Lenny's PodcastShreyas Doshi: Four questions every PM leader asks too late
Through Shreyas's audits of busy work, taste, frustration, and listening; weak strategy and one-way doors compound into long-term product and planning debt.
Episode Details
EPISODE INFO
- Released
- October 31, 2024
- Duration
- 45m
- Channel
- Lenny's Podcast
- Watch on YouTube
- ▶ Open ↗
EPISODE DESCRIPTION
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.
SPEAKERS
Lenny Rachitsky
hostShreyas Doshi
guestNarrator
other
EPISODE SUMMARY
In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lenny Rachitsky and Shreyas Doshi, Shreyas Doshi: Four questions every PM leader asks too late explores shreyas Doshi’s four questions to transform your product leadership career Shreyas Doshi shares four hard-earned questions he wishes he’d asked himself earlier as a product leader: Why am I so busy? Do I actually have good taste? Why does my job feel so frustrating? Am I really listening?
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