Meta 产品负责人谈与马克·扎克伯格共事、早期增长策略及其他 | Naomi Gleit
Meta 产品负责人谈与马克·扎克伯格共事、早期增长策略及其他 | Naomi Gleit
文字记录
Naomi Gleit:
我非常推崇用框架来处理事情,这有助于实现极致的清晰度。我同时负责很多不同的项目。很多时候我在接手一个新项目时,会想:“我该去哪里了解这个项目需要知道的东西?“我问五个人,得到五个不同的答案。这是不可接受的。当然,项目可能关联着几百份文档,但必须有一份权威文档。每个人都应该确切知道权威文档在哪里。那是我能获取项目所有所需信息的唯一去处,它会链接到所有其他文档,权威文档上列出的内容就是项目的核心。
访谈开始
Lenny Rachitsky:
今天的嘉宾是 Naomi Gleit。Naomi 是 Meta 的产品负责人。除了马克·扎克伯格,她是 Meta 任职时间最长的高管。她加入当时还叫 Facebook 的公司,是第 29 号员工,在 Meta 已经工作了将近 20 年。她见证了公司从 30 名员工成长为如今市值一万五千亿美元的巨头。Naomi 很少参加播客和采访,所以我非常激动能和她聊天,邀请她上这个播客。在我们的对话中,我们深入探讨了她从 Facebook 早期传奇增长团队中学到的诸多经验,她的超能力——把极其复杂棘手的问题和项目化繁为简并交付成果。我们还聊到了她从 Zuck 那里学到的领导力经验,包括他最近蜕变成为科技圈可能是最酷的 CEO。此外,我们还会聊到为什么 PM 是产品团队的指挥家,一些非常实用的技巧——如何开会、写文档、健身、改善睡眠,甚至如何在饮食中摄入更多蛋白质。
这是一次非常有趣的对话,话题范围非常广,无论你从事产品、增长还是其他任何技术职能,都能从这段对话中有所收获。如果你喜欢这个播客,别忘了在你最喜欢的播客应用或 YouTube 上订阅和关注。这是避免错过未来节目的最佳方式,也对播客帮助极大。那么,我为你请出 Naomi Gleit。
Naomi Gleit:
非常感谢邀请我。就像我之前跟你说的,我经常推荐你的播客,所以简直不敢相信我有机会亲自上节目。
Lenny Rachitsky:
哇,太荣幸了。这种话我百听不厌。感谢你的分享。我想先分享几个关于你的小故事,因为看到这份履历真的很震撼。好,除了马克·扎克伯格之外,你是 Meta 任职时间最长的高管。你是 Facebook 的第 29 号员工。你在那里已经超过 19 年了。抱歉,是 Meta,以前叫 Facebook。
Naomi Gleit:
我老这么说。在 Meta 待了 19 年的结果就是名字都叫不对。
从第 29 号员工到万亿公司
Lenny Rachitsky:
好,那我就不为此感到不好意思了。还有最后一件事,就是你一直处于 Meta 和 Facebook 一些最核心产品的中心,包括早期增长团队的工作和早期增长策略的制定。基本上你从第 30 号员工一路走到了今天,一家一万五千亿美元的公司,当今世界最大的公司之一。很少有人从内部见证过这种规模的增长。
首先,我想问一下,你会不会偶尔回顾这一切,然后意识到——“天哪,我经历了怎样一段旅程,太不可思议了”?
Naomi Gleit:
这个问题问得好。我很想说我会经常回顾。事实是我觉得自己几乎没有时间去回顾。我满脑子想的都是待办事项上那些需要完成的事情,所以我还是很投入在当下。即使过了 19 年,我仍然非常专注于手头需要做的工作。不过我确实偶尔会有反思的时刻,比如在这个播客上。有时候人们会问我,我觉得尤其是在我即将迎来二十周年里程碑——我的 Facebook 二十周年纪念日的时候,那肯定会给我充分的机会去回顾。
Lenny Rachitsky:
太经典的产品经理回答了。我有太多事要做——
Naomi Gleit:
太忙了。
Lenny Rachitsky:
我得先想想这个。对,我还有指标要完成。
求职故事:斯坦福论文与 Facebook
Lenny Rachitsky:
让我从一个问题开始吧。我想先聊聊你是如何作为第 29 号员工加入 Meta 的,这是一个改变人生的决定、一个改变人生的角色,我想了解一下你当时做了什么是别人可以借鉴的,或许对他们在找工作时会有帮助。你的故事,我之前读到了这段经历,非常有趣。你基本上在斯坦福写的高年级论文就是关于 Facebook 为什么会赢、为什么会击败竞争对手的,而你提到的那些竞争对手我甚至从未听说过,所以有意思的是那些才是当时的竞争对手。你能分享一下你是怎么成为 Facebook——现在是 Meta——第 29 号员工的吗?
Naomi Gleit:
作为学术研究的一部分,我在研究 Facebook,同时也是斯坦福的学生在使用 Facebook。我当时就想,“我真的想在这里工作。” Facebook 刚搬到 Palo Alto。Mark 好像开车横穿全国,到了 Palo Alto,在 Emerson 大街 443 号开了一间办公室。就在 Palo Alto 市中心 Jing Jing 中餐馆楼上。我直接去了办公室,相当于上门”冷访”——走进办公室,看看有没有职位空缺。没有。我想我又去了大概五到十次。
后来终于有一个机会,面试 Sean Parker 的个人助理职位。他当时好像是总裁。我参加了面试,但没有拿到那个职位。几个月后,我听说有一个市场岗位在招人。一件我没怎么提过的有趣的事是,我拿到了 Facebook 的 offer,同时也拿到了 LinkedIn 的竞争 offer。当时我选择去 Facebook,是因为我对社交网络这个方向很感兴趣。为什么我当时这么看好这个网站?那时候网址还是 www.thefacebook.com。为什么我对它如此兴奋?
我觉得是因为我确实看到了产品市场契合(product-market fit)。我看到斯坦福的学生对它着迷,而且还有一大排大学排在等候名单上,迫不及待想加入 Facebook。所以既有产品市场契合这一点,又有来自其他受众、其他大学的巨大需求,我们的弟弟妹妹们也对 Facebook 很感兴趣,它似乎拥有更广泛的吸引力。事情就是这样。我拿到了那个市场岗位。Cheryl 也说过,当你登上火箭飞船时,不要问自己坐在哪个位置。那就是我迈进去的第一步,一晃十九年过去了。
Lenny Rachitsky:
我正想说,这正是她那条建议的绝佳例证——如果你能坐上火箭飞船,就别挑座位。Sean Parker 那段经历我很喜欢,我之前完全不知道,太好笑了。如果你拿到了那个职位、走了那条路,人生会多么不同。
所以对那些正在选择工作机会的人,这里有几条启示。我喜欢你故事的地方在于:第一,你充满了——你就是有信心这家公司会成功,你就是知道自己要登上这艘火箭飞船。你看到了它的吸引力,这大概进一步增强了你的信心。然后你说你直接走到办公室,不是冷邮件、冷电话,而是冷登门。五到十次,你说的是?
Naomi Gleit:
对,纯粹就是不放弃。我就是走进办公室,跟前台的人说,“有什么我能做的吗?“他们不招非技术人员。我没有计算机科学学位,我不懂技术。我拿的是一个文学学士学位。所以后来个人助理和市场岗位终于开放了,我觉得我有可能够资格。
关于”运气”与主动创造机会
Lenny Rachitsky:
很棒。我觉得这是一个非常鼓舞人心的启示。如果有人看到像你这样的人,会说,“哦,她那么早就进了 Facebook,多幸运啊。“显然这不是运气。你知道自己想进这家公司,你付出了很多努力让它成真,不管是什么岗位。我觉得这是一个非常好的启示和教训。所以如果今天有一家你很看好的公司,你觉得”这将会是一个巨大的成功”,我听到的是——尽一切努力去争取一份工作,最终你会做到你真正想要的岗位。起点不一定是那个终点。
Naomi Gleit:
我到了 Facebook 之后,就知道自己想做产品。作为一个不太懂技术的人,我不会成为工程师或程序员。我想和工程师、程序员一起做产品。我觉得产品管理(PM)是最适合我的职能,所以我一直梦想成为一名 PM,而我最终成为 PM 并非靠运气。我采取了同样的方式——出现在办公室,问有没有什么岗位。
那时候我们已经搬到了 University 大街 156 号。所有 PM 和工程师都在二楼工作,我在做市场,在三楼,所有业务职能都在三楼。我的目标是成为 PM。用个比喻来说,我大部分下班后都会去二楼,问有没有什么项目可以帮忙。
那时候还非常早期,永远有做不完的事,人手永远不够。所以最终我接了几个项目,帮忙做项目管理工作,提供产品反馈。等到我正式申请产品经理的时候,我已经志愿地、非正式地做了好几个月这份工作了。
我记得很清楚,我在三楼有个座位。我把桌上所有的东西装进一个箱子,走到二楼——那时我已经拿到了 PM 的职位。当我到了二楼,我清楚地记得二楼所有人站起来鼓掌。那是一个很大的起立鼓掌。我永远不会忘记,Boz 也在场。我知道 Boz 上过你的播客,连 Boz 都在那儿站着鼓掌。所以回到你想从我的故事里提炼的教训,我确实觉得我是通过不放弃来创造运气的——反复地冷访、冷登门、冷志愿,直到最终让它发生。
Lenny Rachitsky:
太精彩了。再次说,非常鼓舞人心。不是那种”哦,有些人就是运气好,拿到了 PM 的职位”。是你先进入了这家公司,“我想做产品经理”——这很有意思。大多数人不会从小就想”我要做产品经理”。这是很少见的目标,尤其是在那么早的时候。所以你当时就已经知道这一点很有意思。但你基本上是把这份工作做出来了——你在拥有 PM 头衔之前就已经在做 PM 的工作了,等到你正式提出申请的时候,你已经做了很久了,而且你能展示,“嘿,你看,我其实很擅长这个。我能胜任这份工作。“太棒了。
对了,我很喜欢 Boz 这个关联。我发现 Boz 和这个播客的很多嘉宾都有各种各样的联系。
Naomi Gleit:
真的吗?
Lenny Rachitsky:
嗯,比如 Ami,还有——
Naomi Gleit:
哦对。
Lenny Rachitsky:
还有其他几个人。就是很有意思,这个播客到目前为止有一个 Boz 的关系网。好,那我快进到今天。你现在的角色是 Meta 的产品负责人(head of product)?
Naomi Gleit:
是的。
Lenny Rachitsky:
这意味着什么?你在 Meta 现在具体做什么?你会怎么描述你的角色?
Naomi 在 Meta 的现任角色
Naomi Gleit:
Meta 有几千名 PM,他们并不是都向我汇报。直接向我汇报的大概有几百人,在我直接管理的团队上。但我觉得自己对整个 Meta 的 PM 社区负有责任。有一些事情是我们在中央层面做的,比如 PM 绩效、PM 文化、PM 入职和培训,这些是我关注的事情。
显然,我一直想成为一名 PM。产品负责人是我的梦想工作。我深切地支持 PM 这个职能,我非常在乎这件事,我认为 PM 是公司中一个巨大的杠杆——我们如何真正把事情做成、帮助实现公司目标。所以我专注于 PM 这个极其重要的指数级杠杆。
关于 Zuck 的蜕变
Lenny Rachitsky: 太好了。我稍后会回来聊你对超级成功的 PM 有什么心得,什么让人真正成功。但我想先岔开一下,聊聊 Zuck。
Naomi Gleit: 请讲,好的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 你认识 Zuck 已经超过 20 年了,我不得不问几个关于他的问题,因为人们总是很好奇,想从他身上学到成功的秘诀。第一个问题就是,Mark 在过去几年里经历了一次相当深刻的转变,无论是在领导方式上,还是在他的酷劲和气质方面。你对这种转变有什么看法?他是如何做到的?
Naomi Gleit: 我一直说,在我认识的所有人中,人们对 Mark 的印象和 Mark 本人的真实面貌之间的差距是最大的。所以我认为,这个 Mark 是我过去 20 年来一直认识的那个人,世界终于开始看到我有幸一直看到的样子。我们之前谈到的那种差距,现在确实在缩小。
这一切是怎么发生的?我常说,Mark 是一个”什么都想学的人”,而不是一个”什么都懂的人”。他是我见过的技能提升速度最快的人。他以前会做年度挑战。有一年我和他一起做,是学中文,一年之内他基本达到了大约八年级的中文水平。这只是其中一个例子。显然,他在吉他、综合格斗(MMA)等很多爱好上也变得非常厉害,但他在一些专业技能上也有了很大提升。我认为谈判和公开演讲就是其中之一。我觉得在早期,这些并不是他非常擅长的事情。他自己也说过,表现出来的样子有点像在念稿子。我觉得那时他不够自信,对自己的公众形象比较谨慎,而现在他在这些方面都有了长足进步。他变得更加自如了,所以人们终于能看到真实的他。
Lenny Rachitsky: 而且他刚开始做 Facebook 的时候大概才二十多岁,现在他管理着一个八万人的组织。我能理解这些习惯上的变化。
Naomi Gleit: 是的,我来的时候他可能才 19 或者 20 岁。
Lenny Rachitsky: 天哪,太疯狂了。所以我能理解一个人为什么会发生变化。我参加了 Acquired 播客的 Chase 活动,他在那里接受采访,他现在真的是一个很酷的人。他穿着印有自己文字和口号的大号 T 恤,戴着链子。真酷。
Naomi Gleit: 还有他的长发。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,他的长发。
Naomi Gleit: 还有他的手表。对,我也在那个活动现场。我觉得很棒。我想,那就是 Mark 本人和世界看到的形象之间不再有差距了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我喜欢这个说法。关于 Zuck,有没有什么是你知道而大多数人不知道的?有什么会让我们惊讶的事情?
作为朋友的 Mark
Naomi Gleit: 关于 Mark,我想说的一点是,大家知道他已经结婚了,有三个女儿。他是一个非常好的父亲,非常好的丈夫。我想说他也是一个非常好的朋友。也许这一点我可以从亲身经历来谈谈。他是一个极其体贴的朋友。在我人生中的某段时间,大概是十年前,我正经历一段非常困难的时期。我刚结束一段感情,Mark 看出我状态不好。他问我想不想去东帕洛阿尔托,在学生们放学后志愿教一门课。
回想起来其实挺有趣的,Mark 和我一起教了一门关于如何创业的课程。于是 Meta 的 CEO 在给一群中学生上课,通过那个过程我们和那些学生变得非常亲近。我们建立了一些非常重要的导师关系。多年来我们一直和他们见面。我觉得我们至今仍在继续,虽然他们现在已经大学毕业,有了真正的工作。
在那门课中有一节课我印象很深,我记得 Mark 明确地写在白板上——不对,不是白板,实际上是用粉笔,在黑板上用粉笔写的——四条人生准则。第一条,爱自己。第二条,只有这样才能真正服务他人。第三条,专注于你能控制的事。第四条,对于这些事情,永不放弃。
这算是他的人生准则,对待生活的四个步骤。我们甚至还为这四个步骤做了贴纸,让学生们可以贴在他们的笔记本上作为提醒。我觉得这些准则显然在很长时间里帮助了我,但从中你也可以看到我们都在 Mark 身上看到的一些品质,比如”对于这些事情,永不放弃”。他身上确实有这个特质,这也合情合理。对我来说,第三条其实是最难的——专注于你能控制的事。我大概总觉得自己能控制的东西比实际能控制的要多。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我们都一样。我很喜欢他在一门关于如何创业的课上分享这些人生建议。
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。
Lenny Rachitsky: 天哪,太棒了。
Small Group:如何管理庞大组织
Lenny Rachitsky: 我想聊聊——现在 Meta 大约有 86,000 名员工,大概是这个数字,这是我在网上查到的。所以他作为 CEO,一个人要管理这么庞大的组织。我知道他有一种方式,他有一个叫做”small group”的东西。是叫这个吗?
Naomi Gleit: 对,small group。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好的。他有这个叫 small group 的机制,基本上就是核心高管,这个小组定期开会,这就是他能够通过这个 small group 管理整个组织的方式。对于那些正在努力管理越来越大的组织的人,Mark 和 small group 的运作方式有没有什么值得借鉴的地方?
Naomi Gleit: 当然。首先,small group 算是领导团队,由负责公司最重要项目的领导者组成,不完全看汇报结构,而是看谁在主导最重要的项目或职能,这些人就会进入 small group。
这个团队有什么独特之处?其中很多人像我一样,在公司待了非常长的时间。所以 small group 的平均任期是非常罕见的。我认为这很重要,因为其中很多人在这个阶段已经被使命驱动,而不是为了攀登企业阶梯。所以这里有很多我称之为”不讨喜的给予者”(disagreeable givers)。
稍微回顾一下,我不知道你有没有听过这个框架,我是从 Adam Grant 那里学到的,在一次高管学习与发展课程中。他说,如果你画一个二乘二的矩阵,一维是讨喜和不讨喜,另一维是给予者和索取者。
组织中最危险的人是”讨喜的索取者”。所谓讨喜的索取者,就是表面上特别好相处,大家都喜欢,很容易相处,但他们是索取者,动机更多是出于私利,而不是对公司最有利——后者是我对”给予者”的定义。而组织中最珍贵的人是”不讨喜的给予者”。这些人真正以公司利益为出发点,但他们可能有点不讨喜——他们可能不会说你想听的话,会对事情提出反对意见,会为某些事情据理力争。所以我认为 small group 的特征就是有很多不讨喜的给予者,我觉得这对一个组织来说非常重要。
Mark 的反馈文化
Naomi Gleit: 我认为 Mark 总体上做得非常好的一点,就是在包括他的领导团队在内的整个公司中建立了一种人们愿意给他反馈的文化。我认为很多时候,随着你越来越成功、越来越有名气或越来越富有,你会失去准确的反馈回路。人们可能因为各种原因不愿意对你百分之百诚实。而 Mark 努力确保他自己拥有一个准确的反馈回路,或者说我们作为一家公司拥有更准确的反馈回路,方法是让身边围绕着愿意给予直接、诚实反馈的人,并在领导团队中营造这样的文化。这些就是 small group 的一些独特之处。
从流程上看,我们每周有一次偏战略性的会议。它的议程比较开放,留有讨论时间,时间较长,结构上也相对灵活。我们每周还有一次运营会议,结构非常严谨,会逐一过所有优先项目。每个项目的负责人会就该项目每周的进展进行汇报,非常运营、非常实操。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太好了。我就是喜欢 small group 这个名字,感觉特别亲切。不像什么执行团队或者 ESA 之类的,人们总是用那些术语。这就是我们的 small group。
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。
Lenny Rachitsky: 然后你描述的这个框架,听起来很像 radical candor——直接挑战,但深切关心。
Naomi Gleit: 对。
Lenny Rachitsky: 就是不讨喜,但是建设性的、有增益的。是那个词吗?怎么说的来着?不讨喜,但是什么?
Naomi Gleit: 给予者。
Lenny Rachitsky: 给予者?对。
Naomi Gleit: 是的。
是否改变过 Mark 的想法
Lenny Rachitsky: 好的,非常好。如果这个问题没什么可说的也没关系,但你有没有改变过 Mark 的想法?你之前提到过他善于看到新数据后说”哦,好的,我明白了”。有没有你成功做到这一点的有趣故事?
Naomi Gleit: 早期在增长团队时我们做的一些事情——因为我不确定人们在谈论增长团队的那些传说和历史时是否会提到这一点,而且这可能不是对那个问题的直接回答——增长团队并不一定是从 Mark 那里发起的。Mark 并不是说”你们应该建一个增长团队,这是你们应该怎么运作”。所以在某种程度上,是我们自己建立并发展了增长团队,然后 Mark 加入进来,看到了其中的价值,并成为了一个巨大的支持者,但我不确定这是否一定起源于他。事实上,我认为有时候那种极度数据驱动的做法,可能是我、Alex Schultz、Javier Olivan——这些都是增长团队的元老,也是我现在最密切的同事——真正推动并向 Mark 展示其价值的东西。我很乐意聊聊增长团队,这也是我被问得很多的话题,如果你想聊的话。
Facebook 增长团队
Lenny Rachitsky: 太好了,我正想聊这个,你正好提起来了。Facebook 增长团队是一个传奇团队,我认为它可能是科技行业第一个真正的增长团队。这个团队开发了一些当今各公司仍在使用的最核心的增长杠杆和技术,所以我非常兴奋能聊聊这个话题以及你从那段经历中学到了什么。我想先从一个话题开始——你们有一个传说中的激活指标,目标好像是在十天之内让用户加到七个好友之类的。这是真的吗?你们当时确实是这么做的吗?对于那些说”我们也得搞一个类似的东西”的人,还有什么更多可以分享的吗?
Naomi Gleit: 好的。是的,“十天七个好友”确实是一个指标。“十四天十个好友”也是一个指标。它们其实是同一回事,只是留存曲线上的不同点。我觉得这里的关键洞察是,当我们刚开始做增长团队的时候,我们其实非常专注于获客。不过我们有一个概念叫做增长核算,它看的是我们每天的净增长是多少。具体来说,就是每天注册的新用户数,减去那些实际上流失掉的用户数——我们定义为在三十天周期后不再登录的用户,再加上回流的用户数——也就是三十天后又回来的用户。我们发现流失和回流的曲线实际上远大于新用户那条线,这意味着留存以及推动那两条线的变化,才是我们推动净增长的最大杠杆。
所以我们虽然最初专注于获客,但大量注意力转移到了活跃度和留存上。怎么提升活跃度和留存?我们研究与这个结果最相关的变量。我们发现的是加好友这件事。所以那两个”魔力时刻”——十天内有七个好友或十四天内有十个好友——实际上对应的就是我们认为你成为留存用户的概率显著提升的时间点,因为你已经看到了 Facebook 的价值。这是很合理的——如果你有十四个好友,Facebook 会吸引得多。至于十天或十四天这个时间维度,是因为我们希望这件事快速发生,希望你注册之后很快就能体验到那个魔力时刻,防止你流失,然后我们又得想办法让你回流。
Lenny Rachitsky: 关于这个激活指标,人们讨论中最有趣的启示之一就是——因为现在每个人都说”当然,留存才是你应该关注的重点,这就是产品市场契合”。现在这是所有人的共识。我很喜欢你们基本上是亲自发现了这一点,这可以说是最早的几次之一——“这就是我们如何理解产品是否能持久,以及如何提升留存,因为留存最重要”。留存同期群曲线也是你们早期的创新之一,就是”这是追踪留存的方式——在某个时间点加入的人,他们会停留多久”。
Naomi Gleit: 完全正确。增长核算框架其实是 Danny Ferrante 提出来的,就是那个加新用户、减流失、加回流的公式,现在看起来可能很直观。但我觉得对 PM 们可能有价值的一点——也是我自己的一个 Naomi-isms——我认为增长团队真正开创的是在传统上更多被视为业务职能的领域中,采用数据驱动和产品驱动的方式。那个时期,很多新用户的增长被认为应该由市场或公关来推动,而我们的洞察是,产品才是推动增长的最大杠杆,这意味着我们应该有一支产品和工程团队来优化注册流程、邀请流程、新用户引导,帮你实现十天加七个好友。
数据驱动与产品驱动的增长方法论
Naomi Gleit: 我的一个 Naomi-isms 是:真正理解、识别、执行。这个框架来自 2009 年,当时增长团队刚刚起步,还只专注于数据埋点。Alex 经常穿一件 T 恤,上面写着”I guess when you can know”——我们当时确实没有足够的数据来做明智决策,不知道推动增长的最大杠杆到底是什么。于是在 2009 年 1 月,我们基本上停下路线图上的所有事情,只做数据埋点。我们给注册流程的每一步都做了埋点,给 news feed 和新手引导体验的每一步都做了埋点。我们知道了用户在哪里流失。于是我们理解了问题,这使我们能够识别推动增长的关键机会——比如,也许是提升用户体验中的加好友环节,或者注册用户在邮件确认步骤有 20% 的流失,我们怎么解决?这些就是我们识别出来的机会,然后通过构建产品来执行。
所以,用数据驱动和产品驱动的方式来做传统上更多被视为公司业务职能的工作,这基本上就是增长团队的秘方。后来我们将这种方式延伸到了其他领域。我觉得这种方式始于增长团队,但我们把它推广到了其他地方。比如,我在增长团队之后接手的一个项目是社会影响力。一般公司可能会成立一个企业社会责任部门,但我们决定不这么做——我们要用数据驱动、产品驱动的方式来推动社会影响力。不是设立一个基金会来分发资金,而是构建一个真正能让社区用户募捐的产品。多年以后,我们通过社区为慈善事业筹集了数十亿美元。我觉得这就是增长团队独特的地方,这种方式扩展到了其他领域,公司在很多方面也把这种方式应用到了我们面对的大多数问题上。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这点说得太好了。我几乎把这当作理所当然的了,但你们确实带来了一次巨大的转变——从营销驱动增长,转向产品、数据和实验驱动增长。这是一个很好的提醒。顺便说一句关于社会公益团队的一个趣事——我和我团队里的设计师关系非常要好,他叫 Mickey,他在那个团队待过一段时间,真的非常喜欢,是的,非常喜欢和你合作。一个趣事。
Naomi Gleit: 哦,太好了。我记得 Mickey,他姓什么来着?
Lenny Rachitsky: Settler。
Naomi Gleit: 对,我确实记得他。社会影响力是我非常引以为傲的一件事。再次强调,社会影响力以前是一个业务范畴的事情——你会创建一个企业社会责任部门,与产品和工程团队完全分离。
社区翻译与产品技术解决方案
早期我们还做过另一件事。当时到了一个节点:“怎么把这个网站翻译成其他语言?“我们本可以采取更传统的非技术路径,请专业翻译把整个网站翻译成各种语言。但增长团队的建议是:为什么我们不构建一个让用户可以内联翻译的 Facebook 版本?这样当时使用 Facebook 的社区用户——他们其实最了解这个产品——可以直接插入翻译,我们围绕这个建了一整套系统来上推最好的翻译、下推不好的翻译,有点像维基百科。直到今天,我们支持超过一百种语言。所以我们一直在尝试用产品和技术方案来解决这类传统问题。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我完全记得这件事,就是让用户帮忙翻译网站。
Naomi Gleit: 对,对。
激活指标的核心价值
Lenny Rachitsky: 我想快速回到激活指标这个话题,因为很多人在某种程度上误用了它,理解上可能存在偏差。按照你的描述,确定激活指标的方式基本上是:找到回归关系——如果用户做了 X,留存就会提升,那我们就专注让用户做到 X。很多人在确定这个指标时感到困惑。你怎么看——拥有一个非常具体的激活里程碑(精确到十天加七个好友)有多重要,对比之下,仅仅拥有一个能让所有人聚焦和推动的共同目标又有多大价值?
Naomi Gleit: 我认为大部分价值在于后者——就是让目标极其清晰,这样所有人都能朝优化同一个目标努力。你说得对,我们基本上就是在曲线上挑了一个点,我觉得可以是其中任何一个。实际上,为了准备这次访谈,我还特意回去确认:“是十天七个好友吗?“我去问了几个当年共事的人,他们说:“我记得是十四天十个。“我觉得这其实不重要,重要的是我们选定了一个,重要的是我们拥有同一个目标,重要的是这是一个留存目标、一个激活指标。
而这个目标带来的最重要的成果之一,就是构建了新用户体验。你也许不相信,当我们最初推出 Facebook 的时候——那时我还没加入——但在早期它还只是一个大学网站的阶段,我们不需要 news feed,不需要新手引导,不需要告诉用户要去加好友。他们自动就和校园里的所有人连接上了,而且自然而然就知道怎么用这个产品。毕竟我们是大学生给其他大学生做产品。他们在图书馆里、书桌旁坐在一起,通过潜移默化就理解了产品怎么运作。
真正触发改变的,是当我们开放了青少年注册,然后是工作网络注册,再到 2006 年全面开放注册——任何邮箱地址都可以注册。在此之前,注册 Facebook 需要是 .edu 或者 microsoft.com 这样的邮箱,然后变成任何邮箱都可以注册,包括像我爸爸和我奶奶这样的人——这时候我们才意识到,要让这些人达到那个魔力时刻,我们该怎么做?用什么方式最有效?这个洞察促使我们构建了新用户体验。我记得就是:第一步,上传你的头像照片。这很重要,这样别人才能找到你、知道你是谁。第二步,找到你的好友。这就是联系导入、“你可能认识的人”、“这是你学校的其他人,这是你们的共同好友”的来源。新手体验中的这一步最终成为我们前面谈到的激活指标最重要的驱动因素之一。
Lenny Rachitsky: 很高兴你分享了这些。这是本播客中反复出现的主题——新手引导的力量、投资新手引导的价值、以及其中产生的连锁效应。我也很喜欢你某种程度上是第一个意识到”新手引导,这是一个东西,我们需要新手引导”的人。
Naomi Gleit: 是的。我记得那天我想:“我们需要向人们解释怎么用这个吗?这不是显而易见的吗?“然后就像——我爸爸说:“我完全看不懂这个。“我爸爸后来成了 Facebook 最重量级的重度用户,因为我总是在他身上测试所有功能。但在 2006 年,我们需要向人们解释怎么使用 Facebook 这件事,对我们来说并不显而易见。
新手引导的演变
Naomi Gleit: 再说一次,聊这些很有意思,因为产品显然已经演进了很多,但原则基本不变。当时是 thefacebook.com,后来变成了 facebook.com,再后来我们做了移动应用,产品变成移动优先,然后是移动照片,再是移动视频。所以技术一直在变,但我们需要教育用户的核心使用场景——如何在 Facebook 上与朋友建立连接——无论在哪个版本或产品形态中都是一样的。显然我们至今仍然有新手引导,原则也基本相同:搞一张头像照片,找到你的朋友。
增长的经验与教训
Lenny Rachitsky: 顺着这个思路,关于你做过的增长工作,也许最后一个相关问题——对于那些想要驱动增长、尤其是做新手引导的人来说,你在 Facebook 早期加速增长的过程中,有哪些效果非常好的经验,你觉得大家现在可能没有重视?有哪些当时的策略到今天依然很有力量?
Naomi Gleit: 首先肯定是”理解、识别、执行”这个框架。我会问问自己:你有没有获得所需的数据,来知道增长上该做什么?如果没有,一定要花时间去做好数据埋点。
产品市场契合与增长团队的角色
我觉得我们其实相当幸运。我之前谈过为什么 2005 年我就看好 Facebook——因为已经有了产品市场契合。所以增长这件事,尽管我们给了增长团队很多功劳,但我其实不太确定我们到底配得上多少功劳,也不确定在产品本身已经有产品市场契合的基础上,我们额外驱动了多少增量增长。产品需求旺盛,我们从中获益巨大。
宏观障碍与微观障碍
所以在每一步,我前面提到增长团队,我们做的项目从高层来看就是围绕一个主题——移除障碍。有宏观障碍,比如我做的第一个项目是让高中生上 Facebook,这本身就是一个很有意思的故事,因为当时我们差点做了一个独立网站叫 Facebook High,把高中生和大学生分开。但后来我们想:“不行,这是一个图谱,一个社区。大学生有各个年龄段的朋友和连接关系,为什么要人为分割图谱?“显然从那以后我们一直坚持这个原则。
但核心就是移除障碍。所以先是必须是大学生,然后必须是高中生,然后必须在工作网络中,然后只要有任何邮箱就行。我接下来参与的项目之一是:不是每个人都有智能手机,我们怎么移除这个障碍,为使用功能机或低端设备的用户打造更丰富的 Facebook 体验?Internet.org,怎么移除没有网络接入或负担不起数据流量费的障碍?这些都是增长团队在主题层面做的宏观障碍移除工作。
微观障碍的优化
我觉得可能更适用于大家的是微观障碍。我们在增长上做的所有流程优化工作,其实就是在移除微观障碍。我觉得非常精妙的一个例子是:2009 年我们对所有与增长相关的产品流程做了数据埋点之后,发现有 20% 的人实际上没有确认邮箱。我们尝试给他们发短信,也许他们会通过短信确认。结果我们发现,很多人其实还在点击他们收到的通知,但因为那不是特定的确认邮件,我们无法确认账户。
所以我们的做法是,允许未确认的账户也能收到通知,如果他们点击了其中任何一个通知,那也算作账户确认——因为他们证明了邮箱的所有权。这只是移除了一个微观障碍:不需要专门去找确认邮件、点击它,然后才能在网站上做任何事情。所以我觉得我们确实很幸运,需求旺盛意味着我们可以专注于移除微观障碍。增长团队的大量迭代和优化,本质上就是在减少摩擦。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我非常喜欢这个”微观障碍”和”宏观障碍”的框架——想办法让产品对更多人可用,同时帮他们更快走完流程。我也很认同你说的那个观点:很多增长团队因为业务增长获得了大量功劳,但实际上很多时候即使没有这个团队,产品也可能做得很好,因为产品市场契合实在太强了。说实话 Airbnb 也是如此——到了某个阶段之后产品市场契合如此之强,谁知道如果没有人在做增长会怎样?可能在很长一段时间内也不会差。
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。也许我们能看到增长团队真正发挥影响力的地方,是像我们前面谈到的翻译项目那样的工作。移除语言这个宏观障碍,我们的方法让我们支持了一百多种语言,而不是仅靠专业翻译人员——我们覆盖了长尾语言,让最后那个还在说濒危语言的人也能用 Facebook。但我觉得你说的没错。我有时候想,我们的一些努力可能更多的是在一个更大的产品市场契合趋势上做边际优化。
激活指标的真正价值
Lenny Rachitsky: 最后我想再强调一下你说过的一点,我觉得非常重要,也一直这么认为,很高兴你证实了这一点——你们围绕的那个激活指标,它最大的价值并不在于”这是与留存精确回归对应的完美指标”,而在于”我们有了一个所有人共同聚焦的目标”,大部分的影响力正来源于此——让更多人达到那个节点,至于这个指标是不是完美无缺,其实并不那么重要。
Naomi Gleit: 是的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢这一点。我觉得这对很多人来说是一种解放,因为他们会想:“我们不知道能不能做到完美”,但换个思路——“先推动增长,达到足够好的程度就行了”。好的。
Naomi-isms:如何解决复杂问题
你提到了 Naomi-isms,我想转到这个话题。先让我读一段话。我问了 Adam Mosseri,他是 Instagram 的负责人,问他应该问你什么。我知道你们一起做过不少事情。他是这么描述你的:“Naomi 在 Meta 被称为指挥家。她有一种不可思议的能力,能处理最复杂的项目和问题,把对的人聚到一起,化繁为简并解决它们。她非常坚定,同时又很善良。她的标准极高,她就是在树立标杆。“我联系的其他很多人也说了非常类似的话——说你特别擅长把非常复杂的问题搞定、推进、简化然后解决。
所以我想花点时间了解你在这方面的经验。你学到了什么?你积累了哪些技能,让你能够处理非常复杂的问题并找到解决方案,保持善良但坚定,并承担这些极具挑战性的任务?笼统地说,我很好奇,你锻炼出了哪些能力让你能做到这些?
Naomi Gleit: 嗯,Adam 的评价太客气了。我当然很喜欢 Adam,他是 small group 里的资深成员之一,实际上我最近和他合作得比以往更密切。我们最近推出了一个叫 Teen Accounts 的产品,我和 Adam 在那上面配合得很紧密。
至于我是怎么做到大家说的那些事情,我真的非常依赖 Naomi-isms。就像我之前说的,实际上我经常推荐你的播客,因为并没有一所 PM 大学可以让人去上课,也没有什么正式培训让人成为产品经理,而 Naomi-isms 正是源于此——那些是我从工作中、从其他人身上学到的经验,包括从 Adam 那里学到的,然后我发现自己一遍又一遍地重复这些东西。“一个好的 PM 会想办法让事情更高效”,对我来说,办法就是把它们写下来,然后大家开始叫它们 Naomi-isms。我开始在公司内部分享。两年前,我也开始对外分享了。
Adam 把我称为指挥家,这也是一个 Naomi-ism。作为产品负责人,我想向 PM 社区普及一个概念:PM 到底是什么?这是我从 PM 和非 PM 那里最常被问到的问题——“PM 到底做什么?怎样才是一个优秀的 PM?“我的回答是,PM 就是指挥家。就好像你担任 PM 的那个团队是一支管弦乐队,团队中有许多不同的职能——法务、政策、公关、数据分析、工程、设计,就像管弦乐队中有许多不同的乐器一样。而作为 PM,你的工作是确保每个人都正确地演奏自己的部分,乐队中每个声部都在各司其职,与此同时,他们在协同演奏,在产出的音乐上是统一的,并且以正确的节奏在演奏。
很多时候,我觉得人们会用音乐类比或音乐词汇来描述工作,比如”和谐”——一个好的团队、一个好的 PM、一个好的管弦乐队是和谐的,他们是同步的,节奏正确,步调合适。这大概就是我想象中 PM 工作的样子。一个重要的特征是:PM 不是演出的主角。事实上,指挥家在演出过程中甚至不发一言。同时,我也会给 PM 们发小节拍器和指挥棒。这是我们规模还小的时候我常做的事,就是把这个类比发挥到极致。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太有趣了。你真的给了他们指挥棒和节拍器?
Naomi Gleit: 哦,是的,就是让他们挥着玩的。是的,我很喜欢这个。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很想要一根指挥棒。
[广告已跳过]
Naomi Gleit: 所以 PM 即指挥家是我描述产品管理职能的方式,但我觉得真正对推进工作至关重要的一个核心 Naomi-ism,是我所说的”极致清晰”。我认为我们的工作非常难。极致清晰意味着所有人都在同一页面上。这绝不意味着他们都彼此认同,而是他们对事实有相同的理解。我们可以意见不同,但我们都相信相同的事实——也就是:有 A、B、C,我们的选项是 X、Y、Z,权衡取舍是 1、2、3。这种共同的理解就是极致清晰。
这来源于我参加过的许多会议、许多邮件往来、许多场合,在这些情境中我觉得我们实际上在某件事上是一致的,冲突的本质其实是误解。这看起来是一种极大的时间浪费。所以我们希望达到极致清晰,这样我们的对话就能集中在那些我们真正有分歧的地方,而不是在互相误解上。我有很多推动极致清晰的方法。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,我正想问你具体怎么做,听起来很好。一个人怎么做到极致清晰?
Naomi Gleit: 我用的另一个说法是”规范化一切”,包括规范化命名——我经常提到规范化命名。确保极致清晰的一个方法是建立共享的词汇。我经历过很多这样的情况:人们用相同或不同的词来描述相同或不同的事物,结果就是在各说各话。最离谱的一个例子是,有一次我在参与一个关于我们的审核员和全球运营表现的讨论,大家把”一致性”和”准确率”混着用。一致性指的是不同审核员对某个判定达成一致的频率,准确率指的是判定相对于事实真相正确的频率。这是两件非常不同的事。我们不应该优化一致性,因为你可能一致地犯错。我们应该优化准确率。
这就是规范化命名——把所有词语及其定义逐字写出来,这样我们沟通时使用的是同一套词汇。我非常相信可视化。有时候仅仅是一场对话或一个大型会议,大家在那儿说,我是那种不太依赖听觉的人,我是一个视觉型的人,仅靠听很难跟上。我经常在会议中准备一个可视化元素,利用它来实时编辑正在做出的决定。比如,如果我们有多个选项,我会编辑正在投影的幻灯片,写上”我们决定选方案一,以下是后续步骤 1、2、3”。很多时候大家会说”我听到的不是这个,我听到的后续步骤是这个或那个”。我很喜欢这种做法,因为这避免了会议结束后出现”我不知道我们达成了什么共识,我听到的是这个,你听到的是那个”的情况。不,实际上我们有一组达成共识的决定和后续步骤,是大家实时编辑、共同查看过的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我快速确认一下你说的可视化——你描述的是在幻灯片上展示我们的选项、三个选项,大家决定选方案二,你在幻灯片上标注星号表示这是我们选择的,也许还会修改一些内容。这正是你说的极致清晰——人们可以清楚地看到我们选择了什么。如果他们不同意却没意识到正在发生什么,这一切会变得非常明确。
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太棒了。
Naomi Gleit: 有一件事大家经常取笑我,但我觉得这正是极致清晰的一个绝佳例子——我从来不用无序列表,因为你永远无法引用一个无序列表项。我总是用有序编号列表,因为你在会议的可视化界面上随时可以引用”第二项,我对这条有反馈”,而不需要说”从第二个往上数第三个无序列表项”之类的——那就不叫极致清晰了。所以从这种非常具体的小技巧,到规范化一切这样的大原则,跨度可以很大。不过有时候我可能会有点过于严格。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我非常喜欢这个很实操的小技巧,太棒了,正是我要找的那种东西。在极致清晰或规范化一切方面,还有没有类似这种非常细腻的技巧?
规范化文档
Naomi Gleit: 规范化一切……如果我讲得太偏执了请叫停我,我真的可以在这个话题上钻得很深。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我们还有很多时间。
Naomi Gleit: 我过 Faceversary 的时候,这些年大家送了我不少海报,上面写着各种 Naomi-isms,所以”极致清晰”是一个,“规范化一切”是另一个。我觉得大家真的把我和”规范化、规范化、规范化”联系在一起。我总是想要一份规范化文档(canonical doc)。这源于我的实际经历——我经常同时参与很多不同的项目,很多时候我是中途加入的,我就会问:“我在哪里可以学到这个项目需要了解的东西?“我问五个人,得到五个不同的答案,这是不可接受的。每个人都应该确切知道规范化文档在哪里。那是我能获取项目所有所需信息的唯一入口,它也会链接到所有其他文档。当然,一个项目肯定关联着上百份文档,但必须有一份规范化文档,而且那份规范化文档必须包含你需要了解的基本信息。
对于任何项目,你需要了解的基本信息包括:具体有哪些独立的工作领域,我把这些叫做工作流(work streams),这挺显而易见的。每个工作流的负责人是谁?所以每个工作流都有一个负责人。再说一遍,这看起来挺显而易见的。但有时候我问”这个谁在负责?“,结果大家不知道。这就是为什么我认为必须要有一个单线负责人(single-threaded owner,简称 STO)。我们以前把这叫做”直接负责人”或者”可以掐住脖子的人”(throat to choke)。现在我们显然不会用那种说法了。单线负责人,每个工作流都有一个单线负责人。有时候工作流非常大,下面还有子工作流。规范化的每件事都需要递归展开,所以子工作流也应该有一个负责人或 STO。规范化文档上的其他内容包括:这个团队协作的流程是什么。
我很讨厌两两对话,觉得那是浪费时间。我觉得你可以跟四个人分别谈四次,也可以四个人一起谈一次。每个人都拥有相同的上下文。理想情况下,那场会议里有一个可视化界面,你实时编辑它,做到极致清晰。规范化文档上会注明:团队有哪些规范化会议、使用什么规范化邮件列表、使用什么规范化工作群聊。我们不要用十种不同的人员排列组合重复创建同一个受众群。我们就用一个规范化群聊。然后规范化文档通常还会包含规范化命名。我非常相信框架的力量,它能推动极致清晰。在我看来,一个框架最好有可视化的呈现方式,所以我们会有规范化的可视化图表——这就是我说的规范化一切的含义。所以每次我加入一个新项目,大家都知道要把规范化文档发给我。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我太喜欢这个了。如果你接手了一个非常棘手复杂的项目,你觉得你最先做的几件事是什么,能在帮助大家对齐认知、理解发生了什么、各自应该做什么、应该优先处理什么方面起到很大作用?
简化与”学校金字塔”
Naomi Gleit: 很多时候我做的事是简化。很多时候并不存在规范化文档,所以我就会去创建它,但我觉得这其实也归属于简化这个范畴。我经常加入一个项目时,所有人都在博士水平上运作,而我从幼儿园水平开始。所以我需要理解——就好像所有这些复杂性都在博士水平上,我需要编写课程大纲,回到幼儿园水平的基础模块,我该怎么解释并理解这个项目。这不意味着我想过度简化,那不是简化者做的事。简化者不是在过度简化,而是在识别复杂问题中最基础的基本模块,然后在此基础上逐步展开、揭示或叠加更多的复杂性和细节。
所以我有时会谈到一个”学校金字塔”(school pyramid)——我需要先建立幼儿园的课程体系,然后是小学的课程体系,然后是中学的,然后是大学的,之后我们才能在博士水平上运作。但很多时候,项目上的人的理解水平或认知复杂度差异很大。在我们建立起所谓的学校金字塔——项目每个层级的课程体系之前,很难推进。很多时候,简化的过程本身就会揭示项目中最需要优先处理的事情是什么。
Lenny Rachitsky: 所以我听到的是,当你加入一个项目,你简化的方式就是开始整理一份文档,描述你说的这些内容——这里是各个工作流,这里是负责人,这里是流程,这里是我们的规范化会议方式——而这个过程就会揭示出什么最重要、哪里存在混乱。
Naomi Gleit: 对,对,没错。而很多时候项目中需要解决的问题,有的是战略层面或执行层面的问题,有的是人员层面或流程层面的问题。我觉得 80% 的情况下是人员或流程问题。这指的是要么项目上的人不对,要么人对了但没有建立合适的协作流程。至于战略或执行问题——当我们谈到这一点时,我会先着手解决这些问题。总的来说,我认为完美的执行非常重要。我希望确保一个项目在完美地执行,因为只有这样我们才能真正重新评估这个战略是对还是错。最糟糕的情况是:我们执行得不完美,所以最终项目可能失败了,但我们不知道为什么。
是因为战略对了还是错了?还是因为执行太差?理想情况是战略正确,你完美地执行了它。次优的情况是战略错了,但你完美地执行了它——因为这样你就能学到战略是错的,重新调整战略,再试一次。
Lenny Rachitsky: 你现在真的戳中了我作为 PM 的那根神经。我觉得大多数在听的 PM 都会觉得——文档干净整洁,流程非常简单,每个事项都有明确的负责人,所有东西都有链接——就是很舒服。
流程是为了更快,而非为流程而流程
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。而且我有时候觉得有必要解释一下,流程不是为了流程本身,最终目的是帮助我们所有人更快地推进、更好地协作。希望这一点能传达出来。我深信正是通过这种方式,我们才能走得更快。没有人想要更多流程、更多会议——但我的目标是,通过这些做法实际上简化流程、减少会议,让一切更清晰,最终提速。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我再读一段你的另一位同事的评价。Charles Porch,Instagram 全球合作伙伴副总裁,他基本上说了我们一直在聊的那些——Meta 做出的一些最大的战略押注和最大胆的尝试,都有 Naomi 坐镇指挥。没有人比她更擅长化繁为简、厘清方向、顺滑地达成结果。她在 Meta 内部因其规范化文档而享有传奇地位。
Naomi Gleit: 过奖了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 顺着这条线再多聊一点——你做过的最棘手的项目是什么?可以作为你介入后化繁为简、推动落地的典型案例。
Teen Accounts:保护青少年的大项目
Naomi Gleit: Charles 可能想的是我们最近合作的那个项目。我不确定它是不是最棘手的,但绝对是我做过的跨职能协作最广泛的项目之一。基本上公司里每个团队都在某种程度上涉及青少年业务。上周我们刚刚上线了 Teen Accounts,这是一个非常复杂的项目。它涉及 Instagram 团队、中央青少年团队、各个负责不同方面的团队,以及每一个职能部门——法务、政策、公关、市场、产品。我们确实大量运用了那些 Naomi-isms。
简单介绍一下 Teen Accounts 是什么——它基本上是把所有青少年用户在 Instagram 上默认置于最安全的设置中。我之所以参与这个项目,是因为我在 Facebook 内部跨多个团队工作,显然 Adam 是 Instagram 的负责人,我在这个项目上和他紧密合作,就像我之前提到的那样。
而且 Teen Accounts 这个东西,我们正在考虑如何推广到其他应用,包括 Facebook、WhatsApp 和 Threads。我倾向于参与那些横跨我们整个应用家族和未来平台的项目,这也是我参与其中的原因。Teen Accounts 的核心就是把青少年置于最安全的设置中,高度聚焦于解决家长对青少年使用社交媒体最大的担忧。这显然一直是个很大的议题。我们之前已经有了很多相关的功能和工具。这次上线做的事情是简化、标准化,并增加更多赋予家长控制权的功能。
我认为大家真正需要知道的一点是:16 岁以下的用户如果想更改任何默认设置,必须得到家长的许可。所以我们实际上在创造一种激励机制,鼓励青少年让家长参与进来,真正建立家长监护关系——特别是因为其中一个默认设置是私密账户。目前有数千万青少年拥有公开账户,我们将自动把他们的账户转为私密账户,除非他们获得家长的许可继续保持公开。这是一个相对重大的转变,是对 Instagram 青少年体验的根本性改变,也是我做过的最复杂的项目之一。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,而且刚刚上线对吧?
Naomi Gleit: 是的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 作为一个新手爸爸,我很高兴你们在做这些事情。我暂时还用不上,但很高兴它会在那里。有趣的是,Meta 和 Facebook 处于一个很微妙的位置——人们抱怨青少年使用社交媒体,然后你们努力让产品对青少年和儿童更安全,结果又会有人说”Facebook 在让青少年上社交媒体”。怎么做都没法让所有人满意。不管做什么,总会有人抱怨。这就是——
Naomi Gleit: 完全理解。我认为这次上线的目标就是锚定我们的方向——确实有很多抱怨,有很多不同的声音。我们选择聚焦于家长。我们认为家长最了解情况。每个孩子都不同,家长最了解自己的孩子。这一直是我们在这个项目上的北极星。
说到 Teen Accounts,作为产品人,我觉得你们会欣赏的一点是:在青少年上网这件事上,真正关键的是了解用户使用我们应用时的年龄。我们有必要知道他们的年龄,这样就能把他们放进适合其年龄段的产品体验中。现在我们有了 Teen Accounts,我们要把所有青少年都纳入其中。
年龄验证的行业难题
我们都知道青少年有时候会撒谎。这也是我们收到最多的反馈——青少年非常聪明,他们会找到绕过的方法,他们会发挥创意,会在年龄上撒谎。作为产品人,我认为正确的做法是:与其让每个应用各自验证用户年龄——青少年平均使用 40 个应用——不如让 Instagram 和其他 39 个应用都尝试各自验证年龄,不如让两家公司来做这件事:Apple 和 Google。它们确实收集了年龄信息,应该把这些信息开放给开发者。我们一直在经用户同意后向设备请求信息——Instagram 能否访问你的相机?Instagram 能否访问你的位置信息?应用应该也能问:Instagram 能否访问你的生日?从产品角度、简化角度、隐私保护角度,以及对家长来说最方便的角度来看,这才是解决当前我们都在努力应对的年龄问题的正确产品方案。
我们也在做很多事情。这个项目之所以如此复杂,部分原因就是我提到的年龄团队——我们在构建分类器,试图根据人们自报的年龄之外的信息来预测真实年龄:他们在跟谁聊天、在看什么类型的内容、他们连接的人的年龄是多少——判断这个人真的像他说的那样是成年人,还是其实是个青少年。所以我们做了大量工作来预测年龄或防止人们在年龄上撒谎,但我认为前面说的那种方案对整个行业来说会是一个重大突破。
Lenny Rachitsky: 说得通。
Naomi Gleit: 好。谢谢你,Lenny。
如何开好一场会
Lenny Rachitsky: 那么在结束关于 Naomi-isms 这一章节之前,我听说你还特别擅长另一件事,几位同事都提到了——主持会议。这也是很多人一直想提升的技能。有什么建议吗?关于主持一场好会议,你学到了什么?
Naomi Gleit: 会议是一段高价值、高成本的时间,所以我要确保它尽可能高效。我会提前 24 小时发送议程,议程中包含预读材料。我跟一些人聊过,如果预读材料没有附在日历邀请上或至少提前 24 小时与会议关联,他们会直接取消会议。这就说明,我们希望会议中的每个人都拥有完整的上下文、读过预读材料。由于我们都在用 Google Slides 发送预读材料,通常在会议前的 24 小时里,就会有大量的讨论和问题在线上先行解决。而在会议进行中,正如我所说,我认为让一群人看着同一个东西、以某个内容为锚点,是非常重要的。
如果有人迟到五分钟加入会议,他应该能根据投屏上的内容,准确地知道议程进行到哪里、正在讨论什么。一场会议理想状态下应该是一场决策会议。如果是决策会议,我需要三个选项和一个推荐方案,这样可以帮助聚焦讨论。然后,正如我所说,我会实时编辑投屏内容,把我们达成的选项和后续步骤文档化,确保极致清晰。
会议结束后,任何没参加会议的人也不会遗漏——因为我会在会后 24 小时内发送会议纪要,全员回复会议邀请。在操作层面,我把日历邀请作为处理所有这些沟通的基本单元,因为很多时候会议是一次性的,并没有现成的邮件或聊天线程刚好对应会议的参与人。所以对我来说,日历邀请就是那个核心载体。我会点开日历邀请,会前全员回复附上预读材料,会后 24 小时内再次全员回复,附上会议纪要、决策和后续步骤。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太喜欢了,这里有太多非常具体的战术。这就是我大脑的食粮。我特别喜欢”始终提供三个选项加一个推荐方案”这一点,作为 PM 来说这是一个非常简单的建议,却是一种极其有力的工作方式——“这是选项,这是我的推荐,这是理由。”
Naomi Gleit: 哦,还有一点我忘了提,这是从我们的首席安全官 Guy Rosen 那里学到的:当你有三个选项和一个推荐方案时,在评估选项方面,我不太喜欢优缺点列表——那只是一份平铺的文字列表,很难从中把握全局。我们通常会用交通灯的方式。也就是说,三个选项是三行,表格的列是评估标准。这些列可以是不同职能维度——比如第一列是法律视角,第二列是政策视角,第三列是隐私或产品视角。列也可以对应不同的优化标准,比如用户体验、工程可行性、内部复杂度等,无论什么标准都可以放在列中。
然后用红、黄、绿三色标注每个选项在各标准上的表现。这样做的好处在于回到”视觉化”这个要点——你可以快速浏览三个选项,看到哪里红色最多,就把那个选项排除掉。理想情况下,推荐方案应该比其他选项有更多的绿色或黄色。当然,在每个单元格里你可以写明颜色标注的具体理由。我认为这是一种非常好的开会方式,能围绕如何评估选项创造极致清晰,这是平铺的优缺点列表做不到的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 还有哪个播客能给出这种关于如何在决策讨论中进行操作的细节程度?这正是人们想听到的,我太喜欢了。这对本播客的听众来说就是产品市场契合。我太喜欢了。显然,这种方式更有效的原因在于,它不只是”优点一句话、缺点一句话”,而是”基于对业务真正重要的事情,这是我实际认为好或不好的地方”。
Naomi Gleit: 完全正确。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这完全说得通。
Naomi Gleit: 而且它还给人们提供了一个可以填入的框架。很多时候,这些讨论的预读材料需要来自许多不同团队和职能的人共同参与。如果你用交通灯的方式,每个团队可以负责填写自己的格子,可以负责阐述法律层面对选项一、二、三的立场和理由。总的来说,我非常喜欢那些让人们能够插入并清晰表达自己观点的框架。
运动与工作表现
Lenny Rachitsky: 太棒了。最后一个问题,完全不同的话题。我看到《华尔街日报》有一篇报道,讲你的锻炼方式和健身计划,以及这对你生活和事业有多么重要。大多数人不会有一篇《华尔街日报》的报道来介绍自己的健身计划,尤其是科技行业从业者。我知道这对你的工作非常重要,报道中写道这基本上能帮助你在工作中表现更好。对于那些想要加强锻炼的人来说,你有什么建议吗?因为你的观点是,锻炼确实能让你在工作和生活中表现更好。
Naomi Gleit: 人们总是问我:“你在为什备什么训练?“我的回答是:“我在为生活而训练。“我有四个”必备项”——吃好、长时间睡眠、锻炼。这些是我保持状态所必需的。其他方面的就不说了,看起来都很显而易见,但实际上直到最近我都没有优先保证睡眠。我的男朋友非常重视睡眠,我们有 Eight Sleep 智能床垫、眼罩、遮光窗帘,有良好的睡眠习惯,所以我在这方面进步了很多。但锻炼是我一直坚持的。独处时间对我来说也是一个必备项,因为我是内向的人,我需要那段时间来充电,否则我觉得自己在人群中会变得不太对劲。
在优先级上,它是不可妥协的基本功——每天早上我必须锻炼。我也很幸运,工作环境允许我穿运动服上班,我经常这么做。锻炼当然是我每天做运动的那一个小时,但正如我所说,生活本身就是一场锻炼,在工作中保持表现也是一场锻炼。我需要能够活动,需要感觉舒适。这是非常身体化的事情,尤其是当你努力想做一个指挥者、手里拿着隐喻的指挥棒跑来跑去的时候,我需要能够自如地活动。之前,也就是《华尔街日报》那篇文章所写的,我设定了一个目标:做五个引体向上。我在某篇文章中读到,不到 1% 的女性能真正做到。我认为设定一个目标非常有帮助。
这是我一直在练习的事情,任何人只要真正去训练,都能做到。对我来说,可能技巧的成分比力量的成分更大,我逐步达成了这个目标。我认为锻炼除了所有身体上的益处之外,对我来说主要带来的是心理健康方面的好处。同时,锻炼中也有很多我认为可以迁移到其他方面的经验教训。比如,能做五个引体向上教会了我:我可以用一种非常具体、可衡量的方式完成困难的事情,这给了我生活中其他方面的信心。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我有一个朋友,她的目标是……
Naomi Gleit: 生活中的另一个方面。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我有一个朋友,她的目标是做一个俯卧撑。
Naomi Gleit: 一个俯卧撑。
Lenny Rachitsky: 她说,“我想能做一个俯卧撑”,这对她来说非常有动力。后来她终于做到了,然后就能做更多了。
Naomi Gleit: 太棒了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,很类似的经历。你刚才说话的时候我记了好多笔记。另外一个是关于睡眠的建议。眼罩,我有一款非常棒的眼罩,我会在节目备注里推荐。说来也挺好笑的。
Naomi Gleit: 请推荐。
Lenny Rachitsky: 怎么说呢,我在各种地方推荐过那么多东西,收到最多评论的就是——“谢谢你推荐这款眼罩,它改变了我的人生。“那个品牌叫 WAOAW,Tim Ferriss 也经常推荐的一款。
Naomi Gleit: 好的。
Lenny Rachitsky: W-A-O……我会在节目备注里放链接——
Naomi Gleit: 哦,太好了。
Lenny Rachitsky: WAOAW,让我快速查一下,因为大家肯定在想”哦,我得买一个”。WAOAW 眼罩。
Naomi Gleit: 我们用的那款,眼睛周围有垫圈,这样眼罩不会直接贴着眼睛。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,这款也是这样的。好的。
Naomi Gleit: 哦太好了。
Lenny Rachitsky: W-A-O-A-W 睡眠眼罩,亚马逊上有卖,13 美元,非常棒。我和我妻子都戴着这个眼罩睡觉。听起来有点荒唐,直到有一天你发现——“我现在不戴它已经睡不着了。”
Naomi Gleit: 完全是这样。实际上有很多研究表明,即使是环境光也会导致睡眠质量下降。所以我觉得遮光窗帘加眼罩就是为了确保真正的黑暗。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,我最近刚看了一个播客,里面建议说,就连烟雾报警器上那个小小的指示灯都太亮了,你需要把它遮住才能创造真正的黑暗。为什么不直接戴个眼罩呢?这样你就不用操心那些了。
Naomi Gleit: 完全同意。
PM 即指挥者
Lenny Rachitsky: 好,还有一件事。你刚才谈到指挥者、PM 作为指挥者的时候我没来得及提,这恰好是我整个职业生涯中一直在用的比喻,每当有人问我什么是产品经理的时候。所以我们在这一点上是一样的。
Naomi Gleit: 真的吗?
Lenny Rachitsky: 真的,我有好多幻灯片,上面写着”这就是 PM”,配图就是交响乐团和站在那里的指挥。
Naomi Gleit: Lenny,你知道这让我多高兴吗?因为有时候人们会觉得”这听起来太离谱了”,但你也得出了同样的结论,这让我……你是怎么得出这个结论的?我很好奇。
Lenny Rachitsky: 因为正如你所说,PM 不是亲手做东西的人。他们只是帮助那些在各自专业领域最有才华的人做出最好的工作,他们的背对着观众。他们努力不挡道,尽管他们走上台的时候大家为他们鼓掌,那场演出精彩绝伦,然后理论上他们也可以稍微介入帮帮忙——在这里搭把手做做设计,在那里帮帮忙做做研究,大概不会去碰工程。这就是我的理由,而且他们不是真正的主导者。首席小提琴手才是真正演奏音乐的人,是这件事情上最厉害的人。
Naomi Gleit: 能听到另一个人也这样谈论这个比喻,真的太好了。谢谢。我觉得这确实是我看待自己角色和所做工作的方式。也许听你谈这些让我想起,为什么我一直那么强调提升我团队中的人和身边的人。坦白说,我的一个需要改进的地方——这可能与我用指挥者来比喻如何做 PM 有关——就是在成长反馈或建设性反馈方面,我真的需要学习什么时候该更多地站到前面来领导。也许什么时候不该做一个安静的指挥者——那种全力托举首席小提琴手的人——而是要更多地面向前方。
我认为我的很多方法和领导风格,确实是通过我团队中的人来领导,帮助他们成长。很多时候我认为他们很敬业、是专家、了解特定的领域。显然,作为产品负责人,我管理着一系列不同的项目,每个项目都有出色的负责人。所以很多时候我真的是在从后方领导,帮助他们尽可能成功。但也确实有那样的时候和场景,那个安静的指挥者需要扮演一个更发声、更面向前方的角色。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我完全明白你的意思。我做 PM 的时候也有同样的问题。因为总有一种担忧,觉得 PM 就是负责指挥所有人做事的。所以我就走到了另一个极端——“好吧,那不是我。我就让你们去做你们认为最好的事情,我只需要确保最好的想法浮出水面。“后来我不得不学习完全一样的东西:有时候人们只是想让你给他们指出正确的方向,做出最终的决定。而最优秀的 PM,是那些对什么行得通有最好的判断、对用户需要什么有直觉、有很强的产品 sense 的人。我一直在写一篇关于这方面的文章,因为现在有一种对 PM 的反应——“PM 不是产品的 CEO”,“他们只是……”不,不要那样自称。我认为恰恰相反。我认为 PM 实际上应该把自己看作产品的 CEO——不是指他们掌管一切、可以解雇人、管理人的那种 CEO,而是说他们是最接近 CEO 和创始人意图的人。他们思考的是业务需要什么、什么能帮助客户、什么能帮助我们增长。我认为 PM 是最接近这个角色的,所以我认为重要的是以这个角色的方式来思考,即使你技术上并不掌管一切。
PM 作为产品的 CEO
Naomi Gleit: 也许可以换个叫法,但我完全赞同这个理念。我们当时是在试图回应一种批评——PM 在对所有人发号施令,但实际上我觉得你——
Lenny Rachitsky: 这个说法有包袱。
Naomi Gleit: 确实有包袱。我把它叫做——有一种说法叫”伟大的非技术人员”时期。在 Facebook 有那么一段时期,我认为 PM 真的需要向工程师证明自己的价值,证明我们不是在用所有这些额外流程拖慢进度。你可以想象一个工程师听我讲怎么开会、所有那些规范文档,心里想的肯定是,“什么?这听起来太糟糕了。“所以我们确实需要证明自己,但我实际上确实认为 PM 是最接近真正传达 CEO 或创始人意图的人。另外一件我一直在做、也在继续努力的事情,就是真正培养更强的第一方视角。PM 不能仅仅运作我们所讨论的这些人员和流程,这还不够。显然我喜欢那些东西,我天然偏向那个方向,但归根结底,PM 不能把视角外包出去,也不能通过人员和流程来替代自己的思考。
Naomi Gleit: 所以对我来说,这是一条学习曲线。作为一个非常注重共识的人,我想听到所有不同人的不同意见。这一点我仍然可以做到。我仍然可以通过人员和流程,与项目中所有相关的人交流,听取他们的第一方视角,然后把所有这些综合起来形成自己的观点——因为我的角色在团队中的定位以及我试图优化的目标,使得这个视角是独特的。我要确保自己既培养了这种第一方视角,又能清晰地传达出来。就像你说的,最优秀的 PM 我认为能把所有这些都做好。
Lenny Rachitsky: 顺着这个话题再往下聊一点,因为我觉得很多产品经理都在努力做这件事,也被告知要在这方面下功夫。你在自己培养这项技能的过程中,有没有发现什么对别人也有帮助的方法?
Naomi Gleit: 我比较幸运,因为我有一个大团队。有人帮我安排日程,过去我会给那个人设定目标——我们一起工作的目标是尽可能高效。但现在我给那个人设定的目标,以及我们试图实现的,是给我尽可能多的时间去培养第一方观点。那么最有效的方式是什么?对我来说,就是有两到三个小时的时间块,让我可以真正坐下来、思考、留出空间。不过也许我和其他人不同的地方在于,我觉得和一两个信任的人交流对我非常有帮助,不是那种四十个人的大会。
我团队里有一个非常出色的人,我经常和他交流,他真的能帮我厘清思路。回到开头说的,我就是在日程里寻找可以用来思考的时间块,而且在这些时间块里,不一定非要独处。也可以安排我的 chief of staff 和数据负责人一起,把想法抛给他们当 sounding board(意见板),因为对我来说,这是培养第一方视角最有效的过程。
Lenny Rachitsky: 非常好的建议。确实如此,如果你整天都在开会协调、检查东西、审阅材料,根本没时间去思考自己认为正确的做法、答案、策略和下一步是什么。所以这个建议很好。如果你发现自己没有时间思考什么是正确的解决方案、正确的策略、正确的产品决策,那就直接在日程里划出时间来想这些事情。我的日历里有这些深度工作时间段。我写过好几次,每次三个小时,邀请的内容——不知道现在还能不能这么做——就是,“如果你在这个时间段预约时间,我会扇你。” 没人敢约。
Naomi Gleit: 太棒了。我觉得对我来说,有些人可能需要三个小时独处。但对我来说——我不知道你怎么想——和一两个人讨论对我真的很有帮助。所以有时候让我一个人进房间待三个小时然后自己想明白,反而挺困难的。我不知道怎么帮助别人进行战略性思考是最好的方式,但不一定非要独自进行。
Lenny Rachitsky: 很好的建议。就是找一个 sparring partner(讨论搭档)。
Naomi Gleit: 对。
Lenny Rachitsky: 一个对探索想法感兴趣、而不是带着明确议程来的人。我很喜欢这个建议。好了,Naomi,我们快结束的时候聊的这个岔题真好。
Naomi Gleit: 是啊,完全没想到。
闪电问答环节
Lenny Rachitsky: 太精彩了,我们聊到了很多好内容。但我知道你得走了。所以在进入我们非常精彩的闪电问答之前,还有什么我们没有涉及到的、你想分享的吗?
Naomi Gleit: 说实话,我刚才已经分享了。我甚至没意识到自己想聊那个话题,但它就这么自然而然地说出来了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我就喜欢这样。这种才是最好的干货。那么,我们已经到了非常精彩的闪电问答环节。准备好了吗?
Naomi Gleit: 准备好了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 第一个问题,你推荐给别人的最多的两三本书是什么?
Naomi Gleit: 我非常喜欢叙事类非虚构作品,所以 Erik Larson 的书我很喜欢。它们是一种非常引人入胜、让人手不释卷的了解历史的方式。我最近读了《Devil in the White City》,还有一本关于丘吉尔第一年的也是 Erik Larson 写的。另一本我经常推荐的书,可以说是经典之作,就是《Sapiens》。我觉得他是一个很好的例子,正好印证了我们所说的”简化者”。他选取了一个非常复杂的主题——整个人类历史——然后试图提炼出精华。我认为他的核心论点是,人类与其他生命形式的真正区别在于我们讲述和相信神话或故事的能力,他引用了货币和宗教作为例子。而且《Sapiens》还有一个漫画版,所以他几乎同时拥有博士级别的内容,然后又有一个高中级别的漫画版本。他还有一本《Unstoppable Us》,是给儿童看的版本。所以很明显,这个人是一位大师。有朋友 Shirley 告诉过我 James Clear 的一个说法:如果你是初学者,你有的是”无知的简单”;中级阶段有的是”功能性复杂”;而一个领域的大师拥有的是”深刻的简单”。我觉得 Yuval Noah Harari 正是如此,因为他在解释这个极其复杂的话题时,可以在这个很酷的金字塔上从上到下自如游走。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我听说过他每年会去参加为期一个月的内观冥想营,全程静默冥想。有人问他,“你有那么多工作要做,怎么有时间做这个?“他说,“我之所以能够写出这些把整个人类历史综合成故事的著作,正是因为我做了这件事。因为我可以清空大脑,只是安住当下。”
Naomi Gleit: Lenny,回到我们之前的对话,那就是他自己最擅长的方式,那是他需要做的事。我可能每天需要两到三个小时加一个讨论搭档,Yuval Noah Harari 需要一个月的静默冥想。
Lenny Rachitsky: 说得好。每个人都有自己解锁大脑的方式。说到《Devil in the White City》,一个有趣的事情。我读完那本书的时候就想,“我得去芝加哥看看书里写的那些世博会的东西。“然后我就去了芝加哥——
Naomi Gleit: 真的去了?
Lenny Rachitsky: 就是因为那本书,对。
Naomi Gleit: 哇。你读过《The Splendid and the Vile》吗?
Lenny Rachitsky: 读过。是那本——
Naomi Gleit: 关于丘吉尔的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 关于电报的那本,对吧?是那本吗?
Naomi Gleit: 哦不是,那本是丘吉尔第一年的,不过他大概有六本书,我没有全读过。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好,我想想,要么是那本,要么是关于一封电报的。我确实读过……但那本稍逊一筹,这是我的感觉。我觉得《Devil in the White City》是——
Naomi Gleit: 最好的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 是最好的。非常精彩。好,继续。第二个问题,你最近看过最喜欢的电影或电视剧是什么?
Naomi Gleit: 我们刚看了《Shogun》。我觉得非常好。你看了吗?
Lenny Rachitsky: 看了。我很喜欢。虽然很血腥但非常精彩。
影视推荐
Naomi Gleit: 对,有些画面我不得不捂住眼睛。然后我们还看了《Dune Two》。我们的首席产品官 Chris Cox 实际上把它推荐为他最近看过的最好的电影之一,我非常信任他在这方面的判断。所以我们先把《Dune One》补上了,然后看了《Dune Two》,真的很好看。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我是在旧金山的 IMAX 影院看的,那种超大屏幕,强烈推荐。不过应该已经下线了。对,太疯狂了,太棒了。好像还会有一部续集。
Naomi Gleit: 对对,Dune Three。
Lenny Rachitsky: Dune Three,继续拍下去吧。下一个问题。你最近有没有发现什么特别喜欢的产品?
最喜欢的产品推荐
Naomi Gleit: 我打算试试你推荐的那个眼罩,WAOAW 那个。
Lenny Rachitsky: 就是它。
Naomi Gleit: 我知道特别贵,但你试过 Eight Sleep 吗?
Lenny Rachitsky: 试过。我太太不太喜欢,她受不了那个噪音。启动的时候有一种很轻微的声音,但会把她吵醒,所以我们就不用了。
Naomi Gleit: 我也注意到了。我觉得他们可能刚出了最新版本。对我来说最核心的功能是震动闹钟,这样我早上六点起床的时候不会把全家人都吵醒。它是一个温控闹钟——会把我那一侧的床变热,同时在我耳朵下方轻微震动,把我叫醒。
Lenny Rachitsky: 在你耳朵下方。我记得我的是整个那半边床都在震动。可能是一个新功能。
Naomi Gleit: 也许这个……我用的是第三代,可能已经出了第四代了。我也不确定,也许那是一代的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太有意思了。我现在生活中一个好处是,因为没有会议也没有老板,我不需要闹钟。
Naomi Gleit: 太好了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 不过也挺奇妙的。不过我们有个小孩,他每天六点到六点半就醒了,所以那通常就是我的闹钟。
Naomi Gleit: 哦,还有一件事我想提一下,不知道你有没有这个问题——我最近在努力每天摄入一百克蛋白质。我很多朋友和我现在都很关注蛋白质摄入。帮我练引体向上和俯卧撑的教练创办了一家蛋白质产品公司叫 Promix,我非常喜欢。他有一种类似 Rice Krispie 的零食棒,我通常每天早上吃一个,能提供15克蛋白质。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我刚买了。
Naomi Gleit: 什么?
Lenny Rachitsky: 对,我看到 Kevin Rose 分享了他的健康补给清单,我不确定是不是同一个品牌,但就是一个15克蛋白质的 Rice Krispie 零食棒。所以我很确定你说的是同一个。
Naomi Gleit: 我也很确定就是那个,因为 Rice Krispie 这个形式非常独特。你试试看告诉我你觉得怎么样。我很喜欢巧克力豆口味的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我又恨又爱,这个推荐真的很棒。我刚看到一个搞笑的 TikTok,说从来没想过长大成人后会这么频繁地想着蛋白质、该吃多少蛋白质。
Naomi Gleit: 也许这是到了四十岁才会这样,我也不知道。反正我确实一直在想蛋白质的事。还有一个我很喜欢的是罐装海鲜,蛋白质含量很高。有个牌子叫 Fish Wife,基本上就是文艺青年版的 Chicken of the Sea。
Lenny Rachitsky: 哦对,包装很可爱。对,我太太会买。再来一个蛋白质推荐——他们曾经是我们的赞助商,现在已经不是了,但确实是很棒的蛋白质推荐:Maui Nui 的鹿肉棒。10克蛋白质,而且很好吃。
Naomi Gleit: 谢谢。
Lenny Rachitsky: 不客气。
Naomi Gleit: 看看我们变成什么样了,Lenny。
Lenny Rachitsky: 完全被蛋白质迷住了。我们马上就要变得蛋白质超标了。好了,我们还有什么?好,还有两个问题。你有没有一个特别喜欢的人生信条,经常回望并在工作中觉得有用的?
人生信条
Naomi Gleit: 上个月——大概两周前吧——我们在看美国网球公开赛,发现球员从通道走上球场的时候,都会经过 Billie Jean King 的标语,上面写着”压力是一种特权”。我非常喜欢这句话,因为我觉得随着 Teen Accounts 的发布,以及我最近做的很多更面向公众的事情,我确实会紧张——就像我们之前聊过的那样。而”压力是一种特权”提醒我,这些事情对我来说是非常难得的机会,我应该心存感激。我可以紧张,但同时也应该意识到并感恩这一切。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我喜欢这句话。就是提醒自己,能感受到这种压力是幸运的,因为这意味着有重要的事情正在发生。一个略微不同的版本是——Zuck 在 Chase Center 那次活动上,你也参加了,他穿了一件T恤,上面用拉丁文写着——
Naomi Gleit: 通过痛苦学习。
Lenny Rachitsky: 通过痛苦学习。完美。
Naomi Gleit: 通过痛苦学习。这句我也很喜欢。他当时也谈到了一些,做一个创业者真的、真的非常艰难。
Lenny Rachitsky: 他们提到了 Jensen 的那句话,有人问他是否愿意再创一次 Nvidia,他的回答大概是:“如果我知道这会有多疯狂地艰难和充满压力,我不会做。“非常坦诚。好了,最后一个问题。你之前的同事 Charles 告诉我,你是一位非常厉害的冲浪者——
冲浪的启示
Naomi Gleit: 哦。
Lenny Rachitsky: 而且你几乎围绕哪里、什么时候能去冲浪来设计你的生活。
Naomi Gleit: 是的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 关于冲浪以及它对你的影响,有没有什么故事、教训或者收获?关于冲浪的心得?
Naomi Gleit: 我觉得冲浪和生活有很多相似之处。对我来说,这是一项非常考验心态的运动。我能为改善冲浪做的最大的一件事就是提升自信心。当我准备抓一道浪的时候,很多时候我会犹豫、退缩。而实际上那种情况下你能做的最好的事情,就是迎着恐惧站起来,去乘这道浪。那才是最安全的做法,才是你真正应该做的——从任何维度来看,那都是正确的选择。所以这个信条差不多就是——当你即将抓到一道浪的时候,迎着恐惧站起来。而当你害怕的时候会做出的那些反应,比如我说的退缩或者把冲浪板扔出去,实际上是非常适得其反的,甚至很不安全,可能导致更多的伤害。所以这再次提醒你,你必须全力以赴、坚定投入。迎着恐惧站起来。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太棒了。迎着恐惧站起来,压力是一种特权,通过痛苦学习。Naomi,这次对话太开心了。非常高兴你答应来做这期节目。最后两个问题。大家可以在哪里找到你、在哪里找到 Naomi-isms?还有什么其他想推荐给大家的?听众朋友们怎样能帮到你?
Naomi Gleit: 信不信由你,我有 Naomi.com。我知道 Boz 有 Boz.com。我买下那个域名,大概是在十五到二十年前,从一个农民手里买到的,他妻子的名字正好也叫 Naomi,但他妻子并不用这个域名。所以我捡了个大便宜。我只能说,还有其他一些比我出名得多的 Naomi 们——那些知名得多的 Naomi——也曾想收购 Naomi.com,开出了报价。但我真的很喜欢在互联网上拥有一个属于自己的主页,可以在上面放我的 Naomi-isms。它们也可以在 Instagram 上找到,账号是 Naomi Gleit。
至于听众朋友们怎么能帮到我?Lenny,我在咱们开录之前提到过,我其实不太经常做公开演讲或者谈论 Naomi-isms。两年前刚发布的时候我做过一些,但不多。而这次因为上了播客之类的缘故,我很希望能多做一点这方面的事情。所以,如果听众有任何反馈——想看到或听到我做些什么、有什么问题——这些能给我一个理由,让我觉得继续在 Naomi-isms 上多做一些是有价值的,那会非常有帮助。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好的。如果大家有这些想法,留在 YouTube 评论区通常是最方便的方式。Naomi,非常感谢你来做这期节目。真的太开心了。
Naomi Gleit: 谢谢你,Lenny。
Lenny Rachitsky: 大家再见。
感谢大家的收听。如果你觉得这期节目有价值,可以在 Apple Podcasts、Spotify 或你最喜欢的播客应用上订阅本节目。也请考虑给我们评分或留下评论,这真的能帮助更多听众发现这个播客。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。下期见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| Acquired | Acquired(知名商业播客) |
| acquisition | 获客 |
| Adam Grant | Adam Grant(组织心理学家、畅销书作者) |
| Adam Mosseri | 保留原文(Instagram 负责人) |
| agreeable taker | 讨喜的索取者 |
| Alex Schultz | 保留原文(Facebook 增长团队早期核心成员) |
| Billie Jean King | 保留原文(美国网球传奇人物) |
| Boz | 保留原文(Andrew Bosworth 的昵称,Meta 高管) |
| canonical nomenclature | 规范化命名 |
| Charles Porch | 保留原文(Instagram 全球合作伙伴副总裁) |
| Cheryl | 保留原文(指 Sheryl Sandberg,Meta 前 COO) |
| Chicken of the Sea | 保留原文(美国大众罐装海产品品牌) |
| chief of staff | chief of staff(幕僚长/行政主管) |
| Chris Cox | 保留原文(Meta 首席产品官) |
| churn | 流失 |
| classifiers | 分类器 |
| cold call | 冷访(指未经预约主动上门/致电求职) |
| Danny Ferrante | 保留原文(Facebook 增长核算框架提出者) |
| directly responsible individual | 直接负责人 |
| disagreeable giver | 不讨喜的给予者 |
| East Palo Alto | 东帕洛阿尔托 |
| Eight Sleep | 保留原文(智能床垫品牌) |
| Erik Larson | Erik Larson(美国叙事类非虚构作家) |
| extreme clarity | 极致清晰 |
| Facebook High | Facebook High(Facebook 曾计划为高中生推出的独立网站名称) |
| Faceversary | Faceversary(Facebook 入职纪念日的内部说法,由 Facebook + anniversary 合成) |
| Fish Wife | 保留原文(罐装海鲜品牌) |
| functional complexity | 功能性复杂 |
| growth accounting | 增长核算 |
| Guy Rosen | 保留原文(Meta 首席安全官) |
| head of product | 产品负责人 |
| ignorant simplicity | 无知的简单 |
| instrumentation | 数据埋点(在产品流程中植入数据采集点以追踪用户行为) |
| Internet.org | 保留原文(Facebook/Meta 旗下的互联网普及项目) |
| James Clear | James Clear(《Atomic Habits》作者) |
| Javier Olivan | 保留原文(Facebook 增长团队早期核心成员,现任 Meta 首席运营官) |
| Jensen | 保留原文(指 Jensen Huang,Nvidia CEO) |
| Kevin Rose | 保留原文(科技创业者、播客主持人) |
| Lenny Rachitsky | 保留原文(播客主持人) |
| Maui Nui | 保留原文(鹿肉棒品牌) |
| Mickey Settler | 保留原文(Facebook 设计师) |
| Naomi Gleit | 保留原文(Meta 产品负责人) |
| Naomi-isms | Naomi-isms(Naomi 的个人说法/经验总结) |
| PM | PM(产品经理,Product Manager) |
| Pressure is a Privilege | 压力是一种特权 |
| product-market fit | 产品市场契合 |
| profound simplicity | 深刻的简单 |
| Promix | 保留原文(蛋白质产品品牌) |
| radical candor | radical candor(一种管理沟通理念,强调直接挑战与深切关心并重) |
| resurrected | 回流 |
| retention | 留存 |
| school pyramid | 学校金字塔 |
| Sean Parker | 保留原文(Facebook 首任总裁) |
| Shirley | Shirley(Naomi 的朋友) |
| simplifiers | 简化者 |
| single-threaded owner / STO | 单线负责人 |
| small group | small group(Meta 高管核心决策小组,保留原文) |
| sounding board | 意见板(用于征求意见、测试想法的倾听者) |
| sparring partner | 讨论搭档(用于反复推敲想法的交流对象) |
| stand up into the fear | 迎着恐惧站起来 |
| Teen Accounts | Teen Accounts(Meta 面向青少年用户推出的账户类型) |
| traffic light | 交通灯(一种用红黄绿三色评估选项的决策框架) |
| WAOAW | 保留原文(眼罩品牌) |
| work stream | 工作流 |
| Yuval Noah Harari | Yuval Noah Harari(《Sapiens》作者,以色列历史学家) |
| Zuck | Zuck(马克·扎克伯格的昵称,在 Meta 内部的常用称呼) |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)
Meta’s head of product on working with Mark Zuckerberg, early growth tactics, and more | Naomi Gleit
Naomi Gleit: I really believe in frameworks for things that helps drive extreme clarity. I work on a lot of different projects. A lot of times I’m ramping up a new project, I’m like, “Where can I learn what I need to learn about this project?” I ask five different people, get five different answers. That is unacceptable. Of course, I’m sure there’s hundreds of docs associated with the project, but there needs to be one canonical doc. Everyone should know exactly where the canonical doc is. That’s the one place I can go to get all the information I need about a project and it will link to all the other docs, things on the canonical doc are.
The Interview Begins
Lenny Rachitsky: Today my guest is Naomi Gleit. Naomi is head of product at Meta. Other than Mark Zuckerberg, she’s the longest-serving executive at Meta. She joined what was then called Facebook as employee number 29 and has been at Meta for almost 20 years. She’s seen the company scale from 30 employees to the one and a half trillion dollar business that it is today. Naomi does very few podcasts and interviews and so I was really excited to chat with her and have her on this podcast. In our conversation, we dig into the many lessons that she learned from Facebook’s early and legendary growth team, her superpower of taking really complex and gnarly problems and projects, simplifying them and delivering results. We also get into leadership lessons she’s learned from Zuck, including his recent transformation into possibly the coolest CEO in tech. Also, why PMs are the conductor of product teams, some very tactical tips for running meetings, writing docs, working out, getting better sleep, and even how to get more protein in your diet.
This was such a fun conversation and such a wide-ranging conversation and whether you are in product or growth or any other tech function, you will get something useful out of this conversation. If you enjoy this podcast, don’t forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It’s the best way to avoid missing future episodes and helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Naomi Gleit.
Naomi, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.
Naomi Gleit: Thanks so much for having me. As I told you earlier, I refer your podcast all the time and so I can’t believe I have the opportunity to actually talk on it.
From Employee 29 to a Trillion-Dollar Company
Lenny Rachitsky: Wow, I’m so flattered. I never get tired of hearing that. Appreciate you sharing that. I want to share a couple of tidbits about you because it’s pretty crazy when you see this list. Okay, so you are Meta’s longest serving executive other than Mark Zuckerberg. You’re employee number 29 at Facebook. You’ve been there for over 19 years. Sorry, at Meta, formerly Facebook.
Naomi Gleit: I do that all the time. That’s what happens when you’ve been at Meta for 19 years is you can’t get the name right.
Stanford Thesis and Joining Facebook
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay, good. I won’t feel bad about that Then and then the last thing is just you’ve been at the center of some of the most foundational products that Meta and Facebook have worked on, including working on the early growth team and thinking about the early growth strategy. Basically you’ve been there from employee number 30 to today, a one and a half trillion dollars company, one of the largest companies in the world today. Very few people have ever seen this sort of growth and scale from the inside.
First of all, I guess let me just ask this, do you ever reflect on this and just realize like, “Holy shit, what a journey I’ve been on. How wild.”?
Naomi Gleit: It is a great question. I would love to say that I reflect on it. The truth is I think I barely have time to reflect right now. I’m thinking about all the things that I need to do on my to-do list, so I’m pretty in it still. Even after 19 years, I am really focused on the work that I need to do. I do honestly have moments where I get to reflect. For example, on this podcast. Sometimes people do ask me and I think especially as I approach the twenty-year milestone, my twenty-year Faceversary, I’m sure that will give ample opportunity for me to look back.
On Luck and Creating Opportunities
Lenny Rachitsky: Such a classic product manager answer. I have too much to do-
Naomi’s Current Role at Meta
Naomi Gleit: Too busy.
The Evolution of Zuck
Lenny Rachitsky: I have to think about this. Yeah, I got to hit some goals here.
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Let me start. I want to start by just how you actually landed at Meta as employee number 29, which is a life-changing decision and a life-changing role and I want to learn if there’s something folks can see about what you did that might be helpful to them when they’re trying to find a place to work and your story, I was reading about the story and it’s super interesting. You basically wrote your senior thesis at Stanford about why Facebook was going to win and why it was going to beat its competitors and the competitors cited I’ve never even heard of, so it’s interesting that that was the competitor at the time. Could you just share the story of how you landed as employee number 29 at Facebook, now Meta?
Mark as a Friend
Naomi Gleit: Facebook as part of being an academic, researching Facebook, also being a Stanford student using Facebook. I was like, “I really want to work here.” Facebook had just moved to Palo Alto. Mark had driven across country I guess, and arrived in Palo. Alto opened up an office at 443 Emerson Avenue or Emerson Street. It was right above the Jing Jing’s Chinese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto and I just went to the office sort of cold called the equivalent of just walking into the office and seeing if there were any available jobs. There were not. I think I did that maybe five to 10 more times.
Eventually, there was an opening to interview for Sean Parker’s personal assistant. He was at the time I think the president. I did interview and I did not get the job. A few months later I found out about a marketing role that was available. And one interesting thing I haven’t really talked about was I got an offer from Facebook. I also got a competing offer from LinkedIn, and so at that time I made the choice to go to Facebook because I was interested in the social networking aspect of it. Why was I so bullish on this website at the time it was www.thefacebook.com. Why was I so excited about this thing?
I think it’s because I definitely saw that there was product market fit. I saw that students at Stanford were obsessed with it, but it also had a long list of colleges that were really excited and on the waiting list to be accepted onto Facebook, and so there was this product market fit piece and also a huge demand from other audiences, other colleges, but our younger brothers and sisters were also sort of interested about Facebook and it seemed like it had this much broader appeal. So that’s what happened. I got the marketing job. Cheryl also talks about when you are on getting a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. That was my foot in the door and here we are 19 years later.
Managing Massive Organizations via Small Groups
Lenny Rachitsky: I was just going to say that that’s such a good example of what she recommends of if you can get a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask which seat. And I love the Sean Parker piece. I did not know that. That’s hilarious. What a different life would’ve been if you got that job and went down that track.
So a couple of takeaways here for people that are trying to pick where to work, what I love about your story is one is you just had so much. You just had confidence that this business would work and you just knew that you wanted to get on this rocket ship. You saw attraction. So that told you I guess that added to this confidence that this was going to work out. And then you said that you walked into the office kind of cold, not even cold emailing or calling, but cold arriving. Five to 10 times you said?
Mark’s Culture of Feedback
Naomi Gleit: Yeah, it was pure just refusing to quit. I think I just walked into the office, I talked to the person at the front desk, “Is there anything that I can do?” They weren’t hiring non-technical people. I didn’t have a computer science degree. I wasn’t technical. I had this bachelor of arts degree and that’s why the personal assistant in the marketing role eventually did open and was something that I thought I could be qualified for.
Changing Mark’s Mind
Lenny Rachitsky: Cool. I think that’s such an empowering lesson of if you look at someone like you and they’re like, “Oh, she was so early at Facebook, how lucky,” clearly wasn’t luck. You knew you wanted to work at this company. You put a lot of effort into making it happen no matter the job. I think that’s a really good takeaway and lesson. So if there’s a company today that you are excited about that you’re just like, “This is going to be a massive success,” what I’m hearing is just do everything you can to try to land a job there and eventually you’ll be in a role you actually want. It doesn’t have to start there.
Naomi Gleit: When I got to Facebook, I knew I wanted to build. As someone who wasn’t really technical, I wasn’t going to be an engineer or a coder. I wanted to work with the engineers and the coders to build products. I thought product management was the right function for me, and so my dream was always to be a PM and it wasn’t luck as to how I ended up becoming a PM. I sort of took the same approach showing up at the office asking if there were any roles.
By then, we had moved to 156 University and all of the PMs and engineers worked on the second floor, and I was working in marketing, like I mentioned, and I worked on the third floor and all the business functions worked on the third floor, and my goal was to be a PM. I ended up going, sort of the analogy, I went to the second floor most days after work, asked if there were any projects that I could help out with.
It was very early days. There was always more to do than people to do it. And so eventually I picked up a few projects, helping with program management, giving my product feedback, and by the time that I actually applied formally to be a product manager, I had been doing the job voluntarily, almost informally for a few months.
And I remember this because I had a seat on the third floor. I picked up all the stuff on my desk, put it in a box, walked down to the second floor once I got the job to become a PM. And when I got to the second floor, I distinctly remember everyone on the second floor standing and clapping. And so it was a big standing ovation. I’ll never forget, Boz was there, by the way. I know Boz has been on your podcast, but even Boz was there sort of standing and clapping. And so I guess to the lesson that you were trying to extract from my story, I do think I sort of tried to create the luck by not giving up and just repeatedly cold calling or cold showing up or cold volunteering until I sort of was able to make it happen.
The Facebook Growth Team
Lenny Rachitsky: Amazing. Again, very empowering. It’s not just like, “Oh, there’s these people that just get lucky they land this PM job.” It’s like you landed at the company. I want to be a product manager, which is interesting. Most people don’t grow up in I want to be a product manager. That’s like a rare thing people even want, especially that early on. So it’s interesting that you already knew that, but you basically did the job. You did the job of PM before you had the job, and by the time you actually asked for it, you’ve been doing it for a long time and you could show, “Hey, look, I’m actually good at this. I can do this job.” Awesome.
By the way, I love the Boz connection. I’m finding that Boz is connected to the most guests of this podcast in so many different ways.
Data-Driven vs. Product-Driven Growth
Naomi Gleit: Really?
Community Translation and Technical Solutions
Lenny Rachitsky: Curious. Yeah, like Ami and-
Naomi Gleit: Oh yeah.
The Core Value of Activation Metrics
Lenny Rachitsky: And a few other people. It’s just interesting. There’s a Boz spiderweb of connections throughout this podcast so far. Okay, so I’m going to fast-forward to today. So your role today is head of product at Meta?
The Evolution of User Onboarding
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lessons Learned in Growth
Lenny Rachitsky: What does that mean? What do you do at Meta today? How would you describe your role?
Product-Market Fit and the Growth Team
Naomi Gleit: There are a few thousand PMs at Meta. They do not all report to me. I would say a few hundred of them report to me on the teams that I directly manage, but I feel responsible for the entire PM community at Meta. There are things that we do centrally, things like PM performance, PM culture PM onboarding and training, and that’s the kind of thing that I look out for.
Obviously I wanted to be a PM. Head of product is my dream job. I am deeply supportive of the PM function, and so I really care and I think PMs are a huge point of leverage in a company for how we can actually get stuff done and help accomplish the company’s goals. And so I sort of focus on PM as a really important exponential lever for doing that.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Okay. I’m going to come back to what you’ve learned about what makes super successful PMs, what makes you really successful. I want to take a tangent to Zuck.
Macro vs. Micro Friction
Naomi Gleit: Please. Yes.
Optimizing for Micro Friction
Lenny Rachitsky: So you’ve known Zuck for over 20 years at this point, and I just have to ask a few Zuck questions because people are always curious to learn from what has worked so well for him. The first question is just there’s been a pretty profound transformation in Mark over the past few years, both in terms of how he leads and also just in his coolness and vibe factor. What are your thoughts on just this transformation and how he’s been able to pull it off?
Naomi Gleit: So I’ve always said that there is the biggest gap of anybody I know between what people think of Mark and who Mark really is. And so I think this is the Mark that I’ve known for the past 20 years and the world is finally getting to see what I’ve been lucky enough to see. And that gap that we’ve talked about is really starting to close.
How did we get here? I always say Mark is a learn it all, not a know-it-all. He is the fastest person at upskilling of anyone I’ve ever met. He used to do these annual challenges. One year I did them with him, it was learning Chinese, and within a year he was able to basically achieve an eighth grade fluency in Chinese. And that’s just one example. Obviously, he’s gotten incredibly great at guitar, MMA, a lot of his passions, but he’s also gotten a lot better at some of the professional skills. And I think negotiation, public speaking is one of those. I think before in the early days, it just wasn’t something that he was very comfortable with. He’s talked himself about coming across as a little scripted. I think he was not confident and pretty careful about how he showed up and he’s upskilled here. He’s just gotten a lot more comfortable, and so people are able to see who he really is.
The True Value of Activation Metrics
Lenny Rachitsky: He was also like, I don’t know, 20 something when he started Facebook and now he’s running a 80,000 person org. I could see the emotion habits.
Naomi Gleit: Yes. I think he might’ve been 19 or 20 when I came.
Naomi-isms: Solving Complex Problems
Lenny Rachitsky: Oh God, that’s insane. So yeah, I could see why someone would change. I was at the Acquired podcast Chase event with him being interviewed, and he’s just such a cool dude now. He just has these big shirts with his own letters on it, his own phrases, his chain. What a cool dude.
The Importance of Standardized Documentation
Naomi Gleit: His long hair.
Lenny Rachitsky: His long hair.
Simplification and the School Pyramid
Naomi Gleit: His watch. Yeah, I was at that event too. I thought it was great. I think, yeah, that’s the no gap between who Mark is and what the world sees.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Is there something about Zuck that you know that most people don’t know? Something that would surprise us?
Process for Speed, Not for Process
Naomi Gleit: The one thing I would say about Mark is I think people know he’s married. He has three daughters. He’s a really great dad, he’s a really great husband. I would say he’s also a really good friend. Maybe that’s something that I can sort of speak to from experience. He’s just an incredibly thoughtful friend. There was a period in my life, I think it was 10 years ago when I was going through just sort of a really hard time. I had come out of a breakup, but Mark saw that I was having a hard time. He asked me if I wanted to volunteer to teach a class in East Palo Alto after their school day.
And in retrospect, it’s pretty funny, but Mark and I taught a class about how to build a business. So you had the CEO of Meta teaching this class to a bunch of middle school students, and we got really close to them through that process. We made some really important mentorship connections. For years, we met with them. I think we still continue to, even though they’ve now at this point graduated from college and have real jobs.
But one of the lessons that we taught during that class that I remember Mark distinctly writing on the whiteboard, or not the whiteboard, there actually was chalk, it was with chalk on a chalkboard with the four life lessons. That was one, and I kept these for myself as well, love yourself. Two, only then can you truly serve others. Three, focus on what you can control. And four, for those things never give up.
And that was sort of his life lessons, four steps to how to approach life. And we actually made stickers for these four steps that the students could actually put on their composition notebooks as a reminder. And I think obviously that has really helped me over time, but I think that in that you can see some of what I think we all see in Mark, for example, for those things never give up. He has that aspect of him and it makes sense. For me number three is really the hardest, which is focus on what you can control. I think I probably think I can control more things than I actually can.
Lenny Rachitsky: So do we all. I love that he was sharing that in a class on how to start a business, this life advice.
Teen Accounts: Protecting Teenagers Online
Naomi Gleit: Totally.
The Industry Challenge of Age Verification
Lenny Rachitsky: Oh man, that’s amazing. I want to chat a bit about, so at this point is 86,000 employees, something like that. That’s what I found online. So he has to run this massive org as this CEO, one person. I know that one way that he does this, he has something called a small group. Is that the term?
Naomi Gleit: Yes, small group.
How to Run a Great Meeting
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay, cool. So he’s got the small group that he calls it and it’s essentially is like core execs and this group meets regularly, and that’s kind of how he’s able to manage the entire org through this small group. For people that are struggling to run an increasingly larger org, are there any tidbits from how Mark and the small group operate that might be helpful to folks?
Naomi Gleit: Sure. So I think the first thing is small group is sort of the leadership team. It’s the leaders working on the most important projects at the company, sort of independent of reporting structure and stuff. It’s like who are the leaders on the big most important projects or functions? They will be represented in small group.
What makes this group unique? A lot of them are people like me, people that have been there for a very long time. So I think the tenure of small group is really rare. Why I think that’s important is you have a lot of people that are motivated by mission rather than climbing the corporate ladder at this point. And so there are a lot of what I call disagreeable givers.
So just to back up, I don’t know if you’ve heard this framework, but I think I learned this from Adam Grant during an executive learning and development session, and he was saying that if you think of a two-by-two, there’s people who are agreeable and disagreeable, and then there’s people who are givers and takers.
And the most dangerous kind of person to have in an organization is an agreeable taker. And what that means is an agreeable person, super nice, everyone likes them, really easy to get along with, but they’re a taker and maybe their motivation is more self-interested rather than what’s best for the company, which is how I would define a giver. And the most precious person in an organization is the disagreeable giver. Those are the people who are really motivated to do what’s best for the company, but they can be a little bit disagreeable in the sense that they may not say what you want to hear. They may push back on things, they may fight for things. And so I think small group is characterized by a lot of disagreeable givers and I think that’s really important for an organization.
One thing I think Mark has done really well in general is just have a culture, including on his leadership team, of people who give him feedback. I think a lot of times as you get more successful or as you have more fame or if you have more wealth, you lose having an accurate feedback loop. And people may not want to be a hundred percent honest with you for various reasons. And Mark has tried to ensure that he himself has an accurate feedback loop, or we as a company have more of an accurate feedback loop by surrounding himself and our leadership team and creating a culture of giving direct and honest feedback. So that’s some of the unique properties of small group.
From a process perspective, we have one weekly sort of strategic meeting. It’s more open-ended, there is time for discussion. It’s longer and it’s sort of more unstructured. We also have one weekly operational meeting, which is highly structured where we go through all of the priority projects. The person who owns each of the projects will actually speak to the weekly updates for that project. And it’s very operational and tactical.
Exercise and Work Performance
Lenny Rachitsky: Awesome. I just love this name, small group. It’s just like a cozy name. It’s not like executive staff or ESA after all these terms people always use. And that’s just our small group.
Naomi Gleit: Totally.
The PM as a Conductor
Lenny Rachitsky: And then this framework you described, it sounds a lot like radical candor of challenging directly, but caring deeply.
The PM as the Product’s CEO
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
The Lightning Round
Lenny Rachitsky: Where being disagreeable, but being constructive and additive. Is that the term? What was it? Disagreeable, but?
Movie and TV Recommendations
Naomi Gleit: A giver.
Lenny Rachitsky: Giver? Yeah.
Favorite Product Recommendations
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay. That’s great.
Life Mottos and Principles
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: If there’s nothing here, totally cool. But is there something that you changed Mark’s mind about? You’ve talked about he’s good at seeing new data and being like, “Oh, okay, I see, I see.” Or is there anything that you were successful there that is an interesting story?
Life Lessons from Surfing
Naomi Gleit: One of the things that we did in the early days on the growth team, because I’m not sure that necessarily when we talk about this sort of legacy or the history or the lore around the growth team, and this may not be a direct answer to the question, but it didn’t really necessarily-
And this may not be a direct answer to the question, but it didn’t really necessarily come from Mark. Mark wasn’t like, “You guys should create a growth team. Here’s how you should operate.” And so I think in some ways we established and grew a growth team and Mark got on board or saw the value in it and was a huge proponent of it, but I’m not sure it necessarily originated with him. And indeed, I think sometimes the focus on being so data- driven might’ve been something that myself, Alex Schultz, Javier Olavon, these are some of the original people that were on the growth team and that my closest coworkers now may have really pushed on and highlighted the value of for Mark. I’m happy to talk about the growth team, which is something I get asked a lot of questions about, if you want.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I’d love to. That’s exactly where I was about to segue since you brought that up. So the Facebook growth team, it’s a legendary team. I think it was probably the first real growth team in tech. The team developed some of the most core growth levers and techniques that companies use today, and so I’m really excited to chat a bit about this and what you learned from that time. One thing I wanted to start with is there’s this legendary activation metric that you all had, the goal was to get, I think it was seven friends in 10 days or something like that. Is that a real thing? Is that what you guys actually did? Anything more there for folks that are like, “Oh, we got to come up with something like this”?
Naomi Gleit: Sure. So yes, seven friends in 10 days was a thing. 10 friends in 14 days was also a thing. They’re the same thing, they’re just different points on a retention curve. I would say the key insight here is when we started the growth team, I think we were pretty focused on acquisition. We had a notion though of growth accounting, which looks at what’s our net growth every day? And that would look at the number of new users that registered minus the number of users that actually went stale. So after a 30-day period, that’s how we define it, they no longer logged in. And then plus the number of users that resurrected, which is after 30 days they came back. And what we found was the churn in resurrection lines were actually much larger than the new user line, which implied to us that retention and driving those two lines was actually our biggest lever to drive net growth.
And so while we were focused on acquisition, a lot of our focus shifted to be around engagement and retention. How do we drive engagement and retention? We look at the variables that correlate most with that outcome. What we found was friending. And so those two magic moments, having seven friends in 10 days or 10 friends in 14 days really just map to when we feel like your likelihood of being a retained user goes up because you’ve seen the value in Facebook. And it makes sense, Facebook is much more compelling if you have 14 friends. And the other thing around 10 or 14 days is we wanted it to happen quickly, we wanted to have you experience the magic moment soon after you had registered on the site to prevent you from churning and then us having to resurrect you again.
Lenny Rachitsky: One of the most interesting lessons from this activation metric that people talk about, because right now everyone’s like, “Yeah, of course retention is what you need to focus on. That’s what product-market fit is.” I think right now that’s what everyone knows. I love that you guys basically figured that out, was one of the first times of, “Here’s how we understand if our product will last and how to grow retention because it matters most.” And retention cohort curves I think was one of the innovations y’all thought about early of just like, “Here’s how we track retention, people joining at a certain time, how long do they stick around?”
Naomi Gleit: Totally. And that was Danny Ferrante who really came up with the growth accounting framework, which I guess is quite obvious, but the plus new minus stale plus resurrected. The thing that I feel like may be valuable for PMs and is one of my Naomi-isms is I think what the growth team really pioneered was being data-driven and product-driven, especially in an area that was historically more of a business function. So I think at that time a lot of the growth in new users was expected to come from marketing or comms, whereas the insight that we had is actually the product is the biggest lever to drive growth, and that means we should have a product and engineering team working on optimizing things like the registration flow, the invite flow, the new user onboarding, getting you seven friends in 10 days.
One of my Naomi-isms is really understand, identify, and execute. That framework came from 2009 where the growth team at the time, it was fledgling and it just started, was focused on only instrumenting data. And Alex often wears a shirt that says, “I guess when you can know.” We just didn’t have the data that we needed to make informed decisions to know really what were the biggest levers to drive growth. And so in 2009 in January, we basically stopped doing anything on our roadmap except data instrumentation. And that’s when we instrumented every step of the registration flow, instrumented every step of the news or onboarding experience. We knew where there was drop off. And so we understood, which allowed us to identify what were the key opportunities to drive growth and maybe, hey, it’s increasing friending in the user experience or 20% drop off on registered users at the email confirmation step, how can we address that? These are the opportunities that we identified and then we would execute by building products.
So having this data-driven product-driven approach to what I think historically was more of a business responsibility at a company was sort of the special sauce of the growth team. We eventually extended that approach. I think that approach started with the growth team, but we extended to other areas. So for example, one of the projects that I took on after growth was social impact. And instead of what I think a normal company might do, which is start a corporate social responsibility wing, we decided, no, we’re going to take a data-driven product-driven approach to driving social impact. Instead of having a foundation that’s distributing money, we’re going to build a product that actually raises money from our community. And many years later we’ve raised billions of dollars from the community for charity. So that’s sort of the approach that I think is unique about the growth team that expanded to other areas and that I think that the company in many ways has taken to most of the problems that we face.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s such a good point. And I almost took that for granted, but there was such a huge shift that y’all started from moving from marketing being the driver of growth to product and data and experiments and all that stuff. And so I think that’s such a good reminder that, fun fact on the social good team, I’m really close friends with the designer that was on my team, his name’s Mickey. He was on that team for a while and really enjoyed and yeah, really enjoyed working with you. Fun fact.
Naomi Gleit: Oh, that’s so great. I remember Mickey, what is his last name?
Lenny Rachitsky: Settler.
Naomi Gleit: Okay. Yes, I definitely remember this, yes. And social impact is just one thing that I think I’m really proud of. And again, remember social impact used to be a business thing. You would create this corporate social responsibility part of the company that was very separate from the product and engineering team.
Another thing that we did in the early days was there was a juncture where it was like, “How are we going to translate this site?” And I think we could have taken more of a non-technical traditional approach and had professional translators translate the entire site into the different languages, and instead sort of what the growth team suggested was why don’t we build a version of Facebook that allows you to make translations in line? And so the community of people using Facebook at the time who actually knew the product the best could actually insert translations and there was a whole system that we built around how to up-rank the best translations and down-rank, sort of like Wikipedia. And to this day, we have over 100 languages supported. So we’re always trying to find these product technology solutions to these sort of traditional problems.
Lenny Rachitsky: I totally remember that, where it’s like you ask your users to help translate the site.
Naomi Gleit: Yes, yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: I want to come back real quick to the activation metric because it’s something that a lot of people somewhat misuse and think maybe incorrectly about. So to come up with an activation, as you described, you basically figure out what’s the regression of if someone does X, retention increases, and so let’s focus on getting them there. And a lot of people struggle with coming up with that metric. Do you have any thoughts on just how important it was to have that very specific activation milestone of seven exact friends in exactly 10 days versus the value of just having anything that is a rallying point for everyone to focus on and drive?
Naomi Gleit: I think the majority of the value is in the latter, is just having extreme clarity around the goal and that allowed everybody to work towards optimizing the same goal. You’re right, we did sort of just pick a point on the curve. I think it could have been any of those. And indeed, as part of preparing for this, I was like, “Was it seven friends in 10 days?” I had to go back and I asked a few people that I worked with back in the day and they were like, “Well, I thought it was 10 in 14.” I mean, I think it doesn’t matter, it’s just that we picked one of them and what mattered there was we had the same goal, what mattered was that it was a retention goal or an activation metric.
And one of the most important things that actually came out of having that goal was building a new user experience. Believe it or not, when we first launched Facebook, I wasn’t around then, but in the early days of when it was just a college site, we didn’t need a news or onboarding. We didn’t need to explain to people that they had to find their friends. They were sort of automagically connected to everyone on the college campus and sort of knew how to use this product, it felt very intuitive. Again, we were college students building a product for other college students. They were sitting next to each other in libraries or at desks and sort of through osmosis understanding how the product worked.
It was more when we launched the ability for teens to register and then work networks, and then in 2006 open registration where we started getting all kinds of people with any email address, before it was .edu or a microsoft.com email address that was required in order to sign up for Facebook and then anyone with any email just could register including people like my dad and my grandma that we realized, wow, in order to get people to this magic moment, how are we going to do that? What’s the most effective way that insight resulted in building a new user experience? I remember it was just like step one, upload your profile picture. That was really important so people could find you and know who you were. Step two, find your friends. That’s where a lot of the contact importing and people you may know and, “Here are other people at your school and here are mutual friends.” That step in the news or experience ultimately became one of the most important drivers of that activation metric that we talked about.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that you shared that, such a recurring theme on this podcast, the power of onboarding, the value of investing in onboarding and the ripple effects of opportunities there. I love that you also were kind of like the first like, “Onboarding, that’s a thing, we need onboarding.”
Naomi Gleit: I know. I mean, I remember the day where I was like, “Do we need to explain to people how to use this? Is it not obvious?” And it’s like my dad’s like, “I don’t understand this whatsoever.” My dad would go on to become Facebook’s biggest power user because I always beta tested everything with him. But that was not obvious to us at the time in 2006 that we had to explain to people how to use Facebook.
And again, remember that it’s fun talking about this because obviously the product has evolved so much, but the principles are relatively the same. It was thefacebook.com, eventually it became facebook.com, but eventually we built a mobile app and then it was mobile first product, and then it was about mobile photos, and then it was about mobile videos. So over time, the technology has really changed, but the core use case that we really need to educate people on, which is how to connect with their friends on Facebook and whatever iteration or product is the same. And so obviously we still have an onboarding today and it’s relatively the same principles, like get a profile picture and find your friends.
Lenny Rachitsky: Along those same lines, just maybe a last question around the growth stuff that you worked on for folks that are thinking of driving growth, working on onboarding maybe specifically just are there any lessons from things that worked super well when you were looking to accelerate growth of the Facebook early on that you think people are maybe sleeping on as lepers and tactics that worked back then that might still be really powerful today?
Naomi Gleit: Well, definitely the understand, identify, execute. I would just ask yourselves, do you have the data that you need to know what you need to do on growth? And if not, definitely take the time to instrument that data.
The thing that, I think we were relatively lucky, I talked about why I was bullish on Facebook in 2005 even was because there was product-market fit. And so for us growth, as much credit as we give to the growth team, I’m actually not sure how much credit we deserve and how much incremental growth we drove above and beyond the fact that this was a product that had product-market fit and we benefited in a huge amount from having high demand for the product.
So at every step, and I talked about the growth team, the projects that we were working on were really at a high level around removing barriers. There were macro barriers, like the first project I worked on was high school students on Facebook, which is an interesting story in and of itself because at that time we almost created a separate website called Facebook High just to keep them separate from the college students. But at that time we were like, “No, this is one graph. This is one community. College students have friends and people they’re connected to of all different ages. Why bifurcate the graph?” And obviously we’ve maintained that principle ever since.
But it was about removing barriers. So you had to be a college student, then you had to be a high school student, then you had to be in a work network, then you had to have any email address. One of the next projects I worked on was not everyone has access to a smartphone, how can we remove the barrier of having access to a smartphone and building more of a rich Facebook experience for someone that was using a feature phone or a lower-end device? Internet.org, what about removing the barrier of having access to the internet or being able to afford a data plan? And so those are the macro barriers that thematically the growth team has worked on.
What I would say is maybe applicable is really the micro barriers. All of the work that we did on growth around optimizing the flows were really about removing micro barriers. One of the things that I thought was just so elegant was after we did that 2009 instrumentation of all the flows, the product flows relevant to growth, what we found is 20% of people aren’t actually confirming their email. We tried sending them an SMS, so maybe they would confirm the SMS instead. What we found was a lot of people are actually still clicking on notifications that they’re getting, but because it wasn’t the specific confirmation email, we weren’t able to confirm the account.
And so what we did was allow people to get notifications even as an unconfirmed account, and then if they clicked on any of those notifications, that would count as an account confirmation as well because they proved ownership of the email. It’s just removing a micro barrier of having to go find the confirmation email, click it before you can do anything on the site. So I do think we’ve been relatively lucky in having a lot of high demand That meant that we could focus on just removing micro barriers. And then on the growth team, a lot of the iterations and optimizations were about removing just sort of friction.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that framework of micro barriers and macro barriers, just thinking about ways to make this accessible to more people and also just helping them get through the flow faster. I also love your point about how a lot of growth teams get a lot of credit for growing a business when really in many ways it could have done really well even without that team potentially because product-market fit was so strong. I think about this with Airbnb honestly as just such after it gets to a certain point, such good product-market fit that who knows what would’ve happen if there was no one working on growth? It probably would’ve been okay for a long time.
Naomi Gleit: Totally. And then maybe where we do sort of see the impact is maybe something like the translations thing that we talked about. With the macro barrier, removing the language barrier, and so maybe the approach we took meant that we supported 100 plus languages instead of whatever the professional translators, we have the long tail of languages so that last person who’s still speaking a near extinct language can still use Facebook. But yeah, I think that’s right. I sometimes think that maybe some of our efforts were really more on the margin of a bigger trend around product-market fit.
Lenny Rachitsky: Final little thing I would just want to highlight again that you said that I think is so important, and I’ve always thought is true and I love that you confirmed it, is that the activation metric that you all rallied around the biggest value of it wasn’t this is exactly the right regression connection to retention, it’s more that we have something we are all going to focus on, and that is where most of the impact comes from is let’s get more people to that point, whether it’s perfectly right or not, it doesn’t really matter.
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: Love that. And I think that’s really freeing to a lot of people because they’re like, “Oh, we don’t know if we’re going to be as perfect about this versus let’s just drive some growth and get people who are good enough thinking on that.” Okay, great.
You mentioned Naomi-isms, I want to segue to that. So let me first read a quote. So I asked Adam Mosseri, who is Head of Instagram, what to ask you. I know you guys work together on a bunch of stuff. Here’s how he described you, “Naomi is called the conductor here at Meta. She has an incredible ability to handle the most complex projects and problems and bring the right people together to simplify and solve them. She is very firm yet kind. Her standards are extremely high, and she sets the bar.” Also many other people that I messaged said very similar things about you, about how you’re incredibly good at taking very complex problems and getting shit done, getting them done, simplifying them and getting them done.
So I want to spend some time understanding what you’ve learned about how to do this well. What are the skills you’ve collected that allow you to take really complex problems and get to a solution, stay kind but firm and take on these really hard challenges? So maybe just broadly, I’m curious, what are some of these skills that you have built that allow you to do this?
Naomi Gleit: Yeah, well also that’s very kind of Adam. I adore Adam obviously, he is one of the tenured people in small group and I’ve actually gotten the opportunity to work even more closely with him than usual. We recently launched something called Teen Accounts and Adam and I worked very closely on that.
In terms of how I do the things people say that I can do, I really rely on Naomi-isms. Like I said, and actually I refer your podcast out a lot because there isn’t just a PM university that I can send people to, there isn’t a formal training that people can get to become a product manager, and that’s where Naomi-isms came from. It was stuff that I learned on the job from other people, including from Adam, that I found myself repeating over and over again. “A good PM looks for a way to make that more efficient,” for me, that was writing them down, people started calling them Naomi-isms. I started sharing them internally. And then I think two years ago, I also started sharing them externally.
Adam referred to me as a conductor, that’s one of the Naomi-isms, in my role as Head of Product, I want to educate the PM community about what is PM? It’s the most common question I get from PMs and non-PMs, “What do PMs do? What makes a great PM?” And what I say is a PM is a conductor. It’s as though the team that you are a PM on is an orchestra. There are many different functions in your team that includes legal policy, comms, data analytics, engineering, design, much like there are many different instruments in an orchestra. And as a PM, your job is to make sure everyone’s playing their part correctly, every section in the orchestra is playing their part, but at the same time, they’re playing together, they’re unified in the music that they’re producing and that they’re playing at the right tempo.
And a lot of times I think people use music analogies or vocabulary to describe the work, and that includes things like people being in harmony, like a good team, a good PM, a good orchestra is in harmony, they’re in sync, they’re at the right tempo, they have the right cadence. That’s sort of how I imagine what a PM does at work. Important characteristics are the PM is not the star of the show. Indeed, conductors don’t even say anything during the performance. And also, I would at the same time give PMs little metronomes and conductor wands. This was something that I used to do when we were smaller., Just to sort of take the analogy way too far.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s so funny. You actually gave him conductor wands and metronomes?
Naomi Gleit: Oh yeah, just to wave around. Yeah, I love that.
Lenny Rachitsky: I would love a conductor wand.
Naomi Gleit: So PM as conductor is sort of how I describe the product management function, but one of the key Naomi-isms that I think is really critical to getting stuff done is what I call extreme clarity. I think our jobs are super hard. Extreme clarity means everyone’s on the same page. It definitely doesn’t mean that they all agree with each other, but they just have the same understanding of the facts. So we can disagree, but we all believe in the facts, which is that there’s A, B, C, our options are X, Y, Z and here are the trade-offs 1, 2, 3. That kind of shared understanding is what extreme clarity is.
That came from a place of just being in many meetings, on many emails, in many situations where I felt like we actually agree on something, the nature of this conflict is a result of misunderstanding. And that seems like an incredible waste of time. And so we want to have extreme clarity so we can just focus our conversations on things when we actually agree, not when we are misunderstanding each other. There are a lot of tactics that I use to drive extreme clarity.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I was going to ask how you do that, that sounds great.
Naomi Gleit: … Tactics that I use to drive extreme clarity.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I was going to ask how do you do that. That sounds great. How does one get to extreme clarity?
Naomi Gleit: So another name I’m using is canonical everything, so that includes canonical nomenclature, I often talk about canonical nomenclature. One way to ensure extreme clarity is we have the shared vocabulary. I’ve been in a lot of situations where people are using the same or different words to describe the same or different things, which results in talking past each other. One of the most egregious examples of this is when I was working, I was in a conversation around how our reviewers and global operations were performing, and we were using consistency and accuracy interchangeably. Consistency refers to how often different reviewers agree on the decision. Accuracy refers to how often the decision is correct according to ground truth. Those are very different things. We don’t want to optimize for consistency because you could be consistently wrong. We want to optimize for accuracy.
And so that is what canonical nomenclature is literally writing out all the words in their definitions, so when we communicate, we are using the same vocabulary. I really believe in visuals. I think sometimes just having a conversation or a big meeting where people are talking, I’m just not very auditory, I’m a very visual person, it’s hard for me to follow along just by listening. I will often have a visual in a meeting. I will leverage that visual to literally real time edit what is being decided. For example, if we have multiple options, I will edit the slide that’s being projected to say, “We decided on option one, here are the next steps, 1, 2, 3.” A lot of times people are saying, “That’s not what I heard. I heard this as a next step, or I heard that as a next step.” I love that because that avoids leaving the meeting and being like, “I don’t know what we agreed to. I heard this, you heard that.” No, actually we haven’t agreed upon set of decisions and next steps that we all real time edited and looked at together.
Lenny Rachitsky: Just to double click on that one real quick, so what you’re describing for the visual is you’re presenting here’s our options, here’s our three options on a slide. You all decide we’re going to go with option two, you edit the slide with a star, here’s what we chose, and then maybe change some stuff. And this is exactly to your point of extreme clarity, people can see clearly this is what we’re choosing. If they disagree and don’t realize that’s what’s happening, it’ll be really clear.
Naomi Gleit: Totally.
Lenny Rachitsky: Awesome.
Naomi Gleit: And one thing people make fun of me a lot for that I think is just a great example of extreme clarity is I never use bulleted lists because you can never refer to a bullet. I always use numbered lists because you can always in the visual in a meeting as referenced in number two, I have feedback on that, versus the third bullet, two up from the second, whatever, that is not extreme clarity. So it’s very, very small tactical things to bigger things like canonical everything. But I can be a little bit strict.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that very tactical tip and that is awesome, that’s exactly the stuff I look for. Is there any other very nuanced tip along those lines that is helpful in extreme clarity or canonical everything?
Naomi Gleit: Canonical everything… And stop me if I’m getting too wonky, I can really get into this.
Lenny Rachitsky: We got a ways to go.
Naomi Gleit: When I had a face bursary, along the years people have given me posters and the posters say these Naomi-ism, so extreme clarity is one, canonical everything is another. I think people really associate me with canonical, canonical, canonical. I always want a canonical doc. This came from a place of me I work on a lot of different projects, a lot of times I’m ramping up mid-project, I’m like, “Where can I learn what I need to learn about this project?” I ask five different people, get five different answers, that is unacceptable. Everyone should know exactly where the canonical doc is. That’s the one place I can go to get all the information I need about a project and it will link to all the other docs. Of course, I’m sure there’s hundreds of docs associated with the project, but there needs to be one canonical doc, and that canonical doc really has to have the basic information that you need to know.
For any project, the basic information that you need to know is what are the discrete areas of work, I call those work streams, this is pretty obvious. Who are the owners on those work streams? So for every work stream there’s an owner. Again, it seems pretty obvious. Sometimes I’m like, “Who’s owning this?” And it’s like people don’t know. That’s why I think it’s very important to have a single-threaded owner. We used to call this a directly responsible individual or a throat to choke. We obviously don’t say that anymore. Single-threaded owner, every work stream has a single-threaded owner. Sometimes work streams are really big. You have sub work streams underneath them. Everything canonical needs to recurse, so you should have an owner or an STO for the sub work stream. The other things on the canonical doc are what is the process by which the people on this team work together.
I hate pairwise conversations. I feel like they’re a waste of time. I feel like you could have four conversations with four different people or one conversation with all four people. Everyone has the same context. Ideally there’s a visual in that meeting and you real time edited it, there is extreme clarity. The canonical doc will have what is the canonical meetings that people have, what is the canonical email list that you’re going to use, what is the canonical workplace chat. Let’s not reinvent the same audience 10 different times with different permutations of the people on the working team. Let’s just have one canonical chat. And then often the canonical doc will have the canonical nomenclature. I really believe in frameworks for things that helps drive extreme clarity. A framework is best understood when there’s a visual representation of the framework in my mind, and so we’ll have canonical visuals and that’s what I mean by canonical everything. So anytime I start on a new project, everyone knows to send me the canonical doc.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love this. If you come into a that you’ve given that’s really gnarly and complex, what do you find are the first couple things you do that make a big dent on helping everyone align and understand what happens, what they should be doing and what they should be prioritizing?
Naomi Gleit: A lot of times I’m simplifying. A lot of times there isn’t a canonical doc and so I’ll go through the process of creating that, but I think that really falls under the simplification thing. I often go into a project, everyone’s operating at a PhD level, I’m coming in at a kindergarten level, and so I need to understand… It’s almost like all of this complexity we’re at a PhD level, I need to create the curriculum, go back to basic building blocks for the kindergarten level, how do I explain that and understand this project at a kindergarten level. It doesn’t mean I want to oversimplify, that’s not what a simplifier does. They’re not oversimplifying, but what they are doing is identifying the most basic building blocks of a complex problem and then unfolding, or revealing or building on top of them additional complexity and details as you go along.
And so sometimes I talk about a school pyramid, but I need to establish the kindergarten curriculum and then the elementary school curriculum and then the high school curriculum and then the college curriculum, and then we can operate at the PhD level. But oftentimes people on the project are at really different levels of understanding or complexity. And until we have what we call the school pyramid, the curriculums for every level of the project, it’s really hard to make progress. A lot of times that process of simplification will often identify what are the most important things to deal with on the project.
Lenny Rachitsky: And so what I’m hearing is when you come into a project and the way you simplify is you start putting together a doc that describes these things you’re talking about, here’s the work streams, here’s the owners, here’s the process, here’s our canonical meeting style, and that reveals here’s what matters most and where there’s confusion.
Naomi Gleit: Yes, yes. Yeah, that is. And a lot of times what needs to happen in the project is sometimes there’s a strategy or an execution issue and sometimes there’s a people or a process issue. I would say 80% of the time I think it’s a people or process issue. And that refers to not having the right people on the project, or having the right people but not having the right process by which they work together, a strategy or execution issue. When we get to that, I first try to tackle those or in general I think it’s really important to have perfect execution. I want to make sure a project is perfectly executing, because only then can we really reevaluate whether or not this strategy is right or wrong. We’re in the worst of all worlds where we are imperfectly executing and therefore, at the end of the day, the project might fail, but we don’t know why.
Is it because the strategy was right or wrong or is it because the execution was poor? The ideal case is the strategy was right and you perfectly executed on it. The next best case scenario is the strategy was wrong, but you perfectly executed on it, because then you learned the strategy was wrong. Revamp the strategy and try again.
Lenny Rachitsky: You’re really in the PM part of my brain. I feel like most PMs listening are like it has clean documents, really simple processes, there’s one person to charge, it links to everything. It just feels good.
Naomi Gleit: Totally. And, again, sometimes I feel the need to defend that the process is not for process’ sake, it’s ultimately to help us all move faster and work better. So hopefully that comes through. But I deeply believe that it is through this approach that we can move faster. And you have to prove that nobody wants more process and more meetings and more, but my goal is that with this we’re actually simplifying process and getting less meetings and just making things clearer and ultimately moving faster.
Lenny Rachitsky: I’m going to read another quote from another one of your co-workers, Charles Porch, he’s vice president of global partnerships at Instagram and he basically said what we’ve been talking about, some of the biggest strategic bets and biggest swings Meta has made have had Naomi at the helm. No one can hurt cats, drive clarity, and get to outcomes more seamlessly than she can. She’s legendary within Meta for her canonical documents.
Naomi Gleit: Great.
Lenny Rachitsky: Maybe just following this thread a little bit further, what’s the gnarliest project that you’ve worked on that would be a good example of you coming in and helping simplify and get it over the finish line?
Naomi Gleit: Well, Charles may be thinking of the most recent project that we worked on. I don’t know if it’s necessarily the gnarliest, but it’s definitely one of the most cross-functional projects that I’ve worked on before. Basically every team at the company in some way works on youth. And last week we actually launched teen accounts, which was a very complex project. Again, it involved the Instagram team, the central youth team, the different teams working on various aspects of this, every function, legal policy, comms, marketing product. And I think we definitely leveraged a lot of these Naomi-isms. And just to give you a sense of what teen accounts is, it was basically putting all teens into the safest settings by default on Instagram. And the reason I’m working on this, I work across multiple teams at Facebook, so obviously Adam is the head of Instagram and I work closely with him on this, like I was referring to yesterday.
But this is something, these teen accounts, is something that we are thinking about how we expand to the other apps that we have, including Facebook and WhatsApp and Threads. And I tend to work on projects that are across our family of apps and future platforms, and that’s why I was involved in this. But basically what teen accounts does is put teens in these safest settings. It’s super focused on trying to address parents’ biggest concerns around their teens on social media. This has obviously been a really big topic. We’ve had a lot of these features and tools. What this launch did is simplify things, standardize things, and add a lot more functionality that gives parents control.
I think the thing you really need to know is that for under 16-year-olds, if they want to change any of these defaults, they’re going to have to get their parents’ permission. And so it’s interesting that we’re really going to create an incentive for teens to get their parents involved and to actually set up parental supervision, especially because one of the default settings is a private account. So there’s tens of millions of teens that currently have public accounts today that we are going to automatically transition to private accounts unless they get their parents’ permission to stay public. And so it’s a relatively big shift, fundamental change for how Instagram works for teens, and I would say one of the more complicated projects that I’ve worked.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, and it just launched, right?
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: As a new father, I’m excited for you all to be working on these sorts of things. I don’t need it yet, but I’m glad it’s going to be there. And it’s funny how Meta and Facebook is in this world where people complain about teens using social media and then you work on making the product better for teens and kids using social media, and then it’s like, “Facebook’s getting teens on social media.” There’s no way to make it feel good to people. No matter what you do, people are going to complain. That’s what-
Naomi Gleit: Totally. And I think the goal of this launch was to orient ourselves and really there’s a lot of complaints, there’s a lot of different voices. I think we just are focused on parents. We think parents know best. Every kid is different and parents know their own kid the best. So that has been our north star in terms of the approach here. When I talk about teen accounts, as product people I think one thing that you would appreciate is the thing that I think is really important when it comes to teens on the internet is really having an understanding of how old someone is when they’re using our apps. And it’s important that we know how old they are because then we can put them in an age-appropriate experience. So now we have teen accounts, we want to put all teens into teen accounts.
We all know sometimes teens lie. That’s been the biggest feedback that we’ve been getting is teens are really smart, they’re going to find workarounds, they’re going to be creative, they’re going to lie about their age. And as a product person, the way that I think this should really work is that instead of everyone entering… Teens use, on average, 40 apps, instead of Instagram and the other 39 apps that teens use trying to verify the age of the person using their app is for two companies to do this, which is Apple and Google, they do collect the age, they should make that available to developers. And we ask for information from the device all the time with user consent, can Instagram have access to your camera, can Instagram have access to your location information? Apps should be able to ask, can Instagram have access to your birthday? And that would, I think, elegantly from a product perspective, from a simplification perspective, from a privacy preserving perspective and what’s easiest for parents, that would be the right product solution to solve this problem around age that we’re all trying to grapple with right now.
And there’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing. Part of the reason that this project was so complicated, and I mentioned the age team, is we’re building classifiers to try to predict how old people are based on not just the age that they’ve stated, but based on who they’re talking to, what kind of content they’re looking at, what the age of the people they’re connected to is, do we think that this is actually an adult like they say, or is it really a teen. And so we’re doing a lot to try to predict age or prevent people from lying about their age, but I think this would be a really big win for the industry.
Lenny Rachitsky: Makes sense to me.
Naomi Gleit: Okay. Thank you, Lenny.
Lenny Rachitsky: So to close out this portion in this chapter of our conversation on Naomi-isms, I know something else that you’re really good at that I’ve heard from a few people is running meetings, something that a lot of people always want to get better at. Any tips? What have you learned about running a great meeting?
Naomi Gleit: A meeting is a high value and it’s high cost amount of time, and then I want to make sure it’s as productive as possible. What I will do is send an agenda 24 hours prior to the meeting. That agenda will include a pre-read. I’ve talked to people who if the pre-read is not attached to the calendar invite or associated with a meeting at least 24 hours in advance, they will cancel the meeting. That just goes to show we want everybody in the meeting to have full context, have read the pre-read. Often what will happen in the previous 24 hours is because we’re all sending pre-reads on Google Slides, there will be a lot of conversation and questions that get hashed out leading up to the meeting. During the meeting, like I said, I think it’s really important for a group of people to be looking at something and anchoring people on something.
If somebody joins the meeting, say, five minutes late, they should know exactly where in the agenda you are in the meeting and what is being discussed based on catching up from the visual that’s being projected. Usually a meeting can be and hopefully a meeting is really either is a decision meeting. So if there is a decision, I need three options and I need a recommendation that should hopefully help focus the meeting. And then, like I said, I will real-time edit the visual such that we document and have extreme clarity on what is the option that we agreed on and any next steps that we also agreed to.
After the meeting, anyone who wasn’t in the meeting, that’s fine because within 24 hours post-meeting I will send the notes, reply all to the meeting invite and send the notes. So just tactically, I use the calendar invite as the canonical unit by which to handle all of this communication because a lot of times meetings are one-offs, there isn’t an existing email or chat thread that maps perfectly to the audience of the meeting, so for me that is the meeting or the calendar invite. So I’ll click on the calendar invite, reply all, include the pre-read, pre-meeting, and then do this reply all again post-meeting 24 hours with the notes and the decisions and the next steps.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love this. So many very specific tactics here. I love it. This is food for my brain. I love the always have three options and a recommendation, that’s such a simple thing to recommend, but such a powerful way of operating as a PM, just like, “Here are the options, here’s what I recommend, here’s why.”
Naomi Gleit: Oh, one thing I forgot that I learned from Guy Rosen, he is our chief security officer, is when you have three options and a recommendation, in terms of evaluating the options, I don’t love pros and cons. It’s a flat list of text. It’s hard to just get the big picture from that. Oftentimes we’ll use a traffic light. That means that the three options are three rows. The columns in the table will be criteria by which to evaluate the options. Those could either be functions. So for example, if I have three options as the rows, column one could be the legal perspective, column two could be the policy perspective, column three could be the privacy or product perspective. Alternatively, the columns could map to different criteria like what we’re optimizing for. So it could be the user experience, it could be the engineering feasibility, it could be the internal complexity, whatever are the criteria should be laid out in the columns.
And then obviously it should be color-coded, red, yellow, green based on how it stacks up against those criteria. And what this allows is to get back to the point of the visual is you can quickly look at the three options, see where’s the most red, and rule that out. Ideally, the recommendation has some combination of the more green or yellow than the other options. And then obviously within these cells you can spell out the specific rationale for the coloring. But I think this is a really good way to run a meeting and just create extreme clarity around how you’re evaluating the options in a way that a flat list of pros and cons just doesn’t.
Lenny Rachitsky: What other podcasts would have this level of detail of how to run a discussion on a decision? And this is exactly what people want to hear, so I love it. So product market fit for listeners of this podcast. I love it. I love it. And obviously the reason this is more effective is it’s not just like, “Here’s a quick sentence on the pro and con.” It’s like, “Here’s what I actually think this is good or bad for the things that matter to the business.”
Naomi Gleit: That’s exactly right.
Lenny Rachitsky: So that makes tons of sense.
Naomi Gleit: It also gives people a framework to plug into. A lot of times the creation of a pre-read for these discussions involves many different people from many different teams and functions. If you have a traffic light, they can own filling out their cell, they can own the rationale behind the legal position on option one, two, and three. And, in general, I’m super into frameworks that allow people to plug into and clearly represent their point of view.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love it. Final question, completely different topic. I saw a Wall Street Journal story about how you exercise and your exercise regimen, and how important that is to your life and career. Now, most people don’t have a Wall Street Journal story about their exercise regimen, especially a tech worker. And I know this is just important to your work, and they wrote that this basically helps you become better at your job. Any advice there for folks that want to lean into exercise, exercise more for how to actually do that? Because your advice is this actually makes you better at work and life.
Naomi Gleit: People are always like, “What are you training for?” And I’m like, “I’m training for life.” I have four musties, it is eat, sleep a long time, and exercise. Those are the things that I need in order to perform. And the other areas of my life seems pretty obvious, but until recently I actually did not prioritize sleep. My boyfriend is actually super into sleep and we have the Eight Sleep, we have eye masks, we have blackout shades, we have good sleep hygiene, and so I’m getting much better at that. But exercise is something that I’ve always been on top of. Alone time is also a musty for me because I’m an introvert, I need that time to recharge, otherwise I think I get weird around people.
In terms of how I prioritize it, it’s a non-negotiable or table stakes, every morning I have to work out. I am also lucky enough to work in an environment where I can wear workout clothes to work, which I often do. I think working out is sure the hour of the day that I’m doing my exercise, but I also view, like I said, life is a workout, performing at work is a workout. I need to be able to move. I need to feel comfortable. It’s very physical, I think, especially if you’re trying really hard to be a conductor, and I’m running around with a metaphorical conductor wand, I need to be able to move. A while ago, and that’s what the Wall Street Journal article was about, I set a goal of doing five pull-ups. I’d read somewhere in an article that less than 1% of women can actually do. I think having a goal is really helpful.
That’s something that I worked on, and anyone can do this truly if you train for it. I think it’s potentially more technique for me than strength per se, and I worked up towards that goal. I think exercise, in addition to all of the physical benefits, primarily has a mental health benefit I think for me. And also there are just a lot of lessons that I think I take from exercise. For example, I think being able to do five pull-ups taught me I can do hard things in this really narrow, measurable way, which gave me confidence in other aspects of my life.
Lenny Rachitsky: I had a friend who her goal was…
Naomi Gleit: Another aspect of my life.
Lenny Rachitsky: I had a friend who her goal was do one push-up.
Naomi Gleit: One push-up.
Lenny Rachitsky: She’s like, “I want to be able to do one push-up” and that was really motivating to her. And then she finally got there and then she could do more.
Naomi Gleit: That’s awesome.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, similar. I have so many notes here as that you were talking. The other is sleep advice. So eye mask. I have an awesome eye mask that I’ll recommend in the show notes. It’s funny.
Naomi Gleit: Please.
Lenny Rachitsky: What is that? Of all the things I’ve recommended in all the various places I get the most comments about, “Thank you for this very specific eye mask. It changed my life.” It’s like WAOAW, it’s one Tim Ferriss has often recommended.
Naomi Gleit: Okay.
Lenny Rachitsky: W-A-O… I’ll link to it in the show notes, but it’s-
Naomi Gleit: Oh, great.
Lenny Rachitsky: WAOAW, let me look it up real quick ‘cause people are going to be like, “Oh, I got to get it.” WAOAW eye mask.
Naomi Gleit: The one that we have has cushions around the eyes such that it’s not flush against your eyes.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, this is the same. Okay.
Naomi Gleit: Oh great.
Lenny Rachitsky: W-A-O-A-W sleep mask on Amazon. It’s 13 bucks and amazing. My wife and I both sleep with these eye masks. It’s ridiculous until you’re like, “I can’t sleep without one now.”
Naomi Gleit: Totally. Well there’s a lot of research that even ambient lighting results in lower quality sleep. So I think that’s why the blackout shades and the eye mask just help ensure it’s truly dark.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I was just watching a podcast and the advice there is even your smoke alarm with a little light is too much light. You need to cover that up to create real darkness and why not just wear an eye mask? You don’t have to worry about any of that.
Naomi Gleit: Totally.
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay, and then one thing I didn’t mention when you’re talking about the conductor, the PM as a conductor, that’s exactly the metaphor I’ve always used my entire career when people ask me about what is product manager? So we’re alike.
Naomi Gleit: Really?
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I have all these slides of here’s the PM and it’s like a symphony and the conductor standing there.
Naomi Gleit: Lenny, do you know how happy that makes me? Because I feel like sometimes people are like, “That sounds crazy,” but the fact that you actually came to that same conclusion makes me… Why did you come to that conclusion? I’m just curious
Lenny Rachitsky: Because as you said, the PM’s not making the thing. They’re just helping each of the people who are the most talented at their very specific skill do the best possible work and their back is to the audience. They’re trying to stay out of the way even though they come in, everyone claps for them, the outstanding event, and then in theory they could step in a little bit to help out when they can pinch it on design here and there and research here and there, probably not engineering. So those are the reasons and they’re not in charge. The chair wind violinist is the actual person that’s making the music and the best at this thing.
Naomi Gleit: It’s so great to hear somebody else talk about this too. Thank you. And I think that that is really how I view my role and what I do and I think maybe just hearing you talk about it reminded me why I think I put so much emphasis on just elevating the people on my team and the people around me and candidly, one of the development areas for me, and it could be downstream because I do have this analogy of how to be a PM, is that the growth feedback or the constructive feedback for me is really learning when to lead from the front more. Maybe when to be less of a quiet conductor that’s really elevating the first chair violinist and be more front facing.
I think a lot of my approach and my leadership style is really leading through the people on my team and helping grow them. And a lot of times I think that they’re dedicated, they’re experts, they know particular areas. Obviously as a head of product, I manage a portfolio of different projects of which each of them has the incredible leader on it. And so oftentimes I’m just really trying to lead from behind and help them be as successful as possible. But there is a time and a place when maybe that silent conductor needs to take more of a vocal and front facing role.
Lenny Rachitsky: I know exactly what you mean. I had the same problem when I was a PM because there’s always this fear that PMs in charge and telling everyone to do. And so I had the opposite of like, “Okay, and that’s not me. I’m going to just let you do the things you think are best and I’ll just make sure the best ideas come to the surface,” and I have to learn exactly the same thing. Sometimes people just want you to point them in the right direction and make the decision in the end. And the best PMs are people that have the best opinions about what is going to work, how intuition of what users need, have strong product sense and all that stuff. I’ve had this post that I’m trying to work on along these lines where there’s this reaction to PMs aren’t the CEO of the product.
They’re just like… No, don’t call yourselves that. I think it’s the opposite. I think PMs actually should think of themselves as the CEO of the product, not in terms of they are in charge and can fire people and manage people, but they’re the closest heuristic for what the CEO and the founder wants. They think of what does the business need, what is going to help the customers, what’s going to help us grow? And I think the PM is the closest to that role and so I think it’s important to think of that role as that even though you’re not technically in charge.
Naomi Gleit: And maybe you could call it something different, but I totally agree with that sentiment. I think we were trying to push against the criticism that PMs were bossing everybody around, but actually I think you-
Lenny Rachitsky: There’s baggage there.
Naomi Gleit: There’s baggage there. I call it, there’s something called the great non-technical. There was a period of time at Facebook where I think the PMs really had to prove their value to the engineers and show that we were not slowing things down with all this extra process. You can imagine an engineer hearing me talk about how to run a meeting and all the canonical docs and just be like, “What? This sounds terrible.” So yeah, we had to prove that, but I actually do think the PM is the closest to really channeling what the CEO or the founder wants. Another thing that I’ve worked on and that I’m working on is really developing a much stronger first-party perspective. It’s not enough for the PM to run this people in process that we talked about. Obviously I love that stuff. I lean that way, but at the end of the day, a PM cannot outsource their perspective or delegate their thinking through people and process.
And so for me that has been a learning curve and I am trying to, as someone who’s very consensus driven, I want to hear all the different opinions from all the different people. I can still do that. I can still through people in process talk to all the different folks working on a project, hear their first party perspectives and then use all of that to synthesize my own because it will be unique given my role on the team and just what I’m trying to optimize for and really make sure that I both develop that first-party opinion and communicate it clearly. And like you said, the best PMs I think can do it all.
Lenny Rachitsky: Just to follow this thread, one thread further, because this is something I think a lot of product managers work on and are told to work on, is there anything you’ve found to be helpful in building this skill in yourself that might be helpful to folks that are working on it?
Naomi Gleit: I’m lucky enough because I have a big team. I have someone who helps me schedule my time and I used to goal that person and goal our work together on just being as efficient as possible. But now what I am goaling that person and what we’re trying to accomplish here is giving me as much time to develop a first-party point of view. And so what is the most effective way to do that? And for me it is having two to three hour blocks of time where I can actually sit, think, have space, but maybe something that’s different about me than other people is its very, very helpful for me to talk to maybe one or two people, not be in a big meeting with 40 people, trusted people.
I have an incredible person on my team that I talk to that I think really helps me clarify my thinking. And so to go back to the beginning, just I’m trying to find blocks in my day that I can spend time thinking and also within those blocks, they don’t have to be alone time. They can also be scheduling my chief of staff and my head of data to bounce ideas off of as a sounding board because that is the process that I know best for me in terms of really developing a first party perspective.
Lenny Rachitsky: Such a good tip. It makes sense if you’re just spending all your day coordinating in meetings, checking things, reviewing things, you have no time to actually think about what you think is the right move and answer and strategy and next step. And so that’s a really good tip. If you’re finding that you don’t have time to think about what you think is the right solution and the right strategy and the right product decision, fine, just block time to think about this stuff. I have these deep work slots in my calendar. I’ve written about this a few times where it’s three hours and the invite, I don’t know if you can do this these days, but it was just, if you book time during the slot, I will slap you. Nobody did.
Naomi Gleit: That’s amazing. And I think for me, some people might need three hours on their own. I think for me, and I don’t know about you, talking things through with one or two people really helps me as well. So sometimes it was almost quite challenging for me to think of going into a room by myself for three hours and then I was just going to figure it out on my own. This is like, and I don’t know how people help people think strategically the best, but it doesn’t have to necessarily be alone.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s a great tip. Just have a sparring partner.
Naomi Gleit: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: Someone who is just interested in exploring ideas and not just have a clear agenda. I love that. Okay, Naomi, I love this tangent we went on as we were wrapping up.
Naomi Gleit: I know, totally.
Lenny Rachitsky: That was amazing. There was a lot of good stuff that we covered there, but I know you have to run. So before we get to our very exciting lightning round, is there anything else that we haven’t covered that you wanted to cover or share?
Naomi Gleit: Honestly, I think I just did it. I didn’t even realize I wanted to talk about that, but it just all came out.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love it. I love that. Those are the best nuggets. With that, we’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. Are you ready?
Naomi Gleit: I’m ready.
Lenny Rachitsky: First question, what are two or three books that you’ve recommended most to other people?
Naomi Gleit: I really love narrative nonfiction, so I like the Eric Larson books. They’re a very compelling and page turning way to learn about history. I recently read Devil in the White City and there was also one about Churchill’s first year by Eric Larson. Another book that just the canonical book that I often recommend is Sapiens. I think he’s a great example of what we talk about when we talk about simplifiers. He took a very complex subject, which is all of human history and tried to pull out the nuggets. I think his thesis that what differentiates humans from other forms of life is really our ability to tell and believe in myths or stories, and he cites money and religion as examples, but also there’s a graphic novel version of Sapiens and so he almost has the PhD level and then he literally has the high school level, which is a graphic novel version.
He also has Unstoppable Us, which I think is a kid’s version, and so clearly here is someone who is a master. There’s a James Clear thing that a friend, Shirley, told me about where it’s like if you’re a beginner, you have ignorant simplicity and intermediate has functional complexity, and then a master of a topic has profound simplicity. And that’s what I feel like Noah Yuval Harari really has because he can go all the way up and down this cool pyramid in terms of explaining this really complex topic.
Lenny Rachitsky: What I heard about him is that he goes on a one-month meditation retreat every year where it’s just him silent meditation retreat, and people ask him, “How do you have time to do that when you have so much work to do?” He’s like, “The only way I’m able to achieve these books where I synthesize all of human history into a story is because I do that. Because I can clear my mind and just be.”
Naomi Gleit: And Lenny, to our previous conversation, that is how he himself is best. That’s what he needs to do. I might need two to three hours a day and a sparring partner, Noah Yuval Harari needs a month in silent meditation.
Lenny Rachitsky: Great point. Everyone has their own way of unlocking their brain. On Devil in the White City, a fun fact. When I read that, I was like, “I need to go to Chicago and see the stuff that they wrote about in this book about the World’s Fair.” And so I went to Chicago and-
Naomi Gleit: You did?
Lenny Rachitsky: Because of that book, yes.
Naomi Gleit: Wow. Have you read the Splendid in the Vile?
Lenny Rachitsky: Yes. That was the-
Naomi Gleit: Churchill.
Lenny Rachitsky: About the Telegram, right? Yeah. Right?
Naomi Gleit: Oh, no, it was was Churchill’s first year, but he has like six books. I haven’t read all of them.
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay. I think it was either that one or it was something about a telegram. I did read… It was less good though, is was what I find. I found the Devil in White City was-
Naomi Gleit: The best.
Lenny Rachitsky: Was the best. Amazing. Okay, we’ll keep going. Second question, do you have a favorite movie or TV show you’ve recently watched that you really enjoyed?
Naomi Gleit: We just watched Shogun. I thought it was really good. Have you seen it?
Lenny Rachitsky: I have, yes. I loved it. Very gruesome but amazing.
Naomi Gleit: Yeah. I was. I had to cover my eyes for some of it. And then we also, the movie that we just watched was Dune Two. Chris Cox, who’s our chief product officer, actually recommended that as one of the best films that he’s seen recently, and I really trust his opinion on that. So we caught up by watching Dune One and then watched Dune Two, and it was really good.
Lenny Rachitsky: I watched that in IMAX Theater in San Francisco, this insanely large screen and highly would recommend that. I don’t think it’s still out there. Yeah. [inaudible 01:29:30] ridiculous. Amazing. I think there’s another one coming someday.
Naomi Gleit: Oh yeah, yeah. Dune Three.
Lenny Rachitsky: Dune Three. Just keep them coming. Next question. Do you have a favorite product you recently discovered that you really love?
Naomi Gleit: Well, I’m going to check out that eye mask thing that you recommended, the WAOAW thing.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s it.
Naomi Gleit: I know it’s super expensive, but have you tried the Eight Sleep?
Lenny Rachitsky: I have. My wife doesn’t love it. She doesn’t like the noise. It’s like a very slight noise when it starts up, but it wakes her up, so we don’t have it anymore.
Naomi Gleit: And I noticed that too. I think maybe they just released the latest edition. One of the features that is the killer feature for me is that it does a vibrating alarm so that when I wake up at 6:00 A.M., I do not wake up everyone in the house at 6:00 A.M., and so it’s a thermal alarm. It makes the bed on my side hotter and it also slightly vibrates underneath my ear to wake me up.
Lenny Rachitsky: It’s under your ear. I remember vibrating my whole part of the bed. I wonder if that’s a new feature.
Naomi Gleit: Maybe this is like… I’m on version three, maybe there’s a version four. I don’t know. Maybe that was version one.
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, that’s so funny. A nice thing about my life right now is that because I have no meetings or boss, I don’t need an alarm.
Naomi Gleit: That’s awesome.
Lenny Rachitsky: However, it’s amazing. However, we have a young kid and he wakes up at 6:00 to 6:30, so that’s my alarm usually.
Naomi Gleit: Oh, and then the other thing I wanted to mention, I don’t know if you have this problem, but I’m trying to get a hundred grams of protein every day. I think a lot of my friends and I are focused on protein consumption right now, and so my trainer who helped me actually do the pull-ups and the push-ups started a protein products company called Promix that I really love, and he has this Rice Krispie treat thing that I usually eat every morning and gives me 15 grams of protein.
Lenny Rachitsky: I just bought that.
Naomi Gleit: What?
Lenny Rachitsky: Yes, I was reading, Kevin Rose had his favorite, his health stack, and I don’t know if that’s the brand, but it’s exactly a Rice Krispie thing with 15 grams of protein. So I’m pretty sure that’s it.
Naomi Gleit: I’m pretty sure that’s it, because the Rice Krispie part of it is very unique, so let me know what you think. I really like the chocolate chip flavor.
Lenny Rachitsky: I hate them and I love them, so that’s a really good tip. I just saw a funny TikTok where it’s like I never thought when I’d grow up in be an adult, I’d be thinking so often about protein and how much protein I should be eating.
Naomi Gleit: Maybe this is 40, I don’t know. I’m not sure for me, but yes, I’ve been thinking a lot about protein. The other thing I really like is canned seafood, which has a lot of protein. So something called Fish Wife has, it’s just Hipster, like Chicken of the Sea.
Lenny Rachitsky: Oh yeah, they’re very cute. Yes. My wife gets those. Another protein tip, they were a former sponsor, but no longer, but it’s an amazing protein tip. Maui Nui venison beef sticks. It’s 10 grams of protein and it’s a delicious venison beef stick.
Naomi Gleit: Thank you.
Lenny Rachitsky: There we go.
Naomi Gleit: Look at what we’ve become Lenny.
Lenny Rachitsky: Just protein obsessed. It’s just going to be so protein rich. Amazing. Okay, what else we got here? Okay, two more questions. Do you have a favorite life motto that you often come back to and find helpful in working life?
Naomi Gleit: Last month we were watching, or I guess two weeks ago, we were watching the US Open and we discovered that as people come through the hallway to come onto the court to play, the players all passed the Billie Jean King sign that says Pressure is Privilege. And I really loved that because I think just with the Teen Accounts launch and just a lot of the more public facing stuff that I have done recently, I do, like we talked about, get nervous, and I think Pressure is Privilege just reminds me that a lot of this stuff is a really incredible opportunity that I have and to be grateful for it. I can still be nervous, but also recognize and be grateful for it.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Just to remind yourself that you’re lucky to be feeling this pressure because that means something is important. Slightly different version of that is Zuck at the event in the Chase Center that you were also at had the shirt that said in Latin-
Naomi Gleit: Learning through suffering.
Lenny Rachitsky: Learning through suffering. Perfect.
Naomi Gleit: Learning through suffering. I like that one too. I mean, I think he spoke a little bit about this being an entrepreneur is really, really hard.
Lenny Rachitsky: They had the Jensen line about people asked him if he’d start Nvidia again, and his answer was like, “If I knew how insanely hard and stressful this was, I would not.” Very, very honest. Okay. Last question. So Charles, your former colleague, told me that you’re an incredible surfer-
Naomi Gleit: Oh.
Lenny Rachitsky: And that you design your life almost around where and when you can go surf.
Naomi Gleit: Yeah.
Lenny Rachitsky: Any story or lesson or I don’t know, takeaway from surfing and the impact that’s had on you? Lessons about surfing?
Naomi Gleit: So I think surfing and life have a lot of parallels. It is an incredibly mental sport for me. The biggest thing that I can do to improve my surfing is to improve my confidence. And so when I’m going for a wave, a lot of times I will hesitate or pull back or. Instead, the best thing that you can actually do in that situation is stand up into your fear, is to ride the wave. That is the safest thing you can do. That is the thing that you’re actually supposed to do, but on every dimension, that’s the right thing. And so it’s almost, I guess the motto there is stand up into the fear when you’re going, you’re about to catch a wave and actually the things that you can do when you’re afraid, for example, like I said, pull back or throw your board are actually quite counterproductive and actually unsafe and could lead to more injury. And so it’s just another reminder that you really need to commit. Stand up into your fear.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love it. Stand up into your fear and pressure is a privilege and learning through suffering. Naomi, this was so much fun. I’m so happy that you agreed to do this. Two final questions. Where can folks find you a line? Where they find Naomi-isms, and anything else you want to point folks to and how can listeners be useful to you?
Naomi Gleit: So believe it or not, I have Naomi.com. I know Boz has Boz.com. I bought that URL, I think maybe 20 years ago, 15 to 20 years ago from a farmer actually whose wife’s name was Naomi rather, and his wife was not using it. And so I got it for quite a steal. And I’ll just say that I’ve had other famous Naomis, much more famous and much more well known than I, who would like to have Naomi.com make offers for this URL. But I really like having just a home on the internet where I can put my Naomi-isms. They’re also available on Instagram, Naomi Gleit.
How can listeners be useful to you? I think Lenny, I mentioned this before we got on the call, I don’t tend to do that much public speaking or talking about Naomi-isms. I did some of it two years ago when we first launched but I, as a result of being on the podcast and stuff, would love to do more of this. And so I think any feedback on what listeners would like to see or hear from me, questions that would give me a reason where I felt like it would be useful for me to do more on Naomi-isms would be super helpful.
Lenny Rachitsky: Sweet. So if you have any of those, leave them in the YouTube comments is usually the easiest place for folks to leave that. Naomi, thank you so much for being here. This was so much fun.
Naomi Gleit: Thank you, Lenny.
Lenny Rachitsky: 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 |
|---|---|
| Acquired | Acquired(知名商业播客) |
| acquisition | 获客 |
| Adam Grant | Adam Grant(组织心理学家、畅销书作者) |
| Adam Mosseri | 保留原文(Instagram 负责人) |
| agreeable taker | 讨喜的索取者 |
| Alex Schultz | 保留原文(Facebook 增长团队早期核心成员) |
| Billie Jean King | 保留原文(美国网球传奇人物) |
| Boz | 保留原文(Andrew Bosworth 的昵称,Meta 高管) |
| canonical nomenclature | 规范化命名 |
| Charles Porch | 保留原文(Instagram 全球合作伙伴副总裁) |
| Cheryl | 保留原文(指 Sheryl Sandberg,Meta 前 COO) |
| Chicken of the Sea | 保留原文(美国大众罐装海产品品牌) |
| chief of staff | chief of staff(幕僚长/行政主管) |
| Chris Cox | 保留原文(Meta 首席产品官) |
| churn | 流失 |
| classifiers | 分类器 |
| cold call | 冷访(指未经预约主动上门/致电求职) |
| Danny Ferrante | 保留原文(Facebook 增长核算框架提出者) |
| directly responsible individual | 直接负责人 |
| disagreeable giver | 不讨喜的给予者 |
| East Palo Alto | 东帕洛阿尔托 |
| Eight Sleep | 保留原文(智能床垫品牌) |
| Erik Larson | Erik Larson(美国叙事类非虚构作家) |
| extreme clarity | 极致清晰 |
| Facebook High | Facebook High(Facebook 曾计划为高中生推出的独立网站名称) |
| Faceversary | Faceversary(Facebook 入职纪念日的内部说法,由 Facebook + anniversary 合成) |
| Fish Wife | 保留原文(罐装海鲜品牌) |
| functional complexity | 功能性复杂 |
| growth accounting | 增长核算 |
| Guy Rosen | 保留原文(Meta 首席安全官) |
| head of product | 产品负责人 |
| ignorant simplicity | 无知的简单 |
| instrumentation | 数据埋点(在产品流程中植入数据采集点以追踪用户行为) |
| Internet.org | 保留原文(Facebook/Meta 旗下的互联网普及项目) |
| James Clear | James Clear(《Atomic Habits》作者) |
| Javier Olivan | 保留原文(Facebook 增长团队早期核心成员,现任 Meta 首席运营官) |
| Jensen | 保留原文(指 Jensen Huang,Nvidia CEO) |
| Kevin Rose | 保留原文(科技创业者、播客主持人) |
| Lenny Rachitsky | 保留原文(播客主持人) |
| Maui Nui | 保留原文(鹿肉棒品牌) |
| Mickey Settler | 保留原文(Facebook 设计师) |
| Naomi Gleit | 保留原文(Meta 产品负责人) |
| Naomi-isms | Naomi-isms(Naomi 的个人说法/经验总结) |
| PM | PM(产品经理,Product Manager) |
| Pressure is a Privilege | 压力是一种特权 |
| product-market fit | 产品市场契合 |
| profound simplicity | 深刻的简单 |
| Promix | 保留原文(蛋白质产品品牌) |
| radical candor | radical candor(一种管理沟通理念,强调直接挑战与深切关心并重) |
| resurrected | 回流 |
| retention | 留存 |
| school pyramid | 学校金字塔 |
| Sean Parker | 保留原文(Facebook 首任总裁) |
| Shirley | Shirley(Naomi 的朋友) |
| simplifiers | 简化者 |
| single-threaded owner / STO | 单线负责人 |
| small group | small group(Meta 高管核心决策小组,保留原文) |
| sounding board | 意见板(用于征求意见、测试想法的倾听者) |
| sparring partner | 讨论搭档(用于反复推敲想法的交流对象) |
| stand up into the fear | 迎着恐惧站起来 |
| Teen Accounts | Teen Accounts(Meta 面向青少年用户推出的账户类型) |
| traffic light | 交通灯(一种用红黄绿三色评估选项的决策框架) |
| WAOAW | 保留原文(眼罩品牌) |
| work stream | 工作流 |
| Yuval Noah Harari | Yuval Noah Harari(《Sapiens》作者,以色列历史学家) |
| Zuck | Zuck(马克·扎克伯格的昵称,在 Meta 内部的常用称呼) |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py