Mentor Spotlight: Laurent Paris
Plato, the leader in developing technical leaders, brings together the best of the best in engineering and product management from across industries and the globe. From VPs of Engineering and Product to CTOs, Directors, Managers and everyone in between, Plato Mentors work with both teams and individuals to level up their respective careers, products and companies. Companies like Google, Segment, Slack, Spotify, Medium, Box, Netflix, Twitter and hundreds more collaborate with Plato, drawing on the technical knowledge and leadership know-how from 500+ leaders outside of their respective organizations. Leaders like new Plato Mentor and industry influencer, Laurent Paris.
Laurent joined Plato like many others to give back. His career includes incredible achievements that influences many of our daily lives. From Director of Engineering at Yahoo, CTO of WeWork, VP of Engineering at Spotify and now as CEO and Co-Founder of Datakin, Laurent knows how to drive meteoric growth and impact.
At Spotify, Laurent was responsible for growing Spotify NYC from 50 to hundreds of engineers. He also improved the overall hiring process by doing away with subjective and unstructured hiring methodologies.
“We recorded everything we could — how many resumes we were getting, what was the conversion rate at any stage of the hiring process, why our offers were rejected, etc.”
Adhering to the principle of what gets measured, gets managed, Laurent was able to identify new solutions around talent and innovation, which helped to strategically scale Spotify.
Additionally, Laurent prioritized employer branding and the overall candidate experience. This made all the difference in bringing on the best talent!
“Small details make a difference and add to a great hiring experience for the candidate. Your company’s story should attract people, first and foremost.”
By ensuring the right people in place, Laurent helped to personalize music experiences such as Discover Weekly and Daily Mix at Spotify, that we all use and love! His commitment to innovation was reflected in his leadership style as well.
“We created an environment that was encouraging people to come up with ideas — not only leaders or product managers — but also through innovations throughout the company.”
Hiring for senior leadership roles is — according to Laurent — a whole different game and critical to the success of a company as you grow. At WeWork, the rapid growth was coupled with a lack of senior leadership. This made workloads taxing and unsustainable, while also making hiring quickly, incredibly difficult.
“You need to anticipate the growth of the company and plan on hiring people that you will need — not now — but in two years’ time. It will also take six to nine months to hire for these roles, so you must account for that in the hiring timeline as well.”
We are honored to welcome Laurent Paris to our Plato Mentor Community. His spots are limited so sign up today!
Written by Jovana Vukovic
