Rohini Pandhi is a product leader at Mercury, and previously spent over seven years at Square/Block leading product work on Square payments, invoicing, and the Bitkey hardware Bitcoin wallet. She’s also the co-founder of the startup bootcamp Transparent Collective and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Key indicators that it’s time to hire PMs
• How to build your early PM team
• Why founders should initially take on the product manager role themselves
• How to attract top PM talent
• What she’s learned about going multi-product
• A case for investing in quality
• More
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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-your-product-team-from-scratch-rohini-pandhi
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Where to find Rohini Pandhi:
• X: https://x.com/rohinip
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinipandhi
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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) Rohini’s background
(05:00) The role of product managers at Mercury
(09:51) Key indicators that it’s time to hire PMs
(13:18) Building the product team at Mercury
(19:53) Why you should avoid hiring PMs too early
(22:26) The different flavors of product management
(26:15) How to attract top talent
(35:59) Advocating for quality in product development
(44:10) Going multi-product
(46:37) Organizational structure for multi-product success
(50:57) Organizational culture for multi-product success
(52:07) Customer obsession and product development
(57:36) More lessons from going multi-product
(01:05:57) Transparent Collective: supporting underrepresented founders
(01:09:54) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Immad Akhund on X: https://x.com/immad
• Mercury: https://mercury.com
• Square: https://squareup.com
• Product management career ladders: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/product-management-career-ladders
• Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners [Wardley]: https://orghacking.com/pioneers-settlers-town-planners-wardley-9dcd3709cde7
• Jason Zhang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-zhang-5645a860
• What is ‘Dogfooding’?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html
• Mercury Bill Pay: https://mercury.com/bill-pay
• Zip: https://zip.co
• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
• The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam (Monetizing Innovation, Simon-Kucher): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan
• Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product
• Gokul Rajaram on X: https://x.com/gokulr
• Transparent Collective: https://www.transparentcollective.com
• 16 Reading Tips from Naval Ravikant: https://alexandbooks.com/archive/16-reading-tips-from-naval-ravikant
• Shrinking on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/shrinking
• Bad Sisters on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/bad-sisters
• Slow Horses on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/slow-horses
• Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance
• Presumed Innocent on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/presumed-innocent
• Waymo: https://waymo.com
• Adam Robinson on X: https://x.com/IAmAdamRobinson
• Cyan Banister—From Homeless and Broke to Top Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ More): https://tim.blog/2024/11/28/cyan-banister
• Bobby Matson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbymatson
• Jobs at Mercury: https://mercury.com/jobs
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Recommended books:
• Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays: https://www.amazon.com/Vectors-Aphorisms-Ten-Second-James-Richardson/dp/0967266890
• The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314
• Pachinko: https://www.amazon.com/Pachinko-National-Book-Award-Finalist/dp/1455563927
• Cutting for Stone: https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367
• The Song of Achilles: https://www.amazon.com/Song-Achilles-Novel-Madeline-Miller/dp/0062060627
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
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