What Mark Pincus thinks about management
Founder and former CEO of Zynga, the social-games company behind FarmVille, Zynga Poker and Words with Friends, and before that of Freeloader, Support.com and Tribe.net.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Mark Pincus 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.
5 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Mark Pincus has said — not written or endorsed by them.
-
Their wordsAnd I believe the best product CEOs are in the minutia of the details. you know, all the stories about Steve Jobs. I was so impressed when I heard that he insisted on picking out the carpeting in the conference rooms, you know, and and I tried to have that same mentality of micromanaging the really small pixel level details that matter.
↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 19th of 22 in this recording
-
Their wordsif if I got to pick one if I get to pick one thing that you do as CEO, I'm going to pick that you're right. So even if you don't, you know, even if you don't operate the ship or the factory that well, I'd rather that you picked the right product, the right strategy than you were phenomenal at execution or inspiring people or managing because, you know, being in the right body of water matters more than the right boat.
↗The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (FarmVille, Words with Friends, & more)youtube.com 20th of 22 in this recording
- 12 days earlier
-
Their wordsIt's false to believe that a company is a democracy. The way I run the company was what I called a democratic dictatorship. And I said, I want everyone everyone's voice to be heard and then I'll be the single vote. And I think that's the way a company should be run. I think there's one CEO, there's one chef. I think a good CEO is going to seek out the intellectual honesty, the truths from everywhere and hear from everybody and then they're going to make the decision and they're not going to make the decision because it's most popular in the company.
↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 11th of 16 in this recording
-
Their wordsIn the same way we owe our you we have a responsibility to our users we have a responsibility to our engineers or our builders people who are in the factory building and so I said there there should be a moral contract if you're going to take that hill I'm going to show you that I am going to work just as hard to unlock value out of the work you did
↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 12th of 16 in this recording
-
Their wordsit's this nonscalable way to scale your organization and it's through like passing your vampire blood. That's what inside Zinga they called it, Pinkis' vampire blood. What he did that I started to do is you pick someone from the organization who's promising. I usually pick the people who didn't fit in the smart misfits and they become your tech assistant which is not your chief of staff, not your executive assistant.
↗FarmVille Creator: The Hidden Path to Successful Productsyoutube.com 15th of 16 in this recording