Matt Lerner: How I turned PayPal’s blind spot into $100M growth

Organisations reach a size and scale where complexity creeps in. With silos, layers and competing agendas, teams play it safe and focus on incremental tweaks, and this focus on local maxima blinds teams to bigger opportunities. Matt will tell us how you can identify and challenge the fundamental assumptions that limit the growth of your business to spot big opportunities.

Transcript

1. July, 2024 Turing Fest Edinburgh HOW I FOUND $100M IN PAYPAL’S BLIND SPOT MATT LERNER, SYSTM
6. AN OLD PAYPAL WAR STORY *All numbers are fi ctitous and illustrative, but directionally accurate 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Launch Party “Oh Shit” meetings Obvious Fixes Harder Fixes Stuff that didn’t work Step Back Activation Rate Month 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27
9. PARETO DISTIBUTION 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Share of Value Decile *All numbers are fi ctitous and illustrative, but directionally accurate
10. RESULTS *All numbers are fi ctitious and illustrative, but directionally accurate
11. RESULTS *All numbers are fi ctitious and illustrative, but directionally accurate
18. OPTIMIZE
20. DISCOVER
22. OPTIMIZE DISCOVER
25. “It is impossible for a man to learn 
 what he thinks he already knows.” Epictetus 

26. 1 Acknowledge it’s a search MINDSET CHANGE 2 Establish the right incentives 3 Model the behaviour
27. startupcorestrengths.com INCENTIVES Work Revenue Revenue Customer 
 Value Work Revenue Learning Work Customer Value
28. LEARN RATE BURN RATE Credit: Sara Gordon
29. OPTIMIZE Confident Diligent Productive Flawless DISCOVER Curious Deliberate Impatient Serendipitous MODEL THE BEHAVIOUR
30. CURIOUS