Brian Tolkin
Head of Product & Design at Opendoor
Head of Product and Design at Opendoor; previously spent five years at Uber as employee #100 where he launched uberPOOL and took it global; started the product operations function at Uber before it was a recognized discipline.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Brian Tolkin, who launched uberPOOL at Uber as employee #100 and now leads product and design at Opendoor, shares lessons on building products with heavy operational components. He discusses how his ops background became his greatest PM advantage, the twin-turbine-jet-plane model of product-ops integration, running effective product reviews, implementing JTBD in practice at Opendoor, and why staying calm under pressure paradoxically produces better team outcomes.
Leadership Principles
- → Product and operations are like a twin turbine jet plane — you can fly on one engine briefly, but it's most effective when both work together
- → Having been in ops gives deep understanding of how the business actually works — it's the best foundation for deciding what to build
- → When you reflect stress onto your teams, everybody tenses out — it counterintuitively doesn't produce better outcomes; stay calm under pressure
Notable Quotes
"Uber always has this mentality and Opendoor does too of the product operations twin turbine jet plane where you can fly the plane on one engine for a little bit if you need to, but it's operating most efficiently and effectively if both are working together."
— On the relationship between product and operations
"I've slept on the floor in China before launching uberPOOL, and when you reflect the stress onto your teams, everybody tenses out. It counterintuitively doesn't produce better outcomes."
— On staying calm under pressure as a leader
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