Hopper has developed a scale that assesses an individual’s competencies along the skill-dimensions that matter most to being a leader at Hopper.
To start, we have a set of leadership principles that we value greatly and serve as a simple playbook for how a leader is supposed to act – Bias for Action, Diving Deep, Taking Ownership and Putting the Customer First.
Complementing these leadership principles, there are things that the company itself values: A) Customer Obsession, B) Speed and Innovation, C) Lower Prices and D) Revenue Growth.
So asking the question, what is a leader’s objective at Hopper? The answer is very simple. A leader’s objective is to grow our revenues through lowering prices by building products that customers love in a way that is innovative and quick. The leader achieves these objectives by embodying the leadership principles and taking ownership, diving deep and acting decisively. Leaders do not confuse process with results.
All of that said, it’s also important to note that a leader is also incredibly competent. To assist in identifying and developing core competencies in leaders, Hopper has developed a scale that assesses an individual’s competencies along the skill-dimensions that matter most to being a leader at Hopper: Data, Product, Business and People. Competencies are assessed on each through a leveling system that ranges from 0) Incompetent, 1) Competent, 2) Capable of First-Principle Thinking to 3) Capable of Magic-Leap Thinking.
The goal here is not to be perfect on all dimensions, but to identify areas of opportunity to level-up, with each level being a leap and bound above the previous. Since the gap between each level is so large, it is not realistic to expect to score perfectly across all dimensions. The purpose of this is instead to guide the development focus of our top people’s core leadership competencies.
Competent
Ability and skills to perform the tasks that are commonly associated in each area. Linear thinkers can be fully competent.
First Principle
First-Principle thinking is the ability to take complex, data driven problems and break them apart to first principles and build up a novel (and successful) solution that isn't rooted in or unduly influenced by analogies, past experiences or cognitive biases.
Magic Leap
Magic-Leap thinking is the ability to naturally look at complex problems, before all the facts and datas are available, and make intuitive and orthogonal connections between apparently unrelated problem spaces, yielding completely original solutions that would not have otherwise been discovered.
Competent
Is able to build coherent models in excel and accurately interpret data and metrics.
First Principle
Is able to query or explore data unassisted and extract coherent first-principle conclusions, such as determining the relative importance of price competitiveness on conversion or understanding the levers that lead to net revenue optimization.
Magic Leap
Is capable of direct design of algorithms and learning systems that can manage risk, boost profitability, etc. Examples include: Flight Price Forecasting, Price Freeze modeling and Margin Optimization in hotels.
Competent
Is able to write coherent requirements, do basic feature design and run smoke tests.
First Principle
Is able to apply first-principle to product design: taking into account data, user intent, impact on revenue, reach, etc. resulting in new products that will have impact on the business.
Magic Leap
Is capable of magic-leap thinking on the product yielding completely unique outcomes. Examples include: creating new fintech ancillary products that have fit, developing new ways to merchandise products that are not obvious but are successful, tackling complex challenges like design systems.
Competent
Is able to write a coherent business plan and can do business development work autonomously.
First Principle
Is capable of applying data and first-principle thinking to a business problem. For example: understanding the true impact of pricing, working backwards from CAC/LTV requirements. Typically anything that improves a business line that is beyond iterative local maximas.
Magic Leap
Is capable of creating business models that go far above and beyond the obvious. Examples include: developing bespoke insurance products for air and hotels, changing the price freeze business model to that of a deposit, creating complex mechanisms to drive consumer behavior like that of a loyalty program.
Competent
Is able to recruit, run and retain a functioning team without drama.
First Principle
Is able to identify, attract and retain other Type 2 & 3 individuals.
Magic Leap
Is capable of performing complex organizational design that accelerates product / technology / business delivery. For example: implementing Single Threaded Ownership, structuring work around roadmaps, setting up forcing functions like the weekly revenue meeting to focus the company.
We intentionally designed our culture to give leaders ownership and autonomy, empowering them to make decisions based on a set of guiding principles and tenets to achieve maximum impact for the customer.Sounds like a fit? Check out our open roles!
