20 Product: Lenny Rachitsky on The 3 Key Roles of the Product Manager, 5 Skills All The Best PMs Have, When To Hire Your First PM, How to Structure the Hiring Process for PMs & What Leaders Can Do to Make Their PMs Successful

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lenny Rachitsky is one of the OGs of product, having spent over 7 years at Airbnb as a product lead he left to start his newsletter, find it here. This has scaled to thousands upon thousands of readers and is one of the most popular newsletters on Substack. Lenny is also an extremely active angel investor with a portfolio including Figma, Sorare, Clubhouse, Vanta, WhatNot and many more incredible companies. If that was not enough, Lenny also has the best course on product management, check it out here.

In Today’s Episode with Lenny Rachitsky You Will Learn:

1.) Origins in Product:

How did Lenny make his way iunto the world of product management at Airbnb?
What were some of his biggest takeaways from his time at Airbnb on product?
What mistakes did he make on product at Airbnb? How did it impact his product thinking?

2.) Product Management: 101

How does Lenny define product management today? How is the role of PM changing?
When is the right time to hire your first PM as a startup?
What is the difference between Head of Product and CPO? When do you hire each?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring their first product hires?

3.) The Hiring Process:

How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product?
What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it?
What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates?
What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires?

4.) The Onboarding Process:

How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires?
What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days?
Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days?
What can product hires do to build trust with their new team?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Lenny Rachitsky

Lenny's Fave Book: The Mom Test

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 20 Product, the show that brings you the best product leaders revealing their tips,
0:04.1	tactics and strategies to starting and scaling the best product teams. And I'm so excited to stay
0:09.0	to be joined by a dear friend and co-investor Lenny Rajitsky. Lenny is one of the OGs of
0:13.9	product. Having spent over seven years at Airbnb as a product lead, he left to start his newsletter.
0:19.1	Now, this is the only newsletter I pay for,
0:21.3	I have to admit. You can find the links on 20vc.com. This newsletter has scaled to thousands
0:26.3	upon thousands of readers and one of the most popular newsletters on substack. Lenny's also an
0:31.4	extremely active angel investor. We have many investments together. His portfolio includes the
0:36.1	likes of Figma, So Rare, Clubhouse, Vanta, whatnot, and many more
0:40.8	incredible companies.
0:42.0	And if that wasn't enough, Lenny's also got the best course on product management, and
0:46.0	you can check it out again on 20vc.com.
0:48.4	I also want to say Lenny is one of the most genuine, authentic and kind people in this business,
0:52.9	and I really want to appreciate and thank him
0:55.0	for his friendship, quite frankly. But before we dive into the show today, 20 product is obviously
0:59.6	all about product, and product managers love product board, and product leaders trust product
1:05.2	board to help them create products that matter. From startups to industry titans, over 5,000 companies including Microsoft,
1:12.6	Zoom, UIPath and Gainesite rely on product board to get the right products to market faster.
1:18.1	Product board can help you create a scalable, transparent and standardized process so your PMs
1:23.0	understand what their customers really need, then prioritize the right features to build next.
1:28.5	Stakeholders feel the love too, with an easy-to-view roadmap that automatically updates
1:33.0	so everyone knows what you're building and why. Make data-driven product decisions that result
	...

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