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I know some folks who work and have worked at Shopify and their experiences track with this statement. I was told that within Shopify there's something called
by kunzhi 1y ago
I know some folks who work and have worked at Shopify and their experiences track with this statement.
I was told that within Shopify there's something called a "Tobi Tornado" - basically when Tobi swoops in on a program / feature and demands significant change in short order. Carefully planned initiatives can be blown up and then it's maximum effort expected to turn it around.
What everyone had in common was saying that Tobi is quite a smart person and often not wrong, but he's still human, and so there's simply no way he can make 100% good calls because he can't always have full context.
- rchaud 1y agoThe PC term for this is "founder mode".
- ryandrake 1y agoI've heard it called "Seagull Management." A manager swoops in unannounced, shits all over and disrupts everything, and then swoops out while the rank and file have to deal with the mess.
- ohgr 1y agoGot one of them. I ignore him most of the time. This has generated more ROI than his initiatives would have. Evidenced by the teams who do them generating a loss every fucking time. His nickname, which he wasn't worked out, is the first half of a sexual lubricant brand because he's such a wanker.
- mathgladiator 1y agoAnd that is the rank and file's job. Chaos is important for breaking organizational bones.
- psunavy03 1y agoAnd there's the bootlicking take of the day.
- mathgladiator 1y agomaybe, but I retired early at 40. When you go to work, you trade your identity to be the person that earns as much as possible. Everything else is just noise.
- ethbr1 1y agoEA, eh?
- psunavy03 1y agoKeep telling yourself that. I'm sure you'll still be thinking that at 80 when you look back at whether or not your life meant anything anyone after you would give a shit about. Money doesn't mean shit when you're old and alone. My family also has "fuck you" money; don't think retiring at 40 overawes me. Beyond a certain point, it doesn't hide being an asshole.
- mathgladiator 1y agoIt sure is better than being poor and homeless like when I started my journey.
- namaria 1y agoHey, at least you know your price point.
- skrebbel 1y agoFwiw this is exactly what I'd expect a product founder to do. If I wanted to work at a bank I'd go work at a bank. It's so easy for groups to over-cover-their-asses, go for maximum safety everywhere, design-by-committee all the things, etc. I think this is almost unavoidable in a large org. It's the task of a decent product minded founder to add some balance to this. I've no idea whether Tobi gets it right, just.. this isn't necessarily a bad thing!
- ketzo 1y agoI mostly agree that the benefit of a product-focused founder & CEO is the ability to make judgement calls, even corrections, and get things moving faster However, I think the more work you blow up when you do this, the more it’s reflective of a poor management style; even if it’s the right call under the circumstances, that call should almost certainly have been made earlier. Of course we don’t live in a perfect world, and if something’s 75% done but really bad, you press the red button and stop it, even if people will be upset. But if you’re consistently being described as a “tornado”, that says to me you’re not applying your founder judgement early enough in your company’s development process.
- notfromhere 1y agoBlowing things up like that is mostly for people who want to feel important. It's a bad leadership model and fairly disrespectful to your employees IMO
- jen729w 1y agoShopify store owner here. It’s my entire income. This is terrifying. Shopify is well past its move fast… phase. It powers a vast percentage of ecommerce. If not in dollar percentage, certainly in human. Please, I beg you, pretend like you work at a bank.
- zachthewf 1y agoThere are certainly slow-moving ecommerce platforms that I'm sure would be happy to take your business. Yet Shopify has the best product. Why do you think that is?
- jasondigitized 1y agoThis is also called "Swoop and Poop" or "Show up and Throw Up"
- dghlsakjg 1y agoSeagull management too. Fly in, make a ton of noise, shit on everything, fly away.
- flappyeagle 1y agoWhat if he’s right more than 50% of the time?
- senko 1y agoHe can be right 100% of the time, this is no way to run a company. You hire passionate people who pour their soul and overtime into a thing then you parachute in, override half their decisions, micromanage other half, then leave leaving them to live with the mess. After a few of these stunts, you end up with disillusioned, cynical, burnt out people who just don't care any more, and either quiet quit or leave for greener pastures, or the kind of folks who crack the game and fail upwards while caring nothing about the company and the products. And as soon as the word spreads out that this is your modus operandi, smart folks who have neen around the block a few times will avoid you like the plague. It can work if you're willing to churn people (khm Elon), for some definition of "work".
- hbsbsbsndk 1y agoThere's a kind of survivorship bias to people saying "he's very smart". I was in a neglected part of the engineering org far away from his micromanaging. If he had been showing up and complaining about my projects I wouldn't have stayed for years.
- TZubiri 1y agoThis sounds like any normal privately owned company or hierarchical organization to be honest.
- AbstractH24 1y ago> he's still human, and so there's simply no way he can make 100% good calls because he can't always have full context. This is a good thing for all us humans to remember