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# Lessons from Ken Norton
- URL: https://www.antoinebuteau.com/lessons-from-ken-norton/
- Published: 2026-06-25T00:17:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-18T21:51:59.000Z
- Description: Ken Norton is a former Google and GV product leader turned executive coach, known for essays including “How to Hire a Product Manager” and “Bring the Donuts.” His practical rules connect hiring, team design, leadership, and software building.
- Author: Antoine Buteau
- Tags: Profile, Product Management Profiles

![Visual summary of operating lessons from Ken Norton.](https://www.antoinebuteau.com/content/images/2026/06/lessons-from-ken-norton-profile-infographic.webp)

## Lessons from Ken Norton

Ken Norton is a former Google and GV product leader turned executive coach. He is best known for his widely read essays on product management, including "How to Hire a Product Manager" and "Bring the Donuts." This collection distills his writing on hiring, teams, and leadership into concrete rules for building software.

### Part 1: The Product Manager's Reality

1. **On Expendability:** "Product management may be the one job that the organization would get along fine without... as a PM, you're expendable." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On True Impact:** "In the long run, great product management usually makes the difference between winning and losing, but you have to prove it." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Product Outcomes:** "Every product has a story. The PM's job is to make sure it has a happy ending." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Idea Funneling:** "Your job is to get the best ideas from your engineers, designers, and others and funnel them into a product." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Empathy:** "Your job is to be the advocate for whoever isn't currently in the room." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Misfits:** "Product management is a weird discipline full of oddballs and rejects that never quite fit in anywhere else." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Finding the Gap:** "A great product manager acts as a gap filler, recognizing where the team is struggling in execution or communication and immediately stepping in to solve it." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Listening vs. Solving:** "I spent my career relying on my ability to solve problems, but I eventually learned that my most powerful tool was simply listening." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Influence:** "Product managers do not succeed through authority. They must earn leadership through credibility, trust, and a track record of good decisions." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 2: Hiring and Building Teams

1. **On Raw Intelligence:** "I'll take a wickedly smart, inexperienced PM over one of average intellect and years of experience any day." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Technical Background:** "Hiring PMs with strong technical foundations ensures they can effectively communicate with engineers and earn their respect." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Product Instincts:** "Look for candidates with product spidey-sense, which is an intuitive understanding of user needs and creative product instinct." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Scaling Teams:** "You really can’t solve organizational problems by hiring more people." — [*Source: \[The Product Experience*](https://www.mindtheproduct.com/the-product-experience/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Over-Hiring PMs:** "Adding too many product managers to a team often slows down decision-making rather than accelerating execution." — [*Source: \[The Product Experience*](https://www.mindtheproduct.com/the-product-experience/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Assessing Talent:** "When interviewing product managers, probe how they handled failure and whether they take accountability for missteps." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Domain Experience:** "Avoid overvaluing domain expertise during the hiring process; a sharp, adaptable product manager will learn the industry quickly." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Interview Assignments:** "Take-home exercises or hypothetical product challenges reveal more about a candidate's thought process than standard behavioral questions." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Background Diversity:** "Great PMs often come from non-traditional backgrounds, bringing fresh perspectives that a homogenous team would miss." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
10. **On Reference Checks:** "The best way to evaluate a product manager candidate is to ask engineers and designers if they would want to work with them again." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 3: Doing the Work

1. **On Servant Leadership:** "PMs put their teams first, they do what needs to be done, and they demonstrate that every day." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Unglamorous Work:** "If a product manager is unwilling to handle the grimy, behind-the-scenes tasks, no one else will step up to do them." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Launch Day:** "If PMs don't bring donuts for the team on launch day, who else will?" — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On the CEO Myth:** "Product managers are not the CEOs of the product. They are team-first contributors who facilitate success rather than dictating it." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Removing Roadblocks:** "The daily goal of a PM should be identifying what is slowing the engineering team down and systematically eliminating those hurdles." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Accountability:** "When things go wrong, the PM takes the blame. When things go right, the team gets the credit." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Managing Bugs:** "Sweeping the bug queue and writing clear documentation are just as essential to product success as defining high-level strategy." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Team Morale:** "Paying attention to the emotional state of the team and acting to boost morale is a core part of the PM job description." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Being Indispensable:** "Prove your worth by making the jobs of engineers and designers noticeably easier when you are around." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 4: Ambition and Vision

1. **On Incrementalism:** "Aiming for small, 10 percent improvements often carries the same amount of effort and risk as shooting for a massive, 10x breakthrough." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Audacity:** "What would be possible if you stopped playing small?" — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Product Roadmaps:** "A roadmap filled exclusively with minor optimizations guarantees a product will eventually be overtaken by bolder competitors." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Future Vision:** "Product leaders must constantly challenge their teams to envision how the product could fundamentally alter the market landscape." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Comfort Zones:** "Staying within the realm of predictable, safe features is a faster path to irrelevance than attempting an ambitious failure." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Prioritization:** "Having the discipline to say no to decent ideas is the only way to leave space for transformative ones." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On User Requests:** "Users will often ask for small tweaks; it is the PM's job to dig into the underlying problem and deliver a 10x solution." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Defending Big Ideas:** "Radical ideas will face intense internal skepticism. Product managers must protect and nurture these concepts until they can be tested." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Goal Setting:** "Set targets that are impossible to hit by simply working harder, forcing the team to work completely differently." — [*Source: \[10x Not 10%*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/10x-not-10-percent.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 5: Organizational Design

1. **On Conway's Law:** "Don't ship the org chart. Do not let internal team structures dictate the user experience." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Technical Silos:** "Splitting teams purely by technical infrastructure, like front-end versus back-end, creates a disjointed product for the end user." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Organizing by Use Case:** "Structure product teams around specific customer problems and user journeys rather than engineering disciplines." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Cross-Functional Autonomy:** "Teams aligned by customer experience develop deeper product intuition and can operate with more autonomy." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Shared Infrastructure:** "While use-case teams should drive the product, shared infrastructure teams remain necessary to support common technical needs like storage and UI libraries." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Reorganization:** "Before changing the product, sometimes you have to change the team structure to enable the right kind of collaboration." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Customer Perspective:** "If a user has to understand your company's internal reporting lines to navigate your software, you have failed the design test." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Reporting Lines:** "Product managers and engineers must share common goals, even if they report up entirely different management chains." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Intentional Structure:** "Because organizational design inevitably influences product design, leaders should intentionally structure teams to mirror the desired product outcomes." — [*Source: \[Don't Ship the Org Chart*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/dont-ship-the-org-chart.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 6: Risk and Failure

1. **On Celebrating Failure:** "People always talk about failure in tech as if it's a badge of honor, but it's terrible. It's not like I celebrate when I crash my bike." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On The Value of Failure:** "Failure is a natural thing we do when building products. Every time we fail, we have new data." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Improvisation:** "Building products is akin to playing jazz; it requires improvisation, listening, and a willingness to step into the unknown." — [*Source: \[Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/please-make-yourself-uncomfortable.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Discomfort:** "Please make yourself uncomfortable. Growth and innovation only happen outside the boundaries of predictability." — [*Source: \[Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/please-make-yourself-uncomfortable.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Psychological Safety:** "Teams must feel safe taking big swings. If they fear punishment for missing the mark, they will only propose guaranteed, minor updates." — [*Source: \[Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/please-make-yourself-uncomfortable.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Second Product Syndrome:** "Many successful startups fail because they are unable to translate the magic of their first hit product into a second one." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Adapting to Reality:** "When the market rejects your product, the worst response is trying to force the market to change; the product must adapt." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Perfectionism:** "Waiting until a product feels completely ready means you have launched too late to learn anything useful." — [*Source: \[Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/please-make-yourself-uncomfortable.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Honest Assessments:** "PMs must rigorously separate their hopes for a feature from the actual telemetry and user feedback indicating its failure." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
10. **On Resilience:** "The best product managers do not avoid failure; they reduce the cost of failing and increase the speed of recovery." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 7: Communication and Collaboration

1. **On Status Meetings:** "Weekly status update meetings are generally a waste of time and should be replaced by asynchronous messaging or emails." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On 1:1 Meetings:** "One-on-one meetings are the most important events on a manager's calendar and should be treated as immovable objects." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Meeting Ownership:** "If a meeting does not have a clearly identified owner responsible for the agenda and outcomes, it should be canceled." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Walking Meetings:** "Taking one-on-ones outside for a walk often leads to more genuine conversations and relieves the pressure of a ticking clock." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Human Skills:** "Technical skills get a PM in the door, but human skills like communication and empathy determine their ultimate success." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Productive Friction:** "A former colleague once told me I was a pain in the ass, but I was worth it, highlighting the friction sometimes required to ship great work." — [*Source: \[Lenny's Podcast*](https://www.lennyspodcast.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On User Manuals:** "Creating personal user manuals that outline your communication style and feedback preferences can significantly accelerate team trust." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Listening to Users:** "Customers rarely describe the problem accurately; they describe their desired solution. The PM must communicate to uncover the root cause." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Managing Up:** "Establishing a regular cadence with the CEO to share unformed ideas is critical for a senior product leader's alignment and survival." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
10. **On Saying No:** "The most important communication skill for a PM is delivering a firm, context-rich no to stakeholders without burning bridges." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*

### Part 8: Leadership and Growth

1. **On Career Ladders:** "Companies must create a dual career track so exceptional product managers can advance without being forced to become people managers." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
2. **On Reactive vs. Creative Leadership:** "Transitioning from a reactive problem-solver to a creative, proactive leader is the hardest leap in a PM's career." — [*Source: \[Lenny's Podcast*](https://www.lennyspodcast.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
3. **On Executive Coaching:** "Coaching is a creative partnership focused entirely on helping leaders unlock their potential, not a remediation program." — [*Source: \[Lenny's Podcast*](https://www.lennyspodcast.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
4. **On Isolation:** "Senior product leadership is inherently lonely; navigating ambiguity requires building an external support system or finding a coach." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
5. **On Defining Success:** "A PM's long-term career trajectory should be dictated by where they generate the most impact, not just by ascending a management ladder." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
6. **On Managing PMs:** "Leading a team of product managers requires stepping back and letting them make their own mistakes, rather than jumping in to fix the product." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
7. **On Continuous Learning:** "The best PMs constantly seek out feedback, viewing every interaction as an opportunity to refine their craft." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
8. **On Trusting the Team:** "If you hire smart people, your primary job as a leader is to provide context and get out of their way." — [*Source: \[Bring the Donuts*](https://bringthedonuts.com/?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*
9. **On Legacy:** "The mark of a truly great product leader is that the team and the product continue to thrive long after they have moved on to their next role." — [*Source: \[How to Hire a Product Manager*](https://bringthedonuts.com/essays/how-to-hire-a-product-manager.html?ref=antoinebuteau.com)*\]*