产品经理(PM)技能发展框架 | Vikrama Dhiman(Gojek)
A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek)
Traits of Great Product Managers
Lenny Rachitsky: Your name has come up more times than almost any other product person when I ask people for their favorite product leaders in Asia.
Vikrama Dhiman: I created a career growth framework for product managers, which comprises of three things. What you produce, what you bring to the table, and what’s your operating model.
Defining Great PM Deliverables
Lenny Rachitsky: Your advice is early in your career, focus on just getting stuff out and done.
Vikrama Dhiman: Can you show me your last PRD? Can you show me the last product note that you sent? Can you show me the product strategy doc? You must have that impact through the artifacts that you work on.
Building Trust and Empowerment
Lenny Rachitsky: I’m curious what you found most impedes people’s career growth.
Influencing the Influencers
Vikrama Dhiman: How you view change, whether you are focusing on things you control, and third is how you see yourself. The moment you are able to correct those stories, you may be back on the growth path again.
Operating Models and Stakeholder Management
Lenny Rachitsky: Today, my guest is Vikrama Dhiman. Vikrama heads all things product at Gojek, including product management, design, program management, research and insights with teams across India, Singapore and Indonesia. He has previously worked at companies like Directi, Airtel, MakeMyTrip and WizIQ and is among the most well-known product leaders in Asia. When I asked people who their favorite product leader is in Asia, Vikrama’s name has come up almost more than anyone else’s. We chat about how to move into product management, how to be a great product manager, how product managers often shoot themselves in the foot, and so much more. With that, I bring you Vikrama Dhiman after a short word from our sponsors. And 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 it helps the podcast tremendously.
Vikrama, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast.
Vikrama Dhiman: Thank you for inviting me, Lenny. I’m very excited to be here.
Improving Deliverable Quality
Lenny Rachitsky: So as you know and hopefully as listeners know, I’m on this quest to meet the most insightful product leaders from all over the world and your name has come up more times than almost any other product person when I ask people for their favorite product leaders in Asia. And you’re also the third guest from Gojek, so there’s definitely something in the water over there and I want to talk about that. To just dive right in, you have a very strong reputation for building incredibly strong product talent and also design talent, and also helping people transition from other roles into product management, which a lot of people listening to this podcast dream to do. So I’m going to ask a bunch of questions around this area. How does that sound?
Vikrama Dhiman: Sounds good.
Why Careers Stagnate
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay. First question is just when you think back to the people that have done best in the product management role and have had a rapid career rise, what are some of the most common traits or behaviors or habits that you find in these people?
Vikrama Dhiman: Over the last decade and a half, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some really strong product managers, learn from strong product managers, and some of them have had rapid career growth. When I was younger and I was starting off, I used to think it’s all about the product. If you’ve got a really cool product to work on, your growth’s guaranteed. And if you got really a product which no one cares about or a stream which no one cares about, then your growth is going to be slightly slower. But as I started seeing more and more product managers at their craft, I saw that working on a cool product area is not the only thing. In fact, sometimes some product managers would come back and complain that despite their product doing really well, they’ve not really grown.
And while some other product managers whose product didn’t have the impact really grew. And as I started looking at it and as I started making notes, as I started talking to other product leaders, what I discovered was that the really strong product managers who were also growing in their careers did some things differently. And based on that, I created a career growth framework for product managers, which comprises of three things, and I call it three W’s. So what you produce, what you bring to the table, and what’s your operating model? The really strong product managers are good at usually two of the three things. The ones who rise and when they are rising, they are performing well on all the three access. So if you would like, let’s talk a little bit more about each one of these W’s.
Self-Awareness and Breaking Labels
Lenny Rachitsky: Yeah, I would love to. I love that you put the word what at the top and that makes it the three W’s, which is clever because I find even if the acronym is not necessary, it’s really helpful to help people remember so I totally respect what you did there. So the three is what you produce, what you bring to the table and what your operating model is. Is that right?
Self-Calibration at Gojek
Vikrama Dhiman: Yes, absolute.
Maintaining a Learner’s Mindset
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay, cool. Yeah, let’s talk about these.
Vikrama Dhiman: So what you produce, a lot of people index on the impact while and they start thinking about goals, they start thinking about direction and they start thinking about strategy. While it is important to know at what stage of the career you are and what kind of a product that you are working on, the very first thing that anyone, when you’re starting off, produces is outputs, okay? The output can be launching a product, it can be analyzing and running an experiment, and it could even be just being a part of the team and contributing to a go-to market strategy. So focus on that output significantly. As you get comfortable with output and you start getting comfortable with working with different stakeholders, you start controlling what outputs are necessary, which is when you move to the outcomes. Outcomes are product areas, goals that you can own and or collaborate with other stakeholders on.
And when you start figuring out which outcomes are necessary, that is when you move to the leadership and directional areas. The mistake that I see a lot of product managers make is they start operating in either output or outcomes. And when you are transitioning to outcomes, it’s very important that you continue to still hone your craft on outputs. For instance, do you just give up on the go-to-market strategy or do you start making product nodes which are then picked up by marketing people and are able to be used to create that go-to-market strategy? You always, always have to have the output and outcome even when you’re moving up the so-called career management ladder. So that is very, very critical that as you are producing, even when you are at the senior most levels, don’t forget your IC roots, don’t forget the IC component. And sometimes it is necessary to just pull up your sleeves and go back and keep working on those things. That also gives you a lot of creds with others in the team as well.
Overcoming Comparison-Driven Frustration
Lenny Rachitsky: So highlighting one insight here is that a lot of advice you hear about how to do well in your career, which you pointed out at the beginning here, is it’s not just not immediately drive impact. That’s not necessarily what you need to obsess over, which is actually what I recommend to people is just find ways to have impact. So this is really interesting. Your advice is early in your career, focus on just getting stuff out and done. Don’t so obsess with the impact. Can you talk more about just what, when you say output, what are you describing there? Is it just ship products and be helpful and produce something?
Focusing on High-Leverage Areas
Vikrama Dhiman: Absolutely. So outputs is shipping products, but it also comes in smaller things. For instance, if you are sourcing content for your homepage, what are the different avenues that you can source content from? What is the easiest to source? What is the most difficult to source? Just ranking it all in that order goes a long way. And one of the product managers actually did that yesterday and I went, wow, it just made my life so much simpler. And not just my life but so many other people’s lives so much simpler, and we were able to take that specific output and use it as part of our overall strategy. If that PM would have obsessed about the overall content strategy, overall how we are going to do it versus just how we are going to be sourcing it, they would have indexed on something bigger and maybe would have not even been able to make that impact. But now, they were able to show something which was a small part, which was an output, but it fell into the overall outcome.
Skill Sets and Transition Strategies
Lenny Rachitsky: The way I think about what you’re describing, which I actually 100% agree with, is when you’re starting out in your careers, execution is where you need to deliver. People just want you to get stuff done when you’re just starting out. It’s not like help us define our strategy and vision for the next three years. We just have stuff we need done. Can you help us get it done? Well, yes. And then essentially the advice is as you get more senior, you’ll have more opportunity to think about strategy and what to build versus just how to build it and actually execute on it.
Vikrama Dhiman: Absolutely. So focus on outputs at the start of your careers and don’t forget outputs even when you grow in your career.
Confusion Around the PM Role
Lenny Rachitsky: So along those lines, just to close the thread on this idea, it’s still helpful if you work on something that does have impact that matters, right? How important is that? And you said that you’ve seen successful product managers work on things that aren’t as impactful and still do really well, but I guess would your advice be tried [inaudible 00:11:52] be in a place that is going to drive more impact versus it’s not actually that important in the early career?
Science, Art, and PM Contributions
Vikrama Dhiman: So I’ll give you my example. In one of my previous roles, there were two product areas that were important for the organization. My product area ended up being the center and focus of the organization, yet the product manager who was chosen to lead the area when it became big wasn’t me. It was someone else. At that time, I really felt very bad that okay, why did that happen? But now when I look back, I can see why that happened because that product manager was so much better at the overall craft of output, yet when they were focusing on outcome, we’re not forgetting the output as well. So they were just better at me on launching products, they were better at me on working with design, in producing design artwork, and they were definitely better than me in running the experiments as well.
Four Core Attributes of Great PMs
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Yeah, basically when you’re just starting out, just execute well, execute smoothly, ship things on time. I’m going to say a few things, but I’m curious what else comes to mind here of just what does good output look like? Is it do things that are helpful to your team and manager, ship things on time, bug-free, have a clean road map, everyone’s aligned behind, [inaudible 00:13:11] deadlines, things like that. I guess what else along those lines should people be like, “Okay, here’s what I should be doing to have good outputs?”
Vikrama Dhiman: Some of the things that I think are useful. So first, what’s output? Output is something which is very tangibly defined, which doesn’t take too much of your time, effort, and energy to visualize and think and strategize over and you are able to quickly get moving on. Go and ask your product leader, go and ask other leaders on what are the areas they are blocked on. Sometimes they will be blocked on, “Hey, I need to prepare this brief for this particular summit”, “I need to prepare this particular slide for a leadership review”, “I need to prepare a review, I need to prepare a review which has to be done with the legal.” You can volunteer and definitely own and deliver the first drafts of those even if the final draft is not something that you own. That’s a simple example of an output, which I feel a lot of people miss because they want to be focusing on the bigger strategic pieces.
Competency Levels for Each Attribute
Lenny Rachitsky: It’s basically be useful. That’s the way I always like to talk about this, just like your job as a PM is be useful, make your team more effective, help your company be more successful. Just find ways to be useful to everyone around you.
Counter-Intuitive PM Insights
Vikrama Dhiman: Absolutely. And be useful in doing the small things which make an impact and also contribute to your learning versus being useful in areas which you think the mini CEO should be working on.
Rapid Fire Questions
Lenny Rachitsky: Right. There’s all this talk about being an empowered product manager, building empowered product teams. I think there’s an important nuance. When you’re just starting out, you haven’t earned the right to inform strategy and vision people. Why would people follow you at this point? We just need to get stuff done, so that comes over time.
Tips for Interviewing PMs
Vikrama Dhiman: Absolutely. And it’s not just when you are starting off or when you are young. Even with if you are senior and you’re starting off with a new team, even if you’re starting with a new company, you need to have that mindset. And sometimes you will not know the best. And we’ll talk more about how to, what is your operating model, which is how you work with others. It’s a very, very important thing for you to know that you are one part of the cog wheel, you’re not the entire wheel yourself. And a lot of the folklore around product managers can make you confused, especially when you’re starting off in your career.
New Products I’m Loving
Lenny Rachitsky: I love it. Okay, let’s keep going. Number two.
My Life Motto
Vikrama Dhiman: Number two is what you bring to the table. Now, I think how I describe that is what is your impact on impact? So the first access is impact, but you also need to have an impact on impact. And this is what I had missed a lot in my early career, that you put the coolest product areas, your product area is successful and that automatically guarantees your growth. It doesn’t. You have to also show that yes, you were a useful contributor to having that particular impact. The simplest thing on this is that is your PRD quality good enough? Are you writing that the draft notes that go and circulate to the care teams, to the marketing teams and so on? Are you making sure that you are deriving from the strategy that has been shaped or you’re constantly just pushing back on the strategy? Similarly, you also how you are drafting the north stars, how you are working on the experiments, how you’re working on the data, how you’re working on the metrics.
All these things take time, effort, and energy. And I know there is some literature and there are some operating models where people are working only at strategy levels while all of these execution of these artifacts is being done by some other people. I don’t think, especially when you are starting off, that’s a very, very good thing. Even when you are mid-senior, I don’t think that’s a very, very good thing. You have to have to be able to produce these artifacts which are product artifacts. Even if there are people in strategy creating their artifacts, even if design is coming up with a design brief, you need to have a cohesive product strategy or product PRD and work backwards from PRD and product knows yourself. These things are important to show you are progressing on four pillars, which is data and metrics, design and research, technology skills, and strategy.
Product managers constantly are evaluated on this when you interview, but you also have to demonstrate these on the jobs. And the best way to demonstrate these is through the artifacts, through the notes that you are sending. So you must have that impact to impact through the artifacts that you work on. For a lot of product managers, when I ask, “Hey, I was working on this very impactful area. I’m not able to have the impact on my career, what is missing?” And when I go and ask, “Can you show me your last PRD? Can you show me the last product note that you sent? Can you show me the product strategy doc that you have or collaborated on? Can you show me the brief that you sent to the design team on the problems and the ranking of those problems?” Usually, you’ll find something or the other missing.
In cases that those are bad, you will find that the pre-iteration planning, pre-sprint plannings are not running properly. You will find that the Jira storyboards are very empty and there’s just a title in the subject and nothing gets described and so on. So you’ll miss all these pieces. So these are the things which you bring to the table and it’s very, very important that you work on these aspects as well. Finally, we have what’s your operating model, which I feel is the most important thing which you have to have to focus if you are going from mid-senior to senior level. This is essentially about communication, collaboration, organizational skills and community skills.
And across product managers, again, because of the folklore of mini CEO and others, I see that a lot of people get carried away in the way they operate as product managers with other stakeholders. There are three tenets that I define in working well as a product manager with others. Number one is raise difficult issues without being difficult to work with. Bring out important topics without drawing importance to yourself. And finally, you are in charge of getting the decisions made and not making all the decisions yourself. I think as long as you follow these three tenets, you will have a successful relationship across stakeholders. These three tenets are easy to say, but they become very, very hard to embody and display on a day-to-day basis. But this is essentially going to be your struggle no matter at what level of product management you are operating at in your career or within your company.
Lenny Rachitsky: First of all, can you just repeat them? Because I think this is… Essentially, it’s like a mantra that PMs can think back to of, “Am I doing these things?”
Singapore Food Recommendations
Vikrama Dhiman: So the three things which are very important for product managers to work with others and other stakeholders are raise difficult issues without being difficult to work with, bring out important topics without drawing importance to yourself, and be able to get decisions made without having to make all the decisions yourself.
Outro and Contact Info
Lenny Rachitsky: I like this list a lot. It reminds me, there’s this product leader I worked with who their team got pushed to do a bunch of stupid stuff. And he realized later that, “Hey, it’s actually my job to have pushed back on doing this stuff.” He was the head of product for this business unit and he realized, “Oh, I see. That’s actually what I should be doing now that I’m in this role.” And you sometimes forget that one, you have that influence. And two, that’s something you should be doing.
Vikrama Dhiman: Absolutely, absolutely. It’s always within your control and it’s always the things that are within your control that you should be controlling rather than focusing on the things that are not within your control and obsessing about those.
Lenny Rachitsky: I’m so aligned with the way you think about all these things. Coming back to the second actually, just to give people something they can do with this trait. So the way I think about what you described, and correct me if I’m misinterpreting it, is there’s a detail-oriented-ness, high quality-ness to the way that you should be crafting all the documents/artifacts you’re creating, your one-pagers/PRDs, your roadmaps, your strategy docs, just like they should be really high quality. So along those lines, if you’re an ICPM trying to get better at this stuff, how have you found is the best way to level up in these things? Is it working with your manager and getting feedback? Is it peers? What helps somebody get better at the quality and yeah, the quality of these documents?
Vikrama Dhiman: What you bring to the table is one of the most misunderstood attributes and aspects of product management. On one end, you could get around and say, “Here is my PRD, here is my JIRA board, here are my stories, here is my pre-sprint planning or pre-iteration planning document” and go. It’s not just about the spread and the width of the things that you’re doing, but it’s also about the depth of those things as well. Some product managers, what they bring to the table is arguments, what they bring to the table are debates, what they bring to the table are pushbacks, while others are able to channelize the questions, channelize the inputs, channelize the direction and convert that into strategic choices which can then shape discussions, which can then shape direction. Be the latter and you will rise faster in your career.
Lenny Rachitsky: So you have these three buckets of what you produce, what you bring to the table, and what your operating model is, the three W’s. So let try to summarize and see what I missed and then we’ll move on. So one is just focus on executing, getting things done that are helpful to your team, your company, your manager, and focus on just getting stuff out. Not so much in necessarily in strategy. Even when you’re a manager and a leader and a VP, just like you’re still responsible for producing things, not just telling people and being wise. Two, what you bring to the table, my takeaway here is produce high quality artifacts that raise the bar.
The way I think about this is as a PM, you want to have this aura of I got this. People put something on your plate, you want to feel like Lenny’s got this, I’m not going to have to worry. It’s going to be forgotten and I know it’s going to be done well. And then the third piece is this idea of an operating model. Basically just make sure decisions are being made. It’s not about you that you’re pushing back on bad ideas. Is there anything else I missed before we move on?
Vikrama Dhiman: No. I think the art of pushback is another important factor because if you’re pushing back a lot and the way you are pushing back matters a lot as well. Just don’t be someone who’s seen as an obstacle and a hindrance and as someone who’s just very difficult to work with, but rather see as someone who’s able to actually add value to whatever your leader, your stakeholders, your product area demands and you are able to advance the product and the direction and execution forward. Once you do that, I think keeping that as the intent and ensuring that your team is getting unblocked and not getting to do work on anything which is stupid or is likely to be changed, then you’ve really got it.
Lenny Rachitsky: Do you have any advice for how to pushback in a way, the way you describe it is not to be difficult to work with or without seeking importance? I guess is there words or phrases or approaches you found are effective for pushing back against ideas that you disagree with?
Vikrama Dhiman: What I’ve seen that people who do pushback very successfully and are still considered not difficult to work with, they are also able to bring the tempo of the conversation to a more logical space from an emotional space. I think that’s such a useful skill and I sometimes am guilty of operating on a slightly emotional note, which is useful. Sometimes you need a war cry, you need a high pitch, you need execution on war footing. All that is fine, but it’s only fine in some cases. In other cases, it’s always very important that you’re able to bring it down to the logical space so that a logical and a little more equal footing of the discussion can happen. And a lot of this is something that leaders need to ensure is happening, but product managers and product leaders who are working with executives who are able to bring this tempo down and bring it to a little more logical space will also do far better in their careers and they’ll also have a lot more rapid career growth.
Lenny Rachitsky: So let’s talk about the flip side of rapid career growth, which is career growth that stalls. And I’m curious what you’ve found most impedes people’s career growth. What do PMs do that shoot themselves in the foot and slow their career? Any pitfalls do you find are important to try to watch out for?
Vikrama Dhiman: I think part of it is on a lot of us in product leadership space. We’ve not done a very good job in defining rubrics, growth frameworks and so on. But even in places where growth frameworks exist, like three W’s, what I’ve seen is that clean mindset shifts and changes can enable faster growth, but those mindset and changes also can hinder your growth, right? So the first thing is whether you are focusing on things you control or whether you’re focusing on things that are beyond your control. Second, what’s your relationship with change? And third is how you see yourself. The third is very, very powerful and we’ll talk about that as well. The first is what you control. If you drew an access of what you control and what you cannot control, as you’re starting your career, most of the work that you’re doing is in what you control, right?
You are very obsessed with feedback, you’re very obsessed with, “Okay, can I do this?” “Can I do this?” “Okay, I’ll probably not do this. I’ll probably do this”, and so on. You’re not worrying about the overall corporate strategy, you’re not looking at what the competitors are doing, what is their market cap and all those things. You’re focused a lot on your craft, you’re focused on a lot on your output and you’re focused on how you are growing. As you start becoming mid-senior, I see the conversation shifts from what can I do, how am I learning, how am I growing, to why is the organization not doing this for me? Why can that stakeholder not change this thing about themselves? Why do I not get to work on projects like this? Things which start going outside your control. And it is very, very important that you keep your focus no matter what stage of career you get into what you can control.
And again, it’s easy to say that everything in universe should be in your control. It doesn’t happen like that, but a large number of things that impact your career are within your control. And go back to the three W’s that we spoke about, what you work on, what you produce or what do you bring to the table, and what’s your operating model? And there is tons to do on data, tons to do on technology, tons to do on communication, collaboration, design and research, strategy and community. And you can spend years and years and years crafting those things. Focus on those things, growth will happen at every single stage. The second aspect of it is your relationship with change. Again, when you are younger, when you’re starting off, rate of change is crazy. You are growing almost every six months. You are picking up skills and experimentation, you’re picking up skills in how to analyze.
You’re picking up skills in how to work with different kind of stakeholders. And since the rate of change of your skills is high, your rate of growth is also high. Again, as you start becoming mid-senior, I start seeing conversations on, “Okay, maybe I should not do that. Maybe I should not take on this product. I don’t know what it means for my career. I don’t know what it means for my growth” and so on. So your rate of change slows down. So it’s very important that as you get to mid-senior level, you are constantly checking on what you can do to keep increasing your rate of change. And one of the simplest things that you can do is if you think you are four on data, figure out who. And you may be four on data out of five in data. Within your organization, start benchmarking yourself with the best in the industry.
You’ll automatically see that your scale drops and as your scale drops, you start seeing what you need to improve and do. If you start seeing that on communication and collaboration, you’re reaching four out of five within the PMR, start mapping yourself to other stakeholders in other functions. Again, your score will fall in your eyes and you will start figuring out what are the things that you can do as well. So keep your focus on rate of change and rate of growth will automatically take care of itself. Sometimes it also involves changing your team or even changing your company, but those should be the last results. There are significant things that you can do within that as well. One of the final things that I see which limits you, especially as you start growing in your career and you reach mid-senior levels is how you see yourself.
I see a lot of product… And I’ve been guilty of that. When I see that a lot of product managers, that’s included me at some stage, doing these things, people will come back and say, “Oh, I am a very high agency PM” or, “I’m a very collaborative PM.” Earlier on, I used to think that okay, I need to give this kind of work to these product managers. I need to fit them with these kind of team, these kind of work areas, these kind of opportunities. But then I started understanding these things are not just signaling, they are also anti-signaling. They are like, “Oh, I’m high agency. So it’s sometimes okay if I’m little brash, if I cut corners somewhere, if I sometimes come across as a little rude to some people” and so on, right?
Similarly, if I’m seen as a hyper-collaborative person, so it’s okay if sometimes I’m not very decisive, if I’m not moving fast and so on because I’m this kind of a PM. So it’s very important that you check for what are the stories that you’re telling yourself because those stories are defining you at a basic level, which is then very hard to correct through frameworks and structures. So figure out what is the story that you are telling yourself. If you are not able to figure that out, talk to the people you trust so that they can tell you that as well, and then correct those stories. And the moment you are able to correct those stories, you may be back on the growth path again.
Lenny Rachitsky: Wow, there’s so much meat and wisdom in what you just shared. I want to go in so many different directions. Maybe just to follow on this last thread, did you go through something like that yourself where you have this sense of yourself that hindered you? Okay, awesome. You’re nodding your head, if you’re not on YouTube. Can you share that?
Vikrama Dhiman: Yeah. So I’ll give an example of when I joined Gojek. The very first thing that I learned in my career was SQL and Oracle. And I was very proud of the fact that my data skills are awesome and I know several frameworks and I know several tools and so on. And when I joined Gojek and I saw one of your guests, Crystal, and I saw the work that she was doing and her team was doing and I just immediately was like, “Yeah, no, this is not… I’m nowhere near”, right? And similarly, I also thought that my communication skills are really good and my product strategy skills are very good, but then I worked with people like Dito and people like Sidu who was so good at their craft that it challenged me to see that okay, what is it that I am missing? What is it that I am doing wrong?
And it auto-calibrated me in my eyes on where it was, but that also created a hunger in me that this is what I need to fix. And I immediately corrected my assessment of myself that I’m not the strongest product manager on data. I’m not the one who knows all the strategy pieces or even strategy frameworks or how to bring everything to a strategy point of view or communicate it from an effective perspective. And then I started framing I’m still in a learning phase. When I see that I’m not in that phase now, I try and make myself humble by interacting with people who are far smarter than me on different scale or reading different books, or watching podcasts like yourselves. And that keeps you grounded on the fact that okay, you are always learning. And I also found that seeing yourself as someone who’s a learner is an enabling story to tell yourself, okay?
It may not be the most exciting story, it may not be the most memorable story about yourself, but it is definitely one of the enabling stories as well. Similarly, I think one other thing that I used to say about myself was more that I’m very high agency PM. But as I started working more in Southeast Asia, I learned that mindfulness is also very, very important, that not every team, not every culture will work with you in a very hyper aggressive style. But you still need to get the work done. And I’m still learning on that and therefore, I’ve started using a word, I don’t want to be a high agency person, I want to be a mindful agency person. And so these terms are very important because these are the stories that you keep telling yourself and these also then start shaping your behavior. I do feel that I have a lot to do, I have a lot to learn on these skills, but these things definitely keep you grounded and you keep coming back to the learning phase again.
Lenny Rachitsky: It’s interesting that when you saw Crystal being incredibly good at working with data, you just realized, “Hey, maybe I’m actually not very good at this.” And your reaction wasn’t, “God damn it, I’m really screwed and this is really depressing me”, it’s, “No, instead I’m going to try to get better at this.” And that reminds me some of the feedback I get with this podcast, those people are like, “Man, these people are so good, I’m never going to be this good. It discourages me from thinking I will ever be super successful in this career.” Clearly, you have a different approach. Do you have advice or guidance to folks that are sometimes discouraged seeing people being so incredible and helping them actually continue to level up in this rate of change you talked about versus just like, “Nope, I’m never going to be that good?”
Vikrama Dhiman: I think as product managers it becomes difficult because a lot of your growth is being determined because of feedback of others. And because product management is so ambiguous and still not defined, the stakeholders can also give feedback on variety of dimensions. Some of them may not even be important enough to give feedback on, but they are important enough for them and so therefore, they give you feedback. And therefore, you have to shape that feedback in. But you also have to consider that there are these eight access that we spoke about, the data access, the design and research access, the technology access, the strategy access, communication access, collaboration access, organizational skills access, and the community access. You need to channelize feedback into okay, is this an area that you are targeting for growth or not?
And one of the most important things that I learned was that when I joined Gojek or even earlier, there would be so many different areas that I needed to improve on and still need to improve on. You can’t improve on every single area. That’s what overwhelms you. You need to pick which is the area which is the maximum leverage for you and improve on that particular aspect and then move on to the next area, then move on to the next area and so on. Obviously, if you are floundering in something, if you’re really negative in something, then you fix that first because that will give you the highest leverage. But if you are picking up data and design and strategy and technology all at the same time, that’s when you’ll overwhelm you.
Lenny Rachitsky: So to summarize the advice there is one, be actually very open to feedback you’re getting. It’s easy to say that, it’s hard to actually listen to people criticizing you and act on it. So I think that’s an important takeaway here is just actually, feedback is a gift and actually understand that and try to act on it. I have a great interview with Jules Walter who’s a PM at Google now, and he has this awesome quote about how whenever people give him hard feedback, it’s like internally he’s just melting, but that’s externally he’s like, “Thank you so much for that feedback, I really appreciate it. It’s very valuable.”
And so that’s a good way to get people to keep giving feedback. Okay. And then the other piece of advice you just shared there is pick a focus area. Like say you’re getting all this feedback, your strategy isn’t amazing, your PRDs aren’t great, just find one thing to focus on. And I don’t know, do you try to do somewhat quarter? Somewhat year? Do you have a heuristic of how long to spend on one thing?
Vikrama Dhiman: So different skills take different time and how you are progressing also depends a lot as well. For skills which are softer in nature like communication and collaboration and community, those are skills that you will work on all your life. You’ll never achieve anywhere near two or five on five on those ever. There’ll always be something that you will miss, there will always be a new context, there’ll always be a new set of stakeholders, new company cultures that you have to adapt to. For others, you have to see that what gives you the maximum leverage in your career. When you’re starting off, my recommendation is that you pick between data and tech one, and definitely one on design and research and strategy.
So usually, that’s the combo that I recommend. My advice is if you’re coming from design and research background, then you pick data or tech. If you’re coming from a data or tech background, then you pick design and research, and that gives you the maximum leverage because that’s a skill that you will necessarily not have developed over the years. Once you’ve demonstrated on two of these three, between data, tech and design and research, then you start focusing on strategy. We’ve had great success at Gojek in transitioning a lot of product managers, especially in Indonesia, using this framework. And it’s produced a lot of good product managers for us.
Lenny Rachitsky: Well, let’s actually follow that thread. That’s really interesting. And so the approach is you have this access of skillsets and you pick, for this person moving from say customer service to product, here’s the two things you need to focus on. Can you talk more about that?
Vikrama Dhiman: Yeah. For instance, we recently had two PMs, one who came from a growth background. This is actually [inaudible 00:42:24]‘s team. And one from a research background. And with both of them, we use very different tactics. So we gave one of finding driver redesign, which was very much a very design-focused product, but we still had them leverage their data skills because we were able to create a PRD with incredible amount of data on exactly what different segments of customers we’re doing. And that then we worked with designers on what the designs and the framework for that will be. And even now, Lenny, if you will come and see our finding driver redesign next time you are in Asia, it’s a piece of art. And if you would see that that was worked on by a product manager who actually came from a growth and data background, that makes it even more special.
Similarly, the PM who transitioned from research, I kept giving feedback on technology and data skills are the ones that we need to check. And I need to hear from engineers that yes, they’re able to work with her very strongly. And once she was able to do that, she’s recently turned a very heated question on one of the features that we were doing into a full-blown solution with designs, with trade-offs and everything, and able to now convert it into a question for leadership on how we should be approaching this particular product and direction. So I think that’s proven successful as well. Similarly, there’s another person who took risk who was originally from research and again, worked a lot on our products, including our enterprise product. And she’s doing an amazing job as well. Again, going through that path of okay, these are the things that you need to leverage.
The only watch-out is that it doesn’t work out always. In some cases, some PMs will pick these things up fast, and it also makes a big difference if you are transitioning when you are slightly younger in your career. If you are already senior in a function and then you are transitioning, sometimes it can take a lot of time in transitioning and picking up those skills. But it’s definitely doable if you get a very strong product leader working with you who’s able to shape those skills for you. So it’s sometimes okay to go a little slow when you’re transitioning so that you’re able to go faster later rather than getting faster somewhere and then being stuck there for a while.
Lenny Rachitsky:
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Something that you mentioned earlier that I wanted to come back to is this confusion about what the PM role is and how that trips people up in being successful in the role and continuing to thrive in the role. You mentioned this to me offline too, that this is just something you deal with a lot, just this frustration of what the hell is this job? What am I actually responsible for? What am I not? What do you find is helpful in helping people work through that, get past that, not make that a big blocker in their career, not knowing exactly what the PM role is?
Vikrama Dhiman: I think we’ve been in technology product for several decades now, but we are still figuring out what an exact definition of product management is. And even the strongest definitions are slightly principled and philosophical in nature, they’re not very concrete, and that also means that every and different technology companies have gone through different journeys and they’ve defined the roles very, very differently. And even within a very large company, you will see that different teams, different divisions are approaching the roles very, very differently as well.
And on top of that, what that does is that not only internally the product managers are figuring this out, their managers, their leaders are figuring these things out for them, but the other stakeholders who have to work with these product managers are also confused and they don’t know what to expect. And the number one question I get from stakeholders is, is a product manager expected to do this? Because they also don’t know, okay, is this expected from a product manager or not? And my general answer to that is, if this is something which is blocking the progress on the product, then yes, the product manager should work on that.
Lenny Rachitsky: Love that.
Vikrama Dhiman: But that works if the product managers have had some training and they have had some training in working with different stakeholders and they have had something on the job. What I’ve figured out is that there are certain functions and there are certain disciplines which you can’t define, but you can only become better at with practice. For instance, what is an actor or what is a dancer? Right? So these are things that you will get better at as you become skilled at it. And earlier, these things used to be looked at as something which is very artistic, only the people who are talented or only specific kind of people can do it. But now, each one of those has become [inaudible 00:48:57] and frameworks as well. So there are courses on filmmaking, there are courses on acting, there are courses on dancing and so on. And similarly, product management is that space as well.
So you have to understand there’s an art to it and there’s a science to it, but you can use the science to figure out the art. So that’s the philosophical side of it. The second side of it is what we spoke about earlier that instead of figuring out what is product management, figure out what’s your contribution, what’s your output and figure out are you contributing on these access on data, on design, on technology and on strategy. And one of my favorite things is that if you created these four circles of strategy, of technology, of design and of data, and you created a product management circle which encircles each one of these, so you are the only discipline, which is the co-collaborator for all of these disciplines and tying all these things out.
So it’s not about you standing alone, it’s you always collaborating and pairing with someone else. But you are the only one who’s pairing with everyone else and therefore, you have that unique insight which no one else in the team will have. That role can be played by someone else, it doesn’t necessarily need to be called a product manager. But if you are being called a product manager, you figure out the [inaudible 00:50:24] the time piece that you are. And when you are added to the team, you must dream the team’s overall contribution, overall energy and overall output up and not down.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Something I always tell people is the PM doesn’t necessarily have the magical skills other team members don’t have, it’s that they don’t also have another job. Engineers may do a great job at being the PM, they just also have to build and code. And they don’t have time to do all the things that a PM has to do, and a designer is in the same way, a researcher or data person. And so oftentimes, that’s just like there’s this person that has the time to do all these glue, work things between teams. And the great PMs also are very good at these skills that help you do these things, but it doesn’t mean other people can’t do them.
Vikrama Dhiman: You see yourself as playing a role and not your title and not your function, and that just clarifies a lot of things for people. And different people will play different roles. And depending on the kind of a PM you are, are you in a specific domain or you are slightly generalist, the role that you will be playing in different teams can be different and the variety of roles that you can play makes you a better product manager.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. You’ve mentioned these four access attributes of great product managers, overall product managers. Let’s just spend a little time here. So you say basically the things you need to be doing and good at, data, design/research technology, strategy, and then you also mentioned collaboration and communication. Maybe you’re-
Vikrama Dhiman: Yeah, organizational skills and community. I think those are very, very important because one of the things and one of the things which one of the product managers works with me continues to say, and I really plus on that a lot, is that product manager is the all community enabler in the team, in the organization. And that community is the software aspect which ties everyone together towards a common mission of delivering an output. And that I think is a very, very important goal in today’s context, especially for teams which are becoming more remote or teams where people are not co-located or they’re distributed. That community aspect becomes a very, very important part that product managers need to focus on and bring and channelize as well.
Lenny Rachitsky: So let’s just quickly describe each of these attributes. I imagine people might be thinking, “Okay, what should I get better at as a PM?” And this is an awesome list. Each company has their own career ladders and attributes and things like that, but not a lot of companies don’t. So I think for people that are trying to figure out where do I need to get better, I think this is a really cool list. Can you just maybe just a sentence explanation of each of these attributes and skillsets that a PM needs?
Vikrama Dhiman: So each one of those skills, like the most growth ladders, what they will do, is they will have say for data, they will have level one, exhibits these traits. Level two, exhibits this trait. Level three, exhibits this trait. Level four and level five and so on. That’s how they’ll describe it. But five is absolute ninja level data quality, like you could probably do a data startup of your own.
Lenny Rachitsky: Like Crystal basically?
Vikrama Dhiman: Crystal. And level zero is someone who cannot even basically define the basic metrics for this particular product and won’t be able to figure out is this particular thing impacting orders or users or revenue. And so you’ll really not be able to figure even that piece out. Similarly, on design and research, for product managers, we focus a lot more on problems and are you able to identify problems from a user’s perspective. That’s at level zero. And level five will be somebody who’s able to define the user problems but is also able to tie them to business roles as well. So that makes it the holistic. Similarly, on technology, it’s one of the skills which is relatively easier to define where you don’t have any tech understanding. If somebody asked you what is HTTP or API or internet and you’ll be like, “Okay, I don’t know what it is.”
And while on the other end, you are able to have deep debates and could probably write technology design documents yourself as well. I think sometimes people get confused between data science. And in different organizations, I see data science bucketed either in data or in technology. Either is fine as long as you are clear on what your organization’s framework is. Similarly then, there is strategy. Strategy is I think another area in product management which gets very confusing because there is obviously corporate strategy, there is business strategy, there’s pricing strategy, there’s strategy everywhere. Product strategy for me is where you are able to define that while somebody defines that this is the mountain that you’re going to climb, but okay, how are you going to climb that mountain is basically the product strategy piece.
So you are not in charge of okay, are you focused on growth? Are you focused on revenue? Are you focused on profitability? That’s someone’s choice. Are you going to pick this country? Are you going to pick that country? But once that is picked, what are the user segments that you’re going to focus on? What are the needs of those user segments? How are we going to figure out what the right product for them will be? What is the order in which we are going to work on that? That whole piece of product strategy is with the product managers. And again, in the first case, you are basically going to rely on everyone to tell you, do this, do this, do this. In second and in the level five cases, you are able to articulate a very coherent product strategy at a broad level as well.
Lenny Rachitsky: Amazing, thanks for sharing that. I think for people that are trying to craft career ladder for product managers, this could help inform the way they think about this. By the way, when we mentioned Crystal, for folks that have no idea who we’re talking about, she was a early head of growth at Gojek back in the day. She was a previous guest on the podcast. I always forget how to pronounce her last name exactly, but I think it’s Widjaja, Crystal Widjaja.
Vikrama Dhiman: Widjaja.
Lenny Rachitsky: Widjaja? Okay, okay. Great. Going in a different direction, we’re going to move to contrarian corner. I’m curious if there’s anything that you believe that other people wouldn’t agree with or generally just don’t believe?
Vikrama Dhiman: I used to think intent is the most important thing, right? And when I was starting off, that used to be the advice that as long as your intent is right, even if some of your words are not landing, even if some of the comms are not landing, that will work out. What I’ve seen is that it’s not enough. Your actions, your behavior, and the way you communicate, the way you collaborate, that also has to communicate and show who you are as well. So intent is not enough. And that’s a thing which I think a lot of people in my age group just don’t get, but people who are slightly starting off their career, it resonates well with them. Second thing I think where I feel that it’s become, I don’t know, is it contrarian or it’s become politically incorrect, is that you still need to put in the effort and our number of hours is effort.
And I think that’s one thing which has become very politically incorrect to say over the years when I was younger, it was the norm that yes, you will have to put in the effort, you will have to put in the hours to grow and improve your skills. And it’s not even about your growth in the company, it’s just your own growth. You have to spend the time, effort, and energy into growing. I think a lot of that is getting lost in the debates between complete workaholism and just being not very serious about your growth at all. So I think those are the two that I find myself having to explain myself again and again and why I feel this way.
Lenny Rachitsky: I completely agree with that. I find a hugely strong correlation between hours you put into the work you do and success. And I think there’s been a return to okay, working hard is really important and you shouldn’t be afraid of promoting working really hard. So we’ve actually gone through everything that I wanted to ask you. Before we get to our very exciting lightning round, is there anything else you wanted to share or is there anything you want to leave listeners with?
Vikrama Dhiman: No, I think it has been great talking to. I hope it was useful to people. I’ve tried to keep it real, but also in takeaway format. And if there are any questions that you have that I feel I have not answered, I’m happy to answer them.
Lenny Rachitsky: Okay, amazing. Well, we’ll have people post in the comments if there’s anything else they would love to ask you. With that, we’ve reached our very exciting lightning round. Are you ready?
Vikrama Dhiman: Yes.
Lenny Rachitsky: First question, what are two or three books that you’ve recommended most to other people?
Vikrama Dhiman: The first book is a book which I feel is not quoted enough in product management community, is a book called Small Data by Martin Lindstrom. This is a person who was an advertiser or marketeer who would go and make campaigns for big brands in different countries, and so would have usually very short time to get the pulse of that space and design a campaign around it. And how he got insights very quickly from, and what are some of the takeaways that are there for people working in product space, not just product managers, but designers, researchers, strategy people, anyone really, I can’t recommend that book more. And I’ve cited that book a lot internally.
The second book that I recommend is Adam Grant’s Originals. I think it’s a very important book. It changed a lot of things. When I spoke about that I was going through this crisis of, oh, I’m behind so many things after joining Gojek, Originals was one book that I read which really, really helped me think about my growth and how I see myself. And anyone who is stuck or anyone who feels they are superstars, they are the innovators of the century kind of a thing, it’s a book that gives you a very good reality check. And the third book that I recommend is definitely Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. I think especially the thinking slow part becomes very, very important piece as well.
And the reason why change is hard, the reason why feedback is hard is because we are used to thinking fast and we are not used to thinking slow. While if you actually think slow, you’ll actually welcome change and growth.
Lenny Rachitsky: Amazing. That book’s come up a bunch actually recently on the podcast and it is always sitting under my laptop, holding up my laptop for these interviews. So I fully agree. Next question, do you have a favorite recent movie or TV show that you’ve really enjoyed?
Vikrama Dhiman: I haven’t seen a lot of movies recently, I think. But while I was on the flight back from Dubai, I saw Miss Congeniality again and I really, really enjoyed it. I thought it’s a very fun movie, but also had a pretty good message. I know it’s probably not the movie which anyone would want to cited, but I think it’s sometimes good to just watch good entertainment.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s quite the contrarian pick. Yeah, nobody has cited this movie, Miss Congeniality. This is a first, but I love it. It’s way out there. I would never would’ve expected this.
Vikrama Dhiman: In terms of TV shows, I think the show that I really go back to all the time is Schitt’s Creek. I think it’s a show which operates at so many different levels without taking itself that seriously, and it just lands. And especially as a product manager and as a leader who obsesses a lot about diversity, I think it did a fantastic job in showing different sides of motherhood, of the LGBTQIA communities, and also teenage girls figuring themselves out as well. I think it did a fantastic job.
Lenny Rachitsky: Do you have a favorite interview question that you like to ask candidates when you’re hiring product managers especially?
Vikrama Dhiman: So it’s not really one question, but what I like to do with them is to brainstorm choices on an actual product. And I’ll typically pick up a product that they use most often and then I will be like, “Okay, what if this product were to do this? Then what do you think, it makes sense? Don’t think it makes sense? What about this? Okay, how would it evolve in six months? What would happen in 12 months and so on?” I think it gives you a far better insight into how would it be on working with them on a real case. And you also keep… And what I like about it is that you can keep going back deeper into it and develop it together. So I typically try and pick product that I will also not have very strong opinions on so that it can become a two-way conversation.
Lenny Rachitsky: What do you actually look for in an answer that tells you, “Okay, this candidate is amazing” versus flags that are like, “Hmm, maybe not?”
Vikrama Dhiman: There are some obvious check marks that are they able to first abstract out and figure out what the overall goals for the product are, who the users for that product are, what would they be focusing on right now, whether this will align with that or not. And then a reason backwards that okay, maybe this may not work, but something on these lines. Are you obsessed about this feature or are you obsessed about okay, what this enables you to do? So if this is what it enables you to do, then are you okay with considering some other options and so on? So I think that’s the direction which usually goes in the right way.
Lenny Rachitsky: Is there a favorite product you’ve recently discovered that you really love?
Vikrama Dhiman: So the reason why I’ve not watched a lot of drama or TV recently is because I’ve discovered these short video apps through Instagram and all of these apps, they dub Chinese TV serials into English or there will be subtitles in English and they are delivered in TikTok style two-minute videos. And it’s a masterstroke in how the series are constructed. The first few episodes, which is like 10 episodes which is about 10 to 15 minutes, sets up the story in such a way that you have to unlock the next 10.
And these videos are quite expensive. They end up, one series takes more than the entire cost of monthly cost of Netflix to view. But it’s just amazing how the whole product has been put, how all these products have been put together on unlocking the lamification aspects of it, the storytelling aspects of it, the content cutting part of it, and even the selection of the stories part of it. And what I’m told is that once I’ve learned about it, I’ve also been reading about it, they’re actually companies which are able to give you tools of where you can construct this app yourself. And multiple people, two-people, three-people companies are churning these out and earning a lot of profit from it as well.
Lenny Rachitsky: What is this called for people that want to check this out?
Vikrama Dhiman: So you can start with DramaBox, you can start with [inaudible 01:07:47] Reels and so on. And there are multiple of these. And those of you who are very familiar with TikTok, you would’ve seen that some of these show you the first 10 episodes on TikTok and then they take you to their app to view the rest.
Lenny Rachitsky: Wow. I love so many unusual contrarian pieces of advice here, I love it. Two more questions. Do you have a favorite life motto that you often come back to, share with friends or family, either in work or in life?
Vikrama Dhiman: For me, the most important thing has been that I started my career very late in tech. I was already 25. For the first several years, I worked in a small [inaudible 01:08:32] town in India. I came to Delhi only in 2013, and I joined Gojek in 2018. I think I’ve done reasonably well for myself. And it’s never late to do or what do you want to do and what do you want to be. I think that’s the thing that I really, really believe in and I also advise in. Especially as the world is aging and a lot of people are thinking about it, I would say that it’s not too late ever. You can be and do what you want right now.
Lenny Rachitsky: So good. It’s not too late. I really, really like that advice. My wife is an illustrator designer. She has a book she put out called Am I Overthinking This? It’s in my background somewhere there. And she has a chart that communicates that exact message in a really cute way, and we’ll try to link to it in the show notes. Final question. You live in Singapore, I know you travel a lot. But if someone were to come to Singapore, is there a food that you think they need to try that’s unique to Singapore?
Vikrama Dhiman: Singapore? There are multiple. So Singapore is a melting pot of different cultures. There are four official languages. And the only thing I will advise is depending on your taste buds, whatever you want to do, you should go and visit a Hawker Center. And it’s an amazing experience in itself. And those of you who’ve seen Crazy Rich Asians, the first thing they do when they land in Singapore is go to the Hawker Center. So it’s an experience of its kind. And if you are looking for a specific recommendation, go to Lau Pa Sat. If you are a fan of Indian, you’ll get that. If you’re a fan of Malay cuisine, you’ll get that. If you’re a fan of Singaporean Chinese, you’ll get that. So you pick what works for you.
Lenny Rachitsky: I love that. Vikrama, I feel like we’ve produced both a lot of output and we’re going to have really great outcomes from our conversation. Thank you so much for being here. Two final questions. Where can folks find you online if they want to reach out and follow-up on any of the stuff we talked about? And how can listeners be useful to you?
Vikrama Dhiman: Thank you, Lenny. It’s been great talking to you as well. Hopefully, this turns out well. You can reach out to me either on LinkedIn, Vikrama Dhiman, or you can reach out on Twitter. Twitter works better. And the listeners can be useful to me by, well, just sharing whatever they feel. And I continuously follow a lot of people, a lot of people who are not yet famous. Just tell me what your story is, just tell me what you are working on. And as long as you are passionate about it, I will try and find time. Maybe I cannot talk to everyone, but I’ll definitely try and find to chat with you and listen out and support or connect you to someone who can help support you.
Lenny Rachitsky: That’s a very generous offer, I think a lot of people are going to take you up on that. Vikrama, thank you so much for being here.
Vikrama Dhiman: Thank you so much, 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 |
|---|---|
| Adam Grant | Adam Grant |
| Crazy Rich Asians | 《摘金奇缘》(Crazy Rich Asians) |
| Crystal | Crystal |
| Daniel Kahneman | Daniel Kahneman |
| Dito | Dito |
| Gojek | Gojek |
| Hawker Center | 小贩中心(Hawker Center) |
| IC | IC |
| Lau Pa Sat | 老巴刹(Lau Pa Sat) |
| Lenny Rachitsky | Lenny Rachitsky |
| Martin Lindstrom | Martin Lindstrom |
| PM | 产品经理 |
| PRD | PRD |
| Sidu | Sidu |
| Vikrama Dhiman | Vikrama Dhiman |
Reformatted by reformat_english.py
在产品经理的职业发展中,许多人误以为早早把握宏大战略就能实现跃升,但Gojek资深产品领袖Vikrama Dhiman提出了更为务实的成长框架——“三个W”:你产出了什么、你为团队带来了什么,以及你的运作模式。本文的核心洞见在于打破了初级产品人对“影响力”的盲目执念。Dhiman指出,职业早期的核心在于沉下心来打磨“产出物”,用扎实的执行力建立团队信任,而非好高骛远地空谈战略。随着资历加深,产品经理需向驱动结果和领导力过渡,但始终不能剥离独立贡献者的根基。这篇文章为不同阶段的产品人提供了一把清醒的标尺,引导读者重新审视自身的发展路径。
产品经理(PM)技能发展框架 | Vikrama Dhiman(Gojek)
Lenny Rachitsky: 当我询问人们心中亚洲最喜爱的产品领导者时,您的名字被提及的次数几乎超过了其他任何产品人。 Vikrama Dhiman: 我为产品经理创建了一个职业成长框架,包含三个方面:你产出了什么,你为团队带来了什么,以及你的运作模式是什么。 Lenny Rachitsky: 您的建议是,在职业生涯早期,专注于把事情做出来并完成。 Vikrama Dhiman: 你能给我看看你上一份 PRD 吗?你能给我看看你发出去的上一份产品说明吗?你能给我看看产品策略文档吗?你必须通过你产出的工作成果来体现影响力。 Lenny Rachitsky: 我很好奇,您认为什么最阻碍人们的职业成长。 Vikrama Dhiman: 你如何看待变化,你是否专注于自己能控制的事情,第三是你如何看待自己。一旦你能够纠正这些认知,你可能就会重新回到成长的轨道上。
Lenny Rachitsky: Vikrama,非常感谢您做客播客。 Vikrama Dhiman: 谢谢你的邀请,Lenny。我很高兴来到这里。
Lenny Rachitsky: 正如你所知,也希望听众所知,我正在致力于结识全球最有洞察力的产品领导者。当我询问人们亚洲最喜爱的产品领导者是谁时,您的名字被提及的次数几乎超过了其他任何产品人。您也是节目邀请的第三位来自 Gojek 的嘉宾,所以那里绝对有什么独到之处,我想聊聊这个。直接切入正题,您在培养极其优秀的产品人才和设计人才方面享有很高的声誉,同时也帮助人们从其他角色转型为产品经理,这正是许多收听这档播客的人梦寐以求的。所以我打算围绕这个领域问一系列问题。听起来怎么样? Vikrama Dhiman: 听起来不错。
优秀产品经理的共同特质
Lenny Rachitsky: 好的。第一个问题是,当您回想那些在产品经理岗位上表现最出色且职业晋升迅速的人时,您发现他们身上有哪些最共同的特质、行为或习惯?
Vikrama Dhiman: 在过去的十五年里,我有机会与一些非常优秀的产品经理共事,向优秀的产品经理学习,其中一些人获得了迅速的职业成长。当我更年轻刚入行时,我常常认为这完全取决于产品。如果你负责的是一个真正酷的产品,你的成长就有了保证。如果你负责的是一个根本没人在乎的产品或业务线,那么你的成长可能会稍微慢一些。但随着我观察越来越多的产品经理打磨他们的技艺,我发现负责一个酷炫的产品领域并不是唯一的重要因素。事实上,有时一些产品经理会回来抱怨,尽管他们的产品做得非常好,但他们自己并没有真正成长。
而另一些产品经理,尽管他们的产品并没有产生太大影响力,却真正获得了成长。随着我开始深入观察,开始做笔记,开始与其他产品领导者交流,我发现那些真正优秀且在职业生涯中不断成长的产品经理,在某些方面做得与众不同。基于此,我为产品经理创建了一个职业成长框架,包含三个方面,我称之为三个 W。即你产出了什么,你为团队带来了什么,以及你的运作模式是什么。真正优秀的产品经理通常在这三件事中有两件做得很好。而那些正在崛起的人,当他们在上升期时,在这三个维度上都表现得很好。所以如果你愿意,我们可以更深入地聊聊这三个 W 中的每一个。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好啊,我很乐意。我很喜欢您把“what”放在首位,从而构成了三个 W,这很巧妙。因为我发现,即使缩写并非绝对必要,它也确实非常有助于人们记忆,所以我完全赞赏您在这方面的设计。所以这三个方面是:你产出了什么,你为团队带来了什么,以及你的运作模式是什么。对吗? Vikrama Dhiman: 是的,完全正确。 Lenny Rachitsky: 好的,太棒了。那我们就来聊聊这几个方面。
Vikrama Dhiman: 关于你产出了什么,很多人会将重点放在影响力上,进而开始思考目标、思考方向、思考战略。虽然了解自己处于职业的哪个阶段以及正在做哪种类型的产品很重要,但任何人刚入行时,产出的第一样东西就是产出物,对吧?产出物可以是发布一款产品,可以是分析并运行一项实验,甚至可以仅仅是作为团队的一员,为推向市场的策略做出贡献。所以要极其重视产出物。随着你对产出物感到得心应手,开始习惯与不同的利益相关者合作,你就会开始掌控哪些产出物是必要的,这时你就转向了结果。结果是你可以独自负责或与其他利益相关者协同合作的产品领域和目标。当你开始弄清楚哪些结果是必要的时,你就转向了领导力和方向性领域。
我看到很多产品经理犯的错误是,他们只停留在产出物或结果其中一个层面上运作。而当你向结果过渡时,非常重要的一点是,你必须继续打磨你在产出物方面的技能。例如,你是直接放弃了推向市场的策略,还是开始制作产品节点,然后由营销人员接手,用来制定推向市场的策略?即使你在所谓的职业管理阶梯上攀升,你也必须始终兼顾产出物和结果。因此,非常非常关键的一点是,在你产出的过程中,即使你处于最资深的位置,也不要忘记你的 IC 根基,不要忘记 IC 属性。有时,你只需要卷起袖子,回到基础,继续处理那些事情。这也能让你在团队中的其他人那里获得极大的信任。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这里我想强调的一个洞察是,你听到很多关于如何在职业生涯中做得好的建议,正如你一开始指出的,并不是要立刻驱动影响力。那不一定是你需要痴迷的东西,而实际上我给人们的建议恰恰是寻找产生影响力的方法。所以这非常有趣。你的建议是,在职业生涯早期,只需专注于把事情做出来并完成。不要那么痴迷于影响力。你能不能多谈谈,当你说产出物时,你描述的是什么?仅仅是发布产品、提供帮助并产出一些东西吗?
Vikrama Dhiman: 没错。产出物是发布产品,但也包括更小的事情。例如,如果你正在为首页寻找内容来源,你可以从哪些不同的渠道获取内容?哪个最容易获取?哪个最难获取?仅仅是按这个顺序把它们排列出来,就能发挥很大的作用。昨天我们的一位产品经理就是这么做的,我当时的反应是,哇,这让我的工作变得简单多了。不仅是我的工作,还有很多其他人的工作也因此变得简单得多,而且我们能够将那个特定的产出物作为我们整体策略的一部分来使用。如果那位产品经理痴迷于整体的内容策略,痴迷于我们整体将如何做,而不是仅仅关注我们将如何获取内容,他们就会把重点放在更大的事情上,也许根本无法产生那种影响力。但现在,他们能够展示出一个小部分,一个产出物,但它却融入了整体的结果之中。
Lenny Rachitsky: 对你所描述的,我的理解——其实我百分之百同意——是当你在职业生涯刚起步时,执行力才是你需要交付的东西。当你刚入行时,人们只希望你把事情做完。而不是让你来帮助我们定义未来三年的战略和愿景。我们只是有事情需要完成。你能帮我们完成吗?当然可以。然后本质上,这些建议就是,随着你变得资历更深,你会有更多机会去思考战略,思考要构建什么,而不仅仅是思考如何构建并实际执行。
Vikrama Dhiman: 完全正确。所以在职业生涯初期要专注于产出物,即使在职业成长后,也不要忘记产出物。
Lenny Rachitsky: 沿着这个思路,为了结束关于这个想法的讨论,如果你在做确实具有重大影响力的事情,这仍然是有帮助的,对吧?这有多重要?你说过你见过一些成功的产品经理在做影响力不大的事情,但也做得非常好,但我猜你的建议是不是,尽量去一个能驱动更多影响力的地方,还是说在职业生涯早期这其实没那么重要?
Vikrama Dhiman: 那我举一个我自己的例子。在我之前的一份工作中,有两个产品领域对组织来说很重要。我的产品领域最终成为了组织的中心和焦点,然而,当这个领域做大时,被选中负责该领域的产品经理并不是我,而是别人。那时我真的感觉非常糟糕,觉得好吧,为什么会发生这种事?但现在回想起来,我能明白为什么会这样,因为那位产品经理在产出物的整体技能上要比我好得多,而且当他们在关注结果时,也没有忘记产出物。所以他们在发布产品方面比我强,在与设计团队合作、产出设计图方面比我强,而且在运行实验方面也绝对比我强。
什么是好的产出物
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢这个例子。是的,基本上当你刚起步时,只要执行得好,执行得顺畅,按时交付就好。我要说几点,但我很好奇你脑海中还会浮现出什么,关于好的产出物到底什么样?是做对你的团队和经理有帮助的事情,按时交付,没有 bug,拥有一份清晰的路线图,每个人都保持一致,按时完成截止日期等等吗?我想知道在这个方向上,人们还应该做些什么,从而觉得“好的,这就是我应该做的,以拥有好的产出物”?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我觉得有一些东西是有用的。首先,什么是产出物?产出物是那些有非常具体定义的东西,不需要你花太多时间、精力和能量去想象、思考和制定战略,并且你能够迅速开始行动的。去问问你的产品负责人,去问问其他领导者,他们在哪些方面遇到了阻碍。有时他们会被这些事情卡住:“嘿,我需要为这个特定的峰会准备这份简报”、“我需要为领导层审查准备这张特定的幻灯片”、“我需要准备一份审查,一份必须与法务一起完成的审查”。你可以主动请缨,绝对可以拥有并交付这些东西的初稿,即使最终定稿不是由你负责的。这就是一个简单的产出物的例子,我觉得很多人忽略了这一点,因为他们想把注意力集中在更大的战略部分上。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这基本上就是要有用。这就是我一直喜欢谈论这个话题的方式,就像你作为产品经理的工作就是要有用,让你的团队更高效,帮助你的公司取得更大的成功。只要找到对你周围所有人都有用的方法即可。
Vikrama Dhiman: 完全同意。并且要在那些能产生影响力、也有助于你学习的小事上发挥作用,而不是在你认为“迷你CEO”应该工作的领域发挥作用。
赋能与信任的建立
Lenny Rachitsky: 没错。现在有很多关于成为赋能的产品经理、建立赋能的产品团队的讨论。我觉得这里有一个重要的细微差别。当你刚起步时,你还没有获得去影响战略和愿景的权力。人们凭什么在那个时候跟随你?我们只需要把事情做成,所以这是随着时间推移而来的。
Vikrama Dhiman: 完全同意。而且这不仅仅是在你刚起步或者年轻的时候。即使你已经很资深了,但刚加入一个新团队,或者刚加入一家新公司,你也需要具备这种心态。有时你并不会知道什么是最好的。我们会更多地讨论如何做到这一点,什么是你的运作模式,也就是你如何与他人合作。你必须要非常清楚地知道,你只是齿轮的一部分,而不是整个齿轮。很多关于产品经理的民间传说会让你感到困惑,尤其是在你刚步入职业生涯的时候。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢。好,我们继续。第二点。
对影响力的影响力
Vikrama Dhiman: 第二点是你能带来什么。现在,我想我描述它的方式是,你对影响力的影响力是什么?所以第一层是影响力,但你也需要对影响力产生影响。这是我在职业生涯早期经常忽略的一点,即你负责了最酷的产品领域,你的产品领域取得了成功,这就自动保证了你的成长。事实并非如此。你还必须证明,是的,你是促成这一特定影响力的有用贡献者。这方面最简单的一点就是,你的PRD质量足够好吗?你是否在撰写那些会流转给客服团队、营销团队等部门的草稿笔记?你是否确保你是从已经成型的战略中推导出来的,还是你只是在不断地反驳战略?同样,你也包括你如何起草北极星指标,你如何进行实验,你如何处理数据,你如何处理指标。所有这些事情都需要时间、精力和能量。我知道有一些文献和一些运作模式,人们只在战略层面上工作,而所有这些产出物的执行都是由其他人完成的。我不认为,尤其是当你刚起步时,这是一件非常好的事情。即使你处于中级到资深阶段,我也不认为这是一件非常好的事情。你必须能够产出这些产品产出物。即使战略方面有人在创建他们的产出物,即使设计方面在提出设计简报,你也需要有一个连贯的产品战略或产品PRD,并从PRD和产品认知本身向后推导。这些事情很重要,可以展示你正在四个支柱上取得进展,即数据与指标、设计与研究、技术技能以及战略。产品经理在面试时会不断在这几个方面被评估,但在工作中你也必须展示这些。展示这些的最好方式是通过产出物,通过你发送的笔记。所以你必须通过你处理的产出物来产生这种对影响力的影响力。对于很多产品经理,当我问:“嘿,我正在负责这个非常有影响力的领域。但我没能对我的职业生涯产生影响,缺少了什么?”当我去问:“你能给我看看你上一份PRD吗?你能给我看看你发送的最后一份产品笔记吗?你能给我看看你拥有或参与合作的产品战略文档吗?你能给我看看你发给设计团队的问题简报以及这些问题的优先级排序吗?”通常,你会发现这样或那样的东西缺失了。
运作模式与利益相关者管理
在这些情况很糟糕的情况下,你会发现迭代前规划、冲刺前规划无法正常运行。你会发现Jira看板非常空,主题里只有一个标题,没有任何描述等等。所以你会遗漏所有这些部分。所以这些就是你能带来给团队的东西,你在这些方面下功夫也是非常非常重要的。最后,我们来看看什么是你的运作模式,我觉得如果你要从中级资深晋升到资深级别,这是你必须关注的最重要的事情。这本质上关乎沟通、协作、组织能力和社区技能。在产品经理群体中,同样因为“迷你CEO”等民间传说的影响,我看到很多人在与其它利益相关者以产品经理身份运作时容易忘乎所以。我定义了产品经理与他人良好合作的三条原则。第一是提出困难的问题,但不要成为一个难以共事的人。引出重要的议题,但不要把注意力引到自己身上。最后,你负责促成决策的做出,而不是自己做出所有的决策。我认为只要你遵循这三条原则,你就会与所有利益相关者建立成功的关系。这三条原则说起来容易,但在日常工作中去体现和展示它们却变得非常非常困难。但这本质上将是你的挣扎所在,无论你在职业生涯中或公司内处于哪个级别的产品管理岗位。
Lenny Rachitsky: 首先,你能再重复一遍吗?因为我觉得这……本质上,这就像是一句产品经理可以回想的箴言:“我做到这些了吗?”
Vikrama Dhiman: 所以产品经理与其他人和其他利益相关者合作的三个非常重要的东西是:提出困难的问题但不要难以共事,引出重要的议题但不要把注意力引到自己身上,并且能够促成决策的做出而不必自己做出所有的决策。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我非常喜欢这个清单。这让我想起我合作过的一位产品负责人,他的团队被逼迫去做一堆愚蠢的事情。他后来意识到:“嘿,驳回做这些事情其实正是我的工作。”他是这个业务部门的产品负责人,他意识到:“哦,我明白了。既然我处在这个角色,这其实正是我应该做的。”而人们有时会忘记,第一,你拥有这种影响力。第二,这是你应该做的事情。
Vikrama Dhiman: 完全同意,完全同意。这总是在你的控制范围内的,而且你总是应该去控制那些在你控制范围内的事情,而不是把注意力集中在那些你无法控制的事情上并对此耿耿于怀。
提升产出物质量的途径
Lenny Rachitsky: 我与你对所有这些事情的思考方式非常一致。实际上回到第二点,只是想给人们一些他们可以针对这个特质去做的具体事情。所以我对你的描述的理解是,如果我理解有误请纠正,你在制作你创建的所有文档/产出物时,你的单页文档/PRD、你的路线图、你的战略文档,都应该有一种注重细节、追求高品质的特质,就像它们真的应该非常高质量一样。所以沿着这个思路,如果你是一个试图在这方面做得更好的ICPM,你发现提升这些东西的最好方式是什么?是与你的经理合作并获得反馈吗?是同行吗?是什么能帮助一个人提高质量,是的,也就是这些文档的质量?
Vikrama Dhiman: 你所贡献的东西是产品管理中最容易被误解的属性和方面之一。从一方面来说,你可能会四处去说,“这是我的PRD,这是我的JIRA看板,这是我的需求故事,这是我的预冲刺规划或预迭代规划文档”,然后就完事了。这不仅仅是关于你正在做的事情的广度和宽度,也是关于这些事情的深度。有些产品经理,他们所贡献的是争论,是辩论,是反对,而另一些人则能够引导这些问题、引导这些输入、引导这个方向,并将其转化为战略选择,从而塑造讨论,进而塑造方向。成为后者,你的职业生涯就会晋升得更快。
Lenny Rachitsky: 所以你有这三个方面,即你的产出、你的贡献以及你的运营模式,也就是三个W。让我们试着总结一下,看看我遗漏了什么,然后我们继续。第一,只是专注于执行,完成对你的团队、你的公司、你的经理有帮助的事情,专注于把东西做出来。不一定非要在战略上花太多精力。即使当你成为一名经理、领导者和副总裁时,你仍然负责产出东西,而不仅仅是告诉别人该怎么做并表现得很有智慧。第二,关于你的贡献,我在这里得出的结论是,产出能提高标准的高质量产出物。
我对这点的理解是,作为一名产品经理,你想要拥有这种“我能搞定”的光环。当人们把事情交给你时,他们应该觉得Lenny能搞定,我不需要担心。这件事交出去就会被忘记,因为我知道它会被做好。然后第三点是关于运营模式的理念。基本上就是确保决策正在被做出。这并不是关于你在反对糟糕的想法。在我们继续之前,我还有什么遗漏的吗?
Vikrama Dhiman: 没有。我认为反对的艺术是另一个重要因素,因为如果你经常反对,你反对的方式也非常重要。不要成为一个被视为障碍、阻力和非常难合作的人,而要被视为一个能够真正为你的领导、你的利益相关者、你的产品领域所要求的东西增加价值的人,并且你能够推动产品、方向和执行向前发展。一旦你做到了这一点,我认为以此为意图,并确保你的团队没有被阻塞,并且没有在做任何愚蠢的或可能会被改变的工作,那么你就真正掌握了它。
Lenny Rachitsky: 关于如何以你描述的那种不让人觉得难合作、也不显得在刻意彰显重要性的方式去反对,你有什么建议吗?我想知道是否有你发现有效的词语、短语或方法,用来反对你不同意的想法?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我观察到,那些非常成功地提出反对意见且仍被认为不难合作的人,他们也能够将对话的节奏从情绪化空间带到一个更符合逻辑的空间。我认为这是一个非常有用的技能,我有时也会犯在稍微情绪化的基调上行事的错,但这有时是有用的。有时你需要一声战吼,你需要高亢的语调,你需要战时状态下的执行。这些都没问题,但只在某些情况下没问题。在其他情况下,你能够把它降到一个逻辑空间,以便让讨论能够在一个更符合逻辑、更平等的基础上进行,这总是非常重要的。其中很多是领导者需要确保正在发生的事情,但是那些与高管合作的产品经理和产品领导者,如果能够降低这种节奏并将其带入一个更符合逻辑的空间,他们也会在职业生涯中表现得更好,并且会有更快的职业发展。
职业发展停滞的原因
Lenny Rachitsky: 那么让我们谈谈快速职业发展的另一面,即停滞的职业发展。我很好奇你发现什么最阻碍人们的职业发展。产品经理做了什么会搬起石头砸自己的脚,从而减缓他们的职业发展?你发现有哪些重要的陷阱需要尽量避免?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我认为部分原因在于我们很多在产品领导岗位上的人。我们在定义评分标准、成长框架等方面做得不是很好。但即使在存在成长框架的地方,比如三个W,我看到的是,清晰的心智模式转变和变化可以促成更快的成长,但那些心智模式和变化也可能阻碍你的成长,对吧?所以第一点是,你是专注于你能控制的事情,还是专注于你无法控制的事情。第二,你与变化的关系是什么?第三是你如何看待自己。第三点非常、非常强大,我们也会谈到这一点。第一点是关于你能控制什么。如果你画一条轴,一边是你能控制的,另一边是你不能控制的,当你在开始你的职业生涯时,你正在做的大部分工作都在你能控制的范围内,对吧?
你非常痴迷于反馈,你非常痴迷于,“好吧,我能做这个吗?”“我能做这个吗?”“好吧,我可能不会做这个。我可能会做这个”,等等。你不会去担心整体的公司战略,你不会去看竞争对手在做什么,他们的市值是多少以及所有这些东西。你非常专注于你的手艺,非常专注于你的产出,并且你专注于你如何成长。当你开始走向中高级阶段时,我看到对话从我能做什么、我如何学习、我如何成长,转变成了为什么组织不为我做这些?为什么那个利益相关者不能改变他们自己的这个问题?为什么我不能参与这样的项目?这些事情开始超出你的控制范围。无论你处于职业生涯的哪个阶段,都保持专注于你能控制的事情,这非常、非常重要。
再说一次,很容易说宇宙中的一切都应该在你的控制之下。实际情况并非如此,但影响你职业生涯的很大一部分事情是在你的控制范围内的。回到我们谈到的三个W,你做什么工作,你产出什么或者你贡献什么,以及你的运营模式是什么?在数据方面有大量事情可以做,在技术方面有大量事情可以做,在沟通、协作、设计和研究、战略和社区方面也有大量事情可以做。你可以花上一年又一年去打磨这些东西。专注于这些事情,成长就会在每一个阶段发生。第二个方面是你与变化的关系。同样,当你更年轻、刚起步时,变化的速度是疯狂的。你几乎每六个月都在成长。你在实验中获取技能,你在如何分析方面获取技能。
你在与不同类型的利益相关者合作方面获取技能。由于你技能的变化率很高,你的成长率也很高。同样,当你开始走向中高级阶段时,我开始看到这样的对话,“好吧,也许我不应该做那个。也许我不应该接手这个产品。我不知道这对我的职业生涯意味着什么。我不知道这对我的成长意味着什么”等等。所以你的变化率慢了下来。因此,当你达到中高级阶段时,非常重要的是,你要不断检查你能做些什么来保持提高你的变化率。你能做的最简单的事情之一就是,如果你认为你在数据方面是四分,弄清楚谁是五分。你在数据方面可能是满分五分里的四分。在你的组织内部,开始将自己与行业内最优秀的人进行对标。
Vikrama Dhiman: 你会自动发现你的评分下降了,随着评分下降,你开始看到你需要改进和做的事情。如果你发现在沟通和协作方面,你在 PMR 中已经达到了五分之四,开始将自己与其他职能的利益相关者进行对标。同样,在你眼中你的分数会下降,你也会开始弄清楚你能做些什么。因此,保持专注于变化率,增长率自然会迎刃而解。有时这也涉及更换你的团队甚至更换你的公司,但这些应该是最后的手段。在这其中你也有大量可以做的事情。我看到的限制你的最后几件事之一,尤其是当你在职业生涯中开始成长并达到中高级阶段时,就是你如何看待自己。
自我认知与反标签化
我看到很多产品……我也曾对此感到内疚。当我看到很多产品经理(这也包括某个阶段的我)做这些事情时,人们会回来说,“哦,我是一个非常高能动性的 PM”或者“我是一个非常注重协作的 PM”。早些时候,我常常认为,好吧,我需要把这种工作交给这些产品经理。我需要把他们安排到这种团队、这种工作领域、这种机会中。但后来我开始理解,这些事情不仅是在释放信号,它们也是反向信号。它们就像在说,“哦,我很有主观能动性。所以有时候如果我有些鲁莽,如果我在某些地方走捷径,如果我有时对某些人显得有些粗鲁,这也没关系”,等等,对吧?
类似地,如果我被看作是一个极度协作的人,那么有时候我不够果断、行动不够快等等也就没关系了,因为我就是这种 PM。因此,非常重要的是,你要审视你给自己讲的是什么故事,因为这些故事在基本层面上定义了你,而之后很难通过框架和结构来纠正它。所以弄清楚你给自己讲的是什么故事。如果你无法弄清楚,去和你信任的人谈谈,这样他们也能告诉你,然后纠正这些故事。一旦你能够纠正这些故事,你可能就会重新回到成长的道路上。
Lenny Rachitsky: 哇,你刚才分享的内容非常有料也充满智慧。我想往很多不同的方向深入。也许就顺着最后这个话题,你自己有没有经历过类似的事情,即你对自己的某种认知阻碍了你?好的,太棒了。如果你不在 YouTube 上看的话,能看到你正在点头。你能分享一下吗?
在 Gojek 的自我校准
Vikrama Dhiman: 是的。我举一个我刚加入 Gojek 时的例子。我职业生涯中学到的第一件事就是 SQL 和 Oracle。我非常自豪于我的数据技能非常棒,我了解好几个框架,我了解好几个工具等等。当我加入 Gojek,我看到你的嘉宾之一 Crystal,看到她和她的团队正在做的工作,我立刻就觉得,“是啊,不,这根本不是……我差得远了”,对吧?类似地,我也认为我的沟通技能非常好,我的产品策略技能非常好,但后来我和像 Dito 以及像 Sidu 这样的人共事,他们在自己的手艺上太出色了,这挑战了我让我看到,好吧,我缺少的是什么?我做错了什么?
它在我眼中自动校准了我所处的位置,但这也让我产生了一种渴望,这就是我需要修复的东西。我立刻纠正了对自己的评估,我并不是数据方面最强的产品经理。我不是那个了解所有策略要素甚至策略框架的人,也不是知道如何将一切带入策略视角或从有效视角进行沟通的人。然后我开始构建我仍处于学习阶段的认知。当我发现自己现在不处于那个阶段时,我试图通过与在不同层面上远比我聪明的人交流,或者阅读不同的书籍,或者看像你们这样的播客来让自己保持谦卑。这能让你脚踏实地,明白好吧,你总是在学习的。我也发现,把自己看作一个学习者,是一个能对自己讲的赋能故事,好吗?
保持学习者的心态
它可能不是最激动人心的故事,也可能不是关于你自己最令人难忘的故事,但它绝对也是一个赋能故事。类似地,我认为我过去常说的关于自己的另一件事更多的是我是一个非常高能动性的 PM。但随着我开始在东南亚更多地工作,我学到正念也非常、非常重要,不是每个团队、每种文化都会以极度激进的方式与你合作。但你仍然需要把工作完成。而我仍在学习这一点,因此,我开始使用一个词,我不想成为一个高能动性的人,我想成为一个有正念的能动者。所以这些术语非常重要,因为这些是你不断给自己讲的故事,然后这些故事也开始塑造你的行为。我确实觉得我有很多事情要做,我在这些技能上也有很多东西要学,但这些事情肯定会让你脚踏实地,让你不断回到学习阶段。
应对比较带来的挫败感
Lenny Rachitsky: 有趣的是,当你看到 Crystal 在处理数据方面极其出色时,你只是意识到,“嘿,也许我实际上并不擅长这个。”而你的反应不是,“该死,我真的完蛋了,这真让我沮丧”,而是,“不,相反我要试着在这方面变得更好。”这让我想起了我从这个播客收到的一些反馈,那些人会说,“天哪,这些人太厉害了,我永远也达不到这个水平。这让我泄气,觉得我永远无法在这个职业中取得巨大的成功。”显然,你有一种不同的方式。对于那些有时因为看到别人如此不可思议而感到气馁的人,你有什么建议或指导,能帮助他们真正在你谈到的这个变化率上继续提升,而不是仅仅觉得,“不,我永远也达不到那么好”?
聚焦高杠杆领域
Vikrama Dhiman: 我认为作为产品经理,这会变得很困难,因为你的很多成长是由他人的反馈决定的。而且由于产品管理是如此模糊且仍未被定义,利益相关者也可以在各个维度上给出反馈。其中一些甚至可能根本不重要到值得给反馈,但它们对他们来说足够重要,因此,他们给了你反馈。因此,你必须梳理这些反馈。但你也要考虑到我们谈到的这八个轴线,数据轴线、设计和研究轴线、技术轴线、战略轴线、沟通轴线、协作轴线、组织技能轴线,以及社区轴线。你需要将反馈引导去思考,这是否是你目标要成长的领域?
我学到的最重要的事情之一是,当我加入 Gojek 甚至更早的时候,会有太多不同的领域需要我改进,并且现在仍然需要改进。你无法改进每一个领域。这就是让你感到不堪重负的原因。你需要挑选出对你来说最大杠杆的领域是哪个,去改进那个特定方面,然后转移到下一个领域,再转移到下一个领域等等。显然,如果你在某件事上挣扎,如果你在某件事上真的很薄弱,那么你要先修复那个,因为它会给你最高的杠杆。但如果你同时抓起数据、设计、战略和技术,那就是你会被压垮的时候。
技能组合与人员转化策略
Lenny Rachitsky: 所以总结一下这里的建议,一是对你收到的反馈保持真正的开放。说起来容易,真正倾听别人对你的批评并据此采取行动却很难。所以我认为这里的一个重要收获是,确实要把反馈当成礼物,真正理解这一点并尝试据此行动。我和现在在谷歌做产品经理的 Jules Walter 有一次很棒的访谈,他有一句很棒的话,说每当人们给他严厉的反馈时,他内心其实在崩溃,但在外表上他就像,“非常感谢你的反馈,我真的很感激。这非常有价值。”因此这是让人们不断给出反馈的好方法。
好的,然后你刚才分享的另一个建议是选择一个专注的领域。比如说你收到了所有这些反馈,你的战略不够惊艳,你的 PRD 写得不好,那就只找一件事来专注。我不知道,你是尝试按季度来做吗?还是按年?你有没有一个关于在一件事上花多长时间的启发式方法?
Vikrama Dhiman: 所以不同的技能需要不同的时间,你进展如何也很大程度上取决于此。对于那些性质上偏软的技能,如沟通、协作和社区,这些是你一生都要去努力的技能。你永远也无法在这些方面达到接近两分或五分之五的水平。总会有你会遗漏的东西,总会有新的情境,总会有新的利益相关者群体、你必须适应的新公司文化。对于其他技能,你必须看看什么能在你的职业生涯中给你最大的杠杆。当你刚起步时,我的建议是你在数据和技术中选一个,并在设计和研究以及战略中绝对选一个。
所以通常,这就是我推荐的组合。我的建议是,如果你有设计和研究背景,那么你选择数据或技术。如果你有数据或技术背景,那么你选择设计和研究,这会给你最大的杠杆,因为这是一项你在过去几年中必然没有发展过的技能。一旦你在数据、技术以及设计和研究这三者中的两项上证明了你自己,你就可以开始专注于战略。在 Gojek,我们使用这个框架在转化很多产品经理方面取得了巨大的成功,尤其是在印尼。这为我们培养出了很多优秀的产品经理。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好吧,我们实际上来顺着这条线索。这真的很有趣。所以方法是,你有这些技能轴线,然后你挑选,对于这个比如从客服转到产品的人,这里是你需要专注的两件事。你能多谈谈这个吗?
Vikrama Dhiman: 是的。比如,我们最近有两个产品经理,一个是增长背景出来的。这实际上是 [听不清] 的团队。另一个是研究背景。对于他们两个,我们使用了非常不同的策略。所以我们给其中一个分配了寻找司机重新设计,这是一个非常注重设计的产品,但我们仍然让他们发挥他们的数据技能,因为我们能够创建一个包含难以置信的数据量的 PRD,准确说明我们在针对不同细分客户做什么。然后我们与设计师合作,确定设计和框架会是什么样。甚至现在,Lenny,如果你下次来亚洲来看看我们的寻找司机重新设计,它就是一件艺术品。而如果你看到这实际上是由一个来自增长和数据背景的产品经理做的,那就更特别了。
类似地,从研究转行过来的产品经理,我一直在给出反馈,技术和数据技能是我们需要检查的。而且我需要从工程师那里听到,是的,他们能够非常紧密地与她合作。一旦她能够做到这一点,她最近就把一个关于我们正在做的一个功能的非常激烈的问题,变成了一个包含设计、权衡等一切的成熟解决方案,并且现在能够将其转化为向领导层提出的问题,即我们应该如何处理这个特定的产品和方向。所以我认为这也证明是成功的。类似地,还有另一个承担风险的人,她最初也是做研究的,同样在我们的很多产品上做了很多工作,包括我们的企业产品。她的工作也做得非常出色。同样,走过那条路径,好的,这些是你需要去发挥的。
唯一需要注意的是,这并不总是奏效。在某些情况下,一些产品经理会很快掌握这些东西,而且如果你在职业生涯稍微早些时候进行转型,这也会有很大区别。如果你在一个职能上已经资深,然后你转型,有时候在转型和掌握那些技能上可能会花很多时间。但如果你有一位非常强大的产品领导者与你合作,能够为你塑造那些技能,那这绝对是可行的。所以有时候在转型时稍微慢一点是可以的,这样你以后就能走得更快,而不是在某个地方变快了然后在那里卡住一段时间。
产品经理角色的定义困惑
Lenny Rachitsky: 你早些时候提到的、我想回头再谈的一件事是,关于产品经理角色是什么的这种困惑,以及这如何阻碍人们在这个角色中取得成功并继续蓬勃发展。你也在线下跟我提过这个,这只是你经常处理的事情,就是那种这到底是什么工作的挫败感?我到底对什么负责?我不对什么负责?你发现什么有助于帮助人们解决这个问题、克服它,不让这成为他们职业生涯中的巨大障碍,即使不完全确定产品经理角色究竟是什么?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我认为我们从事科技产品已经几十年了,但我们仍然在弄清楚产品管理的确切定义是什么。甚至最强的定义在本质上也有点原则性和哲学性,它们不是很具体,这也意味着每一个和不同的科技公司都经历了不同的旅程,并且他们对角色的定义非常、非常不同。而且即使在一个非常大的公司里,你也会看到不同的团队、不同的部门在处理这些角色时也非常、非常不同。
产品管理的科学与艺术及核心贡献
Vikrama Dhiman: 除此之外,这导致的后果是,不仅产品经理内部在摸索这些,他们的经理、领导在为他们理清这些事,而且必须与这些产品经理合作的其他利益相关者也很困惑,不知道该有什么预期。我从利益相关者那里得到的首要问题是,产品经理被期望做这个吗?因为他们也不知道,好吧,这究竟是不是对产品经理的期望?我对此的一般回答是,如果这件事阻碍了产品的进度,那么是的,产品经理就应该去处理。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢这个说法。
但这只有在产品经理接受过一些培训,接受过与不同利益相关者合作的培训,并且有一些在职经验的情况下才有效。我弄明白的一件事是,有些职能和有些学科是你无法定义的,你只能通过实践来变得更好。例如,什么是演员,或者什么是舞者?对吧?这些事情是你会随着技能熟练而变得更好的。而在早些时候,这些东西被视为非常有艺术性的东西,只有有天赋的人或特定类型的人才能做。但现在,它们中的每一个都变得[听不清 00:48:57]并且有了框架。所以现在有电影制作课程,有表演课程,有舞蹈课程等等。同样地,产品管理也是那个领域。
所以你必须理解,这其中既有艺术性也有科学性,但你可以用科学来弄清楚艺术。所以这就是它的哲学层面。第二个方面是我们早些时候谈到的,与其弄清楚什么是产品管理,不如弄清楚你的贡献是什么,你的产出是什么,弄清楚你是否在数据、设计、技术和战略这些轴心上做出了贡献。我最喜欢的事情之一是,如果你创建了战略、技术、设计和数据这四个圆,然后你创建了一个环绕每一个圆的产品管理圆,那么你就是唯一一个与所有这些学科共同协作的学科,并将所有这些东西串联起来。
所以这不是关于你独自站立,而是你总是与其他人协作和配对。但你是唯一一个与所有其他人配对的人,因此,你拥有团队中其他任何人都不会有的独特洞察力。这个角色可以由其他人来扮演,它不一定非得被称为产品经理。但如果你被称为产品经理,你就要弄清楚[听不清 00:50:24]你这个时间片段是什么。而当被加入到团队时,你必须去把团队的整体贡献、整体能量和整体产出向上构建,而不是向下拉低。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢这一点。我经常告诉人们的是,产品经理不一定拥有其他团队成员所没有的神奇技能,而是因为他们没有其他工作要做。工程师在做产品经理方面可能做得很好,但他们同样必须去构建和写代码。他们没有时间去做产品经理必须做的所有事情,设计师也是一样,研究员或数据人员也是如此。所以通常情况下,就像有这个人有时间去做团队之间所有这些胶水般的工作。而优秀的产品经理也非常擅长这些能帮助你做这些事情的技能,但这并不意味着其他人做不了。
你把自己看作是在扮演一个角色,而不是你的头衔,也不是你的职能,这为人们澄清了很多事情。不同的人会扮演不同的角色。根据你是哪种类型的产品经理,你是在特定领域,还是稍微偏通才,你在不同团队中扮演的角色可能会有所不同,而你能扮演的角色的多样性使你成为一个更好的产品经理。
优秀产品经理的四大核心属性
我很喜欢这个。你提到了优秀产品经理、全面发展的产品经理的这四个轴心属性。我们就在这里花点时间吧。所以你基本上说的是你需要做并且擅长的事情,数据、设计/研究、技术、战略,然后你还提到了协作和沟通。也许你是——
是的,组织能力和社区。我认为这些非常、非常重要,因为与我合作的一位产品经理经常说的一件事,我也非常赞同,那就是产品经理是团队中、组织中的社区全方位促成者。而那个社区是将所有人联系在一起、朝着交付产出的共同使命前进的软件层面。我认为这在当今的背景下是一个非常、非常重要的目标,特别是对于那些正在变得更加远程的团队,或者那些人们不在一起办公或者分布式的团队。社区层面成了产品经理需要关注、带来以及引导的一个非常、非常重要的部分。
那我们就快速描述一下这些属性中的每一个吧。我想人们可能会想,“好吧,作为产品经理我应该在哪些方面变得更好?”这是一个很棒的列表。每家公司都有自己的职业阶梯和属性之类的东西,但并不是很多公司都没有。所以我认为对于那些试图弄清楚自己需要在哪些方面变得更好的人来说,这是一个非常酷的列表。你能不能就产品经理需要的这些属性和技能集中的每一个,用一句话解释一下?
各属性的能力层级划分
所以这些技能中的每一个,就像大多数成长阶梯一样,它们会做的,是比如说对于数据,它们会有一级,表现出这些特征。二级,表现出这个特征。三级,表现出这个特征。四级和五级等等。它们就是这样描述的。但是五级是绝对的忍者级数据质量,就像你大概可以自己做一家数据初创公司一样。
Lenny Rachitsky: 基本上就像 Crystal 一样?
Crystal。而零级是那些甚至无法基本定义这个特定产品的基本指标,并且无法弄清楚这个特定的东西是否影响了订单、用户或收入的人。所以你真的连那一部分都弄不清楚。同样地,在设计和研究方面,对于产品经理来说,我们更多地关注问题,以及你能否从用户的角度识别问题。这就是在零级。而五级将是那些能够定义用户问题,但也能够将它们与业务角色联系起来的人。所以这让事情变得全面。同样地,在技术方面,这是一个相对更容易定义的技能,你没有任何技术理解。如果有人问你什么是 HTTP 或 API 或互联网,你会说,“好吧,我不知道它是什么。”
而在另一端,你能够进行深入的辩论,并且可能你自己也能写技术设计文档。我认为有时人们会在数据科学之间感到困惑。在不同的组织中,我看到数据科学要么被归入数据,要么被归入技术。只要你对你的组织框架很清楚,哪一种都可以。然后,就是战略。战略我认为是产品管理中另一个变得非常令人困惑的领域,因为显然有公司战略,有业务战略,有定价战略,到处都有战略。对我来说,产品战略是当你能够定义,虽然有人定义了这是你要攀登的山,但是,好吧,你要如何攀登这座山,这基本上就是产品战略的部分。
Vikrama Dhiman: 所以你不负责去定夺,比如“你是专注于增长,还是收入,还是盈利能力?”那是别人的选择。也不负责去定夺“你要进军这个国家,还是那个国家?”但一旦这些确定下来,你要聚焦哪些用户群体?这些群体的需求是什么?我们如何确定适合他们的产品是什么?我们的工作优先级是什么?这整个产品战略的部分都是由产品经理来负责的。同样地,在第一种情况下,你基本上得依赖别人来告诉你做这个、做那个。而在第二种和第五级的情况下,你能够在宏观层面上阐述出一个非常连贯的产品战略。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太棒了,感谢你的分享。我认为对于试图为产品经理制定职业阶梯的人来说,这有助于启发他们思考。顺便说一句,当我们提到 Crystal 时,对于不知道我们在说谁的人来说,她早年间是 Gojek 的早期增长负责人。她以前也是播客的嘉宾。我总是忘记她姓氏的确切发音,但我认为是 Widjaja,Crystal Widjaja。
Vikrama Dhiman: Widjaja。
Lenny Rachitsky: Widjaja?好的,好的。太好了。换个方向,我们要进入反直觉角落了。我很好奇,有没有什么是你相信但别人不会同意,或者大家普遍不相信的事情?
反直觉角落
Vikrama Dhiman: 我过去认为动机是最重要的。当我刚起步时,大家通常给出的建议也是,只要你的出发点是好的,即使有些话没表达清楚,即使沟通不到位,最终也会顺利解决。但我看到的情况是,这还不够。你的行动、你的行为,以及你沟通和协作的方式,也必须传达并展现出你是一个什么样的人。所以光有好的动机是不够的。我觉得同龄的很多人就是无法理解这一点,但对于那些刚步入职场的人来说,这很容易引起他们的共鸣。第二点,我不知道这算是反直觉,还是说已经在政治上变得不正确了,那就是你仍然需要付出努力,而工作时长就是努力的一种体现。这些年来,说这句话已经变得非常政治不正确了。在我年轻时,常态就是,是的,你必须付出努力,必须投入时间来成长和提升技能。这甚至无关你在公司内部的晋升,只是你个人的成长。你必须把时间、精力和能量投入到成长中。我认为在彻底的工作狂和完全对个人成长不上心这两种极端的争论中,很多这种观念被丢失了。所以我觉得就是这两点,让我发现自己总是不得不一次又一次地解释,以及我为什么会这么想。
Lenny Rachitsky: 我完全同意。我发现你在工作上投入的时间与成功之间有着极强的相关性。而且我认为现在已经回归到了“好吧,努力工作真的很重要,你不应该害怕提倡非常努力地工作”这种观念上。所以其实我们已经聊完了我想问你的所有问题。在我们进入非常激动人心的闪电问答之前,你还有什么想分享的,或者有什么想留给听众的话吗?
Vikrama Dhiman: 没有了,我觉得和你聊天非常棒。我希望这对大家有用。我尽量保持真实,同时也采用了要点总结的形式。如果有什么问题你觉得我没有回答到,我很乐意回答。
Lenny Rachitsky: 好的,太棒了。如果大家还有什么想问你的,我们会让他们在评论区留言。话虽如此,我们已经到了非常激动人心的闪电问答环节。你准备好了吗?
Vikrama Dhiman: 准备好了。
闪电问答
Lenny Rachitsky: 第一个问题,你最常推荐给别人的两三本书是什么?
Vikrama Dhiman: 第一本书是我觉得在产品经理圈子里引用得不够多的一本书,叫 Small Data,作者是 Martin Lindstrom。这个人以前是个广告商或营销人员,会去不同国家为大品牌做营销活动,所以通常只有很短的时间来摸清当地市场的脉搏,并围绕它设计营销活动。他是如何从中非常快速地获得洞察的,以及对于那些在产品领域工作的人——不仅是产品经理,还包括设计师、研究人员、战略人员,基本上是任何人——有什么可以借鉴的要点,我极其推荐这本书。我在内部也经常引用这本书。我推荐的第二本书是 Adam Grant 的 Originals。我认为这是一本非常重要的书,它改变了很多东西。当我提到在加入 Gojek 后,我经历了一种“天哪,我落后了这么多”的危机时,Originals 是我读过的一本真正、真正帮助我思考自身成长以及如何看待自己的书。对于任何陷入瓶颈的人,或者任何自认是超级明星、是世纪创新者之类的人,这本书都会给你一个很好的现实检验。我推荐的第三本书绝对是 Daniel Kahneman 的 Thinking, Fast and Slow。我认为特别是“慢思考”的那部分变得非常重要。为什么改变很困难,为什么接受反馈很困难,原因就在于我们习惯了快思考,而不习惯慢思考。而如果你真的去慢思考,你其实会拥抱改变和成长。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太棒了。实际上那本书最近在播客里被提到过好几次,而且它总是垫在我的笔记本电脑下面,在这些采访中支撑着我的电脑。所以我完全同意。下一个问题,你最近有没有特别喜欢的电影或电视节目?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我最近没怎么看电影,我想。但是当我在从迪拜回来的飞机上,我又看了一遍 Miss Congeniality,我真的非常非常享受。我觉得这是一部非常有趣的电影,同时也传递了相当好的信息。我知道这可能不是任何人都想引用的电影,但我觉得有时候看看好的娱乐作品也是挺好的。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这真是个反直觉的选择。是的,没有人引用过 Miss Congeniality 这部电影。这是第一次,但我很喜欢。这太出乎意料了。我绝对想不到会听到这个。
Vikrama Dhiman: 至于电视节目,我觉得我总是反复去看的剧是 Schitt’s Creek。我认为这是一部在许多不同层面上运作,但又没有太把自己当回事的剧,而且效果非常好。特别是作为一个对多元化非常痴迷的产品经理和领导者,我认为它在展示母性的不同侧面、LGBTQIA 群体,以及正在探索自我的少女方面做得非常出色。我认为它做得棒极了。
Lenny Rachitsky: 你有没有一个最喜欢的面试问题,特别是在招聘产品经理时喜欢问候选人的?
面试产品经理的技巧
Vikrama Dhiman: 其实不算是一个问题,但我喜欢和他们就实际产品进行选择上的头脑风暴。我通常会挑一个他们最常使用的产品,然后我会说,“好的,如果这个产品做这个功能呢?你觉得怎么样,合理吗?觉得不合理?那这个呢?好的,它在六个月内会如何演进?十二个月后又会发生什么等等?”我认为这能让你更好地了解在实际案例中与他们合作会是怎样的体验。而且你可以不断……我喜欢这一点的原因是你可以不断深入挖掘,共同发展这个想法。所以我通常会尽量挑一个我自己也没有很强成见的产品,这样它就能成为一场双向的对话。
Lenny Rachitsky: 你在回答中实际上会寻找什么来告诉你,“好的,这个候选人非常出色”,而哪些信号又像是,“嗯,可能不行”?
Vikrama Dhiman: 有一些明显的考察点,比如他们是否能够首先抽象出来并弄清楚产品的总体目标是什么,产品的用户是谁,他们现在会关注什么,这是否与之一致。然后再反向推理,好吧,也许这个行不通,但沿着这条线的某些东西是可以的。你是痴迷于这个功能,还是痴迷于它能让你做什么?所以如果这是它能让你做的事情,那么你是否愿意考虑其他选项等等。我认为这是一个通常指向正确方向的做法。
最近喜欢的新产品
Lenny Rachitsky: 你最近有没有发现什么特别喜欢的新产品?
Vikrama Dhiman: 我最近没看什么电视剧或电视节目的原因,是因为我通过 Instagram 发现了这些短视频应用,所有这些应用都把中国电视剧配音成英语,或者带有英文字幕,并且以 TikTok 风格的两分钟视频呈现。这在剧集的构建方式上绝对是个神来之笔。前几集,大概是 10 集,大约 10 到 15 分钟,以这样一种方式构建故事,让你必须解锁接下来的 10 集。
这些视频其实相当昂贵。算下来,看一部剧的花费甚至超过了 Netflix 的整月订阅费。但整个产品被打造出来的方式,所有这些产品在解锁的游戏化层面、叙事层面、内容剪辑层面,甚至故事选择层面被组合在一起的方式,实在令人惊叹。我了解到,在我知道这件事之后我也阅读了相关资料,实际上有一些公司可以提供工具,让你自己构建这样的应用。两三个人组成的团队正在大量炮制这些应用,并从中赚取了大量利润。
Lenny Rachitsky: 想要去看看的话,这叫什么?
Vikrama Dhiman: 你可以从 DramaBox 开始,也可以从 Reels 等开始。这类的应用有很多。你们当中非常熟悉 TikTok 的人可能已经注意到,其中一些会在 TikTok 上为你播放前 10 集,然后把你带到它们的应用上去看剩下的部分。
Lenny Rachitsky: 哇。我很喜欢这里这么多非传统的反直觉建议,太棒了。还有两个问题。你有没有一个最喜欢的人生座右铭,是你经常回想,或者与亲友分享的,无论在工作中还是生活中?
人生座右铭
Vikrama Dhiman: 对我来说最重要的一件事是,我进入科技行业的职业生涯起步非常晚。我当时已经 25 岁了。最初的几年,我在印度的一个小镇工作。我直到 2013 年才来到德里,然后在 2018 年加入了 Gojek。我觉得我自己做得还算不错。无论你想做什么,想成为什么,都为时不晚。这是我真的、非常坚信的一点,也是我经常给出的建议。特别是随着世界老龄化,很多人在思考这个问题,我想说永远都不会太晚。你现在就可以成为你想成为的人,做你想做的事。
Lenny Rachitsky: 太好了。永远不会太晚。我真心非常喜欢这个建议。我的妻子是一位插画设计师。她出版过一本书叫《Am I Overthinking This?》,就在我背景的某个地方。她有一张图表用一种非常可爱的方式传达了完全相同的信息,我们会尝试在节目笔记中附上链接。最后一个问题。你住在新加坡,我知道你经常旅行。但如果有人来新加坡,有没有一种你觉得他们必须尝试的、新加坡独有的食物?
新加坡美食推荐
Vikrama Dhiman: 新加坡?有很多。新加坡是不同文化的大熔炉。有四种官方语言。我唯一的建议是,根据你的口味,无论你想吃什么,你都去逛逛小贩中心(Hawker Center)。这本身就是一个奇妙的体验。你们当中看过《摘金奇缘》(Crazy Rich Asians)的人可能知道,他们降落在新加坡后做的第一件事就是去小贩中心。所以这是一种独一无二的体验。如果你想要一个具体的推荐,去老巴刹(Lau Pa Sat)。如果你喜欢印度菜,你能找到;如果你喜欢马来菜,你能找到;如果你喜欢新加坡中餐,你也能找到。所以你可以选择适合你的。
结尾与联系方式
Lenny Rachitsky: 我很喜欢。Vikrama,我觉得我们既产出了大量的内容,也会从这次对话中获得非常棒的结果。非常感谢你的到来。最后两个问题。如果人们想联系你,或者跟进我们聊到的任何内容,可以在网上哪里找到你?听众们怎样才能帮到你?
Vikrama Dhiman: 谢谢你,Lenny。和你交谈也非常愉快。希望这期节目效果很好。你可以在 LinkedIn 上联系我,Vikrama Dhiman,或者在 Twitter 上联系我。Twitter 效果更好。听众们可以通过分享他们的任何想法来帮助我。我也会持续关注很多人,很多还没出名的人。只要告诉我你的故事是什么,告诉我你在做什么。只要你对它充满热情,我就会尽量抽出时间。也许我无法和每个人都交谈,但我绝对会尝试和你聊天,倾听,提供支持,或者把你介绍给能帮助你的人。
Lenny Rachitsky: 这是一个非常慷慨的提议,我想会有很多人接受你的好意。Vikrama,非常感谢你来到这里。
Vikrama Dhiman: 非常感谢你,Lenny。
Lenny Rachitsky: 再见,大家。
非常感谢大家的收听。如果你觉得这很有价值,可以在 Apple Podcasts、Spotify 或你最喜欢的播客应用上订阅本节目。另外,请考虑给我们打分或留下评论,这真的能帮助其他听众找到这个播客。你可以在 lennyspodcast.com 找到往期所有节目或了解更多关于本节目的信息。我们下期再见。
术语表
| 原文 | 中文 |
|---|---|
| Adam Grant | Adam Grant |
| Crazy Rich Asians | 《摘金奇缘》(Crazy Rich Asians) |
| Crystal | Crystal |
| Daniel Kahneman | Daniel Kahneman |
| Dito | Dito |
| Gojek | Gojek |
| Hawker Center | 小贩中心(Hawker Center) |
| IC | IC |
| Lau Pa Sat | 老巴刹(Lau Pa Sat) |
| Lenny Rachitsky | Lenny Rachitsky |
| Martin Lindstrom | Martin Lindstrom |
| PM | 产品经理 |
| PRD | PRD |
| Sidu | Sidu |
| Vikrama Dhiman | Vikrama Dhiman |
此文档由 AI 分片翻译(translate_long_document)