Using imposter syndrome as fuel: Dom Price on how he works

Executive overview

Most high-performers hide imposter syndrome. Dom Price, Atlassian's head of R&D and work futurist, actively seeks out the discomfort it creates — treating it as a signal to listen harder and improve faster.

His approach to work is built around energy management over time management, radical meeting hygiene, and structured reflection rather than rigid scheduling. The throughline is a bias toward depth over breadth: fewer customers, fewer meetings, fewer tasks at once — but done better.

Imposter syndrome, when embraced rather than suppressed, becomes a durable source of motivation and self-improvement.

Energy and time management

• No fixed working hours — structures work around available energy and outcomes, not a 9-to-5
• Sets four, eight, and 12-week objectives; does periodic sense-checks on balance rather than daily tracking
• Uses a Trello backlog and picks tasks based on current mood and cognitive state
• Writes articles to 70% completion, then hands off to a specialist to polish — defines "done" relative to what's next
• Deep work happens three to four times a week; ideal conditions include music, comfortable clothes, no open-plan distractions
• Music (especially The Beatles) unlocks illogical thinking — a deliberate counterweight to analytical work

Focus and saying no

• Surrounds himself with team members who can call out scope creep and keep the team on track
• Uses the four L's framework: Loved, Longed for, Loathed, Learnt — can't add a "longed for" without removing a "loathed"
• Deliberately chose one quarter to work only with existing customers — depth over new relationships paid higher dividends
• Deleted every meeting from his calendar; each had to justify re-entry with: what is my role, what's the purpose, what do I specifically add
• Over a third of meetings never returned — they existed only because they always had

OKRs and team goals

• Atlassian runs company OKRs built from both top-down strategy and bottom-up input
• A score of 0.7 is a good result; a 1.0 means objectives weren't stretched enough
• Dropped personal OKRs after finding duplication and conflict with team-level ones; now owns specific items within team objectives
• Frames objectives in the words of the person being served — shifts focus from outputs to outcomes
• Created a persona called "Daniel" to run workshops through a customer lens and remove internal bias

Storytelling and presentations

• Every slide needs a story and a "so what" — a key takeaway or call to action
• Stories come from genuine curiosity: listening at events, asking follow-up questions, building a mental bank over years
• Grew up in a large storytelling family — learned to be punchy, emotional, and authentic to earn space in conversation
• Three go-to questions: "why", "what for" (slightly different — motivation vs. reason), "how did it feel"
• Favourite interview question: "What's the most popular misconception of you?" — tests self-awareness and surfaces the shadow self
• To construct a talk: ask how the audience should feel when you finish, and how resilient/ready they currently are
• Aims for productive discomfort — uncomfortable enough with reality to try something new, not so uncomfortable they shut down

Imposter syndrome

• Experiences it daily; describes his confidence as a mask over ongoing doubt
• At a 10,000-person Amazon event, felt like a fraud next to AI inventors and robotics engineers — went on and delivered anyway
• Actively seeks out critical feedback: reads one- and two-star reviews first, ignores the fours and fives
• Filters feedback for actionability: ignores vague negativity, acts on specific, constructive comments
• Not aiming for a five out of five — topics like future of work and privilege will always polarise audiences
• Views imposter syndrome as an intrinsic motivator: the discomfort drives continuous improvement rather than paralysis

Recommended reading and listening

• Team of Teams — General Stanley McChrystal (re-reading for depth)
• Powerful — Patty McCord (ex-Netflix Chief Talent Officer on giving power back rather than "empowering")
• Workforce Wade — Sophie Wade on future of work meta-trends
• Podcasts: Stanford's scaling work with Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao, the Intercom podcast
• Atlassian Team Playbook — free resource with team health assessments and 31 exercises