Situational Background

Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, is a product thinker who pairs first-principles clarity with rapid iteration and decentralised ownership. He values simple rules, measurable outcomes, and learning loops over hierarchy. Zhang listens to usage data and lived behaviour, then acts decisively without drama. Distinctive for calm curiosity and scalable mechanisms, he shows how clarity, autonomy, and evidence can outperform noise in any fast-moving organisation.

Practical Leadership Principles

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1) First principles, fast feedback.

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Understand the core task, then iterate quickly.

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Behaviours to model:

• Write the problem in one sentence.
• Predefine success and stop rules.
• Review outcomes weekly, not yearly.

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2) Autonomy with accountability.

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Small teams own end-to-end outcomes.

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Behaviours to model:

• Name a single owner per goal.
• Keep dashboards public and simple.
• Celebrate clear kills as much as launches.

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3) Clarity over control.

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Simple rules scale better than micromanagement.

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Behaviours to model:

• Limit policies to what people can remember.
• Share decision logs openly.
• Remove one process that adds little value.

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Call to action

Write your one-line problem statement, choose a weekly metric, and empower a small team to run a two-week test with a clear keep/kill decision.