Colin Lernell

Google has a new interview. Everyone's about to copy it. But there are 3 variants already out there:

“Over 90% of product leadership roles are unlisted, filled through networks and referrals — not job boards.” "You want to think about your reputation first. This is one of the biggest differences between ICs and leaders." In the today's episode, we have @xolin - a 3x Senior Director Product at Noom, Udacity, and Patreon. We dive into: → How to craft a “market of one” narrative that makes you recruiters' first choice → The MERIT framework to earn more from your negotiations → How to break into hidden leadership roles → Whether you should you accept a downgraded role to level up later? → The reality of pre-IPO equity — 🎙️ 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄: Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7vVEMq… YouTube: youtu.be/nBrHS7kIVnY Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas… — 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀: Zeda: Discovery platform to turn your Voice of Customer into product insights - zeda.io/lps/aakashgupta Statsig: The complete platform for Product Growth statsig.com/growth Secta Labs: Professional headshots from regular selfies - secta.ai/aakash — 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: 1. Tailor Your “Market of One” Positioning Craft a specific narrative that aligns your skills with the company’s needs, making you the perfect candidate for the role. It's all about being memorable to recruiters and relevant to the market. Define your ideal role based on company size, market, and stage. Write a clear candidate positioning statement (e.g., "I excel in scaling SaaS companies from $10M to $50M by building multi-product teams"). Communicate this statement in your: - LinkedIn profile - Outreach emails - And conversations — 2. Understanding Your Product Leadership Archetype is Your Unfair Advantage Understanding where you thrive as a leader can transform your career trajectory. For example: - A leader excelling at rapid experimentation might shine in early-stage startups - While someone skilled at scaling teams would thrive in a growth-stage company Identify your archetype. Then target opportunities where their unique leadership style can drive maximum impact.

And how do you get these jobs? I cover that in the deep dive with @xolin: 🔗 news.aakashg.com/p/product-l…

Notion entering the website game more fully. Email is next.

You're handicapping your career if you ignore recruiters and VCs. The more senior you get, the more jobs are unlisted. Here's how to get those unlisted jobs: You have three ways in: • Recruiters • VCs • Word of Mouth So, you really have to work each of the three channels. And, yes, that means networking with recruiters and VCs. @xolin and I interviewed 12 product leaders, 7 recruiters, and 3 VCs on how to do so best. — 1. Recruiters Your goals with recruiters, primarily, is to help them reach you. The world's largest resume database exists nowadays. It's LinkedIn. Do everything: • Have a great about me • Add skills to each position • Get great recommendations • Write lots of details for each of your positions • Have a headline that screams "hirable" for the segment you are targeting most If you're a product leader and you're not getting recruiter pings regularly, make a change. 7 out of 12 product leaders we talked to are receiving pings regularly now. The market is back. In addition, build a network with recruiters. This is a long-game. Follow people, not firms, and help them fill their positions. They'll pay you back over time by helping you. Especially target recruiters at mid-market boutique firms. These firms specialize in industries, functions, or geographic areas. And they provide highly specialized service for highly qualified candidates. — 2. VCs The VC channel, unlike recruiters, is all about getting out there. You need to go meet them and develop the relationships. You're looking for firms with a focus on helping their companies with talent. Well-known talent arms like Andreesen Horowitz, First Round, GV, Greylock, and Sequoia are all worth getting connected to. In addition, VCs specializing in particular industries can yield particularly fruitful relationships. Even partners at these firms tend to be excited by domain expert product leaders, and want to place them. To get in touch, use a mix of: • Industry events • VC-sponsored events • Cold e-mails and LinkedIn messages — 3. Word of Mouth It's hard to overstate the power of word of mouth for getting unlisted jobs. Many of these jobs go to candidates that the hiring team already knows. And most of these relationships have been developed over years, decades even. So, stay in touch with senior product leaders you've worked with, who are now at growing companies. Your peer VPs are probably all CPOs now. In addition, you can increase your surface area for luck by finding the right places to self-promote: • Getting out to conferences, meeting people • Networking with other product leaders • Being a face of your product releases These "elbow grease" activities pay off when optimizing word of mouth for unlisted jobs. — But build your own strategies. Like any market, the best strategy is to differentiate. The key is to just do so with an eye towards unlisted jobs. Because at the leadership level, that's the majority.

2 rules govern how much you can make: Stage and success of company Let me explain 🧵