Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Making an impact through authenticity and curiosity | Ami Vora (CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG)

Jun 23, 2024

01:23:59

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Chief Product Officer of Faire, Ami Vora, shares insights on execution vs. strategy, building relationships, handling disagreement, tips for product leaders, and her amazing journey from temp to VP at Meta. Discusses embracing imperfection, authenticity, curiosity, metaphors in decision-making, balancing strategy and execution in product management, and challenges in senior leadership roles. Includes valuable career advice and ends on a message of authenticity and kindness.

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Quick takeaways

Embrace metaphors in product development to evoke specific emotions and align team members.

Prioritize learning over being right to foster collaboration and create a supportive work culture.

Focus on execution to drive meaningful results by translating strategic visions into actionable behavior.

Deep dives

Balancing ego and outcome in the workplace

In the podcast episode, Ami Vora shares her experience of transitioning from a mindset of enjoying being right to understanding the importance of sublimating ego in the workplace. She emphasizes that prioritizing the outcome over the need to be right is crucial. By sharing a personal anecdote about evolving her approach to being open to different perspectives, she highlights the significance of valuing learning over proving oneself correct, fostering a more collaborative and productive work environment.

Simplify and Focus on Principles in Product Reviews

03:23

Determining the Right Job Fit Emotionally

00:37

Focus on Execution

01:26

All Leaders Make Sub-Optimal Decisions

01:16

Intro

2min

Embracing Imperfection and Authenticity for Success

2min

Embracing Authenticity and Following Intuition for Success

4min

Embracing Curiosity for Better Outcomes

17min

Metaphors and Narratives in Decision-Making

14min

Balancing Strategy and Execution in Product Management

3min

Strategic Thinking, Customer Connection, and Team Goals

19min

Challenges and Fulfillment in Senior Leadership Roles

11min

Navigating Career Transitions and Customer Focus in Silicon Valley

9min

10.

Wrapping Up with a Message of Authenticity and Kindness

2min

Ami Vora is the Chief Product Officer of Faire, which connects independent retailers and brands around the world. Before Faire, Ami spent over 15 years at Meta, including as VP of Product and Design for WhatsApp (2B+ users), VP of Product for Facebook’s ads system (now $130B of annual revenue), and director at Instagram. She began her career working on developer tools at Microsoft. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Why execution eats strategy for breakfast

• Using metaphor to rally teams around one shared goal

• How to build cross-functional relationships

• “Dinosaur brain,” “Toddler soccer,” and the “hill climbing” metaphors

• A tactic for handling disagreement

• Tips for working well with product-minded founders as a product leader

• The story of Ami’s incredible 15-year journey from temp to VP at Meta

• Much more

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Brought to you by:

• Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers.

• Anvil—The fastest way to build software for documents.

• User Testing—Human understanding. Human experiences.

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/authenticity-and-curiosity-ami-vora

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Where to find Ami Vora:

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

• Substack: https://amivora.substack.com/

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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) Ami’s background

(02:00) The myth of perfection in success

(07:55) Emotionally connecting with the job

(09:55) Embracing curiosity in moments of challenge

(13:16) Thinking in feedback loops

(17:17) The “dinosaur brain” metaphor in product reviews

(20:20) Strategies for conducting effective product reviews

(26:33) Using metaphors and imagery to communicate your vision

(29:35) The power of having a shared narrative

(31:55) WhatsApp: an example of metaphor in action

(34:44) Emulating people that inspire you

(36:19) WhatsApp video calling

(37:35) Why execution is greater than strategy

(41:36) Time allotment for strategy vs. execution

(45:10) How to become a better strategic thinker

(47:59) The intricacies of implementing feedback

(51:53) Being a female leader in tech

(55:13) Advice for young women in tech

(56:07) Setting goals and aligning incentives

(01:01:40) Acknowledging hard truths

(01:05:46) Lessons from transitioning to Faire

(01:08:40) The importance of a good CPO/CEO relationship

(01:11:17) Vetting heads of product and maintaining customer focus

(01:12:40) How Ami went from intern to leading major products at Meta

(01:14:53) The one thing you should do to be successful in product

(01:17:25) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Faire: https://www.faire.com/

• Making Meta | Andrew “Boz” Bosworth (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto

• Community Wisdom: AMA with Dan Hockenmaier + Facilitating a roadmap session, structuring product teams, navigating an acquisition, companies not needing PMs anymore, and much more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-meta-andrew-boz-bosworth-cto

• Developing a growth model + marketplace growth strategy | Dan Hockenmaier (Faire, Thumbtack, Reforge): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/developing-a-growth-model-marketplace

• Dan Hockenmaier’s website: https://www.danhock.com/

• On Reviews: https://boz.com/articles/reviews

• Finding a global optimum always feels like a hill climb: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amvora_finding-a-global-optimum-always-feels-like-activity-7074776143882588161-jhyy/

• Dolores Park: https://sfrecpark.org/892/Mission-Dolores-Park

• Rob Goldman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgoldman/

• Execution eats strategy for breakfast, but execution without strategy leads to burnout: https://rationalpm.substack.com/p/execution-eats-strategy-for-breakfast

• The goal of a “strategy” is to change our own team’s behavior: https://amivora.substack.com/p/the-goal-of-a-strategy-is-to-change

• The paths to power: How to grow your influence and advance your career | Jeffrey Pfeffer (author of 7 Rules of Power, professor at Stanford GSB): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-paths-to-power-jeffrey-pfeffer

• Path to Power course outline: https://jeffreypfeffer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Pfeffer-OB377-Course-Outline-2018.pdf

• Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?: https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey

• Max Rhodes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-rhodes/

• Coupa Coffee: https://www.coupacafe.com/

• Brandee Barker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandeedbarker/

• Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person: https://www.amazon.com/Year-Yes-Dance-Stand-Person/dp/1476777128

• How to tell better stories | Matthew Dicks (Storyworthy): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-tell-better-stories-matthew-dicks-storyworthy/

• A life of yes: Matthew Dicks at TEDxSomerville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3TaQFcaMk4

• The Office on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/the-office

• 30 Rock on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/30-rock/6240863759978157112

• Dall-E-2: https://openai.com/index/dall-e-2/

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com