Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Mastering product strategy and growing as a PM | Maggie Crowley (Toast, Drift, Tripadvisor)

Nov 5, 2023

01:22:33

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Maggie Crowley, VP of product at Toast, shares insights on building a broad-based PM skill set, crafting a product strategy, breaking into PM, simplifying writing, and the impact of content creation on her career. She also discusses the qualities of the best product managers and warns against being too data-driven. The podcast covers various topics including simplification, prioritization, feedback and support, the role of a product manager, experimentation, identifying bad ideas, and avoiding unnecessary rewrites.

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Quick takeaways

Taking initiative and being willing to do tasks outside of your designated role can lead to faster progress and greater success.

As a product manager, it is important to keep the team motivated and excited about the project, which requires maintaining optimism and addressing challenges with a positive attitude.

The best product managers excel at simplifying complex problems, have the ability to stay focused on important tasks, and are willing to take on any necessary work, including the hard and unglamorous tasks.

Deep dives

The importance of taking initiative

Taking initiative and being willing to do tasks outside of your designated role can lead to faster progress and greater success.

Emphasizing the Messiness and Fun in Product Development

01:57

How to Be a Good Product Manager

00:36

Strategic planning and transparency in decision-making

04:19

The Importance of the One Pager Template in Product Management

03:06

Introduction

4min

Simplification and Prioritization

16min

Importance of Feedback and Support

9min

The Role of a Product Manager (PM)

15min

The Power of Experimentation and Advanced Analysis with Epo

3min

Identifying Bad Ideas and Roadmap Simplification

11min

Avoiding Unnecessary Rewrites and Being Data-Driven

19min

Favorite Movies/TV Shows, Interview Questions, and Products

5min

Reaching out to the Guest and Job Opportunities at Toast

2min

Maggie Crowley is VP of product at Toast and previously vice president and head of product at Charlie Health, senior director of product management at Drift, and a PM at TripAdvisor. She’s also the host of Build, a podcast dedicated to product and product management. In today’s conversation, Maggie shares:

• The value of building a broad-based PM skill set

• Three qualities of the best product managers

• A step-by-step guide for crafting a product strategy

• How to break into PM

• Why great writing is often just simplifying your writing

• Why being too data-driven is a red flag

• The impact of content creation on Maggie’s career

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Brought to you by Productroadmap.ai—AI to connect your roadmaps to revenue | Composer—the AI-powered trading platform | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/mastering-product-strategy-and-growing-as-a-pm-maggie-crowley-toast-drift-tripadvisor/

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Where to find Maggie Crowley:

• X: https://twitter.com/maggiecrowley

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-crowley-42a97112/

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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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