Crafting a compelling product vision | Ebi Atawodi (YouTube, Netflix, Uber)
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Lenny Rachitsky
5 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2023
⏱️ 100 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ebi Atawodi is Director of Product Management for the Creator Experience at YouTube, former Head of Product at Uber, and a former Director of Product (Payments and EMEA) at Netflix. Known for crafting a strong, unified vision, Ebi empowers her teams to achieve outsized outcomes. In today’s episode, we go deep into vision and strategy, including:
• The four key elements of a good vision statement
• Three ways to determine your mission
• The four pillars of great product management
• How writing helps you gain clarity
• How culture influences product
• Tips on how to structure a strategy session
• Advice on building team culture and improving work relationships
• What’s coming soon at YouTube
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/crafting-a-compelling-product-vision-ebi-atawodi-youtube-netflix-uber/
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Where to find Ebi Atawodi:
• X: https://twitter.com/ebiatawodi
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebiatawodi
• YouTube mixes: https://www.youtube.com/@EbiAtawodi/videos
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Ebi’s background
(04:31) Four key elements of a product vision
(08:14) Examples of lofty but attainable visions
(11:43) Vision vs. mission
(13:23) Examples of visions and missions from notable companies
(15:00) A simple framework for outlining a vision
(20:51) Other methods for outlining a vision
(23:29) The impact of writing clear headlines
(26:41) Using mockups to frame your vision
(28:24) A step-by-step approach to developing a vision
(32:58) Ebi’s “10 Things” document
(37:47) A quick summary of Ebi’s tips
(40:56) How to use the “10 Things” doc in a strategy session
(43:11) The three concentric circles of evangelizing
(47:48) The cadence of developing a vision and bringing it to life
(49:26) Visions vs. micro visions
(52:58) First steps in developing a vision
(55:12) Infrastructure is the product
(56:39) Clarity and conviction, the main jobs of PMs
(59:58) Ebi’s narrative doc
(1:04:59) Conviction, its role in the job, and how to build it
(1:08:20) How to build company culture
(1:17:06) The monolithic culture at Uber
(1:19:09) The culture Ebi embeds in her teams
(1:23:58) How to evaluate your relationship with your engineering manager
(1:26:02) What’s new at YouTube
(1:29:22) Ebi’s closing thoughts
(1:30:45) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Andre Albuquerque on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-albuquerque
• TED’s mission: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization
• Stripe’s operating principles: https://stripe.com/jobs/culture
• Microsoft’s vision and mission: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about
• Tesla’s mission statement: https://www.tesla.com/blog/mission-tesla
• Lyft’s mission on Comparably: https://www.comparably.com/companies/lyft/mission
• Ebi’s playbooks and templates: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tU3jpbq_xHcF4x1bdANCVBsO6rbQ8h1HqvdQfwGW4MA/edit
• Working Backwards Press Release Template and Example: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/working-backwards-press-release-template-example-ian-mcallister/
• Patrick Collison on X: https://twitter.com/patrickc
• Seinfeld meme: https://seinfeldmemes.com/you-know-how-to-take-the-reservation/
• Travis Kalanick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traviskalanick/
• Wimdu: https://www.wimdu.com/
• Leaving big tech to build the #1 technology newsletter | Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/leaving-big-tech-to-build-the-1-technology-newsletter-gergely-orosz-the-pragmatic-engineer/
• The 48 Laws of Power: https://www.amazon.com/48-Laws-Power-Robert-Greene/dp/0140280197
• The God of Small Things: https://www.amazon.com/God-Small-Things-Novel/dp/0812979656/
• Outliers: The Story of Success: https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930
• All About Love: https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Love-New-Visions/dp/0060959479
• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f
• Scavengers Reign on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/scavengers-reign/50c8ce6d-088c-42d9-9147-d1b19b1289d4
• Sleep Cycle: https://www.sleepcycle.com/
• Nanit: https://www.nanit.com/
• “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus
• Burning Man: https://burningman.org/
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I do not believe in being liked I believe in being loved right and that's a very very different thing |
| 0:05.8 | when I said this once in a meeting poor like right but it took me a while in reading a lot of books that come to a definition of love. |
| 0:16.7 | And love is the choice to extend yourself for the spiritual growth of one self or another, right? It's very big and lofty and whatever, but it's you're literally extending yourself for somebody else or yourself self-love right and that's love and when you're |
| 0:35.4 | extending yourself you're not nice it's not always nice or like it sometimes is |
| 0:40.3 | you know having hard conversations. It's knowing that, oh, you know, there's a human, they know |
| 0:46.8 | I care about them. So when the feedback is coming, like raw, they know that it's in their best interest, |
| 0:53.2 | because I've shown enough times |
| 0:55.2 | that I genuinely care about the person behind the role. |
| 0:57.6 | Today my guest is AB Atavudi. AB is Director of Product Management at YouTube, overseeing the Creator |
| 1:05.9 | experience. Previously, she was Director of Product Management at Netflix and Head of Product |
| 1:10.8 | for Uber Wallet Checkout, Pay, and financial products at Uber. |
| 1:14.6 | AB shares the most tactical advice I've ever heard on how to develop a vision for your product, |
| 1:20.4 | along with a bunch of very concrete ways to communicate your vision to your teammates and to executives. |
| 1:26.0 | We also dig into the craft of product management and how to get better at it, |
| 1:30.0 | along with what A.B. has learned about creating a strong product culture on your team and across the company, |
| 1:35.0 | A B is such a wonderful human and clearly an amazing product leader and I'm |
| 1:39.8 | excited for you to get to learn from her. With that, bring you AB Atawodi after a short word from our sponsors. |
| 1:47.0 | This episode is brought to you by sidebar. Are you looking to land your next big career move or start your own thing? |
| 1:54.5 | One of the most effective ways to create a big leap in your career and something that worked |
| 1:58.7 | really well for me a few years ago is to create a personal board of directors, a trusted peer group where you can discuss |
| 2:05.2 | challenges you're having, get career advice, and just kind of gut check how you're thinking |
| 2:09.5 | about your work, your career, and your life. This has been a big trajectory changer for me, but it's hard to build this |
... |
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