4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he’d asked himself sooner | Former PM leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google

Shreyas Doshi is a former product leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He’s now a full-time advisor and coach to founders and executives. Shreyas is known for his incredibly insightful writing on products, which has garnered him a passionate following in the PM and startup community. Last week, we sat down together at the very first Lenny and Friends Summit in San Francisco for a special live episode. We covered: • Why product leaders often feel overwhelmed with work, and how to combat it • The importance of developing good taste, and how to do it • How to reduce frustration in your product leadership role • The critical skill of truly listening as a leader • Common pitfalls in annual planning and decision-making • Lots of laughs — To learn more from Shreyas, check out these courses: • Improving Your Product Sense: https://bit.ly/product-sense • Managing Your PM Career: https://bit.ly/pm-career-course — Brought to you by: • WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs • Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security — Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/shreyas-doshi-live — Where to find Shreyas Doshi: • X: https://x.com/shreyas • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyasdoshi/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@shreyas.threads • Linktree: https://linktr.ee/shreyasdoshi • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShreyasDoshiVideos — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction (05:35) Question one: Why am I so busy? (10:08) Annual planning as an example (16:48) Tactical tips for staying less busy (25:20) Question two: Do I actually have good taste? (38:09) Question three: Why does my job feel so frustrating? (43:29) Question four: Am I really listening? (44:35) Closing remarks — Referenced: • Shreyas Doshi on pre-mortems, the LNO framework, the three levels of product work, why most execution problems are strategy problems, and ROI vs. opportunity cost thinking: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/episode-3-shreyas-doshi • LNO framework: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1492345184171945984 • Time management techniques that actually work: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/time-management-techniques-that-actually • Part 2: Time management techniques that actually work: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/part-2-time-management-techniques • Eisenhower quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_164720 • Stripe Connect: https://stripe.com/connect • Jeff Bezos explains one-way door decisions and two-way door decisions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxsdOQa_QkM • Spotify Is America’s Most Loved Workplace: https://www.newsweek.com/2021/10/29/spotify-americas-most-loved-workplace-1639982.html • Shreyas on “thinking is cheap”: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shreyasdoshi_thinking-is-very-cheap-doing-is-very-expensive-activity-7225237421813116929-Qzi3/ • Good Product Strategy, Bad Product Strategy from Shreyas: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1244810075908128768 • Shreyas on annual planning and metrics: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1302423854095036421 https://x.com/shreyas/status/1304628719374544896 • Jensen Huang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenhsunhuang/ • Patrick Mahomes’s website: https://www.adidas.com/us/patrick_mahomes • Virat Kohli: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virat_Kohli • Reversible and Irreversible Decisions: https://fs.blog/reversible-irreversible-decisions/ • Fail fast: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail_fast • 3 levels of product work: https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1370248637842812936 • Shakespeare quote: https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/to-thine-own-self-be-true/ • Rick Rubin: Legendary Music Producer | Lex Fridman Podcast #275: https://Dwww.youtube.com/watch?v=H_szemxPcTI • Blake Burge on Rick Ruben: https://x.com/blakeaburge/status/1794470295828341222 • Rick Rubin on X: https://x.com/RickRubin • Dee Hock on X: https://x.com/deewhock • Dee Hock quote on listening: https://x.com/shreyas/status/1351279398423465984 • Peter Drucker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker • Peter Drucker quotes on listening: https://www.azquotes.com/author/4147-Peter_Drucker/tag/listening • Lenny’s first podcast recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP_QghPLG-8 • A Recipe to Become a Great Listener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQJkiDy2Ko — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe