Fraud Dial vs. Usability Dial: Tension as Architecture

"Sacks relented. But his resistance spoke to what would become a perennial balancing act at PayPal between the website’s security, its usability, and its coffers. “Peter called it ‘the dials,’ ” Sacks remembered. “It’s easy to stop fraud if you’re willing to kill usability. What’s hard is maintaining a sufficient level of usability without letting fraud get out of control. So Max controlled the fraud dial. I controlled the usability dial. And we’d come together to agree on a compromise.”"

"Sacks observed that PayPal’s culture of tension was also a culture of truth. “It was ‘truth-seeking’... there was a lot of friction. We all respected each other and that’s why it worked. There was a lot of yelling, and we just cared about getting to the right answer,” he said."

"“Arguing about smart marketing moves or different approaches to solving tactical or strategic problems is fundamental. These are the decisions that actually matter,”"

"“A good rule of thumb is that diversity of opinion is essential anytime you don’t know anything about something important. But if there’s a strong sense of what’s right already, don’t argue about it.”"