YouSaid · the spoken record

Christian Idiodi

lines on the record: 106
first: 2023-12-21
most recent: 2023-12-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You can find me on LinkedIn as well. You can reach out to us on our website as vpg.com. I tell people the best thing to be useful to us is to do good work using these principles and all the things we teach people over and over again. We care about outcomes. We care about good product walking the world. I would love your support with the work I'm doing in Africa. I've always reached out to the product community around the world to help developing countries and communities. So please follow our work. Please support our work in Africa in building a product community.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My favorite Nigerian meal is super duper cultural and native. It's like starch and owo soup. You can't really find that anywhere. It's like you've got to come from mom's cooking. Maddie Kagan has tried it. He came to my hometown. My parents And added, but if you are discovering Nigerian food, you know, start with that variation of like rice, which everybody has, gel of rice. And yes, people, I'm going to say this. Jellov fries, Nigerian jellov is better than Ghanaian Jalov. It's a war, but it's okay. We already claim victory and we will move on. But Stables Jalof Rice is elementary, but then you have to try as well, like a pounded yam or with a soup. You know, there are many different variations of that. And you get a pounded yam or a pounded cassava and you eat that with a soup. And you will.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hope there are no more surprises about me in that kind of case in that way, but I. I went to a gifted Antalenta school. I was out of my house at 12, and I went to kind of boarding school. And I've kind of never been back home since then. So I've kind of been on my own. But we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, probably eight miles from any form of civilization and stuff in the middle of the jungle. No water, no potable water, no electricity. So you kind of had to get water yourself, generate your own power. Probably the most interesting time in my life to shape my worldview. Very intriguing parts of my life”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh boy, I've said a lot in this talk about people don't care about companies don't care about you, people care about you. It's never too late to be what you want to be. But earlier on, my father always tells me, you know, show up. Show up and you're ahead of like 80% of the people in the free world show up on time and you're ahead of 85% of the people in the free world. Show up on time with a plan and you are ahead of 90% of the people in the free world. And if somehow you have the guts to put that plan to action with a smile, then you probably will have a great chance of success. And if you do that over and over again, every aspect of your life, it can lead to successful outcomes. And I think that's a lot of some mental definition for me every day.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My eldest son is into spots, you know, he loves all kinds of spot stuff, spots apps, all of those kinds of things. And he got me on this app called Real, like Real Spots. And it's really cool. It shows scores of different games, but it's really driven by social influence. So, you know, like all of your Twitter posts will get there like, oh my God, cool touchdown. And it's almost like real time, more than real time. It's like, you know, and you're getting real time with reactions of people around you and your communities. And it's, you know, it's a very different way of checking on the score that I've ever seen. And I thought it was just really, really thoughtful in how, you know, like I want to share reaction to touchdown with 50 people around the world that will care about my favorite team just going to touchdown. And you're all like sharing reactions at the same time. And the first person that saw it, you can see that stuff. So it's very simple.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because most of them, I can teach, I can coach a lot of things. But that arrogance, that ego, those kinds of things, I walk alone, like those things are very, very challenging and disruptive to a team culture.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Remember, I think about when I think about what makes a good product manager, I look about collaborative problem solving, you know, there are people that feel like I'm just going to solve the whole thing myself. This is what we should do. We should do it like no evidence, no data, no kind of stuff. It's very interesting. But people that are saying, you know what, I would need probably work an engineer, a designer. We might need to put it. I look for intellectual curiosity in some ways. People that have proven questions in their head. People that are very quick to see things at the end. I will talk to 20 of them. I said, how are you going to do that? Do you know sign language? And they're like, oh, how am I going to talk to them? But there are people that are like, I'm going to need a lot of help to try to figure this out. I don't know a lot about your friend, but I know there are people that kind of, some people have frameworks they run to, it exposes that, you know, if they are married to one way of walking or, you know, it's more about knowing what you can't know. I'm looking for empathy, humility in some sense. It is a competent.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm a little more curious because I want to now know what you do when you don't have a clue, you know, or people that jump straight to solutions are more engineering centric. People that jump straight to, I can kind of get a sense of who you are when I give you a problem that requires you to do some thinking, you know?”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I always give them a problem to solve. That is probably my favorite question, and it's not a traditional problem. I probably will say something like, you know, hey, Lenny, I have a friend. He's been legally there for urine impaired his whole life. And he just got a new job that requires him to wake up significantly earlier than he normally does. And as you can imagine, traditional alarm clocks will not do it or not solve the problem. I would love to give that problem to you, be true how you go about tackling this or solving this. And for me, I like that question because it gives me a sense of how you think. It gives me a sense of how you solve problems. It gives me a sense of how you know what you do not know and how you go about knowing the things you need to know, what you need to solve a problem. And there's no magical right to wrong answer. I do have a lot of people that say, I have no clue what to do.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Jumped on the succession bandwagon and I enjoyed that. I used to love billions too as well. I love good writing kind of really just intellectual video writing kind of business. And so probably succession and billions would be too.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Franz Wand is coming out March next year. God, just three months. So people should have gotten shipping dates on their books if you pre-ordered it now. But it really talks about how to move to the product model, the product operating model, which is really this set of beliefs and principles that the best company is working. We share stories of companies that have transformed into this that are not your traditional born digital or bond tech companies that have made this transition. We tell stories of what companies can do. If it's anything, it's an appeal that there is a better way of working and solving problems and that companies can work in this way regardless of where you are under journey.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, it's happening. It's happening, but it's really a reflection of so many decades of love and passion for product work. And I have not found, I always tell Maddie, that you write the books after I've gone through the failure. Like, you know, it's like, I failed that leadership. Now there's a book on it. You know, I've failed that product. Now there's a book on it. And it reflects really the heart of good product work. So I love Ben's hat thing about hat things. I love, I mean, there are some books that really describe the mindsets and culture that could put up work is done in. I always recommend those to people.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh boy, in this discipline, probably all of our books inspired, empowered, and we're coming up with one in March transformed.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People ask, like, yeah, all the frameworks, techniques, all the stuff, just think truly about what you're trying to do. You're trying to care enough about a problem to solve it on someone's behalf and do it so well that it give us something every time.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've always made an appeal to the product community to really have a sense of. What they do beyond the job of a product team, a product manager. And I always try to encourage people to see that at the very core of what you do is really solving a problem. And that's creating when you do that, create value in the world. You're making a dent in the world, like people that participate in trying to make things better or trying to solve problems. And we should not shy from that definition of our job. It might feel like a fluffy one. It might feel like too lightweight. It looked like meaningful. But I think where people think to heart that that's really what the essence of product is or product work is, they bring to work a different passion. They bring to work a different sense of empathy. They bring to work a different sense of customer centricity. And all of those things lead to good outcomes. So I always make that appeal to put.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can visit the Nullaprofit website. It's InnovateAfricaFoundation.org. You can follow our walk on SVPG or the InspireAfrica conference.com. I know I will be doing a lot more next year in January. I am going to be launching a fund, the InnoPaid Africa Fund. And I wanted to be a fund funded by the product community for Africa. It's an angel investment fund, one of the problems I recognize is that so many of the startups, they are not ready for institutional investment and they are forced into it in some ways. They say, you know, people are giving up a lot of equity when they just need cash flow. And so I really want to focus on a fun for the community to enable people to get product market fit in those markets. So that will be launching in January. I'll probably do an announcement about it. I'm super excited about that work and to really try to promote more of product-centric.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And teaching teams how to use technology, how to do product, how to organize themselves as product teams, how to solve problems, and really to kind of create a boldness within the continent for them to go after problems and solve them than walk around the problems or make money on them.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The continent, this enablement with technology. We did our first conference last year, the Inspire Africa conference. It just blew my mind. I'm so humbled when I could see a thousand people from 31 different countries in Africa come with a hunger and an eagerness to learn how to do product walk, to learn how to do that. And it's not cheap by any means for them to do that, you know. And what moved me the most is looking at the future generation, we had a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old in the workshop, you know, the 11-year-old was a robotics engineer. The 13-year-old was a CEO of a small startup that keeps healthcare records. And I'm like, if I can help these people learn how to drup well, this is the whole generation for Africa. This is the future of people that want to leverage technology in a meaningful way. So I spent a lot of my time in Africa coaching, advising.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I tell them, wow, and we created seven unicorns from that. Imagine it 50%, 75 discover the internet. Like, we need to understand the opportunities, the youngest population, the fastest growing, some of the fastest growing economies in these markets, some of the problems are so basic, you know, and the opportunities are so huge. So I had to kill all these assumptions, one that I needed permission to come into solve problems there, and two that we didn't have the means to equip and educate people. So we don't have a talent problem or a resource problem. The biggest opportunity I found is to really empower a continent with enabling technology and the mindset and the skills to be able to leverage technology solving problems. So this led to me starting a nonprofit in Africa, the Innovate Africa Foundation, and we are kind of committed to this education of people.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know there's this whole society that people are very good at walking around problems. You know, we've got an electricity problem. We'll just buy generators. We've got a road problem. We're going to buy bigger cars. I was doing a talk at a conference and I was driving them. I saw a Tesla with a portable generator at the back of it. You know, like they will stop and, you know, charge the Tesla and they keep going on the road in some ways. That's a whole society, but it's never been a society that didn't have creative people. Just an amazing, tremendous amount of talent. And it's a very young population. I talk to people all the time. I say, look, someone told me, well, Africa, you know, seven of the apes most underdeveloped places in Africa in the world are in Africa. And I said, well, you know, they were talking about the discovery of the internet. It's like less than 30% of Africa has discovered the internet.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Public private product platform in the world, in all countries, they all have this public because they provide the infrastructure and the architecture that is enabling for people. Imagine if you were trying to code and you didn't have power. Now you're thinking there are markets where you have to solve the problem of getting power before you and then getting access to a computer and then getting access to the right type of software to be able to code something. I mean, look at all the different things. So you have to solve many problems just before you can start to solve the problem in a meaningful way. And this is a very big reflection of the dynamic in Africa. The second pattern of what we see is because of this challenge, I see two things. Make a lot of money on a problem than from solving the problem”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I started to see patterns like this in Africa where they're just two things were trended. One, so many, the poor use of technology and enabling technologies to solve problems. And two, the difficulty in actually solving problems in these markets, in these emerging markets. And one of the things we take for granted, you know, I always tell people the government is probably the biggest.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I have an African background and my family is there. Used to have this false notion that the things we've done in North America or Europe or Asia, like the problems we've solved have been solved in these markets. I remember talking to someone in Africa years ago and he said to me, oh, I said, we just got a new job. Where did you find a job? It's like, oh, I found it in a newspaper. I said the newspaper. What do you mean you find a job? I was like, I remember participating in solving that.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With the people that they coached. They will tell you what patterns their coach told them. So, how do you do that? My coach told me to do this. Are you going to learn from them? I said, oh, you know, important things.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, you've got to find people that have generated good outcomes. I don't know how, you know, people like how you find a good consultant. I get people teaching people a lot that haven't done the job. Don't get me wrong. If you look at American football teams, there are some coaches that have played the game before and you feel good that they can coach you. And there are also some coaches that have not played the game. But if you look at the pedigree, they've learned from good coaches. They've walked under good coaches. So yeah, like same thing with product. I say there are only two parts. You know, a good coach is someone that has played the game before and has generated good outcomes. But and the second is that they've learned from good product coaches. So you want to find, you know, people with a strong pedigree. You see them. Oh, you work that Amazon this year. You worked at this company, you work at Stripe. You look good results. How did you do that? Oh, my environment was great. The culture was great. Who taught you? Who coached you? Do pick up games.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Shoot in the face. I say, go to the communication class with the employee because they are going to need to practice the communication. So you learn what they are learning. Both of you now will practice it together so that they can get better at communication. A communication class doesn't get you better at communication, communicating better is an indication that you're better at communication. You need to practice it. And I need to create a safe place for you to practice. I need to give you feedback that you're communicating better. These are all patterns in Coshing that many leaders have just don't have these tools and techniques to do it. So I do teach a lot of leaders how to coach. I do a lot of people work with leaders. There's not a single product problem. You know, people hear me say all problems have people problems. There's not a singular product problem that I have not seen coaching address.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many great product coaches out there. There are many leadership coaches out there. I think there's some recognition with people have to have the humility and the self-awareness to recognize that there are opportunities for them to get better as a leader. And like product management, you need to see your experience, good leadership. You need to reps of good leadership. We do it in every way. You probably talk to people about strategy. And what did they do? They outsource it all the time. Tell somebody else to do it. And that cycle feeds itself because you never do it. You only know how to outsource it. You never learn how to do it. You see? And so it's kind of many people outsource. Oh, we'll get a mentor. Go take a treating class, you know, and don't think that they are outsourcing coaching in that way. It's like go ticker communication class. I'm like, okay, if they come back from the class and they punch you in the face. And like, why did you punch me? The class taught me to punch you in the face. You paid money for me to learn how to punch.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And nobody fights you on it. You see that? Like, you know, and you're not even surprised by it. And it's very safe because when you're not in the job, you can make mistakes and nobody blames you. He's not a VP. Look at him trying to do VP things. You see? But the second you're a VP, it is such a much leverage in the role that your mistake is serious because it impacts everybody. But when you're not, it's like, you get coverage, you get protection, you know, nobody's as mad at you. It's like, yeah, he was just trying to take a stab at it. Let's coach him on that. But what is the best time to know those things? It's before you're in it. Before you're in it.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what I do is I give you what you might tell me I hate people. That's okay. We can talk about that. But it's like, let me give you four and you're just going to practice the bad behavior on four. You know, so this is what often happens in company. We promote them into incompetence. It's not their fault because we are not coaching them. What we need to do is create a safe environment for people to practice leadership before they become leaders, before we promote them. We have to have good coaching programs for leaders to say, you know, if there's a succession plan, I want learning to be a new manager. I don't wait till it's time to promote him. Then I teach him management because then apparently he cannot see things like I don't know. I have to teach him leadership and management before he becomes a leader or a manager.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because that's where you practice being a VP. That's where you get feedback because then when you become a VP, you have done those things before. It's like, why is the first time you've done an interview? When are you now a VP? Come in and do an interview with me. Observe me do an interview. Ask questions, see what works. Get feedback. You know, that's why I love those group product manager rules. So group because those are actually meant to be designed as ways for people to make a decision if they want to be a manager or they want to just stay in the discipline. But people use them as why would you give somebody four direct reports if they have proven they have no evidence they can manage one?”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because Lenny didn't actually get coached to be a manager. Ask anybody that works with me, they come to me and say, Oh, I need to get promoted to be a director. You know what I say? I said, go up be a director. You don't need a title. Let me tell you what the director does. And you're going to walk with me over the next couple of months to do those things because I am promoting you to do the job, not to learn the job. See where it falls apart in promotions. We promote people, and it's like you're now a VP. Do VP things. And you're like, I have never done VP things before, but I cannot tell people I've never done VP things because it makes me looking competent. But I see the job description. I should do some VP things. What did my life VP do? Those things, I don't, I used. But the best place to learn how to be a VP is when you're not a VP.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not sure. I need help. Are you saying who told us those things? But it's like such an expectation that our leaders must have the answers, must know the right things, do the right things. And so what do we see people do rather than letting ask for help? He goes to Google and searches how to do an interview, how to write a review. Are you seeing he reads different articles? Like this one looks cool. And then he does it. And nobody dies. Nothing breaks. So he thinks feels a good framework and a good pattern. And we have this dysfunctional culture of everybody doing different things, whatever works for anybody. And that is the cycle that repeats itself. Now, a person that works for Lenny sees that he used this framework and thinks it must be a good framework. My boss didn't. And you see how that cycle repeats itself.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Many did not recognize that his job has changed. His job is no longer to solve the problem directly, but to get a team of other people good at solving problems. Is because you're a great engineer, but not a good manager This story or this dynamic I've told is probably the most common origin story of what people see or deem as micromanagement In many cases, yeah, this individual knows how to do engineering. They don't know how to do engineering management. They don't see the shift in their dynamic being changed. We see bad patterns where it's like the second you become a manager or a leader. You cannot say things like, I don't know”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Use the rule here, and so we do what? We promote Lenny. He feels good at the moment. Congratulations, promotion. He posts a nice post. We're like, yeah, we're going to keep Lenny there for a long time now because he's promoted. Now, Lenny has never been a manager in his whole life. He's never interviewed people, fired people, even coached people, had done any of these things directly. You know, after a couple of months, let me start to recognize an interesting pattern. Nobody is clapping for him at company meetings anymore. In short, they've taken down his picture from the world because he's no longer an engineer, he's a manager, so he's now somebody else. He's now the engineer of the year, clapping him in the meetings. He's like, you know, he doesn't feel recognized or seen anymore. He's just the guy now behind the scenes and that kind of thing. Then, you know, a couple of weeks go by, then they have a big engineering problem. And you know what Lenny does? He jumps in and he solves the problem.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know how to make an appeal to corporations on this one. It's probably a similar appeal in the light of coaching too as well. Most people are promoted to a point of incompetency or stuff. But I kind of describe the dynamic this way. It's kind of like Lenny's a fantastic engineer. If you think about it, he wins Engineer of the Year awards. If you go to the office, his picture is on the wall. Everybody knows him. He's high fat. He's feeling good. But it's like one year, two years, maybe eight years in. Lenny's feeling like, am I really growing in my career? Am I really challenged in my career? He looks at the engineering career ladder. The next role, you know, from his senior engineer role is engineering manager. The leadership team, HR, they look at the same thing that's true. We love Lenny. We don't want to lose Lenny. We need to promote him. And the next step is engineering manager. I'll product manager manager. However, I want to.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and I differentiate that because there are all those guys that are the, I know I like to change the light bulb or they can walk individually or think her and stuff. And I kind of differentiate that problem solving from the people that are very good at working with other people to solve a problem. And there are so many of those buckets. You're getting reps in. When you're talking to, you've heard those people that just tell you stories of their working problem. I can see how they will help me. They know how to use data. They know how to use insights. You're not afraid of talking to people. How are you going to get those reps? Because you come into my company and ask you a question like, I don't know, where do I find? But if you've done the problem solving with a team, sometimes you may even know how to get the answer, but you know who to go to to get the answer. That's a gift too.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People let a lot of skills by when you watch TV. Like, oh, I like that move, and then you go to the gym and you practice that move. You see what you do? It's just like you're seeing, then you're doing it in some ways. So you need to see good put-up work so that you can do good product work so that you can teach good product work. So if you don't have the benefit of having a good coach directly, you've got to find environments where you see good coaching happening and a good indication of good coaching is actually good outcomes over and over again. Winning teams, you know, winning performances, great products. Great products come from great product teams. They probably have good leaders or a good leader within a bad culture.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Louis Faluisian reward, loan risk type of thing. Go volunteer at a nonprofit working with the team. Go volunteer in a community event or church or whatever you go to. Go party. Now what am I trying to do with these things? Find places where people do collaborative problem solving. Now, this is what you're doing as a put up team. It's more likely in a high performance environment, you'll find a good coach. You will find somebody out there, but what you're also doing is you're observing other people play.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What do you mean? I said, When they were practicing this, what did they do? So they didn't practice. I told them to prepare this. I said, think about what happens at practice. Any practice of any sport, any game, you can stop. You can make corrections. You can give feedback. What you do at practice, you do in the game. Product management, you say what time game time kind of role. Every day is what, so when do people practice? And so what I tell people like in the absence of getting good coaching, you need to find practice arenas. It's kind of like if you don't, you're learning a new sport or basketball, you kind of go to the gym. It's a practice arena. You can play and shoot around and learn. Maybe some people have pickup games that you join and stuff like this in some ways. And I so I always advise put up managers like, you need to join a lot of pickup games, which are kind of low barriers to entry.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like I say with everything, you don't get mastery by avoidance. And one of the things that good coaches do, that when I say corporations fail companies, is they don't create space for practice. I see people complain to me about people all the time. Oh, this person is not good, you know.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The fastest way to build, yes, now feels like it's expensive, but this is the job of a coach. You are designing a very specific playbook to help people achieve the outcomes we want. And that's by getting them competent at their job and then their potential where they need to go next.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, by also making that person share in the accountability of training you or teaching you in some ways, I am not making them accountable for your growth. It's impossible two months from now for that person to say, oh, Lenny doesn't know anything. Why? Because he makes them a bad teacher. So they are always going to defend it be like, oh, yeah, Lenny, let's have a conversation. Don't do it like just in this way. They will prep you because it makes them look bad if you're not competent. Now, this technique accelerates relationships and trust. It's the help me teach me type of technique. It also allows them to observe the dynamics within the company, but it accelerates relationships because it's impossible for you to be in a meeting with a leader all the time without the person saying something like, oh, yeah, hey, folks, let me introduce you to Lanny. Now that person is now the one introducing you to more connections within the company.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Without saying things like, so that is, where are you from? What do you do? Tell me about yourself. What have I now done? I forced a relationship between a very powerful, trustworthy, influential person and somebody else that doesn't have it. You are walking around the company with this person, what is everybody going to say? Oh my goodness, you're friends with that person. I want to know Lannie because, you know, we can never get him to agree on it. So if I know Lanni, I'll be close with it. Lannie's more accessible. He's new, but how did Lenny break in? I'm extending somebody else's trust to you.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But if only where that person will know that the trust is, if they test you. And unfortunately, many environments, they do that publicly. I mean, the meeting, I ask him a question. He bubbs a presentation like, oh, product managers are useless. That person doesn't know anything. So here's what I do when I want to build trust. If Lenny is a new hire in my company, I think Lenny to the most, the loudest, most influential person in the company. And I say, look, I just hired Lenny, super rock star, did all of this. But, you know, he knows nothing about that business, nothing about how we walk and stuff. I would love for you to teach him some things. Now, you may be like, I'm super busy. I'm involved. I say, look, look, Lenny should just hang with you. I've played his calendar for the whole week. He's just good to sit in meetings you are, quiet, observed, just by observing you, he will be your rockster. Low stress, nothing to give. Now, it's impossible for this leader to sit with you for a whole while.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To get trust with many people is to have them accountable for an outcome of mine wishes to know. So if I went into Accelerate Trust with Lenning, I will ask Lenny to teach me. Now, and I see this, I see this like an emotional intelligence black belt technique here. But many environments, if you get into environment, it's very quickly for you to identify the power in an environment, who's influential, who has allowed his voice and all. And there's something behind why they are powerful. Yes, it is title, but if you think about why someone is called a CEO, it's because there is some competence that may someone give them the title. They are great at growing businesses, they have a good stride of whatever it is. So what you do to build trust is you want that person. To trust you”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So they get the question wrong and they lose trust. So people don't, you know, and trust is based on competence and character. There are other values like communication and concern and care. But most corporate environments is a competency thing. That's why you see so many companies accept people with bad communication, bad care, bad because they are very good at their job. So if you can demonstrate competence, you will earn some trust and least the trust of competence from people. So I kind of explained to people a whole lot that the real core of their job at first is to learn, to seek to understand before they are understood, to know what you don't know, that humility and ego only last a small minute. The most powerful way I have found.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We donate a whole lot in our environment. I ask you a question, I see how you answer, and it's like, I mean, actually, what's one plus one? Like, it's two. Now I know that, you know, one plus one is two. You know, I don't care when you lent it. I just, I need you to know that it's two to do my work. So, you know, so it happens in everyday environment. And what people fail to do is to do the learning.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like adults, you know, we're watching video, watching tape, having real, you know, a grew like, but it was so funny when you see them execute on the field. But I've kind of always had this mentality about the truest forms like companies cannot care for people. People care for people. And the representation of what is acceptable in an environment or what we do is by the leaders. Now there's some different dynamic to why that's not happening with how we promote people and the whole poor structure around that. But fundamentally, trust is a key part of doing this. And I think when I tell these people, I say, look, most people don't. Know that you know something until they test you.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's never seen a father and alternative be effective. Most people need to see something, they need to do it before they can even teach it in some ways. The biggest examples. Team this off because I need to make a very strong argument for people to understand coaching. And in some ways, I probably did not know that I was probably good at coaching. I coached my kids in soccer for like eight years. And we always won the championship. My boys team. And I had long waiting list of people. And I thought I had a fundamental floy in understanding it, you know, because when my kids were like four years old, you know, when you have the kids run around a soccer field just kicking the ball anyway, my team always had like plays. They all have strategy. I mean, so, you know, you're winning games like 10 to zero, you know, other kids. And I thought, you know, I'm like, maybe I was born in another country. I didn't know you were just meant to let them play. And I was like, really coaching kids. And I was treating for you.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I took a stab at kind of representing what he was trying to say. And I asked him, and it's like, yeah, it's the same thing kind of message. But, you know, when he tells us this stuff, we just go do it. We get it. We go do it. But the way you described it right now to us, I can think of four other things I need to do. I even understand some other things that may be missing that we need to now go tackle. And, you know, the CEO is kind of like really taken aback. And it's kind of in some ways he has never seen an alternative.”
2023-12-21 · Lenny's Podcast · The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source