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Will Larson

Episode #294

CTO at Carta

Carta

🎯Product Strategy⚡Execution👥Team & Culture

📝Full Transcript

14,920 words
Will Larson (00:00:00): I think that we often treat engineers a little bit like children instead of giving them the responsibilities and ability to actually thrive as adults. And so like, "Oh, the engineers won't want to do that work." Well, that's actually not good for the engineers to be sheltered from what is important. And so actually one of the, I think, highlights is that I think we're coming back this moment where we can actually treat engineers like our peers and put them into really senior leadership roles and not have this kind of baseline assumption of like, "Oh, we have to coddle them or hide them from the real problems." And this is how they're going to get the opportunity to grow as well. Lenny (00:00:35): Today, my guest is Will Larson, one of the most requested guests I've had on this podcast. Will is currently CTO at Carta. He's been a software engineering leader at Stripe, Uber, and Calm. He's the author of two essential books for all engineers, An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer, and he's releasing his newest book The Engineering Executive's Primer in February of next year. He also publishes regularly on his blog at lethain.com, which is a must read for every engineer and eng leader. (00:01:05): In our conversation, Will shares advice on developing your engineering strategy and strategy in general, how to improve the relationship between an eng manager and a PM, how he finds time to write, while also working an intense full-time job, how he recommends approaching measuring engineering productivity, how to develop your company values, an amazing story about his time at Digg and so much more. Will is such a gem of a human and leader and I'm excited to bring you this episode. With that, I bring you Will Larson after a short word from our sponsor. (00:01:39): Today's episode is brought to you by DX, a platform for measuring and improving developer productivity. DX is designed by the researchers behind frameworks such as Dora, Space and DevEx. If ...

💡 Key Takeaways

  • 1Stop treating engineers like children; give them direct accountability and expose them to real business problems to foster growth.
  • 2Good strategy is often 'boring'—imposing constraints (like a standard tool kit) allows teams to focus innovation on product features rather than infrastructure.
  • 3To solve EM/PM friction, implement 'Shared Fate': Engineering Managers and Product Managers should receive the same performance rating to align incentives.
  • 4Don't measure everything; use DORA metrics for diagnosis, but report on business alignment and a list of meaningful shipped value to the board.
  • 5Consistent writing advances your career, but only if you focus on topics that energize you rather than chasing trends.
  • 6When debugging organizational issues, use Systems Thinking (Stocks and Flows) to identify where your mental model conflicts with reality.

📚Methodologies (3)

🎯 Product Strategy

Based on Richard Rumelt's definition, strategy must contain a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and actions. Larson adds that effective engineering strategy often involves imposing 'boring' constraints to focus energy on what truly matters to the customer.

Core Principles

  • 1.Diagnosis: Accurately define the current reality and status quo.
  • 2.Guiding Policy: Determine the approach to address the diagnosis (often involving constraints).
  • 3.Action Plan: Define concrete steps to implement the policy; avoid 'inert' strategy.
  • +1 more...

"The goal of good strategy is to dictate how we invest the limited capacities we have into the problems we care about."

#rumelt#constraints#strategy
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⚡ Execution

Instead of viewing problems in isolation, model them as 'Stocks' (accumulations) and 'Flows' (movement between stocks). Identify where reality deviates from your model to find the root cause.

Core Principles

  • 1.Model the System: Map out the inputs, outputs, stocks (e.g., candidates), and flows (conversion rates).
  • 2.Reality Check: Compare your model's prediction against actual historical data.
  • 3.Reality is Right: If the model conflicts with reality, the model is wrong. Update the model to learn.
  • +1 more...

"Reality is always right. Your model is always wrong if it's in conflict with reality."

#systems#thinking#(stocks
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The HAR Value Test

by Will Larson

👥 Team & Culture

Effective values must pass three tests: they must be Honest (actually true), Applicable (useful for trade-offs), and Reversible (a defined group/company would imply the opposite).

Core Principles

  • 1.Honesty: Is this actually how we behave, or just how we want to be perceived?
  • 2.Applicability: Can I use this value to settle a dispute between two good options?
  • 3.Reversibility: Is the opposite of this value a valid strategy for another successful company? (If not, it's a platitude).
  • +1 more...

"If it doesn't apply to anyone, why bother having it at all? It doesn't mean anything."

#value#team#culture
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