Lessons from Kaz Nejatian, COO at Shopify

On Company Culture and Leadership

On the difference between crafters and managers: "The difference is in what you spend time on. Most people get satisfaction from building — from actually creating things. But most companies aren't for crafters who want to build. They're for people who want to manage." [1]
On creating a "crafter's paradise": "We want to make Shopify a crafter's paradise. Our goal is to clear the obstacles for crafters to do their best work and be rewarded for it." [1]
On the problem with traditional career ladders: "Traditional career ladders just don't work." [2] He argues that they create strange incentives for builders to become managers, even when it's not their passion. [1]
On raging against being a big company: "Our job is to rage against being a big company." [2] Shopify deliberately "zigs when most companies zag" to avoid appearing like a typical large corporation. [3]
On the importance of being wrong: "We really honestly value being told we're wrong like we value being wrong so we can learn like the company is very deeply has that culture of like trying to find a truth is more important than like looking like an idiot." [3]
On leadership at Shopify: "One of the key differences between Shopify and most management teams is that we're not a professional management team like we're all like ex-founders and we're all like still kind of kids." [3]
On meetings: "Nobody ever dreamed of sitting in meetings." [2] Shopify famously canceled all recurring meetings to free up time for building. [2][4]
On why meeting bloat happens: Nejatian points out that at one point, the average Shopify employee was spending about 6 hours a week just in all-hands meetings for their various teams. [5]
On asynchronous communication: Shopify has adopted a model where communication is primarily asynchronous, with decisions and discussions documented in writing to ensure transparency and inclusivity. [4]
On work-life integration: The company focuses on work-life integration, rather than work-life balance, encouraging employees to find a rhythm that suits their lifestyle. [4]
On the role of managers: "Managers should be empowering crafters and it's hard to do that without being one yourself." [1]
On his own craft time: "As a COO for example, I still try to keep my schedule open on Wednesdays so that I can build things and work on the product." [1]
On a craft-centric future: Nejatian envisions a future where work is infused with passion, creativity, and individuality, challenging the idea of employees as replaceable cogs in a machine. [7]

On Product Development and Strategy

On the importance of strategy: "Strategy is the least meaningful aspect of product." [2]
How great products are built: "People misunderstand how great products are built." [2] He emphasizes taste and deep ownership over rigid processes. [2]
On OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): "We're not an OKR company...Many important things can't be measured and not everything that can be measured is important." [1]
On focusing on the right thing: "Many companies spend a lot of time deciding if they're measuring the right thing. We prefer to focus on building the right thing." [1]
On the job of a Product Manager: "The job of a PM at Shopify is to build the right thing the right way at the right time." [8]
On the scarcity of good product managers: "I think there's so few good product managers in the world... I can't teach taste. I can't teach you to be the type of person that takes an extreme amount of ownership over every problem. But I can't really teach you to have empathy." [2]
On the "Lean Startup" methodology: "I think the book lean startup may have done more damage unintentionally to software than any other book." [9][10] He argues it has led to a proliferation of bad software. [8]
On shipping products you're proud of: "The goal is to ship things that you are proud of being in the world." [9] He contrasts this with the culture of shipping things you know are bad just to get a reaction. [9]
On the importance of 'how' versus 'what': "People overestimate the importance of what and massively underestimate the importance of how." [8]
On the need for technical understanding: "I'm not saying all PMs need to write code but all PMs need to understand how code is written." [8]
Shopify's three priorities: "We say at Shopify we only have three priorities: build great products, make money, use the money to build more great products. And never reverse one and two." [9]
On building internal tools: Shopify invests heavily in building its own software to support its unique way of working, including its remote culture. [3]
On the cost of internal tools: "We have I think a dozen Engineers building software just to make remote work... and people don't understand how big an investment that is because these are very good Engineers who could be building products for merchants that we are saying no no build products for Shopify." [3]
On data-driven decisions: He criticizes the over-reliance on Excel for decision-making, noting that "if every cell had a confidence score... everything would be fine." [3]
On Shopify's quality bar: "Shopify has a quality bar that is higher than most other software companies. So... we hold things back that almost everyone else would have shipped." [9]

On Entrepreneurship and Commerce

On Shopify's core mission: "Shopify is a company that tries to answer a question which is what can we do to create more entrepreneurs and small businesses in the world." [11]
On his personal connection to entrepreneurship: As the son of a small business owner (who now uses Shopify), Nejatian has a lifelong interest in entrepreneurship. [12] He was even "hacking credit card terminals by the age of 12." [12]
On the pain of managing money for merchants: "People don't get into business to say 'You know what I really like doing, I really like dealing with banks I want to do more of that.' People just don't say that. So it's our job to make that pain go away so they can focus on building things that add value." [11]
On supporting creators: While Shopify has tools for creators, their primary focus remains on being "the ideal piece of software you choose that guarantees that you have not made a mistake when you want to sell something to someone." [2]
On fulfillment: "Fast is cheap people don't realize this in fulfillment fast is cheap. What's really expensive is slow." [3]
On the vision for Shopify: His vision is to create a platform that supports and values the craft economy, enabling creators to earn a living from their skills and talents. [4] This belief is partly inspired by his grandparents' experience as rug merchants. [4]
On the focus on merchants: "Our merchants are at the center of everything we do at Shopify, and helping them run their businesses and reach their goals in today's dynamic market is more important than ever." [12]
On the future of the creator economy: Nejatian believes that as more people turn to crafts for their livelihood, Shopify's role will be to provide the tools and platform for these creators to succeed. [4]

On Remote Work and Other Topics

On remote work: "I think being remote is an exceptionally bad idea for most companies. I encourage almost everyone to not do it." [8][9]
Why remote works for Shopify: "The reason it works for Shopify is because we have spent so much time and so much effort building systems and tools and software to make this work." [9]
On learning vs. experience: He suggests that for growth and software companies, prioritizing learning over experience is crucial for survival, and that most companies just "cosplay as learners." [9]
On marriage and family: He believes that married people with kids are more, not less, productive. [10] He has also stated that getting married will be your best career accelerant. [13]
On being perpetually hungry for success: A lesson he learned from working with tech leaders like Keith Rabois and Max Levchin is to be "perpetually hungry" and "incredibly kind but very aggressive in their execution in their ambition." [9]
On keeping the main thing the main thing: He quotes Stephen Covey: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." [1]

Learn more:

Lessons from Kaz Nejatian, COO at Shopify

On Company Culture and Leadership

On Product Development and Strategy

On Entrepreneurship and Commerce

On Remote Work and Other Topics

Written by Antoine Buteau

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