Lane Shackleton - CPO Of Coda

10/10

10/2/20233 min read

Here are my key takeaways from this podcast. I give it a 10/10 because I enjoyed the technical discussions and intellectual nuance.

Here I created topics for my slipbox in bold and added my notes within them.

Being a Great PM :

  • ''Instead of being obsessed about a goal be obsessed about the system.'' Lane said that while he was mentioning the key points to be a great PM.

    It immediately made me think about what I was doing wrong recently. Honestly, before hearing this saying from Lane today I just changed my target for writing blog posts. I created a system to be able to send one blog post each day in my working days. So 5 blog posts a week at least. These blog posts shall not be perfect but I will continue enhancing my product library with the resources I get from lennys podcast.

    Meanwhile, Once I complete reading a book, or I consume any other product-related resource I will write another blog post about it.

  • I also heard one of the best explanations of the core job of a product person: ‘’ to turn ambiguity into clarity ‘’

  • ‘’Stop Talking, Start Building’’ debata can continue forever, test it and see it quickly.

  • The product Manager is the expert of his/her customer.

    • It is important to have a customer-facing role at the beginning of a career. ( Luckily I did at Vodafone)

Personal Growth - Career Growth :

  • ‘Oh Shit Moment’

    This reminded me of my last months at Talabat. Talabat days is a topic of another blog post. So I would say that living an ‘Oh shit moment’ is a bad moment to feel but a great moment for career development in the long run. This saying is originally from Seth Godin. Side note I read his Purple Cow book.

    ‘I shouldn’t be here’ or ‘I’m underqualified to be here’ are the moments we should be seeking out.

    ‘’The cave you fear contains the treasure you seek’’

    Another explanation here is as follows: ''Instead of running away from obstacles you should be running toward them where you experience either the most growth or the most profound moments of your life''


Building a Great Product Team

  • Remember the Cathedral Story

    You want to make your team feel they are building a cathedral and not only laying bricks!

    Short form of the cathedral story. One guy came and saw 3 guys doing sth.

    G1: guys what are you doing ?

    G2: laying bricks

    G3: adding cements on to bricks

    G4: BUILDING A CATHEDRAL.

  • Feedbacks:

    Dharmesh Shah has the ritual from HubSpot: 4 flash tags: FYI, Suggestion, Recommendation, Plea.


Strategy:

  • OKRs are not actually strategy

    OKR discussions and strategy discussions should be separated.

    Even this seems simple Check with your team as below:

    • Do we have a strategy ritual distinct from OKR setting ?’’

    • Do we have a strategy ritual distinct from metric setting ?’’

    • Do we have a strategy ritual distinct from goal setting ?’’

  • %10 planning rule : If you are planning for a week, plan for half a day not more.


Interview questions:

''Teach me sth I don’t know.''

Awesome to see someone figure out what you don't know.

Follow Up Materials

Where to find Lane: https://lane.substack.com/