Aggressive Deadlines and Leadership Coaching Drive Faster Product Development Than Strategic Planning

Jeremy Epling, CPO at Vanta and former VP of Product at GitHub, discusses how ambitious deadlines combined with executive coaching produce better outcomes than traditional strategy documents. Drawing from his experience shipping GitHub Actions in nine months at Microsoft, Epling advocates for identifying influential individual contributors, clarifying decision-making boundaries, and leveraging big company experience through bridge roles when transitioning to startups.