Podcast Summary
Product Manager Experience: Gaining experience in various roles beforehand can benefit future product managers by providing unique insights and a solid foundation for effective decision making and value realization
To be an effective product manager, gaining experience in various roles beforehand can be beneficial. Kevin Yen, the guest on this podcast episode, likens the role of a product manager to converting potential into realized value with minimal loss. When starting a new product, engineers, designers, and other front-line team members should handle this conversion process. After gaining experience and a solid foundation, one can then take on the product manager role with unique insights. Yen also emphasizes the importance of making decisions, documenting the rationale behind them, and observing the outcomes. He shares an interesting hiring approach using an "unsell email" to assess a candidate's excitement and resilience. The conversation covers various topics, including hiring, decision logs, automating customer research, and stories about failure and AI. This episode is valuable for anyone aiming to become a better product manager or leader.
Team dynamics, Product management roles: Effective product management involves maximizing team efforts, not just managing resources. Roles can be distributed among team members, and great PMs need to be great writers for clear communication.
Effective product management involves unlocking the potential of a team by maximizing their efforts, rather than just managing resources. This perspective can lead to improved team dynamics and better outcomes. However, not every team requires a dedicated product manager. Instead, the responsibilities of a product manager can be distributed among team members, such as engineers, designers, or salespeople, depending on their strengths and the complexity of the project. Great product managers also need to be great writers, as writing is essential for creating clarity at scale, both internally and externally. Clear communication is a crucial aspect of the PM role, and writing is a foundational skill that can help PMs sell and support their products effectively. To become a great writer, one can draw inspiration from writers like Anthony Bourdain and be willing to learn through reading and writing regularly.
Writing Inspiration and Consistency: Reading inspiring writing and maintaining a consistent writing cadence are crucial for becoming a great writer. Trusting your team to fill in the problem space and focusing on design details can lead to better quality work.
Becoming a great writer involves consuming and being inspired by beautiful writing. Reading material that compels you to action is essential. Paul Graham's essays and finding specific voices on social media are excellent examples of this. Another important aspect is maintaining a consistent cadence in your writing, which keeps the reader engaged. Additionally, having a high design ratio in product development, where designers outnumber product managers, can lead to better quality work. PMs should focus on drawing the perimeter of the problem space and trusting their team to fill it in. However, it's essential for PMs to have a strong opinion and do the legwork to gain their team's trust. A great example is designing an intuitive animation for a point-of-sale system that caters to both experienced and inexperienced users. This seemingly small detail can make a significant difference in adoption.
Product animation: Product managers should ensure high-quality animation by being involved in every detail, defining and adhering to constraints, and prioritizing the customer's problem-solving outcome
As a product manager, it's crucial to be involved in every detail of a product, even the seemingly insignificant ones like animation. Product managers should not shy away from the responsibility of ensuring the final deliverable is of high quality. This may involve spending extra time and resources on certain aspects, even if it means pushing back on deadlines or reallocating priorities. The process of defining and adhering to constraints, or drawing the perimeter, can help engineers and designers create the most creative solutions. By clearly defining the user, jobs to be done, and technical considerations, product managers can provide the team with the necessary constraints to focus their efforts effectively. Ultimately, the goal is to create a product that solves a customer's problem, and it's essential to prioritize that outcome above all else.
Feedback strategy, Decision making: Implementing a 'tuning fork' feedback strategy and maintaining a decision log can improve communication, collaboration, and decision-making efficiency in product development teams.
Effective communication and feedback are crucial for product development. The use of a "tuning fork" feedback strategy, where a team gathers to review and provide feedback on a document in real-time, can lead to more productive and efficient decision-making. This approach allows for immediate back-and-forth, reducing the latency between feedback and iteration, ultimately moving the team one clock speed faster. Another important practice for product managers is maintaining a decision log, which involves documenting decisions made, the rationale behind them, and their outcomes. This helps PMs reflect on past decisions, learn from mistakes, and improve their decision-making abilities overall. By implementing these strategies, product teams can enhance their communication, collaboration, and ultimately, the success of their projects.
Decision Logging: Documenting decisions, reasons, and outcomes can enhance decision-making abilities and productivity. Start small, gradually increase depth and frequency, and apply to various aspects of life for continuous learning and improved processes.
Maintaining a daily or decision log can significantly enhance your decision-making abilities and productivity. This practice, as shared by Kevin, involves documenting decisions, reasons behind them, and following up to assess outcomes. It's an effective way to learn from past experiences, understand the rationale of others, and continuously improve. Starting small with simple tasks and gradually increasing the frequency and depth of logs can help make this habit second nature. Additionally, this method can be applied to various aspects of life, including interviewing, where reflecting on past hiring decisions and their outcomes can lead to better interviewing skills. The unsell email, a unique hiring approach mentioned by Kevin, involves trying to dissuade potential candidates from joining the company to gauge their interest and commitment levels. Overall, these practices, when combined, can lead to better decision-making, continuous learning, and improved hiring processes.
Transparency in hiring: Being transparent during the hiring process by addressing potential challenges and concerns upfront leads to stronger hires and fewer surprises.
Transparency in the hiring process can lead to better hires and happier employees. The speaker shared an experience from his time at Square where he implemented an "on-sell email," a candid email sent to candidates during the offer stage, detailing potential challenges and concerns they might face in the role or company. This practice was met with initial resistance but ultimately led to stronger hires and fewer surprises down the line. The speaker emphasized the importance of understanding candidates' fears and anxieties throughout the interview process and addressing them upfront to ensure a good fit for both parties. He also touched on the importance of hiring managers being directly involved in the hiring process and investing time in understanding each candidate individually. While automating user research can be tempting, the speaker stressed the importance of direct interaction with customers for product managers to gain a deeper understanding of their needs and preferences.
Direct Customer Engagement: Directly engaging with customers is essential for product managers to gain deep insights into their needs and constraints. This can be achieved through various means such as user interviews, sales teams, and automated systems for customer feedback. Addressing obstacles to direct customer contact and continuously engaging with customers helps keep product strategies informed.
As a product manager, it's crucial to directly engage with customers to gain a deep understanding of their needs and constraints. This can be achieved through various means such as user interviews, leveraging sales teams as research resources, and setting up automated systems for customer feedback. If there are obstacles preventing direct customer contact, they should be addressed first. Automating customer research using tools like Gong, Zapier, and custom scripts can help streamline the process and save time. Engaging with customers provides valuable insights that cannot be obtained through reports or secondary sources. Even if you've been in the role for a long time, it's essential to continue talking to customers to stay informed about their evolving needs and adjust your product strategy accordingly.
AI and Creativity, Human-Technology Relationship: Children perceive AI as a tool for creation rather than a replacement, challenging our understanding of AI's role in art and creativity. Reflecting on failures and learning valuable lessons from them is essential for personal growth and adapting to new opportunities.
Technology, especially AI and language models, can be perceived in a new and innocent way by children, blurring the lines between creation and generation. This was highlighted in a personal story shared by a product manager, who described his seven-year-old daughter's reaction to using an image generation model. She saw the generated image as something she had drawn herself, demonstrating a unique perspective that challenges our understanding of the role of AI in art and creativity. Moreover, the speaker also shared a story of failure and how he found the strength to move on and regain his confidence. He emphasized the importance of recognizing the difference between personal inadequacy and a company's needs. By reflecting on this experience, he learned valuable lessons that helped him grow and adapt to new opportunities. These stories provide insights into the evolving relationship between humans and technology, as well as the importance of resilience and self-reflection in the face of adversity.
Environment and Role: Finding the right environment and role is crucial for personal growth and productivity. Adapting to or finding a new environment that suits one's unique skills and work style can significantly impact creativity, motivation, and overall success.
Finding the right environment and role is crucial for personal growth and productivity. It's not always about changing oneself, but rather adapting to or finding a new environment that suits one's unique skills and work style. This applies not only to hiring and management but also to interviewing and career growth. The way a company operates can significantly impact an employee's creativity, motivation, and overall success. As for recommendations, Kevin suggests reading autobiographies and memoirs to learn from people and their mental models. He also highly recommends "The Courage to Be Discontent" by Paul Tillich, which encourages focusing on what one can control and being the person one wants to attract. Additionally, Kevin enjoys the Netflix show "The Bear" for its attention to detail and the Korean show "Physical 100" for its respectful competition. Lastly, he recommends magnetic trays for organizing small items while working on projects and the app Circuit for tracking workouts.
Growth Mindset: Embracing a growth mindset and refusing to settle can lead to unexpected achievements and personal growth, even in unconventional areas like competitive eating.
Having a growth mindset and refusing to settle for the minimum can lead to surprising achievements and personal growth. Kevin shared stories from his life, including his mom's advice to focus on the future instead of dwelling on the past, and his dad's encouragement to strive for more than the expected 100%. This mindset also applied to his unexpected hobby as a competitive eater, where he pushed himself to consume large quantities of food, defying expectations. Kevin can be found on Twitter @KevinYen and encourages listeners to be kind and make the world a nicer place.