Lessons from Shreyas Doshi

As a prominent figure in the product management world, Shreyas Doshi, a veteran of Stripe, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo, has shared a wealth of knowledge through his writings and talks.

On High Agency and Mindset

A cornerstone of Doshi's philosophy is the concept of "High Agency," an attitude he considers a prerequisite for significant impact. [1]

On Defining High Agency: "High Agency is about finding a way to get what you want, without waiting for conditions to be perfect or otherwise blaming the circumstances." [1]
The Impact of High Agency: "Highly Talented, High Agency people are Game Changers for their teams & companies." [1] In contrast, "Highly Talented, Low Agency people are everywhere around us... in the long run, [they] end up capitulating to 'the system'." [1]
Cultivating High Agency: To develop high agency, Doshi emphasizes the need for an ownership mindset, self-confidence, resilience, creative execution, and influential communication. [2]
Hiring for Agency: "When hiring, I prefer Go Getters over Frustrated Geniuses." [1] Go-getters, who may have less raw talent but possess high agency, can turn constraints into opportunities. [3][4]
The Power of Narrative: "Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use." - A quote from Steve Jobs that Doshi often references to illustrate a high-agency mindset. [4][5]
Internal Locus of Control: Great Product Managers are high agency people with a strong internal locus of control. [6]
Problem-Solving vs. Problem Prevention: True leadership lies in preventing problems, not just heroically solving them after they arise. [7]
On Success: "Success is not money or fame or power. Success is time-optionality. Success is reaching a state where you decide how much time to spend on your career, family, health, friends, and hobbies." [8]
On Wisdom: "Wisdom = Discerning what truly matters." [9]
On Happiness: "Happiness = Reality meets expectations." [9]

On Product Management Craft

Doshi provides numerous frameworks and distinctions to elevate the practice of product management.

Good PMs vs. Great PMs: "Good PMs consistently deliver quality products and results. Great PMs consistently and singularly improve the company's trajectory through the products they work on." [6]
Metrics-Informed, Not Just Metrics-Driven: "Good PMs make metrics-driven product decisions. Great PMs make metrics-informed product decisions. Great PMs expertly blend quantitative and qualitative inputs, as warranted by each individual situation." [6]
The Three Essential Senses of a PM: Early in their careers, PMs should focus on developing their execution sense, analytical sense, and product sense. [2]
The LNO Framework: To prioritize tasks, Doshi suggests categorizing them as Leverage, Neutral, or Overhead. Focus your peak energy on the 'L' tasks. [10]
Pre-Mortems: Before starting a major project, conduct a "pre-mortem" to imagine it has failed and identify potential reasons why. This helps in proactively addressing risks. [10]
Product vs. Project Thinking: Product thinking involves a deeper understanding of user needs and market dynamics, as opposed to simply executing a list of tasks. [11]
The 7 Biases of Product Teams: Doshi outlines common biases that lead smart teams to build products with mediocre impact. [12]

The Execution Orientation Fallacy: Teams craft flawed strategies based on what is easiest to build today, rather than tackling harder problems that would create more value.

The Bias-for-Building Fallacy: Teams rush into building and shipping features without sufficient research, confusing activity with progress and often creating products nobody truly needs.

The IKEA Effect for Products: Teams overvalue their own products due to the effort they've invested, making them reluctant to pivot or abandon ideas, even when data shows they should.

The Focusing Illusion for Products: Teams overestimate how important a problem is to users simply because they are discussing it in a focused interview, leading them to build solutions for minor issues.

Maslow's Hammer: A team over-relies on a familiar tool, skill, or framework (their "hammer"), applying it to every situation, even when it's not the right approach.

The Authority Approval Bias: Product decisions are made primarily to please senior leaders and gain their approval, rather than being based on genuine user needs or market realities.

Russian Roulette for Products: Teams fail to properly consider and plan for low-probability but catastrophic risks, such as misuse or security flaws, that could severely damage the product or company.

Stakeholder Management as Expectation Management: "Management is about setting and aligning on expectations and managing those expectations, rather than managing situations, and tasks, and schedules, and processes, and whatnot." [13]
Influence Equation: "Influence = storytelling, alignment, trust, authority, rigor, charisma." [14]
Execution Problems are Often Strategy Problems: Many issues that appear to be about execution actually stem from a flawed or unclear strategy. [10]
The Three Levels of PM Work: Doshi categorizes PM work into impact, execution, and optics. [14]
Editing the Company's Processes: "Great PMs edit the company's processes and product ethos before espousing them: they identify the unintended flaws in the company's principles and fix the flawed parts." [6]
Thinking Levels Higher: "Great PMs always think a few levels higher than their current place in the organization: when warranted, they will happily sacrifice their team's goals and targets in favor of the greater good for the company." [6]
Stakeholders as Advisors: "Great PMs know that these groups are not approvers, they are valuable advisors." [6]
Bias for Building: The "bias for building" can be a double-edged sword. The cost of research should be weighed against the total cost of building, which increases with team size. [15]

On Career Growth and Learning

Doshi offers pragmatic advice for navigating and accelerating a career in product management and beyond.

Your Career is Your Most Important Product: Apply product thinking to your own career development. [14]
The 10-30-50 Rule for Career Progression: To escape the career treadmill, focus on a mix of skills and experiences. [15] The 10-30-50 rule is a career development framework for creating a valuable "T-shaped" skillset. [1] It advises you to become exceptionally good in one core skill (top 10%), very proficient in a second complementary skill (top 30%), and better than average in a third (top 50%). [1]
Don't Label Yourself: While you should know and leverage your strengths, avoid publicly labeling yourself (e.g., "data-driven PM") as it can be limiting. [2]
Continuous Learning: "Great PMs also learn through work projects. but they learn a lot more about their craft in their personal time because of their curiosity and passion for self-improvement." [2] Doshi recommends dedicating 20% of your time to learning. [16]
Do the Role Before You Get the Job: The best way to transition into product management is to start taking on relevant responsibilities in your current role. [16]
The Importance of Communication: Presentations may be a small part of your job, but they can be a large part of how you are judged. [17]
Radical Delegation: This is a superpower for leaders but requires having built credibility first. [14]
Choosing the Right Company: Understand if a company is product-driven, as this can significantly impact a PM's growth and effectiveness. [16]
Tier 1 Companies Matter: Working at a top-tier company can provide significant career leverage. [18]
A Hiring Process That's Too Easy is a Red Flag: If you can easily "hack" the interview process, it's likely many others have as well. [8]
People Join for Title, Money, and Scope; They Stay for Culture, Learning, and Growth. [8]
Your Future Self: "Imagine where you want to be in 5 years. Ask yourself what future-you would expect you to do today. Do that thing!" [8]
The Pygmalion Effect: High expectations lead to improved performance. [18]
Breaking Down Complex Skills: If you're struggling to learn a complex skill, break it down into its component parts. [8]
Career as a Map, Not a Ladder: View your career as an exploration, which might involve lateral moves or even stepping back in responsibility to join a better company. [8]

General Wisdom and Observations

On Simplicity and Complexity: "Everything seems simpler than it truly is, when you are not the one working on it. Everything seems more complex than it truly is, when you are the one working it." [19]
Guard Your Peak Productive Time: "Identify your peak productive time of day and guard it like your most valuable asset, because it truly is." [19]
Reasons are Well-Packaged Excuses: A reminder to take ownership and avoid rationalizing inaction. [14]
Courage is Your Most Underrated Skill. [14]
On Trust: "It is wiser to place trust in those with the will to do no evil than those with the will to do good." [9]
The Two Causes of Trouble: "Most troubles in life are attributable to two causes: first, not getting what we want, and second, getting what we want." [9]
The Power of Small Teams: "When you combine high energy sound judgment low ego and small teams, you just get magic." [10]
"Will it make the boat go faster?" A focusing question borrowed from the British Olympic rowing team to evaluate any potential action or decision. [9]
On the Future of Startups: Doshi speculates on how AI might enable very small teams to achieve the impact of much larger startups. [19]
The End Goal: "If you put in the hard work necessary to become a Great PM, you will create tremendous career optionality and time optionality for yourself. And you will leave a lasting imprint on the companies and industries you work in. All on your own terms." [6]

Learn more:

Lessons from Shreyas Doshi

On High Agency and Mindset

On Product Management Craft

On Career Growth and Learning

General Wisdom and Observations

Written by Antoine Buteau

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