Shreyas Doshi is a former product leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He’s now a full-time advisor and coach to founders and executives. Shreyas is known for his incredibly insightful writing on products, which has garnered him a passionate following in the PM and startup community. Last week, we sat down together at the very first Lenny and Friends Summit in San Francisco for a special live episode. We covered: • Why product leaders often feel overwhelmed with work, and how to combat it • The importance of developing good taste, and how to do it • How to reduce frustration in your product leadership role • The critical skill of truly listening as a leader • Common pitfalls in annual planning and decision-making • Lots of laughs To learn more from Shreyas, check out these courses: • Improving Your Product Sense: https://bit.ly/product-sense • Managing Your PM Career: https://bit.ly/pm-career-course — Brought to you by: • WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: https://workos.com/lenny • Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want: https://www.useparagon.com/lenny • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/shreyas-doshi-live Where to find Shreyas Doshi: • X: https://x.com/shreyas • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyasdoshi/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@shreyas.threads • Linktree: https://linktr.ee/shreyasdoshi • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShreyasDoshiVideos Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction (5:35) Question one: Why am I so busy? (10:08) Annual planning as an example (16:48) Tactical tips for staying less busy (25:20) Question two: Do I actually have good taste? (38:09) Question three: Why does my job feel so frustrating? (43:29) Question four: Am I really listening? (44:35) Closing remarks Referenced: • 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: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/episode-3-shreyas-doshi • LNO framework: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1492345184171945984 • Time management techniques that actually work: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/time-management-techniques-that-actually • Part 2: Time management techniques that actually work: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/part-2-time-management-techniques • Eisenhower quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_164720 • Stripe Connect: https://stripe.com/connect • Jeff Bezos explains one-way door decisions and two-way door decisions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxsdOQa_QkM • Spotify Is America’s Most Loved Workplace: https://www.newsweek.com/2021/10/29/spotify-americas-most-loved-workplace-1639982.html • Shreyas on “thinking is cheap”: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shreyasdoshi_thinking-is-very-cheap-doing-is-very-expensive-activity-7225237421813116929-Qzi3/ • Good Product Strategy, Bad Product Strategy from Shreyas: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1244810075908128768 • Shreyas on annual planning and metrics: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1302423854095036421 https://x.com/shreyas/status/1304628719374544896 • Jensen Huang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenhsunhuang/ • Patrick Mahomes’s website: https://www.adidas.com/us/patrick_mahomes • Virat Kohli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virat_Kohli • Reversible and Irreversible Decisions: https://fs.blog/reversible-irreversible-decisions/ • Fail fast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_fast • 3 levels of product work: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1370248637842812936 • Shakespeare quote: https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/to-thine-own-self-be-true/ • Rick Rubin: Legendary Music Producer | Lex Fridman Podcast #275: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_szemxPcTI • Blake Burge on Rick Ruben: https://x.com/blakeaburge/status/1794470295828341222 • Rick Rubin on X: https://x.com/RickRubin • Dee Hock on X: https://x.com/deewhock • Dee Hock quote on listening: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1351279398423465984 • Peter Drucker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker • Peter Drucker quotes on listening: https://www.azquotes.com/author/4147-Peter_Drucker/tag/listening • Lenny’s first podcast recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_QghPLG-8 • A Recipe to Become a Great Listener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQJkiDy2Ko Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Lenny Rachitsky interviews world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable advice to help you grow your own product. — 🎙️Find the full episode here: https://youtu.be/YP_QghPLG-8 🔔 For more videos like these, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/c/LennysPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 — Where to find Lenny: • Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/ • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
Shreyas Doshi is a treasure trove of wisdom 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. Where to find Shreyas Doshi: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/shreyas • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyasdoshi/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • 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 Episode transcripts: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/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/#transcription In this episode, we cover: [00:00] Shreyas’ upbringing and path into product management [14:22] Lessons from working at Stripe, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo [27:12] How pre-mortem meetings impacted the culture at Stripe [33:23] What are the best practices in running a pre-mortem meeting? [39:27] The LNO framework: What is it and how did it change the way Shreyas went about his day? [48:06] The two-step tactic you can apply to overcome procrastination on important tasks [53:19] The three levels of product work and which level should you optimize for [56:46] How might these product work levels cause conflict or influence your company culture? [1:03:43] Common types of problems hiding behind the execution label [1:05:14] Two traits you need to identify a fake execution problem [1:13:10] The pitfall of ROI thinking [1:21:03] What is opportunity-cost thinking and how can you apply it? Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible: • Coda: https://coda.io/lenny • Productboard: https://www.productboard.com/ • Sprig: https://sprig.com/lenny Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquires about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.