@sachin-monga
Substack's head of product. Believer that individual creators are entering a golden age where they can build fortunes without chasing viral attention.
When I joined Substack as head of product, my main job for the first couple months wasn't shipping features. It was making sure the CEO knew what the teams were doing — and the teams knew where he was coming from.
Most people worry: Should I ask anyone to pay me? Is that crazy? Can I take a vacation if people are paying? Almost in all of those cases, your paying readers are more forgiving than you think — and they want you to take that vacation.
Our principle at Substack: 'Build with writers, build with readers.' Before any fundamental change, bring writers along. Pilot with 10. Get feedback. Ship something different than what you had in mind. Never roll out to everyone first.
Team structure organized around customers — writers, readers, growth — has outlasted every reorg expectation. Teams oriented around timeless customer problems don't go obsolete the way surface-area teams do.