Podcasts

Jessica Hische

Guest: Jessica Hische - Lettering Artist. Jessica is a renowned lettering artist specializing in typographical work for logos, film, books, and other commercial applications. Her clients include Wes Anderson, Apple, Nike, and Penguin Books, and she's a best-selling children's book author. Key Takeaways: Understanding Typography: Most people can intuitively sense when typography feels off, even if they can't articulate why. A good exercise is to look at fonts and note the feelings they evoke. Logo Refresh Timing: Consider a logo refresh when you're expanding your brand's reach, printing swag, or if your current logo uses popular, easily replicable fonts. Design Process: Start with broad goals for a logo refresh, then narrow down to specifics. Be open to combining different elements to find the right fit. Seeing Like a Designer: Pay attention to elements like letter spacing, weight, and edges. These details significantly impact the perception of a brand. Role of Brand in Startups: For many startups, brand should not be the primary focus initially. Invest in brand development as the company grows and pivots. Topics Covered: Typography insights, logo refresh process, design decision-making, role of brand in startups, exercises to see like a designer, Jessica's diverse projects.

Anneka Gupta

Guest: Anneka Gupta - Chief Product Officer at Rubrik. Anneka is a seasoned product leader with extensive experience, having previously served as President, GM, and head of product at LiveRamp, and is a lecturer on product management at Stanford University. Key Takeaways: Strategic Mindset: Being strategic involves articulating a compelling "why" behind decisions and championing significant changes for the long-term benefit of the company. Founder Mode: Use founder mode as a lever to drive necessary changes and align the team with strategic goals by understanding the founder's objectives. Decision-Making: Focus on making decisions with available information and iterating based on new insights, rather than waiting for perfect data. Navigating Difficult Personalities: Understand what drives difficult colleagues and find ways to align their motivations with your goals. Approach interactions with gratitude and a mindset of learning. Feedback Culture: When giving feedback, express genuine care for the person's growth and be direct about the issues and potential improvements. Topics Covered: Strategic thinking, founder mode, decision-making, managing difficult colleagues, giving and receiving feedback, breaking into product management, mindset and energy management.

Tristan de Montebello

Guest: Tristan de Montebello - Co-Creator of Ultraspeaking. Tristan became the fastest competitor to reach the finals of the world championship of public speaking in 2017 and has since developed a unique course to help people become more comfortable and effective at public speaking. Key Takeaways: Speak Conversationally: Avoid switching to a "public speaking voice." It's more effective to maintain a conversational tone, which is freeing and connects better with the audience. Enjoyment as a Barometer: If you're not enjoying speaking, you're likely doing it wrong. Enjoyment indicates you're on the right track. End Strong: Avoid tapering off or expressing doubt at the end of your speech. Use summary prompts to maintain confidence and clarity. Stay in Character: Resist the urge to leak insecurities or doubts while speaking. Maintain composure to project confidence. Accordion Method: Prepare speeches by speaking them out loud, starting with a longer version and condensing it to its essence, then expanding again. This helps internalize rather than memorize content. Topics Covered: Public speaking misconceptions, enjoyment in speaking, maintaining conversational tone, ending speeches strongly, staying in character, Accordion Method, Triple Step game, Conductor game, executive presence, overcoming public speaking anxiety.

John Mark Nickels

Guest: John Mark (J.M.) Nickels - Lead Product for the Mobility Team at Uber. J.M. has been a product leader at Waymo, DoorDash, and Uber, where he launched the first version of Uber Pool and led teams responsible for Uber's pricing systems. Key Takeaways: Conscious Leadership: Embrace emotions in the workplace as they provide valuable insights. Recognize emotions like fear, sadness, and joy as signals that guide decision-making and team dynamics. Vision and Strategy: Develop a clear vision by imagining the future without constraints. Spend time deeply immersed in your field to generate innovative strategies. Execution vs. Vision: Balance is key. Avoid overemphasis on either visionary thinking or execution. Adjust focus based on the project's current needs. Objective Function: Define personal and professional priorities by considering long-term impacts. Focus on relationships and meaningful work rather than short-term achievements. Victim Mentality: Shift from feeling life happens to you to taking responsibility for your reactions and influence on the world. Topics Covered: Conscious leadership, emotional intelligence, vision and strategy development, execution vs. vision balance, personal objective function, victim mentality, Uber's marketplace dynamics, lessons from Waymo and DoorDash.

Alex Komoroske

Guest: Alex Komoroske - Founder of a startup reimagining the web for the AI era. Alex spent 13 years at Google working on Search, DoubleClick, Chrome's Open Web Platform, and augmented reality in Google Maps. He also led corporate strategy at Stripe. Key Takeaways: Gardener Mindset: Shift from a builder mindset to a gardener mindset in product development. Focus on nurturing and directing growth rather than strictly controlling it. Embrace Emergence: Encourage bottom-up innovation by creating environments where ideas can emerge naturally. Use strategy salons or "nerd clubs" to foster collaborative debate and idea generation. Adjacent Possible: Focus on the immediate, actionable steps that can lead to larger breakthroughs rather than making large speculative leaps. Organizational Kayfabe: Recognize the disconnect between ground truth and organizational narratives. Understand that kayfabe, or the agreed-upon reality, can obscure real issues. AI as Duct Tape: View AI as a tool that can handle mundane tasks and allow for more creative problem-solving, but be wary of its limitations and the potential for it to "punch users in the face." Topics Covered: AI and product development, gardener vs. builder mindset, organizational kayfabe, adjacent possible, strategy salons, slime molds, productivity tips, life advice.

Benjamin Lauzier

Guest: Benjamin Lauzier - Former VP of Product and Growth at Thumbtack. Benjamin has extensive experience in building and scaling marketplace businesses, having significantly contributed to the growth of both Thumbtack and Lyft. Key Takeaways: Focus on the Hard Side Pre-Product Market Fit: Identify and grow the more challenging side of the marketplace, often the supply side, to establish a reliable growth strategy. Measure Marketplace Liquidity: Track demand utilization and find a predictor metric, like ETAs for Lyft, to manage and improve marketplace health. Avoid Over-Fragmentation: Offering too many options can fragment supply and degrade user experience, as seen with Sidecar's approach. Managed Marketplace Tactics: Use market forces and empowerment, providing tools and coaching to maintain quality without over-controlling supply. Innovative Onboarding Strategies: Lyft's mentorship program effectively scaled driver onboarding, leveraging existing drivers to train and activate new ones. Topics Covered: Marketplace dynamics, product market fit, liquidity metrics, managed marketplaces, growth strategies, European vs. U.S. product culture, healthcare navigation startup.

Tamar Yehoshua

Guest: Tamar Yehoshua - President of Product and Technology at Glean. Tamar has an extensive background in product leadership, having served as Chief Product Officer at Slack, where she led the company through significant growth and an acquisition by Salesforce. She also held leadership roles at Google and Amazon. Key Takeaways: Engineering Partnership: Ensure you have a strong engineering partner who aligns with your vision and responsibilities. This alignment is crucial for executing ideas effectively. Career Planning: You don't need a rigid career plan. Focus on doing an excellent job in your current role and follow leaders and opportunities where you can learn the most. Handling Chaos: Successful companies often experience internal chaos, especially during hypergrowth. Focus on what truly matters for the business rather than getting bogged down by every issue. AI Integration: AI will significantly change job roles, especially in product management. Use AI tools to enhance productivity and stay ahead by experimenting with new technologies. Cross-Functional Relationships: Build strong relationships with engineering by aligning on goals, respecting roles, and maintaining open communication. Topics Covered: Engineering partnership, career planning, managing chaos in growth, AI's impact on jobs, building cross-functional relationships, product management strategies.

Eli Schwartz

Guest: Eli Schwartz - Growth advisor specializing in SEO. Eli has helped major companies like Quora, Coinbase, Tinder, LinkedIn, WordPress, and Zapier develop and execute their SEO strategies. He is also the author of "Product-Led SEO" and offers a fresh perspective on adapting SEO strategies in the evolving landscape of AI. Key Takeaways: SEO as a Product: Treat SEO like a product, focusing on the user journey and how your content can solve their problems, particularly in the mid-funnel stage. AI's Impact on SEO: With AI-generated answers becoming prevalent, traditional top-of-funnel SEO is less relevant. Focus on mid-funnel content that supports deeper user engagement and conversion. Programmatic SEO: Leverage programmatic SEO for scale, using data to create pages that meet user needs without the need for extensive editorial content. Rethink Link Building: Focus on brand building rather than acquiring links for SEO. Genuine mentions and brand recognition are more valuable. SEO Investment: Not all companies should invest heavily in SEO, especially if the user journey doesn't support it. Evaluate the ROI compared to other marketing channels. Topics Covered: AI's impact on SEO, programmatic vs. editorial SEO, SEO myths, brand building through SEO, Google's search strategy, investment in SEO.

Camille Fournier

Guest: Camille Fournier - Author of "The Manager’s Path" and a respected technology executive. Camille has held leadership roles such as CTO of Rent The Runway and VP of Technology at Goldman Sachs, and is known for her insights into engineering management and platform teams. Key Takeaways: Credit Sharing: PMs should avoid hoarding credit and instead share recognition with engineers, allowing them to present and speak about their contributions. Understanding Details: PMs need to appreciate and understand the technical details of projects to show empathy and respect for engineers' work. Avoiding Rewrites: Major system rewrites are often traps; they underestimate migration time and the complexity of existing systems. Focus on incremental improvements. Platform Team Success: Effective platform teams require a mix of software engineers, systems engineers, and product managers to focus on operational excellence and measurable impact. Work-Life Balance: Encourage focused work over long hours. Regularly audit tasks to ensure focus on what truly matters and delegate effectively to empower teams. Topics Covered: PM-engineer relationship, platform engineering, management challenges, work-life balance, system rewrites, engineering leadership.

Phyl Terry

Guest: Phyl Terry - Author of "Never Search Alone." Phyl was on the founding team of the first company Amazon acquired and was CEO of Creative Good, consulting for companies like Apple and Microsoft. Key Takeaways: Candidate Market Fit: Focus on a narrow, specific job target similar to product market fit. This helps in standing out and being memorable to potential employers. Job Search Councils: Join or form a support group of job seekers to share experiences, provide accountability, and reduce anxiety during the job search process. Listening Tour: Conduct informational interviews to gather market insights and refine your job search strategy, focusing on what the market needs and your fit. Play to Win: Approach interviews and negotiations with a proactive mindset. Develop a job mission with OKRs to demonstrate initiative and align expectations. Ask for Help: Learn to ask for help effectively. It's a sign of strength and can lead to valuable insights and opportunities. Topics Covered: Job search strategy, candidate market fit, job search councils, negotiation tactics, asking for help, emotional management during job search, career transitions.

Sean Ellis

Guest: Sean Ellis - Author of “Hacking Growth”. Sean is a pioneer in the field of growth hacking, having coined the term itself. He has been instrumental in shaping growth strategies for companies like Dropbox and Eventbrite and is the creator of the Sean Ellis test for product-market fit. Key Takeaways: The Sean Ellis test is a leading indicator of product-market fit, asking users how disappointed they would be if they could no longer use a product. A score of 40% or more indicates strong product-market fit. Focus on the users who say they'd be "very disappointed" to understand what makes the product a must-have and tailor your product and marketing strategies around them. Activation and onboarding are critical; improving these can significantly enhance retention and growth potential. Growth should be approached holistically, focusing first on activation, then engagement, and finally on acquisition once the product experience is optimized. Use qualitative insights alongside quantitative data to drive better experiments and growth strategies. Topics Covered: Product-market fit, Sean Ellis test, Activation strategies, Growth hacking, Onboarding optimization, North Star metrics, Qualitative vs. quantitative insights, Sustainable growth strategies.

Deb Liu

Guest: Deb Liu - CEO of Ancestry. Deb has an extensive background in product management, having served as VP of Product at Facebook, where she led the creation of Facebook Marketplace and other significant initiatives. She has also held leadership roles at eBay and PayPal and serves on the board of Intuit. Key Takeaways: PM Your Career: Treat your career like a product by setting clear goals, measuring progress, and being intentional about your career path. Write a "spec" for your career to define success and the steps to achieve it. Introvert Success: Introverts can thrive in business by reframing self-promotion as educating others about their team's work. It's crucial to learn to speak up and share accomplishments to gain recognition and resources. Growth as a Game of Inches: Focus on small, incremental improvements rather than waiting for big breakthroughs. Consistent, minor enhancements can lead to significant growth over time. Resilience Over Perfection: Embrace failure as a learning opportunity. The most successful people are those who can bounce back quickly and turn setbacks into stepping stones. 30-60-90 Day Plan: When starting a new role, spend the first 30 days learning, the next 30 aligning on vision, and the final 30 executing. This structured approach helps in understanding the organization and setting a foundation for impact. Topics Covered: Career management, introverts in business, zero-to-one product building, growth strategies, resilience, 30-60-90 day onboarding plan.