20VC: Ramp's Product Playbook: How To Hire Product Teams, How to Run Sprints, How to Increase Product Velocity, When and How to Go Multi-Product with Geoff Charles, VP Product @ Ramp
Geoff Charles is the VP of Product at Ramp, leading the product management, operations, and support teams. Prior to Ramp, Geoff helped spin off Mission Lane and scale credit products to millions of consumers. He started his career advising Fortune 100 financial services companies.
In Today's Episode with Geoff Charles We Discuss:
1. How to Become a Product Leader:
How did Geoff make his way into the world of product?
What are the single most important skills for product people to learn early?
What are the biggest mistakes that product people make early in their career?
2. When and Who to Hire for the First Product Team:
When is the right time to hire your first product people outside of founding team?
Why are the best product teams in the early days professional services teams?
What is more important; the person has stage or sector experience, when joining?
Should you hire senior product people or junior product people as the first hires?
3. How to Increase Velocity Using Sprints:
How does Geoff and Ramp use two-week sprints to have insane product velocity?
How are they structured? How are goals set? Who is included?
What makes a good vs a bad sprint? How is accountability tied to sprints?
When do two-week sprints no longer become possible? What happens then?
4. Going Multi-Product, Will Incumbents Kill You and Product Re-Usability:
When is the right time to add a second product?
What are the biggest mistakes companies make when going multi-product?
Why is it unlikely that an incumbent is the one to kill you? What competitor should worry you?
What does Geoff mean when he speaks of "product re-usability"? Why is it crucial to velocity?
Velocity over everything: How Ramp became the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time | Geoff Charles (VP of Product)
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Geoff Charles is VP of Product at Ramp—the fastest-growing SaaS startup of all time, Fast Company’s #1 Most Innovative Company in North America, and a company I believe we should all study for how they operate, execute, and hire. At Ramp, Geoff has led the product team from the early days, including the development and release of 60+ products and features in the past year alone. He has been building financial services for over a decade, and his interview in Lenny’s Newsletter quickly became one of the most widely read newsletter issues of all time. In today’s podcast, we will discuss:
• How velocity is at the heart of Ramp’s culture and success
• How writing can unlock clarity, creativity, and rapid problem-solving
• How to empower your product team through context sharing
• How to practically approach problems from first principles
• How Ramp approaches hiring in a unique way
• Suggestions for breaking into the world of product management
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/velocity-over-everything-how-ramp-became-the-fastest-growing-saas-startup-of-all-time-geoff-charl/#transcript
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Where to find Geoff Charles:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffintech
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffrey-charles/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Geoff’s background
(04:49) An overview of Ramp
(06:20) The importance of velocity at Ramp
(08:50) Single-threaded goals and how to keep teams away from distractions
(13:20) Setting lofty goals
(15:17) How Ramp empowers teams
(17:37) How Geoff’s management style has evolved at Ramp
(19:55) The product design process at Ramp
(21:19) Ramp’s system for sharing feedback
(23:07) How Ramp handles bug fixes
(24:15) Advice for PMs who want to move faster
(29:29) Why velocity and impact can help protect against burnout
(32:33) Planning vs. doing
(37:54) Ramp’s strategy documents
(40:55) Finding your unique positioning
(42:46) OKRs
(44:53) The importance of first-principle thinking
(48:53) How to use writing to think through problems
(51:46) How Geoff carves out time for deep work
(54:05) How Geoff manages tasks and stays organized
(57:15) Why other roles share the PM load at Ramp
(1:00:30) PM responsibilities at Ramp
(1:01:46) Identifying A+ talent
(1:06:02) The skills Ramp looks for when hiring
(1:07:33) Advice for people wanting to break into product management
(1:10:37) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• How Ramp builds product: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-ramp-builds-product
• Bill: https://www.bill.com/
• Expensify: https://www.expensify.com/
• Concur: https://www.concur.com/
• Coupa: https://www.coupa.com/
• Nicole Forsgren on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-measure-and-improve-developer-productivity-nicole-forsgren-microsoft-research-github-goo/
• Sheryl Sandberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryl-sandberg-5126652/
• Getting Things Done: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563
• When Breath Becomes Air: https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-Kalanithi/dp/081298840X
• The Bear on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/the-bear-05eb6a8e-90ed-4947-8c0b-e6536cbddd5f
• Whoop: https://www.whoop.com/
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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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