The more senior the role, the fewer the candidates, and thus the less it makes sense to restrict the pipeline. Last week, a friend posted on LinkedIn about a role: $1.5m-$2.3m comp (base + equity), only hiring via referral. As someone who has publicly pledged never to accept more than $1m a year in comp, […]
The death of shared experience is a fundamental paradigm shift…and it will absolutely wreck your customer service department. At some point, every teen ends up in the same conversation: how do I know that the reality I am experiencing is the same one you are? The context changes (as does the amount of alcohol consumed) […]
But our tendency to confuse solutions with causes often traps us; when it comes to plugging leaks, it can’t just be a form of bailing faster. Take racism. We know that empathetic listening, coupled with strong challenges, can convert hardliners. And we have plenty of examples: Ann Atwater and C. P. Ellis. Matthew Stevenson and […]
The thin line between ambition and moral bankruptcy isn’t just about what we do but what we allow from others. In the end, we are what we tolerate. The fabulous Katie Scarpa recently opened a role for an Integration Specialist on her team at Oceans. And almost immediately, she sent me a very impressive resume […]
Yesterday, I wrote about using an Alternative Universe exercise to get stakeholders focused on behaviors. Today, I’ll share a second tactic: Outliers. Let’s use a different example and focus on an internal use case: “I want people to be more inclusive in meetings.” And for variety, our stakeholder can be a glasses-wearing CEO named Satya. […]
One of the hardest jobs that applied behavioral scientists have is getting stakeholders to focus on behaviors, rather than emotions or cognitions. Over the years, I’ve come to rely on three tactics for creating a behavioral outcome and while none of them is a silver bullet, at least one of them usually manages to do […]
Delight without satisfaction is addiction. And so when we design to make people feel happy in the moment, we must be mindful that it also enhances their long-term happiness, or risk creating a suboptimal world. Over the weekend, designer Taurean Bryant posted about his hatred for the term “delight” in design. And Justin Maxwell shared […]
Yesterday, I wrote about Lenny Rachitsky’s attempt to figure out which companies produce the best PMs and the problems with his analysis. But today is more important: even if you correct for method errors, this data doesn’t really answer the question he is asking. But it may tell PMs, particularly those underrepresented in tech, what […]
Newsletter expert Lenny Rachitsky tried to figure out which companies produce the best product managers, using a very large dataset. And not only did he arrive at the wrong conclusion, he inadvertently produced a list of places you probably shouldn’t work, particularly if you’re underrepresented in tech. Preamble: I don’t know Rachitsky but our mutuals […]
During breakfast on Monday, my son turned to me and said “Last night was really fun. Thank you for having them over.” That is an exact quote and, I think we can all agree, an utterly bizarre thing for a nine-year-old to say. It was sandwiched between two long soliloquies about anime, so I’m fairly […]