Rethinking Product Strategy: From Execution to Insight

Mayur Kamat is the chief product officer at N26—a $9 billion neobank serving over 7 million customers in 25 countries—where he leads product, design, data, and research. Prior to N26, Mayur was Head of Product at Binance, growing the crypto exchange to a peak $400 billion valuation. Earlier in his career, he built and scaled products at Google (Gmail Mobile, Hangouts), Microsoft, and travel unicorn Agoda.

Learn:

1. How to find and focus on the highest-leverage problems

2. Why you shouldn’t optimize for compensation early in your career

3. Why you should optimize for strengths, not weaknesses

4. Why you need to decide if you truly want the C-suite path

5. Why working at a fintech company creates exceptional PMs

6. Strategy = hypothesis × experimentation velocity

7. Small, fast wins compound faster than big, slow bets

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Where to find Mayur Kamat:

• X: https://x.com/5degreez

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

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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) Introduction and Mayur’s background

(04:49) Working at Binance: An inside look

(18:18) Career advice for product managers

(27:00) PM career paths

(33:58) Understanding fintech customers

(36:00) Understanding your strengths

(44:46) Creating a culture of experimentation

(51:14) Hiring and developing top talent

(54:50) Building a diverse product portfolio

(57:08) Working in high talent density areas

(59:43) Personal and professional balance

(01:06:32) High-leverage opportunities and decision making

(01:14:28) AI tools in the workplace

(01:19:14) Failure corner

(01:25:11) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• Binance: https://www.binance.us/

• Google: https://about.google/

• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/

• Agoda: https://www.agoda.com

• N26: https://n26.com/

• Which companies accelerate PM careers most: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-accelerate-your-pm

• Which companies produce the best product managers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-produce-the-best

• Bezos Says Work-Life Balance is a “Debilitating” Phrase: https://www.investopedia.com/news/bezos-says-worklife-balance-debilitating-phrase/

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

• PayPal Mafia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia

• Changpeng Zhao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpzhao/

• Ray Dalio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raydalio/

• Porter’s five forces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis

• Jonathan Rosenberg on X: https://x.com/jjrosenberg

• Aura: https://buy.aura.com/

• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/

• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/

• Revolut: https://www.revolut.com/

• Chime: https://www.chime.com/

• Stripe: https://stripe.com/

• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/

• Alex Algard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexalgard

• Hiya: https://www.hiya.com/

• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach

• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app

• Writer: https://writer.com/

• Google Hangouts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts

• Sundar Pichai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundarpichai/

• Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/landing

• House on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/ef39603f-eb90-4248-8237-f6168d7c1be1

• Big Bang Theory on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/9bde5aeb-5297-4290-b173-19a4d59cc11d

• Adolescence on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81756069

• The White Lotus on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus

• Robinhood: https://robinhood.com/us/en/

• Nikita Bier’s post on X about Bible Chat: https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1915252215507210349

• Bible Chat: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bible-chat-daily-devotional/id6448849666?mt=8

• Suno: https://suno.com/home

• Disfrutar: https://www.disfrutarbarcelona.com/

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Recommended books:

• StrengthsFinder 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/159562015X

• The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life: https://www.amazon.com/Types-Wealth-Transformative-Guide-Design/dp/059372318X

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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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