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Crowley: The best PMs simplify priorities and stick with one task

Maggie Crowley · Mastering product strategy and growing as a PM | Maggie Crowley (Toast, Drift, TripAdvisor) · Nov 5, 2023 · at 5:31

Toast VP of Product Maggie Crowley discusses the core distinguishing traits of top product managers with Lenny Rachitsky.

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“First, I think the best PMs are really good at breaking things down and simplifying things. So finding at any moment, like what is the really, truly the only thing you need to do, especially in a big company There are eight million priorities. There's 700 OKRs. There's 25,000 projects you could work on, and teams will get bogged down in that complexity. Similarly, speaking at a startup, you might think that it's easy to find the one thing to do, but at the same time, there's so many fires that are happening and so many things you could do in such a world of opportunity that even just picking one and sticking with it is really difficult. And so the best PMs not only can find the one thing to work on, but they can stay with that one thing long enough to actually finish it.”

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