Lenny Distilled

Setting vision, translating to goals, and executing on strategy

Featuring: Nickey Skarstad (Director of Product Management, Duolingo)

6 quotes · 5 insights

Good friction filters for quality, bad friction blocks everyone

We actually put more friction in the onboarding flow to help to start to solve for that. So we actually slowed you down. We made you be more thoughtful about what you were listing. And by doing that, we actually helped you get to a first sale faster.
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo

Product sense is compressed experience, not innate talent

My top advice for new PMs, it's just to be a consumer. To download new products, to try them out, to use all the things and try them because I think it actually makes you a better product builder.
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo

Strategy is solving specific problems, not setting ambitious goals

I've seen a lot of director level people through my career who will try to work on strategy in a vacuum alone. They'll write a document and they'll be like, 'Okay, team. Here's what we're doing. Here's our strategy.' And it never goes well.
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo

Do things that give you energy - that's where impact lives

I went through my calendar and I changed the colors of all of the meetings on my calendar to red, yellow, and green after I had the meeting. And when I looked back at the last few weeks, it was almost all red and yellow. And I was like, okay, this is really from an energy standpoint, I don't think I love this.
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo
Get really good at figuring out what are the things that you love most about being a product person, and how can you optimize your next role for those things that you love?
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo

Great products require perpetual dissatisfaction

Airbnb does not ship product if it is not good. And even if they're trying new things, they are obsessed with the end consumer experience.
Nickey SkarstadDirector of Product Management, Duolingo

The Missing Stamp

Every episode of Lenny's Podcast, distilled into the insights that matter and the quotes that make them stick.

LENNY WAS HERE__STAMP_DATE__

Lenny, if you're reading this, the stamp's ready when you are. 🧡🔥