00:39:20 · CJ Gustafson, Kevin Hettrich
[00:39:20] S1: the time in this podcast that finance has this view of the p and l. You can't just try to argue for something for your team or see the world through a myopic departmental view. You have to be able to see the full picture and how it's all connected. [00:39:32] S0: It's easy to say no to things when there's a lack of consistency, but often we're seen as neutral arbiters because we're effectively just running a process. Like, what are the things that we're trying to do? You come to me with your kind of proposal and all that. We'll kind of poke holes at it to make sure it's got a quality but then, just kind of how they line up. Usually running good process and kind of quality control across the company, and then we make collective decisions. [00:39:57] S1: Product decides what the company is or is not going to build, and finance decides what the company is or is not going to fund. I hate when we're called the no police, but at the same time, saying no one of the highest leverage things that those functions can do? [00:40:11] S0: Absolutely. Just focus is such a scarcity in a developmental organization. If you can say no, it focuses attention and capital and teams. But it's important to say no and to articulate why, so that you kind of put in the back of your head, Hey, if something changes, we should come back to this. It's so easy to add 10 things on the plate that kinda crowd out the three or four that are most important. [00:40:38] S1: Asking for a friend, Kevin. Have you found ways to say no more gracefully over time as you've been in the role?
00:40:38 · CJ Gustafson, Kevin Hettrich
[00:40:38] S1: Asking for a friend, Kevin. Have you found ways to say no more gracefully over time as you've been in the role? [00:40:44] S0: Just the why. As a science and engineering culture, it's very logical and very rational. So for example, if early in the process, have a scientist or engineer who's, like, very excited about, like, I don't know, hey. I think I can push energy density just a few extra percent, but I think I need to do this, this, and this. I'm not qualified to kinda weigh in on that. And then if I said it was like, I don't think that's a good idea, they'd get frustrated. It's like, well, why are you doing that? Seems like very kinda subjective. It's only later in the process where like, hey, let's all acknowledge we as a company want to spend about this amount of money, and we've run a fair process, we've thought about everything that we can, and we have the criteria to kind of sort them. [00:41:19] S1: And you end up below [00:41:20] S0: the line. Like, Listen, whatever. We would hold on to that. Maybe in the next budgeting cycle, we'll kind of pick it up. Then like, Okay, I get it. It was someone is from a neutral position, from the vantage point of the company running a process where there's not politics, like we're actually genuinely trying to make good decisions, that people kind of get that. [00:41:39] S1: I hate how you can't even use the word genuinely anymore because people think you're using AI to write something. [00:41:44] S0: That's probably true.
00:41:44 · Kevin Hettrich, CJ Gustafson
[00:41:44] S0: That's probably true. [00:41:45] S1: Kevin, we have a wonderful partner on the show. Their names are and is always encouraging me to ask better questions. So this round is called asking better questions with The first thing that I ask to every successful person who comes in the show is what is an example of something that you've screwed up on the job before? Could be here or any previous role. [00:42:05] S0: As an early product manager in the nascent days of VW where we were trying to see if there was, like, a fit with the relationship. And my counterpart at VW, I was in a conversation with them and then gave what I thought was a reasonable answer in terms of when we could kinda get something done. The mistake I made was to not more broadly have socialized that with the team. My intention was good. It was okay. I just wanna keep this moving. But then when I got back and realized that I was not on the same page with the rest of my team and I had done something that was too aggressive, The head of sales was not super happy with me for the right reasons. So I remember after hours, call the guy that I had just told and, like, disturbed his dinner just to, like, pull back the thing. So it was it was embarrassing because I had to, like, flip flop, and then I was... I'm kind of a a family guy too. Don't like interrupting that, but it was the right thing to do and kinda caught it early.
00:42:05 · Kevin Hettrich, CJ Gustafson
[00:42:05] S0: As an early product manager in the nascent days of VW where we were trying to see if there was, like, a fit with the relationship. And my counterpart at VW, I was in a conversation with them and then gave what I thought was a reasonable answer in terms of when we could kinda get something done. The mistake I made was to not more broadly have socialized that with the team. My intention was good. It was okay. I just wanna keep this moving. But then when I got back and realized that I was not on the same page with the rest of my team and I had done something that was too aggressive, The head of sales was not super happy with me for the right reasons. So I remember after hours, call the guy that I had just told and, like, disturbed his dinner just to, like, pull back the thing. So it was it was embarrassing because I had to, like, flip flop, and then I was... I'm kind of a a family guy too. Don't like interrupting that, but it was the right thing to do and kinda caught it early. [00:42:55] S1: I've done that though just being an ambitious individual. Like, I'm gonna push the pace forward. I'm gonna commit to something on our behalf, and I know that our team is great and we'll catch up to it, but then you realize, oh, man. Maybe some stuff is like going a bit slower can be a feature, not a bug. [00:43:10] S0: We have a saying like once you're kinda 70% confident, especially if it's a reversible decision, you should kinda act and go, and we're all human, we all make mistakes, and in the event that you make a mistake, quickly recover, learn from it, and move on.
00:43:10 · Kevin Hettrich, CJ Gustafson
[00:43:10] S0: We have a saying like once you're kinda 70% confident, especially if it's a reversible decision, you should kinda act and go, and we're all human, we all make mistakes, and in the event that you make a mistake, quickly recover, learn from it, and move on. [00:43:23] S1: Next one I got for you. If you could tell your younger self something knowing what you know today, what would you tell them? [00:43:27] S0: I have a rule that I developed over time I called the 80 year old man test, that in that kinda last chapter of life, can I look back and have as few regrets as possible? And I think how that translates into a career is go work for a company that you're excited about and kinda fulfills your your sense of purpose. For me, it's the mission driven nature of QuantumScape. And then stay there if you if you love the people that check the box for kinda... For me on kinda QuantumScape from from two sides. [00:43:54] S1: I mean, in today's age, people change companies every twenty four months, even even less. You've been there [00:44:01] S0: Over fifteen years and held lots of different roles along the way. [00:44:05] S1: What's the key to longevity at a company and and making sure you stay challenged?
00:44:05 · CJ Gustafson, Kevin Hettrich
[00:44:05] S1: What's the key to longevity at a company and and making sure you stay challenged? [00:44:09] S0: Well, the company just needs to continue to exist, and we all have our our part to play in that. Personal point of view, while the duration at the company has been long, there are good things about that. Like, you become expertise in a space. It is something that, like, can have multigenerational kinda impact if you if you pull it off. Like, bringing substantially better energy storage to the world and, like, I think it's it's something worth that type of dedication. And then for me for me personally, the fact that I've had the opportunity to sit in so many different roles over time from product management to marketing to finance to IT to government relations, operations management has been like a rotational journey for me where it's some some percentage of my head, it's it's like a new thing that's kind of exciting for me. And by the way, that's another thing I would love to tell my early self is that most people you're working with are probably only 80% comfortable with what they're doing. And if they're 100%, they're probably not curious enough. So just that everyone is kinda... Has spots where we're all kinda like learning and trying to stretch ourselves and make mistakes. And it's okay to be not a 100% kinda comfortable, and just with kinda good work and communication, having the right team around you, that's okay.