Following our roundtable with the Vice President of Flight Reliability at SpaceX, I wanted to share a few standout insights from the conversation:

1. A Highly Unusual Culture

Strong incentives that keep teams focused on outcomes rather than appearances.

A deep sense of ownership — individuals are fully accountable for their piece of the mission.

A constant bias for urgency, treating every task as mission-critical.

A strong preference to test rather than over-analyse, embracing iteration and learning through real-world data.

2. How They Run Meetings

SpaceX aims to minimise meetings, keeping them purposeful and tightly scoped.

In every meeting, people are expected to contribute or leave — participation is not a spectator sport.

3. Their Approach to Talent

They recruit exceptionally bright graduates and empower them early.

They also hire people with non-traditional backgrounds, including those with no prior experience in space or rocketry, betting on raw capability and problem-solving rather than domain familiarity.