This document summarizes lessons learned from Silicon Valley. It discusses the Silicon Valley ecosystem which favors high-tech corporations, startups, venture capital, and top talents. It outlines cultural values like believing in your ideas, telling compelling stories, and expecting to fail fast and often. Key takeaways include being explicit in strategy, focusing on the customer voice, embracing conflict as productive, over-communicating, and viewing meetings as a cost. The document emphasizes talent management and recruiting via LinkedIn. It also profiles the University of California, Berkeley and its achievements. The hardest Silicon Valley lesson is determining if you are the only or most qualified person for the job.

1. LESSONS LEARNED
IN SILICON VALLEY
PETR NEUGEBAUER
Y SOFT
PM CONFERENCE 2015
26.05.2015, UTB ZLÍN

2. SILICON
VALLEY
SILICON VALLEY
🌄 HIGH-TECH CORPORATIONS
& STARTUP COMPANIES
VENTURE CAPITAL
RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES
TALENTS
45%

3. Product management
Technology and Engineering
Excellence in Team and Product
SILICON VALLEY
SAN FRANCISCO
CALIFORNIA

4. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 4
SILICON VALLEY COMPANIES

5. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 5
Silicon Valley has its own ecosystem and its own
rules of operation that founders (and would-be
founders) need to follow.
Think bigger: scale faster.
Make your employees rich.
Deliver results!
SILICON VALLEY IS
A MINDSET, NOT
A LOCATION.

6. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 6
CULTURAL
ARTIFACTS
🌄
👥
SEEK FAIRNESS
All of us will benefit from the
deal.
👥
DIVERSITY
Meet people,
create networks.
👥
BELIEVE IN WHAT
YOU ARE DOING
👥
STORY TELLING
Tell the story,
describe yourself.
👥
PAY IT FORWARD
Giving back to our
community.
👥
FRIEND OR FOE
Learn to trust other by
expecting nothing to return.
👥
PLAN TO FAIL
EARLY AND FAST
👥
BE A ROLE MODEL
Guard your reputation with
your life.
👥
GOOD ENOUGH
Perfection is the enemy of
good, but good enough is
perfect.
👥
COLLABORATION
Individual vs team.

7. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 7
Objectives
Strategy must be explicit.
Strategy is not a plan, strategy
is outlining objectives, goals.
Rules and
exceptions
There are also rules for an
exception.
STRATEGY TACTIC EXECUTION
Purpose of a failure
If something is not working, you
have to evaluate if the problem is
strategy, tactic or execution.

8. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 8
Google the most execution based company in the world.
GOOGLE
GOOGLE MOUNTAIN VIEW

9. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 9
No punishment, take risk, fail fast.
Celebrate success.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
FAIL FAST, FAIL OFTEN

10. KEY TAKEAWAYS
BE EXPLICIT

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VOICE OF THE CUSTOMERS
KEY TAKEAWAYS

12. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 12
Being critical is critical.
Almost always brings new ideas, solutions, moving things forward.
CONFLICT IS GOOD!

13. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 14
COMMUNICATION
You must over communicate.
Say -> Listen to -> Act
MEETING CULTURE
Meetings are your enemy.
Meeting is always a cost.
TALENT MANAGEMENT
People hate emails from recruiters, but
they love them.
Recruiters send random messages via
linkedin because it works.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

14. University of California
Berkeley
“The test for you is not whether you fail or
succeed, but your resilience.”
Robert Reich, professor of public policy

15. UC BERKELEY
THE FACTS
40,000 STUDENTS
27,000+ UNDERGRADUATE
11,000+ GRADUATE
No. 1 PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
No. 3 GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
7 NOBEL PRIZES
29 Nobel Prizes held by alumni
University of California was
founded in 1868.
170 academic departments and
programs.

16. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 18
Am I the only qualified person to do this job?
Or am I the most qualified person to do the job?
Hardest lesson learned in Silicon Valley

17. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 19
I CHECK THE SECURITY OF YOUR PRINT JOB. I AM Y SOFT!
STORY TELLING: Everybody is responsible for promotion.

18. PETR NEUGEBAUER, 2015 | 20
Y Soft Corporation, a.s.
BRNO
PETR NEUGEBAUER
Czech and Slovak Testing
Board (ISTQB®)
[pro]Test! Morava
BRNO
www.linkedin.com/in/petrneugebauer