Scaling People

Claire Hughes Johnson is a corporate officer and advisor at Stripe. Previously, she was chief operating officer at Stripe from 2014 to 2021, helping the company grow from fewerthan 200 employees to more than 8,000. At various times, she led business operations, sales, marketing, customer support, risk, real estate, and all of the people functions, including recruiting and HR. Prior to Stripe, she spent 10 years at Google leading business teams, including overseeing aspects of Gmail, Google Apps, and consumer operations, as well as serving as a vice president for AdWords, Google Offers, and Google’s self-driving car project. She serves on the boards of Ameresco, the Atlantic, Aurora Innovation, and HubSpot, and isa trustee and current board president of Milton Academy. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, two children, and two neurotic dachshunds

• IntroductionSetting your metronomeThe core frameworksWho is this book for?How to read this bookExercises and templatesChapter 1Essential Operating Principles1. Build self-awareness to build mutual awareness2. Say the thing you think you cannot say3. Distinguish between management and leadership4. Come back to your operating systemExercises and templatesChapter 2Core Framework 1: Foundations and Planning for Goals and ResourcesFounding documentsThe operating systemOperating cadenceExercises and templatesChapter 3Core Framework 2: A Comprehensive Hiring ApproachRecruitingHiringOnboardingHiring mistakesExercises and templatesChapter 4Core Framework 3: Intentional Team DevelopmentTeam structuresDiagnosing team stateTeam changes and restructuring(Re)building the teamCreating the team environmentTeam-building complexitiesDiversity and inclusionTeam communicationExercises and templatesChapter 5Core Framework 4: Feedback and Performance MechanismsHypothesis-based coachingGiving hard feedbackCreating a culture of informal feedbackThe formal review processCompensationManaging high performersManaging low performersManaging managersManaging out, firing, and layoffsSome final thoughts on managementExercises and templatesConclusionYou Manage your time and energyFoster relationshipsConsider your careerEndnotesBibliographyAcknowledgmentsIndexAbout the Author

“ClaireJohnson gave me some of the best feedback of my career: ‘You don’t ask for helpoften enough.’ Whether you are a new manager or a CEO, there are going to bemoments when you feel alone and need help. Odds are, the advice you need is inScaling People. You are going to pull this book off yourshelf over and over!"—Kim Scott, author of RadicalCandor and Just Work“Thepractical guide to running a world-class organization… Claire has demystifiedhow you run a large, high-performance organization, with clear concepts andpractical templates that you can start implementing today.”—JasonCitron, founder and CEO of Discord “I was excitedto learn that Claire Hughes Johnson has taken her many years of operatingexcellence from Stripe and Google and distilled it into a new book. ScalingPeople is a key book to be added to the shelf of any people leader andmanager.”—Elad Gil, entrepreneur, investor, and author ofHigh Growth Handbook“Scaling People is approachable, entertaining, and exceptionally useful, with lots of heart and humor. Claire leverages her years of unparalleled experience to provide a deeply helpful resource to read and revisit again and again.”—Aileen Lee, founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures“Through the entirehistory of startups and entrepreneurship, the world expects founders and youngexecutives to succeed and thrive as their company grows larger and larger. Yetno one takes the time to give them the skills and processes that are necessaryto achieve great leadership. Now someone has—hats off to Claire Johnson forwriting Scaling People.”—Bill Gurley, generalpartner at Benchmark “If you want to scale yourbusiness from 10 people to 10,000 without losing the things that make itspecial, Scaling People is the handbook you need.”—RaviGupta, former CFO and COO of Instacart, general partner at SequoiaCapital“There’s a lot of reinventing the wheel in a startup environment. Scaling People offers strong frameworks, sound advice, and tried-and-true processes that any company can use to build stronger foundations and sustainable success.”—Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock, host of Masters of Scale“Claire Hughes Johnson is the ultimate operator. She distills two decades of management and leadership expertise into one accessible volume with real-world examples and actionable guidance. Scaling People proves that it’s possible to operate in a high-growth environment while simultaneously focusing on and caring about developing people—and that doing so also leads to a fundamentally stronger business.”—Mallun Yen, founder of Operator Collective“Everything you need to know about building and scaling a company, being an exceptional leader and manager, and getting the best out of your people in one empathetic and enjoyable package—with easy-to-use worksheets and templates to boot.”—Frances Frei, author of Uncommon Service and Unleashed, professor at Harvard Business School“Claire Hughes Johnson has been in the catbird seat at two companies: Google and Stripe. She participated in Google's transformative journey in the decade following its IPO. Since then, she has helped Stripe develop from a two-floor office into a global, multibillion-dollar infrastructure company on which millions of businesses depend. Two eras, two companies—one Claire.”—Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital