Kenneth Berger
Executive Coach & Author @ Independent
First PM at Slack, managed product through growth from 100K to 1M+ daily users.
“Kenneth Berger coaches startup leaders on how to prevent burnout, advocate for their desired lifestyle, and make a meaningful impact on the world. He’s spent more than 20 years in the tech industry, is a former founder backed by top investors, and was the first product manager at Slack.”
Career History
| Company | Role | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Kenneth Berger Coaching | Executive Coach & Author | ~2018-present |
| YesGraph | Co-Founder (backed by a16z, Accel) | ~2015-~2018 |
| Slack | First Product Manager | 2014-~2015 |
| Adobe (Macromedia) | Product Manager (Dreamweaver) | ~2006-~2014 |
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Episodes (1)
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Quotable Clips
“So working through all that resistance is really a lot of what tends to be tricky about asking for what you want because otherwise it's articulate, ask, accept.”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“Some people call this a whole body yes because sometimes your head is saying yes, but your heart is saying no or your gut is saying no. And so I think you can really feel in your body when you've got ...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“That doesn't mean we agree with each other all the time or that we're a hundred percent aligned in everything, but it doesn't mean there's a certain feeling that I have when I go into work. Even thoug...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“When they're not aligned with the culture, they're not delivering in the way that the CEO wants them to be delivering because it doesn't seem that nice. They're like, "Oh, I think of myself as nice an...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“Part of really respecting them is respecting that they can make the choices they want and they're grownups enough that they can deal with the consequences of those choices."”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“So we don't have the data of all those gut opinions of these subject matter experts in the room, even though that gut information to me is just as important as anything we could get from the SQL datab...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“It was crazy. I mean, it was really wild.”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“I do. I teach the same thing. I think sort of Carole's approach and nonviolent communication, DBT teaches a similar approach. They call dear man.”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“So to me step three is actually the trickiest for most people.”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“So this is why I'm so passionate about this stuff because it can sound so fluffy to say, "Oh, focus on integrity. Honor your desires. No, it's real life stuff of a year of suffering, of pain, of fear....”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“And I think that the mistake we make is pretending that it is of saying, going into fight or flight and saying, "This is a severe existential threat to who I am and my safety in the world," versus bei...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)
“No, but just thank you for letting me share this stuff. It really is my life's work and I'm very passionate about it and I hope it's helpful for people. I'm going to be writing more about it on Linked...”
Why not asking for what you want is holding you back | Kenneth Berger (exec coach, first PM at Slack)