Harvard in Tech Spotlight: Jim Haughwout, VP of Platform at Peloton
I spoke with Jim Haughwout, VP of Platform at Peloton. Jim has previously led global teams at six #1 companies in their sector (including Spotify, Amgen, and AOL) as well as a range of early-stage startups across many tech and business domains (IoT, two-sided marketplaces, social media, and mobile medicine).
Jim has always looked for companies using technology to transform how people work and live at a global scale. Ten months ago, in the midst of quarantine, Jim saw many of his friends using Peloton as a way to stay healthy during the pandemic. He realized how much Peloton was truly changing people’s lives, altering their exercise habits. He appreciated the incredibly interdisciplinary approach Peloton takes to create their impact, leveraging software, data science, hardware, content, streaming, and platform. He also enjoyed the culture on the team, full of friendly, energetic, innovative, and open people. When the opportunity to join the Peloton came up, he was excited to join as VP of Platform.
Jim shared his advice on continuous learning, building trust, and being mindful.
Find the in-house experts. Throughout Jim’s career, he has worked in many different domains (from consulting to product to engineering to venture capital to operations to data and more) and many different industries (from biotech to two-sided marketplaces to media — traditional, streaming and social). When asked how he learns about new spaces, Jim underscores the importance of having a growth mindset. He approaches learning much like he did in school through researching and reading and especially through meeting people, learning about what they do, asking tons of questions, and listening. When he meets people from each team, he always asks: who is an expert in your group who can teach me? He then meets with these local experts and understands what is unique about their role and their group and what is challenging. In this process, he finds out where the knowledge is and what the problems are. He experiences what is working and what is not working from everyone’s point of view. Then, when he is more ramped up, he pays it forward through teaching other people in the company.
Prioritize trust building. When asked about the biggest lesson he has learned about leadership, Jim highlights the importance of trust. No leadership model works without it, regardless of the company size, decision making culture, organizational structure, or industry. Jim gives trust freely, always assuming good intent when meeting new people and trusting them from the start, but he works diligently to earn the trust of others. When trust is at the foundation of a relationship, team, or company, you can navigate challenges much more effectively.
To earn trust, Jim focuses on listening to people’s biggest pain points and working to help them fix these problems. As a more senior person and as a leader in a company, he can often better support people in overcoming their obstacles through sharing information or connecting people with each other.
Setting a positive context at the start of a relationship is crucial because the early interactions can influence the nature of the relationship permanently. Help people as much as possible, especially early on.
Jim also keeps an “Open Door” (or now “Open Slack and Zoom” policy in the remote world) policy, always welcoming his team and others to share their biggest challenges and what is on their mind and always looking for ways to help.
Lean in where there are problems and particularly when things are hard and find and capitalize on every opportunity to build with others.
Build depth. When asked about what he would have done more of at Harvard, Jim shares the importance of depth over breadth. At a place like Harvard, one’s tendency may be to take on more and more. However, the most meaningful experiences come from deep knowledge and relationships. Investing time in others to build depth is critical. The world is a rapidly-changing place. Working from relations of deep trust makes working together to navigate change so much more effective.
Be mindful of the present. Everyone — especially those of us in tech — has an innate tendency to focus on the future. However, after living and working in many places around the world, Jim has learned that being mindful of the present is incredibly important and powerful. Enjoy things in the moment and generally be more aware of all that is around you and how you are feeling and thinking. You may miss the opportunities right in front of you when you are overly focused on the future. People with great ideas. New opportunities. Often these come from innovating and collaborating with others “in the moment.” To quote an old movie, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
