Jean-Michel Lemieux

Jean-Michel Lemieux, former CTO at Shopify and VP of Engineering at Atlassian, shares insights from his impressive career in product development. He discusses the pitfalls of rigid processes, advocating for movements over mere products. Learn about the critical balance of speed and quality in development and the concept of 'time horizon friction.' Jean-Michel also reveals innovative hiring techniques, like the 'snowboard test,' and addresses the emotional challenges of transitioning from corporate life to entrepreneurship.

Jean-Michel Lemieux, former CTO of Shopify and VP of Engineering at Atlassian, explains how to advocate for investing in platform work, which projects to fund, and what distinguishes a great platform leader. —Discussion points:(1:38) Jean-Michel’s definition of platform work (6:44) Why reliability, performance, and stability do fall within platform work (7:24) The consequences of lacking a product mindset in platform(9:20) Why and how to advocate for investing 50% of R&D spend in platform work (12:31) How Jean-Michel arrived at 50% as the percentage of R&D spend that should be allocated to platform (16:09) Jean-Michel’s experiences with different levels of investment in platform work (21:59) What percentage of platform investment should go towards keep the lights on work(24:01) Whether the allocation changes at different company stages(27:05) Why platform work is consistently underinvested in(29:00) Why having a platform team could be an anti-pattern(32:32) How to advocate for this work to leaders(35:35) What it looks like to over-invest in platform work (40:03) How to decide which initiatives to invest in(47:41) Making build vs buy decisions in platform work (49:58) What distinguishes a great platform leader —Mentions and links: Follow Jean-Michel Lemieux on LinkedIn and Twitter Abi’s post that sourced many of the questions discussed in this conversationJean-Michel’s book chapter on platform investmentsJean-Michel’s definition of what platform work is The podcast episode on what Shopify expects of managers 

Jean-Michel Lemieux, former CTO of Shopify, shares insights from his groundbreaking work in sneaker drops and bot protection. He recounts the high-stakes journey of landing Supreme as a customer and the major checkout flow revamp it entailed. Lemieux dives into the evolution of anti-bot strategies, his interactions with Sneaker Twitter, and the unique challenges of the sneaker resale market. He also offers a glimpse into his future aspirations, including thoughts on tackling ticketing bots at Ticketmaster. It’s a must-listen for sneaker enthusiasts!