20Product: Why You Should Not Go Into Product Management, Why the CEO is Always the CPO, How to Build the Best Product Teams & Why You Should Hire People Who Aren't In Product Already with Databricks SVP Product, David Meyer
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2023
⏱️ 62 minutes
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Summary
David Meyer is the SVP Products at Databricks where he drives product strategy and execution. He previously ran Engineering and Product Management at OneLogin, where he grew the company to thousands of customers and market leadership. Before OneLogin, he cofounded UniversityNow, an accredited open university system, running Product and Engineering. Prior to that, David managed a $1 billion portfolio of business intelligence products at SAP and co-led cloud strategy. His first software journey was at Plumtree which went public before being acquired by BEA in 2005.
In Today's Episode with David Meyer We Discuss:
- Entry into Product:
- How did David make his way into the world of product? Why did he not want to go into it?
- Why does David advise everyone "do not go into product management"?
- What does David know now that he wishes he had known when he entered product?
2. How to be a Great Product Leader:
- Why does David think most leaders suck at leading?
- Why is the most important thing to make your team feel seen? What can leaders do to ensure this?
- Why does David help his team members to find other roles outside of the company?
3. Building the Best Product Team:
- How does David hire for product today? What questions does he ask? What signals does he look for?
- What are David's biggest hiring mistakes? How did they change his approach?
- What are the biggest mistakes founders make when hiring for product?
- Why should you hire people who are not in product today?
4. David Meyer: The Art or Science of Product:
- Is product more art or science? If David were to put a number on it, what would it be?
- Is simple always better when it comes to product?
- Will AI remove the importance and focus on UI?
- Why are the most impressive companies business model innovations not product innovations?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The CEO is the CPO. The CEO is driving the vision of the company and knows the right thing to do. |
| 0:06.5 | Every great leader in startups, you're bending reality. You're creating things that seem impossible. |
| 0:14.1 | I think you will things into existence. I think we do impossible things all the time because we just don't think they're impossible. |
| 0:20.7 | But I think human ingenuity can like create impossible things because you just really, really |
| 0:26.1 | want it to exist and you find a way. |
| 0:28.0 | This is 20 Product with me, Harry Stebbings, and this is the monthly show where we sit down |
| 0:31.7 | with the best product leaders to reveal their tactics and strategies when it comes to hiring |
| 0:36.3 | and scaling, the best product teams. |
| 0:38.7 | Now, today, we have one of the best personalities. He's just so much fun. You can feel the |
| 0:43.4 | storytelling, the life and energy that he brings. He's the SVP of product at Databricks. Before |
| 0:48.7 | that, he ran engineering and product management at One Logging, where he grew the company to thousands |
| 0:53.3 | of customers and market leadership. |
| 0:55.6 | With that, I'm thrilled to welcome David Meyer to the Hot Seat today. |
| 0:58.7 | I want to say a huge thank you to Ali Godsey, founder and CEO at Databricks for making |
| 1:02.8 | the intro to David today. |
| 1:04.4 | This was such a joy to do. |
| 1:06.0 | But before we dive into the episode today, I'm refreshing the 20 VC Mero board, and I'd love |
| 1:10.7 | your input again. |
| 1:11.6 | It's really easy. Just head on over to Mero.com forward slash 20VC and leave your guest |
| 1:16.8 | suggestions for future shows and you can do it with a digital sticky note or a comment. |
| 1:21.1 | You can head over to Mero.com forward slash 20VC and Mero actually sponsored this episode. |
| 1:27.1 | If you haven't already tried it, I think you'll love it. |
... |
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