Navigating Career Growth in Product Management

Claire Vo is the chief product officer at LaunchDarkly and the founder of ChatPRD, likely the most popular PM-specific AI product out there. Before LaunchDarkly, she was a longtime chief product officer at Color and Optimizely. Claire has founded and managed two other companies, Pretty HQ and Experiment Engine, the latter of which Optimizely acquired in 2017. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Knowing what you want in your career and being clear about it

• Finding your zone of genius and how to operate within it

• How to maintain a fast pace in larger companies

• How to make it easy for your boss to help you achieve your goals

• Advice for navigating the tech industry as a woman

• The role of a CPTO and the benefits it brings to organizations

• Why she built ChatPRD

• Tips for building your own AI tools

• The impact of AI on product management and what skills will continue to be important

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/bending-the-universe-in-your-favor

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Where to find Claire Vo:

• X: https://twitter.com/clairevo

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

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chiefproductofficer

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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) Claire’s background

(04:50) How to achieve career progression

(10:11) Avoiding promotion obsession

(13:50) How Claire stepped into leadership roles

(17:24) Operating in your zone of genius

(23:03) How to maintain a fast pace

(27:46) Setting a high bar for quality and talent

(29:54) Normalizing feedback

(33:09) Being a woman in tech

(47:09) The role of a CPTO

(54:19) Building ChatPRD

(59:39) Tips for building a GPT

(01:02:27) The impact of AI on product management

(01:08:08) How AI is changing the product management role

(01:14:36) Efficiency gains with ChatPRD

(01:16:39) Contrarian corner: sales-led product organizations

(01:20:11) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• LaunchDarkly: https://launchdarkly.com/

• Define your zone of genius: Laura Garnett at TEDxMillRiver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ7_r2oWlrw

• Energy Audit: https://beta.mocharymethod.com/blog-post/energy-audit

• How to fire people with grace, work through fear, and nurture innovation | Matt Mochary: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/how-to-fire-people-with-grace-work-through-fear-and-nurture-innovation-matt-mochary/

• Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/radical-candor-from-theory-to-practice-with-author-kim-scott/

• Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/

• GitLab: https://about.gitlab.com/

• ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/

• You should be playing with GPTs at work: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/you-should-be-playing-with-gpts-at

• SpaceX’s Starship: https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/

• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

• Product management theater | Marty Cagan (Silicon Valley Product Group): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/product-management-theater-marty-cagan-silicon-valley-product-group/

• High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People: https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100

• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212

• Stripe Press: https://press.stripe.com/

• Circe: https://www.amazon.com/Circe-Madeline-Miller/dp/0316556327

• Poor Things: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/

• Mythic Quest on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/mythic-quest/umc.cmc.1nfdfd5zlk05fo1bwwetzldy3

• Silicon Valley on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/silicon-valley

• Chrysler Pacifica: https://www.chrysler.com/pacifica.html

• Waymo: https://waymo.com/

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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