The Vergecast is officially a daily show! We kick things off with the return of 90 Seconds on The Verge, a peek at the top stories on theverge.com. Then, we turn to our old pal Casey Neistat for some advice. Casey vlogged every day for 800 days straight, and has some thoughts on the pros and cons of daily posting, the state of YouTube in 2026, and how to make things every day without losing your mind in the process.
We’re also on video! Check us out on YouTube.
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Neal Mohan on A.I. slop, parental controls and his platform’s impact on our lives. Thoughts? Email us at theinterview@nytimes.com Watch our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@TheInterviewPodcast For transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/theinterview Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm...
(0:00) Introducing YouTube CEO Neal Mohan
(1:08) YouTube's revenue split with creators
(7:30) How Neal thinks about enabling monoculture and connective threads at YouTube
(11:23) Censorship on YouTube, demonetization decisions, dealing with different regimes and laws globally
(19:58) YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, and channel subscriptions
(24:00) Generative AI on YouTube: labeling AI, likeness concerns, possibilities
Thanks to our partners for making this happen!
Solana - Solana is the high performance network powering internet capital markets, payments, and crypto applications. Connect with investors, crypto founders, and entrepreneurs at Solana's global flagship event during Abu Dhabi Finance Week & F1: https://solana.com/breakpoint
OKX - The new way to build your crypto portfolio and use it in daily life. We call it the new money app. https://www.okx.com/
Google Cloud - The next generation of unicorns is building on Google Cloud's industry-leading, fully integrated AI stack: infrastructure, platform, models, agents, and data. https://cloud.google.com/
IREN - IREN AI Cloud, powered by NVIDIA GPUs, provides the scale, performance, and reliability to accelerate your AI journey. https://iren.com/
Oracle - Step into the future of enterprise productivity at Oracle AI Experience Live. https://www.oracle.com/artificial-intelligence/data-ai-events/
Circle - The America-based company behind USDC — a fully-reserved, enterprise-grade stablecoin at the core of the emerging internet financial system. https://www.circle.com/
BVNK - Building stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure that helps businesses send, store, and spend value instantly, anywhere in the world. https://www.bvnk.com/
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A chemical engineer by training, Angela Nakalembe worked in the sciences and management consulting before landing at YouTube as the company’s engineering program manager for trust and safety.
At YouTube, Angela explains, AI has become a first line of defense against harmful content. The technology not only accelerates content moderation tasks but makes the process more humane, by filtering out problematic content before it reaches a human reviewer. To combat the proliferation of AI-generated content that may be hard to discern from assets created by humans, YouTube, its parent company Google, and others have joined the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity Alliance to establish standards for the origin of content they observe. Also on today’s episode, Angela shares some personal experiences using large language models (LLMs) and Google’s own AI tools to illustrate how she sees individuals using AI in the future. Read the episode transcript here.
Guest bio
Angela Nakalembe is an operations leader, internet safety expert, and advocate for responsible AI development. As an engineering program manager at YouTube, she leads strategic initiatives focused on protecting billions of users through innovative safety features and risk mitigation strategies, work that has earned multiple Google product excellence awards. Nakalembe developed her strategic expertise as a management consultant, when she supported multimillion-dollar technology migrations for Fortune 50 companies. She currently provides mentoring through TechWomen, a U.S. Department of State initiative creating the next generation of women technology leaders worldwide, and she teaches yoga.
Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.
We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.
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• WorkOS — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS.
• The Software Engineer’s Guidebook: Written by me (Gergely) – now out in audio form as well.
—
How do you get product and engineering to truly operate as one team? Today, I’m joined by Ebi Atawodi, Director of Product Management at YouTube Studio, and a former product leader at Netflix and Uber.
Ebi was the first PM I partnered with after stepping into engineering management at Uber, and we both learned a lot together. We share lessons from our time at Uber and discuss how strong product-engineering partnerships drive better outcomes, grow teams, foster cultures of ownership, and unlock agency, innovation, and trust.
In this episode, we cover:
• Why you need to earn a new team's trust before trying to drive change
• How practices like the "business scorecard" and “State of the Union” updates helped communicate business goals and impact to teams at Uber
• How understanding business impact leads to more ideas and collaboration
• A case for getting to know your team as people, not just employees
• Why junior employees should have a conversation with a recruiter every six months
• Ebi’s approach to solving small problems with the bet that they’ll unlock larger, more impactful solutions
• Why investing time in trust and connection isn't at odds with efficiency
• The qualities of the best engineers—and why they’re the same traits that make people successful in any role
• The three-pronged definition of product: business impact, feasibility, and customer experience
• Why you should treat your career as a project
• And more!
—
Timestamps
(00:00) Intro
(02:19) The product review where Gergely first met Ebi
(05:45) Ebi’s learning about earning trust before being direct
(08:01) The value of tying everything to business impact
(11:53) What meetings looked like at Uber before Ebi joined
(12:35) How Ebi’s influence created more of a start-up environment
(15:12) An overview of “State of the Union”
(18:06) How Ebi helped the cash team secure headcount
(24:10) How a dinner out helped Ebi and Gergely work better together
(28:11) Why good leaders help their employees reach their full potential
(30:24) Product-minded engineers and the value of trust
(33:04) Ebi’s approach to passion in work: loving the problem, the work, and the people
(36:00) How Gergely and Ebi secretly bootstrapped a project then asked for headcount
(36:55) How a real problem led to a novel solution that also led to a policy change
(40:30) Ebi’s approach to solving problems and tying them to a bigger value unlock
(43:58) How Ebi developed her playbooks for vision setting, fundraising, and more
(45:59) Why Gergely prioritized meeting people on his trips to San Francisco
(46:50) A case for making in-person interactions more about connection
(50:44) The genius-jerk archetype vs. brilliant people who struggle with social skills
(52:48) The traits of the best engineers—and why they apply to other roles, too
(1:03:27) Why product leaders need to love the product and the business
(1:06:54) The value of a good PM
(1:08:05) Sponsorship vs. mentorship and treating your career like a project
(1:11:50) A case for playing the long game
—
The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:
• The product-minded software engineer
• Working with Product Managers as an Engineering Manager or Engineer
• Working with Product Managers: advice from PMs
• What is Growth Engineering?
—
See the transcript and other references from the episode at https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@pragmaticengineer.com.
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Ever wondered what camera something was shot on? Then you might just be the type of person that will find this obsessive kind of deep dive interesting! Studio producers Eric and Rich talked with creators like Casey Neistat, Becca Farsace, Inga Lam, Tyler Stalman and many more about which cameras are taking up space in their gear bags. Why did Casey switch to Sony when he was vlogging? Why not just use iPhones? We have the answers in this weeks bonus episode!
Special thanks to all the creators we spoke to!
Special thanks to all the creators we spoke to go watch their stuff!
Austin Evans: https://www.youtube.com/@austinevans
Inga Lam: https://www.youtube.com/@IngaLam
Brittney Janae: https://www.youtube.com/@BrittneyJanae
Joshua De La Victoria : https://www.youtube.com/@JoshuaDeLaVictoria
Shua Films: https://www.youtube.com/@shua_films
Stewart Hicks: https://www.youtube.com/@stewarthicks
Casey Neistat: https://www.youtube.com/@casey
Jetlag the game: https://www.youtube.com/@jetlagthegame
Brandon Y Lee: https://www.youtube.com/@brandonylee
Tyler Stalman: https://www.youtube.com/@stalman
Colt Kirwan: https://www.youtube.com/@ColtKirwan
Becca Farsace: https://www.youtube.com/@BeccaFarsace
Michael Tobin: https://www.youtube.com/@initialfocus
Links:
Media Division: https://www.youtube.com/@MediaDivision
Andy To: https://www.youtube.com/@andyto
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
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We were saddened to hear of the passing of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki last Friday, following her battle with lung cancer. In honor of this iconic Silicon Valley leader, host Reid Hoffman offers a remembrance and a chance for listeners to hear the wisdom she shared in her 2020 episode. She talked with Reid about how to establish your company’s true north – and stay the course even amid challenges.
Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Bangaly Kaba was an early growth PM at Facebook, head of growth at Instagram, and VP of Product at Instacart and is currently Director of Product at YouTube overseeing a global team working on creator monetization. Bangaly has also been a growth advisor to dozens of companies, including Twitter, on the board of multiple companies, and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss:
• A simple framework for choosing where to work and what to work on
• The importance of “understand work”
• The “adjacent users” theory and how it can help you drive growth
• Advice for coaching product managers
• Invaluable lessons from his time at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
• Much more
—
Brought to you by:
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Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/frameworks-for-growing-your-career-bangaly-kaba
—
Where to find Bangaly Kaba:
• X: https://twitter.com/iambangaly
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambangaly/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambangaly/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Bangaly’s background
(06:31) Choosing where to work and what to work on
(08:39) The impact factor
(10:53) Evaluating the environment
(15:53) The manager component
(18:27) The skills part of the equation
(23:49) Advice on finding a mentor
(25:42) The power of “understand work”
(31:17) Operationalizing understand work
(37:55) Balancing understand work
(41:25) Managing complex change
(45:26) Effective management of product managers
(51:35) The role of product managers as coaches and team leaders
(54:52) Driving growth through flywheels and value proposition
(01:03:14) Understanding adjacent users
(01:08:41) The role of partnerships and SEO in Instagram’s early growth
(01:16:08) The secret behind Instagram’s growth
(01:25:37) Lessons from Facebook
(01:29:15) Failure corner
(01:31:58) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Impact = Environment x Skills: How to Make Career Decisions: https://www.reforge.com/blog/how-to-make-career-decisions
• Thinking beyond frameworks | Casey Winters (Pinterest, Eventbrite, Airbnb, Tinder, Canva, Reddit, Grubhub): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/thinking-beyond-frameworks-casey
• Casey Winters’s blog: https://caseyaccidental.com/
• Ben Thompson’s newsletter: https://stratechery.com/about/
• Elena Verna on how B2B growth is changing, product-led growth, product-led sales, why you should go freemium not trial, what features to make free, and much more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/elena-verna-on-why-every-company
• George Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geolee/
• Bangaly Kaba: The Path to 1 Billion: Lessons Learned from Growing Instagram—CXL LIVE 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ZHlb6kj_E
• What Is ‘Dogfooding’?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html
• Bloom’s taxonomy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_taxonomy
• Kevin Systrom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsystrom/
• Mike Krieger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekrieger/
• LeBron James: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James
• Kobe Bryant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_Bryant
• Mike Krzyzewski: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Krzyzewski
• John Calipari: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calipari
• Stripe: https://stripe.com/
• Chief: https://chief.com/
• Jobs to be done framework: https://jobs-to-be-done.com/jobs-to-be-done-a-framework-for-customer-needs-c883cbf61c90
• The Adjacent User: https://brianbalfour.com/quick-takes/the-adjacent-user
• How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-the-biggest-consumer-apps-got
• Alex Zhu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keepsilence/
• From Brush to Canvas with Alex Zhu of Musical.ly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey15v81pwII
• Selena Gomez on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selenagomez/
• Kim Kardashian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimkardashian/
• Rob Andrews on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-andrews-64669720/
• Instagram’s growth speeds up as it hits 700 million users: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/instagram-700-million-users/
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692
• Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change: https://www.amazon.com/Start-End-Products-Create-Change/dp/0525534423
• Flighty app: https://www.flightyapp.com/
• Adam Grant on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamgrant/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
If you enjoy hearing about the challenges of being a creator, I recommend you check out my conversation with the creator of ‘Call Her Daddy, Alex Cooper, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knPqBc2qJ8E
There’s carving your own lane and then having over 3 billion people view the lane you have carved, all from the starting point of being a 17 year old teen father living in a trailer park.
Casey Neistat is an America YouTuber, vlogger, filmmaker, and co-founder of the mobile application ‘Beme’, which he sold to CNN in 2016. He is one of the most famous people on YouTube, and his channel has over 12 million subscribers and 3 billion views.
In this conversation Casey and Steven discuss topics, such as:
How life has thrown unpredicted things at him
Having a child as a teenager
Leaving home forever on a school night
Working 80 hours a week and doing anything to support his son
The importance of patience
Why he felt like a scumbag
Feeling as if he was never heard
Why he started making videos
The reasons behind his filmmaking style
The magic of Mr Beast
Why Mr Beast is the most important person in the history of entertainment
How great work matter
The strangeness of fame
Why you need to do something you hate to figure out what you like
Being the definition of success but being in debt
Becoming a millionaire but disappointing the people who got him there
His moment of real darkness
The challenge of his daily vlog
How his daily vlog was taking away from his life
Linking happiness and fulfilment with winning
The only thing that gives him fulfilment
The importance of knowing that nobody gives a care about you
Follow Casey:
Instagram: https://bit.ly/47NRUB8
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RcoHZD
YouTube: https://bit.ly/41altdX
Follow me:
https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo
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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
—
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
—
Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/crafting-a-compelling-product-vision
—
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
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
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
—
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/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Jules Walter is a product leader at YouTube and co-founder of both the Black Product Managers Network and Codepath.org. Previously, he led monetization and mobile growth teams at Slack. He’s also a very well-known leader in the broader product community. In today’s episode, we discuss the skills that matter most to PMs, and how to build those skills. We also spend quite a bit of time talking about the importance of finding mentors to help you learn new skills, how to nail your next job interview, barriers to entry for underrepresented people, and some of the most common paths into product management.
—
Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/leveraging-mentors-to-uplevel-your
—
Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:
• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny
• Notion—One workspace. Every team: https://www.notion.com/lennyspod
• Linear—The new standard for modern software development: https://linear.app/lenny
—
Where to find Jules Walter:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/julesdwalt
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juleswalter/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
Referenced:
• Black Product Managers Network: https://www.blackproductmanagers.com
• Maryanna Quigless on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quigless/
• Brittany Bankston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-bankston-77693a85/
• Benin Saffo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benin-saffo/
• Lawrence Ripsher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrenceripsher/
• Matt Mochary on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/how-to-fire-people-with-grace-work-through-fear-and-nurture-innovation-matt-mochary/
• Adriel Frederick on Lenny’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humanizing-product-development-adriel-frederick-reddit/id1627920305?i=1000583287891
• Bangaly Kaba on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambangaly/
• The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving: https://www.amazon.com/Minto-Pyramid-Principle-Writing-Thinking/dp/0960191046
• Pathwise Leadership: https://pathwiseleadership.com/
• Erin Teague on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinteague/
• Bradley Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhorowitz/
• Nikhyl Singhal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhyl/
• Tim Ferriss on what makes a great mentor: https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-ferriss-what-makes-great-mentor-2017-11
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended on It: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-audiobook/dp/B01COR1GM2
• Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues: https://www.amazon.com/Connect-Building-Exceptional-Relationships-Colleagues/dp/0241986869
• Chris Voss’s MasterClass on negotiating in the workplace: https://www.masterclass.com/sessions/classes/win-workplace-negotiations
• Lex Fridman’s podcast: https://lexfridman.com/podcast/
• Never Have I Ever on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80179190
• Top Gun: Maverick on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBTJBiL3oQ
Interview Prep Communities:
• Lewis C Lin's Interview Community: https://join.slack.com/t/pminterview/shared_invite/zt-1mqc5lzdt-SZuIvbzZIl8ob7UJeydVGg
• Exponent: https://www.tryexponent.com/
• StellarPeers: https://stellarpeers.com/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Jules’s background
(06:07) Two paths to becoming a product manager
(07:20) How Jules became the first growth PM at Slack
(09:03) Black Product Managers Network and Codepath.org
(12:05) The most important skills to refine as a PM: IQ skills and EQ skills
(14:48) How to improve your interview skills
(18:50) Why interviewing is more difficult for underrepresented people
(20:39) EQ skills: what are they and how to improve them
(22:44) The EQ skills Jules has had to develop over the course of his career
(24:27) The importance of having a mentor or coach for self-reflection
(26:09) How cultivating self-awareness helped Jules improve his communication
(30:13) Strategies for learning new skills
(35:32) Improving strategy, execution, and product sense
(37:00) How identifying best practices can help you improve skills
(40:22) Communicating clearly and asking for feedback
(42:38) Methods Jules uses to improve skills
(45:31) How to approach asking for feedback
(47:46) Why it’s harder to get honest feedback on EQ skills
(50:56) The importance of understanding your strengths and weaknesses and leaning into the former
(55:18) Jules’s most impactful mentors
(56:14) The qualities to look for in a good mentor and how to approach them
(1:02:15) How to foster the best relationship with your mentor
(1:06:51) Lightning round
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Todd Sherman is the product lead for YouTube Shorts. He's also a former group product manager at Twitter and Snap. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a discussion about YouTube's plans for Shorts, how the product works, and how it plans to compete with TikTok. We start with a discussion about whether Twitter bringing back Vine could work. YouTube Shorts are now available on YouTube's TV app, which Sherman discusses as well.
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The big news last week was that YouTube is finally turning on monetization with YouTube Shorts. Marques sat down with Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan at the YouTuber Creator Summit to discuss all of the details and find out how it works. Then Marques and Andrew break down what it all means before briefly getting into what has been going on at Twitch over the last weeks.
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Read a profile of Mattaniah on People of Color in Tech (POCIT) here.
Connect with Mattaniah on LinkedIn or follow her on TikTok.
Who remembers Vine??
This week’s tech recs: Cassidy recommends her Hifiman headphones. Ben recommends his hybrid RAV4 (42 miles on the battery alone). Matt recommends Spline, a design app for 3D web experiences. Ceora’s recommendation is a clear phone case from Five Below, perfect for displaying a photo of your favorite K-pop idol (or, you know, your dog).
Plus, Mattaniah and the team get gushy about “incredible,” “joyful,” “super accessible” creative code educator Daniel Shiffman.
This week’s Lifeboat badge goes to user Maulik Hirani for their answer to New Google Places Autocomplete and its pricing.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Casey Winters is the Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite where he leads the PM, product design, research, and growth marketing teams. Prior to Eventbrite, Casey spent close to 3 years at Pinterest where he led the growth product team.
Andy Johns is one of the pre-eminent growth leaders of the last decade. Andy's career started in growth at Facebook when the company scaled from 100M-500M active users. Since he has worked in some of the leading growth orgs at companies like Twitter, Quora and more recently at Wealthfront as Head of Growth and President.
Bangaly Kaba is the Head of Platform Growth @ Popshop Live, a live streaming mobile marketplace that combines commerce, entertainment, and social. Prior to Popshop, Bangaly led the product growth and consumer product orgs at Instacart and before Instacart was Head of Growth @ Instagram, where he built and led the product team that helped grow Instagram from 440M to > 1B monthly actives in 2.5yrs.
Elena Verna is a master when it comes to all things starting and scaling growth organizations. Previously, Elena spent over 7 years as SVP Growth @ SurveyMonkey where she ran product, growth marketing, and data teams. Post SurveyMonkey, Elena worked with the rocket ship that is Miro both as Interim CMO and as an advisor.
Ed Baker is an angel investor and growth advisor to various startups including Lime, Zwift, Whoop, Crimson Education, GoPeer, and Playbook. Ed was the VP of Product and Growth at Uber from 2013-2017. Prior to Uber, Ed was the Head of International Growth at Facebook.
Rob Schutz is Chief Growth Officer and Co-founder at Ro, the healthcare technology company building a patient-centric healthcare system. Under Rob's growth leadership, Ro has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. Prior to Ro, Rob was VP of Growth at Bark, the makers of BarkBox, and helped scale revenue from zero to $100 million.
In Today's Episode with Ed Baker You Will Learn:
1.) Casey Winters:
How does Casey define "growth"? How does it differ from product?
How do the best growth leaders decide between art vs science when making growth decisions?
2.) Andy Johns:
What is Andy's biggest advice to founders looking to build their first growth team?
What unexpected choice did Andy decide to make at Twitter that moved the needle for new user acquisition?
3.) Bangaly Kaba:
What were some of Bangaly's biggest takeaways from scaling Instagram from 440M users to 1BN?
What decisions did Bangaly make without data? How did they go? What did he learn?
4.) Ed Baker:
What are Ed's biggest takeaways from facebook around structuring growth teams?
What are Ed's biggest pieces of advice for startyups looking to grow internationally?
What were some of Ed's biggest learnings from working with Travis @ Uber?
5.) Elena Verna:
What is the difference between a good vs great growth model?
When does one need to change or amend their growth model? How does one know when it is working?
6.) Rob Schutz:
Why does Rob believe that startups should not diversify their customer acquisition channels too quickly?
How does Rob assess resouirce allocation and spend on new channels? How did this process look when partnering with the MLB for Ro?
Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and streaming reporter Catie Keck talk with YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan about new features coming to YouTube: more tools for Shorts, interactive live streaming, a new YouTube TV interface, and more.
Further reading:
YouTube is adding new ways for creators to make money with Shorts and shopping
YouTube TV to finally add picture-in-picture on iOS
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Jason and Molly cover how 15% of the world’s bitcoin mining network going down when Kazakhstan’s internet was shut off (3:11) and Chainalysis' scam report (12:32). Then they do a "We Live in the Future" segment about AI created actors (16:49) and “Memes of the Week” review of Marc Andreessen's tweets (25:32). Finally, Producer Rachel wraps with an "OK Boomer" interview with YouTube creator and software engineer Ben Awad (38:43).
(00:00) Jason and Molly intro the show
(01:15) A special welcome video for Molly
(03:11) Kazakhstan crypto
(10:42) OpenPhone - Get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist
(12:32) Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report
(16:49) WLITF Synthesia replacing cameras with code
(21:06) Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist
(22:26) Possibilities for AI deepfakes
(25:32) Memes of the Week - Marc Andreessen
(34:18) OK Boomer - Producer Rachel introduces the guest
(37:12) Revelo - Get 20% off the first 3 months by mentioning TWIST at https://revelo.io/twist
(38:43) Ben Awad Gen Z Programming Mentor
FOLLOW Ben: https://twitter.com/benawad
FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis
FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood
Bangaly Kaba is the Head of Platform Growth @ Popshop Live, a live streaming mobile marketplace that combines commerce, entertainment, and social. Prior to Popshop, Bangaly led the product growth and consumer product orgs at Instacart and before Instacart was Head of Growth @ Instagram, where he built and led the product team that helped grow Instagram from 440M to > 1B monthly actives in 2.5yrs. If all of this was not enough, Bangaly has also spent time investing as a Sequoia Scout having made investments into Career Karma, Binti.com and Squad App to name a few.
In Today's Episode with Bangaly Kaba You Will Learn:
1.) How Bangaly made his way into the world of growth and came to lead some of the largest growth orgs in tech at the likes of Instacart and Instagram?
2.) How does Bangaly define the rule of "Head of Growth"? When is the right time for founders to start hiring a growth leader? How do they know whether to hire a growth leader or junior growth reps? Where should founders place these first growth hires in the org? Product or marketing?
3.) How would Bangaly structure the hiring process for any growth hire? What are the must-ask questions? What case studies would Bangaly ask all candidates to complete? What are the signals of a 10x growth hire? What are some core red flags that show in the interview process?
4.) What does the ideal onboarding process look like for new growth hires? What are the signs that a new growth hire is hitting target and expectations? What are some early warning signs that a growth hire is not meeting expectations?
5.) What is the ideal relationship between the Head of Growth and the CEO? How often should they meet? How should they structure the discussion? How should the growth team work with product teams to be successful? How should growth teams work with marketing teams?
On today’s episode I’m talking with Neal Mohan, the chief product officer at YouTube. And there’s a lot to talk about – YouTube is announcing a $100 million fund to begin paying creators who use YouTube Shorts, which is its competitor to TikTok. YouTube remains the default video hosting platform for the entire internet, in a way can feel almost invisible, like it’s a utility, like water, or electricity. And on top of all that, there are YouTubers – that particular kind of influencer at the center of the creator economy – the people who have turned YouTube not only into a career, but multimillion dollar businesses that extend into everything from merch drops to cheeseburger restaurants. When people talk about creators and the creator economy, they’re often just talking about YouTube.
YouTube as a whole continues to grow in massive ways – in Google’s last earnings report, YouTube reported 7b in advertising revenue alone, which means it’s a business that is now as big or bigger than Netflix. YouTube is big – just like this conversation.
Links:
YouTube creators can now get $10,000 per month for making Shorts - https://www.theverge.com/e/22370332
Google sets all-time records as search and YouTube profits soar - https://www.theverge.com/e/22360633
"Me at the Zoo" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw
Instagram launches reels, it's attempt to keep you off TikTok - https://www.theverge.com/e/21118158
YouTube launches Capture, a video recording and enhancing app for iOS - https://www.theverge.com/e/3541449
Instagram says its algorithm won’t promote Reels that have a TikTok watermark - https://www.theverge.com/e/22038373
Patreon CEO Jack Conte on why creators can’t depend on platforms - https://www.theverge.com/e/22307696
YouTube may push users to more radical views over time, a new paper argues - https://www.theverge.com/e/20600060
Examining the consumption of radical content on YouTube - https://www.pnas.org/content/118/32/e2101967118
Read the transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/22370337
Decoder is produced by Creighton DeSimone, Alexander Charles Adams and Andrew Marino. And we are edited by Callie Wright. Our music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
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When you scale at warp speed, it’s easy to lose your bearings. You have to establish your company’s true north, or the dizzying pace of growth will push you off course. No one knows this better than Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. Under her leadership, YouTube has grown to be the world’s largest video platform. And in her previous role at Google, she was a chief architect of its advertising and analytics model. In both roles, she achieved massive scale – and grappled with massive challenges. Susan shares the guiding principles that help them stay the course – as well as stories from Google’s early years that you’ll hear first here. Cameo appearances: Dr. Becky Smethurst (astrophysicist, Oxford), Shishir Mehrotra (Coda, Google, YouTube).
Read a transcript of this episode at https://mastersofscale.com
Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at https://mastersofscale.com/subscribe
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Every Tuesday this month, Vergecast co-host Dieter Bohn hosts a series of discussions diving deep into tech review season, each focusing on a specific product.
This week, Dieter talks with YouTube's UrAvgConsumer about how the recently announced Google Pixel 5 shares some common ground with Google's 2013 smartphone project the Nexus 5.
This episode was brought to you by Novartis. To learn more about Cell and Gene Therapy visit vox.com/ad/novartis
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When Casey Neistat was a teenager, the odds were against him; he had dropped out of high school, was washing dishes to pay rent, and was a father by age 17. But he eventually scraped together enough money to buy a camera and an iMac, and began churning out short films that went viral even before YouTube took off. Despite having to start his career over several times – Casey Neistat became a brand name in social media and advertising, and is now one of the biggest names on YouTube, with an audience of nearly 12 million. PLUS in our post-script "How You Built That," Pat Erley explains how struggling with a perpetually stopped-up sink inspired him to design Dripsie, a no-clog sink strainer.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Cristos Goodrow is VP of Engineering at Google and head of Search and Discovery at YouTube (aka YouTube Algorithm).
This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast. If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to https://lexfridman.com/ai or connect with @lexfridman on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Medium, or YouTube where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on Apple Podcasts, follow on Spotify, or support it on Patreon.
This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (App Store, Google Play), use code “LexPodcast”.
Here’s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
00:00 – Introduction
03:26 – Life-long trajectory through YouTube
07:30 – Discovering new ideas on YouTube
13:33 – Managing healthy conversation
23:02 – YouTube Algorithm
38:00 – Analyzing the content of video itself
44:38 – Clickbait thumbnails and titles
47:50 – Feeling like I’m helping the YouTube algorithm get smarter
50:14 – Personalization
51:44 – What does success look like for the algorithm?
54:32 – Effect of YouTube on society
57:24 – Creators
59:33 – Burnout
1:03:27 – YouTube algorithm: heuristics, machine learning, human behavior
1:08:36 – How to make a viral video?
1:10:27 – Veritasium: Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?
1:13:20 – Making clips from long-form podcasts
1:18:07 – Moment-by-moment signal of viewer interest
1:20:04 – Why is video understanding such a difficult AI problem?
1:21:54 – Self-supervised learning on video
1:25:44 – What does YouTube look like 10, 20, 30 years from now?
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live interview recorded at Lesbians Who Tech in San Francisco.
In this episode: Why YouTube turned off comments for tens of millions of videos recently; its latest attempts to keep kids safe; the criteria it weighs when making a policy change; toxicity in YouTube's comments; what would it do if it lost section 230 immunity?; "the only way to solve this, at the end of the day, is going to be with a combination of human and machines"; diversity in YouTube's leadership; the Google walkout; should Google put a non-executive employee on its board?; contractors in tech; and do the leaders in Silicon Valley "get it?"
Thanks to Microsoft Azure for sponsoring this episode. Get started with a free account and 12 months of popular free services at Azure.com/trial today.
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Recode's Kara Swisher and MSNBC's Ari Melber interview Google CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki in this episode of 'Revolution,' which first aired on MSNBC in January. Make sure to tune in this Friday for a new episode of 'Revolution,' in which Swisher and Chris Hayes interview Apple CEO Tim Cook about education, privacy, DACA and more; that episode airs on MSNBC on Friday, April 6 at 5:00 p.m. PT, 8:00 p.m. ET.
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Nilay talks one-on-one with Casey Neistat about a multitude of topics, including Beme, his view of YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms, sponsorship, and what he’s up to next. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Neistat, honest and direct.
If you already listened to the edited version on The Vergecast this week, skip to 11:50.
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It’s loaded Vergecast this week. Nilay, Paul, and Dieter welcome back Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton to break down the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook, after talking through predictions for next week’s Apple event.
But first, another Casey makes his debut on The Vergecast — Casey Neistat! Nilay talks one-on-one with Casey about a multitude of topics, including Beme, his view of YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms, sponsorship, and what he’s up to next. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Neistat, honest and direct.
02:36 - What to expect from Apple’s education event
20:56 - Casey Neistat interview
52:07 - Paul’s weekly segment “Swag for Me? Swag for you too”
54:59 - Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data scandal, explained
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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki talks with Recode's Kara Swisher at the 2018 Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, Calif. She explains why YouTube opted not to ban one of its stars, Logan Paul, despite a recent string of controviersies including a video he filmed of a dead body in Japan. She also talks about how the site has dealt with revelations of Russian political meddling, why it still doesn't see itself as a media company and what she thinks of rivals like Facebook that are pushing more and more into video: "They should get back to baby pictures."
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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about how YouTube has grown since she assumed that role in 2014, and how it's making original content differently than other video platforms like Netflix. Previously Google's advertising boss, she met Larry Page and Sergey Brin when the two founders rented her garage and turned it into office space. Plus, Wojcicki talks at length about the firing of James Damore, whose viral internal memo exposed a major rift in Silicon Valley over the perceptions of female engineers' capabilities — and an ongoing debate about free speech in the workplace.
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