Leaders Unscripted

Conversations with leaders about the challenges they’ve faced and what they’ve learned.

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14: From VP of People to COO with Whereby’s Jessica Zwaan

Episode cover image

When it comes to broad roles, they don’t come more varied than that of a COO.

Some of the most invaluable skills to help COOs navigate any challenge come from working with people, a transition that Jessica Zwaan has made look effortless.

Currently COO at Whereby, she uncovers the deepest aspects of such a fluid leadership role, your culture as a subscription product, and leading a team through huge business pivots.

This Episode Covers:

  • The remarkable fluidity of the COO role
  • Making challenging pivots within the business
  • How surprisingly often leaders face ‘trolley problems’
  • An outlook on culture as your team ‘subscribing to it’
  • The lesser-spoken downsides of a COO role and promotion

Episode Highlights:

“One of the things that has always really appealed to me about the COO role is it's extremely broad. You really do get an amazing bird's eye view of the entire company.” - 5:20 - Jessica Zwaan
“I think that the COO role is so fluid, which is why it makes me sad to see job ads out there for COOs which are pretty much exclusively management consulting, working at McKinsey, and an MBA. Is that even really what you need for this job?” - 9:30 - Jessica Zwaan
“Pivots are so hard. We moved from a B2C product, which people really understood - everyone in our team was a user ourselves, we all really believed in this space - to this highly technical B2D software product where, if you can't read code, you can't even buy the product anymore.” - 19:20 - Jessica Zwaan
“I don't think people that work in startups (and I'm glad they don’t realize this, I'm happy that they are protected from this information), I think people don't realize how often you're faced with trolley problems.” - 23:10 - Jessica Zwaan
“Extremely fast-paced career growth and a low-risk work environment are not two things that tend to go hand in hand.” - 28:25 - Jessica Zwaan
“Your culture and the company that you build is a subscription product, just the same as a product that you're building for your customers. Every single month, your employees are making the decision whether or not they want to keep subscribing.” - 35:40 - Jessica Zwaan

Links & References:

Constellary: https://www.constellaryhq.com/

Suzan Bond: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanbond/

Jessica Zwaan: https://www.jessicamayzwaan.com/

Jessica Zwaan (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamayzwaan/

Whereby: https://www.linkedin.com/company/whereby/mailchimp/