Building a long and meaningful career | Nikhyl Singhal (Meta, Google)

Growing Up in the Midwest

In this section, the speaker talks about how entertainment was like going to the dog tracks when he was growing up in the Midwest.

Entertainment in the Midwest

• Entertainment in the Midwest was like going to the dog tracks.

• Dogs were motivated by fake rabbits that would go around faster than them.

• If a dog accidentally touched the rabbit, it would never run again.

Career Planning

In this section, the speaker talks about career planning and ensuring that you always have something important and motivating to do with your career.

Career Planning

• People often focus on achieving one goal without thinking about what comes next.

• It's important to think about what happens after achieving a goal and ensure that you always have something important and motivating to do with your career.

Interview with Nikhil Singal

In this section, Lenny introduces his guest, Nikhil Singal, who has worked on and led large teams on four different influential consumer products including Facebook Credit Karma Google Hangouts and Google photos.

Introduction of Nikhil Singal

• Nikhil Singal has worked on and led large teams on four different influential consumer products including Facebook Credit Karma Google Hangouts and Google photos.

• Currently he leads product teams for the Facebook app at meta where we're seeing groups stories messaging and feed before that he served as Chief product officer at Credit Karma and held various leadership roles at Google.

• Nikhil is extremely passionate about coaching and mentoring sharing his knowledge through his newsletter and podcast called the skip.

PM Career Success

In this section, Lenny and Nikhil discuss all aspects of the PM career and what it takes to be successful at every stage of the journey.

PM Career Success

• The conversation covers all aspects of the PM career and what it takes to be successful at every stage of the journey.

• They discuss the dangers of thinking too short term, the importance of avoiding ex-growth companies or you're probably not getting promoted, what to focus on if you're a new manager, the rise of the senior IC path, why top leaders often have huge development areas they don't know about and how to catch them, and why people who make it to the top often run into serious mental health challenges.

Mentoring Product Managers

In this section, Lenny asks Nikhil how many product managers he has been a mentor to.

Mentoring Product Managers

• Nikhil estimates that he has mentored hundreds of product managers over time.

• He notes that being a mentor can mean different things to different people.

Mentoring and Long-Term Career Planning

In this section, the speaker talks about mentoring and long-term career planning. They discuss how they find 911 calls to be the most substantive times to help people, how many of their mentees have been on the podcast, and why they keep their mentees anonymous. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of being long-term focused in career planning.

Mentoring and Career Planning

• The speaker finds that 911 calls are the most substantive times to help people.

• About half a dozen of the speaker's mentees have been on this podcast.

• The speaker keeps their mentees anonymous so that people feel comfortable calling them for help.

• The speaker emphasizes being long-term focused in career planning.

Short-Term vs Long-Term Career Planning

In this section, the speaker discusses short-term versus long-term career planning. They explain why short-term thinking is dangerous and give examples of short-term thinking in workplace situations.

Short-Term vs Long-Term Thinking

• Short-term thinking is dangerous when it comes to career planning.

• To plan for a successful PM career, one should think about their end state and work backwards from there.

• Focusing too much on promotion can lead to short-term thinking in terms of career planning.

• Promotion is a system at companies to see you moving forward but it's pretty clear in terms of levels and what you're doing and what the process is and who makes the decision.

The Value of Diverse Experiences

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of having a diverse set of experiences in building and how it can make one a better builder.

Importance of Building Meaningful Things

• Collecting labels may feel shallow to most builders.

• Builders want to build things that are meaningful to them.

• Having a diverse set of experiences makes one a better builder.

Inside and Outside Building Problems

• Looking at inside and outside building problems helps in gaining experience.

• A more diverse career leads to being a better builder.

Fangish Companies on Resume

• Working at fangish companies unlocks opportunities.

• Executives are hired for their expertise in bringing growth to companies.

• Experience gained from working at these companies is an endorsement.

Exit Growth Companies: Not Good Place To Be

In this section, the speaker talks about exit growth companies and why they are not good places for product managers or any other role.

Hyperbo Blitz Scaling Phenomenon

• For 10 years, there was hyperbo blitz scaling phenomenon due to distribution platforms becoming so good.

• Instant growth was possible when product-market fit was found leading to birth of unicorns.

Change in Growth Dynamics

• Sudden change made capital harder to raise and forced companies to focus on core products.

• Large number of growth companies have raised substantive dollars but contemporary public companies are worth less than 10% than what they were worth back then.

• Fear is that many tech professionals are in these companies and it may not be good for their career.

When to Leave a Company

In this section, the speaker discusses when it may be time to leave a company that is struggling to find product-market fit and has an overvalued evaluation.

Signs of Lack of Product-Market Fit

• Reframing the core product to find product-market fit

• Difficulty in acquiring users/customers

• Hard work required to generate pull from customers/users

What to Do as a Founder vs. Employee

• Founders can recap their company or restart it entirely

• Employees may need to consider leaving if they have little equity and are not being compensated fairly

• Loyalty and learning opportunities may be reasons for employees to delay leaving, but fear of finding another job is not a good reason.

Advice for Early PMs

In this section, the speaker provides advice for early PMs on what they should focus on in their early career.

Building World-Class Products

• Focus on building something world-class in one of the following areas:

• Craftsmanship

• Market ambiguity

• Organizational ambiguity

• Domain expertise

Other Considerations

• No more than two bullet points

Picking a Lane and Having a Story to Tell

In this section, the speaker advises listeners to pick a lane and become an expert in their domain. They should also focus on developing skills that will help them manage growth. Additionally, they should have a story to tell their next employer.

Key Points:

• Pick a lane and become an expert in your domain.

• Develop skills that will help you manage growth.

• Have a story to tell your next employer.

Articulating Your Early Career Experience

The speaker emphasizes the importance of being able to articulate what you learned and did in your early career experiences during interviews.

Key Points:

• Be able to articulate what you learned and did in your early career experiences during interviews.

Mid-Career Promotions

The speaker discusses common reasons why people may not be getting promoted mid-career.

Key Points:

• Understand why you are not getting promoted by asking your manager or others.

• Four common reasons for not getting promoted include lack of advocacy, no actual role available, impatience, or having a development area that is not connected with the individual.

• Coaching, development, and self-awareness can help address issues related to having a development area that is not connected with the individual.

How to Get Real Feedback

In this section, the speaker discusses how to get real feedback and improve oneself.

Getting Real Feedback

• Formal feedback systems in companies may not provide accurate feedback.

• To get the ground truth, one needs to have strong listening skills and triangulate feedback from different sources.

• Creating an environment of safety where people feel comfortable giving feedback is crucial.

• Asking for real feedback and thanking the person for it can make them feel heard and more likely to give honest feedback.

Tips for Managers

• Managers should recognize employees who give good feedback during staff meetings.

• The tech industry often fails to train managers properly, leading to poor management.

Challenges of Management

In this section, the speaker discusses the challenges that come with management and how to overcome them.

Sharing the Steering Wheel

• The challenge of management is sharing the steering wheel with those being managed.

• There are three modes of management: divide and conquer, teaching to ride a bike, and sidecar on a motorcycle.

• The key question is how to share the steering wheel effectively.

Earning the Right to Manage

• Managers must earn their right to manage by being invited in rather than assuming power.

• It's important for managers to understand what they can help with and wait for an invitation before offering assistance.

• Once invited in, managers should pick specific areas to partner with their team members on and share responsibility.

Senior IC Path

In this section, the speaker discusses whether or not senior individual contributor (IC) roles are a viable career option.

Growth in IC Track

• The growth in IC track is due to backlash against management as a way to drive expansion.

• Promoting early ICs into management without proper training has resulted in average managers who promise too much but deliver little.

Benefits of IC Track

• The IC track provides real career opportunities for those who want to avoid managing others but still want long-term growth potential as an individual contributor or product manager.

The IC Track and Career Growth

In this section, the speaker discusses the IC track and its potential for career growth.

The IC Track as a Promising Career Path

• The IC track is one of the best things that's going to happen to people's careers.

• However, tracks for promotion and industry perception are not yet solidified.

• These tracks will become more real as time passes and growth occurs.

Engineering, Design, and Product Management Tracks

• There is a bug in how engineering, design, and product management tracks are perceived.

• In engineering, you can be a VP of engineering or CTO. In design, many designers become design managers while others stay as crafters.

• For product managers, many became managers because it was in their title. This has resulted in all PMs becoming managers even if they prefer coding or building things.

Building vs. Managing

• Many listeners like to build but feel that being a manager involves writing docs and justifying resources instead of building things.

• While there may be some truth to this sentiment, hopefully Builder and IC tracks will become more anonymous.

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Learning to be a Better Manager

In this section, the speaker discusses how new managers can become better and the importance of community in learning.

Structured Teaching is Weak

• The way we learn is changing, and self-service tools are getting better.

• However, structured teaching is weak.

• Community is the answer that we'll see more and more of in the future.

The Power of Community

• Community creates safety, authentic conversations, and a sense of belonging.

• Sharing best practices within a community is powerful.

• Social software has empowered communities, and now the tools are awesome.

Finding an Active Community

• All listeners should be part of an active community where they can be authentic and safe.

• Sometimes it's hard to do that with co-workers, so finding another community may be necessary.

• Unfortunately, these communities are not easy to find today.

Skip - A Community for New Managers

• Skip is a community created by the speaker for new managers.

• It was not intentional but was created as a reaction to something else.

• Skip has all kinds of fun products.

Building Communities for Product Leaders

In this section, the speaker talks about building communities for product leaders and how it can help them navigate their roles better.

The Need for Community

• Being a product leader is a lonely job, and having a community of like-minded individuals can be helpful.

• Connecting with others who are facing similar problems can lead to empowerment and problem-solving.

• The goal is to find ways to connect people in similar situations and build trust and authenticity within the community.

Joining the Skip CPO Community

• The Skip CPO community is a pre-existing community of product leaders that one can join by contacting any member or applying through LinkedIn.

• There is also a Slack community available for paid subscribers of the speaker's newsletter, which has over 12,000 members from various levels of product management.

Learning Opportunities in Communities

• Senior leaders often have development areas but hide behind their superpowers. Communities provide an opportunity to work on these areas.

• People tend not to give real feedback to senior people, making it difficult for them to improve. Communities can provide honest feedback and help senior leaders grow.

Shadows of Superpowers

In this section, the speaker talks about how people tend to focus on their superpowers while ignoring their shadows and how this affects leadership development.

Superpowers vs Shadows

• People tend to focus on their superpowers and ignore their shadows, which are the areas they need to work on.

• Leaders who focus only on their superpowers can become arrogant and lose touch with reality.

• Leaders need to acknowledge their shadows and work on them to become better leaders.

The Importance of Feedback

• Feedback is essential for leadership development, but people tend not to give honest feedback to senior leaders.

• Leaders should actively seek feedback from others and create a culture of openness and honesty in their organizations.

• Giving feedback is also an important skill that leaders need to develop.

Conclusion

• Acknowledging one's shadows and working on them is essential for leadership development.

• Creating a culture of openness and honesty in organizations can lead to better feedback and growth opportunities for leaders.

Rebuilding Strength Areas

In this section, the speaker talks about how people often struggle to recognize their Development Areas because they are so focused on their strengths. He explains that sometimes people need to rebuild or relearn in order to get to the next phase of their career.

Recognizing Development Areas

• People may not recognize their Development Areas because they are so focused on their strengths.

• Sometimes people need to rebuild or relearn in order to get to the next phase of their career.

• Contradictory feedback can help people recognize their Development Areas.

Applying This Concept

• Discarded feedback can be an indicator of a strength area that is actually a Development Area.

• This concept applies not only to individuals but also companies and relationships.

Personal Experience

• The speaker shares his personal experience with recognizing his own Development Area and how it required him to rewire who he was as an executive.

• The speaker now applies this concept for other strength areas and coaches others on recognizing their own Development Areas.

Working Through Leadership Challenges

In this section, the speaker talks about their experience with leadership challenges and how they worked through them.

Process of Working Through Leadership Challenges

• The speaker talks about the process of working through leadership challenges.

• They discuss how they received negative feedback and struggled to accept it at first.

• The speaker realized that it was worth figuring out if the feedback was accurate or not since they would be in their career for a long time.

• Self-awareness played a crucial role in helping the speaker understand and work through their leadership challenges.

• Direct feedback from someone they trusted was a turning point for the speaker.

Mental Health Challenges in Successful Careers

In this section, the speaker discusses mental health challenges that successful people face later in their careers.

Mental Health Challenges in Successful Careers

• The speaker notes that many successful people face mental health challenges later in their careers.

• Act three of one's career is becoming longer as people are working until later ages. This can lead to feeling lost after achieving success.

• The North Star for many people is reaching a certain level of success, but they don't think about what comes next.

• It's important to start thinking about what comes next early on in one's career to avoid feeling lost after achieving success.

Finding Your North Star

In this section, the speakers discuss the importance of finding a long-term career goal or "North Star" that can sustain you for 30 years or more. They share personal experiences and offer advice on how to reinvent yourself professionally.

Importance of Finding a Long-Term Career Goal

• It's important to have a long-term career goal that can sustain you for 30 years or more.

• Without a clear goal, it's easy to feel lost and unfulfilled after achieving initial success.

• Many people get stuck in their current path and fail to explore new opportunities.

Reinventing Yourself Professionally

• It's important to keep looking for the next opportunity even after achieving success.

• There are many ways to reinvent yourself professionally, such as giving back through volunteering or starting a mission-based company.

• Two categories of North Stars are driving scaled economics and giving back.

Personal Experiences

• The speaker plans to devote his act three towards coaching and giving back in an authentic way.

• The lightning round includes questions about book recommendations.

Importance of Marketing in Product Development

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of marketing in product development and recommends two resources for listeners to learn more about it.

Creating a Beachhead

• The speaker introduces the concept of creating a beachhead when launching a product.

• He believes that marketing is not talked about enough in product development.

• The host agrees and mentions that marketing is connected to growth, which is also connected to product development.

Recommended Resources

• The speaker recommends a book called "Leadership and Self-Deception," which he listened to in his late 20s and found powerful.

• He also mentions that at Airbnb, the product management function has been renamed to product marketing because Brian Chesky believes that building a great product is not enough; it's also important to make sure people use it.

Favorite Recent Movie or TV Show

In this section, the speaker shares his favorite recent movie or TV show.

The Rise Story on Disney Plus

• The speaker is a big sports fan and recommends "The Rise Story" on Disney Plus.

• It's about Giannis Antetokounmpo's childhood and how he made it into the professional leagues.

• The host finds it interesting as well.

Favorite Interview Question

In this section, the speaker shares his favorite interview question.

What Everyone Takes for Granted

• The speaker likes to ask what conventional wisdom people bet against and have found to be inaccurate.

• He looks for people who break the interview mindset and are authentic in their answers.

Favorite Product

In this section, the speaker shares his favorite product.

Arc Browser

• The speaker's favorite product is the Arc Browser, which he thinks is great for people with hundreds of tabs.

• He finds it fascinating when a smaller team creates something better than a mature product like Chrome.

Onboarding Experience and Meeting Operating System

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience with Arc and how it has the best onboarding experience. He also emphasizes the importance of meetings in a scaled organization and how they are as important as the products being built.

Onboarding Experience

• The speaker is a huge fan of Arc and mentions that it has the best onboarding experience he has seen.

• He talks about how he got to know about Arc through a tweet and mentions that there's a link to get past the waitlist in one of his episodes.

Meeting Operating System

• The speaker emphasizes that at a scaled organization, meeting operating system is as important as the products being built.

• He talks about how meetings are often considered a nuisance or necessary evil but they are crucial for scaling an organization.

• The speaker treats meetings like a product and revises them every quarter. This helps people plan effectively and make meeting time productive.

• Meeting time is expensive, so it's essential to make it effective. Rebooting meetings first can help identify inefficiencies in processes.

Building Your Career Story

In this section, the speaker talks about building your career story by ensuring that you have meaningful work experiences that you can talk about when looking for your next job.

Building Your Career Story

• The speaker advises PM listeners to ensure that their work experiences are meaningful enough to tell their story when looking for their next job.

• He suggests writing down what you achieved or finished in your current role in six months, 12 months, and 24 months. This helps in building a compelling story.

• The speaker emphasizes that the story should be about you and not the team. It should be incredibly compelling to help you get promoted in your career.

Connecting with the Speaker

In this section, the speaker talks about how listeners can connect with him and how they can help him.

Connecting with the Speaker

• Listeners can connect with the speaker on LinkedIn or Twitter.

• The speaker has a podcast called "The Skip," which is available on Apple and Spotify. He also has a newsletter on Substack.

• Listeners can help by building their most fulfilling career story, giving back, and pulling others forward. Feedback from listeners is also empowering for his content.

Social Media and Newsletter Recommendations

In this section, Mikhail recommends LinkedIn as the ideal social media platform to connect with him. He also mentions that he can be found on Twitter for quick connections. Additionally, he shares information about his newsletter, Skip.

Connecting with Mikhail on Social Media

• LinkedIn is the ideal platform to connect with Mikhail.

• If you're looking for a quick connection, you can find him on Twitter.

• For feedback, tweet him on Twitter.

Information about Skip Newsletter

• The URL for the Skip newsletter is skip.substack.com.

• Although it's not published often, each issue of the Skip newsletter is incredibly valuable.