John Lilly on organization design
From Reid Hoffman and John Lilly on Blitzscaling | Greyscale · · Greylock
“Personally I try to refactor around the work not around titles, and I try to keep teams as small as I can — teams that are clearly responsible for a set of work in the next month or quarter, typically three to seven people.”
On , John Lilly, Partner at Greylock at Greylock Partners, spoke about organization design during Reid Hoffman and John Lilly on Blitzscaling | Greyscale on Greylock.
About John Lilly
John Lilly, a partner at Greylock, has been active in discussions about scaling organizations and company culture. In a Greymatter podcast, he discussed the transition companies make from being "pirates" to "part of the Navy," a concept he attributed to Steve Jobs, and argued that culture cannot be fixed in the large but only through specific instances. He stated that when culture starts to break, leaders need to "steer very hard" and address problems by naming them, being open about the issue, and measuring progress. In another appearance, Lilly said that the best founders are "greedy for mentorship" and on a continuous learning journey, and that speed is critical because the "core mechanic of your product has to work even if the product looks embarrassing later." Lilly has also spoken about his career and investment philosophy. He described joining Mozilla as the "best accident of my career," noting that he felt a "strong gravitational pull" to work on the browser because the web felt important and under pressure. He has emphasized the importance of mission over compensation when hiring, stating that at Mozilla, if a candidate wanted to join for compensation, "we didn't want them." In a conversation with Reid Hoffman, Lilly discussed the role of technology in the nonprofit sector, with Hoffman arguing that technology can improve society at a "faster than linear characteristic." Lilly has also commented on the importance of data, saying that while many metrics can be "just noise," the key is identifying the two or three things that drive insight and action.