构建"最小可爱产品",来自 WeWork 与 Airbnb 的故事,以及如何成长为优秀的产品经理 | Jiaona Zhang
Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
Jiaona Zhang: I think it’s really important to become really good at and also known for something. You could be known for shepherding like the most complex launches because you’re just so good at quarterbacking. Working with go-to—market teams and cross-functional stakeholders that could be like your thing. You could be known for working on the most technically complex problems, find something that you can be really, really good at. And the reason I give that advice is because when you do that, you can crush the projects that you get because you’re making a name for yourself, reputation, and then you are giving more responsibility. People tend to flock and give responsibility to the people that are known for being excellent at something.
Top Mistakes for New PMs
Lenny: Welcome to Lenny’s Podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard won experiences building and growing today’s most successful products. Today my guest is JZ. JZ is senior vice president of product at Webflow. She’s also a lecture at Stanford, teaching a course on product management. Before this, she was senior director of product management at WeWork, a longtime product leader at Airbnb, where I got to work with JZ for a number of years and she’s also PM at Dropbox and at a gaming company called Pocket Gems.
In her conversation, we dig into the most common mistakes early product managers make in their career. Plus JZ’s biggest product mistake. We cover the concept of minimal lovable products versus minimal viable products. We talk about JZ’s unique frameworks for road mapping and prioritization and OKRs and her take on how to structure your first 90 days as a product leader at a new company, plus what she’s learned from her wild year at WeWork. Also, the best advice she’s ever gotten around product and leadership and the story of Airbnb Plus and where it went wrong.
I’ve been hoping to get JZ on the podcast for a while and I’m really happy that we finally made this happen. With that, I bring you JZ after a short word from our sponsors.
If you’re building products with search capabilities, you’re probably experiencing soaring API costs or lack of viable global alternatives to Bing or Google. It’s only going to be become harder to afford these challenges. The Brave Search API gives you access to its novel web scale data with competitive features, intuitive structuring and affordable costs. AI devs will particularly benefit from data containing thorough coverage of recent events. Lenny’s podcast listeners can get started testing the API for free at brave.com/lenny. That’s brave.com/lenny.
When you get to the board, you can also leave suggestions for the podcast, answer a question that I have for you, and generally just play around to get a sense of how it all works. Miro is a killer tool for brainstorming with your team, laying out your strategy, sharing user research findings, capturing ideas, giving feedback on wireframes, and generally just collaborating with your colleagues. Actually used Miro to collaborate with the Miro team on creating my own board, and it was super fun and super easy. Go check it out at miro.com/lenny. That’s M-I-R-O.com/lenny.
JZ, welcome to the podcast.
Jiaona Zhang: Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here.
Biggest Product Mistake
Lenny: It’s 100% my pleasure. Amongst your many accomplishments, you teach product management at Stanford, which sounds very fancy. How long have you been doing this at this point?
Jiaona Zhang: I think six years. Yeah.
When to Think Big
Lenny: Okay. So my question, the real question I want to ask about this is, in that time you’ve seen a lot of new PMs and you’ve seen these PMs succeed, you’ve seen some fail. What are the most common mistakes that you find new PMs make in this experience of helping new PMs get into the field?
Clear Success Metrics and Milestones
Jiaona Zhang: I think something that is really hard to untrain, but I think every human does it, is you jump to solutions. And so one of the biggest things I see, not just in my course but also just as a PM and some of the mistakes that you make as a PM is the idea of you get really attached to a solution, a way of implementing something that you can see in your head that you want to build.
And so that’s the first thing I really want to unteach in our course. And so a lot of people will literally come in, they’ll be like, “I want to build X startup” or “I want to do this thing,” or “I’m in blank school and I’ve been doing a lot of research on this particular area.” And so untraining that and being like, “Hey, we’re going to go out there. We are not going to think at all about the thing that you want to build, but instead we’re going to be focused on users and people in the real world and their problems. And the first step is to understand their problems and then understand if there’s an opportunity here as opposed to, ‘Hey, you want to build X thing for Y person.’” So that’s the biggest mistake that you really have to unteach and retrain thinking around.
Minimum Lovable Product
Lenny: Does a lot of this come from people want to get into product management because they think “Finally I’ll have the power, finally I’ll be able to tell people what to build, finally my ideas really going to matter?” Is that where a lot lobby comes from?
Doing a Few Things Extremely Well
Jiaona Zhang: I think there’s a part of that. One of the first things I teach is you’re not a CEO, you’re, you’re not here… You actually have very little true authority because you don’t actually manage anyone. A lot of it is all through influence, and so that is also a piece where you have to kind of untrain that thinking. I do think a lot of people come into the product role thinking that I get to call the shots, I get to make the decisions, I get to decide what gets built. And really your job is not that. Your job is to understand here are the opportunities, and then you’re kind of pulling together all the different possibilities and you’re really editing. So I do think it comes from desire for a lot of people thinking that’s what the product role is when it actually isn’t.
The Pixie Dust Effect: Making Products Lovable
Lenny: So let’s go to the other side of this question. We talked about what mistakes new PMs make. I’m curious, what’s the biggest product mistake that you’ve made?
Jiaona Zhang: Wow, that’s a good one. It’s so interesting. I feel like as product people, we’re always making mistakes and we’re always learning. Maybe I’ll give an example from Airbnb since you and I were both there. And this one does stand out to me, we were working on this concept called Airbnb Plus. If you took a step back, what we were really trying to do is to be like, “Hey, not everyone trusts Airbnb in terms of… It’s a platform. It’s not like it’s managed inventory, it’s not a hotel. How do you go in and really make sure that all the Airbnbs are meeting the quality bar?” But I do think we were very solution-first, and I think we’re also competitor afraid at the time. So it was during a time where there were managed marketplaces, there were the Sonders out there, and I think that as a company we’re very much like “[inaudible 00:07:36] what are we going to do in the world of managed marketplaces?”
And so we went really hard down the solution space. We essentially were like, “Let’s go inspect our inventory, let’s actually try to manage our inventory more.” And really what we should have done is taken a step back and be like, “What’s the real problem? The real problem is people want to know what they’re getting themselves into. We need to represent the homes a lot better.” And I think the other piece here that’s really important is, what, as a company is your strategic strength and what’s in your wheelhouse? So for example, Airbnb, we weren’t that strong in operations. Again, we’re this platform with this marketplace. And so if you don’t have that muscle and then you’re asking the company, the teams to essentially build it from the ground up, that’s really, really difficult. Not to mention the unit economics, are the unit economics actually going to work even as you scale?
Roadmaps and OKRs: Telling a Story
Lenny: Yeah, I feel like Airbnb Plus is an untold story that somebody should tell and that could be its own podcast, I guess.
Doc-First: Actual Roadmap Deliverables
Jiaona Zhang: You and I can tell it.
Lenny: We could tell this could be Airbnb Plus The Hidden Story. As you said, the problem it was trying to solve was people don’t really trust… They don’t want to even consider Airbnb because it’s like, “No, I don’t want to stay in someone’s home. I don’t know what it’ll be. It’s unpredictable.” And so as an outsider, it felt like a really clever approach. “We’re going to vet them, we’re going to make sure they’re awesome. There’s a minimum bar.” And I guess this is the question is do you think it was just like “This is never possible because we’ll never make money as a business doing this because we don’t make that much per booking and investing time, resources, sending people pillows, all that stuff is ever going to be economical”? Or do you think there was a path that was just not executed well?
Product Artifacts and Product Operations
Jiaona Zhang: I think there wasn’t really a clear path. I think there was less of-
Career Advice for New PMs
Lenny: Yeah, that’s my impression.
Advice on Objectives and Key Results
Jiaona Zhang: Exactly. And it was more just like if you understood… Again, this is what my point around unit economics, there are things where I think you have magical thinking around unit economics. You’re like, “When we get to the scale of X, it’s all going to work out. We can make these things happen.” I think you actually need to really make sure that unit economics work quite at the beginning. That is definitely one lesson. And I think the other thing is, and going back to spirit of what are you trying to achieve. If you’re trying to achieve this idea of really knowing the quality of the place, and for a platform like Airbnb, the right way to go about doing is through our reviews, through our guest reviews, which are essentially free as opposed to literally sending out inspectors.
And I think that the other things are if you can get signal on what are the things around quality that people care about, is it cleaning? Is it, “Hey, I’m locked out”? And I think that there are other solutions besides inspection that then get at that. So for example, it is actually cheaper to go send everyone a lockbox than to deploy an inspector and go look at your property. It is actually cheaper to maybe do a partnership with a bunch of cleaners in different local areas and then get that as part of the fee, as opposed to doing the inspection. So again, it’s really about what are you really trying to achieve? What is the user problem in each of these areas and can you target that problem with the particular listing that you’re looking at?
And so I personally don’t believe the unit economics ever would’ve really worked out. I think we should have known that or we should have dug into that more at the very beginning and then to get very tailored instead of one blunt instrument to solve it all, “Hey, we’re going to go inspect.” It’s like what is the problem for this listing and what’s the best solution to fix that problem?
Lenny: There’s a couple things that I think are important product leadership lessons here. One is Airbnb and Brian and many great leaders are famous for imagining the ideal situation, imagining the great end result and then working backwards. And often that leads to great results when you’re being really ambitious and “I don’t know how we’re going to get there, we’re just going to shoot big and hopefully we figure it out.” Sometimes it works out. In this case it didn’t work out. And what you’re finding, maybe you even knew this early on, is just like there’s no possible world where this could have worked in this approach. Is there anything you’ve learned about just when to think big and not even like “Forget it. We’re going to figure it out. I know this seems impossible, but we’re just going to try it anyway”? Do you have any kind of framework of when to think big, then just go for it? Versus, “Oh, let’s just work out the math today,” is this ever possible?
Recognizing Greatness Through Failure
Jiaona Zhang: I think it’s really important for every company to be dreaming big. If you don’t have a big vision, it’s really hard for you to innovate, but you got to couple that really big vision with thoughtfulness around your execution. And so I think that one of the biggest tips I have is how do to be clear about the phase that you’re in? So I think it’s totally fine to be like, “Hey, we are going to try X for six months, three months, whatever it is, and we’re explicitly going to go learn these types of things. We’re going to learn why are people? Are there signals that we would that would indicate that again, the communication with host isn’t great or this type of listing, if it’s hosted by a person with multiple property?” I think there are factors we can be like, “Hey, we can learn this very explicit thing in a given period of time.”
And you can do what I call unscalable things in that prototyping phase, in that early phase to go learn those lessons. But you just have to be very, very clear with your team on what phase you’re in. “Hey, we’re in the learning phase and we explicitly are trying to learn these things” versus, “Hey, we have this really big vision and we’re just going to go at it.” That is not recommended in my mind. It’s breaking it down into these smaller chunks. That I think gets you the balance of thinking really, really big, but also being able to be like, “Okay, we are still going to be able to say, ‘Okay, this path is not going to work out. We ran at it for a short period of time. We got these learnings, now let’s go down this other path.’”
My WeWork Experience
Lenny: Yeah, there’s also some cost fallacy that kicks in of just like, “Oh, I spend so much time and money and resources on this thing. Let’s just go a little bit longer. Let’s just see if we give it another quarter, maybe it’ll work out.”
Jiaona Zhang: You should articulate what success looks like and the milestones you want to hit in the small intervals that I talked about. So you don’t get into this world where you’re like, “Hey, I’ve gone for two years investing in this thing. Now we got to cut it.” It’s like, what is the quarter long milestone? Okay, what’s the next quarter long milestone? And every single point, what is a go and no-go? And I think that really can help a team and a company say “It’s okay. I invested a quarter in it, but I didn’t invest two years.”
Lessons on Not Over-Hiring
Lenny: The other important lesson here is about the importance of as a product leader pushing back and convincing leadership that you are wrong and this shouldn’t happen. I remember talking to one of our colleagues, Mike Lewis, who was leading a different team with Airbnb, and he was just like, “Oh, I realized I’m the person that should be saying, ‘No, we shouldn’t do this now’” because he was the head of product for one of the new [inaudible 00:14:09]. And I know maybe in that situation it was impossible because Brian was very into this and everyone was like, “We need to do this thing.”
I guess is there anything you’ve learned about how to push back on these sorts of things that the founder’s really into when it makes sense to go along? Like “Cool, let’s do it. Let’s buy in.” As a leader, you have to be excited and he needs to feel like, “Oh, JZ is really excited about this too. We got to try it.” Even though maybe you feel like it’s not going to work out. So I guess the question is when do you think it makes sense to try convince the founder, “No, this is the bad idea” versus like “Let’s go for it”?
Focusing on Core User Needs
Jiaona Zhang: I think first it comes down to your conviction. Do you actually have conviction that this is a bad idea or are you personally still learning? Right. I think if you’re at the point, if you’re like, “I have total conviction,” then your job is to say, no, you really… If you do not, you’re not doing your job. And then the question is what are the tips in how to convince someone who’s very bought into an idea that that’s not the right idea? And there what I would say is it’s understanding the spirit of what they’re trying to achieve. Being able to go back with, “Hey, I understand the spirit. The spirit is that we’re trying to get people who previously didn’t consider Airbnb before to come and use Airbnb, but the right way to do it is not this very time-intensive, cost-intensive way to inspect all these homes. The way to do it is to be much more granular in what we ask people when they upload their home and more checks in that. And that could be automated and through technology as opposed to through humans.”
It’s coming back with actual options. It’s like saying… And I think we did that a little bit to be honest, when we as a team evolve, we learn and we’re like, “This isn’t going to work.” And I explicitly moved off the team and I was like, “I’m going to work on the review system. I’m going to continue to evolve this and make it better because that is the actual scalable way to do this as opposed to keep going at it in the very manual process.”
And so I think that the biggest tip I would have for people in this situation is really understand whether it’s the founder or your manager or whoever it is, what is it that they’re trying to accomplish for the user and for the business? Remind them of that, get aligned on that. And then come back with better options. A lot of these people, they’re very smart and they’re very motivated. They ultimately want to just do the right thing for their users. When you come back with a much better solution and you have the data and you have the thinking behind it’s very rare that someone will be like, “I still want to go after this solution despite the fact that it’s not working and you proposed a much better path forward.”
The Good and Hard Times at WeWork
Lenny: And I think to touch on what you’ve already said is also make sure it’s actually… There’s a world where this could work. Do some math to figure out if this is a business that will actually make some money in the future.
Jiaona Zhang: Totally.
First 90 Days Methodology
Lenny: Okay. I’m going to bounce around a little bit. I have a bunch of different questions around different topics. You popularized this concept of minimal lovable product versus this idea that everyone always comes back to, which is minimal viable product. Can you just talk about what is a minimal lovable product and then when does it make sense to go in that direction versus a traditional MVP?
First 90 Days: Strategic Planning
Jiaona Zhang: The reason I care so much about minimal lovable product is because I do think in a world where there are so many different options, it’s hard to just feel like, “Hey, use this thing. It barely meets a quality bar.” And so I think this idea of actually deeply understanding for the thing that you’re working on, what is a lovable experience? What is the quality bar that resonates with your users? And again, especially in a world where there might be a lot of different options. Minimal lovable products is the new MVP. The new minimal viable product.
So I think that’s the real point, but at the end of the day, it does come back to what are the options that a user has and what are they trying to do? So there’s a world where your quality bar, your “Quality bar,” or let’s call it your polished bar, can be a little bit lower because the reality is the thing that you’re “Competing against” or you’re replacing is literally a manual workflow. It’s like spreadsheets. It’s doing something in a super terrible way.
So you want to get your product to market as quickly as possible, so it doesn’t make sense for you to be like, “I’m going to build these 15 additional features.” Because compared to what people are doing right now, your product without those 15 additional features is perfectly fine, perfectly usable, and perfectly quite honestly lovable. So it requires a lot of understanding of, again, your users and the space that you play in and the tolerance of your given user. So for example, a designer might have a lot higher of a bar of like “This is the kind of workflow I want, this is the kind of bar for my product.” But again, someone sitting on the finance team or the IT team, their bar might be like, “Oh, I’m used to doing these 15 things and so your thing is just a lot better.”
Balancing Trust Building and Driving Change
Lenny: I’d love to go even one level deeper. Is there an example of something you’ve worked on that was minimal lovable product that you think about? Or is there something out there that’s an example of here’s maybe an example of a minimal lovable product versus MVP?
Jiaona Zhang: Again, it’s very hard. I think every product team, every product person struggles with this idea of what is the minimal viable. Even that concept itself is difficult and not to mention minimal lovable. I’ll give a Webflow example. Very recently, so have been investing in a couple of new features, memberships and logic, new functionality for our users. And what we realized at the end of the day after investing in these areas, we were like, “Hey, we can get to minimal viable, but we don’t know if we can actually get to minimal lovable in a way that our users really, really want. And so does it make sense for us to continue to go down this path of continues to chip away to get to minimal lovable when we are maybe hitting diminishing returns for our user base? Or does it actually make sense to release what we have but then encourage our ecosystem to contribute the lovable piece?”
And again, it’s not just like you put it out there and you hope, you have to have a very strong point of view of are we at minimal viable, are we at minimal lovable? Where in between are we? And so having that point of view and then being able to say, “Are we going to be able to meet it as a company? Are we going to rely on our ecosystem to help us meet it? What are we actually going to do?” And then even within the feature set, it’s very much a how do we do some things well as opposed to do a little bit of everything? I think that is a big piece of minimal lovable, which is again… To me it’s better to do five things instead of the 15 things in a really, really great way with a high degree of polish with a, “Oh, this really meets my need,” versus trying to do everything and just doing a little bit of everything. And so every part of the experience feels a little bit clunky. It’s not quite there.
People I think would actually respect this idea of “You’ve given me minimal lovable in five areas as opposed to minimal viable in 15 areas.”
Product and Talent Lessons from Four Companies
Lenny: Is there anything you’ve seen of just that makes something lovable? I don’t know. I know it’s not easy to define, but what are things you’ve seen that makes something lovable? Is it delightful features? Or is it what you’re saying, which is just things are actually good, there’s fewer things, but they’re each really good?
Jiaona Zhang: There’s definitely this idea of the thing is just good. It has all. High quality, it’s not janky, it doesn’t feel weird. I’ll give you a very small example again, just from Webflow, this idea of keyboard shortcuts, feels small, but that is a piece that creates a lot of love from user base who are power users. And then there’s this concept of pixie dusts, and maybe I’ll pull out of call it like design tool space and we’ll talk about some of the other things, whether it’s Dropbox or Airbnb, but you can just do a little bit of that extra pixie dusts. So an example from Airbnb when we’re doing the mobile app revamp where like “There’s like these basic table stakes, but if we actually added in templates and we made it so that these templates could be maybe pre-populated in certain ways from the content they already have,” that is lovable, that is that extra little bit of pixie dust and spending the time to do that.
Again, you can’t pixie dust everything. At the end of the day, you basically have your time, your staffing and the scope of your project and something has to give. And so at the end of the day, you can’t just keep investing, keep investing because it’s going to push out your launch timeline, but can you pick a few different areas where you’re like, “I’m going to scatter that pixie dust, I’m going to do a little bit more than what users are expecting”? And that creates that lovability.
The Most Impactful Piece of Advice
Lenny: Shifting to a different topic, I know you have strong opinions about road mapping and OKRs, improvisation, and I know that’s a big topic, but let me just ask, what’s the most common advice you give around how to roadmap well, do OKRs, prioritize and/or just, I don’t know, common mantras or things you always come back to be successful in these areas?
Jiaona Zhang: Road mapping prioritization are one bucket for me. And then OKRs is another. So I’ll maybe give you my biggest tip in each one of these buckets.
So for road mapping, my biggest thing that I tell my teams is “You’re telling a story. So what I want from you is I want themes, I want a story. Why are these things the biggest things to invest in these levers, the biggest ones to pull?” And what I really don’t want, what I think is a very common mistake from road mapping is people thinking a spreadsheet with a bunch of projects, the RICE framework, everything has an impact, a cost and an effort column filled out. They think that is prioritization and that is a roadmap. If you just do that right and then you present that to your team, they’re off to the races.
But what people, what humans really crave is like, “Why am I doing this body of work?” And I think it’s also really, really important to have that really crisply articulated in your own head because ultimately what happens is you’ll learn things as a product person. You’ll be like, “Oh, I assumed this in the narrative in my head about my users or about my product area, and then I learned why and therefore my thinking changed.” So instead of it being this massive spreadsheet where you’re going in, you’re tweaking all the values, what is the story that you’re telling about your roadmap that these inputs can then go and influence?
It could be like, “Hey, I just realized I didn’t know before that we have a lot more power users on our,” or “Maybe we have a lot more non-technical users.” That input changes my roadmap and changes my themes in a pretty dramatic way. So skating at that level is really, really critical, I think for a roadmap as opposed to going down to the really granular details of the how. So that’s the biggest thing on road mapping, which is like tell a story. What are your themes? Make it so that your team can come up with the actual how and the projects and all the little details, but really create that scaffolding for them to know what’s important.
Lightning Round Q&A
Lenny: Can I ask a follow-up question on that?
Jiaona Zhang: Totally, yeah.
Movies and Daily Life
Lenny: It’s easy to visualize the roadmap of a spreadsheet to help people visualize what you’re suggesting there. What does that actual artifact look like? Is it a doc with maybe an ancillary spreadsheet of the actual prioritization? Is it a deck? How do you actually deliver this to you with like “JZ, here’s our proposal for our team”?
Interviewing and Selecting Talent
Jiaona Zhang: Yeah, I’m a big fan of docs and decks are obviously helpful if you’re talking live, but I do think in a remote-first culture or lots of us are in hybrid remote cultures it’s hard because decks typically require a voiceover. And so we have been doing a big push even on my teams where I’m like, “Write it down and document. Force yourself to write the pros because when you write the pros, you can actually add that level of granularity.” So very much so the same way like “I’m a roadmap is a story. You’re telling themes, you write a story in a notebook, you write a story on pages,” and so a doc is definitely preferred. And even in the doc just being like, “Here’s what we’re trying to achieve, here are the big areas I want to invest in, here are my big themes.” And then going into each of those themes and being like, “These are the big projects.”
And then linking out, again, not even to a spreadsheet, but linking out to the artifacts and the systems that your team actually uses. So if your team uses Jira, go ahead and link out to Jira because so often docs get out of… Or spreadsheets get out of date, because they’re like a snapshot of whatever it is that you needed at that point in time. But instead you link out to the actual things that your teams are working out of, you can always be like, “These are the themes. I will edit these if I learn major things that would change my themes. And then let’s go link out to the Jira where you can just see the snapshot of the roadmap at any given point in time.”
Great Products Discovered Recently
Lenny: Do you have a template or common structure you suggest to teams for laying out this story or is it just depends on the quarter, it depends on the year?
Small Tweaks in Product Building
Jiaona Zhang: I’ll give a plug for a new thing coming out of Reforge, which is this concept of artifacts. And so we do have a lot of artifacts out there, so what’s our general product development process? What are our templates for our specs? What are our templates for some of these things that we’re talking about, a roadmap, like a broader roadmap instead of just a feature spec. So yes, we have a ton of those artifacts, are always evolving. I think every team takes it and tweaks it a little bit, but I’m a big believer of bringing those artifacts back and then sharing them across the team. And so product operations is also a function that we’ve invested in because it just really greases the wheels, gets all of our teams speaking the same language.
Webflow Tips and Future Outlook
Lenny: Awesome.
Moving to a different topic, what is your number one piece of advice to new PMs who want to accelerate their career? What do you find most often is the blocker or thing holding them back or something they can change that’ll accelerate things?
Jiaona Zhang: There’s so many parts to it, but I’ll pick one. And there are many frameworks even beyond the one, but let’s pick one for your question, which is I think it’s really important to become really good at and also known for something. And what I mean by that is when you’re known in your company for a particular thing… I’ll give you a couple examples. You could be known for shepherding the most complex launches because you’re just so good at quarterbacking, working with go-to market teams and cross-functional stakeholders, that could be your thing. You could be known for working on the most technically complex problems. You could be known for working on things that are really regulatory complex. Find something that you can be really, really good at. And the reason I give that advice is because when you do that, you can crush the projects that you get. Because you’re making a name for yourself, reputation, and then you are giving more responsibility. People tend to flock and give responsibility to the people that are known for being excellent at something.
Lenny: Is there something you were known to be excellent at in the course of your career?
Jiaona Zhang: I would say early on in my career, it was actually the fact that I had a strong analytics background. And so when I joined gaming, I came from consulting, I didn’t have any CS background or design background, and so it was really creating a reputation around being very analytical, around being able to analyze the datasets of my game and then make decisions. I also learned as I was doing that I was actually really good at execution, and so being able to keep a lot of plates spinning and working on the largest studio and managing all the complex pieces of that, that was what I discovered. I didn’t know this, but I discovered as I started working in the role.
And so that was something I brought to Dropbox. When I joined Dropbox. It was like I knew that I could work with a lot of different teams and make sure that we hit a launch deadline, and so I would find myself trying to lean into that superpower and then when delivering upon that, getting more responsibility, “Hey, you just launched this really complex thing, this was a project that had to work across a lot of different platforms. We’re using Griddle APIs.” And it was a very, very small team and it had a very, very tight deadline.
So when you’re like, “I can do something like this,” you end up getting more responsibility because people were like, “Oh, she was able to do something that was really hard with a small team,” and so that’s how you get more responsibility. But it has evolved in my career. I think that at the beginning of your career, you do want to lean into some of these pieces. It makes sense, but also even when you start to manage, it shifts dramatically. Being known as the best executor is not necessarily the thing that gives you and your team the most responsibility. So as I’ve grown my career, whether it’s at Airbnb or WeWork or other places I flex into maybe a different… It’s like taking your core strength but then flexing it and finding different ways to bring it to life.
Lenny: Much of what I just heard is you just worked incredibly hard and just got shit done. And I think that’s very, very important and often leads to a lot of success.
Jiaona Zhang: PMs have to get shit done. Yeah, ultimately you’re responsible for the outcome just no matter what happens.
Lenny: Yeah. I like that. Be known for getting shit done and working really hard, and that’s never going to serve you badly. I think that is just lasting advice for being successful as a PM. I realized that we were talking about your tips on prioritization, road mapping and then OKRs, and then I shifted topics and you never got to the OKR bucket. So let me come back to that.
Jiaona Zhang: Yes. My biggest tip on OKRs is actually get really, really crisp on qualitatively. What would make you say “Yes, we did a great job”? And the reason I pushed so hard on that is because I see so many teams get really mucked down by OKRs. They’re like, “Oh man, if I don’t hit my OKR, I feel like I’m going to have a really bad reputation, or maybe I won’t get promoted.” You just get all this fear around OKRs. And so you see people, you see people sandbagging, you see people being hesitant to put in numbers until the very last second until they’re super, super confident. And that results in ultimately a failure for your company to innovate and move quickly.
And so what I really push on for OKRs is are you actually… What’s the spirit… I think I asked this question maybe too much to my team, but what is the spirit of what you’re trying to achieve and what would make you say, ‘I really, really crushed it this past quarter’? And so it’s less about I would rather have all the OKRs be red or yellow and we missed everything and we learned around why we missed it than everything to be green. In fact, when everything’s green, you’re like, “We definitely did not set ambitious enough OKRs.” And so it really pushed a lot on what does it truly mean to crush it and be successful? What does it mean for our users? What does it mean for our business? What does that… For our users to feel X, can you describe that? Can you write that out? For our business to see this in terms of the revenue growth?
And I think it’s really hard because a lot of times, you get your data scientists, you get the PM themselves being like, “Oh man, I’m owning an input metric, not an output metric. And so I definitely can’t sign up for that revenue target because I have an input metric.” And all of those things are true, but if you don’t do the homework of really drawing that line of being like, “This is the ultimate thing I want to do for the company and for my users,” then a lot of times you end up hitting all your OKRs, but the company and your users at large are like, “I don’t feel anything different.” Your company doesn’t look at the things that you’ve worked on and they don’t say like “This is a smashing success.” Your users are feeling no differently. And so that is the worst outcome in my head where your OKRs, you’re almost like doing OKRs for the sake of OKRs, as opposed to letting them be a guide to delivering really great product to your end customer.
Lenny: I like the idea of that, but imagine what often happens is you sign up for an ambitious OKR, you don’t wait till the last second to commit to it and then ends up being red, and then you go into performance reviews and like, “Oh, Lenny didn’t hit his OKRs. Look at this guy. His team is not doing great.” How do you think about that as a product leader understanding if the team actually did well and the PM is performing well when they sign up for these really ambitious OKRs and their story’s great and they’re doing the right thing, but they fail?
Jiaona Zhang: First of all, I think it’s creating a culture where you are not punished for that. Because I definitely don’t want a culture where it’s like you took a risk and you failed and therefore your performance is impacted. I’d much rather people take risks than to be safe. So I think that’s the first thing. That being said, you’re also not doing a good job as a PM if you’re like, “This is my super, super ambitious thing,” and you’re like, “I have no idea how to achieve it.” Your job is to dream big and also have a plan to go tackle it. And so what I would expect the PM to be able to say is, “This is my North Star. I’m not going to be able to do that in a quarter, that just is unreasonable, but here are the five milestones,” whatever number, some number of milestones “That it’s going to take me to do quarter over quarter to achieve this really, really ambitious thing. And let me draw you that path. Here’s the milestone all the way across, and this is the first one. This is why it’s so meaningful.”
So I expect that combination where you’re like, “I know where I’m going. It’s really, really ambitious.” And then you can then break it down. But again, I would much rather have someone shoot for the moon, even for someone to say like “This is the thing I really want to do. I don’t know my path yet” than to be really, really safe. Because when you’re safe, you’re always going to be building something suboptimal. It’s going to be suboptimal use of your resources as opposed to actually trying to figure out what the best swing that you can take is.
Lenny: So it sounds like it comes back to the story of the roadmap and what they’re trying to accomplish, and just as long as it feels like the story made sense, there’s a path there. The team did their best, I think we know it was really ambitious. We kind of knew maybe they wouldn’t get there. It sounds like that’s kind of the thing you look for in a performance of the PM.
Jiaona Zhang: Totally. Yeah.
Lenny: Awesome. I mentioned WeWork and I want to spend a little time on WeWork. You were at WeWork for about a year, and I think it was in the middle of a lot of the craziness that went on at WeWork.
Jiaona Zhang: It was. It was 2019, I feel like that year it was either headlines were either about Trump or about WeWork in the news.
Lenny: That’s tough. So what was that like being a PM leader at a company in that craziness? And is there a takeaway from that experience that helps you be a better product manager, a leader, person?
Jiaona Zhang: Yeah, I learned a lot from my time there. I think the most important lesson I learned was really around… I think there’s like a people leader management lesson, and then there’s also just like a how do you build an org period. The people lesson I learned was just really around empathy. In fact, essentially what I was doing was I built a team. I spent the first six months of my time there actually growing my team a lot, and not just in the US but in Asia and in Europe. And then the second half of my time there was actually being like, “What do we do? If this is what’s happening with WeWork, what are we actually going to do with all of these people who have come to WeWork to work?”
And there was so many lessons there around leadership, around how do you think about people? How do you think about giving them the right transition plans? It was a lot of learning. And I think probably a lot of people, even right now through the macroeconomic downturn, they’re learning that lesson in a really hard way. And so it was definitely something that I got a crash course on, I think early.
And the second lesson really was around not over-hiring. And so I think that was huge, and I think I personally learned that lesson through my time there. And it’s something that I’m very conscious of at any company that I go to. Just because laying off half your team is a terrible feeling. Literally having hired people and then having to let them go, it’s not something you want to do. And so being really thoughtful around how do we not over-hire? How are we really clear about, again, these milestones of we got to get through these gates, we got to be able to show these types of results, and then we unlock hiring in X, Y, Z ways? That hygiene is really, really important.
Lenny: Feels like this connects back to the Airbnb Plus story of “Let’s just be really ambitious. We don’t have any idea how we’re going to get there, but we’re just going to go for it, hire like crazy, scale, put a lot of investment in this thing and hopefully we’ll figure it out.”
Jiaona Zhang: I do think there was a little bit of that in the ethos of how WeWork was functioning, for sure. I think that what was really important for us to do was to be like, “We have this.” Operationally, WeWork is really strong. In fact, I went to WeWork because having been at Airbnb, I was like, “I don’t feel like we’ve dialed this operational muscle down,” but I know from what I’ve seen and the way WeWork has expanded, that they’re really, really excellent at the operations. But I think it was, again, we hired beyond our skis on the tech side. It’s like we don’t need a team of this size to go do the things that are needed for the product to feel really great. At the end of the day, it’s about booking. And yes, there’s technology that would accelerate that, but do we need it to be super platform aware? Do we need it to be super futuristic? That’s actually not what people care about.
So this all goes back to what are people’s core desires in whatever product that they’re using, whatever thing that your business is trying to serve them? And so really understanding that will help you have a sense of, “Hey, you can still be really ambitious.” Again, in a hybrid world, it’s like why have real dedicated office space? Every company could go through WeWork as opposed to this dedicated space. That’s still a really good idea, that’s still a really big vision and a relevant vision, but what’s the key piece of that vision? The key piece of that vision is around inventory, and then you make that inventory management easier. You make all of these things easier, but that’s not a technology play in the same way as it is an operational play. So just really understanding, again, you can still dream really big, but you don’t have to dream big and hire big in all the things in order to have a very ambitious vision that you deliver to the market.
Lenny: If you think back to WeWork, what was your favorite memory and what was your hardest, least happy memory if anything comes to mind?
Jiaona Zhang: I think this idea dream really big. I think everyone who had joined WeWork, they were like, “We could do a lot here.” The idea of really the physical space infusing technology. I just feel like the people at WeWork were dreamers in the best possible way. So that definitely… I feel like for every company that I’ve been at, it’s really about, you join… I personally joined for the product, but I stayed for the people you joined because you’re like, “I want to work on this mission. This product is really motivating.” And then you really stay for the people. And the people at We WeWork were really great. So that was definitely my favorite memory.
I think the hardest memory was, this gets a little bit personal, but I was actually in my first trimester when we were going through all of these layoffs and I basically was faced with a choice. It was like, “Hey, do I stay at WeWork? I would be guaranteed maternity leave.” I was going to be moved onto this other team that was definitely going to stay. “Do I do that or do I actually…” And I think there just a last piece of… The thing I was wrestling with is I hired a lot of these people and I felt really responsible for the fact that I convinced them to come to this company that now was going through a lot of change.
And I specifically remember someone when I hired them, we had a long conversation about their visa and in my head I was like, “I just don’t feel right. Again, laying someone off. That’s only going to have so many days to be able to go find their new role.” And so the hardest moment, I actually remember this very vividly, “Am I going to take this new role or am I going to put myself on a layoff list essentially and give the role to someone else on the team?” When I really think about it, yes, I was pregnant, but I would have more time and more freedom to go find my next thing versus someone who I brought to the company who was on a visa.
That to me just really stood out and goes back to this concept around leadership is so much about empathy and people as much as it’s about understanding your market, your customers, and the strategy of your product.
Lenny: Damn. What convinced you eventually to take off and try something different?
Jiaona Zhang: I made the call of, in that particular case, I’d give the role to someone else. And then once I made that call, I was like, “I got to go find something. I know that this is my last day, so I have to go find something.” And it was really interesting because I actually… I went through an interview process. I was in my second trimester and then ultimately I chose to join Webflow and I joined when I was literally at the beginning of my third trimester. So I had exactly 90 days before my first son was born.
Lenny: That’s a great segue to the question I was going to ask is around your 90-day plan that I know you put a lot of thought into how to think about the first 90 days, but before we get there, the movie on WeWork with Jared Leto, how similar to reality was that brought?
Jiaona Zhang: I actually have not watched it. Parent life, you don’t have any time. And I do think there’s… I feel like if you ask people at Uber, if they’ve watched some of the [inaudible 00:43:26] they’re like, “It’s not for me.” Same way why I haven’t watched Silicon Valley. You’re like, “It’s a little too close to home.”
Lenny: It was quite a great movie and I really enjoyed it. I’m curious how close it was to real life. Okay, so then back to the 90-day questions. So I know you spent a lot of time thinking about your first 90 days at Webflow, you’re pregnant as you described, and you have a perspective on just how to think about the first 90 days when you join a company. Can you just share what you’ve learned there, what you recommend there?
Jiaona Zhang: Yeah, I do think the first 90 days, depending on your role is very different. But maybe I’ll just talk a little bit about the first 90 days as a head of product. Because you’re like, “Whoa.” Or even just as a leader, how do you go in, how do you really absorb all the information and get all the context you need and then affect change? And I think what was unique about my first 90 days is it was time bound. It was literally something where you’re like, “Sure, I’d love to absorb information for many months, but I just don’t have the luxury of the time” and so-
Lenny: Because you’re going to go on mat leave right after?
Jiaona Zhang: Because yeah, essentially I was going to go on mat leave.
Lenny: Got it.
Jiaona Zhang: That’s right. And so the biggest things that I thought a lot about for my first 90 days was at the end of the day, yes, you have to really… The most important thing for anyone’s for assigning days is to build context and to build context well. But what I had to think about a lot was, “How do I quickly build context probably faster than I would be given the luxury any other time in my life?” And so I thought a lot about who do I speak to at the company? How do I create even just a calendar of speaking to people? Yes, my leadership team, but also across a bunch of functions and then across a bunch of levels. So it was really important for me to even start talking to some of the engineers from the team, some of the engineers who had been there for the longest time to really understand, what’s hard about our tech stack? What’s going on? What’s hard about your day to day?
And so I actually took time to really think about, “I want to speak to all of these types of people at the company.” And I packed my first couple weeks with a lot of those meetings. And so I think that was one piece, which is like how do you build context as quickly as possible? And my tip there is again, it’s not just with your peers, it’s not even just with your team, but to really think across all the different functions and then think about where you’re going to get the most amount of information in that particular function. I think that was one piece of it.
The other piece was I was like, “I’m going to be out.” I was only out for two months, but I was like, “That’s still a long period of time in the life of a startup.” And so what it was really important to me was like, I did not go out having just listened and like “Great, I have the context, I’ll see you in two months.” But it was really important for me to actually have a plan in place before I went out for my team.
And so there were pieces where I was like, “I want to first, again, get that lay of the land. I want to have enough of a strategic, ‘Hey, these things make sense. Keep going, keep executing.’ ‘These things don’t make sense, let’s identify what those things are and let’s actually start to do research around these things so that when I do come back, we have a body of work that we can look at and be like, “Okay, this information, this data is making us choose to go down the path.” Or “This is a go or no-go decision. We can make that decision now where we couldn’t make that decision before.”’”
So that was another big piece, which is getting all the strategic pieces in place, having a plan laid out and explicitly articulating in that plan, “Keep moving. These are things that we got to do a lot more research on.” And then assigning people like, “Hey, you’re going to do this research and then we’re going to come back and talk about it in the two months that I was out.” And I also took the time, I actually… Funny story, I think I literally had a board meeting the day before I went in for a checkup, and then in the checkup they’re like, “You’re in labor.” And it was really important for me to do that because I was like, “For the things that I’m seeing, for the gaps that I’m seeing. I want everyone to be aware. I don’t want to just be with one founder. I want the whole leadership team. I want all the founders, I want the board. I want everyone to be aware that.”
For example, engineering hiring was really, really important. And I was communicating, “Hey, we are just not staffed in a way where we can deliver some of the ambitious things that we want to do.” And so explicitly calling those things out and creating awareness around them and then asking other executives to step in and be accountable, those were big pieces of what I wanted to achieve in my first 90 days.
Lenny: So I take notes on this. So the first is just get context, figure out who you need to talk to. Is there a tip there of just how many people? Because you could do this infinitely, meet everyone eventually. How many people did you end up maybe scheduling meetings with?
Jiaona Zhang: Definitely everyone on my direct team and definitely everyone on the leadership team, so call it those two combined were maybe, I don’t know, like 20 or so people, 25 people. But then it was really about finding the people in the other functions. And to me, for any given function, it was really getting a read from, again, that leader, but also someone closer to the actual work. And so you look at the functions, whether it’s product marketing or engineering, whatever it was. Back then I didn’t have designs, like design. And really getting a couple of data points for each one of those functions. So if you add that up, that probably was like 40 to 50 conversations. But again, if you’re doing them back to back and you’re really synthesizing, you’re actually getting a really good picture of what’s going on.
Lenny: And then the second bucket was identify things that need to be shifted, changed, flagged. I imagine there’s also an element of trust and building trust. Was that a part of this, of how you thought about it? Or do you feel like as a product leader coming in that’s less essential versus say an new PM joining it? A team as an IC?
Jiaona Zhang: Trust is so important. Trust is everything. As a PM, the trust that your cross-functional partners have in you, the trust that the CEO has is you… It’s huge. Trust is everything. And maybe here, I’ll even talk about some of the mistakes I made in the first 90 days. I think I was so much like, “I only have 90 days. I got to go, go, go. We got to go.” I was almost pushing too hard. I was pushing too hard for change. I think that’s the tricky part that every product leader, especially if they’re coming into a new role, has to figure out how do I gain trust and then take that trust and then push for change as opposed to push for change too quickly before I have that trust?
So again, it was a personal learning and I think part of it was really driven by the time-bound nature of it, but hopefully not everyone has only 90 days. So if you take that learning into mind, it’s really thinking about your trust as a bank. It’s like you’re putting money into your bank and then at some point you’re going to take money out, you’re going to use that social capital, you’re going to use that trust to go push for things, push for change, but you have to be thoughtful about how full your piggy bank is and you don’t want to be spending when you don’t have the trust in the bank.
Lenny: What were signs maybe looking back that you didn’t necessarily have the trust that you thought you did or you should have had?
Jiaona Zhang: I think something, a product like Webflow is a very complex product and there are so many pieces to it. It’s very difficult to learn the product in the first 90 days, especially if I was also prioritizing all these conversations with the team. And so I think that again, without the time constraint, what I would recommend is to be like, “Hey, every product leader has to take the time to really go deep on the product.” Given the complexity of Webflow and given the time-bound nature of when I had to go out, and given the fact I really also wanted to build that social context around what is working and not working from a function working together? Not just what the product is. What I wasn’t able to do was spend enough time with the product to be able to have all of that in my back pocket to be able to be like, “Oh, I know how this, this and this works because I’ve literally used it a bunch.”
So you had to choose. And in my head I was like, “I would much rather understand how the team is functioning together.” And the reality is the team was comprised of a lot of people with a lot of deep product context. So ultimately as all things in product, you know this Lenny, everything’s a trade off. And so it’s a trade off. And so you had to make the call of what you wanted to trade off. And the thing I traded off the most was that product context in my first 90 days. And again, it got me some things because I was able to have the time to go deep on the things I mentioned, but it didn’t give me enough trust in the piggy bank around the actual product fundamentals or product, the actual thing we’re building as opposed to the discipline.
Lenny: So at this point you’ve worked at four legendary companies, Dropbox, Airbnb, WeWork, Webflow. If we were to just go through each one, what’s just one lesson that you take away from each of these companies in terms of how it’s informed either how you build product or lead people, anything along those lines?
Jiaona Zhang: I’m going to actually give you my biggest thing across all four on the product side. And then on the people side. There are so many nuances also, and we could spend another two hours talking about each one of these. But I think just to impart my biggest high level learning. On the product side, it’s about really understanding why people love you and not forgetting to invest deeply in that core concept and then building everything around that. And so I’ll walk you through the different companies. So specifically for Dropbox, I think we did waste cycles where we would be like, “Oh, we see X happening in the market. Slack is really taking off. Why don’t we build a Slack competitor? Or why don’t we build chat?” And I think that it really missed this idea of, “Why do people love Dropbox and what do we need to do to continue investing in that so that remains true?” People love Dropbox for simplicity, for how delightful it is, how easy it is to use.
I think we actually went for a period of time where we didn’t invest enough in just performance of our client. How long it takes for the thing to sync is a big part of the experience of using Dropbox. And so I think that is a big, big learning where it’s really understanding that would’ve shifted your investments into doing that performance work as opposed to chasing the competitive space. And I think going back to chasing the competitive space, it’s this idea of what is your alpha? Again, why do people come to you? People come to Dropbox again for all the things I mentioned, but also ultimately we have your files. So if you’re going and building a chat product, that’s fine, but really the best chat experience or collaboration experience is going to be more around your files as opposed to around just the conversation. So I think really understanding that is a huge, huge learning.
And I think that same lesson can be… It’s very true for Airbnb. So at the end of the day, Airbnb is known for all the homes, the fact that these are homes that real people put on the platform. We spent some time talking about Airbnb Plus. When you are thinking “I got to go in and I got to manage the inventory and inspect it,” you’re almost like taking away from the thing that is what makes Air Airbnb special as opposed to leaning into it. We also spend a lot of time on experiences. We dabbled in transportation, we spent a bunch of times on other things. But if you really sat back and you’re like, “What makes Air Airbnb special and how do you double down on your strength?” It’s spending the time to make that experience of really understanding what’s in a home so people don’t go and get surprised. Making that onboarding journey for the host and then discovery journey and guest booking journey really, really great.
So I think that that same lesson when applied to Airbnb, would’ve in my head changed the way we invested and I think we would’ve gotten more returns, as opposed to spreading ourselves and then having things that sort of work but then didn’t quite work. And then again, same principle applies to WeWork, what is the thing that makes you really special? It’s the inventory it. It’s not actually like, “Oh, it’s so amazing that I get to use this key card and this key card does 10 different things.” That’s not what makes the WeWork experience special. And so again, if you knew that you wouldn’t spend all that time being like, “I’m going to really deeply invest in the tech team, I’m going to do all these interesting things.” You’d be like, “I just need to make inventory management great. I need to make it so that the sales team, the operations team, they have the tools they need to go out and get the inventory on the platform.” You wouldn’t do all this other stuff that’s just not the core.
And then finally, even at Webflow, we are learning this lesson all the time where at the end of the day, people really love our designer. They love the fact that they can use it. It does so much for them, it’s so powerful. And then you add our CMS and it’s really powerful. You can design with data. So investing deeply there as opposed to spreading ourselves too thin is also a lesson. I think across so many companies this lesson around understand why people love you, double down on that and then whatever else you build around it… Because again, you don’t want to also be like… You’re not like a single product company, you’re not like a one trick pony. You are going to invest in these multi products, but when you invest in a new product, really go back to, again, what’s the core of our advantage and how can that be something we leverage in delivering a really great product experience for our users in X adjacent area or x add-on?
Lenny: Final question before we get to a very exciting lightning round.
Jiaona Zhang: Okay.
Lenny: What is the best advice that you’ve gotten that has transformed or impacted the way you build product or hire or lead? Does anything come to mind?
Jiaona Zhang: I can’t remember where I explicitly got this advice, but I feel like I got it in multiple forms and it just really sat with me. It’s this idea of asking for help. I do think about that a lot because I think there are so many times when you’re like, “Oh, I’m the leader of X thing, everyone’s looking to me like the [inaudible 00:57:04] stops in me. I need to have my act together. I can’t be asking for help. If I’m asking for help, is everyone feel like I don’t know what I’m doing?”
And ever since I’ve been people managing, I’ve been pushing myself to be like, “I know it feels non-intuitive to go ask for help when everyone is looking to for you to give them advice, but if you don’t ask for help, there’s so many times where you’re just going to be sitting there with your problems. Whatever you have in your mind is just not the global best thing and you have to go ask for help. You have to go ask for help from your partners, your peers, even your team, even being my team, I don’t know. I really don’t know. Here’s the guidelines, here’s how you might want to think about it, but I don’t know the answer, you know the answer.” Going out and getting mentorship. I think this idea of really being able to say, “Be honest about what you know and what you don’t know and ask for help when you don’t know something,” that’s probably the biggest thing that I hold as a core principle and just helps me build better products.
Lenny: What’s something that you’ve asked for help about recently as an example?
Jiaona Zhang: So I’m working on our product strategy for the next three years. I’m thinking a lot about how do we really leverage AI to support all of our service providers and support all our users who come into Webflow and have a hard time sometimes learning how to use our product. And so I’m not an AI expert, so asking for help from the founders, from external folks, from engineers to be like, “What’s happening?” Every single week I feel like LLMs are changing. What’s possible in the world is changing. And so constantly asking for help to iterate on the strategy is a huge part of… It’s happening every day for me and my job.
Lenny: JZ, we’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. I’ve got six questions for you. Are you ready?
Jiaona Zhang: All right, let’s do it.
Lenny: What are two or three books that you’ve most recommended to other people?
Jiaona Zhang: I love the Design Sprint by Google. I also really Julie’s book around managing people how to be a good manager. That one’s really great. And so those are my more business side of the house books. And then we can also talk about fantasy stuff if you want. But-
Lenny: Yeah, give us some recs there.
Jiaona Zhang: I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. He completed the Wheel of Time series on behalf of the [inaudible 00:59:14] author. He has the Mistborn series and so he’s a great one. He actually has this… During the pandemic, he holed up and wrote a bunch of books and Vince was like, “I have a confession to make. I wrote four extra books.” And the latest one is Tress by the Emerald Sea that I really love.
Lenny: I saw the video of him sharing that news and he’s just like, “I wrote a book during COVID” and then, “Okay, I wrote a second book and then, oh, I wrote a third book also” and it just keeps going.
Jiaona Zhang: I think he was like, “I have a secret or I have a confession to make.” And everyone was like, “Oh no, are you going to say that you have a ghost writer because you’re so prolific?” And he’s like, “Nope, I just wrote four more books.”
Lenny: What a beast. Next question on that topic a little bit. What’s a favorite recent movie or a TV show that you watched? And I know you said you don’t get to watch much, but anything come to mind?
Jiaona Zhang: I feel like every night I’m watching Sesame Street like songs. We don’t do TV, but we do do YouTube songs. I honestly don’t have an answer to that other than we watch the Elmo song and the ABC song with my three year old.
Lenny: There’s been a lot of parenting advice on this podcast with my child coming soon. And so this is very on brand. Before we started this, you mentioned the painting behind you is referenced in like Arcane, it’s connected to or the show Arcane, which I imagine-
Jiaona Zhang: Yes. I’m a big fan. So painted this a long time ago before Jinx and Vi were a thing, and when Arcane was made, both my husband and I were like, “What? How did we predict this? This is amazing.” So it’s a good one.
Lenny: There we go. Some adult content. What is a favorite interview question that you like to ask candidates?
Jiaona Zhang: I do like to do behavioral questions, just really understanding when they’ve been in challenging situations, when they’ve been in ambiguous situations, how do they navigate ambiguity? Is a big one for me because at the end of the day, the PM job is really ambiguous. It’s really hard to describe on a piece of paper all the things that you’re going to encounter. So asking a lot of behavioral questions around that.
Lenny: And is there anything specific you look for in their answer that tells you this is a good answer or not a good answer?
Jiaona Zhang: Yeah. Good answers are people who put structure and a way forward through the ambiguity. That’s what you look for. You want your PM to not just be like, “Oh no, we’re swimming in ambiguity,” but actually put a path forward. I think also looking for people who are seeking help, seeking those inputs as opposed to being like, “Yep, this is the way. This is very clear.” Because again, the chances of whatever path you chart out for any product, for anything that you’re doing is the right path from the first time that you do it, so rare. And so I want to see someone be able to get those inputs, be able to say, “This is the path, this is how I learned why I put this path together.” And then going back to a lot of the stuff I think we touched upon in this podcast is like, what are the little milestones that make you say, “Hey, is this working? Is this not working?” And then make you either make a different decision. Seeing people do that really well is a big thing I look for.
Lenny: Awesome. What is a favorite product you’ve recently discovered that you love?
Jiaona Zhang: I love… It’s not recent, but I do love the SNOO and it’s very top of mind because I just graduated my second son from the SNOO and it was a little bit like, “Oh my gosh, no more rocking of the baby.” But I do think it does a good job of actually doing the thing and I’m also giving parents peace of mind.
The other thing I’m a big fan of, again, you’ll see where my head’s at, lots of child related things. Midjourney for your toddler is actually great because instead of it being absolute instant gratification of “I want to see a firetruck,” and “Here you go, here’s my phone.” It’s like, “Let’s wait for Midjourney to create the firetruck.” And specifically you can even tell Midjourney what you want. It could be like, “I would like it to be blue.” He’s obsessed with Jungle Book, “Wearing a fire hat next to a firetruck.” And so you can actually create, and I do believe in the future, so much of what we are going to be doing as humans is literally what is the creative process? What’s the idea? It’s less about executing all the pieces of it, but it’s so important to still be able to be like “This is the idea that I want to bring to life.” And so I just think training that is huge.
Lenny: Feels like you’ve just defined your three-year strategy for Webflow right there with AI.
Next question, what is something that you’ve changed in the way you build product that might be relatively minor that had a big impact in your team’s ability to execute?
Jiaona Zhang: There’s so many different things that we’ve done at all the different companies. It really depends on the company. And what I mean by that is at a company like Webflow, where the tech stack is complex and where a given feature has so many different interactions, you’re like “People depend on this workflow, this thing interacts with this thing. It’s a whole platform.” One of the biggest things we’ve been tweaking is like how do we do more of a tech spike at the beginning to be like, “Do we have a good sense of how difficult this is going to be? The unknowns? Can we get a little bit more detail on them so that we don’t go down a path and be like, ‘Oh, this doesn’t make sense’?” So I feel like that that’s a tweak in the process that has really made a big difference at a company like Webflow.
But when I look back to other companies, again, that might not be your biggest problem. Another problem could be like, “Hey, it’s just so difficult to work with cross-functional partners and doing a little tweak in the process where you bring them in a kickoff meeting.” That might be the thing that just changes that dynamic of how you work with teams. So it’s really… I don’t know if there’s one thing, but it’s almost like every day I’m thinking about small tweaks and process to make all of us more efficient.
Lenny: Final question, what is your number one pro-tip for using Webflow and being successful with Webflow?
Jiaona Zhang: My number one pro-tip is there’s a lot of stuff coming out that I’m very excited about. I do think Webflow has traditionally had a high learning curve, and it’s because we’re a pro tool, we’re a professional tool. We do really amazing stuff, so much power that we deliver you, but with that power has come with it’s hard to learn. And so one of the things that I’m really excited about pro-tip for using Webflow in the future is we’re really going to bring the magic of Webflow University, the magic of AI, all together so that you can just use and learn Webflow so much faster, learn webflow in the context of what you’re doing as opposed to going into a different tab and looking for the Webflow University stuff. It’s going to be in context to the product, being able to actually take action directly, prompting Webflow to be able to do things for you. It’s just going to be so much easier in the future to use the product. That’s what I’m excited about. We’re working on it and it will be out in the future.
Lenny: Okay. No specific dates yet. Yeah, you could share, this sounds like breaking news of cool stuff coming.
Jiaona Zhang: Some things are in alpha and [inaudible 01:05:49] beta, but we do want to be developing it with our users and really learning is this the power that you’re looking for? Is this thing that’s going to get you over the activation hump that you’ve struggled with in the past?
Lenny: JZ, I think we’ve made a maximally lovable podcast episode. Thank you so much for being here. Two final questions. How can listeners find you online if they want to reach out and how can listeners be useful to you?
Jiaona Zhang: I always love feedback, so if there’s feedback on the podcast, send it my way. Or even just what would you want to learn? Send it my way. And the reason I ask that is because I’m actually working on a course, another course through Reforge, which is around managing your PM career. And so really just… I’ve talked to so many people advice around their career, but if you want to reach out and be like, “These are the problems that I’m facing,” it would actually really help me as I am creating this course, which is going to launch in a couple of months. And so I’m excited to… Find me there if you want to chat more and send the problems that you’re struggling with when it comes to your career, and that would help me refine my course.
Lenny: And that’s just reforge.com? There’s no URL yet specifically for that course?
Jiaona Zhang: Not yet, but it will come soon. And maybe what I’ll do is I’ll post it on my website, which is built in Webflow, so my full name dotcom.
Lenny: Got it. JZ, thank you so much for being here, and thanks again.
Jiaona Zhang: Thanks for having me.
Lenny: Bye, everyone.
Thank you so much for listening. If you found this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving a review as that really helps other listeners find the podcast. You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com.
See you in the next episode.
Glossary
| English | 中文 |
|---|---|
| activation hump | 激活门槛 |
| Airbnb Plus | Airbnb Plus(产品名,保留原文) |
| alpha | 核心优势(alpha) |
| Arcane | 双城之战(动画剧集) |
| artifacts | 工件(artifacts) |
| Brandon Sanderson | Brandon Sanderson(人名,保留原文) |
| Brian | Brian(指 Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky,保留原文) |
| context | 上下文 |
| cost fallacy | 沉没成本谬误(cost fallacy) |
| Design Sprint | 设计冲刺(Design Sprint) |
| Elmo | Elmo(角色名,保留原文) |
| go-to-market | 推向市场 |
| Griddle API | Griddle API(技术术语,保留原文) |
| hired beyond our skis | 招了超出自身能力的规模 |
| hygiene | 规范和纪律(hygiene) |
| IC (Individual Contributor) | 个人贡献者(IC) |
| Jared Leto | Jared Leto(人名,保留原文) |
| Jinx | Jinx(角色名,保留原文) |
| Jungle Book | 森林王子(动画电影) |
| kickoff meeting | 启动会议 |
| LLMs | 大语言模型(LLM) |
| macroeconomic downturn | 宏观经济下行 |
| managed marketplace | 托管式市场(managed marketplace) |
| mat leave | 产假 |
| Mike Lewis | Mike Lewis(人名,保留原文) |
| Minimum Lovable Products | 最小可爱产品(MLP) |
| Mistborn | Mistborn(系列名,保留原文) |
| MVP (Minimum Viable Product) | 最小可行产品(MVP) |
| North Star | 北极星指标 |
| OKR | 目标与关键结果(OKR) |
| PM (Product Manager) | 产品经理 |
| product operations | 产品运营(product operations) |
| quarterbacking | ”四分卫”式统筹( quarterbacking) |
| Reforge | Reforge(公司/平台名,保留原文) |
| sandbagging | 蓄意压低目标(sandbagging) |
| Sesame Street | 芝麻街(儿童节目) |
| SNOO | SNOO(婴儿摇床产品名,保留原文) |
| social capital | 社会资本 |
| Sonder | Sonder(公司名,保留原文) |
| tech spike | 技术探针(tech spike) |
| tech stack | 技术栈 |
| Tress by the Emerald Sea | Tress by the Emerald Sea(书名,保留原文) |
| unit economics | 单位经济模型 |
| Vi | Vi(角色名,保留原文) |
| Webflow | Webflow(公司/产品名,保留原文) |
| Webflow University | Webflow University(产品内置学习平台,保留原文) |
| Wheel of Time | 时光之轮(系列名) |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py
构建”最小可爱产品”,来自 WeWork 与 Airbnb 的故事,以及如何成长为优秀的产品经理 | Jiaona Zhang
构建”最小可爱产品”,来自 WeWork 与 Airbnb 的故事,以及如何成长为优秀的产品经理 | Jiaona Zhang
文字稿
Jiaona Zhang: 我认为,真正精通某件事并被大家所熟知,是非常重要的。你可以因为擅长统筹最复杂的发布而闻名——因为你就是那个出色的”四分卫”(quarterback),善于与推向市场(go-to-market)团队和跨职能利益相关者协作,这就可以成为你的标签。你也可以因攻克最棘手的技术难题而闻名。找到一件你能真正做到极致的事情。我之所以给出这个建议,是因为当你这样做的时候,你就能把手头的项目做到极致,借此建立起自己的声誉,随后你会获得更多的责任。人们倾向于把更多的责任交给那些因在某个领域卓越而闻名的人。
新晋产品经理最常见的错误
Lenny: 欢迎来到 Lenny’s Podcast,在这里我采访世界级的产品领导和增长专家,从他们建设和发展当今最成功产品的宝贵经验中学习。今天的嘉宾是 JZ。JZ 是 Webflow 的高级产品副总裁,同时也是斯坦福大学的讲师,教授产品管理课程。在此之前,她曾担任 WeWork 的高级产品总监,也是 Airbnb 的资深产品负责人——我有幸与 JZ 共事过几年。她还曾在 Dropbox 和一家名为 Pocket Gems 的游戏公司担任产品经理。
在这次对话中,我们深入探讨了新晋产品经理职业生涯中最常见的错误,以及 JZ 自己最大的产品失误。我们讨论了”最小可爱产品”与”最小可行产品”的概念差异,聊到了 JZ 独特的路标规划、优先级排序和 OKR 框架,以及她对作为产品领导者加入新公司后如何规划前 90 天的看法,加上她从 WeWork 那疯狂的一年中学到的经验。此外,还有她得到的关于产品和领导力的最佳建议,以及 Airbnb Plus 的故事和它出问题的地方。我一直希望 JZ 能来参加播客,很高兴我们终于做到了。接下来,为您带来 JZ。
Lenny: JZ,欢迎来到播客。
Jiaona Zhang: 谢谢邀请,我非常激动能来这里。
Lenny: 这是我的荣幸。在你的众多成就中,你在斯坦福教授产品管理,听起来非常了不起。你到现在做了多久了?
Jiaona Zhang: 我想大概六年了。
Lenny: 好的。关于这件事我真正想问的问题是,在这段时间里你见过很多新的产品经理,你见过他们成功,也见过他们失败。在帮助新晋产品经理入行的过程中,你发现他们最常犯的错误是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得有一种习惯真的很难纠正,但每个人都会这样,那就是直接跳到解决方案。所以我在课堂上、在产品经理工作中看到的最大问题之一,以及产品经理容易犯的错误,就是你过度执着于某个解决方案——你脑海中已经能看到想要构建的那个东西的具体实现方式了。
这也是我在课程中最想纠正的第一件事。很多人进来就直接说”我想做 X 创业”或者”我想做这件事”,或者”我在某个学院里对这个领域做了大量研究”。于是我们需要纠正这种思维,告诉他们:“嘿,我们要走出去,完全不去想你想构建什么,而是把注意力放在用户和真实世界里的人身上,关注他们的问题。第一步是理解他们的问题,然后判断这里是否存在机会,而不是’嘿,你想为 Y 用户做 X 产品’。“这是最需要纠正和重新训练思维的地方。
Lenny: 这种倾向是不是很大程度上来自人们想进入产品管理领域是因为他们觉得”终于我有权力了,终于我能告诉别人该构建什么了,终于我的想法真正重要了”?这是不是很多问题的根源?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得确实有这方面的因素。我教的第一件事就是:你不是 CEO,你来这里不是为了……你实际上拥有的真正权威非常有限,因为你并不管理任何人。很多工作都是通过影响力来推动的,所以这也需要纠正那种思维。我确实认为很多人进入产品角色时觉得由我来拍板,由我来做决策,由我来决定构建什么。但你的工作其实不是这些。你的工作是理解机会在哪里,然后把所有不同的可能性整合在一起,做的是编辑筛选的工作。所以我认为这确实源于很多人对产品角色的期望,而实际上并非如此。
最大的产品失误
Lenny: 那我们来聊聊这个问题的另一面。我们谈了新晋产品经理常犯的错误。我很好奇,你自己做过的最大的产品失误是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 哇,这个问题问得好。很有意思。我觉得作为产品人,我们总是在犯错,也总是在学习。也许我举一个 Airbnb 的例子吧,毕竟你我都在那里待过。这个例子确实让我印象深刻——当时我们在做一个叫 Airbnb Plus 的项目。退一步来看,我们真正想解决的问题其实是:“不是所有人都信任 Airbnb,因为它是一个平台,不是托管式的库存,也不是酒店。怎么才能确保所有 Airbnb 房源都达到质量标准?“但我确实认为当时我们太以方案为先了,而且也有竞争对手带来的焦虑。那段时间正是托管式市场(managed marketplace)兴起的时候,Sonder 这样的公司也出现了。我觉得作为一家公司,我们当时的想法就是:“在托管式市场的世界里,我们要怎么办?”
所以我们一头扎进了解决方案的探索。基本上我们的思路是:“去检查我们的房源,尝试更多地管理我们的库存。“而真正应该做的是退一步想:“核心问题到底是什么?核心问题是人们想知道自己会住进什么样的地方。我们需要更好地呈现这些房源。“这里还有一个很重要的点——作为一家公司,你的战略优势是什么?什么在你能力范围之内?比如 Airbnb,我们在运营方面并不强。我们本质上是一个平台、一个市场。如果你没有那块肌肉,却要求公司和团队从零开始搭建,那真的非常非常困难。更不用说单位经济模型了——即使你实现规模化,单位经济模型真的能跑通吗?
Lenny: 对,我觉得 Airbnb Plus 是一个未被讲述的故事,应该有人来讲讲,大概可以单独做一期播客。
Jiaona Zhang: 你和我来讲。
Lenny: 我们可以来讲,就叫《Airbnb Plus:隐藏的故事》。就像你说的,它想解决的问题是人们不信任……他们甚至不想考虑 Airbnb,因为觉得”不,我不想住在别人家里。我不知道会是什么样子。太不可预测了。“所以从外部来看,这像是一个非常聪明的方案——“我们会去审核它们,确保它们很棒。有一个最低标准。“我的问题是,你觉得这是因为”这根本不可能成功,因为作为生意我们永远赚不到钱,因为每次预订的利润就那么点,而投入的时间、资源、给房东寄枕头等等这些永远不可能划算”?还是说其实有一条走得通的路,只是执行得不好?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得确实没有一条清晰的路径。更多的是——
Lenny: 对,这也是我的印象。
Jiaona Zhang: 没错。更多是如果你理解了——再说回我关于单位经济模型的观点,有些时候你会在单位经济模型上抱有一种神奇的幻想,觉得”等我们达到 X 规模的时候,一切都会迎刃而解。我们能做到这些事情。“我觉得你其实需要确保单位经济模型在一开始就能跑通。这绝对是一个教训。另外一点,回到你到底想达成什么这个核心问题。如果你想确保房源质量,对于 Airbnb 这样的平台来说,正确的方式应该是通过我们的评价体系,通过客人的评价,这些基本上是免费的,而不是真的派检查员出去。
另外一个方面是,如果你能获取关于人们关心的质量因素的信号——是清洁问题?还是”我被锁在外面了”?我认为除了检查之外,还有其他解决方案可以针对这些问题。比如,给每个人发一个密码锁盒,比部署检查员去看房子要便宜得多。与不同地区的清洁服务商合作,把它作为费用的一部分,也比做检查便宜。所以归根结底,还是你到底想达成什么?每个领域的用户问题是什么?你能否针对你看的那个具体房源来解决这个问题?
所以我个人认为单位经济模型永远不会真正跑通。我们应该一开始就知道这一点,或者说应该在最初就深入分析这个问题,然后针对具体情况制定方案,而不是用一把钝器去解决所有问题——“嘿,我们派检查员去。“应该是:这个房源的问题是什么?解决这个问题的最佳方案是什么?
何时该大胆设想
Lenny: 这里有几个我觉得很重要的产品领导力教训。第一,Airbnb 和 Brian 以及很多优秀领导者都以想象理想状况、设想美好终局然后倒推工作而闻名。当你非常雄心勃勃,想着”我不知道怎么到达那里,但我们就是要把目标设大,希望能想办法搞定”的时候,这种方式往往能带来很好的成果。有时候确实能成功。但在 Airbnb Plus 这个案例中没有成功。而你发现的——也许你甚至很早就知道——就是根本不存在一个能让这个方案跑通的平行世界。关于什么时候该大胆设想,什么时候该说”算了,我们想办法搞定,我知道看起来不可能,但我们就是要试一试”——你有没有什么框架来判断什么时候该大胆想象、放手去做?什么时候该说”先算算账,看这到底可不可行”?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得每家公司都非常重要的一点是要敢于做大梦。如果你没有一个宏大的愿景,很难去创新,但你必须把这个宏大愿景和深思熟虑的执行结合起来。所以我觉得我最大的建议之一就是:要清楚地认识到你处在什么阶段。我觉得完全可以说:“我们打算在六个月、三个月或任何一段时期内尝试 X,而且我们明确要学习这些具体的东西。我们要了解人们为什么这样做?有没有信号表明——比如和房东的沟通不好,或者这类房源——如果是由拥有多套房产的人管理的?“我觉得有些因素我们可以说:“嘿,我们可以在给定的时间内学习这个非常具体的东西。”
在那个原型阶段,在那个早期阶段,你可以去做我称之为”不可规模化”的事情来获取这些教训。但你必须非常非常清楚地告诉你的团队你处在什么阶段。“我们现在在学习阶段,我们明确要学习这些东西”,而不是说”我们有一个宏大的愿景,就是干”。在我看来后者是不推荐的。要把大愿景拆解成更小的块。我觉得这样才能让你既保持非常宏大的想象,又能说:“好,我们还是可以判断’这条路走不通。我们尝试了一小段时间,获得了这些经验,现在走另一条路。’”
Lenny: 对,还有一种沉没成本的谬误,就是”我已经在这件事上花了那么多时间、金钱和资源了,再多坚持一下吧,再给一个季度看看,说不定就成了。“
清晰定义成功标准与里程碑
Jiaona Zhang: 你应该清晰地定义成功是什么样的,以及在我说的那些小间隔里你想要达成的里程碑。这样你就不会陷入那种”我已经在这件事上投入了两年,现在不得不砍掉”的境地。而是要问:这一个季度的里程碑是什么?好,下一个季度的里程碑是什么?在每一个节点上,什么是继续推进的信号,什么是叫停的信号?我觉得这真的可以帮助团队和公司说:“没关系,我在上面投入了一个季度,但我没有投入两年。”
Lenny: 另一个重要的教训是,作为产品领导者,要敢于回推、说服领导层”你是错的,这件事不该做”。我记得和我们的一位同事 Mike Lewis 聊过,他在 Airbnb 负责另一个团队,他就说:“哦,我意识到我应该是那个站出来说’不,我们现在不应该做这个’的人”,因为他是某个新项目的负责人。当然我也知道在那种情况下可能很难做到,因为 Brian 对此非常投入,所有人都在说”我们一定要做这件事”。
我想问的是,当创始人非常热衷于某件事时,你有没有学到什么方法去回推?什么时候应该顺从?比如”好的,我们来做吧,我全力支持。“作为领导者,你必须表现出热情,他需要感觉到”哦,JZ 对这件事也很兴奋,我们必须试试”。哪怕你内心觉得这事不会成。所以问题是,你觉得什么时候值得去说服创始人”不行,这是个坏主意”,什么时候应该”那就干吧”?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得首先取决于你的信念。你是真的笃定这是个坏主意,还是你自己也还在学习阶段?我觉得如果你到了那个阶段,你说”我有十足的把握”,那你的职责就是说”不”,你真的必须如此。如果你不这么做,你就没有尽到你的职责。接下来的问题是,怎么说服一个对某个想法高度认同的人告诉他这不是正确的方向?我的建议是,要理解他们试图达成目标的精神实质。能够回过去说:“嘿,我理解这个精神。精神在于我们要让之前没考虑过 Airbnb 的人来使用 Airbnb,但正确的方式不是这种极其耗时、极其昂贵地去检查所有房源的方法。正确的方式是在人们上传房源时让他们提供更细粒度的信息,加入更多的检查项,而这些可以通过技术手段自动化完成,而不是靠人工。”
要带着实际的替代方案回去。就是去说……说实话我觉得我们团队在演进过程中确实做了一些这样的事,我们学到了,然后说”这行不通”。我明确地离开了那个团队,我说:“我要去做评价系统。我要继续推进、持续优化它,因为那才是真正可规模化的方式,而不是继续走那条非常依赖人工作业的路径。”
所以我觉得对于处在这种情况中的人,我最大的建议是:真正理解——不管是创始人、你的经理还是任何其他人——他们到底想为用户和业务达成什么?提醒他们这一点,在这个层面达成对齐,然后带着更好的方案回来。这些人大多非常聪明,非常有动力,他们最终只是想为用户做正确的事。当你带着一个更好的方案回来,而且你有数据、有思考支撑的时候,很少会有人说:“尽管这个方案不奏效、你提出了一条更好的前进路径,我还是要坚持走原来的路。”
Lenny: 而且我觉得,结合你刚才说的,还要确认这件事真的存在可行的可能性。做一些算术,搞清楚这个业务未来是不是真的能赚到钱。
Jiaona Zhang: 完全同意。
最小可爱产品
Lenny: 好,我要换个话题跳着聊了。我有各种不同主题的问题。你推广了”最小可爱产品”这个概念,相对于大家总是挂在嘴边的”最小可行产品”。能不能谈谈什么是最小可爱产品,以及什么时候应该选择这个方向,而不是传统的 MVP?
Jiaona Zhang: 我之所以如此看重最小可爱产品,是因为我认为在一个有如此多选择的世界里,很难让人接受”嘿,用这个东西吧,它勉强达到质量标准”。所以我觉得这个理念的核心是深入理解你正在做的东西——什么样的体验是令人喜爱的?什么样的质量标准能引起用户的共鸣?尤其是在一个可能有很多替代选项的世界里。最小可爱产品(MLP)是新的 MVP,是新的最小可行产品。
所以我觉得这才是关键,但归根结底还是要回到用户有哪些选择、他们想做什么。在某些情况下,你的质量标准——或者说你的”打磨标准”——可以稍微低一点,因为现实是你所”竞争”的对象或者你要替代的东西本身就是一套手工流程,是电子表格,是用一种极其糟糕的方式在做的事情。
所以你想尽快把产品推向市场,所以你没必要说”我要再多做这 15 个功能”。因为和用户目前的做法相比,你不含那 15 个功能的产品就已经完全够用了,完全好用,说实话也完全令人喜爱。所以这需要你对用户、你所在的领域、以及你的目标用户的容忍度有非常深入的理解。比如一个设计师可能对标准要求高很多——“我要的是这种工作流程,这是我对产品的标准”。但另一方面,坐在财务团队或 IT 团队的人,他们的标准可能是:“哦,我习惯了做这 15 件事,所以你的东西已经好太多了。”
Lenny: 我想再深入一层。有没有你做过的某个产品,是你认为属于最小可爱产品的例子?或者市面上有没有什么东西可以作为一个最小可爱产品与 MVP 对比的案例?
Jiaona Zhang: 再说一下,这其实很难。我觉得每个产品团队、每个做产品的人都在纠结什么是最小可行——就连这个概念本身就已经很困难了,更别提最小可爱。我举一个 Webflow 的例子。最近,我们一直在投入几个新功能——会员系统和逻辑功能,为用户提供新的能力。到最后我们意识到,在这些领域持续投入后,我们可以说:“嘿,我们可以做到最小可行,但我们不确定能不能真正做到最小可爱,达到用户真正、真正想要的程度。那我们是应该继续沿着这条路走下去,一点点打磨到最小可爱,但对我们用户群体来说可能已经在碰到收益递减了?还是说,其实应该把我们已有的东西发布出来,然后鼓励我们的生态系统来补足’可爱’的部分?“
让少数事情做到极致
Jiaona Zhang: 再说一遍,这不是说把东西扔出去然后祈祷——你必须有非常明确的判断:我们现在是在最小可行,还是最小可爱?我们处于两者之间的什么位置?有了这个判断之后,才能说:“我们作为公司能做到吗?还是要依赖我们的生态系统来帮我们做到?我们实际打算怎么做?“甚至在功能集内部,也很明确的是一个选择——是怎么把某些事情做好,而不是什么都做一点?我觉得这是最小可爱产品的一个核心要素,也就是……对我来说,与其做 15 件事但每件都只做一点点,不如做 5 件事,做到极其出色、高度精致,让用户觉得”哦,这真的满足了我的需求”。而不是试图什么都做,结果每样都只做一点,于是体验的每个环节都显得有点粗糙,总觉得差点意思。
我觉得人们其实会认可这个理念——“你给了我 5 个领域的最小可爱产品,而不是 15 个领域的最小可行产品。"
"仙尘效应”:如何让产品令人喜爱
Lenny: 你有没有观察到什么东西能让产品变得令人喜爱?我知道这不太容易定义,但你见过哪些东西能让一个产品变得令人喜爱?是令人愉悦的功能吗?还是你刚才说的——东西做得确实好,数量少,但每个都做得非常好?
Jiaona Zhang: 首先是这个东西确实做得好。质量过硬,不粗糙,不让人觉得别扭。我再举一个非常小的例子,还是来自 Webflow——键盘快捷键,听起来很小,但对于高级用户群体来说,这能带来大量的喜爱感。然后还有一个概念叫”仙尘”(pixie dust),我也许可以先跳出设计工具领域,谈谈其他一些东西,不管是 Dropbox 还是 Airbnb,但核心就是你可以在某些地方多撒一点仙尘。比如我们在 Airbnb 做移动端应用改版时,基本功能是必须有的,但如果我们加入了模板,而且让这些模板可以根据用户已有的内容进行某种程度的预填充——这就是令人喜爱的,这就是那一点点额外的仙尘,花时间去做好这一点。
当然了,你不可能给所有东西都撒仙尘。归根结底,你的时间、人力和项目范围都是有限的,总要有所取舍。所以你不能一直投入、一直投入,因为那会推迟你的发布时间。但你能不能挑几个地方,对自己说:“我要在这些地方撒点仙尘,做得比用户期望的再多一点点”?正是这些创造了那种令人喜爱的感觉。
路线图与 OKR:讲一个故事
Lenny: 换一个话题。我知道你在路线图规划、目标与关键结果(OKR)、即兴发挥方面有很强的观点,这确实是个大话题,但我还是想问——在这些领域,你最常给出的建议是什么?怎么做路线图、设定 OKR、排优先级?或者说你反复提到的口头禅或准则是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 路线图规划和优先级排序对我来说是一个类别,OKR 是另一个类别。我就分别给你每个类别里我最大的建议。
对于路线图,我跟团队强调最多的一点是:“你在讲一个故事。我希望看到的是主题,是一个故事——为什么这些东西是最大的投资方向,是最大的杠杆?“而我真的不想看到的——也是路线图规划中非常常见的错误——就是人们以为一份塞满了项目的电子表格、用 RICE 框架给每个项目都填上影响力、成本和工作量,就觉得这是优先级排序、这就是路线图了。你如果只是做了这些,然后拿给团队看,他们就能冲出去干了。
但人们真正渴望知道的是:“我为什么要做这批工作?“我觉得在你自己的脑子里把这个东西想得非常清晰也非常重要,因为最终会发生的情况是——你作为做产品的人会不断学到新东西。你会说:“哦,我之前关于用户或产品领域的假设是这样的,然后我了解到了新的原因,所以我的想法变了。“所以与其维护一个巨大的电子表格,进去调整各种数值,不如想想:你在讲一个关于路线图的什么故事,然后这些新输入可以反过来影响这个故事。
比如可能是:“嘿,我刚意识到之前不知道我们有这么多高级用户”,或者”也许我们有更多非技术用户”。这个输入会以相当显著的方式改变我的路线图和主题。所以我觉得在路线图上停留在那个层面去思考是非常关键的,而不是深入到”怎么做”的细枝末节。这就是路线图上我最大的建议——讲一个故事,明确你的主题。让你的团队去想出实际的”怎么做”和具体的项目以及所有细节,但你要为他们搭建好脚手架,让他们知道什么是重要的。
Lenny: 我可以追问一下吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 当然可以。
Lenny: 电子表格式的路线图很容易想象,但你建议的方式——实际交付物长什么样?是一份文档,附带一个做优先级排序的电子表格?还是一份演示文稿?实际上你拿什么交给我,说:“JZ,这是我们团队的提案”?
文档优先:路线图的实际交付形式
Jiaona Zhang: 我非常推崇文档,当然如果你是面对面沟通的话演示文稿也有用,但我确实认为在远程优先的文化中——我们很多人都是混合远程模式——演示文稿通常需要口头解说。所以我们一直在大力推动一个做法,我对团队说:“写下来,形成文档。强迫自己把理由写出来,因为当你写理由的时候,你才能真正加上那种层面的细节。“所以就像”路线图是一个故事,你在讲主题,你在笔记本上写故事、在文档里写故事”——文档绝对是我的首选。在文档里就写:“这是我们想达成的目标,这些是我想投入的大方向,这些是我的主要主题。“然后逐一展开每个主题,说明”这些是重大项目”。
然后链接出去——甚至不是链接到电子表格,而是链接到你的团队实际使用的系统和工件。如果你的团队用 Jira,就直接链接到 Jira。因为电子表格经常过时——它们只是某个时间点的快照。但如果你链接到你的团队实际工作中使用的系统,你就可以说:“这些是主题。如果我学到了会改变主题的重大信息,我会更新它们。然后我们链接到 Jira,你随时都能看到路线图的实时快照。”
Lenny: 你有没有推荐给团队的模板或通用结构来铺陈这个故事?还是说要看季度、看年份,因地制宜?
产品工件与产品运营
Jiaona Zhang: 我要推荐一个来自 Reforge 的新概念,叫做”工件”(artifacts)。我们确实有大量的工件:我们的通用产品开发流程是什么?我们的规格说明书模板是什么?我们刚才讨论的很多东西——路线图,比如更宏观的路线图而不仅仅是单个功能规格——的模板又是什么?所以我们有非常多的工件,而且一直在不断迭代。我觉得每个团队都会拿去稍作调整,但我非常提倡把这些工件带回来,然后在团队之间共享。所以我们也在产品运营(product operations)这个职能上做了投入,因为它真的能起到润滑作用,让所有团队都说同一种语言。
Lenny: 太好了。
新晋产品经理的职业加速建议
Lenny: 换个话题,对于那些想要加速职业发展的新晋产品经理,你最重要的建议是什么?你觉得最常阻碍他们的是什么?或者说有什么是他们可以改变、从而加速前进的?
Jiaona Zhang: 这里面有很多方面,但我挑一个来讲。甚至不止一个框架,但针对你的问题,我们就选一个——我认为非常重要的一点是:你必须在某件事上做得非常好,并且因此被大家所熟知。我的意思是,当你在公司里因某一件事而出名的时候……我举几个例子:你可能因主导最复杂的发布而闻名,因为你特别擅长”四分卫”式统筹,擅长与推向市场团队以及跨职能利益相关者协作——这可以是你的标签。你可能因处理最具技术复杂性的问题而闻名,也可能因处理监管极复杂的事情而出名。找到一件你能做到极致的事情。我之所以给这个建议,是因为当你这样做的时候,你能把拿到的项目彻底搞定。因为你在为自己建立名声和声誉,然后你会被赋予更多责任。人们倾向于把责任交给那些因在某方面卓越而闻名的人。
Lenny: 在你的职业生涯中,你有没有什么是被公认特别擅长的?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得在职业生涯早期,其实是我在数据分析方面有很强的背景。当我加入游戏行业时,我来自咨询行业,没有任何计算机科学或设计背景,所以我的声誉是围绕着”非常善于分析”建立的——能够分析我负责的游戏的数据集,然后据此做决策。在这个过程中我还发现,我其实非常擅长执行——能同时让很多盘子转起来,在最大的工作室工作并管理所有复杂的环节。这是我后来发现的。我原来并不知道,是我在这个角色中开始工作后才慢慢发现的。
所以这也是我带到 Dropbox 的东西。加入 Dropbox 时,我清楚地知道自己能与很多不同团队合作,确保我们赶上发布截止日期。所以我会刻意去发挥这个超能力,然后通过一次次的交付来获得更多责任。“你刚刚发布了这个非常复杂的东西,这是一个需要跨多个平台协作的项目,我们在使用 Griddle API。“而且团队非常非常小,截止日期非常非常紧。
所以当你说”我能做这样的事情”时,你就会获得更多责任,因为人们会说:“她能用一个小团队搞定这么难的事情。“这就是你获得更多责任的方式。但这在我职业生涯中也在不断演变。我觉得在职业生涯初期,你确实应该在某几个方面深入发力,这是合理的。但当你开始做管理时,情况会发生巨大转变。“以最佳执行者闻名”不一定是让你和你的团队获得最多责任的那个标签。所以随着职业生涯的成长,无论是在 Airbnb 还是 WeWork 或其他地方,我会灵活切换到不同的……就像把你最核心的优势拿出来,但用不同的方式去发挥它。
Lenny: 我刚才听到的很大一部分就是,你就是非常非常努力地工作,然后把事情搞定了。我觉得这非常、非常重要,也经常能带来很多成功。
Jiaona Zhang: 产品经理就必须把事情搞定。没错,归根结底,无论发生什么,你都要为结果负责。
Lenny: 对,我喜欢这个说法。因”把事情搞定”和”非常努力地工作”而闻名,这永远不会害你。我觉得这是产品经理成功的一条持久建议。我意识到我们刚才在聊你的优先级排序、路线图以及目标与关键结果(OKR)方面的建议,然后我换了个话题,你就一直没讲到 OKR 那部分。所以我们回到那个话题。
目标与关键结果的建议
Jiaona Zhang: 好的。我对目标与关键结果(OKR)最大的建议是:一定要在定性层面极其清晰地想明白——什么情况下你会说”是的,我们做得非常好”?我之所以在这点上如此坚持,是因为我看到太多团队被目标与关键结果(OKR)搞得焦头烂额。他们会说:“天哪,如果我完不成目标与关键结果(OKR),感觉名声就完了,或者可能升不了职。“于是各种恐惧围绕目标与关键结果(OKR)而来。然后你就会看到各种现象:有人蓄意压低目标,有人犹豫着不肯填数字,直到最后一刻、直到百分之百确定才敢写上去。而这最终会导致公司无法创新、无法快速前进。
所以我真正在推动的是——你实际上是否……你的精神实质是什么……我觉得这个问题我可能问团队问得太多了,但”你想达成的精神实质是什么?什么情况下你会说’我这个季度真的彻底搞定了’?“所以与其所有目标与关键结果(OKR)都是绿色,我宁可全部是红色或黄色,我们什么都没达到,但我们从没达到的原因中学到了东西。事实上,当一切全是绿色的时候,你会说”我们定的目标与关键结果(OKR)肯定不够有野心。“所以我真的非常强调:真正做到”搞定”和”成功”究竟意味着什么?对我们的用户意味着什么?对我们的业务意味着什么?用户感受到 X 是什么意思——你能描述出来吗?能写出来吗?我们的业务在收入增长方面看到这样的变化——意味着什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得这确实很难,因为很多时候,你的数据科学家、你的产品经理自己会说:“天哪,我负责的是一个输入指标,不是输出指标。所以我肯定不能签那个收入目标,因为我手里是个输入指标。“这些说法都没错,但如果你不做那功课——真正把那条线画清楚——“这是我想为公司、为用户做的最终极的事情”——那很多时候你最终目标与关键结果(OKR)全部达标了,但公司和用户整体上却说:“我没感受到任何不同。“公司里没有人看你做的东西然后说”这是一个巨大的成功”。用户的感受也没有任何变化。所以在我看来这是最糟糕的结果——你的目标与关键结果(OKR)几乎变成了为了做目标与关键结果(OKR)而做目标与关键结果(OKR),而不是让它们成为向最终用户交付真正优秀产品的指引。
Lenny: 我喜欢这个想法,但想象一下通常会发生的情况——你签下了一个很有野心的目标与关键结果(OKR),你没有等到最后一刻才承诺,结果最终变成了红色,然后到了绩效评估的时候,大家就说:“哦,Lenny 没完成他的目标与关键结果(OKR)。看看这人,他的团队表现不怎么样。“作为产品负责人,你怎么判断一个团队其实做得很好、产品经理表现也不错——他们签下了很有野心的目标与关键结果(OKR),他们的叙事很棒,做的事也对,但就是没达成?
在失败中识别真正的优秀
Jiaona Zhang: 首先,我觉得要创造一种不会因此受到惩罚的文化。因为我绝对不想要一种”你冒了险、失败了,所以绩效受影响”的文化。我宁可让大家去冒险,也不要大家一味求稳。所以我觉得这是第一点。
话虽如此,如果你作为产品经理说”这是我的超级、超级有野心的目标”,然后又说”我完全不知道怎么实现”,那你也没有做好工作。你的职责是既要敢想,也要有计划去攻克它。所以我期望产品经理能说出的是:“这是我的北极星指标。我一个季度做不完,那确实不现实,但这里是需要跨季度完成的五个里程碑”——不管几个,一定数量的里程碑——“来达成这个真正、真正有野心的目标。让我给你画出那条路径。这里是沿途的里程碑,这是第一个,这就是为什么它如此有意义。”
所以我期望的是这种组合:你知道自己要去哪里,目标真的、真的很有野心,然后你能够把它拆解开来。但我还是要说,我宁可一个人志存高远——哪怕有人说”这是我真的想做的事,但我还不知道路径”——也不愿他一味求稳。因为当你求稳的时候,你做出的东西永远不是最优的。那是对资源的次优利用,而不是真正去弄清楚你能挥出的最好的一棒是什么。
Lenny: 听起来这又回到了路线图的叙事——他们想达成什么,只要这个叙事说得通、有一条路径在那里,团队尽了最大努力,我们也知道目标确实很有野心,甚至可能心里也清楚他们未必能达到——听起来这就是你在评估产品经理绩效时所看重的。
Jiaona Zhang: 完全正确。是的。
WeWork 经历
Lenny: 太好了。我之前提到了 WeWork,我想花点时间聊聊 WeWork。你在 WeWork 待了大约一年,而且我认为那段时期正好处于 WeWork 很多疯狂事件的风暴中心。
Jiaona Zhang: 确实是。那是 2019 年,我觉得那一年新闻头条要么是关于 Trump,要么就是关于 WeWork。
Lenny: 真不容易。那么作为产品负责人,身处那样一家处于混乱中的公司是什么感受?这段经历有没有什么收获,帮助你成为更好的产品经理、领导者,或者更好的人?
Jiaona Zhang: 有的,在那段时间里我学到了很多。我觉得我学到的最重要的一课,真的是关于……我觉得一方面是作为人员管理者的教训,另一方面则是关于如何从根本上搭建一个组织。
关于人的教训,核心就是同理心。实际上我当时做的事情是——我组建了一个团队。我在那里的前六个月花了大量时间扩充团队,不仅在美国,还在亚洲和欧洲。然后在那里的后半年,实际上是在想:“我们该怎么办?如果 WeWork 的情况就是如此,我们到底要怎么安排所有这些来到 WeWork 工作的人?”
关于领导力、关于如何对待人、关于如何为他们制定合适的过渡方案,那里有太多太多的教训。那是大量的学习。我想很多人,甚至现在正经历宏观经济下行的人,也正在以一种非常艰难的方式学习这一课。所以我绝对是较早地经历了一次速成。
不过度招聘的教训
第二课就是不要过度招聘。我觉得这一点非常重大,我是在那段时间里亲身学到这个教训的。而且在我去的任何一家公司,我对这一点都格外警觉。因为裁掉一半的团队是一种非常糟糕的感受。亲手招来的人,然后又不得不让他们离开,这不是你想做的事。所以在如何不过度招聘这件事上要非常审慎——我们如何真正想清楚那些里程碑:我们必须通过这些关卡,必须能够展示这类成果,然后才能以这种方式解锁招聘?这种规范和纪律真的、真的非常重要。
Lenny: 感觉这又和 Airbnb Plus 的故事联系起来了——“让我们非常雄心勃勃,我们完全不知道怎么到达那里,但我们就是冲上去,疯狂招人,大规模扩张,在这个事情上大量投入,希望能搞清楚。”
Jiaona Zhang: 我确实认为 WeWork 的运作精神里有那么一点这种味道,确实如此。我觉得对我们来说真正重要的是认清——“我们有什么。“在运营层面,WeWork 其实非常强。事实上,我去 WeWork 的原因就是,在 Airbnb 的经历让我觉得”我没有把运营这块肌肉练出来”,但从我所见以及 WeWork 的扩张方式来看,我知道他们在运营方面真的、真的非常出色。但我觉得问题在于,我们在技术方面招了超出自身能力的规模。我们根本不需要一个这么大的团队去做那些让产品感觉真正出色的东西。说到底,核心就是预订。是的,有技术可以加速这一过程,但我们真的需要让它成为超级平台化的吗?真的需要让它成为超级面向未来的吗?那其实不是人们关心的东西。
回归用户核心诉求
Jiaona Zhang: 这一切归根结底还是要回到——不管人们在使用什么产品,不管你的企业试图为他们提供什么服务,他们的核心诉求到底是什么?真正理解这一点,会让你有一个清晰的认识:“嘿,你依然可以非常有雄心。“再说一次,在混合办公的世界里,比如为什么还要有专属办公空间?每家公司完全可以通过 WeWork 来解决,而不需要这种专属空间。这仍然是一个非常好的想法,仍然是一个非常大的愿景,也是一个切合实际的愿景,但这个愿景的关键要素是什么?关键要素在于库存,然后你让库存管理变得更简单,让所有这些事情都变得更简单,但那不是一个技术驱动的玩法,而是一个运营驱动的玩法。所以,真正理解这一点——你仍然可以梦想很大,但你不必在所有方面都一边梦想大一边大举招人,才能把一个极具雄心的愿景交付给市场。
WeWork 的美好与艰难回忆
Lenny: 回想 WeWork 的经历,你最美好的回忆是什么?最艰难、最不愉快的回忆又是什么?如果有什么浮现在脑海中的话。
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得就是那种”敢于做大梦”的理念。我觉得每一个加入 WeWork 的人都会想,“我们在这里可以做很多事情。“将科技融入实体空间的这个想法——我只是觉得 WeWork 的人是最好的意义上的梦想家。所以那毫无疑问……我觉得我待过的每一家公司都是这样:你加入的时候……我个人是因为产品而加入的,但你留下来是因为你一起共事的人。你加入是因为你想,“我要为这个使命工作,这个产品真的很激励我。“然后你真正留下来是因为人。WeWork 的人真的很棒。所以那绝对是我最美好的回忆。
最艰难的回忆——这稍微有点私人——我们在经历所有那些裁员的时候,我实际上正处于怀孕的头三个月。我基本上面临着一个选择:“嘿,我要留在 WeWork 吗?如果留下,我的产假是有保障的。“我会被调到另一个确定会保留下来的团队。“我要这样做吗,还是说我要……”我当时内心挣扎的最后一点是,我招了很多人进来,我对自己说服他们加入这家公司感到非常愧疚——而这家公司现在正在经历巨大的变动。
我特别记得有一个人,我招他进来的时候,我们花了很长时间讨论他的签证问题。我心里想,“我就是觉得不对。再次裁掉一个人——他只有那么几天时间去找到新角色。“所以最艰难的时刻,我至今记忆犹新——“我是要接受这个新角色,还是把自己放到裁员名单上,把这个角色让给团队里的其他人?“认真想想,是的,我怀孕了,但我会有更多的时间和自由去找我的下一份工作,而我带进公司的那个人,他拿着签证,处境完全不同。
这件事对我来说印象极其深刻,也再次印证了一个道理——领导力在很大程度上关乎同理心和关怀人,正如它关乎理解你的市场、你的客户和你的产品战略一样。
Lenny: 天哪。最终是什么让你决定离开、去尝试新的东西?
Jiaona Zhang: 我做出了决定,在那个具体的情况下,我把那个角色让给了别人。一旦我做出这个决定,我就想,“我得去找新的机会了。我知道这是我的最后一天了,所以我必须去找。“这其实很有意思——我真的去走了一个完整的面试流程。那时我处于怀孕的第二阶段,最终我选择加入 Webflow,而我加入的时候刚好是第三阶段的开始。所以我正好有 90 天的时间,然后我的第一个儿子就出生了。
入职前 90 天的方法论
Lenny: 这正好引到我想问的下一个问题,就是关于你的 90 天计划。我知道你在如何规划前 90 天这件事上花了很多心思。不过在聊这个之前——WeWork 那部由 Jared Leto 主演的电影,和现实有多接近?
Jiaona Zhang: 我其实没有看过。当父母的,根本没时间。而且我觉得……我觉得如果你去问 Uber 的人有没有看过那些相关的影视作品,他们会说,“那不是给我看的。“就像我为什么没看过《硅谷》那部剧一样——你会觉得,“离自己太近了。”
Lenny: 那确实是一部很棒的电影,我挺喜欢的。我很好奇它和真实生活有多接近。好的,那回到 90 天的问题。我知道你在 Webflow 的前 90 天上花了很多时间思考,而且如你所说当时你还怀孕了。你对于加入一家公司后如何规划前 90 天有一套自己的方法论。能分享一下你在这方面的心得和建议吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 好的。我觉得前 90 天,取决于你的角色,会非常不同。不过也许我可以从产品负责人的角度来谈谈前 90 天。因为你会觉得,“哇。“或者即使只是作为一名管理者,你怎么进去,怎么真正吸收所有信息、获取所有你需要的上下文,然后再推动变革?我觉得我的前 90 天比较独特的地方在于,它是有严格时间限制的。那真的是一种——你会觉得,“当然,我很乐意花好几个月来吸收信息,但我根本没有那样的时间奢侈。“所以——
Lenny: 因为你之后马上就要休产假了?
Jiaona Zhang: 对,因为基本上我马上就要去休产假了。
Lenny: 明白了。
Jiaona Zhang: 没错。所以我在前 90 天里反复思考的几件最重要的事情是——说到底,是的,你必须真正……对任何人来说,入职阶段最重要的事情就是建立上下文,并且把上下文建立好。但我必须反复思考的是,“我怎么比我人生中任何其他时候被给予的时间奢侈更快地去建立上下文?“所以我花了很多心思考虑——在公司里我该和谁谈?我怎么安排一个日程,系统地去和不同的人交谈?是的,我的领导团队,但也要跨越多个职能部门,还要跨越多个层级。对我来说,和团队里的一些工程师交谈非常重要,尤其是那些在公司待了最久的工程师,去真正了解——我们的技术栈有什么困难?现在是什么状况?你日常工作中最难的部分是什么?
所以我确实花了时间去认真思考,“我想和公司里所有这些类型的人交谈。“我把头几周安排满了大量的这类会议。所以我觉得这是其中一个要点——就是你怎么尽可能快地建立上下文?我这里的建议是,同样地,这不仅仅是和你的同级,也不只是和你的团队,而是要真正跨越所有不同的职能部门去思考,并且想清楚在某个特定职能中,你从哪里能获取最多的信息。这是其中一个方面。
另一个方面是,我当时想,“我要离开一段时间。“我实际上只离开了两个月,但我想,“在创业公司的节奏里,那仍然是一段很长的时间。“所以对我来说非常重要的一点是,我离开的时候不能只是听完了、然后说”好了,我有上下文了,两个月后见。“对我来说非常重要的是,在离开之前,我必须为我的团队制定好一个实际的计划。
入职前 90 天:建立战略规划
Jiaona Zhang: 所以有些方面我在想,“首先,还是一样,我要摸清全局。我要有足够的战略判断力——‘这些东西是合理的,继续推进,继续执行。”这些东西不太对,我们要识别出它们是什么,然后开始围绕这些东西做研究,这样等我回来的时候,我们就有了一堆可以审视的工作成果,可以说,‘好的,这些信息、这些数据让我们决定走这条路。‘或者’这是一个做或不做的决策。我们现在可以做出这个决定了,而之前我们做不到。’”
所以这是另一个重点——就是把所有战略层面的东西落实到位,制定一个计划,并且在计划中明确表述,“继续推进。这些是我们需要做大量更多研究的事情。“然后分派人手,“嘿,你来做这个研究,然后在我离开的那两个月里我们再回来讨论。“我其实还花了一些时间……说个有意思的事,我真的是在进医院做产检的前一天开了一场董事会,然后产检的时候医生说,“你已经在生了。“这件事对我来说非常重要,因为我当时想,“对于我看到的问题,对于我看到的各种缺口,我希望所有人都知道。我不想只和一个创始人沟通。我希望整个领导团队都知道,我希望所有创始人都知道,我希望董事会知道。我希望所有人都意识到这些问题。”
比如,工程团队的招聘真的非常、非常重要。我当时在沟通,“嘿,我们现有的人手配置根本没办法交付我们想要做的一些有雄心的东西。“所以把这些事情明确指出来、引起大家的注意,然后请其他高管介入并承担责任——这些就是我在前 90 天里想要达成的重要目标。
Lenny: 我来记一下笔记。第一点就是获取上下文,搞清楚你需要和谁谈。这方面有没有什么具体的建议?比如大概多少人?因为这件事可以无限做下去,最终和所有人见面。你最后大概安排了多少人的会议?
Jiaona Zhang: 肯定包括我直属团队里的每一个人,以及领导团队里的每一个人,这两部分加起来大概,我不确定,可能有 20 个人左右,25 个人。但之后关键是要找到其他职能部门里的人。对我来说,对于任何一个职能部门,我真正需要获取的是——同样地,那个职能负责人,但也要有一个更接近实际工作的人。所以你去看各个职能部门,不管是产品营销还是工程,不管是什么。那时候我没有设计团队,就是设计。然后对每一个职能部门都获取几个数据点。所以把这些加起来,大概是有 40 到 50 次对话。但是话说回来,如果你连续做这些对话,并且真正去综合分析,你其实能得到一幅非常好的画面,了解目前到底什么状况。
建立信任与推动变革的平衡
Lenny: 第二个方面是识别那些需要调整、改变、标记出来的东西。我猜这里面还有一个信任的成分,建立信任。这是你思考方式的一部分吗?还是你觉得作为一个空降的产品负责人,这不像一个以个人贡献者(IC)身份加入团队的 PM 那么关键?
Jiaona Zhang: 信任太重要了。信任就是一切。作为一个产品经理,跨职能合作伙伴对你的信任,CEO 对你的信任……这非常重要。信任就是一切。在这里,我甚至可以谈谈我在前 90 天犯的一些错误。我当时满脑子想的都是,“我只有 90 天。我必须冲、冲、冲。我们必须赶紧推进。“我几乎推得太猛了。我太急于推动变革。我觉得这是每个产品负责人都必须解决的问题,尤其是刚进入新角色的时候——如何先建立信任,然后利用这份信任去推动变革,而不是在还没有获得信任之前就急于推动变革?
所以这确实是我个人的一个教训,部分原因确实是时间上的紧迫性,但希望不是每个人都只有 90 天。如果你把这个教训记在心里,其实就是把你的信任想象成一个银行。就像你往银行里存钱,然后在某个时刻你会取钱出来,你会动用那些社会资本,你会用那份信任去推动事情、推动变革,但你必须时刻注意你的存钱罐有多满,不能在银行里没有信任存款的时候就去花钱。
Lenny: 回头看的话,有没有什么迹象表明你实际上并没有你所认为的或应该有的那份信任?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得是这样的——像 Webflow 这样的产品非常复杂,里面有太多的组成部分。要在前 90 天内学会这个产品是非常困难的,尤其我同时还把大量时间用在了和团队的各种对话上。所以我觉得,如果没有时间限制的话,我的建议会是,“每一个产品负责人都必须花时间真正深入地了解产品。“但考虑到 Webflow 的复杂性,考虑到我必须离开的时间限制,再加上我确实也想建立关于各职能之间协作是否顺畅的社会上下文——不仅仅是产品本身是什么,而是团队怎么一起工作的。在这些条件下,我没法做的事情就是花足够多的时间在产品上,没法把所有这些都装进自己的口袋里,没法说出,“哦,我知道这个、这个和这个是怎么运作的,因为我真的用过很多次。”
你必须做出选择。在我脑子里我想的是,“我更愿意了解团队是如何协同运作的。“而且现实是,团队里有很多对产品有极深了解的人。所以归根结底,就像产品工作中的所有事情一样,Lenny 你也清楚,一切都是取舍。所以这就是一个取舍。你必须决定你要取舍什么。而我在前 90 天里牺牲最多的就是产品上下文。同样地,这也给我带来了一些好处,因为我有时间去深入了解我前面提到的那些事情,但它没有给我的信任存钱罐里存入足够的信任——围绕产品基本功,或者产品本身,我们正在构建的实际东西,而不是这个学科的方法论。
四家公司的产品与人才教训
Lenny: 到目前为止,你在四家传奇公司工作过——Dropbox、Airbnb、WeWork、Webflow。如果我们逐一来看,从每家公司你分别带走了一个什么教训,关于它如何影响了你做产品或带团队的方式,诸如此类?
Jiaona Zhang: 我先给你讲讲这四家公司在产品方面给我的最大启示,然后再讲人才方面的。这里面当然有很多细微差别,我们大可以再花两个小时来聊每一家公司。但我想先分享我最核心的、最宏观的心得。在产品方面,最核心的是真正理解人们为什么爱你,并且不要忘记在那个核心理念上持续深度投入,然后围绕它构建一切。所以我带你看一下不同的公司。具体来说,对于 Dropbox,我认为我们确实浪费了一些周期——我们会说,“哦,我们看到市场上出现了 X。Slack 真的起飞了。我们为什么不做一个 Slack 的竞品?我们为什么不做一个聊天工具?“我觉得这确实忽视了一个核心理念——“人们为什么爱 Dropbox?我们需要做什么才能持续投入其中,让这一点保持成立?“人们爱 Dropbox 是因为它的简洁,因为它令人愉悦,因为它好用。
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得我们确实有一段时间没有在客户端性能上投入足够的精力。同步速度是使用 Dropbox 体验中非常重要的一部分。所以我认为这是一个非常大的教训——真正理解这一点,就会把投资重心转移到性能优化上,而不是去追赶竞争赛道。回到追赶竞争赛道这个问题,核心在于你的 alpha 是什么?同样,人们为什么来找你?人们来 Dropbox,是因为我之前提到的所有原因,但归根结底是因为我们保管着你的文件。所以如果你去做一个聊天产品,那没问题,但最好的聊天体验或协作体验,应该是围绕你的文件展开的,而不是仅仅围绕对话本身。所以我认为,真正理解这一点是一个非常大的教训。
同样的教训也完全适用于 Airbnb。归根结底,Airbnb 以其丰富的房源著称,这些是真实的人放在平台上的家。我们之前也聊过 Airbnb Plus。当你想着”我要进去管理库存、去检查每一间房”的时候,你其实是在削弱让 Airbnb与众不同的东西,而不是去强化它。我们还花了很多时间做体验业务,涉足过出行领域,在许多其他事情上投入了大量精力。但如果你真的静下心来想:“什么让 Airbnb与众不同?如何加倍投入自己的优势?“那就应该花时间让那个体验变得更好——真正理解一个房源里有什么,让用户不会遇到意外。让房东的入驻流程、用户的发现流程和预订流程都变得非常出色。
所以我觉得,把这个教训应用到 Airbnb 上,我认为会改变我们的投资方式,而且我认为我们会获得更好的回报,而不是四处铺开,做出来一些有点起色但又不太行的东西。同样的原则也适用于 WeWork——什么让你真正与众不同?是库存。而不是”哇,我用这张门禁卡好棒,这张卡能做十种不同的事情。“这不是让 WeWork 体验与众不同的地方。所以如果你知道这一点,你就不会花那么多时间去想”我要大力投入技术团队,我要做各种有趣的项目。“你会说”我只需要把库存管理做好。我需要让销售团队、运营团队拥有他们需要的工具,去获取平台上的库存。“你不会去做所有那些与核心无关的事情。
最后,即使在 Webflow,我们也在不断学习这个教训。归根结底,人们真的很喜欢我们的设计器。他们喜欢使用它,它为他们做了这么多事情,它如此强大。再加上我们的 CMS,真的很强大——你可以用数据来设计。所以在这方面深度投资,而不是把精力分散得太薄,也是一个教训。我认为在这么多公司中,这个教训都是相通的——理解人们为什么爱你,在这方面加倍投入,然后在它周围构建其他的一切……因为,你也不想变成……你不是那种只做单一产品的公司,你不是只会一招。你会投资多个产品,但当你投资一个新产品时,一定要回到那个核心问题——我们优势的核心是什么?我们如何利用这个核心,在 X 个相邻领域或 X 个附加功能中,为用户交付一个非常出色的产品体验?
影响最深的一条建议
Lenny: 在进入非常精彩的闪电问答之前,最后一个问题。
Jiaona Zhang: 好。
Lenny: 你收到过的最好建议是什么——它改变了或深刻影响了你做产品、招人或领导团队的方式?有什么想到的吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 我不太记得具体是从哪里得到的这条建议,但我觉得我以多种形式收到过它,它真的深深印在我心里。就是”求助”这个概念。我确实经常思考这个问题,因为我觉得有太多时候你会想:“哦,我是 X 业务的负责人,所有人都指望我,到我这里就是终点。我必须一切尽在掌握。我不能去求助。如果我求助,大家会不会觉得我不知道自己在做什么?”
从我带团队以来,我就一直在推动自己——“我知道当所有人都指望你给出建议的时候,去求助感觉很反直觉,但如果你不求助,有太多次你就只能一个人坐在那里面对你的问题。你脑子里的东西不一定是全局最优解,你必须去求助。你必须向你的合作伙伴、你的同事求助,甚至向你的团队求助——甚至在面对自己团队时说,‘我不知道。我真的不知道。这里有一些指导原则,这里有一些你可以考虑的思路,但我不知道答案,你知道答案。‘“去寻求导师的帮助。我觉得这种真正能够做到”对自己知道什么和不知道什么保持诚实,不知道的时候就去求助”的态度,可能是我作为核心原则坚持的最重要的一件事,也正是它帮助我做出更好的产品。
Lenny: 能举个例子,你最近就什么事情求助过吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 我正在制定我们未来三年的产品战略。我在思考如何真正利用 AI 来支持我们所有的服务商,支持所有来到 Webflow 但有时觉得学习使用我们产品有困难的用户。我不是 AI 专家,所以我会向创始人求助,向外部的人求助,向工程师求助——“现在到底是怎么回事?“每周我都感觉 LLM 在不断变化。这个世界上可能的事情也在不断变化。所以不断地寻求帮助来迭代战略,是我工作中每天都在发生的事情,占了很大比重。
闪电问答
Lenny: JZ,我们到了非常精彩的闪电问答环节。我有六个问题。准备好了吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 好,来吧。
Lenny: 你最推荐给别人读的两三本书是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 我很喜欢 Google 的《Design Sprint》。我也很喜欢 Julie 那本关于管理人员的书,讲如何做一个好的管理者。那本真的很棒。这些是我偏商业类的推荐。如果你想聊聊奇幻类的,我们也可以聊——
Lenny: 好,给我们推荐一些。
Jiaona Zhang: 我是 Brandon Sanderson 的大粉丝。他代替原作者完成了《时光之轮》系列。他还有《Mistborn》系列,非常值得一读。他其实有这样一件事——疫情期间,他把自己关起来写了一堆书,然后像 Vince 那样说:“我有一个坦白,我多写了四本书。“最新的一本是《Tress by the Emerald Sea》,我很喜欢。
Lenny: 我看过他分享那个消息的视频,他就是说”我在新冠期间写了一本书”,然后”好吧,我写了第二本”,然后”哦,我还写了第三本”,就这样一直说下去。
Jiaona Zhang: 我记得他好像是说”我有一个秘密”或者”我有一个坦白”。所有人都想”哦不,你是不是要说你有代笔,因为你产量太高了?“然后他说”不是,我就是多写了四本书。“
影视与日常
Lenny: 真是个狠人。接下来稍微换个话题。你最近最喜欢的一部电影或电视剧是什么?我知道你说过你不怎么看,但有什么想得起来的吗?
Jiaona Zhang: 我觉得自己每天晚上都在看《芝麻街》的歌曲。我们不看电视,但会看 YouTube 上的歌。说实话,除了和我三岁的孩子一起看 Elmo 的歌和 ABC 歌之外,我真的没有别的答案。
Lenny: 这个播客上出现了很多育儿建议,我的孩子也快出生了。所以这非常符合调性。在开始之前,你提到你身后那幅画和《双城之战》有关,它是和这部剧有联系——我想——
Jiaona Zhang: 是的,我是大粉丝。这幅画是很久以前画的,那时候 Jinx 和 Vi 还不存在。当《双城之战》制作出来的时候,我和我丈夫都说:“什么?我们怎么预判到了这个?太厉害了。”
Lenny: 好的,来点成人内容。你最喜欢在面试中问候选人什么问题?
面试与人才选拔
Jiaona Zhang: 我确实喜欢用行为面试问题,真正了解他们在充满挑战的情境中的表现,在模糊不确定的情境中的表现,以及他们如何应对模糊性。这对我很重要,因为归根结底,产品经理的工作本身就非常模糊。很难在一张纸上把你将要遇到的所有事情都描述清楚。所以我会围绕这些问很多行为面试问题。
Lenny: 在他们的回答中,你有没有什么具体的判断标准,能告诉你这是一个好的回答还是不好的回答?
Jiaona Zhang: 有的。好的回答是那些能够在模糊性中建立结构、找到前进方向的人。这就是你要寻找的。你希望你的产品经理不是只会说”哦不,我们在模糊性中挣扎”,而是能够真正铺出一条前进的路。我觉得同时也要看那些主动寻求帮助、寻求输入的人,而不是说”没错,就是这样,非常清楚”的人。因为说到底,你为任何产品、为任何事情规划出的路径,第一次就恰好是正确路径的概率微乎其微。所以我希望看到一个人能够获取那些输入,能够说出”这是我的路径,这是我为什么这样规划的理由。“然后回到我们在这个播客中谈到的很多东西——比如,那些让你判断”嘿,这样做行不行得通?“的小里程碑,然后让你做出不同的决策。看到有人能把这些做得很好,是我在面试中重点考察的。
近期发现的好产品
Lenny: 太好了。你最近发现并喜欢的某个产品是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 我喜欢……这个不算最近了,但我确实很喜欢 SNOO,而且它就在我脑海中最前沿,因为我刚刚让我的二儿子从 SNOO 毕业,感觉有点像”天哪,不再有人摇宝宝了。“但我确实觉得它很好地完成了它该做的事,同时也给父母带来了安心。
另一个我很喜欢的东西——你们会看到我脑子里的东西都是和孩子有关的——给你的幼儿用 Midjourney 其实很棒。因为与其让孩子得到绝对的即时满足——“我想看消防车”,然后”给你,拿着我的手机”——不如说”让我们等 Midjourney 来生成消防车。“而且你甚至可以具体告诉 Midjourney 你想要什么。比如可以是”我想要一辆蓝色的消防车。“他特别迷恋《森林王子》,“戴着消防帽站在消防车旁边。“所以你可以真正地去创造。我确实相信在未来,我们人类要做的事情很大程度上就是——什么是创意过程?什么是想法?执行所有细节反而没那么重要了,但能够说出”这就是我想实现的想法”仍然至关重要。所以我觉得训练这一点意义很大。
Lenny: 感觉你刚刚就在这里定义了 Webflow 在 AI 方面的三年战略。
产品构建中的小调整
下一个问题,你在构建产品的方式上做过什么相对较小的改变,但对团队的执行能力产生了重大影响?
Jiaona Zhang: 在不同的公司我们做了很多不同的事情。这真的取决于公司。我的意思是,在 Webflow 这样的公司,技术栈很复杂,一个功能有那么多交互关系,你会说”人们依赖这个工作流,这个东西和那个东西有交互,它是一整个平台。“我们一直在调整的最大的一件事就是——如何在开始时做更多的技术探针(tech spike),来确认”我们对这件事的难度是否有清晰的认知?那些未知因素?我们能不能多了解一些细节,这样就不会走上一条路然后发现’哦,这说不通’?“我觉得这是流程上的一个调整,在 Webflow 这样的公司确实产生了很大的差异。
但回顾其他公司,同样地,那可能不是你最大的问题。另一个问题可能是”嘿,和跨职能合作伙伴协作太难了,在流程上做一个小调整,比如把他们拉进启动会议。“这可能就是改变你与团队协作方式的关键。所以真的……我不知道是否有某一个固定的东西,但几乎每一天我都在思考流程上的小调整,让我们所有人更高效。
Webflow 使用技巧与未来展望
Lenny: 最后一个问题,关于使用 Webflow 并取得成功的头号技巧是什么?
Jiaona Zhang: 我的头号技巧是——有很多新东西即将推出,我非常兴奋。我确实认为 Webflow 传统上学习曲线比较陡,这是因为我们是专业工具。我们能做出非常了不起的东西,赋予你极大的能力,但伴随这种能力而来的是学习难度。所以我非常期待的、关于未来使用 Webflow 的技巧是——我们将真正把 Webflow University 的魔力、AI 的魔力全部整合在一起,这样你就能以更快的速度使用和学习 Webflow,在你正在做的事情的上下文中学习 Webflow,而不是切换到另一个标签页去找 Webflow University 的内容。它将嵌入到产品的上下文中,让你能够直接采取行动,通过提示让 Webflow 替你完成事情。未来使用这个产品将会变得容易得多。这就是我兴奋的地方。我们正在开发,未来会推出。
Lenny: 好的,还没有具体日期。嗯,你可以分享的,这听起来像是即将推出的酷炫内容的独家新闻。
Jiaona Zhang: 有些东西已经在核心优势(alpha)阶段和 beta 阶段了,但我们确实希望和用户一起开发,真正了解这是否是你们想要的能力?这是否能帮你克服过去一直挣扎的激活门槛?
Lenny: JZ,我觉得我们做出了一期最大可爱播客单集。非常感谢你能来。最后两个问题。听众如果想联系你,怎样才能在网上找到你?他们怎样能帮到你?
Jiaona Zhang: 我一直很欢迎反馈,所以如果对播客有什么反馈,尽管发给我。或者哪怕只是你想学什么,也可以告诉我。我之所以问这个,是因为我其实正在准备一门课程,又是一门通过 Reforge 推出的课程,主题是管理你的产品经理职业生涯。所以我真的很……我已经跟很多人聊过关于职业发展的建议,但如果你想联系我,告诉我”我正面临这些问题”,这其实真的能帮到我,因为我正在制作这门课程,它将在几个月后上线。所以我很期待……如果你想继续交流,可以在那里找到我;把你职业发展中遇到的困扰发给我,这能帮我打磨课程内容。
Lenny: 就在 reforge.com 上吗?这门课还没有专门的链接?
Jiaona Zhang: 还没有,但很快就会有的。也许我会把它发在我的网站上,网站是用 Webflow 搭建的,就是我的全名 dotcom。
Lenny: 明白了。JZ,非常感谢你能来,再次感谢。
Jiaona Zhang: 谢谢邀请我。
Lenny: 大家再见。
感谢大家的收听。如果你觉得这期内容有价值,可以在 Apple Podcasts、Spotify 或你喜欢的播客应用上订阅本节目。也请考虑给我们评分或留言,因为这真的能帮助其他听众找到这档播客。你可以在 lennyspodcast.com 找到所有往期节目或了解更多关于本节目的信息。
下期再见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| activation hump | 激活门槛 |
| Airbnb Plus | Airbnb Plus(产品名,保留原文) |
| alpha | 核心优势(alpha) |
| Arcane | 双城之战(动画剧集) |
| artifacts | 工件(artifacts) |
| Brandon Sanderson | Brandon Sanderson(人名,保留原文) |
| Brian | Brian(指 Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky,保留原文) |
| context | 上下文 |
| cost fallacy | 沉没成本谬误(cost fallacy) |
| Design Sprint | 设计冲刺(Design Sprint) |
| Elmo | Elmo(角色名,保留原文) |
| go-to-market | 推向市场 |
| Griddle API | Griddle API(技术术语,保留原文) |
| hired beyond our skis | 招了超出自身能力的规模 |
| hygiene | 规范和纪律(hygiene) |
| IC (Individual Contributor) | 个人贡献者(IC) |
| Jared Leto | Jared Leto(人名,保留原文) |
| Jinx | Jinx(角色名,保留原文) |
| Jungle Book | 森林王子(动画电影) |
| kickoff meeting | 启动会议 |
| LLMs | 大语言模型(LLM) |
| macroeconomic downturn | 宏观经济下行 |
| managed marketplace | 托管式市场(managed marketplace) |
| mat leave | 产假 |
| Mike Lewis | Mike Lewis(人名,保留原文) |
| Minimum Lovable Products | 最小可爱产品(MLP) |
| Mistborn | Mistborn(系列名,保留原文) |
| MVP (Minimum Viable Product) | 最小可行产品(MVP) |
| North Star | 北极星指标 |
| OKR | 目标与关键结果(OKR) |
| PM (Product Manager) | 产品经理 |
| product operations | 产品运营(product operations) |
| quarterbacking | ”四分卫”式统筹( quarterbacking) |
| Reforge | Reforge(公司/平台名,保留原文) |
| sandbagging | 蓄意压低目标(sandbagging) |
| Sesame Street | 芝麻街(儿童节目) |
| SNOO | SNOO(婴儿摇床产品名,保留原文) |
| social capital | 社会资本 |
| Sonder | Sonder(公司名,保留原文) |
| tech spike | 技术探针(tech spike) |
| tech stack | 技术栈 |
| Tress by the Emerald Sea | Tress by the Emerald Sea(书名,保留原文) |
| unit economics | 单位经济模型 |
| Vi | Vi(角色名,保留原文) |
| Webflow | Webflow(公司/产品名,保留原文) |
| Webflow University | Webflow University(产品内置学习平台,保留原文) |
| Wheel of Time | 时光之轮(系列名) |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)