I've started my professional life as an engineer, founded a startup, closed it, and led product management for face.com, that was acquired by Facebook (later Meta), where I spent several years learning how the greatest companies operate.
I then transitioned to lead a group of growth PMs at Lyft, founded another startup (Stackbit) that got acquired by Netlify, where I currently lead the entire product organization.
In a recent interview with Lenny, my go-to product management podcast, Albert Cheng talks about how beneficial prototyping is, getting from idea to representative solution. He also expresses some frustration at the lack of a complete workflow where PMs can make changes that ship to production. I'm here to share how our product team goes from idea straight to production at Netlify.
Delegation is one of those managerial skills that sounds straightforward but often goes a little sideways in practice. The problem is often lack of clarity on what's being delegated - the work, the responsibility for the outcome, or both.
Sometimes, when building a product, you might have to choose between adding more value and making it easier to use, onboard or integrate. When the perceived value is high, people would usually be willing to jump through more hoops to get it, while something that's really easy to get started with might be picked up even if the perceived value is lower. Like any framework this isn't always correct or even relevant, but I often like to look at the product I'm currently building through this lens, really plot the value and effort lines and see if there are any adjustments to be made.
Tonal makes sure that the only hard thing about weight training is moving the weight around. No overhead of going to the gym, building a program, keeping track of your limits and pushing you to safe personal bests. Tonal achieves that with the footprint of a mirror that can fit in almost any home. By solving for everything else, it increases the chance of forming great habits and being consistent.
Meta's smart glasses 👓 proved to be a real game changer for me, especially as an active, who also happens to be a parent and loves taking photos and videos. It's a great fit for many others, but this isn't a marketing or sponsored post, so I'll just relate my experience. I've been using the glasses for over two years, currently on the second generation.
Practical advice for product managers looking to interview at the Facebook (Meta), Lyft and other top companies.
It feels like the Apple Watch celebrates almost every non-stationary action, while my Garmin Fenix 6 is outright abusive. But which one gets me more motivated and what leadership lessons can you learn from both, either as the watch (the leader) or as the wearer (the individual contributor).
Today at Kung Fu practice my son ran through a pretty complex routine and at its end, the Shifu (teacher) asked him if he knew what was the problem with it. I was super proud to hear him uncharacteristically answer "no, I'm not sure" and immediately reinforced his decision to take the harder route, admit that he doesn't know, and ask for guidance.
I advise both startups and large companies on product strategy, product team building, roadmap planning, goal setting and OKRs, interview process definition and training and everything else product related.
I've analyzed and revamped Lyft's interview process, trained all the PM interviewers. I've interviewed hundreds of PMs at Facebook and Lyft and have coached hundred others how to pass PM interviews at Facebook (Meta), Lyft, Google, Amazon, etc.
I'm excited to help startup founders make fewer mistakes than I've made. Stackbit is the second startup I've cofounded. I've been employee #6 at face.com that got acquired by Facebook and advised multiple startups at various stage.
I'm look forward to hearing from you.