Gokul Rajaram

Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more

Source 1142022-06-1312,999 words

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Opening

Lenny (00:00:00): I sometimes wonder how someone like go Gokul Rajaram can exist. He has an intense full-time job at DoorDash where he leads a significant part of the product in business. He also served as a board member at the Trade Desk, Coinbase and Pinterest, all public companies. He's also a prolific investor and seemingly on the cap table. Every successful startup that I come across and at the same time, he's one of the most humble and nicest people you'll ever meet....

The opener starts with biography before advice. That order makes the guest legible as a person before the listener extracts tactics.

Low-ego framing

and I know that he makes a lot of time to mentor and help a lot of founders. We cover a lot of ground in our conversation, including picking where to work, how to do product development startups,...

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly

Gokul Rajaram (00:02:53): Thank you Lenny. It's awesome to be here. Thanks for having me. Lenny (00:02:54): It's absolutely my pleasure. You're on...

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.

Ask with curiosity

Gokul Rajaram (00:07:46): I think you got to think about the day to day. In many cases I feel people don't...

Turns a moment that could become critique into a question about the guest's thinking.

Low-ego framing

Lenny (00:07:12): I love this advice. I don't know if you know this already, but I actually did a TEDx talk once about serendipity. It's called Losing Your Serendipity....

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly

Lenny (01:02:01): Amazing. What a great way to wrap it up. Thank you so much for being here. Gokul. Gokul Rajaram (01:02:05): Thank you, Lenny. Thanks for having me. Lenny...

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.