Kevin Fishner, Chief of Staff at HashiCorp, discusses how they run meetings, set and track goals, and make decisions through writing. He shares tactical advice for annual planning, including business simulations and scorecard systems. The episode provides valuable insights for managers and leaders on making teams more effective.
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Quick takeaways
Build company success on strong systems, not individuals.
Implement structured cadence for annual planning and quarterly reviews.
Embrace decision-making through detailed writing for collaboration and alignment.
Deep dives
Company Identity and Systems Building
Companies are defined by the systems they establish and refine over time, more than by individuals. This podcast episode explores the concept that the essence of a company lies in its systems rather than its employees. By focusing on building and improving core systems that embody the desired culture, companies can drive productivity and growth. The discussion emphasizes the importance of balancing investment in people and systems for overall success, drawing parallels to the nature versus nurture debate.
Operating Cadence and Annual Planning
HashiCorp's approach to company building involves a well-structured operating cadence that includes annual planning summits and quarterly business reviews. The annual planning summit sets executive focuses for the upcoming year based on the company's core values and priorities. The use of scorecards, business simulations, and structured brainstorming sessions aids in setting clear goals and refining them throughout the year. Quarterly business reviews provide a platform for reflecting on progress, addressing challenges, and seeking support to ensure alignment with organizational objectives.
Decision-Making Through Writing at HashiCorp
HashiCorp's culture of decision-making through writing stems from its open-source roots and emphasizes detailed documentation and collaboration before implementing solutions. Originating from the meticulous approach of the company's co-founder, Mitchell Hashimoto, employees across various departments, including engineering and finance, embrace the practice of writing up requests for comments and problem requirement documents. This process fosters informed decision-making, encourages accountability, and ensures alignment across the organization by documenting and seeking consensus on key decisions before execution.
Different Types of Documents - RFC and PRD
RFC serves as a request for comment, outlining proposed solutions or designs for approval before implementation. On the other hand, PRD, modified to a problem requirement document, precedes RFC to define challenges before solutions. PRDs assist in aligning stakeholders on the problem statement, enhancing clarity and agreement before progressing to the RFC stage.
Utilizing RFCs - Weighing the Need for Documentation
RFCs are crucial for substantial changes warranting detailed documentation. The decision to create an RFC hinges on whether the time invested in crafting it outweighs the implementation time. The practice spans across all functional areas, fostering collaboration on cross-functional initiatives and streamlining decision-making processes.
Today’s episode is with Kevin Fishner, Chief of Staff at HashiCorp. As the first business hire at the cloud infrastructure automation company, he previously built out the sales, marketing and product management teams.
Now as chief of staff, he’s focused on building a strong foundation of company-wide systems, now that the team has grown to over 1000 people. In today’s conversation, Kevin shares a detailed look at how they run meetings, set and track progress toward goals, and make decisions through writing at HashiCorp.
He also shares incredibly tactical advice for making annual planning more effective, including the unique business simulation they run, their scorecard system, and the weekly and quarterly meetings that help them stay focused on important KPIs.
While today’s episode is clearly a must-listen for fellow chiefs of staff and founders spinning up a company from scratch, managers and leaders of all kinds will walk away with several takeaways on how to make their teams more effective.
Because so much of what he shared is so detailed, we’ll be sharing some templates and visuals to go along with Kevin’s interview over on the First Round Review, so be sure to check that out.