Deb Liu: How to PM your career like a product you ship

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

August 22, 2024

Duration

1h 11m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Deb Liu is the CEO of Ancestry and former longtime VP of Product at Facebook. At Facebook, Deb led the creation of Facebook Marketplace, developed the first mobile ad product for apps, built the company’s games business, and launched Facebook Pay. She’s also held leadership roles at PayPal and eBay, serves on the board of Intuit, and is the author of Take Back Your Power. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why you should PM your career like you PM your product
• Strategies for incubating new products within large companies
• Creating a successful 30-60-90-day plan when starting a new job
• The pitfalls of perfectionism
• The challenges introverts face in the workplace and how to overcome them
• The value of resilience and turning failures into stepping stones
• How to leverage coaching in your career development

— Brought to you by:

• Pendo—The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application: https://www.pendo.io/lenny
• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: https://workos.com/lenny
• Webflow—The web experience platform: https://webflow.com

Find the transcript and show notes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/succeeding-as-an-introvert-deb-liu Where to find Deb Liu:

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@debliu
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahliu
• Substack: https://debliu.substack.com/

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 to Deb Liu (02:18) Deb’s career journey and key advice (09:45) Navigating new roles and challenges (11:27) Overcoming adversity and failure (15:07) Building billion-dollar businesses at Facebook (19:33) Strategies for zero-to-one innovation (23:40) PM your career like a product (33:53) Challenges and strategies for introverts in business (39:19) Reframing self-promotion (42:25) The power of accountability (46:15) Growth: a game of inches (50:52) The 30-60-90-day plan (56:52) Contrarian corner: career and marriage (58:57) Final nuggets of wisdom (01:03:09) How to find a coach (01:04:47) Lightning round 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

  host

• Deb Liu

  guest

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lenny Rachitsky and Deb Liu, Deb Liu: How to PM your career like a product you ship explores introvert to industry leader: PM your career with intention, resilience Deb Liu, former Facebook VP of Product and now CEO of Ancestry, shares how continuous learning, intentional career design, and resilience have shaped her path from accidental PM to multi–billion-dollar business builder.

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