ESSENTIALS MANAGEMENT be done, have them do it themselves, then have them teach new people who are being onboarded what they’ve learned. The act of teaching, in particular, is powerful for internalizing information and making actions second nature. This is how Stripe has empowered people to make good decisions, no matter how many steps they are away from the founders. For example, when Patrick and John Collison started the company, they had very clear opinions about the brand they wanted to build — particularly the design philosophy. They believed strongly that the sotfware should be beautiful, which differentiated them in their B2B market. Over time, this has distinguished Stripe as a leader in the ifeld. To make this possible, the founders had to pass on their design sensibility to a team of new people who would carry it forward the way they would have themselves. When the design team was just starting out, the founders created a design review process that would allow them to offer their opinions and ask guiding questions at checkpoints along the way. Eventually, the design leaders on the team took this over as they brought on new members — asking the same set of questions at the same checkpoints. They became the teachers for a new crop of designers who would then learn the criteria, questions and goals to consider when designing something new. A similar process was established on the business side: deal review. “The initial decision makers on deal terms were those of us who led the company,” says Johnson. “We no longer review every deal, and we’d be failing if that were the case.” Stripe’s leadership still maintains a deal review for unusual deals. Documentation is critical to supplement the impact of these review meetings. It’s important that you start categorizing the common decisions teams have to make, so you can create rules and methods around how to make them. “For example, we’ve streamlined how to handle deals with similar structures,” she says. “We’ll be able to identify a type of deal based on a list of criteria, and we’ll be able to respond with the right type of contract. It accelerates everything and makes it easy for people on the front lines to respond without always checking with their managers — and it provides a better experience for customers coming to Stripe.” Importantly, there are also set procedures for when new types of deals or decisions are encountered. “When an employee sees a new type of deal for the ifrst time, they know 74