Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibly at Netflix


Patty McCord spent 14 years at Netflix as Chief Talent Officer. Her 2018 book, Powerful, distills learnings and philosophies on building outstanding, empowered and truthfully informed teams desitned to tackle the challenges of today—and tomorrow.

For starters, this is a gripping book. It’s edgy and sometimes uncomfortably frank but provides a peek into Netflix’s culture— and the Executive, HR and Engineer relationships within. It sets out how Netflix was able to attract and retain top talent. Plus when to say goodbye as culture or performance requirements evolve. 

Here were the 8 most important lessons to me:

1. Everyone needs to understand the business, deeply.

Whether you’re a hiring manager or a HR representative helping find candidates, you need to understand how the business runs. From P&L, to competition, to key challenges and priorities. This ensures talent understands their role and what is important.

2.  Be radically honest.

Netflix’s culture is all about honesty. They implemented a Start/Stop/Continue feedback model. Everyone has to be comfortable giving and reviving honest feedback. Ideas and approaches were debated fully, even pitting disagreeing executives against each other in debates. The twist was that execs would often debate the position they were against, to better understand perspectives and move away from bias.

3. Be Fact-Driven and Scientific.

Decouple facts and data, because being fact-driven doesn’t mean solely relying on data. In fact (pun intended), we should beware of data masquerading as facts. Data is only as strong as the insight and action that can be pulled from it. And is open to confirmation bias. Hold data up to rigorous scientific standards to get an objective narrative.

Netflix A/B tested changes to the 30 day trial sign up, where prospects didn’t need to enter their payment details to begin. This was to reduce pain-points in the application process and designed to increase acquisition volume. However, results plummeted by half because it actually meant people basically had to sign up twice. Scientific testing is key to facts.

4. Ten games at a time.

Patty draws parallels to a 60 game hockey season, suggesting frequent and honest performance reviews along the way are much better than a yearend review. This allows for course-correction and focus on the work that matters, in real-time. This should be applied to managing your team.

5. Build a team for the future you’re creating, not today.

Team ins and outs should be shaped by the challenges 6 months from now, not today and certainly not yesterday. 

6. Motivation and talent acquisition

is about attractive talent density (working with highly talented colleagues) and appealing challenges. This is more important than short-term incentives and perks. Even tenure and career paths are outdated. Empower teams and let them solve challenges and learn from other high performers.

7. Experience and performance matter and are valuable.

When thinking about rewards, don’t discount how much more valuable talent has become whilst working with you. Don’t be defined by salary bands and head-count. Compensate openly and honestly.

8. Algorithm for success.

Are you (and your team) passionate about the job you’re doing? Are you great at it? Is what you’re doing needed? These three points – and the congruence of answers – are Patty’s algorithm for success. And also tell you when it’s time to move on or let go.