Idea · carried by 1 source
Selective Deep Dive Management
A counterintuitive leadership approach where senior leaders choose 7-10 of the most impactful projects out of ~100 running simultaneously and go *extremely* deep on them — sitting with engineers, reading code, understanding every detail — while letting the rest operate autonomously. This creates a discipline signal across the organization without requiring micromanagement.
Where it comes from
Dmitry Zlokazov describing his management approach on Lenny's Podcast (highlights/zlokazov-revolut-pms). “It's counterintuitive, but it works really well.” [~33:58-34:05]
How it works
- Out of ~100 active projects, choose 7-10 that are most impactful for customers right now
- Go super deep — sit with engineers, read code, understand the underlying issue at the bare metal level
- Teams talk to each other informally — they know which areas are being scrutinized
- This signals to other teams: “if you're not proactively executing on the expected level, you'll be reviewed next”
- Builds great discipline across the organization
- When you start diving deep, you can see “everything is fine” or spot teams not on track — those become your next focus areas
- This is more scalable than micromanagement — it allows Revolut to build many things while maintaining quality
You don't have to be involved in everything to maintain quality. By going deep on the most critical projects and letting the signal propagate, you create a culture of discipline without burning out on status updates.