Driving alignment within teams, work-life balance, and the changing PM landscape | Nikita Miller

Nikita Miller is a product leader, angel investor, and advisor. She has built and led product teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to multinationals, and she is currently SVP of Product Management at The Knot Worldwide. Nikita is passionate about scaling product teams to support high-growth businesses and was a product leader at Trello and Atlassian for five years. In today’s podcast, we cover: • Lessons from building and growing Trello • Nikita’s roles and responsibilities framework • How the PM landscape is changing • Lessons about managing remote teams • Tactics for driving urgency within teams • Why working cross-culturally was such a formative experience — Brought to you by Wealthfront—Make smarter stock investments | Lenny’s Job Board—Hire the best product people. Find the best product gigs | Ahrefs—Improve your website’s SEO for free Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/driving-alignment-and-urgency-within-teams-work-life-balance-and-the-changing-pm-landscape-nikita-miller-the-knot-trello/#transcript Where to find Nikita Miller: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikitadyer • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikitadyer/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Nikita’s background (03:56) How Nikita helped Trello develop enterprise features  (09:41) Trello vs. Jira (10:28) Similarities and differences between building for users at The Knot vs. Trello (15:02) Pro tips for Trello users (15:41) Nikita’s roles and responsibilities framework (21:10) Why scrum masters are disappearing and what shifts are happening on teams (21:56) Why every team should have a data scientist embedded in it (23:27) The proper cadence for the rules and responsibilities framework, and problems around execution (25:27) Outcomes and output (28:34) The importance of urgency, and how to cultivate a sense of urgency (29:52) How to determine if your team is moving quickly enough (31:03) Prioritization between big bets and optimizations (31:29) Questions Nikita asks to understand her team’s speed  (33:30) Changes in the field of product management (36:42) Advice for people who want to get into product (38:40) Why being a PM is hard, and thoughts on work-life balance (43:03) How to manage remote teams and how to do successful, short, in-person meetups (47:59) The importance of having overlapping work hours and onboarding in person (49:09) The advantages of working in different cultures  (52:58) The question Nikita finds most useful (55:07) Lightning round Referenced: • Trello: https://www.atlassian.com/software/trello • The Knot: https://www.theknot.com/ • Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira • Roles and Responsibilities template: https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/roles-and-responsibilities • OKR examples: https://www.whatmatters.com/get-examples • Set goals with OKRs: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/set-goals-with-okrs/steps/introduction/ • Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/okrs • Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity: https://www.amazon.com/Amp-Unlocking-Hypergrowth-Expectations-Intensity/dp/1119836115 • Nikita’s LinkedIn post on working abroad: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7039394235304824832/ • You Will Hear Thunder: https://www.amazon.com/Will-Hear-Thunder-Anna-Akhmatova/dp/0821408062 • The Fire Next Time: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Next-Time-James-Baldwin/dp/067974472X/ • High Output Management: https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884 • Crash Landing on You on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81159258 • Arc browser: https://arc.net/ • Josh Miller on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/competing-with-giants-an-inside-look-at-how-the-browser-company-builds-product-josh-miller-ceo/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Disclosure: I am a Wealthfront client and I have received non-cash compensation for the testimonial in this episode.