In this episode, Shishir Mehrotra shares insights from his time at YouTube, discussing team structure, cross-functional coordination challenges and best practices. He delves into the specifics of meeting cadences, effective communication methods, and the art of canceling unnecessary meetings.
This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community.
When Shishir Mehrotra left YouTube in 2014, a number of other company leaders wanted to understand how YouTube worked from the inside. He wrote this article summarizing their key rituals in a stage of hypergrowth. This article was originally published in 2015, but has since been expanded upon by Shishir.
Read the full essay here - https://coda.io/@shishir/rituals-for-hypergrowth-an-inside-look-at-how-youtube-scaled
(0:00) Introduction
(1:02) Inside YouTube: Team structure and integration into Google
(3:01) Overcoming cross-functional coordination challenges
(4:32) Culture, rituals, and best practices at YouTube
(6:52) Cadences and meetings: The YouTube way
(10:20) Effective communication: From meeting readouts to email broadcasts
(11:10) The art of canceling unnecessary meetings
(11:24) Conclusion and outro
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