Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

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Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack)

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Jan 5, 2023

Guest

Jules Walter

Jules Walter, a seasoned product leader at YouTube and co-founder of the Black Product Managers Network, shares his inspiring journey from Haiti to tech. He emphasizes the crucial role of mentorship in skill development and career advancement. Walter discusses mastering interview skills through mock interviews and peer support, while highlighting the importance of emotional intelligence in navigating tech's challenges. He offers practical strategies for building community and overcoming barriers for underrepresented individuals in the industry.

01:10:27

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ADVICE

Mock Interview Practice

To improve interviewing skills, conduct dozens of mock interviews.
Deliberate practice with skilled interviewers accelerates improvement, but any practice is valuable.

insights

INSIGHT

Interviewing Barrier

Interviewing is a crucial skill and barrier, especially for underrepresented individuals, due to lack of feedback.
Repeated attempts and career progression may be necessary to succeed at companies like Google.

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Overcoming Interview Stress

Practicing interviews until you're good enough even at your worst helps overcome stress and ambiguity.
Find a supportive community to practice with, making the high-pressure process more enjoyable.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

From Haiti to Tech: A Product Leader's Journey

04:12 • 8min

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Mastering Interview Skills for Product Managers

12:04 • 8min

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Navigating Emotional Intelligence in Tech

19:48 • 9min

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Strategic Learning and Mentorship for Career Growth

28:45 • 5min

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Navigating Growth Through Mentorship

33:19 • 12min

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Mastering Feedback and Mentorship

45:39 • 23min

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Uncovering Self-Awareness through Interview Questions

01:08:35 • 2min

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The Minto pyramid principle

Barbara Minto

The Minto Pyramid Principle is a method for structuring and communicating information effectively. Developed by Barbara Minto, it emphasizes starting with the answer or key point, then grouping and summarizing supporting arguments, and finally presenting detailed supporting ideas in a logical order. The principle is based on a top-down structure, where the main point is presented first, followed by the reasoning and supporting data. This approach helps in maximizing the audience's attention and making the message more convincing and easy to understand. The book is widely used in business, technical, and consulting fields and introduces concepts such as MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive) thinking and the Situation, Complication, Question (SCQ) framework[2][3][4].

Never Split the Difference

Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

Tahl Raz

Chris Voss

VOSS/RAZ

This book, written by former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss and co-author Tahl Raz, provides a masterclass in influencing others through negotiation. It distills the Voss method, revealing skills such as establishing rapport, creating trust with tactical empathy, and transforming conflict into collaboration. The book is filled with real-life examples from Voss's career, illustrating how these techniques can be applied in both professional and personal life to achieve goals and defuse potential crises.

Jules Walter is a product leader at YouTube and co-founder of both the Black Product Managers Network and Codepath.org. Previously, he led monetization and mobile growth teams at Slack. He’s also a very well-known leader in the broader product community. In today’s episode, we discuss the skills that matter most to PMs, and how to build those skills. We also spend quite a bit of time talking about the importance of finding mentors to help you learn new skills, how to nail your next job interview, barriers to entry for underrepresented people, and some of the most common paths into product management.

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/leveraging-mentors-to-uplevel-your

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny

• Notion—One workspace. Every team: https://www.notion.com/lennyspod

• Linear—The new standard for modern software development: https://linear.app/lenny

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Where to find Jules Walter:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/julesdwalt

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

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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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Referenced:

• Black Product Managers Network: https://www.blackproductmanagers.com

• Maryanna Quigless on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quigless/

• Brittany Bankston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-bankston-77693a85/

• Benin Saffo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benin-saffo/

• Lawrence Ripsher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrenceripsher/

• Matt Mochary on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/videos/how-to-fire-people-with-grace-work-through-fear-and-nurture-innovation-matt-mochary/

• Adriel Frederick on Lenny’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/humanizing-product-development-adriel-frederick-reddit/id1627920305?i=1000583287891

• Bangaly Kaba on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambangaly/

• The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking, and Problem Solving: https://www.amazon.com/Minto-Pyramid-Principle-Writing-Thinking/dp/0960191046

• Pathwise Leadership: https://pathwiseleadership.com/

• Erin Teague on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinteague/

• Bradley Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyhorowitz/

• Nikhyl Singhal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhyl/

• Tim Ferriss on what makes a great mentor: https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-ferriss-what-makes-great-mentor-2017-11

• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended on It: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-audiobook/dp/B01COR1GM2

• Connect: Building Exceptional Relationships with Family, Friends and Colleagues: https://www.amazon.com/Connect-Building-Exceptional-Relationships-Colleagues/dp/0241986869

• Chris Voss’s MasterClass on negotiating in the workplace: https://www.masterclass.com/sessions/classes/win-workplace-negotiations

• Lex Fridman’s podcast: https://lexfridman.com/podcast/

• Never Have I Ever on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80179190

• Top Gun: Maverick on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBTJBiL3oQ

Interview Prep Communities:

• Lewis C Lin's Interview Community: https://join.slack.com/t/pminterview/shared_invite/zt-1mqc5lzdt-SZuIvbzZIl8ob7UJeydVGg

• Exponent: https://www.tryexponent.com/

• StellarPeers: https://stellarpeers.com/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Jules’s background

(06:07) Two paths to becoming a product manager

(07:20) How Jules became the first growth PM at Slack

(09:03) Black Product Managers Network and Codepath.org

(12:05) The most important skills to refine as a PM: IQ skills and EQ skills

(14:48) How to improve your interview skills

(18:50) Why interviewing is more difficult for underrepresented people

(20:39) EQ skills: what are they and how to improve them

(22:44) The EQ skills Jules has had to develop over the course of his career

(24:27) The importance of having a mentor or coach for self-reflection

(26:09) How cultivating self-awareness helped Jules improve his communication

(30:13) Strategies for learning new skills

(35:32) Improving strategy, execution, and product sense

(37:00) How identifying best practices can help you improve skills

(40:22) Communicating clearly and asking for feedback

(42:38) Methods Jules uses to improve skills

(45:31) How to approach asking for feedback

(47:46) Why it’s harder to get honest feedback on EQ skills

(50:56) The importance of understanding your strengths and weaknesses and leaning into the former

(55:18) Jules’s most impactful mentors

(56:14) The qualities to look for in a good mentor and how to approach them

(1:02:15) How to foster the best relationship with your mentor

(1:06:51) Lightning round

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