When you join a business, there are a series of things that you do in order to ascertain whether you put your energy. And its very really a single thing, but it is critical that you can triage the priorities because you can't do everything at once. I will say that strategic misallignment in an organization is the number one symptom that a company isn't scaling effectively. It means all those individual groups are operating independently against a set of misallined goals. For me, that would always be my priority coming into a company, if i saw those symptoms.
Our guest is Sara Clemens, most recently COO of Twitch and former COO of Pandora.
In this interview, we explore the nuances of the COO role, which can vary drastically across different companies. We cover:
- The three main COO archetypes and which sorts of folks are best suited for those roles.
- The tactical elements of being a COO, including Sara’s advice for what good strategy actually looks like, and how to truly create a no-blame culture.
- Sara’s lessons on keeping pace as a company doubles in size, including her tips on sketching out “decision rights.”
- Guidance for CEOs considering bringing on a COO to the executive suite.
You can follow Sara on Twitter at @ClemensSara
You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson
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