Ian McAllister is the Senior Director of Product for Vehicles at Uber. Before moving to Uber, Ian spent over a decade directing teams at Amazon, where he created and led Amazon Smile. He was also Director of Product Management at Airbnb. In today’s episode, we discuss Ian’s legendary post about what separates a 1% product manager from everyone else. In our conversation, Ian outlines the most essential PM skills for new PMs, and how to broaden your experience and diversify skills as you move up the ladder. He also shares what he learned working with Jeff Wilke, Jeff Bezos, and other leaders at Amazon, and goes in depth on Amazon’s working-backwards framework.
Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 30, 2022Liked by Lenny Rachitsky
Great podcast. Ian's point about communication rings clear and reminds me of the "Pyramid Principle" for communicating to C-Suite execs, often taught to consultants:
I think a big part of moving up in one's career requires empathizing with the immediate needs of high level decision makers above one's position. Those folks typically don't want a long, drawn out story. They want a top-level takeaway from your analysis, with the option to drill deeper on the areas that matter to them.
Great podcast. Ian's point about communication rings clear and reminds me of the "Pyramid Principle" for communicating to C-Suite execs, often taught to consultants:
https://medium.com/lessons-from-mckinsey/the-pyramid-principle-f0885dd3c5c7
I think a big part of moving up in one's career requires empathizing with the immediate needs of high level decision makers above one's position. Those folks typically don't want a long, drawn out story. They want a top-level takeaway from your analysis, with the option to drill deeper on the areas that matter to them.
Great session, so much to learn and adopt.
Great episode! Adopting the principle of working backwards is a fantastic framework.