Jules Walter
Product Lead, Google Gemini. On 1 show, 1 appearance. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
operatorfounderexecutiveinvestor@julesdwalt ↗LinkedIn ↗codepath.org ↗
Jules Walter is a product leader who worked on growth at Slack, led Primetime Channels at YouTube, and contributes to Google Gemini. He also co-founded CodePath.org and the Black Product Managers Network to support underrepresented talent in technology.
1shows
1appearances
22statements
2resolved
2supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
29said about them ↓ Everything Jules Walter said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Walter: Product managers plateau because peers withhold emotional intelligence feedback
“It's harder to get feedback on the EQ stuff. And that's also why it's harder to develop and why a lot of people like reach like terminal levels in product because people are like, oh, they like emotional intelligence. And they say that in calibration rooms, Bu…”
Walter: Interviewing skills are critical for PM career growth via top companies
“The other skill that I'll also call out, which nobody talks about for some reason is interview skills, you know, because so much Of what gives you a chance to become better as a PM is working at a great company. And how do you get that job beyond networking is…”
Walter: Tech interviewing is uniquely difficult because companies never provide feedback
“And by the way, most things you do, people give you some feedback so you can get better at it. But interviewing, you never get any feedback.”
Walter: EQ skills are harder for PMs to learn than IQ skills
“Number one, it's much harder to learn these skills than the IQ stuff. The IQ stuff is very intellectual. Sometimes you just need a mental model, practice a bit. The EQ, I'm still learning these things. It's just like every year I'm trying to get better. And th…”
Walter: PMs learn more from observing iterations than from finished products
“A lot of learning happens through the iterations and not by seeing the final product. So, you know, we all see these products, right? Like the iPhone and like name your favorite product. But you don't know like what versions they tried and sort of eliminated. …”
Walter: It is better to communicate clearly and be wrong than be ambiguous
“It's better sometimes to be wrong, but clear, you know, than the than the other way around.”
Walter: Emotional intelligence skills atrophy without continuous practice
“And a lot of it is like, it's, you know, lifting weights or building muscles. You know, you have to do it every day or every week. And if you stop doing it over time, you atrophy again.”
Walter: Responding with enthusiastic gratitude is critical when receiving constructive feedback
“If you're asking people for feedback is if you manage to get them to take the risk to give you the feedback, your answer has to be enthusiastically, like, grateful. That's the key.”
Walter: Strengths and weaknesses are context-dependent dials of one trait
“So strength and a weakness, it's not a binary thing. It's like the same thing, but it's a dial. In some contexts, it's like good, you know, in other contexts, it's not good.”
Walter: Pick mentors who excel at a specific skill and can explain it
“But I look for two things. One is, are you good at one specific thing I'm trying to get better at? And then two is, are you good at explaining it? You know, and those two, at least for me, they're important. I know people who are really good at their roles, at…”
Walter: Initiate mentor outreach with the smallest possible ask, not a meeting
“And what I've found is you should make the smallest ask possible, which is the opposite. Of what? 95% of people do. 95% of people. It's like, Hey, I've never met you, but I heard your talk or I saw you on LinkedIn or whatever. Can we set up a call? That's like…”
Walter: Mentees should bring specific problems rather than generic career questions
“I make sure to bring something very specific that I'm dealing with where they can provide input. And this is the opposite of what many people do, where they're like, hey, can you tell me about how you know, whatever, your path to PM, which may or may not be re…”
Walter: Interviewers get the most value from follow-ups, not the initial question
“What I will say, though, about interview questions, by the way, is I don't anchor a lot on the first question. What I find the most value from are the follow-ups.”
Walter: Slack revenue grew 10x from $50M during his tenure
“When I joined, revenue was around fifty million. When I left roughly four years ago, it was 10 extra.”
Walter: YouTube adding NFL Sunday Ticket to Primetime Channels in 2023
“We just recently announced that we, we're adding a NFL Sunday ticket in 20, 23 to primetime channels and also to YouTube TV.”
Walter: Early Slack mobile changes increased activation by double digits
“Within six months, I was able to ship changes in the news experience, especially on mobile, that moved the needle by a lot, like double digit percentages within just six months. And we're talking about top line metrics, like activation.”
Walter repeatedly failed Google and Meta interviews before joining YouTube
“I had interviewed for roles at Google and I didn't get those roles. Yeah, or Meta or various other companies. And it's because I wasn't good at interviewing and I didn't know people at those companies.”
Walter: Practice PM interviews until your worst performance passes the bar
“You want to basically practice so much that even at your worst, you're good enough, you know, and I've always felt like most interviews, like I literally did my worst. It's just that it was good enough to pass.”
Walter: Core strengths are traits others praise that feel effortless
“It's a very simple question where basically he's like, hey, what is something that a lot of people say you're good at, but you think is not a big deal, you know, or it's not that important. And that's like the key.”
Walter: Convert advice into mentorship by following up on results
“But then the key is once you get that foot in the door, like it could be a quick email, a tweet, a quick chat at an event, that sort of thing, and you get some advice that's useful, the key is to circle back with them at a later point and show that you've actu…”
Walter: Breaking into PM relies primarily on startups or internal transitions
“It's really, really hard to get into product. And there isn't a really set path to do that. So what I've seen is the path that we just talked about, join a startup, and then from there go into different companies. And then the other path is, that is typical, i…”
Walter: Misinterpreting curious questions as disagreement impeded his early career
“For me specifically, I realized whenever people ask me questions, if I didn't know the answer, I would have like all this negative self-talk. And I'd basically would, you'd ask me a question and question could be something like, why are we doing it this way? R…”
The other half of the tape: Jules Walter's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 28 times in 7 episodes across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Lenny Rachitsky 28
Statements about Jules Walter, by other people (1)
Singhal: Repeating feedback back to the giver creates psychological safety
“Jules will look for feedback, then he'll repeat it back to me better than even I presented it. And then I'd say, well, let me now feel safer to even provide, because anyone who's explaining it to a place that they all not only internalize it, but they can arti…”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Lenny's Podcast 28
2024 1 mention in 1 episode
2023 16 mentions in 5 episodes 3 per episode
- Relentless curiosity, radical accountability, and HubSpot’s winning growth formula | Chris Miller
- Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott
- Building a long and meaningful career | Nikhyl Singhal (Meta, Google)
- How to make better decisions and build a joyful career | Ada Chen Rekhi (Notejoy, LinkedIn)
- How to build your product strategy stack | Ravi Mehta (Tinder, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Outpace)
- every mention in 2023, scene by scene →
2022 11 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Jules's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LENNY'S PODCASTLEDGER | Product Lead, Google Gemini | 1 | 22 | 100% 2/2 | full record on Lenny's Podcast → |