Kassen Qian

2. Put Everything in Writing — Then Tier It : Executive summaries, wiki pages, PRDs, and launch plans are four types of documents that can aid in operational excellency.

You’re a super user: Eat your own dog food and talk to people who do too.

The King of the Hill at Airbnb has switched from designers to product managers in most parts of the org. Vision-led rather than design-led.

Your team dynamic is something you can always affect, even if you have no meaningful influence over the major strategic decisions of an organization.

We expect every product manager to be actively talking with customers and really spending a lot of time understanding customers. But it’s not just a product management thing. Engineers are expected to be talking with customers as well.

You’re a hammer: You live and you die based on your ability to convince other people to do what you need them to do for the good of the product. A hammer swings and builds -- push your team to ship.

Features work as a management control because they manifest in the final product, and their relationship to programmer-hours is about as close to linear as you’re going to get.

I initially did this solely for monetary gain. But then when I started getting deeper into it, I found community. I met real dope people that were really there for me. I found newer forms of creativity that I didn't even think I had. I feel like being a community leader is a creative to a great extent as well. And that changed my whole outlook on... See more