Shreyas Doshi on pre-mortems, the LNO framework, the three levels of product work, why most execution problems are strategy problems, and ROI vs. opportunity cost thinking

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2022

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shreyas Doshi is a treasure trove of knowledge and tactical insights on product, strategy, psychology, leadership, and life. Over the course of his career, he’s PM’d at Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and Stripe, where he joined as its fourth product manager, later becoming Stripe’s first PM manager and helping define and grow its product management function (from ~5 to more than 50 people). Since leaving Stripe, Shreyas has amassed a huge Twitter following in large part thanks to consistent sharing of high-quality insights on the art of product management.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.podpage.com/lennys-podcast/shreyas-doshi-on-pre-mortems-the-lno-framework-the-three-levels-of-product-work-why-most-executio/#transcript

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In this episode, we’ll explore five big ideas from Shreyas Doshi:

1) How to predict and prevent problems with pre-mortems

* How did pre-mortem meetings impact the culture at Stripe?

* What are the best practices in running a pre-mortem meeting?

2) How to prioritize your time with the LNO framework

* What is the LNO framework? How did it change the way Shreyas went about his day?

* What is the two-step tactic you can apply to overcome procrastination on important tasks?

3) The three levels of product work

* What are the three levels of product work? Which level should you optimize for?

* How might these product work levels cause conflict or influence your company culture?

4) Most execution problems are not really execution problems

* What are the common types of problems hiding behind the execution label?

* What are the two traits you need to identify a fake execution problem?

5) Why ROI thinking is detrimental to product planning

* What is the pitfall of ROI thinking?

* What is opportunity-cost thinking and how can you apply it?

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References:

* Coda template: https://coda.io/@shreyas/pre-mortems-how-a-stripe-product-manager-predicts-prevents-probl

* Pre-mortems: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1221257568510603264

* LNO framework: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1492345184171945984

* Three levels of product work: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1370248637842812936

* Execution problems: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1427116991274307588

* Opportunity-cost thinking: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1409726218438549514

* High agency: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1276956836856393728

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Where to find Shreyas:

* Twitter: https://twitter.com/shreyas

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyasdoshi/

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Our amazing sponsors:

* Coda: https://coda.io/lenny

* Productboard: https://www.productboard.com/

* Sprig: https://sprig.com/lenny

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's no one out there today who shares more wisdom, more consistently, on the art of product management than Shreas Doeshi.
0:11.0	Shreas kind of came out of nowhere a few years ago and started tweeting gems of
0:14.7	insight about building product and the role of product management and rightfully
0:19.7	so has built a huge following on Twitter. What I love about Shrios is that his insights are often framed in
0:26.5	really memorable and interesting ways and they're often contrarian and not ideas that you've heard
0:32.1	elsewhere.
0:33.0	Shrias has worked at some of today's most important tech companies, including Yahoo, Twitter,
0:38.6	Google, and most recently Stripe, both as an IC and a manager, and his advice is always rooted in his real life experiences at these companies.
0:48.0	In our chat, we focus on five topics and go deep on them. We talk about the power of
0:55.1	pre-mortem, we talk about how to best use your time as a product manager. We look
1:00.4	into the three levels of product work and how getting them wrong often leads to tension on your team.
1:07.0	We dig into why most execution problems are really strategy problems, and we talk about a common pitfall in prioritization.
1:15.9	And if you listen to the end we actually throw in a bonus topic. I really appreciate
1:20.2	that Trios made the time for our chat and I cannot wait for you to hear it.
1:30.0	This episode is brought to you by Kota.
1:31.8	Kota is an all-in-one dock that combines the best with documents, spreadsheets, and apps in one place.
1:37.2	I actually use Koda every single day.
1:39.4	It's my home base for organizing my newsletter writing.
1:42.0	It's where I plan my content calendar,
1:44.0	capture my research, and write the first drafts of each and every post.
1:47.0	It's also where I curate my private knowledge repository
1:50.0	for paid newsletter subscribers, and it's also how I manage the workflow for this very
	...

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