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Crafting a compelling product vision | Ebi Atawodi (YouTube, Netflix, Uber)

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Dec 3, 2023

Guest

Ebi Atawodi

Ebi Atawodi, Director of Product Management for Creator Experience at YouTube and a seasoned expert from Uber and Netflix, shares her insights on crafting compelling product visions. She discusses the four key elements of a strong vision statement and the importance of storytelling and user engagement. Ebi emphasizes the critical role of company culture in product management and offers actionable tips for structuring strategy sessions. She also highlights YouTube's commitment to empowering creators with innovative tools that put empathy at the forefront.

01:39:46

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ANECDOTE

Uber's Payment Vision

Ebi used a news headline framework at Uber to envision a future with integrated transport payments.
This helped shape the platform's vision and influence other teams.

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ADVICE

Emphasize Step

Deeply understand user problems through 'understand work'.
Use the product yourself, analyze competitors, and conduct user research.

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ADVICE

"10 Things" Document

Maintain a "Top 10 Things You Should Know" document.
This living list of user problems, tech debt, and insights keeps teams aligned.

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Crafting a Compelling Product Vision

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Crafting a Compelling Product Vision

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Crafting Effective Product Vision Through Questions and Clarity

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Strategic Clarity in Product Management

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Empowering Creators on YouTube

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Ebi Atawodi is Director of Product Management for the Creator Experience at YouTube, former Head of Product at Uber, and a former Director of Product (Payments and EMEA) at Netflix. Known for crafting a strong, unified vision, Ebi empowers her teams to achieve outsized outcomes. In today’s episode, we go deep into vision and strategy, including:

• The four key elements of a good vision statement

• Three ways to determine your mission

• The four pillars of great product management

• How writing helps you gain clarity

• How culture influences product

• Tips on how to structure a strategy session

• Advice on building team culture and improving work relationships

• What’s coming soon at YouTube

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Brought to you by Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers | Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/crafting-a-compelling-product-vision

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Where to find Ebi Atawodi:

• X: https://twitter.com/ebiatawodi

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebiatawodi

• YouTube mixes: https://www.youtube.com/@EbiAtawodi/videos

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Ebi’s background

(04:31) Four key elements of a product vision

(08:14) Examples of lofty but attainable visions

(11:43) Vision vs. mission

(13:23) Examples of visions and missions from notable companies

(15:00) A simple framework for outlining a vision

(20:51) Other methods for outlining a vision

(23:29) The impact of writing clear headlines

(26:41) Using mockups to frame your vision

(28:24) A step-by-step approach to developing a vision

(32:58) Ebi’s “10 Things” document

(37:47) A quick summary of Ebi’s tips

(40:56) How to use the “10 Things” doc in a strategy session

(43:11) The three concentric circles of evangelizing

(47:48) The cadence of developing a vision and bringing it to life

(49:26) Visions vs. micro visions

(52:58) First steps in developing a vision

(55:12) Infrastructure is the product

(56:39) Clarity and conviction, the main jobs of PMs

(59:58) Ebi’s narrative doc

(1:04:59) Conviction, its role in the job, and how to build it

(1:08:20) How to build company culture

(1:17:06) The monolithic culture at Uber

(1:19:09) The culture Ebi embeds in her teams

(1:23:58) How to evaluate your relationship with your engineering manager

(1:26:02) What’s new at YouTube

(1:29:22) Ebi’s closing thoughts

(1:30:45) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Andre Albuquerque on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-albuquerque

• TED’s mission: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization

• Stripe’s operating principles: https://stripe.com/jobs/culture

• Microsoft’s vision and mission: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about

• Tesla’s mission statement: https://www.tesla.com/blog/mission-tesla

• Lyft’s mission on Comparably: https://www.comparably.com/companies/lyft/mission

• Ebi’s playbooks and templates: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tU3jpbq_xHcF4x1bdANCVBsO6rbQ8h1HqvdQfwGW4MA/edit

• Working Backwards Press Release Template and Example: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/working-backwards-press-release-template-example-ian-mcallister/

• Patrick Collison on X: https://twitter.com/patrickc

• Seinfeld meme: https://seinfeldmemes.com/you-know-how-to-take-the-reservation/

• Travis Kalanick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traviskalanick/

• Wimdu: https://www.wimdu.com/

• Leaving big tech to build the #1 technology newsletter | Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/leaving-big-tech-to-build-the-1-technology-newsletter-gergely-orosz-the-pragmatic-engineer/

• The 48 Laws of Power: https://www.amazon.com/48-Laws-Power-Robert-Greene/dp/0140280197

• The God of Small Things: https://www.amazon.com/God-Small-Things-Novel/dp/0812979656/

• Outliers: The Story of Success: https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930

• All About Love: https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Love-New-Visions/dp/0060959479

• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f

• Scavengers Reign on Max: https://www.max.com/shows/scavengers-reign/50c8ce6d-088c-42d9-9147-d1b19b1289d4

• Sleep Cycle: https://www.sleepcycle.com/

• Nanit: https://www.nanit.com/

• “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus

• Burning Man: https://burningman.org/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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