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Why Does Julie Zhuo Treat Team Confusion as a Mirror?

Julie Zhuo treats confusion on the Sundial team as a mirror of a conflict she has not settled in herself. When the team is confused, she asks what she really stands for, because mixed signals from her usually mean she has not decided how she truly feels.

She says one thing and then another. People get confused because the messages conflict, and they conflict because she has not figured out her own view in her heart of hearts. She reads how the company is running as a mirror of what she still feels conflicted about. Running a company is a game with a basic rule of capitalism: make more money than you spend, and make more over time. A choice between feature A and feature B is never only about which option maximizes revenue, for her or, she believes, for most leaders. If revenue were the only test, she does not know that she would stay in her current space. The money-only path looks more like porn, junk food, sleazy advertising, or cigarettes, and a vast majority of founders refuse that path because of a personal value.

When something at Sundial feels weird or is not going well, she asks what the problem reveals about what she has not yet understood and where she is still conflicted inside.

Grokipedia·Julie Zhuo·Sundial

Transcript

The Miseducation of Julie Zhuo ·

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  3. How New Was Early Facebook Growth Work?Julie Zhuo says a lot of what Facebook did back then was very new.
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  5. What Did Julie Zhuo Realize About Customers?Julie Zhuo realized, six months into building her company, that she had not talked enough to customers. The team was stuck choosing whether to do A or B.
  6. Why Do Hypotheticals Beat a Ready-made Process?Julie Zhuo believes people learn product development far more when they create the process themselves and then reflect on whether they believe it is the best…
  7. Do People Remember Failed Facebook Launches?Soleio says nobody remembers the Facebook launches that failed.
  8. How Did Fear of Failing Hold Julie Zhuo Back?Julie Zhuo waited to start a company because she was too scared she could not succeed.
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  10. Why Did Julie Zhuo Struggle to Speak Up at Facebook?Julie Zhuo struggled to speak up at Facebook because she cared so much about being part of the whole that she lost a little of herself.

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