Kevin Yien

Unorthodox PM wisdom: Automating user insights, unselling job candidates, logging every decision, more | Kevin Yien (Stripe, Square, Mutiny)

Source 1792024-08-1817,242 words

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Opening

Kevin Yien (00:00:00): The PM job can become a little too internal, influencing my stakeholders and getting alignment and all these things. But if you can't sell or support your own product, I don't trust you to build the product. Lenny Rachitsky (00:00:10): You think every PM should keep a decision log? Kevin Yien (00:00:13): We all talk about product sense. To me, it's just a fancy way of saying you can make good decisions with insufficient data....

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

Low-ego framing

Kevin Yien (00:00:13): We all talk about product sense. To me, it's just a fancy way of saying you can make good decisions with insufficient...

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

Accept praise cleanly

Yeah, but a good idea, a good tool. Lenny Rachitsky (00:03:00): Good idea. Thank you. Thank you for making me feel better. Lenny Rachitsky (00:03:03): I've been looking forward to this conversation...

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

Return warmth

Kevin Yien (01:28:13): Thank you for having me. Lenny...

Matches the guest's warmth and keeps the social temperature generous.

Low-ego framing

just because they always come to mind. One is by Joan Didion who said that, "I don't know what I think until I've written it down." And that's what I find with writing where I need to actually write it down...

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

Accept praise cleanly

do with product necessarily, just be kind. Make for a nicer world, right? Say thank you a little bit more often. Hold the door open a little more often. Wave if you cut someone off in a car. I think there...

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