In this influential business book, Clayton Christensen shows how even the most outstanding companies can lose market leadership when they fail to adapt to disruptive innovations. Christensen explains why companies often miss new waves of innovation and provides a set of rules for capitalizing on disruptive technologies. The book uses examples from various industries, including the disk drive, mechanical excavator, steel, and computer industries, to illustrate trends that lead to success or failure in the face of disruptive technologies.
In 'Crossing the Chasm', Geoffrey A. Moore explores the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, which includes innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. He highlights the significant gap or 'chasm' between early adopters and the early majority, where early adopters are willing to sacrifice for the advantage of being first, while the early majority waits for evidence of productivity improvements. The book provides strategies for narrowing this chasm, including choosing a target market, understanding the whole product concept, positioning the product, building a marketing strategy, and selecting the most appropriate distribution channels and pricing. The third edition includes new examples, strategies for digital marketing, and connections to Moore's subsequent works like 'Inside the Tornado'.
Working Backwards provides a detailed look at Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and innovation. The book is written by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, who collectively have 27 years of experience at Amazon. It outlines the company's 14 leadership principles and how they are applied in practice, focusing on customer obsession, long-term thinking, and operational excellence. The book is divided into two parts: the first part explains the leadership principles and practices, while the second part includes case studies on the development of products like Kindle, Amazon Prime, and Amazon Web Services. The authors provide practical steps and insights that can be applied to any business, regardless of size or industry[2][4][5].
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Shweta Shrivastava is a Senior Product Leader at Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company backed by Alphabet. Prior to joining Waymo, she was the CPO of Nauto, where she also worked on AI-assisted driver tools. Shweta has worked in product for over 15 years in senior roles at several companies, including Amazon and Cisco. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• How Waymo builds trust with riders
• Product management at Waymo vs software-only products
• The state of self-driving technology
• The importance of being a disruptor and why large companies need to disrupt more
• Underrated product management skills
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/product-lessons-from-waymo-shweta-shrivastava-waymo-amazon-cisco/#transcript
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Where to find Shweta Shriva
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shshrivastava/
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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) Shweta’s background
(03:47) What Shweta and her team are responsible for at Waymo
(05:30) About the autonomous driving vehicle hardware, software, and simulation tools
(08:14) Differences in working at Waymo vs. a more traditional software company
(11:02) How Waymo builds trust with riders and the difference between driver assist and fully autonomous
(13:57) An example of how Waymo builds trust with riders
(15:55) The commercial, operational, and system behavior metrics Waymo uses
(20:38) What are L5 autonomous vehicles and why Shweta thinks L4 vehicles are good enough
(22:53) How to keep investors enthusiastic when it’s a long-term investment
(25:24) Building successful teams and successful products
(26:39) Determining what you’re not building, especially before product-market-fit
(27:49) Why large companies need to disrupt their own models
(29:33) The most underrated product management skills
(33:07) Tips for getting promoted
(35:19) Where is Waymo and how to try it out
(36:46) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Waymo: https://waymo.com/
• Nauto: https://www.nauto.com/
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986
• The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780
• Top Gun: Maverick on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Top-Gun-Maverick-Tom-Cruise/dp/B0B18G8R9B
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