## Q: I’m transitioning from being the first (and only) Product Manager at a small company to being a PM at a big company. How different will the job be?
I joined Airbnb as one of the first few product managers, and by the time I left there were nearly 200 PMs. Life during those two periods was very different, and it’s even more different if you go from being the only PM at a small company to being one of a thousand PMs at a large company. Here’s what to expect:
#### To help you in this transition, I’d suggest doubling-down on these three PM skills:
1. Communication: Everything you do as a product manager is done through writing, speaking, and meetings. As [Boz](https://twitter.com/boztank) puts it, “communication[is](https://boz.com/articles/communication-is-the-job.html)the job.” It’s very difficult to over-communicate, and you can never be too good at it. Particularly at a big company where you’ll be working with many more (and different types of) people. Recommendations for developing your communication skill, particularly writing:
1. Emails: Force yourself to look at every email at least once before you send it. There’s always something you can cut or clarify. Here’s an email strategy I love courtesy of the military. 2. Docs: Always ask for feedback from at least one person before sharing a doc widely. Focus on clean and consistent formatting. Close out comments before sharing with execs. Make it easy to scan. Keep pushing yourself to learn to write better. 3. Meetings: Include the goal of the meeting in your invite, ideally along with an agenda. If you attend a meeting that doesn’t feel productive, call it out. Invite as few people as possible. Leave with clear action items. Follow up over email with the action items and owners. Read How to Run a Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting by [Gibson Biddle](https://medium.com/u/370100ca0fe1). 4. Presentations: Make sure your audience knows the goal of the presentation — are you looking for a decision or general feedback, or purely sharing information? It’s not as obvious as you think. Get feedback on your presentation; fresh eyes always catch the glaring issues. And keep it short — no one ever wished that presentation went longer. Also, are you sure you need to do a presentation versus an email? 5. Storytelling: This is a meta-skill that will make you better at all of the above. This framework is an excellent tool for laying out your pitch, and a few more helpful guides can be found here and here. 2. Influence: The best PMs quickly become the de-facto leaders of their cross-functional teams, not because of any actual authority, but because they help everyone on the team do the best work of their lives. Recommendations for developing your influence skill:
1. Watch successful PMs at your new gig closely — how do they get things done when they don’t actually manage anyone on the team? 2. Foster a strong team culture. Establish fun rituals, plan outings, and create a lasting identity for your team. 3. Read 10 Traits of Great PMs by [Noah Weiss](https://medium.com/@noah_weiss) 4. Read What distinguishes the Top 1% of product managers from the Top 10%? by [Ian McAllister](https://medium.com/@ianmcall) 5. Read The Job of Leadership by Ev Williams 6. Read The Most Underrated Product Management Skill: Influence Without Authority by Sachin Rekhi 7. Read What Makes a Great Product Manager by Lawrence Ripsher 8. Read Product Management skills NO ONE talks about by Taruna Manchanda 3. Data: Teams generally look to the PM to help them reach decisions. You’ll be making dozens of decisions daily on behalf of the team. Your best friend in making decisions at large companies is a clear set of principles and hard data. The fewer opinions you have to rely on, and the more facts you can lean on, the easier your life will be. Recommendations for developing your data skill:
1. Study how successful companies make decisions through experimentation ([Airbnb](https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/experiments-at-airbnb-e2db3abf39e7), [Uber](https://eng.uber.com/xp/), [Netflix](https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/its-all-a-bout-testing-the-netflix-experimentation-platform-4e1ca458c15), [Pinterest](https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering/building-pinterests-a-b-testing-platform-ab4934ace9f4)), and find a way to launch an experiment or two where you work today. 2. Watch successful leaders at your new organization making decisions — how quickly are they making decisions, what do they ask about before making a decision, how do they communicate their reasoning? 3. Always have a perspective on a decision (your own POV), but also be ready to change your mind given new information. 4. Read about Type-1 and Type-2 decisions 5. Read The Agony and Ecstasy of Building with Data by [Julie Zhuo](https://medium.com/@joulee) 6. Read Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager by [Brandon Chu](https://medium.com/@brandonmchu) 7. Read The Art of Decision Making as a Product Manager by Sachin Rekhi 8. Read Your Job is Not to Make Every Possible Customer Happy by Steve Blank 9. Read Product strategy means saying no by Des Traynor
#### All that being said, there are also a lot of similarities between the two gigs:
- You’re still be building a product with a team of cross-functional resources
- You still need to get buy-in
- You still need to keep people aligned and excited
- You’re still focused on solving customers/users’ problems
- It’s still hectic and stressful
Thus, you won’t be starting from scratch, and your new team will feed off your startup energy for as long as you can hold on to it ✨
Good luck with this new role, and see you next week!
(BTW, in case you are reading this and are planning to go in the other direction, here’s advice for anyone joining as the first product manager)
🔥 Job opportunities
1. Product: Aavia, ClassDojo, Descript, KUDO, Hipcamp, Roofr 2. Growth: Cerebral, [Coda](https://boards.greenhouse.io/coda/jobs/4794809002), Instrumentl, Levels, Reclaim 3. Design: Ashby, Cascade, Office Hours, Reclaim, Runway, Stytch, Watershed 4. Engineering manager: Cerebral 5. Frontend engineer: Levels, Practice 6. Backend engineer: Coda, Sourcetable, Transform 7. Fullstack engineer: Cascade, Centered, Coda, Icebreaker, Iggy, Primer, Runway, Snackpass 8. iOS engineer: Pairplay, Primer, Stytch, Vori
🧠 Inspiration for the week ahead
1. Watch: Maverick — A look into how this book took Noah Kagan’s (from our very own community!) business from $4m to $30m in revenue
[Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyduMeorcKI)
2. Listen: [SaaS Growth, Product Management, Retention, Flywheels: Behind the Paywall with Lenny Rachitsky](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/saas-growth-product-management-retention-flywheels/id1316769266?i=1000497337240) <— I was on a podcast last week 3. Read: Fast growth vs. slow growth by Elizabeth Yin
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Sincerely,
Lenny 👋