Product leaders reveal why most PMs fail and how to structure teams for explosive growth
I think the combination of those two things can be leveraged in a way such that you don't need to over collaborate and you can be assured of achieving the results that you wanted as if you had collaborated.
I think exercising that kind of muscle of saying no, of restraint, is probably one of the few muscles of taste you can exercise. If a museum has all of their collection on the walls, then the curator hasn't done anything.
I think that the way I will grow this business long-term, the way I will hit my goals long-term, the way I'll see compounding growth because of retention and increasing budgets, is essentially by delivering ROI for people today, even at the cost of potentially short-term revenue.
- The best teams are organized like terrorist organizations, with a clear ideological culture and a very clear organizational structure of who can be trusted with which decision.
- Most product managers are 'pretty bad' and often a net negative to the company, partly because the best product managers often exit the system to become founders or executives.
- Snapchat's monetization struggles stemmed from its young user base (low value for advertisers), its camera-first, non-feed-based product design, and its nature as a messaging app, which is difficult to monetize with ads.
- The most important career decision a product manager makes is who they marry or spend their life with, as that partner can significantly support and influence their growth.
- Great product managers need to balance extreme confidence (bordering on arrogance) with genuine humility, knowing when to give credit to others while still driving their vision.
- Effective product leaders are extremely organized and process-driven, yet also deeply comfortable with ambiguity and even pathological demand avoidance, challenging established norms.
- True growth often comes from focusing on the core users and making the existing product experience exceptionally good for them, rather than constantly seeking new users or features.
- To truly create great consumer products for certain user cohorts, product managers and designers need specific, inalienable traits (like gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background) that cannot be learned or acquired.
- Step change in advertising CPMs between 17 and 18, and between 18 and 21 (Snapchat's young user base meant lower ad value due to regulatory restrictions and difficulty in measuring ROI for younger demographics.)
- Snapchat was quicker to $4 billion in ads revenue than Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest (Despite starting later than these platforms, Snapchat achieved significant ad revenue growth, highlighting its initial success in monetization.)
- 70-100% penetration among teenagers in Western countries (Snapchat's dominance as a messaging app among younger demographics.)
- Moving up people's 'ellness' (e.g., last 7 out of 7 days) for DAU/MAU ratios (Focusing on improving retention and daily usage for existing users, even by small increments, can lead to significant growth.)
RevBots.ai View:
- AI Sprinkler teams bolt on PM tools but lack ideological alignment for true innovation.
- ARM-stage companies would treat PM roles as temporary incubators for future founders.
- Snapchat's ad challenges mirror SaaS Hoarder data silos: both suffer from fragmented user understanding.
- The 'terrorist cell' model works for ARM-stage RevOps: autonomous pods with clear decision rights.
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