Lenny Distilled

How Netflix builds a culture of excellence

February 22, 2024

Featuring: Elizabeth Stone (CTO, Netflix)

9 quotes · 8 insights

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Follow-through separates great from good

Part of being dedicated to the work is other people are relying on me and I want to show up for them. If someone sends me something, I try to be very responsive about it. If I know that I said I'm going to do something, I follow through on it in the timeline that I said I was going to do.

Your data already contains tomorrow's insights

Our job is not to tell the story that someone wants to hear with the data or to solve the problem that someone thinks is most important. It's for us to have our own perspective about things.

Excellence means knowing when good enough is perfect

It truly is not about time. If we're clear on the objectives of something, it might be that the last 20% of polish on the document is a really bad use of time.

The last 5% is everything

My mother used to describe to me that the last 5% is the 5% that really mattered. And so it is that framing of the extra effort you put into something to make it world-class or to make it excellent.

Sustainability beats intensity over time

It truly is not about time. If we're clear on the objectives of something, it might be that the last 20% of polish on the document is a really bad use of time.

Build trust before driving change

The framework's third piece refers to Stone's three-step approach: set expectations, give specific feedback, and jump in to help fill gaps.

I give a lot of thought to how I deliver that feedback so it feels like we're on the same team and I'm trying to help them be successful, not to help encourage failure. And that's where I think that third piece of the framework of jumping in to help can make people feel like, 'I'm in a safe space.'

High talent density enables everything else

We can't really have any of the other aspects of the culture, including candor, learning, seeking excellence in improvement, freedom and responsibility if you don't start with high talent density.
If we want to create a work environment where we are not prescriptive about how people solve problems or the scope of problems that they could tackle, and we don't have a lot of process around that work, that would be very hard if not dangerous if we didn't have a high talent density.

Saying yes to one thing means saying no to another

It truly is not about time. If we're clear on the objectives of something, it might be that the last 20% of polish on the document is a really bad use of time.

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