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Hari Srinivasan

Episode #118

VP of Product

LinkedIn

🎯Product Strategy⚡Execution🚀Career & Leadership

📝Full Transcript

14,364 words
Hari Srinivasan (00:00:00): It was March 2020 and we were just watching COVID hit. It was just this heartbreaking moment where in the feed you were seeing all these people, by no fault of their own, starting to post that they've lost their job. We started seeing in our data is you had some areas like maybe hospitality was really getting hit, but some areas like customer service that just couldn't hire enough. You'd think the marketplace would balance pretty quickly. You'd think, okay, maybe these people will start moving to other jobs, but it wasn't happening. (00:00:24): A large reason behind this, people are used to looking for certain particular titles, and they didn't start realizing other people could do this job. We made a pretty big push in something we call skills-first hiring. This was the idea that we could translate people's experiences into a set of skills, and by that we could help them really start balancing the marketplace with a much different system. I think that the job market is rebalancing, but it's being done, the pathways are being done in a very different way that seems to be maybe a change that holds through these ups and downs. That'll be very interesting to see. Lenny (00:00:57): Welcome to Lenny's Podcast, where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts, to learn from their hard-won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today, my guest is Hari Srinivasan. This episode has a hilarious story. (00:01:11): On Twitter, an account called The Curious PM tagged me with a request to have someone from LinkedIn come on the podcast and talk about how they operate and what they've learned about building products that serve so many different types of customers. I replied asking for any suggestions for who he thought I should specifically talk to, and he suggested Hari Srinivasan, by doing some research on LinkedIn. I reached out to Hari, told him about this tweet and he agreed. Here's the episode. (00:01...

💡 Key Takeaways

  • 1Great PMs live on the edges of the 'PM Triangle' (Creative, Data, GM), not in the middle.
  • 2Use the '5-Day Alignment Rule' to prevent decision paralysis in matrixed organizations.
  • 3Shift marketplace liquidity strategies from job titles to specific skills to balance supply and demand.
  • 4Simplify complex ecosystem decisions by asking: 'Does this connect a member to economic opportunity?'
  • 5Validate new product ideas by proving there is 'duct tape'—manual workarounds users are already doing.
  • 6Maintain PM muscles by building side projects (clay) to practice creating from a blank sheet.

📚Methodologies (3)

🎯 Product Strategy

Instead of optimizing for local metrics (like time spent or clicks), every feature prioritization is filtered through a single mission: 'Connecting people to economic opportunity.' This clarifies trade-offs immediately by focusing on the ultimate user outcome rather than intermediate business metrics.

Core Principles

  • 1.Principle 1: Define the Mission explicitly. At LinkedIn, it is 'Connecting to Economic Opportunity.'
  • 2.Principle 2: Measure Outcomes, not inputs. Track 'Hires Made' or 'Skills Learned' rather than just 'Daily Active Users.'
  • 3.Principle 3: Members First. When in doubt between revenue and member trust/opportunity, prioritize the member to sustain the ecosystem.

"If you can explain why this is the thing that you should do that would help someone really do what they want to do... all of a sudden the world gets a lot simpler."

#ecosystem#north#filter
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⚡ Execution

A combination of the RAPID decision-making model to assign clear roles and a strict '5-Day Alignment' policy. This ensures that disagreements don't fester in email chains and that managers are held accountable for unblocking teams quickly.

Core Principles

  • 1.Principle 1: RAPID Roles. Explicitly assign who Recommends, Agrees, Provides Input, and Decides. The 'Decide' role must be a single name.
  • 2.Principle 2: The 3-Exchange Rule. If an email thread goes back and forth 3 times, pick up the phone. If the call lasts 20 mins, escalate.
  • 3.Principle 3: 5-Day Alignment. If a misalignment isn't resolved in 5 days, it must be escalated to the next level of management immediately.
  • +1 more...

"If you had three back and forths in an email, you got to pick up the phone. And if you've been on the phone for 20 minutes, it's time to just write that decision-maker."

#decision#velocity#(rapid
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The PM Talent Triangle

by Hari Srinivasan

🚀 Career & Leadership

A framework for categorizing PM skills into three distinct points of a triangle. Great PMs rarely sit in the middle; they usually 'spike' heavily in one or two areas. Career growth comes from leaning into these edges rather than trying to be average at everything.

Core Principles

  • 1.Principle 1: The Creator (Steven Spielberg). PMs who excel at storytelling, vision, user empathy, and 'making art' from a blank sheet.
  • 2.Principle 2: The Data Scientist. PMs who excel at pattern recognition, looking at complex data sets to predict the future.
  • 3.Principle 3: The General Manager. PMs who excel at innovation across a team, understanding P&L, budgets, and operational complexity.
  • +1 more...

"I've actually never seen a great PM who's in the center of it. I find the great PMs live on the edges."

#talent#triangle#career
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