The rituals of great teams | Shishir Mehrotra, Coda, YouTube, Microsoft

Shishir Mehrotra is the co-founder and CEO of Coda, and formerly head of product and engineering at YouTube. In this episode, he shares his insights on growth strategy, how he evaluates talent, a peek at his upcoming book The Rituals of Great Teams, why reference checks are the most important step in the interview process, and so much more. Join us.

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and YouTube.

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Where to find Shishir Mehrotra:

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

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

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

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Coda: http://coda.io/lenny

• Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny

• Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/

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Referenced:

• The Rituals Of Great Teams Brain Trust: https://coda.io/@shishir/join-the-rituals-of-great-teams-braintrust

• Bing Gordon: https://www.kleinerperkins.com/people/bing-gordon/

• Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752

• PSHE Diagram: https://coda.io/@shishir/pshe

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/1627652736

• Only Murders In The Building: https://www.hulu.com/series/only-murders-in-the-building-ef31c7e1-cd0f-4e07-848d-1cbfedb50ddf

• Wanda Vision: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WandaVision

• Fidji Simo: https://twitter.com/fidjissimo

• Daniel Elk: https://twitter.com/eldsjal/

• Reid Hoffman: https://twitter.com/reidhoffman?

• Marmoon Hamind: https://twitter.com/mamoonha

• Quentin Clark: https://twitter.com/quentinclark

• Sarah Guo: https://twitter.com/saranormous

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In this episode, we cover:

[0:00] Teaser

[4:13] Shishir’s background at Google and current role at Coda

[7:53] How Shishir got on the Board of Spotify

[8:58] Black loop and blue loops and how Coda uses this internal diagram 

[9:52] The black loop is how a product is naturally shared

[12:15] The blue loop is the emotional loop on why products are shared

[14:55] Why you should think in loops instead of funnels

[18:20] Mining for your business’s loops by looking at what you tell job candidates

[24:37] Shishir’s upcoming book The Rituals of Great Teams 

[26:30] The 3 Golden Rituals Of Teams

[27:10] Coda’s Golden Ritual: Dory and Pulse

[31:29] Shishir’s most impactful rituals: Arianna Huffington’s Reset, Gusto’s incredible hiring call, and Coinbase’s RAPIDs.

[40:38] How do you find your own team’s rituals

[42:50] How to change things when change is hard

[45:01] AirBnb’s unique rituals

[46:45] A back story on YouTube and valuing consistency over comprehensiveness

[53:00] Eigenquestions: What it is, how to use it, and examples of it

[59:05] One of Shishir’s favorite *retired* interview questions 

[1:03:11] How to evaluate talent, a story about YouTube and breaking down PSHE

[1:15:20] How to approach reference checks and what questions to ask

[1:24:33] Favorite books

[1:25:50] Favorite shows/movies

[1:26:50] Favorite interview questions

[1:28:44] Who in the industry Shishir respects as a thought leader

[1:30:10] Go-to karaoke song

[1:30:40] Where you can find Shishir

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Production & marketing: https://penname.co/