Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career Lenny Rachitsky

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Josh Miller is the CEO and co-founder of The Browser Company, where he helped build Arc, my go-to web browser. In today’s episode, we get an inside look at the unique structure and values of The Browser Company and how their company culture has helped them land some of the best talent in tech. Josh shares ways that his company embraces experimentation, including their “optimizing for feelings” approach to building, and explains why extreme transparency is at the forefront of everything they do.
Special invite link to skip the waitlist: https://arc.net/gift/lenny

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/competing-with-giants-an-inside-look-at-how-the-browser-company-builds-product-josh-miller-ceo/#transcript

Where to find Josh Miller:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshm
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-miller-b31259106/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Early access to Arc: https://arc.net/gift/lenny
• The Browser Company: https://thebrowser.company/
• Arc: https://arc.net/
• Hursh Agrawal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hurshagrawal/
• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/
• Scott Belsky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/
• Notes on Roadtrips: https://thebrowser.company/values/
• Shahed Khan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_shahedk
• Paper by FiftyThree:  https://www.hellobrio.com/blog/digital-drawing-paper-fiftythree
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/
• Peter Vidani on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pter
• The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/
• Ellis Hamburger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellishamburger/
• Airbnb’s Snow White project: https://uxdesign.cc/how-airbnb-proved-that-storytelling-is-the-most-important-skill-in-design-15d04ac71039
• General Magic: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/
• Linear: https://linear.app/
• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/
• Cron: https://cron.com/
• Thrive Capital: https://thrivecap.com/
• Tuple: https://tuple.app/
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Harold and the Purple Crayon: https://www.amazon.com/Harold-Purple-Crayon-Crockett-Johnson/dp/0062086529
• Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Forgetting-Name-Thing-Sees/dp/0520256093/
• God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State: https://www.amazon.com/God-Save-Texas-Journey-State/dp/0525520104
• The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us
• Adam Curtis documentaries on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLStWlBRkr0N_aYjPmbrrjm_rsstpkUBLc
• Notion: https://www.notion.so/

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Josh’s background
(03:56) Arc and the metrics they use to track growth
(04:42) Arc’s retention numbers
(08:22) Josh’s product-building philosophy and why he believes in optimizing for feelings
(18:57) How The Browser Company’s values create a culture that allows them to ship so quickly
(22:46) The “Notes on Roadtrips” doc about values
(27:48) How Josh is able to hire such amazing talent
(37:29) The good and bad of building in public
(45:16) Some of the odd teams at The Browser Company and why Josh calls it a prototype-driven culture
(46:01) The membership team
(48:07) The storytelling team
(52:00) Why The Browser Company doesn’t have traditional PMs
(54:07) A case for adding PMs
(57:32) The role of data, even in a company that optimizes for feelings
(58:30) Airbnb’s Snow White project
(1:02:14) How impactful moments in Josh’s life influenced values at The Browser Company
(1:03:08) How the film General Magic has inspired Josh
(1:04:32) The value of novel names
(1:06:50) Why T

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Christina Wodtke is an author, Stanford University professor, and speaker who teaches strategies for building high-performing teams. She’s also the author of Radical Focus, which some consider the de facto guide to OKRs. In today’s episode, we dive into OKRs and how they can be used to help your team achieve better results. Christina shares her expertise on crafting OKRs, how she uses them in her personal life, and common mistakes you should avoid when you sit down to write your own. She discusses effective goal setting and outlines a systematic approach to achieving key results. Finally, Christina gives some specific tips on how to improve your storytelling and drawing skills and explains why it’s smart to set ambitious goals.

Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-okrs-christina-wodtke-stanford/

Where to find Christina Wodtke:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cwodtke
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawodtke/
• Website: https://eleganthack.com/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Yahoo’s peanut butter memo: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116379821933826657
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756/
• Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Focus-Achieving-Important-Objectives/dp/0996006087
• Pencil Me In: https://www.amazon.com/Pencil-Me-Christina-Wodtke-ebook/dp/B075Z8J35G?
• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-Pictures/dp/1591842697/ref=sr_1_1
• The Minto Pyramid Principle: https://www.barbaraminto.com/
• Lane Shackleton’s guest post on Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-coda-builds-product
• The Product Trio by Teresa Torres: https://www.producttalk.org/2021/05/product-trio/
• Ken Norton’s website: https://www.bringthedonuts.com/about/
• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth: https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247
• The Overstory: https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/039335668X/
• Cloud Atlas: https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9114286/
• The Team That Managed Itself: A Story of Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Team-that-Managed-Itself-Leadership-ebook/dp/B07ZG5Y689

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Christina’s background
(04:54) How Christina uses OKRs to manage her personal life
(07:42) The purpose of OKRs
(16:15) Mission, vision, roadmaps, and OKRs
(20:57) How strategy ties in
(22:39) Why OKRs should be kept simple, and the ideal way to express key results
(23:45) The importance of customer satisfaction and why you need a qualitative researcher
(24:58) Common mistakes people make when writing OKRs
(26:14) An example of writing OKRs for an online magazine about interior design
(29:28) The importance of repetition
(33:17) The 5 whys
(36:40) Why you should start OKRs with your best multi-disciplinary team
(38:44) Christina’s book, Radical Focus
(40:26) The importance of storytelling and drawing (even badly!)
(43:21) Tips to become a better storyteller
(44:29) Using the Minto method for storytelling
(46:02) The cadence of OKRs and the importance of celebrations
(51:09) A different kind of approval process to get OKRs done more efficiently
(53:01) Why the f

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Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan are founders, angel investors, and product leaders who host the podcast Aarthi and Sriram’s Good Time Show. They have both held leadership roles at major technology companies including Meta, Twitter, Snap, Microsoft, and Netflix. In today’s episode, we dive into how and why to build your personal brand, how to deal with impostor syndrome, and stories from Aarthi’s time at Clubhouse and Sriram’s time working with Zuck. Aarthi and Sriram share their lessons from past failures, their experience building communities, and their techno-optimism, and Sriram offers his hot take on the Jobs to Be Done framework.

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/hot-takes-and-techno-optimism-from-techs-top-power-couple-sriram-and-aarthi/#transcript

Where to find Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy:
• Aarthi’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarthir
• Sriram’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sriramk
• Good Time Show Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarthisrirampod
• Good Time Show website: https://www.aarthiandsriram.com/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Naval Ravikant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/naval
• Marc Andreessen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmarca
• Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/
• Eugene Wei’s Status as a Service: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service
• Kylie Jenner on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/kyliejenner
• The Rock on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therock/
• Cristiano Ronaldo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristiano
• Charli D’Amelio on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charlidamelio
• Addison Rae on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@addisonre
• The founder of TikTok’s speech: https://ludlow.notion.site/Alex-Zhu-TikTok-4631f80fdcc4423a845e145e807d8e2b
• Naval’s network tweet: https://twitter.com/naval/status/847134295600746496?lang=en
• Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/
• How Duolingo reignited user growth: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth
• Hunter Walk on impostor syndrome: https://hunterwalk.com/2023/03/01/imposter-syndrome-is-definitely-misnamed-might-be-a-condition-of-privilege-has-a-fascinating-history/
• On Reviews: https://boz.com/articles/reviews
• Jobs to Be Done framework: https://jobs-to-be-done.com/jobs-to-be-done-a-framework-for-customer-needs-c883cbf61c90
• First-principles thinking: https://fs.blog/first-principles/

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Sriram and Aarthi’s backgrounds
(04:16) How Sriram and Aarthi got Elon Musk on their podcast
(08:47) Reflections on Clubhouse and other social networks
(14:14) Why Aarthi and Sriram are optimistic about tech
(25:53) Why you should put yourself out there and build your personal brand
(27:09) Why you should build a network with authentic relationships, and how to do it
(28:56) Sriram’s curated communities
(31:20) What you need to get right when starting a community
(38:35) Why everyone who wants to should create content
(44:22) Why you shouldn’t try to project expertise when you’re still learning
(47:54) Dealing with impostor syndrome, and why you should lean into your strengths
(54:01) Transitioning to a role of authority
(57:30) What Sriram learned about effective management from Mark Zuckerberg
(1:01:20) The biggest failure Aarthi had, and why you shouldn’t fall for fads
(1:02:08) Sriram’s lesson from building mobile
(1:09:21) Why Sriram hates the Jobs to Be Done framework
(1:18:06) Advice for immigrants

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.


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Laura Schaffer is the brand-new VP of Growth at Amplitude. Prior to this role, she spent over 10 years leading product management and growth teams at Twilio, Bandwidth, and Rapid. In today’s episode, we talk about the role of experimentation and data in growth, and Laura shares stories of big wins from her time leading growth teams. She explains how customer insights helped her uplevel her career and how she (surprisingly) thinks about qualitative versus quantitative data. We wrap up our conversation by discussing where the best ideas come from and what you need to know if you’re selling to developers.

Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/career-frameworks-ab-testing-mistakes-counterintuitive-onboarding-tips-selling-to-developers-laura-schaffer-vp-of-growth-at-amplitude/#transcript

Where to find Laura Schaffer:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraschaffer/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Elena Verna on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/
• Bandwidth: https://www.bandwidth.com/
• Twilio: https://ahoy.twilio.com/
• Jeff Lawson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffiel/
• The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-surprising-power-of-online-experiments
• Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/
• Online Experimentation at Microsoft: https://ai.stanford.edu/~ronnyk/ExPThinkWeek2009Public.pdf
• The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/
• James Clear on The Tim Ferriss Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/648-james-clear-atomic-habits-simple-strategies-for/id863897795?i=1000592431628
• The Great British Baking Show on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/food/shows/great-british-baking-show/
• Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/
• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
• Builder: https://www.builder.io/
• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/
• Lenny Bot: https://www.lennybot.com/
• Segment: https://segment.com/
• Senior Growth PM, Monetization, at Amplitude: https://boards.greenhouse.io/amplitude/jobs/6636704002
• Lead Growth PM at Builder: https://boards.greenhouse.io/builder/jobs/4814755004?gh_src=30cfda2d4us
• Growth PM at Rapid: https://jobs.lever.co/rapidapi/8d2611d1-6463-4919-9817-31f61e730831

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Laura’s background
(04:15) How to carve your own career path, and an example from Bandwidth
(05:50) Laura’s career growth framework
(10:18) The value of customer insights
(12:25) The “voice of the customer” report
(16:14) Leaning into your strengths
(18:16) The experiment that shifted the way Laura thinks about friction
(20:20) Questions that improved Twilio’s onboarding and conversion rate
(28:53) Thinking about the psyche of your users
(31:26) The hot dog analogy for burying “scary stuff”
(33:58) Why it’s better to be iterative and why experiments fail
(36:21) Saving money by validating fast
(41:58) Where the best ideas come from
(49:51) Experimentation lessons
(52:54) The amount of time a growth team needs to be successful 
(54:43) The big change at Twilio that led to tens of millions of dollars
(58:41) The need for both PLG and enterprise, and how Amplitude plans to tap into PLG
(1:05:42) What it’s like to serve developers
(1:11:1

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Claire Hughes Johnson is the former COO at Stripe, which she helped scale from a small startup to the legendary company it is today. She also spent close to 10 years at Google, where she filled several executive roles, including VP of Global Online Sales and Director of Sales and Ops for Gmail, YouTube, Google Apps, and AdWords. Claire shares invaluable insights from her upcoming book, Scaling People, on how to successfully build and scale organizations. We talk about the importance of building self-awareness, and Claire gives tons of tactical advice on how to say things that are hard to say, as well as how to improve your internal communications, and so much more.

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-scaling-stripe/#transcript

Where to find Claire Hughes Johnson:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/chughesjohnson
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-hughes-johnson-7058/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212
• John Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbcollison/
• Patrick Collison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/
• Discord: https://discord.com/
• Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/
• High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups from 10 to 10,000 People: https://www.amazon.com/High-Growth-Handbook-Elad-Gil/dp/1732265100
• Myers-Briggs personality types: https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/
• Enneagram types: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions
• Disc assessment: https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc
• Conscious Business: How to Build Value through Values: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Business-Build-through-Values/dp/1622032020/
• Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/
• Eeke de Milliano on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-foster-innovation-and-big-thinking-eeke-de-milliano-retool-stripe/
• Running an effective meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIiaFW874q8
• Gokul’s S.P.A.D.E. framework: https://coda.io/@gokulrajaram/gokuls-spade-toolkit

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Claire’s background
(04:47) How writing Scaling People helped Claire crystallize learnings
(07:58) How she got started writing her book
(11:11) Advice that changed the way she operates
(15:18) The lack of job titles at Stripe
(19:01) Scaling your organizational structure
(23:46) What founders need to think about in the early days
(26:38) Personal operating principles
(29:04) How to crystallize your own values to gain self-awareness
(34:29) Advice for saying uncomfortable things
(37:12) Being an explorer, not a lecturer
(43:57) Come back to the operating system
(47:17) Organizational structure using Claire’s house metaphor
(50:50) Why some chaos is normal
(52:45) Founding documents you need
(58:30) The components of a company’s operating system 
(1:01:31) Finding the right cadence
(1:04:48) COOs and which types of businesses need them
(1:11:30) Advice on scaling quickly
(1:13:56) The importance of internal communications
(1:16:03) Running effective meetings
(1:17:17) Advice for aligning and making decisions as a manager

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.


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Gustaf Alströmer is a Group Partner at Y Combinator, where he’s worked with over 600 startups in his 6.5 years there. He’s also a fellow Airbnb alumnus and even started the original Airbnb growth team. In today’s podcast, Gustaf discusses common reasons startups fail and how he helps coach founders on avoiding these mistakes. He explains the attributes that the best founders tend to have, and signs that a company has potential. We also cover the growing space of climate tech, for which Gustaf has a huge passion and where he’s already had an incredible impact. He shares some key areas of innovation and investment in climate tech, some notable companies he’s helped fund, and where he sees potential going forward.

Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-working-with-600-yc-startups-gustaf-alstromer-y-combinator-airbnb/#transcript

Where to find Gustaf Alströmer:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gustaf
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustafalstromer/

Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:
• Airbnb tweet: https://twitter.com/gustaf/status/1580330162725347330
• Startups Are an Act of Desperation: https://blog.eladgil.com/p/startups-are-an-act-of-desperation
• The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
• Do Things That Don’t Scale: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
• Marc Andreessen: https://a16z.com/author/marc-andreessen/
• How to Talk to Users: https://youtu.be/z1iF1c8w5Lg
• How to Get Your First Customers: https://youtu.be/hyYCn_kAngI
• Pachama: https://pachama.com/
• Request for Startups: Climate Tech: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/rfs-climatetech
• Climate Draft: https://www.climatedraft.org/
• Seabound: https://www.seabound.co/
• Fleetzero: https://www.fleetzero.com/
• Unravel Carbon: https://www.unravelcarbon.com/
• CarbonChain: https://www.carbonchain.com/
• Sinai: https://www.sinaitechnologies.com/
• Enode: https://enode.com/
• Statiq: https://www.statiq.in/
• Heart Aerospace: https://heartaerospace.com/
• The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change: https://www.amazon.com/100-Solution-Solving-Climate-Change/dp/1612198384
• Without a Doubt: How to Go from Underrated to Unbeatable: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1982147903?tag=simonsayscom
• Emily in Paris on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81037371
• Everything Everywhere All at Once on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/titles/3493875/everything-everywhere-all-at-once
• How to Apply and Succeed at Y Combinator, by Dalton Caldwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiOcCPvyNE
• Y Combinator on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ycombinator

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Gustaf’s background
(04:15) What made Airbnb so special
(07:21) How culture interviews and hiring founders contributed to Airbnb’s success
(10:31) Motivations for starting companies
(13:17) Why Gustaf helps founders understand their motivations
(14:13) Reasons you should not start a company
(16:03) The magic that happens at YC office hours
(20:45) Why founders in coworking spaces should schedule time to talk 
(21:36) Questions Gustaf asks founders
(22:26) Common reasons startups fail
(26:23) Getting over the fear of rejection 
(27:57) The importance of solving for pain points and why you should watch users
(34:21) The value of having a technical co-founder
(37:42) How founders without technical expertise have succeeded
(40:46) Attributes of the most successful founders
(44:57) Why it’s hard to predict success and how YC advises against failures
(46:59) Indications of potential for success
(50:03) Speed vs. quality
(51:11)