Julie Zhuo
@joulee
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Building Sundial. Angel investor. Former Design VP @ FB. Author of "The Making of a Manager" . Obsessed with systems. Design + data person.
Bay Area, CA
Joined November 2008
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Pinned Tweet
My book “The Making of a Manager” is out today 🎉 It’s everything I wish I’d known when I became a manager at the age of 25. Know someone who might benefit from it or looking for a refresher for yourself? Please help me spread the word!
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If you surround yourself with great people, you're going to get better faster.
But the price you pay is the constant feeling of inadequacy.
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Great designers are strong at "product thinking." This is a key aspect of many design interviews, as well as many PM or VC ones.
But what exactly is product thinking? And how does one get good at it?
Thread below 👇
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Seven incredibly non-intuitive things about growing your career, a thread 👇
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I'm becoming convinced there are only three important skills in life:
1) Understanding yourself well enough to know what really matters to you
2) Breaking down big problems into smaller, solvable ones
3) Creating more goodness out of being together than apart
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My co-founder Chandra Narayanan's quote has become something of a product-builder's mantra for us: Diagnose with data and treat with design.
There is so much packed into those sentences! Thread going deeper 👇 (1/15)
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So let me get this straight. The recommended way to safeguard your crypto assets is to turn one private key into many keys and stash them in different places? Like what Voldemort did with his horcruxes?
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"You were at one company for nearly 14 years?!?!"
Yes, I'd say. Here's why:
1) I loved the people
2) I was continuously challenged and learning
3) The mission spoke to me
4) I felt deep loyalty
But there was another big reason that was hard for me to admit then...
(1/10)
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Start-up life = hard won insights. Here are my top 10 for this year.
1. Doing well at a start-up is not simply about skill, it is about mentality.
A start-up mentality values action over correctness, results over process. It suits those that value autonomy over clarity.
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Is there a term for someone who geeks out on how to get to know someone better? Because I'm definitely in that club.
So of course I looooove thinking about interview questions.
Thread of my favorite questions to ask folks to understand how they think and work.
(1/11)
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"Building dashboards is easier than knowing what to put in a dashboard."
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How PMs push back against designers:
"That's not the priority right now"
"We don't have the eng resources for that"
"This design is not going to work"
"The data shows that metrics dropped with this design change"
Here's how you can respond 👇 (1/10)
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Everyone has an opinion on design.
There's always an immediate gut reaction: "Ooh, I love this!" or "Meh."
But how do you go beyond that to honing your skills of giving helpful, actionable feedback?
Here are the 7 questions I run through when critiquing a product's design 👇
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The Ladder of Ownership, a thread 👇
Lvl1: Judging
Lvl2: Gossiping
Lvl3: Giving feedback
Lvl4: Giving deep feedback
Lvl5: Collaborating
Lvl6: Driving
Lvl7: Owning
Read on for an example in action.
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Good execution vs. bad execution, in 10 tweets:
Bad execution:
Pick two—time, quality, or cost.
Good execution:
Thoughtfully choosing the scope such that things are built on time, on budget, and at a high level of quality.
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7 Management Trust Killers (and how to avoid them)
1) Follow-through Fail
2) Talk but No Walk
3) Flip-flopper
4) Gossipmonger
5) Ostrich Head
6) Ruinous Empathizer
7) Us vs Them
Thread below on details 👇
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Do you ever get called upon to give design or product feedback?
A guide below 👇
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Writing your weekly status update?
Less:
Worked on...
Discussed...
Iterated on...
Helped out...
More:
Decided that...
Fixed...
Shipped...
Moved X to <next step>
Focus on sharing your milestones towards impact. Reduce the vague language.
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The art of comparison in 2 simple rules:
1) If you want to *become* better: benchmark yourself against the best.
2) If you want to *feel* better: benchmark yourself against those worse off than you.
Mastering this requires great personal honesty re: your current mental state.
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A few months ago I put $50 into Dogecoin as a joke, and now I checked and it is worth $471 and I realize I don't really understand anything.
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Managing is designing.
Except instead of designing products, interfaces or services, you are designing how a group of people can create something more together than apart.
Which people are needed? Who should do what? How do folks collaborate?
These are design questions.
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You're in a panic.
Your launch date is in a week. Your whole team's credibility is riding on your collective ability to make it happen. Leadership is Eye-of-Sauron-ing this project.
There's just one problem.
You suspect the product sucks.
What do you do? A thread 👇 (1/9)
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The Five Most Common Product Designer Mistakes, a thread 👇
#1
/5: Reinventing the Wheel
When “Let's be innovative!” wins at the expense of “Let's do things effectively and quickly!”
Examples:
Facebook going hamburger menu before tabs
Horizontally scrolling web pages
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Friday thought: you usually get better feedback if you ask “how could this have been twice as good?” as “how did I do?”
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After nearly 14 years at Facebook, I'm embarking on a new adventure. More here:
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The way Tony Hsieh is remembered is how many of us probably want to be remembered: loving, generous, kind, original, smart. Thanks Tony for reminding us that all these qualities can all exist in a person, that one does not need to be a “brilliant asshole” to be successful.
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Someone on your team says: “Our goal should be to move Metric X up Y% this half.”
Your inclination is to nod, say “Cool” and get on with the actual building.
But pause!
The goals you agree to determine what you build. So consider them carefully.
8 questions to ask👇
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How to describe your design work in a portfolio or presentation (thread below)
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I've been working on a book about management for the past year and a half, and it's now real enough to have a cover and a publication date! THE MAKING OF A MANAGER is headed to a bookshelf near you in March 2019. More about it here!
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Us:
I love it when a colleague asks me for help because I feel useful and generous and I can think of no better use of time than empowering someone else.
Also us:
I avoid asking my colleagues for help because they must think of me as a huge imposition and burden on their time.
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A frequent question I get when talking with senior designers: Will my growth as a designer stall if I start managing?
There is often a second question underneath that, which is:
Will I no longer be respected as a design leader if I can't keep up as a designer?
Thread below👇
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Is a team member underperforming?
What can you do to turn it around?
First you have to understand why they aren't meeting your expectations.
There are only 3 reasons why.
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If your marketing e-mail does not let me unsubscribe in <3 clicks (one to load the unsubscribe page, and max 2 to confirm the unsubscribe), I will fury-mash the "report as spam" button on all your e-mails forever to send your domain to the deepest recesses of auto-spam filters.
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Imagine you're using a product and something bothers you about it.
Maybe it takes 5 clicks to do anything.
Maybe it works but is kinda ugly and clunky.
"I bet I could make a new app that's 15% better," you think. "Instant business success!"
This is a fallacy. Thread 👇
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One of the most 🤯 things for me is a highly complex topic explained in a way that is beautifully short and simple, such that everyone (and non-experts) can understand.
What are the best examples you’ve encountered of that—specific pictures, paragraphs, videos, blogs, etc?
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Every glamour has its price.
Most people think the price of winning--of greatness--is hard work and sacrifice.
But beyond that, it's also the mental battle. The constant drumbeat of dissatisfaction.
There is no end to it.
Consistent high achievers learn to make peace w/it.
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It's easy to worship at the alter of productivity and focus.
But the more focused you are on something, the less creative you become. Focus is by definition narrowing. You block out serendipitous connections.
If you want to innovate, you must make the space for it.
(3/7)
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Let's try an experiment! I want to start a mentorship circle with:
8 young female product designers (between 2-5 years PD experience, currently IC)
7 one-hour sessions over 3 months
6 topics (designing career, honing skills, confidence, etc.)
Know anyone? Please share widely!
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How designers push back against PMs:
1) Moving metrics is not the point; actually solving problems is
2) Let's not just throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks
3) Why don't we innovate instead of copying?
4) Don't you care about quality?
...and how PMs can respond 👇
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Something
@kunalb11
told me last week that I'm still thinking about:
A great way to measure + hone your instincts is to write down predictions of a launch beforehand, and revisit afterward.
Our memory is flawed; we rewrite history with new context.
Doing this keeps us honest.
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We think the most confident person in the room is the one who sounds the most polished and certain.
In reality, the most confident person is the one who most readily admits and accepts *all* their flaws / mistakes.
Imagine how secure one must feel to do that.
(2/7)
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What’s your most important life lesson that you wish you learned ten years earlier?
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Do you struggle with "office politics," like when Colleague got a promotion because they seem to have the same hobbies as the boss?
Do you have no idea how to play the game?
Do you recoil at the very word?
Then this thread is for you 👇
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A thread (and story) about managing with different cultural contexts. 👇
Some of you immigrants/minorities will know what I'm talking about when I say that it took me maybe three decades to know how to answer: "What do you want? What do you care about?"
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Ask people all the time for feedback. Make your asks specific, and your tone curious so it's safe for the other person to tell something critical. People know when you're just fishing for compliments. Examples (thread)
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Why write:
🧹 clarifies and tidies your thinking
🛠 makes you better at what you write about
🎗 reminds your future self who you are today
👯♀️ makes your values known so like-minded folks can find you
🎈 spreads good ideas and empathy
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When you say 'no' to something, you're usually saying 'yes' to something else that matters more at the moment.
So instead of feeling guilty, let's celebrate that!
What's something you said no to this past week, and what did you say yes to instead?
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It doesn’t cost you anything to tell someone about something you truly believe they are good at. In fact, it creates tons of value for that person and for you.
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What are some of the best examples you've seen of well-designed graphs and charts?
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In my 20s
1. I wish I could be successful
2. I wish I was more talented
3. I wish people liked me
In my 30s
1. I wish my work could be meaningful
2. I wish I could be more resilient
3. I wish I could spend more time with people I like
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We think strength is self-sufficiency— achievement without reliance on others.
We think that if someone else gains, we lose.
But intertwined, we all go further. This is the secret of Silicon Valley.
Help others, ask for help, and collective strength multiplies.
(7/7)
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I meet a lot of people who think: I should only show work that is good and meets my (internally high) bar.
But doing the opposite tends to get you further:
1) Faster execution
2) Deeper feedback
3) Process learnings
4) Improved trust
5) Team learnings
Thread below 👇
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Just got some amazing advice from an old colleague I hadn't seen in 5+ years.
When choosing a company to be a part of, consider the people first and foremost. I cannot stress this enough.
Those colleagues will one day make up your network and have a huge impact on your future.
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The Razor's Edge of Product Development
(a thread in 7 parts👇)
Focus on the competition, and you won't take the risks necessary to make it big.
Ignore the competition, and you'll miss plausible threats until it's too late.
Be optimistic, but paranoid.
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Do you feel you should "build your network?"
Do you wonder why everyone says you should?
Does the idea of 'networking' make you die a little inside?
Do you wonder how you can continue to network in this remote, socially-distanced era?
Then this thread is for you. 👇
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On my deep admiration list?
@taylorswift13
. She knows her worth and her values and uses her power to make industry-changing decisions. You go girl.
🧵 Taylor Swift, intellectual property law, and due dilligence disasters
In 2005, 13-year-old aspiring country singer Taylor Swift signed a record deal with 0-year-old aspiring label Big Machine Records.
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The tell-tale sign of growth: looking back to 6-month or one year ago and cringing slightly at something you used to say, do, or believe.
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Designers have many superpowers, but one underrated one is that the work of design leads one to become more comfortable with uncertainty.
How does this impact the product development process?
Thread 👇
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I lesson you learn time and time again designing for people at scale. If your audience is small and savvy, you can experiment with subtle and clever interactions. But if you want to be used by hundreds m of millions, go with obvious.
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Just think: 1% better per week is 67% better in a year.
Can’t help but be optimistic about the future when you think about it that way.
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Worrying about asking dumb questions or saying the wrong thing leads us to bite our tongues.
But managers usually think most highly of reports who proactively ask questions and share their perspectives.
You have far more to gain than lose in using your voice.
(4/7)
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One of the stories we used to tell in the early days of Facebook was how a small, two-engineer project came to dominate the entire photo sharing landscape in the late 2000s.
Thread 👇 1/10
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Early in my career, when I struggled to convince people of my point of view, I used to think, "Wouldn't it be nice to be the boss? Then I could just get my way."
Alas, it doesn't work that way. The higher up the ladder you go, the more the job is about convincing. (1/3)
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"Some people are simplifiers. You're a complexifier."
This was a piece of feedback I received once from a colleague.
Yeah, it burned.
It felt like a shitty thing to say.
Thread 👇(1/11)
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If you study a topic deeply enough to becoming discerning within it, you're going to be called an 'expert' or 'visionary'.
But the price you pay is constant disappointment that the world and your work doesn't measure up to your vision.
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Ask yourself 3 questions before your next 1:1:
1) What emotion do I want the other person to leave with?
2) What change do I want the other person to make?
3) What can I do in the meeting to increase the other person's trust in me?
1:1 time is precious. Don't squander it.
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We are more than what we do or achieve in our jobs. And if it's hard to see that:
1) Remember "The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying"
2) Read "Designing your Life" and do the exercises
3) Spend time with people you really like
Fin. (10/10)
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It's kind of an open secret among tech designers that the most cutting-edge user experience work tends to come from the video game industry.
Alas, video game designers earn much less than FAANG designers.
Thread below on market dynamics + careers 👇
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Got a big, meaty problem that seems overwhelming and that everyone on the team has a different opinion about?
The absolute best tactic I know to make progress: set the timer for 2 hours, create your best strawman proposal, and share it with the team.
Why? Thread 👇
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Product builders are trained to ask: "Is our product better than the competition's?"
What they should be asking instead is: "Is our product better enough to motivate a change in behavior?"
There is a big difference.
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Me, wondering: "What does SaaS Product X do?"
<Visits X's website>
<3 minutes later still confused>
Me, typing on Google: "What does X do?"
<Reads article or Quora answer that actually explains>
Why are so many SaaS websites difficult to understand?!
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What is success in team communication?
3 things:
1) Fidelity: how much of what you wanted to express gets into the mind of the listener
2) Efficiency: how much time did it take
3) Actionability: how clear is it what should be done as a result
How do you master? Thread👇
1/9
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What you see is only a slice of the truth.
You can't ever truly know someone else's battles.
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Totally made my day (so far): “The Making of a Manager” is a Amazon’s best book of the year so far in the Business and Leadership category! It’s 8:30am right now in Shanghai where I am—too early for a celebratory drink? :P
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Actual 5 Regrets of the Dying:
I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to me.
I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
I wish I’d had expressed my feelings.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
(7/10)
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If you invest in equities over a long enough period, you're going to make money.
But the price you pay is the constant feeling that you've missed out on some important trend or deal.
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Whenever I hear a product pitch, the thing I most want to know (and that most often gets left out) is: who is this product for?
This seems like a simple question, but there are many ways the answer can be of insufficient depth. Thread 👇
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I've participated in too many conversations about the role of design / pm / eng to count.
Of course there are differences.
But every tech manager role, regardless of discipline, ends up converging at higher levels.
What does this mean for you as a manager?
Thread below 👇
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The mistakes you're most worried about are unlikely to be the ones you make. You'll err on the opposite end instead.
For example, if you're incredibly worried about offending people, you'll rarely do that, but you'll probably avoid giving critical, honest feedback.
(6/7)
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I used to think the hard part about product was knowing what to build.
I was wrong.
The hard part is boiling the answer down to something simple enough to drive action.
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Our mental state is a filter on the truth.
When it's good, problems look solvable, challenges seem invigorating, creativity soars.
When it's bad, even simple tasks require a herculean effort.
Sleep, exercise, time with loved ones--they change the tint of the filter.
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Life is like a video game. The 💵 question: which game are you playing?
Is it Fortnite Battle Royale, where you outshine an arena of others?
Pokemon, where you collect and show off your rare finds?
Minecraft or Roblox, meta-games where you build games that others play?
(1/9)
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The people whose careers you admire and study the most are the ones your own career starts to emulate.
This seems like a great thing, until you realize along the way the downsides that come with that kind of career.
Every glamour has its price.
(1/7)
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4 months ago, I woke up one day and decided to start a mentorship circle with a small group of talented, high-potential female designers.
It was the most amazing experience. Here's a thread on what I learned 👇
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But. "My identity = My job" has a dark side:
1) You burn out prioritizing it over everything else
2) Your self-esteem is tied to your success, which you can't always control
3) You don't learn your own values
4) Your relationships skew superficial
5) You miss other oppts
(5/10)
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Want to get someone's help?
If you don't know them well, vague asks like these are doomed to fail:
1. Will you chat with me about my career?
2. Will you be my mentor?
3. Will you give me advice on how to improve my work?
Instead, make the asks *specific*... ↓
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7 Questions to Impress your Boss
(if you respect them)
1. What do you think are the 3 biggest issues for our team right now?
⇒ Shows big-picture thinking and caring about the team’s success
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What a data-informed culture is (a thread):
1. Constantly seeking to understand the true drivers of a phenomena
2. Accountability to measurable goals that are good proxies of one's mission and values
3. Fast iteration and experimentation
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Companies are like people.
Not sprawling networks of people (though technically that's right)
Rather, thinking about a company as an individual makes many things easier to understand.
Pick the company to join like you'd pick who you'd want to hang out with every day.
Thread👇
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People often ask me what product design actually is. To design products is to understand what needs, wants, or problems people have, and to construct something that will help solve that problem.
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Ever wish you could tell your boss to change something, but they don't seem open to criticism?
Most of us stay silent. Why piss off the person who can promote or fire you?
But the ones who do this well gain more respect and trust.
How can you do this? 5 steps below 👇
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It's impossible to read the same book twice.
Because even if it is the same book, you are now a different person.
Wisdom can continue to be found upon multiple readings of your favorite books.
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One of the consistently delightful things I find in Asian appliances is that they often play music instead of typical beeps.
Like my rice-cooker. Why isn’t this the norm everywhere?
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Spend the vast majority of your energy ensuring you got the defaults in your product experience right. Never use “but we added an option...” as a crutch. Only power users use options.
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I'm sure I'm in the honeymoon period still, but the past 9 months of starting a start-up is hands-down the most fun I've had in my career.
Writing this down now so I can look back on this in the future when the storms come. :)
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One of my goals this year was to read 5 books on death 💀.
Morbid, right?
But an incontrovertible fact of life is that all of us die. It's only a matter of time.
So why not be better prepared for it?
Thread below 👇
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