“And so I, yeah, I personally don't believe the unit economics ever would have really worked out. I think we should have known that we should have dug into that more at the very beginning”
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More from Jiaona Zhang
What-if
Zhang: Airbnb Plus unit economics never would have worked out
“And so I, yeah, I personally don't believe the unit economics ever would have really worked out. I think we should have known that we should have dug into that more at the very beginning and then to get very tailored instead of like one blunt instrument to sol…”
Jiaona ZhangJul 2, 2023▶ 10:33Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
What-if
Zhang: Airbnb should have ignored Plus and doubled down on core homes
“So I think that that same lesson would apply to Airbnb would have in my head, like change the way we invested. I think we would have gotten more returns as opposed to spreading ourselves and then like having things that like sort of work, but then didn't quite…”
Jiaona ZhangJul 2, 2023▶ 54:52Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
Insight
Zhang: Minimum lovable products must replace MVPs in crowded software markets
“The reason I care so much about minimal level product is because I do think in a world where there are so many different options, it's hard to just be like, Hey, use this thing. It barely meets a quality bar. And so I think this idea of like actually deeply un…”
Jiaona ZhangJul 2, 2023▶ 17:10Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
Insight
Zhang: Roadmaps should tell strategic stories instead of filling out RICE spreadsheets
“So for road mapping, my biggest thing that I tell my teams is you're telling a story. So what I want from you is I want themes. I want a story like, why are these things like things, the biggest things to invest in these levers, the biggest ones to pull. And w…”
Jiaona ZhangJul 2, 2023▶ 22:47Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
Opinion
Zhang: WeWork overhired on tech because customers primarily cared about booking
“We, again, we hired beyond our skis on the tech side. It's like, we don't need a team of this size to go do the things that are needed for the product to feel really great. At the end of the day, it's about booking. And yes, there are definitely technology, th…”
Jiaona ZhangJul 2, 2023▶ 38:57Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork & Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang
Insight
Product teams shouldn't rely on magical thinking to fix unit economics later
“There are things where I think you have like magical thinking around unit economics. You're like, well, when we get to the scale of X, it's all going to work out. We can make these things happen. I think you actually need to really make sure the unit economics…”
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