Kassen Qian

Cross-functional teams: people can work on different parts of a system in parallel.

A development paradigm that can be construed from the outside as setting great store by speed—or, I suppose, velocity—is invariably going to be under continuous political and economic pressure to accelerate.

Ownership: I can give you a problem statement, but you’re the one who determines what your job is. You don’t get driven around by the team; you figure out what the team needs, and you deliver that.

There are idiosyncrasies of software development that are invariant even as technique and technology improves, and so you are bound to recapitulate these patterns eventually.

Stripe has a very, very long time horizon. If you know where you’re going over time, you can reason clearly about which specific asks are one-offs vs indicative of emerging trends relevant to many users. We talk a lot about building multi-decade abstractions. That long time horizon comes from the top, and it’s in the culture.

Chesky pushes PMs to always lead with the perfect experience without constraint . "Airbnb has stretched me to think about entire experiences, not just software."

Most PR/FAQs are rejected, and the ones that pass often generate further questions that need to be answered. This is a feature, not a bug. Spending time up front to think through all the details of a product preserves your company's resources to build products that will yield the highest impact for customers and the business.

I initially did this solely for monetary gain. But then when I started getting deeper into it, I found community. I met real dope people that were really there for me. I found newer forms of creativity that I didn't even think I had. I feel like being a community leader is a creative to a great extent as well. And that changed my whole outlook on w... See more