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Elizabeth Stone

@elizabeth-stone · 20 positions · 0 changes of mind

Chief Product and Technology Officer at Netflix, previously VP of Science at Lyft and an economist at Analysis Group.

Elizabeth Stone did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    The confusion about who does what is a storming phase every transformative technology causes, and AI is in the middle of it.

    Their wordsI think anytime a new technology comes along, especially one that's as transformative as GenAI, you go through a storming phase before you go through the forming phase of things. And I think we are in the middle of that right now.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:03:47 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 1st of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    That AI lets anyone prototype does not mean everyone should be shipping code to production.

    Their wordsDo I believe that means anyone should be shipping code to production? That everyone should actually be doing everything? Probably not. But I think that it's good for people to be exploring what's possible.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:04:32 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 2nd of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Craft excellence within each discipline is not going away, however much AI blurs the work across functional lines.

    Their wordsI still see a craft excellence that's really important in the disciplines that I don't think is going away anytime soon. Even if there's fluidity or blurring of the work across the functional lines.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:12:26 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 3rd of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    What made Netflix fast — local teams building whatever stack they needed — stops working once agents operate across systems; common paved paths now matter more.

    Their wordsIn a world of AI with agents operating across multiple systems, wanting source of truth data, the importance of having preferred paved paths that get the most of the benefits and produce some guardrails so we can make sure we're doing good work, common infrastructure, common paved paths, solving problems once with a core set of capabilities becomes more important.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:14:29 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 4th of 20 in this recording

    infrastructure

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    The rising hire in an AI world is the systems thinker who can look across every business domain and name the building blocks, not the local domain expert.

    Their wordsSo, we are hiring more people who can look across all the business domains and abstract that to here's the building blocks we're going to need in a world with AI.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:14:53 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 5th of 20 in this recording

    hiring

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Once non-designers can build products, a design team’s job becomes templates and design systems — otherwise the company ships Frankensteins.

    Their wordsI get really nervous about having different design languages or different types of user interactions and shipping Frankensteins, basically. So, designers need to then be the people we're hiring again for design systems thinking.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:15:59 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 6th of 20 in this recording

    designhiring

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Deep design expertise does not get squeezed out just because code and analysis got faster.

    Their wordsBut I think it would be a mistake to say design and deep design expertise and thinking gets squeezed out just because we can write code faster. We can do data analysis faster.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:21:31 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 7th of 20 in this recording

    design

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    Compared with five or ten years ago a company needs fewer narrow specialists and more people who are adaptable in several directions.

    Their wordsBut as a general rule, uh compared to 5 or 10 years ago, I I would believe we have fewer specialists and more people who are generalists or adaptable in multiple directions.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:23:01 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 8th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Writing AI expectations into each rung of a career ladder is futile when the technology changes by the month; one AI-fluency expectation across every role and level is what works.

    Their wordsSo, the most useful thing is not to make it level specific or role specific, but to encourage everyone towards the expectation on AI fluency, which doesn't mean use it as a tech for the sake of tech. It's tech where it's useful, to have good judgment about that, and to have the mindset to be open-minded to explore and try new things.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:29:55 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 9th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Candidates should be allowed to use AI tools in a coding interview, because that is what the work now requires.

    Their wordsAnd even for things like coding interviews, allowing candidates, of course, to use AI tools because that's going to be part of what the work requires now.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:30:43 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 10th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    Netflix’s cultural rules were never ends in themselves: agency, accountability and pushing decisions deep into the organisation are the mechanism by which you get excellence.

    Their wordsIt was instead a very strongly held opinion that that you get to excellence by giving people a lot of agency and accountability. By pushing decisions as deep in the organization as possible, hiring great people who can be trusted to have good judgment and make good decisions.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:39:42 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 11th of 20 in this recording

    hiring

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    Talent density is the non-negotiable first ingredient — without it you cannot trust decisions made at every level or let people take risks.

    Their wordsWell, the talent density is the non-negotiable. Like you have to start with that. If you don't have that, you can't get to a place where you have confidence in decision-making at all levels of the organization, allowing people to take risks and innovate quickly.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:41:51 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 12th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Adding process when things go badly is the instinct to resist: every time we added more process we spent more time without getting better outcomes.

    Their wordsOr the perfect way to go through feedback and leveling and compensation. But every time we saw that and we added more process, we spent more time without getting better outcomes.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:44:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 13th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    Netflix is not losing the talent war to the frontier AI labs; it competes for a different person — one excited by applying technology to entertainment at scale.

    Their wordsIt does feel like we have to be more more explicit about the types of people and talent that tend to thrive at Netflix versus other companies like some of the frontier labs.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:51:20 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 14th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    Junior hiring matters more in an AI world, not less, because younger people are more open-minded and more native to the new ways of working.

    Their wordsSo, even in a world of AI where some things are easier, we were talking earlier about mindset, AI fluency. From my experience, younger folks are more open-minded. They tend to be more native in some of these new ways of working.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:54:01 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 15th of 20 in this recording

    hiring

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Writing lines of Python or C++ may stop being necessary; understanding how code, computer systems and products work will not.

    Their wordsI think there's a difference between being able to write lines of code in a particular language like Python or C++ and understanding how code, computer systems, products work. And I don't think the latter is going away.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:56:42 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 16th of 20 in this recording

    Python

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    The code today’s models and agents write is very hard to follow: you get better performance without knowing why, and no way to fix it when it breaks.

    Their wordsSo looking at some of the code that some of these models or agents are writing they're very hard to follow. It's like I know I'm getting better performance from this but I have no idea why and if this thing breaks I'm going to have no idea how to fix it.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:58:02 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 17th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    The AI shock to engineering is an acceleration of a change that has been running for decades, not a break from it.

    Their wordsIt feels like it's a it's an acceleration of how much engineering has changed. But if you looked over the last 10 years or 20 years you would say the same thing.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:59:05 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 18th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    Netflix’s position on AI in production is creator enablement rather than prescription — flexibility in the tools, not one approved way to make something.

    Their wordsWhich means we need to have a flexibility in the tools that we provide and the types of partnerships we have, and to really have a creator enablement view rather than a prescriptive that we only do this one way.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:03:41 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 19th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    Entertainment without humans at the heart of it does not work: storytelling is a scarce human skill, and characters without that humanity are less compelling.

    Their wordsI have a hard time picturing entertainment that doesn't have humans at the heart of it. So that that's humans in the creation of the storytelling, which I think is a scarce and valuable skill.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:04:09 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Why Netflix is betting on systems thinkers—not specialists—in the AI era | Elizabeth Stone (CPTO)youtube.com 20th of 20 in this recording

    Interesting