Brian Tolkin, Head of Product @Opendoor: How to Hire the Best Product Teams | E1257

Brian Tolkin (Opendoor Head of Product, ex-Uber) argues dictatorial product leadership beats consensus, and that poor hires are almost always the company’s fault.

• Uber pool defaulted users to pool even after choosing UberX — Tolkin calls it the worst decision: prioritizing business liquidity over user intent.
• Upfront pricing for Uber pool was his single best product decision; variable post-trip pricing killed trust.
• CEO should be CPO in early stages — outsourcing product ownership at seed/Series A is a critical mistake.
• Poor hiring decisions are almost never the new hire’s fault; unclear outcomes, wrong skill fit, or excessive role ambiguity are the real causes.
• Internal transfers from engineering, ops, or design into PM roles are undervalued and outperform external hires.
• In an AI world, top-1% designers become more valuable (taste gap widens), while median engineering skill gets commoditized.
• Teams should have 3–5 OKRs max; the discipline is in articulating what important things you are NOT doing.
• Staying 4–6+ years at one company compounds effectiveness — 18-month hopping leaves too little time after the 6-month ramp to do real work.

2025-02-07 · Watch on YouTube