Julie Zhuo, Vice President of Product Design at Facebook, provides practical advice for those aspiring to be excellent managers based on her experiences from her first role as a manager in The Making of a Manager.

Focus on Improving Overall Team Output Rather Than Daily Activities​

When Julie first became the design director at Facebook, like many new managers, she thought her job was to hold meetings, check on progress, and provide feedback. Over nearly a decade, she gradually realized that a manager should enable the team to achieve better output and focus on broader issues like collaboration efficiency. Excellent managers should not be limited to daily activities but should lead their teams in pursuing outstanding results and progress.

Andy Grove's first lesson for managers states that a manager's output = the output of their own team under their influence + the output of adjacent teams.

Provide Feedback Objectively and Incorporate Multiple Perspectives for Reference​

Giving feedback to team members is an essential part of a manager's job. This can be challenging, as criticism can sometimes hurt feelings. To address this, Julie proposes two methods. The first is to provide timely feedback on recently completed tasks, ensuring that the focus is on the issue rather than the person, whether through email or face-to-face. The second is to introduce multiple perspectives, allowing team members to understand viewpoints from others beyond just the manager, which can often be objective and valuable.

Hold Meetings with Clear Goals and Expected Outcomes​

Meetings often come across as lengthy, unnecessary, and bureaucratic, especially when their purpose is unclear. To ensure efficiency, it is essential to have a structured process and clearly defined expected outcomes. Expected outcomes can include information presentation and sharing or making a specific decision. The latter is more complex and requires the participation of all individuals directly affected by that decision. Managers should ensure that relevant information is presented completely and objectively, and that everyone's opinions are heard and respected.

Plan Ahead for Hiring Decisions​

Recruitment is a significant responsibility for managers. It is not simply about quickly finding someone to fill a vacancy without considering the candidate's skills and experience; it requires planning ahead. At the beginning of each year, Julie analyzes and lists the positions that need to be filled. She summarizes the following questions for managers looking to create their own hiring plans to consider.

• Considering the team's primary tasks and budget, how many new employees can you realistically hire?
• What skills does the existing team need most? Which skills are already well represented?
• How many years of relevant work experience do new hires need?
• What personalities or traits can enhance the diversity of the existing team?

Julie Zhuo is the vice president of product design at Facebook. In her book The Making of a Manager, Julie draws on her own experiences as a first-time manager and provides practical advice for those who want to become good managers.

Focus on improving the outcomes of a team instead of daily activities​

When Julie Zhuo just became a manager of Facebook's design team, she thought her job was to hold meetings with team members to follow up on their progress at work and provide feedback. It takes almost ten years for her to realize that a manager should strive for improved outcomes from the team and focus on broader issues such as how to help her team to work more effectively together instead of daily activities.

Andy Grove, in his book High Output Management, believes that a manager's output = The output of his organization + The output of the neighboring organizations under his influence.

Be activity-specific and bring in multiple perspectives when giving feedback​

Providing feedback to team members is indispensable to the job of a manager. But sometimes your criticism might hurt someone's feelings. Julie suggests two solutions for this situation. One way is to keep your feedback activity-specific. You can provide feedback specific to a task just completed by email or face-to-face communication. This way guarantees the criticism is only for the work someone has done, not the person. The other way is to bring in multiple perspectives. Besides your own opinion, you can share with the team what others think.

Start meetings with purpose and end with outcomes​

Meetings are usually considered as bureaucratic and a waste of time, especially when being held without a purpose. An agenda is not enough to make a productive meeting. In addition, the meeting organizer needs to have a clear idea of the outcome. The outcome could be to present and share information or to make a decision. In the latter situation, everyone who is going to be impacted directly by the decision should attend the meeting. The manager should ensure all the relevant information is presented objectively, and everyone's voices are heard and equally respected.

Plan in advance before making recruitment decisions​

Hiring should not be taken as finding someone to fill a vacancy as soon as possible regardless of the skills and experiences. It should be planned in advance. At the beginning of each calendar year, Julie creates a list of vacancies that needs to be recruited for. She suggests a few questions for managers to consider before tailoring their own recruit plans.

• How many new recruits can you realistically hire based on your team's priorities and budget?
• What skills does your team need more? What skills does your team have in abundance?
• How much experience should they have?
• What personalities or attributes could strengthen your team's diversity?

Imagine that you were a commander in one of the most violent battlefields in Iraq, and your decisions often had a significant impact on others’ lives. How would you lead? In the book Extreme Ownership, the authors, also former Navy SEAL task unit leaders, share their experience and insights of the success of Navy SEAL units, providing useful references for any organization that wants to succeed.

Take responsibility for failures​

Jocko Willink, one of the authors, held all the responsibility for an accident where a soldier lost his life in friendly fire. By doing this, he managed to keep his job because his superiors knew good leaders take responsibility for mistakes and actively look for ways to improve. If the leader makes an excuse to pass the buck, his subordinates will then do the same.

Understand the importance of your mission​

On the battlefield, when Willink was told that his elite team would be fighting side-by-side with the newly created Iraqi army, he doubted the capacity and loyalty of the Iraqi army as well as the correctness of the command. But later, he gradually realized this action could help the US forces to withdraw from Iraq. Then Willink passed his conviction onto his team, and then they finally accomplished the mission successfully.

Leaders should fully understand the importance of every mission and make sure every member is on the same page before carrying it out. If you consider the order received as questionable, think twice before speaking out against the plan. You may also try to seek explanations from your superiors.

Cooperate with your allies​

“Cover and move” is one of the most fundamental Navy SEAL tactics, which indicates sometimes you need to cooperate with your allies. Leif Babin, the other author, failed to employ this tactic and put his team in extreme danger, which could have been avoided. Leaders should keep an eye on other teams that could provide strategic support instead of competing with them.

Stay effective by setting priorities​

In Ramadi, Babin’s team was deep in enemy territory without backup. One team member was wounded and exposed. There was a bomb at the exit. Attention was required for a few problems at the same time. Babin calmly assessed the scenario, sorted out the top three priorities, and managed to escape from the dangerous situation.

In the battlefield where complicated situations often occur, leaders have to stay calm and find the optimal solution. That’s why “prioritize and execute” is thought as a useful principle. It is essential for leaders to decide on the top priority and then focus on it. After the problem is solved, you can move to the next priority and take action.

Identify and mitigate risks in advance​

Before an operation to rescue an Iraqi hostage, Babin fully considered the potential target around the hostage, including explosives and guns, and moved forward as planned, mitigating all the risks.

Creating a comprehensive plan helps to identify and mitigate risks in advance and improve the possibility of success. Besides, leaders should keep members informed of these contingency plans. Concentrate on the risks that can be controlled and be aware that there are always some risks that can not be mitigated.

1. build and ship the product
2. find the product-market fit
3. grow users as fast as you can consistently to achieve market leadership and defensible moats
4. build an executive team and an organization that can operation without the founder
5. go through the IPO and become an enduring public company

Imagine you are on the most dangerous battlefield in Iraq, as a commander making decisions that affect the lives of soldiers. How would you lead your team? In the book "Extreme Ownership," the authors, who served as task force commanders in the Navy SEALs, share their observations and experiences on the battlefield to provide insights for other teams striving for success.

Dare to Take Responsibility for Failures​

One of the authors, Jocko Willink, took full responsibility after a major incident involving friendly fire that resulted in soldier casualties, yet he was able to keep his job. This was because his superior understood a key principle: great leaders never shirk responsibility. Instead, they actively seek criticism and meticulously document ways to improve. If leaders avoid responsibility, their subordinates will follow suit.

Understand the Importance of the Mission​

On the battlefield, when Willink was informed by his commander that his elite unit would be working alongside the newly formed Iraqi army, he privately questioned the army's capability and loyalty, as well as the correctness of the orders. However, he gradually realized that this move would facilitate the smooth withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. He then communicated the mission and its purpose to his troops, ultimately accomplishing the task successfully.

Leaders should fully understand the significance of each action and communicate it to all team members before executing the mission. When there are doubts about the orders received, it is wise to pause and think carefully rather than hastily spreading concerns. Alternatively, you can seek clarification from superiors.

Actively Collaborate with Allies​

“Cover and move” is one of the most fundamental strategies of the Navy SEALs, meaning that sometimes you need to seek collaboration with allies. The book's other author, Leif Babin, once placed his team in an avoidable extreme situation by failing to use this strategy. Leaders need to look at the bigger picture and seek strategic support from other teams within the organization rather than constantly opposing them.

Clarify Priorities to Improve Efficiency​

On the battlefield in Ramadi, Babin faced a situation where his team was deep inside enemy territory, with no backup, and one team member was injured and exposed, while bombs were placed at the exit. However, after clearly identifying and addressing the three main priorities—ensuring safety, approaching the injured, and counting personnel—he was ultimately able to lead the team out of danger successfully.

The battlefield is often complex, and leaders must remain calm and seek the best solutions. Therefore, the principle of “prioritize and execute” is crucial. Leaders should first identify the highest priority tasks and focus on resolving them before shifting attention to the next priority.

Identify and Mitigate Risks in Advance​

Before conducting a rescue mission, Babin thoroughly considered various scenarios, such as ambushes with explosives and armed guards, allowing him to act smoothly and successfully mitigate risks.

Developing a comprehensive plan helps to identify and reduce risks in advance, increasing the chances of success. Additionally, leaders should promptly inform team members of relevant contingency plans. While focusing on manageable risks, they must also be aware that some risks cannot be avoided.

Why do people need the tech community?​

The composition of your tech knowledge intake

Perception of Value-frequency

In addition to disclosing the unknown unknown, the community discussions creating values in accessibility, building connections, and novelty.

	Group Discussion	Published Contents
accessibility	low	high
building connections	more	less
novelty	high	low

Case study: Value Proposition of Tech Communities​

1. For Utility
2. For Fun
3. For Career Growth

1. For Utility​

Wechaty: a Bot SDK for Wechat Individual Account

Two-layer Biz Structure:

To Business	Social CRM, AI-powered Chatbot
To Developer	Bot SDK and Service Token

Other examples:

1. Google play console discussion group
2. Some AI platform discussion group
3. Cross-platform dev tech group
4. …

2. For Fun​

Discussion groups for specific topics posted in a popular online forum could attract hundreds of people once.

e.g., Blockchain Random Discussion Group

3. For Career Growth​

Ex1. Seattle Data Science in Practice Group (WeChat 500)​

1. Focus on data science and tech in practice
2. No random discussion
3. Periodical sharing and meetup, e.g.
4. Intro to Tableau data visualization
5. Hands-on Spark Python
6. Building an ML Model from Scratch
7. Business Writing
8. Computer Vision Industry Frontline
9. …

What kinds of discussions happen in the group?

1. Article sharing and discussion
2. Job opportunities (posting resume + hiring session)
3. QA: Tech problems / solutions / best practices in daily work
4. Theories and concepts
5. Corporate ladder

Ex2. CS Career Hackers (Discord 1000+)​

CSCH is a community ranging from learners to experienced software engineers who come together to discuss programming, interviewing, career advancement, and, ultimately, how to be better engineers.

1. 501c3 nonprofit
2. QA
3. no politics, religion, or other controversial topics

What kinds of discussions happen in the group?

1. QA (career, programming, machine learning, system design, coding challenges)
2. moderation
3. resume review
4. ask a manager
5. meetups

Blockchain and dev community​

Challenges​

1. Utility value.
2. Unverified market segment.
3. Align topics with the company's growth.
4. Techies are not interested in generic marketing campaigns.

Solutions​

• Engineering Blog - that can be subscribed and separated from generic marketing contents for investors.
• Discussion Groups - on Topics like:
  1. distributed systems
  2. blockchain
  3. IoT
  4. DApp
  5. FinTech
  6. SCM
• Weekly Tech Review - sharing experiences and resources

Why does it align with the company?​

• brand-awareness - Like all the other engineering blogs, it helps the company build the engineering brand.
• conversion - user base for engaging and even conversion. e.g. Hubspot's inbound marketing.
• partnership - deepen the relationships with our dev partners by co-host online / offline events.
• private domain traffic / community economy - put our community dev tools (XRC20, XRC721) into wider audiences and grow with the private domain traffic
• use cases collect problems or use cases that developers meet in their daily work

How to initiate the effort for Blockchain companies?​

Twitter + Engineering Blog + Discussion Groups

1. prepare ten engineering blogs first and write / post one per week.
2. moderate Discord and WeChat groups on distributed systems, blockchain, IoT, DApp, FinTech, SCM, and so on.
   1. launch campaigns among study groups and forums
   2. kindly share with our techie friends and groups
   3. online + offline events with our tech partners
3. trial and error by providing high-value contents and launching campaigns

In the growth cycle of a company, the focus and measurement methods vary at each stage. This article focuses on early-stage startups, especially Series A, examining how VCs evaluate your pitch. What would make Greylock invest in you? How do you distinguish between a good idea and an early business that VCs can invest in?

Do You Need a VC?​

Out of every 500,000 new businesses with employees, only about 1,000 are VC-backed (0.2%). Under what circumstances does your business need a VC?

1. Can you succeed without venture capital?
2. Are you willing to give up some ownership in exchange for a partner?
3. Do you have enough ambition to build a transformative business?
4. Will you focus on rapid growth? What is the capital expenditure (CapEx) needed to get from here to there?

Why Do Startups Fail?​

The top five reasons:

1. No market
2. Run out of money
3. Wrong team
4. Outcompeted
5. Pricing/cost issues

Regarding the "no market" issue, entrepreneurs have various validation methods. Some solve problems they've experienced for years, while others conduct surveys, interviews, showcase prototypes, or even co-develop products with customers. Good products are honed over time and can be costly, making feedback and direction crucial. What does your feedback loop look like? How do you convince yourself and VCs that this is a real opportunity?

Products and Channels Are Equally Important​

• In recent years, the internet and mobile channels have enabled many companies to rise.
• Many tech giants have deep moats, not because no one can create better products, but because of their distribution channels.

Series A Pitch Deck Template​

1. Agenda
2. Problem
3. Team
4. Mission & Approach
5. Market Positioning
6. Any proof?
7. Defensibility
8. Go-to-market / Distribution
9. Market / Landscape
10. Roadmap
11. Plan

The Power of a Good Story​

A company is a continuously repeated good story told to employees, investors, media, customers, and partners until it becomes a reality.

Do You Really Understand the Term Market?​

1. When exploring new markets, the market is unknown, and you only have assumptions.
2. The best strategy for niche-and-next against large companies is to focus and simply solve one problem well.
3. Once you have a niche, expand the problem scope.

Geoffrey Moore's Positioning Template

Problem	Explanation
For	A specific target market
Who	Has needs and opportunities
Product name is	A product category
Its selling point	What benefits it offers and why people buy
Unlike	Competitors or alternative products
It differs in	Describing the main differentiating points

Moats​

Moat	Company
Technology	Google, Intel, Oracle
Ecosystem	Apple, Microsoft, Docker, YouTube
Network Effects	Facebook, Snap, LinkedIn, IG, Tencent
Marketplace	Airbnb, Uber, Alibaba
Product Leadership	Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow
Distribution	Slack, Quip, Dropbox, Atlassian

In addition to the above, AI products acquiring unique datasets are also becoming a moat. This moat creates positive feedback: you may start without collecting data, but as more data accumulates, your product improves.

What Constitutes a Good Team?​

Can you:

1. Define the right things?
2. Attract the best team?
3. Build the product?
4. Think independently?
5. Execute quickly?
6. Keep learning continuously?

Evidence and Data​

Create a 3 to 5-year plan; it doesn't need to be overly precise. If you don't know the benchmarks to measure against, read the S-1 of relevant companies.

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Profit Drivers
Profit
Cost Drivers
Gross Margin
Sales and Marketing Expenses
Cash Flow
Team Size

Also, consider the important unit economics:

1. Expected number of users per account
2. Customer acquisition cost
3. Gross margin
4. Customer churn/up-sell
5. Cost drivers

Be realistic and honest when facing data. :)

Overall, VCs Look for These Traits in Startups​

1. A strong, ambitious team that attracts talent, with a founder/company fit.
2. A unique, simple, and compelling value proposition.
3. A strategy to dominate the market.
4. High-profit, capital-efficient growth.

Finally, Here’s a Word of Encouragement​

There has never been a better time than now to become an entrepreneur.

Look to the stars while keeping your feet on the ground. Formulate a strategy and aim to dominate globally.

For centuries, our economy has revolved around physical assets. With technological advancements, the modern economic landscape has changed, and the most significant investments and assets are increasingly occurring and existing in non-physical forms.

The highest-valued companies, including Facebook, have their core assets in intangible assets such as software, branding, and development capabilities, rather than real estate or factories. Companies built on intangible assets operate differently from those relying on physical assets due to certain characteristics. From the book "Capitalism without Capital," we summarize the three key characteristics of intangible assets.

1. Rapid Scalability​

Businesses that rely on physical assets share a common drawback — they are easily constrained. When we need more production capacity, we must invest in acquiring more physical assets. In contrast, intangible assets are not subject to such limitations, allowing for rapid expansion in a short period. The scalability of intangible assets is particularly evident in the tech industry. For instance, the development of a software application can often lead to millions of downloads. This means that an increasing number of intangible asset-intensive companies can grow to astonishingly large scales.

However, this rapid scalability also brings the possibility of monopolies, posing significant challenges for new companies entering the market.

2. High Risk and Irrecoverability​

Physical assets tend to outperform intangible assets in terms of value stability. Even if physical assets depreciate, they are unlikely to be completely unwanted at the time of sale, whereas intangible assets are different. Intangible assets are difficult to quantify and cannot be recovered once issues arise, becoming sunk costs that investors have already incurred and cannot reclaim.

Brands do not have mature markets: on one hand, because brand value is hard to assess; on the other hand, a company's failure often leads to the complete disappearance of its brand value. Therefore, if a company relying on intangible assets fails, all previous investments will be lost. In reality, intangible investments carry extremely high risks and can vanish overnight.

3. Ease of Replication​

Intangible assets are generally easier to replicate than physical assets, making them susceptible to theft by competitors; they can be an idea or a concept. Thus, when a tech company creatively solves a problem, a surge of imitators and competitors typically follows. The iPhone is a prime example. To capture a larger market share, competitors often continuously engage in technological improvements and further innovations.

The ease of replication also brings issues of abuse and plagiarism. Policymakers in the intangible economy need to strengthen robust protection of intellectual property to ensure that innovators are not discouraged.

Over the past centuries, our economy has always revolved around physical assets. However, due to the development of technologies, the forms of the modern economy have changed drastically, and investments and assets in increasing numbers become non-physical, namely, intangible.

Nowadays, many of the most prominent companies in the world, such as Facebook, possess a significant amount of intangible assets, including software, branding, and development capacity, instead of real estate or factories. Companies built with intangible assets, for some reason, behave differently from those reliant on physical assets. The book Capitalism without Capital introduces three main characteristics of intangible assets.

1. Intangible assets can expand rapidly​

Businesses based on physical assets have one disadvantage in common: they are easy to be limited. When we need more production capacity, we have to invest more tangible assets. However, intangible assets do not have such limits, and they can expand rapidly in no time, which is particularly evident in the tech industry. For example, one mobile app can attract millions of downloads.

Intangible-intensive companies can likely grow incredibly large and finally become monopolies, creating enormous challenges to new entrants in the same industry.

2. Intangible assets are high-risk and irrecoverable investments​

Physical assets are relatively more stable than intangible assets in terms of value. Although physical assets may depreciate, they can always find a buyer in the market at a lower price. The case of intangible assets is a bit complicated. It’s hard to calculate the investments in intangible assets and recover the costs if anything goes wrong.

There is no mature secondary market for brands: on the one hand, the brand value is difficult to estimate; on the other hand, the brand may lose all the value if the business fails. Therefore, intangible assets are high-risk investments and may drop to zero overnight.

3. Intangible assets are easy to be duplicated​

Your competitors can steal your intangible assets with little difficulties. When a tech company solves a problem innovatively, many imitators and competitors spring up. iPhone is a good example. And in order to obtain a larger market share, competitors always keep improving the current technology and try to innovate further.

However, being easy to be duplicated brings up a problem of abuse. Policymakers in the intangible economy should enhance the protection of intellectual property rights.

Working together is very important. Even a genius like Turing needs others’ help to crack the Enigma code. But what is the key factor in team success? Many people believe it is the skills and abilities of team members. Well, the truth may surprise you.

At the beginning of the book The Culture Code, the author introduces a funny competition held among groups of kindergartners, business school students, and lawyers in which the participants need to create the tallest possible structure with uncooked spaghetti, tape, strings, and a marshmallow. Unexpectedly, the game ends with the triumph of kindergartners. How can it happen? When looking back, we discover that business school students usually analyze the problem first, discuss the right strategy, and quietly form a hierarchy. At the same time, kindergartners just start experimenting together and keep trying.

From the different approaches, we can see a good group culture, which can boost the overall performance values, more internal interaction and communication than the skills of group members.

There are three skills to create this kind of group culture.

1. Create a safe working environment​

People can perform at their best in a familiar environment, and that’s why creating a safe working environment is so crucial. The sense of safety usually comes from internal familiarities and connections. If you want to make others feel relaxed and safe, it’s essential to let them know you are paying attention to what they have to say. Sometimes, proper feedback is needed too, which can both increase interactivity and let people feel they are needed.

2. Show your vulnerabilities to build trust​

Although it might sound strange, showing your vulnerabilities actually helps to improve the group performance. We always look at the ways people around us behave and pick up some patterns. Admitting your shortcomings to others indicates they can do the same too. And this will enhance the mutual trust within the group.

Meanwhile, sharing vulnerabilities also conveys the expectation of cooperation. When group members know you rely on their help, they can feel comfortable to rely on you in return. Then everyone is going to know he or she does not have to handle everything on their own.

3. Establish a common purpose and emphasize​

The pursuit of a common goal is critical to group performance. The common goal refers to beliefs and values behind people’s actions. Gabriele Oettingen, a psychology professor at New York University, has proved in several studies that, communications over the common purpose can help to unite members and achieve goals.

Repetition is necessary for emphasizing the common purpose within the group. You can put it over again and again in regular meetings or make it into short tag lines. Repeat ten times or a hundred times if necessary.