Kassen Qian

You're a CEO: Gross overstatement except for senior PM roles. The majority of PM jobs involve ... little meaningful control over resourcing, zero actual reporting authority over anyone, nor much, if any, say in the budgeting process. But in terms of responsibility, the buck stops with you. If the product fails, it is your fault.

You’re a router: Act as a traffic cop and bring the right info to the right people.

The solution: Figma's product roadmap doc.

Stripe has a very, very long time horizon. If you know where you’re going over time, you can reason clearly about which specific asks are one-offs vs indicative of emerging trends relevant to many users. We talk a lot about building multi-decade abstractions. That long time horizon comes from the top, and it’s in the culture.

Three consistent themes for identifying winning product organizations:

1. Know Your Team's Dunbar Number : Building real relationships both broadly and deeply within the company while not overextending. Engineers should have a keen and current understanding of not only what the work is, but also the decisions behind each product feature. Context is king for cross-functional teams.

Kwan's Hierarchy of Product Needs: