🎾 10 Product Sense Q's, Miro Lessons, Chesky on Design, PARA Planning, Delegation Hack

+ Write Simple, Professional Prose for Internal Docs With AI

Estimated read time: 3 minutes 26 seconds.

This is Sunday 1-1-2-3 with George.

Welcome to the 92nd edition.

Today we have:

• Design and Business: A Conversation With Airbnb’s Brian Chesky

• How To Plan Your Weekly Tasks (PARA Method)

• Little Delegation Hack

• 10 of the Most Common Product Sense Behavioral Questions

• Why Experiments Fail? Lessons from Miro

+ Write Simple, Professional Prose for Internal Docs With AI

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💾 Navigating the Intersection of Design and Business: A Conversation With Airbnb’s Brian Chesky by Figma

The famous “Brian Chesky doesn’t believe in Product Management” video got transcribed and put up on the Figma blog.

I have only seen bits of it before, but I read it, and there were some interesting bits.

For instance, have you ever wondered why there are so few designer CEOs?

I noticed that there are two types of people at companies that never become CEOs: Engineers become CEOs of Silicon Valley. Marketers become CFOs, finance people become CEOs, operators become CEOs. But the two people that never run companies are designers and Head of HR. I started thinking, “Why is this?” And it’s because design, in some ways, is fragile because companies are organized around the scientific method, and the creative process is something that requires nerve.

Then he talks about how they changed during the hard times pre-IPO during COVID:

We went from a business unit organization to a functional organization. So we had a design department, a marketing department, an engineering department—the way every startup is run. We took all the projects in the company. I asked every lead to show me their roadmap. They couldn’t even figure out their roadmaps because everyone had a sub-roadmap on sub-teams. Those teams had roadmaps and those teams had roadmaps. So I said, “There’s a simple rule: If it’s not on the roadmap, it can’t ship and it must be on one roadmap.” So we put every single thing on one roadmap. Then I said, “We can only do 10% of the things on the roadmap”—that was a wet reckoning—“We’re only going to do a few really big things.” We took the very best people, we put them all on a few projects.

He goes on to say that he basically went full-bore “Steve Jobs” mode, reviewing everything himself:

I started reviewing all the work. I reviewed the work every week, every two weeks, every four weeks. Before, people thought that was meddling. I said, “You know what? Screw it.” Like we’re going to review everything. I’m gonna be the chief editor.

What we created was a shared consciousness of like the top 30–40 people in the company, and it was like one neural network, one brain.

But apparently, it worked out brilliantly:

Not only did we not go out of business, but in the last three years we went from a company that was breakeven to, last year, we did nearly $4 billion in free cash flow.

Q: What do you take from this? What are you skeptical about?

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☕️ How To Plan Your Weekly Tasks (PARA Method)

This is probably the most impactful thing I can confidently teach people: productivity.

I was a junior PM running 3 products at an extremely broken org, and I had no system for managing all the chaos.

So I turned to the GTD methodology. Things got a bit better.

But they only started to improve when I discovered The PARA method by Tiago Forte.

Even then, it took me a few years to get the system to gel, but now it’s pretty smooth.

I’d say I’m at 80%, which, I can tell from talking to my peers, is about 10X better than everyone else.

Tiago is releasing the book on the method in a few days. I’m really excited (not a promo).

Check out this video as he walks through the approach to planning your week. Trust me, you most likely need this:

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🍪 Quick Bites

• Little Delegation Hack

• 10 of the Most Common Product Sense Behavioral Questions

• Why Experiments Fail? Lessons from Miro

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🤖 AI Corner

Write Simple, Professional Prose for Internal Docs

Be succinct, clear, professional, matter-of-fact, with no buzzwords or exaggeration.  Remove unnecessary words, for example “advance each of our strategic pillars” should be reduced to “advance all strategic pillars.” Use definite declarative statements like “does” or “is” or “will,” rather than saying “maybe” or “possibly” or “could” or “can.” For example, instead of saying “this might lead to X,” just say “X” alone.  Or for example, instead of saying “Lower prices can result in reduced profit margins,” say “Lower prices result in reduced profit margins.” For example, instead of saying “company companies have found success by doing X,” just say “companies do X.”  Only use the active voice, not the passive voice.  If there are commands, make the commands simple rather than referring to the future, for example instead of “we will implement a new feature that helps customers to do X,” just say “create a feature where customers can X.”  Use a style that sounds and feels natural to read aloud.

(source)

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That's a wrap for today. Stay focused and see you next week! If you want more, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@nurijanian)

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Who's George?

It’s me

I’m an underdog product manager.

Product management in New Zealand (where I live) is still a relatively immature discipline. I also came into it late via data science and UX. I may be older than others, but I often feel like a rookie.

To become better at my craft, I learn and explore new ideas relentlessly.

Then I share high-quality, tried-and-true ideas that can be used right away.

How I can help you:

• If you want to feel smarter, I’ve compiled my best actionable finds in prodmgmt.world.

• If you need to figure out prioritization in your role, get The Big Book of Prioritization.

See you next week.

— George.