How to foster innovation and big thinking | Eeke de Milliano (Retool, Stripe)

**Eeke de Milliano** (0:00)
Process by definition is variance reducing. Like you're introducing it because you worry that the variance in your org is too high. Like you want people to sort of meet a certain standard. And the cost of that is obviously while you're reducing the standard and bringing folks up to the average, you're also bringing other folks down to the average. And oftentimes, the folks you're bringing down are your highest performers, your most creative thinkers, the folks who I think actually don't really need process to do their best work.
And so that I think is always the tension that you have with process. And obviously, one of the reasons why companies introduce process much more and more as companies get bigger is because it's just, it's harder to sort of get all these folks who kind of don't need processing. You actually want to reduce the variance.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:52)
Welcome to Lenny's Podcast, where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard-won experiences, building and scaling today's most successful companies. Today, my guest is Eeke de Milliano. Eeke is head of product at Retool. Prior to that, she was a long-time PM at Stripe. She was actually one of their very first PMs, where she helped build some of their foundational products, like Stripe Checkouts, Stripe Connect, Stripe Radar, and Stripe Chargeback Protection.
I had a total blast chatting with Eeke. We covered Stripe's internal culture and what makes it so unique and innovative, how to foster and protect innovation at your own company, what is the right amount of process by stage of company, how to build a talent portfolio, and so much more. I am really excited for you to hear this episode. And with that, I bring you Eeke de Milliano after a short word from our wonderful sponsors.
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Eeke, welcome to the podcast.

**Eeke de Milliano** (3:38)
Thanks so much for having me, Lenny.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:40)
Absolutely my pleasure. A bunch of people have told me that I need to have you on this podcast.
And actually a big thank you to Snir Kodesh, who I believe is a colleague of yours who gave me a bunch of interesting questions to ask you. So I hope you're ready.

**Eeke de Milliano** (3:53)
Very ready.
Snir is the best. So yeah, excited.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:57)
So you're currently head of product at Retool. But before that, you spent a lot of time at Stripe, you spent six years at Stripe.
And so before we get to Retool, I actually want to spend a little time on Stripe to set a little foundation. Could you just talk about some of the things you worked on at Stripe? And maybe some of the things you're most proud of during that time? Yeah.