Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Crafting a compelling product vision | Ebi Atawodi (YouTube, Netflix, Uber)

Dec 3, 2023

39:39:46

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Ebi Atawodi, Director of Product Management for YouTube, discusses crafting a compelling product vision, the four key elements of a vision statement, the pillars of great product management, culture's influence on product, structuring strategy sessions, and improving work relationships. They also talk about YouTube's vision and upcoming features.

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Quick takeaways

Develop a product vision by empathizing with users, studying competitors, and iterating on user problems.

Evangelize the vision by ensuring team understanding and alignment, involving stakeholders, and communicating beyond the next year.

Update your mental model of customers through user research, product immersion, and intuition, and trust your gut in decision-making.

Product management requires clarity in defining problems and conviction in decision-making, while the company culture shapes product outcomes.

Deep dives

Developing a Vision: The Empathize Step

To develop a vision for your product, start by empathizing with your users. Use your own product and study competitors' products to gain insights. Create a living document that highlights the top 10 problems users face with your product and update it regularly. Use this document to foster discussions with stakeholders and iterate on the problems. This step will help you gain clarity on the problems you're trying to solve and inform your overall vision.

Lofty yet Realistic Vision

02:02:14

The Problem and Solution of YouTube: The Transformation of Shorts

01:01:20

User Research vs PM Gut Feeling

00:56

Announcing a Product Feature

02:02:16

Introduction

4min

Crafting a Compelling Vision

3min

The Characteristics of a Compelling Product Vision

7min

Crafting a Product Vision

20min

Developing a Compelling Product Vision

16min

Crafting and Communicating a Compelling Vision

4min

The Importance of Identifying User Problems

29min

Building a Strong Relationship with Your Engineering Manager

2min

YouTube's Vision and New Features

14min

Ebi Atawodi is Director of Product Management for the Creator Experience at YouTube, former Head of Product at Uber, and a former Director of Product (Payments and EMEA) at Netflix. Known for crafting a strong, unified vision, Ebi empowers her teams to achieve outsized outcomes. In today’s episode, we go deep into vision and strategy, including:

• The four key elements of a good vision statement

• Three ways to determine your mission

• The four pillars of great product management

• How writing helps you gain clarity

• How culture influences product

• Tips on how to structure a strategy session

• Advice on building team culture and improving work relationships

• What’s coming soon at YouTube

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Brought to you by Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers | Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/crafting-a-compelling-product-vision-ebi-atawodi-youtube-netflix-uber/

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Where to find Ebi Atawodi:

• X: https://twitter.com/ebiatawodi

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

• YouTube mixes: https://www.youtube.com/@EbiAtawodi/videos

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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/