Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q So continuing on down the journey, you sort of begin with this idea of building context through talking to other folks in somewhat similar, maybe dissimilar marketing roles. Then what happens?
A So yeah, after the listening tour, I again re-anchored myself on what do I know about our business strategy over the next 12 to 18 months? And what do I believe that this person really needs to get an A on? And what are their skill sets that I'm saying, hey, this person doesn't Isn't an A plus at this one thing? Let's say PR, for example. That's okay, because we have other strengths on our existing team that will make up for it. And then I just ensured that Joe and I were aligned. And then I spent a ton of time trying to curate who was interviewing. Was it cross-functional in nature enough? And then just preparing for my own interview assessment.
AI assessment note: “after the listening tour, I again re-anchored myself on what do I know”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And what is the structure of that meeting end up looking like?
A The structure of that meeting is we begin with, there's like a visual of what the customer journey looks like over the course of the next 90 days. What are the key customer touch points of admins, of creators, of paying customers, of our free user base, et cetera. And then we go through each one of those releases in that chronological order, you know, because not a single PM is overseeing every piece, not a single designer is overseeing every piece. And so that we can hear, okay, what's the feedback? What are the things that we said we were going to solve cross-functionally last week? Did we solve it? Cool. We close out that piece of release and we go to the next piece. And so it really helps us begin our week together and so that we can hear from each other cross-functionally what we need to rally around to achieve these key customer moments.
AI assessment note: “The structure of that meeting is we begin with, there's like a visual”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q So if you were to deconstruct what was happening at Uber at that time, what was sort of the setup or the conditions or the rituals that created that type of alignment at pretty meaningful scale?
A I think there were probably two rituals as a person who was like new to the tech sector, new to Uber that ended up being really powerful. I think first there was like an extremely healthy all hands culture. And then if you like double click on what was presented in that all hands, it was all about rides. It was about global rides and global drivers. And that was the exact same thing that was being presented in many ways in the regions on like the city teams and regional teams. It was all about rides. What was the best week ever for rides? Did you have the best day ever, et cetera? And so there was just everyone in the company knew what metrics we were excited about and we were obsessed with. And then I think one of the most impressive Onboarding experiences I ever had was 2015 Uber. I remember one of the finance leaders basically gave the economics of an Uber ride, and it was such incredible context for every single employee at the company to have. And so everyone operating from the foundation of there's all this excitement and these are all the strengths in the market, but also this is very much like where we're vulnerable and why we need to be so protective of the unit economics was incredibly empowering. Right? And I was just a new person, right? And I see joining the company, but I think the repetition on the metrics as well as the context so early on enabled everyone to be…
AI assessment note: “I think there were probably two rituals... an extremely healthy all hands culture”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q I wanted to end an area that I, that I always like to, which is When either you think about your current role or your product career thus far, who are the folks that have an outsized impact on you? And what kind of tangible or specific thing did they impart that's kind of a part of the way that you think about building companies and products now?
A It's a great question. And there's different phases of it. So I'll start from the beginning, kind of the roots. So I would say for my time at Teach for America, some of the best Feedback that I ever got was know when you're communicating for yourself versus you're communicating for others, because there is a difference. And when you no longer know, that's a sign you should take a beat. Like you should, you should reground yourself. And so really thinking about the audience and it's fine that sometimes you need to communicate for yourself. That's fine. But you should always know whether it's for yourself or it's for the person you're coaching or the person sitting across from you. And I found it such simple feedback That it always stays with me, and even when I feel like I did something well or didn't do something well in terms of communication or coaching, it's, it's something I come back to. Ariel at Tripp Actions, or now Nivon, is a force of nature. There's so many things I learned from him, but I think a few of my favorite are, if you're at a startup and you're posting quarters, like, this will be done in Q-two. This will be done in Q-three. You are deeply confused about your job, and it's, again, it's so simple, and he's so right. That's not the right mindset. We are confused, right? If you start getting more specific, if you start getting hungrier, you get down to a date, …
AI assessment note: “Ariel at Tripp Actions, or now Nivon, is a force of nature.”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q And how does that connect with this idea of marketing and storytelling? Because you're starting with the story of the value you're going to provide?
A I think all good product management starts with it, but I think it's often something that like Begins with, you know, that five minutes. This is how we'd explain it to a customer rather than saying, this is the key moment we want to create over the course of the next three months, the next six months. This is what we think the value will be to the customer base. This is how we would frame it for our customer base. This is what we think the value of the business would be and spending a lot more time on that almost product marketing moment earlier on. I think brings your cross-functional team with you much faster rather than making it a by the way and spending a vast majority of your effort on the product review, the feature requirements, the designs, all of that is still incredibly important. But I think I underestimated how clarifying that best practice is in bringing your cross-functional team together. And I think it builds a better product because you're spending a lot more time Time obsessing about what the value you're trying to bring to the customer is.
AI assessment note: “spending a lot more time on that almost product marketing moment earlier on”
Answered raw tape
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q Can you help people inspire other people where it's a little bit like charisma? Like, most people are either charismatic or not,
A I don't think it is. So I have a non-traditional background to tech. I was with Teach for America for five years, and I think one of my biggest learnings from being in the classroom was the what and the why. My lessons where the what and the why were clear always went so much better than when I was just like having someone, you know, draw their arrays. I'm like, we're just doing arrays, just get them done. I actually don't think it's any different with product management or leadership. I don't think it is charisma. I think you can actually have a lot of charisma And when the what and the why isn't clear, I don't think you're really getting true inspiration. I don't think it's internalized. I don't think it's linear enough to truly sustain for a period of time. I don't think it's possible on just charisma.
AI assessment note: “I don't think it is charisma. I think you can actually have a lot of charisma”
