Scaling People

From a Stripe and Google executive, a practical guide to company building and scaling the most important resource it has: its people.A leader at both Google and Stripe from their early days, Claire Hughes Johnson has worked with founders and company builders to try to replicate their success. The most common questions she’s asked are not about business strategy—they’re about how to scale the operating structures and people systems of a rapidly growing startup. Scaling People is a practical and empathetic guide to being an effective leader and manager in a high-growth environment. The tactical information it puts forward—including guidance on crafting foundational documents, strategic and financial planning, hiring and team development, and feedback and performance mechanisms—can be applied to companies of any size, in any industry. Scaling People includes dozens of pages of worksheets, templates, exercises, and example documents to help founders, leaders, and company builders create scalable operating systems and lightweight processes that really work.Implementing effective leadership and management practices takes effort and discipline, but the reward is a sustainable, scalable company that’s set up for long-term success. Scaling People is a detailed roadmap for company builders to put the right operating systems and structures in place to scale the most important resource a company has: its people.

Claire Hughes Johnson is a corporate officer and advisor at Stripe. Previously, she was chief operating officer at Stripe from 2014 to 2021, helping the company grow from fewer than 200 employees to more than 8,000. At various times, she led business operations, sales, marketing, customer support, risk, real estate, and all of the people functions, including recruiting and HR. Prior to Stripe, she spent 10 years at Google leading business teams, including overseeing aspects of Gmail, Google Apps, and consumer operations, as well as serving as a vice president for AdWords, Google Offers, and Google’s self-driving car project. She serves on the boards of Ameresco, the Atlantic, Aurora Innovation, and HubSpot, and is a trustee and current board president of Milton Academy. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, two children, and two neurotic dachshunds