Matt LeMay

“It is still a big deal. It was much less of a big deal when I started working for them and I was a 16-year-old music nerd, writing record reviews in my bedroom at my parents' apartment.”

“If I were better at telling my own story, that's exactly what I'd be saying, is that before I started, I was product manager number one at Pitchfork.”

“The magic lies in the way people work together. That's really what I think has been the consistent thread between all the work that I've done.”

“I spent years as a touring musician. I still occasionally tour in my friend Will Chef's band. And it's that magic of people with different perspectives, different ideas, building into something that i...”

“That's what makes this interesting. That's what makes music magical. That's what makes product development interesting, especially in the age of AI.”

“If you are contributing to the business in a way that the business at large can understand, that the CEO can understand, that the CFO can understand, if your team is a good investment for the business...”

“I mean, there's a couple of things. I think the main one is just more product managers and teams are getting laid off. That's a really scary reality right now.”

“And if you look at the messages that are being conveyed by CEOs when they lay off these teams, some of them are pretty clear.”

“The message that Daniel Ek from Spotify sent out with their layoffs in 2024 said, "We still have too many teams doing work around the work and supporting work, rather than focusing on opportunities wi...”

“And that really struck a nerve because I've been on those supporting teams before. I've done the work around the work. And I've assumed that if I was given work around the work to do, that surely it m...”

“Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's the most common resume advice I see, is show the number, show the impact, say what you did.”

“I kind of assumed that the existence of my team was this righteous fact of the universe, right? My team would always be there for all time, and it was just a matter of us finding the next thing to wor...”