Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Hard-won lessons building 0 to 1 inside Atlassian | Tanguy Crusson (Head of Jira Product Discovery)
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Large companies face challenges like over-investment and super siloed teams when starting new products.
- Acquisitions like HipChat underscore the dangers of competitive myopia and decision-making challenges in big companies.
- Startup acquisitions by larger companies can lead to cultural shocks affecting decision-making and organizational alignment.
- Articulating a sense of urgency and 'why now' is crucial to prompt timely actions in large companies for pursuing new initiatives.
Deep dives
Challenges of Starting New Products Within Large Companies
Starting new products within large companies poses challenges such as over-investment, the importance of creating scarcity like in startups, dealing with super siloed teams, and the need for autonomy to test new ideas.
Lessons from HipChat Acquisition
The acquisition and rebuild of HipChat highlighted the impact of competition, the danger of competitive myopia, the challenge of decision-making in big companies, the need to validate assumptions early, and the difficulties of rebuilding a successful product while in flight.
Cultural Shock of Startup Acquisition
The cultural shock experienced when a startup is acquired by a larger company can lead to challenges in decision-making, organizational alignment, and adaptability to different processes and structures.
Importance of Timing in Pursuing New Initiatives
The necessity of articulating a sense of urgency and why now in pursuing new initiatives within a large company was vital to avoid stagnation and ensure timely actions on valuable opportunities.
Achieving Success Through Strategic Collaboration and Research
In this podcast episode, innovative strategies for fostering collaboration and success within a company are highlighted. The key point emphasizes the importance of utilizing internal expertise and resources while maintaining a forward-thinking approach. By strategically partnering with various teams and conducting thorough research, significant progress can be achieved.
Navigating Uncertainty and Overcoming Challenges
The podcast delves into the significance of facing uncertainty and challenges in the journey towards launching new products. The speaker underscores the importance of recognizing and embracing failure as a common outcome, thereby setting realistic expectations. By adopting a resilient mindset and focusing on iterative processes, teams can effectively navigate obstacles and enhance their chances of success.
Empowering Teams Through Autonomy and Innovation
The episode sheds light on empowering teams to break conventional rules and foster innovation within a company. By encouraging autonomy and creativity, teams can explore new solutions and approaches without being constrained by existing norms. Embracing a startup mentality within a corporate environment can lead to significant breakthroughs and successful outcomes.
Driving Product Development through Customer-Centric Approaches
The podcast advocates for adopting customer-centric approaches to drive product development and innovation. By closely engaging with customers, obtaining direct feedback, and prioritizing user experience, companies can create solutions that effectively meet customer needs. Leveraging direct customer insights and feedback can guide product evolution and enhance overall success in the market.
Tanguy Crusson is the product lead for Jira Product Discovery at Atlassian. In his more than 10 years at the company, he has been instrumental in taking several new products from zero to one, including HipChat, Statuspage, and Jira Product Discovery. In this episode, we dive deep into the struggles of innovating and building new products inside a large company. Tanguy shares candid stories about what worked, what didn’t, and his many hard-won lessons learned about how to successfully build 0 to 1. We cover:
• Why large companies with so many advantages still fail at creating new products
• Lessons learned from building HipChat
• How to avoid common pitfalls like competitive myopia and premature scaling
• Lessons learned from the acquisition and integration of Statuspage
• Insights from the success of Jira Product Discovery
• Tactics for protecting your “ugly babies”
• The power of “lighthouse users”
• The importance of having a “why now”
• Much more
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-0-to-1-inside-atlassian-tanguy-crusson
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Where to find Tanguy Crusson:
• X: https://x.com/tanguycrusson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanguy-crusson-99832a
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Tanguy’s background
(02:30) Tanguy’s journey at Atlassian
(07:03) The challenges of innovating in large companies
(10:42) Atlassian's high bar for excellence
(12:58) The HipChat story: successes, failures, and lessons learned
(20:47) Lessons learned from building HipChat
(33:49) Statuspage: a journey of perseverance
(39:48) Acquisition challenges and lessons
(47:22) Strategic decisions: build, buy, or partner?
(48:17) Learning to articulate "why now"
(54:08) A quick summary of lessons in this episode
(55:40) The success and pain of launching Jira Product Discovery
(58:10) Incubating new products: the Point A program
(01:00:13) Failure is the most likely outcome
(01:04:15) Atlassian's four-phase approach to launching new products
(01:09:20) Breaking rules without breaking trust
(01:16:16) Early success and team autonomy
(01:17:22) Innovating without disrupting existing customers
(01:23:17) The Lighthouse Users program
(01:30:00) Protecting and nurturing new ideas
(01:36:14) Balancing innovation with personal well-being
(01:38:17) A reminder to look after yourself
(01:42:06) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/
• HipChat: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Hipchat/ct-p/hipchat
• Stride: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Stride/ct-p/stride
• Statuspage: https://www.atlassian.com/software/statuspage
• Opsgenie: https://www.atlassian.com/software/opsgenie
• Jira Product Discovery: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/product-discovery
• HipChat billboard: https://x.com/HubSpot/status/654696998126272512
• Announcing our new partnership with Slack: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/new-atlassian-slack-partnership
• Slack shows it’s worried about Microsoft Teams with a full-page newspaper ad: https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/2/13497766/slack-microsoft-teams-new-york-times-ad
• What Is ‘Dogfooding’?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html
• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
• Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
• PagerDuty: https://www.pagerduty.com/
• New Relic: https://newrelic.com/
• BigPanda: https://www.bigpanda.io/
• Transparent Uptime: http://www.transparentuptime.com/
• Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/vision-conviction-hype-mihika-kapoor
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Lessons from Atlassian: Launching new products, getting buy-in, and staying ahead of the competition | Megan Cook (head of product, Jira): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-atlassian-launching
• Noah Weiss on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahw/
• Tanguy’s LinkedIn post about “lighthouse users”: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tanguy-crusson-99832a_lighthouse-users-one-of-the-pm-techniques-activity-7176654510801502210-hWNi/
• Pixar Chief: Protect Your ‘Ugly Babies’ (Your Unsightly Ideas): https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyboynton/2014/03/17/pixar-chief-protect-your-ugly-babies-your-unsightly-ideas/
• Atlas: https://www.atlassian.com/software/atlas
• Point A: https://www.atlassian.com/point-a
• Scott Farquhar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottfarquhar
• Who: A Method for Hiring: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Method-Hiring-HC-2008/dp/B004C79SRS/
• Hakim’s Odyssey: Book 1: From Syria to Turkey: https://www.amazon.com/Hakims-Odyssey-Book-Syria-Turkey/dp/1637790007
• Living with the Earth, Volume 1: Permaculture, Ecoculture: Inspired by Nature: https://www.amazon.com/Living-Earth-Gardeners-Permaculture-Ecoculture/dp/1856232603/
• INRIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Institute_for_Research_in_Computer_Science_and_Automation
• How a Hydrofoil Works: https://web.mit.edu/2.972/www/reports/hydrofoil/hydrofoil.html
• What Is Kitefoil or Foilboarding?: https://www.whenitswindy.com/wp/?page_id=534
• Freediving: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freediving
• Tanguy’s freediving stats: https://www.aidainternational.org/Athletes/Profile-00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000a45
• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.com/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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