Behind the Craft

Latest Episodes:

How I Built an $8M Business with 0 Employees | Justin Welsh (Solopreneur) Sep 15, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Justin Welsh, a 7-figure solopreneur and creator. Justin burned out from startups in 2019 after suffering from a panic attack. Since then, he’s built an $8M one-person business and an audience of millions. His new course, Creator MBA, is one of the highest value-to-time courses I’ve ever taken. Timestamps: (00:00) The specific path to build an $8M solo business (01:47) Leaving the career ladder after a panic attack (05:53) How to build a side hustle while employed (08:41) An exercise to take back your time (12:59) Finding your niche and unique value proposition (16:12) Validating your business idea with real customers (19:02) Creating a movement and identifying your "enemy" (23:00) A simple creator funnel to scale solo businesses (27:01) Changes that led to big growth in Justin's business (27:29) How Justin uses AI to optimize his funnel (31:23) Specific vs generic paths to succeed as a creator (39:22) Closing advice for tech people to take back control of their careers Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-i-built-an-8m-solo-business-justin-welsh Where to find Justin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/ Newsletter: https://www.justinwelsh.me/newsletters 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

This Framework Will Change How You Think about Your Career | Shishir Mehrotra (Coda) Sep 08, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Shishir Mehrotra, co-founder and CEO of Coda. Shishir is the co-founder and CEO of Coda and was YouTube's Chief Product Officer. We had a great chat about what I think is the best framework to grow your career, how a PM applied it to build a 0 to $1B product in 18 months, and other rituals to level up your strategy and leadership.Brought to you by: - Amplitude: Get their North Star playbook for free: https://bit.ly/4fPxUmg Timestamps:

(00:00) From 0 to $1B in just 18 months

(01:27) Introducing Shishir

(01:41) The best career growth framework you've never heard of

(03:35) Scope is the wrong metric to evaluate PMs

(07:12) Why PSHE applies to all functions(10:13) Breaking into PM at Google using PSHE

(17:34) Solving obvious problems without stepping on toes

(24:23) The most underrated skill for PMs

(26:16) The WOW framework for strategy and planning

(31:26) The $100 exercise to get teams to think beyond their scope

(35:17) Have you seen small teams move faster?

(37:20) PSHE framework for small vs. large teams

(41:53) Selfless leadership and the trillion-dollar coach

Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/the-best-framework-for-career-growth-shishir

Where to find Shishir:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/

X: https://x.com/shishirmehrotra

📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

Ex-Meta VP Reveals His Top Lessons after 25 Years Leading Product Design | Jon Lax (Meta) Sep 01, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Jon Lax, former VP of Design at Meta. Jon is a 25-year design veteran who most recently led design for Meta’s Reality Labs (e.g., Ray Ban glasses, Quest, and more). Before Meta, Jon ran his own design firm for 12 years. He’s got many hot takes on product development and design that I’m excited to dig into.

Brought to you by:

- Amplitude: Get their north star playbook for free: https://bit.ly/4fPxUmg Timestamps: (00:00) Why delight comes last

(01:31) Introducing Jon

(01:56) Why Jon stopped doing vision decks and north stars

(05:49) The right time scale for designers to operate in

(11:13) 3 miracle problems have killed many products

(15:14) Make it useful first, then beautiful

(23:38) MVP vs. minimum lovable product is the wrong framing

(25:37) The single trait that all the best teams at Meta share

(26:29) How to build a shared definition of done

(31:19) The one question I ask to bring clarity to promotions

(36:22) How to climb the ambiguity and autonomy curve

(40:01) Is AI the end of peak design jobs?

Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/ex-meta-vp-reveals-his-top-design-lessons-jon-lax Where to find Jon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-lax-900b5a293/Blog: https://jonlax.framer.ai/ 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

Cancer Changed Everything: Finding Empathy, Balance, and Grace | Sharmeen Chapp (Stripe) Aug 25, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Sharmeen Chapp, Head of Product for Revenue and Finance Automation at Stripe. In 2021, Sharmeen was diagnosed with breast cancer after becoming a Senior Director at Meta and a new mom. She shared lessons on leading with empathy through cancer, growing from IC to VP in 6 years, and Stripe’s unique product culture.

Brought to you by:

- Amplitude: Get their North Star playbook for free https://bit.ly/4fPxUmg Timestamps: (00:00) Empathy starts with leaving your ego at the door (01:59) I basically product-managed my breast cancer (03:22) Silver lining of sharing my journey publicly (05:54) Balancing work, family, and cancer treatment (12:20) Why empathy and excellence are not mutually exclusive (17:34) Operating high and low on vision and execution (22:05) Transitioning to PM and overcoming doubts (25:03) Growing from IC to VP in 6 years (27:56) Why I deprioritized my own product (36:59) Stripe PM culture of user-first and humility (41:55) Remember to give yourself grace Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/leading-with-empathy-through-cancer-sharmeen-chapp

Where to find Sharmeen:

X: https://x.com/luckiesharms

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmeenchapp/ 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

Building 0 to 1 and The Story Behind Figma Slides | Mihika Kapoor (Figma) Aug 18, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Mihika Kapoor, product lead at Figma. Mihika and team built Figma Slides from just an idea to a featured product at Config this year. She shared with me how anyone can build 0 to 1 products inside large companies - from building internal excitement to getting leadership buy-in to shipping on time. She also shared why she no longer writes any PRDs. Timestamps: (00:00) What it really takes to build 0-1

(01:42) How Figma Slides came from Figma and Figjam

(04:23) Convincing other PMs that this was an idea worth pursuing

(06:38) Talking gets nowhere, here's what works instead

(11:04) How designers can get PM buy-in for their ideas

(16:18) Breaking all the rules for product development

(22:29) Getting leadership buy-in on your vision

(30:25) Aligning a 0-1 product with company goals

(32:29) Find your "first follower" to build your 0-1 team

(37:14) The hardest thing about building Figma Slides

(42:30) 4 rules for anyone building new products

(47:23) Be careful about setting goals for 0-1 products

(52:15) Why Mihika doesn't write PRDs Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/anyone-can-build-0-1-products-mihika-kapoor

Where to find Mihika: X: https://x.com/mihikapoor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mihikakapoor/ 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

The Ultimate Guide to Developer Marketing | Lee Robinson (Vercel) Aug 11, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Lee Robinson, VP Product at Vercel. Lee has built products and great developer experiences for over a decade and has written some of the most clear-sighted content about how to get developers to adopt your product that I’ve ever read.

We chatted about what makes a great developer experience, what resonates with developer marketing, and how to appeal to this no-bullshit customer segment. Timestamps: (00:00) A cycle to guarantee developers love your product (01:15) How developers decide whether to use a new tool (03:45) 3 pillars of a great developer experience (08:34) Trust in open vs. closed source AI models (10:52) Why most developer documentation sucks (17:02) The future of AI-powered interactive docs (23:25) Developer marketing tactics that actually work (27:30) How to balance hype and reality (30:42) Build with developers to gain their trust (32:06) How to recover from losing developer trust (37:01) Mastering the art of writing (42:08) Talk to them, listen carefully, and actually fix their problems Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/lee-the-ultimate-guide-to-developer-marketing

Where to find Lee:

X: https://x.com/leeerob

Website: https://leerob.io/ 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

Real Talk about Empowered vs. Feature Product Teams | Chris Jones (SVPG) Aug 04, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Chris Jones, partner at Silicon Valley Product Group. Chris and Marty Cagan wrote the best-selling book Empowered based on their 30+ years of experience working with 200+ companies. Their definition of “empowered vs. feature product teams” has created controversy, so I knew I had to chat with them.

Chris and I had a heart-to-heart chat about empowered vs. feature teams, how to avoid becoming a feature factory, and how to take back control of your career. Timestamps:

(00:00) What empowered really means (01:13) The difference between empowered and feature teams (04:58) Why companies stop being customer-focused (06:12) OKRs, processes, and bureaucracy (13:47) Be the go-to person to build trust with leaders(18:13) Quarterly metric targets lead to bad trade-offs (21:40) The trend towards small teams (23:00) Does empowerment matter in wartime (Airbnb)? (27:24) 3 types of product operating principles (30:23) Is Google still empowered? (33:40) How to avoid product review hell(36:15) The right way to push back on execs (41:08) Take back control of your career

Where to find Chris:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjonessvpg/

Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/empowered-vs-feature-product-teams-chris-jones 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

OpenAI and Ex-Shopify Product Lead Reveals How He Builds AI Products | Miqdad Jaffer Jul 28, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Miqdad Jaffer, ex-head of AI products at Shopify. Miqdad leads enterprise products at OpenAI and was previously Head of AI Products at Shopify. He also teaches Maven’s #1 AI PM course on building AI products inside companies. Miqdad and I spoke about:

-- Why traditional product development doesn't work for AI

- How to build product principles early to manage AI's infinite edge-case problem

- The unconventional ways that Shopify "gets shit done" and ships products fast Timestamps: (00:00) Why building AI products is different (02:10) How Shopify's AI efforts got started (04:48) "Get shit done" product review process (08:13) Building AI products with customers (09:03) How to prioritize AI use cases (11:35) Setting goals for AI products (16:46) The AI tech stack explained (18:25) Protecting user data and privacy (19:49) Prompt engineering and evaluation (23:25) Is it worth training users to submit better prompts? (25:01) Managing AI hallucinations (26:55) Shopify's AI vision (28:41) Principles for building AI products (30:43) Shopify's craft and no meeting culture Where to find Miqdad: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miqdadjaffer/ AI PM course: https://maven.com/product-faculty/ai-product-management-certification Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-shopify-built-generative-ai 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

How Top Experts Use AI to Write, Code, and Run Their Business | Dan Shipper (Every) Jul 21, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Dan Shipper, co-founder of Every. Dan co-founded Every and hosts a podcast called AI & I, where he has interviewed 25+ AI experts. He also recently launched Spiral, a new AI tool to help writers and creators save time and get more done. We had a great chat about how Dan uses AI to write, the traits that top AI experts have in common, and why “managers of AI models” could be a new career path. Timestamps: (00:00) Using AI to turn rambling thoughts into writing (00:57) Introducing Dan (01:56) Writing before AI existed (05:12) How AI helps in each step of the writing process (07:19) Using AI to summarize content (11:27) AI's role in podcast production (15:23) The common traits across AI power users (16:36) Tips to run your business with AI (18:37) Creating your personal AI coach (19:52) Why people struggle with using AI (22:04) Using AI to build apps without code (25:35) How the AI landscape is evolving (29:10) Managers of AI models as a new career (31:20) 3 steps for beginners to get started with AI Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/how-to-use-ai-to-write-dan-shipper Where to find Dan: X: https://x.com/danshipper Newsletter and podcast: https://msha.ke/danshipper 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

AI Hacks to Scale Your Business and Life From a 3x Founder | Siqi Chen (Runway) Jul 14, 2024

Show notes

My guest today is Siqi Chen, co-founder and CEO of Runway. Siqi is a 3x founder who’s an expert at using AI to scale his business and life. We discussed his favorite AI prompts and workflows, building a company where people "give a shit," and how to raise your kids and cheat death in an AI-first world. Timestamps: (00:00) Can AI solve death? (00:55) Introducing Siqi (01:08) The #1 startup lesson after 2 successful exits (04:09) What Runway's "give a shit" value means (06:25) Why "raising the bar" leads to business results (11:32) Why the best time to be a founder is now (15:32) How non-technical people can get started with AI (22:20) Using AI to categorize and filter emails without code (25:09) AI will either solve death or kill all of us (26:57) Encourage your kids to explore AI and take more risks (32:00) Motivating your team in difficult times (35:44) Believe in your vision, but be flexible about how you get there (37:08) How Runway will reimagine financial planning Where to find Siqi: X: https://x.com/blader Website: https://runway.com/ Get the takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/siqi-chen-ai-hacks-from-a-3x-founder 📌 Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!

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