People ask me all the time, what are the most valuable things I learned working at Facebook. I worked there for three years as a PM → Director of Product. (1/x)

Here they are 👇

1/ Just because something is hard to know, doesn’t mean it is unknowable. Similarly, just because something is hard to do, doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be done.
2/ Rigor and quality of thought is critical to building great products. When you can build anything, structured thinking is essential.
3/ Understand. Identify. Execute. In that order, every time. (h/t @naomersg ) Too many people do it in reverse, skip a step, or do a bad job at any point.
4/ Crisp communication is the key to everything. (h/t @SadiSKhan)
5/ You can’t be crisp if you’re not precise. Value and prioritize precision. Do not hide uncertainty, do not bury nuance.
6/ Knowing something deeply is the best way to bring something unique and new to the world. Knowing something deeply also makes your ideas the most defensible.
7/ Great product leaders are: strong structured thinkers, operate from clear first principles, create frameworks that make it easy for those principles to come to life across teams and products, and communicate effectively.

This is not a MECE list.
8/ The job of a product leader is to ensure that the core idea, insight and user value is not lost as a product comes to market and moves through myriad people and opinions.
9/ Product leaders have the optionality of when to rely on data and when not to. They are one of the few that have that ability. Therefore, they should use that power wisely.
10/ The best product leaders can set a compelling vision but also zoom into the metal to really understand the implications of product decisions. Being able to transition between the clouds and mud easily gives them full understanding of the work.

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1/“What would need to be true for you to….X”

Why is this the most powerful question you can ask when attempting to reach an agreement with another human being or organization?

A thread, co-written by @deanmbrody:


2/ First, “X” could be lots of things. Examples: What would need to be true for you to

- “Feel it's in our best interest for me to be CMO"
- “Feel that we’re in a good place as a company”
- “Feel that we’re on the same page”
- “Feel that we both got what we wanted from this deal

3/ Normally, we aren’t that direct. Example from startup/VC land:

Founders leave VC meetings thinking that every VC will invest, but they rarely do.

Worse over, the founders don’t know what they need to do in order to be fundable.

4/ So why should you ask the magic Q?

To get clarity.

You want to know where you stand, and what it takes to get what you want in a way that also gets them what they want.

It also holds them (mentally) accountable once the thing they need becomes true.

5/ Staying in the context of soliciting investors, the question is “what would need to be true for you to want to invest (or partner with us on this journey, etc)?”

Multiple responses to this question are likely to deliver a positive result.