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Jag Duggal: How We Scaled Nubank to 80M Users; Google's Brutal Hiring Practices | E995

Jag Duggal is the CPO @ Nubank where he is responsible for product strategy and roadmap reporting to CEO David Velez. Jag leads over 200 professionals across different functions within his role. Before Nubank, he was the Director of Product Management at Facebook, leading monetization of video and third party content. Before Facebook, Jag spent close to 7 years at Quantcast as a Senior VP of Product Management & Strategy. Finally, pre-Facebook, Jag was at Google for 5 years as a Group Product Manager and Head of Strategy (Display). ------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:06 Why Jag Left Meta for Nubank 4:24 Is Product more art or science? 8:27 Best Question to Ask Customers 12:33 Lessons from Facebook 17:05 Do you inherently trust people? 18:40 Hiring Tips 26:04 Execution vs Strategic Clarity 34:59 The Illusion of the “Dead Cat Bounce” 37:02 How to Measure Churn 43:49 How to Decide Which Features to Prioritize 48:49 How Often You Should Do Product Reviews 51:38 Nubank’s Best/Worst Product Decisions 56:50 Quick-Fire Round ------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Jag Duggal We Discuss: 1. From Cushy Valley Job to CPO @ Brazilian Startup: Why did Jag leave the life of luxury in the valley at Facebook to join David as CPO @ Nubank? What does Jag know now that he wishes he had known when he took the position? What one piece of advice would Jag give to a product leader starting a new position today? 2. Product: The Playbook, Art vs Science: Why does Jag believe that product is 90% science? What is the final 10%? Why does Jag believe that you should not listen to your customers? What is the right way to ask customers questions to determine their pains? Why does Jag believe that you should not fall in love with your own ideas? 3. Building the Bench: Hiring the Best Team: How does Jag approach the hiring process for all new product hires? What are the single biggest mistakes Jag has made when hiring for the product team? What are the must ask questions when hiring for product? What hiring lesson did Jag learn from Kevin Systrom? How has he applied it today? What did Jag believe about hiring that he now no longer believes? 4. Go Time: Build, Manage and Execute: Why does Jag think execution is overrated and strategy deserves more credit than people give it? How does Nubank utilize small teams to operate fastest? What have been lessons here? What are the best ways to do product post-mortems? What works? What does not work? What has been Jag’s best product decision? What has been his worst? --------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com ----------------------------------------------- #JadDuggal #Nubank #HarryStebbings #20vc #productmanagement #founders #startups

Jag DuggalguestHarry Stebbingshost
Mar 28, 20231h 3mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

From Google’s Credentials To Nubank’s Customer Love: Scaling Fintech Relentlessly

  1. Jag Duggal, CPO of Nubank and former Google/Facebook product leader, explains why he left Big Tech to build fintech for the “bottom half” of the global income pyramid in Latin America.
  2. He argues product can be made 90% science—through metrics, experimentation, and rigorous PM practices—but the decisive 10% remains art: deep customer empathy and intuition about unmet needs.
  3. Duggal details how Nubank scaled past 80M users by obsessing over customer love before growth, avoiding “dead cat bounce” metrics, insisting on small autonomous teams, and aligning execution tightly to clear strategy.
  4. He also contrasts Google’s credential-heavy hiring with his current focus on drive and clarity, shares how Facebook shaped his views on speed and escalation, and reflects candidly on product hits and misses at Nubank.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Anchor execution in clear strategy, not just speed.

Rapid execution without a precise theory of who you serve, what problem you solve, and how you win produces noise, not progress. Clear hypotheses turn market feedback into actionable signal instead of random data.

Treat product as mostly science, but win with the final 10% of art.

Most of PM can be systematized—metrics, experiments, frameworks—but the differentiator is art: deep, observed empathy for customers and intuitive judgment about the sharpest unmet need and where the magic sits.

In customer research, explore the problem space, not your solution.

Good product questions probe the customer’s life and workarounds rather than pitching features or leading them to your hypothesis. The PM’s job is to synthesize patterns, not take dictation from users.

Hire for drive and clarity over pure credentials.

Duggal has become skeptical of over-valuing schools, pedigrees, and big-company logos. He looks for people who will “stomach their own incompetence” in ambiguity, and who explain products and decisions with sharp, simple clarity.

Prioritize customer love before scaling to avoid the ‘dead cat bounce.’

Big platforms can make almost any launch look successful short-term via distribution. Nubank insists on strong customer-love metrics (e.g., churn, NPS, Sean Ellis scores) before pouring fuel on growth to avoid hollow, unsustainable products.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Execution without strategic clarity is basically frenzy. It is not progress.

— Jag Duggal

We are not in the business of taking dictation from our customers.

— Jag Duggal

Are you able to stomach your own incompetence?

— Jag Duggal (quoting a leadership professor’s core lesson)

We may not be right, but at least we are clear.

— Kevin Systrom (as cited by Jag Duggal)

We want our customers to love us fanatically.

— Jag Duggal (describing Nubank’s first company value)

Why Duggal left Meta for Nubank and the global fintech opportunityProduct management as 90% science, 10% art (customer empathy and intuition)How to do customer discovery and ask good, non-leading questionsHiring and assessing product talent: beyond credentials to drive and clarityStrategic clarity vs. execution speed, and avoiding “dead cat bounce” productsMetrics for true product-market fit and customer love (NPS, churn, Sean Ellis)Scaling Nubank: small autonomous teams, new markets, and product portfolio expansion

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