Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
00:48:13 · Tulsee Doshi
[00:48:13] S0: One of the things that we talk about a lot is where where are these docs useful? Right. So, like, for example, I think where AI generated docs are actually quite helpful, for example, is after you launch something and let's say two weeks later, you want to pull the latest of like who's using it? How are they using it? What's the feedback? That's the kind of document that AI is fantastic for. Right. Because it will actually do that just so much faster than you. Right. It will go and pull from various dashboards and metrics. It'll give you an update. It'll pull kind of strengths and weaknesses. It'll pull from Twitter analysis and Reddit or whatever. And so I think one of the things we talk about is like be intentional about like where is AI helping you drive content in the doc that is helpful versus where is it content that should come from you? Right. Where is it insight? And so what you should be providing is the insight. What the model should be providing is the data. And so I think if you can separate those two things, then hopefully you find the right balance of the benefit here. I would say the other thing is we're investing a lot more as a result of that in how do you create the right skills to get the right data so that we can structure these artifacts really well. That then hopefully creates more space for the creative thinking and the creative writing that we want more people to spend time doing.
00:49:31 · Lenny Rachitsky, Tulsee Doshi
[00:49:31] S1: That's actually something I was wanting to ask about. So in terms of the PM role, AI has clearly made a big dent on prototyping. You can prototype till the cows come home now versus having a designer or an engineer build a thing. So that's clearly a place the role has changed with AI. The other area, which you just mentioned, is data. PMs can do a lot more data analysis. What would it be like behind prototyping? What are the biggest areas AI has most changed the job of a PM in the past couple of years, would you say? [00:50:04] S0: Yeah, prototyping is a great one. I think you're right that like Data science is probably like, I think you are more empowered to have the data at your fingertips to make data driven decisions. I also think actually, like to our earlier conversation, you know, you see these on social a lot, these kind of posts of like, oh, blank is the new PRD, whatever blank is, a prototype is the new PRD, evals are the new PRD, like. Data is the new PRD. But I think actually what that meaningfully shows is you've moved the PM from being someone who just writes a set of requirements down and then assumes that somebody else, whether that is a data scientist or an engineer or a researcher or designer, will figure out the meat behind it. You've moved that one step further to say your job is no longer just writing down a set of requirements. Your job is actually going one step further to have some heft to that, whatever format that heft takes.
00:50:04 · Tulsee Doshi, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:50:04] S0: Yeah, prototyping is a great one. I think you're right that like Data science is probably like, I think you are more empowered to have the data at your fingertips to make data driven decisions. I also think actually, like to our earlier conversation, you know, you see these on social a lot, these kind of posts of like, oh, blank is the new PRD, whatever blank is, a prototype is the new PRD, evals are the new PRD, like. Data is the new PRD. But I think actually what that meaningfully shows is you've moved the PM from being someone who just writes a set of requirements down and then assumes that somebody else, whether that is a data scientist or an engineer or a researcher or designer, will figure out the meat behind it. You've moved that one step further to say your job is no longer just writing down a set of requirements. Your job is actually going one step further to have some heft to that, whatever format that heft takes. [00:51:00] S1: Awesome. Okay. That aligns with a lot of what I'm hearing. Tulsee, is there anything else that you wanted to share? Is there anything else you think you want to double down on that we've talked about that you want to say before we get to our very exciting lightning round? [00:51:13] S0: No, I think that's great. [00:51:16] S1: Okay. We did it. Well, with that, Tulsee, we reached our very exciting lightning round. I've got five questions for you. Are you ready? There's some music that plays over this that's added in post-production. [00:51:27] S0: You mean does it sound like this?
00:51:27 · Tulsee Doshi, Lenny Rachitsky
[00:51:27] S0: You mean does it sound like this? [00:51:28] S1: It's exactly that. We should align it with your drum playing. OK, first question. What are two or three books that you find yourself recommending most to other people?
00:51:37 · Tulsee Doshi
[00:51:37] S0: OK, so one actually is it's actually technically a novella is probably what it's called. But I don't know if you've read Exhalation, which is a set of like science fiction stories. And there's a particular story in that that actually speaks to A set of individuals who are trying to keep a set of digital avatars alive even after the platform decides to deprecate. And I love that book because I think actually, especially now in a world where we're thinking about how individuals are going to act with agents and what kinds of relationships we're building with technology and what does it mean to be human and interact with the digital world so closely. I think it's just a really... It's a really beautifully written story, and I think it also evokes a lot of open questions. So I think that's one. Another that's maybe more kind of standard in PM circles is Creativity Inc., which I love. It's a Pixar story, but I think it actually speaks a lot to how do you create good culture, which is something I think a lot about. How do you create culture that actually encourages people to fall down and get back up? How do you create a culture that encourages people to be creative with their ideas and push the frontier, which is obviously something we're thinking a lot about here. I also just have been really into, you know, the ACOTAR series recently, but that's that's what series. That's romantic fantasy. So for anyone who's just looking for something fun to read, you should read The Throne of Glass or A Court of Thorns and Roses.
00:53:05 · Lenny Rachitsky, Tulsee Doshi
[00:53:05] S1: I love the spectrum of recommendations in this. OK, favorite recent movie or TV show you really enjoyed? [00:53:11] S0: You know, actually, this was a really hard question because I've watched a lot of bad movies and TV shows recently, which is unfortunate, actually, that I would not recommend. So there's that. But I did really enjoy Severance on Apple TV. Incredibly well done, both like stylistically and content wise. So that's probably top of the list. [00:53:33] S1: Favorite AI product right now other than Gemini? [00:53:37] S0: Wispr Flow. I don't know if you're using it, but I have wrist problems. So I have trouble like typing for long stretches. And so Wispr Flow has been game changing for me, actually. [00:53:49] S1: Awesome. You get a year free of Wispr Flow if you become a subscriber of Lenny's Newsletter. Plug, plug, plug. Oh, I like this. There you go. Organic recommendations. I'm here for you. I also love. There we go. No, I love Wispr Flow. Use it all the time. Press function, just start talking and it's just magically transcribes everything. [00:54:04] S0: Yep. [00:54:05] S1: Amazing. Do you have a favorite life motto that you often come back to in work or in life?