engine for a little bit if you need to, but it's operating most efficiently and effectively if both are working together. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:17): What has having been in ops done to make you a better product leader? Brian Tolkin (00:00:21): Gave a really deep understanding of how the business actually works. It's a pretty good foundation for them going on to say, okay, what do we actually want to build in a more scalable technology way. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:31): Something else I've heard that you're very good at is staying very calm under pressure. Brian Tolkin (00:00:34): I've slept on the floor in China before launching uberPOOL, and when you reflect the stress onto your teams, everybody tenses out. It counterintuitively doesn't produce better outcomes. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:51): Today my guest is Brian Tolkin. Brian is currently head of product and design at Opendoor. Before that, he spent nearly five years at Uber where he joined as employee 100. Before Uber had UberX or uberPOOL or any shared rides, he actually started on the ops team at Uber, moved into product, ended up leading product and launch of uberPOOL, and then taking it global. He also started the product operations function at Uber. Before that function was really even a thing, which I didn't know until the chat that we had. In our conversation, Brian shares a ton of lessons about building products with a heavy operational component. Also, how to run great product reviews, how he implements the jobs to be done, framework and Opendoor's successfully. (00:01:32): The story behind Zillow trying to compete with Opendoor failing and then partnering instead. Plus a ton of great stories from the early days of Uber and ...

💡 Key Takeaways

  • 1Treat Operations and Product as a 'twin turbine jet'—use Ops to iterate manually on the ground before using Product to scale via technology.
  • 2For low-volume products, lower your statistical significance threshold (e.g., from 95% to 80%) to increase experiment velocity.
  • 3If A/B testing is impossible due to low sample sizes, utilize 'Sister City' analysis, Diff-in-Diff measurements, or long-term holdouts to build conviction.
  • 4Structure product reviews with a 'Sign-up' cadence rather than a forced schedule to ensure meetings occur only when decisions are needed.
  • 5When building for infrequent user behaviors (like selling a home), focus heavily on the user's 'Context' within the Jobs-to-be-Done framework, not just the app utility.
  • 6Capture all incoming ideas in a backlog to make stakeholders feel heard, but ruthlessly filter for the 'kernel of truth' that provides actual tech leverage.
  • 7In high-stress leadership moments, remember that reflecting stress onto the team causes them to tense up and perform worse; calm is a strategic asset.

📚Methodologies (3)

⚡ Execution

A staged approach to scaling complex physical-world processes. Instead of building software immediately, the company validates the process manually, scales it via batching, and only builds technology when human scaling breaks.

Core Principles

  • 1.Stage 1: High-Touch Manual (Do things that don't scale). Solve the problem 1-on-1 (e.g., onboarding drivers individually for 90 minutes).
  • 2.Stage 2: Process Batching. Increase efficiency without new tech (e.g., moving to classroom sessions of 10-20 drivers).
  • 3.Stage 3: Content Scaling. Use static media to replicate instruction (e.g., showing a video instead of a live presentation).
  • +2 more...

"Computers are deterministic, but humans aren't... building products that have a little bit more flex or a little bit more fail safes in case those things happen becomes a little bit more of a paramount."

#manual-to-scale#automation#ladder
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📈 Growth & Metrics

A hierarchy of validation techniques for businesses with high-value, low-frequency transactions (like real estate). It prioritizes honest statistical analysis over false precision and offers alternatives to standard A/B tests.

Core Principles

  • 1.Step 1: Honest Power Analysis. Calculate the 'Minimum Detectable Effect' and runtime upfront. If it takes 6 months, acknowledge that reality.
  • 2.Step 2: Adjust Confidence Intervals. Accept a lower confidence level (e.g., 80%) instead of the standard 95% if the cost of being wrong is manageable.
  • 3.Step 3: use Macro-Comparison Methods. If user-level split testing fails, use 'Sister City' analysis (comparing similar markets) or Diff-in-Diff analysis.
  • +2 more...

"The only mistake here is thinking you'll get an answer in a month when you won't, and then pretending you do."

#low-volume#conviction#growth
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👥 Team & Culture

A specific meeting structure designed to balance executive accountability with genuine collaborative problem-solving, ensuring the meeting improves the product rather than just judging the PM.

Core Principles

  • 1.Principle 1: Dual Goal Definition. Explicitly state at the start: The goal is accountability/informing AND helping the team think through the problem.
  • 2.Principle 2: The 'Pull' Cadence. Instead of mandatory weekly slots, offer 'Sign-up Slots' (e.g., 2 slots/week) that teams claim when they need input.
  • 3.Principle 3: Small Audience. Keep the active participant list under 10 people to prevent performative behavior.
  • +2 more...

"Product reviews hopefully are not feeling like firing squads. That's a scary environment to be in and not necessarily one that's conducive to how do we make the product better."

#'safe#space'#product
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