20Product: How Linktree, Webflow and Airbnb Used Rituals and Product Principals to Guide Product Roadmap, Why All Product Teams Should Have a Scorecard and How to Use it & How to Run the Best "Product Jams" with JZ, CPO @ Linktree
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2024
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jiaona “JZ” Zhang is the Chief Product Officer at Linktree, the world’s leading link-in-bio platform empowering 45M+ creators, brands and SMBs. JZ joined Linktree from Webflow, where she served as SVP of Product. Before that, she spent four years at Airbnb where she built and led numerous teams on the host side. JZ’s also held leadership roles at the likes of Wework, Dropbox and teaches at Stanford University and Reforge.
In Today’s Episode with Jiaona Zhang We Discuss:
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Entry into the World of Product
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How did JZ first fall in love with product?
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Why does JZ believe the best PMs have experience in the gaming industry?
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Does JZ think Linktree could be a $100BN business? How could Linktree become a $100BN business?
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Mastering Product Metrics
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Why does JZ think product is the most chameleon role? Where does product start & end?
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Why does JZ think every function should have tension with product?
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What is a KPI tree? How does JZ branch business & product metrics?
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When does JZ think startups should set up a metric infrastructure?
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What are the three levers of product? How does JZ determine which ones to trade off?
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How to Run Product: Planning, Strategy, & Rituals
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Why does JZ think planning should not exist?
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What are strategy and rituals? When should founders do either?
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What are JZ’s three core rituals?
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What is the scorecard method? How do they help team transparency?
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What are product jams? When does it work? When does it not work?
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Product Career Advice
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When does JZ think founders hire a product person?
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What are the most common mistakes early stage founders make when hiring for product?
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Does JZ think domain expertise is important? What does she look for in product hires?
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What is JZ’s advice to PMs who want to get promoted today?
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What is JZ’s advice to young people who want to get into product?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I think it's the most exciting time to be a product leader. The product role is the most |
| 0:04.1 | chameleon role out of all of the functions. I do think between speed, quality and scope, |
| 0:09.9 | something has to give. It's very difficult to get all three at once. I am most willing to |
| 0:14.2 | trade off scope. And that's because I believe that it is very, very important to get speed. |
| 0:19.2 | This is 20 Product with me, Harry Stebbings. |
| 0:21.3 | Now, 20 Product is the monthly show where we sit down with the best product leaders to discuss |
| 0:26.1 | how they start, scale and maintain both amazing products and amazing product teams. |
| 0:32.1 | Joining me in the Hot Seat today is a fricking rock star of the product world. |
| 0:35.8 | Jay-Z, not that Jay-Z rock star, Jay-Z rock star Jay-Z, but Jay-Z, the CPO chief product officer at Linktree, |
| 0:42.4 | the world's leading Lincoln Bio platform empowering 45 million creators, brands and SMBs. |
| 0:49.3 | And Jay-Z joined Linktree from Webflow, where she served as SVP of product. |
| 0:53.1 | And before that, she spent four years at |
| 0:54.7 | Airbnb, where she built and led numerous teams on the host side. She's also held leadership roles |
| 0:59.7 | at the likes of WeWork, Dropbox, and even teachers at Stanford University. But before we dive into |
| 1:05.2 | the show today, we're all trying to grow our businesses here. So let's be real for a second. We all |
| 1:10.1 | know that your website |
| 1:11.1 | shouldn't be this static asset. It should be a dynamic part of your strategy that really drives |
| 1:16.5 | conversions. That's marketing 101. But here's a number for you. 54% of leaders say web updates |
| 1:23.5 | take too long. That's over half of you listening right now. And that's where Webflow comes in. |
| 1:28.9 | Their visual first platform allows you to build, launch and manage web experiences fast. That means |
| 1:34.7 | you can set ambitious marketing goals and your site can rise to the challenge. Plus, Webflow allows |
| 1:40.7 | your marketing team to scale without relying on engineering, freeing your dev team to focus on more fulfilling work. |
... |
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