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Jules Walter

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2023-01-05
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2023-01-05
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  1. “Say in terms of finding me, Twitter is one place to start. So my handle is Jules D. Walk at. And then in terms of how people can be useful, it's really about paying it forward and then sharing this with others, especially any parts that people find useful.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “One I used to ask a lot is what's something work related that you're trying to get better at. And I might sometimes change the wording of it, but a big part of it is trying to understand how self-aware people are to which extent they have a growth mindset and then also like how honest and vulnerable they can be. What I will say though about individual questions, by the way, is I don't anchor a lot on the first question. What I find the most value from are the follow-ups. So yeah. So once you ask that question, you can think in various directions, right? Like why did you focus on this versus other things? How did this come to your attention? Was it feedback you sought or feedback people gave you, et cetera?”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “I watched fewer now. So Top Gun Maverick is a movie I really like. I'm sure many people have seen it. And for me, it's like just like going back in the 80s. And then TV show is Never Have I Ever. So it's coming of age in America, Indian, teenager. Pretty funny and also deep.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Lex Friedman is one of Alcohol out, brings really interesting speakers and also on diverse topics. So I find it really helpful.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Oh, really? Awesome. Yeah. So, and it's really helpful, especially as you're thinking about the EQ skills and how to improve your relationships with people.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yeah, and then another one is Connect by Carol Robin. It's inspired by Stanford's Tauchify class, if you've ever heard of it.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “It's really like building muscles, like more so for the EQ stuff, but even for the IQ stuff. You know, you have to practice. It's not just like read, you know, Lenny's, you know, top 10 articles for like two hours and then you're good. It's like read them, do what they say. Get feedback after you do what they say and see like, huh, it worked for me. It didn't work for me. Rewread them again. Find mentors, you know, et cetera. So it's a long process. And I don't think people have that mental model around how to learn in general, but also specifically how to learn the PM skills.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “I have found the process of learning how to be a PM very difficult. And I also find it quite rewarding. And I want to set expectation, especially for people who are earlier in their career, people may be frustrated by the process, because you have all these skills, right? We listed, I don't know, half a dozen, a dozen that you want to get better at. So be patient. And then also like It takes a while to see massive differences, but once you see those differences, you set yourself apart from your peers. So that's one thing. And then the other thing too is”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, so it's like a similar process where we got to know each other mostly via email. And led to the other, right? And we try to help each other”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “How the team is really doing. Nobody will tell me the truth. Or, hey, I am trying to hire for this role. You have discrimination of black PMs. Do you mind sharing? There's always ways you can help, but most people are so focused on themselves that they miss out on these opportunities.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “And then when I follow up, whether it's via email or in person, I bring up older conversations like, hey, remember last time we talked about X, I did it. Or, hey, how's your daughter? I know she was going to college this semester. Like, how did I go? So I always like, it always feels like a continuation of a conversation and it feels like an actual relationship instead of transactional interactions. And then the other thing, too, is I try really hard to identify ways that I can be helpful. Sometimes at the end of chat, I'll be like, hey, is there anything I can help you with? You know, anything top of mind for you, you know, and sometimes the person could be like senior, wealthy, doesn't matter. And they're like, actually, yes, I'd love to bet understand.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Bring a very specific context, and sometimes it could be. I mentioned the example of Bengali, right? Like, hey, I'm now a growth PMSlack. I'm trying to improve activation. Can I talk to you about how you approach growth in general? Or it could be, hey, I'm having internal, like let's say I have internal mentors at Google, right? And I have a few, then it's like, hey, I'm about to have this negotiation with this team. Can I walk you through my thought process and hear your advice? So it's like very specific things. And then the other thing I'll say too is like when I talk to mentors, I always take notes. I mean, I'm seeing you even here in this interview, right? You're taking notes. These are like basic things people don't actually think about. Somet”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Make sure to bring something very specific that I'm dealing with where they can provide input. And this is the opposite of what many people do, where they're like, hey, can you tell me about how you Whatever you're path to PM, which may or may not be relevant to them versus, hey, I've interviewed for three companies. I'm trying to decide among those three. Can I walk you through my thought process and get your feedback, right? So it's very different. So I definitely make sure”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Clear question, and then he offered to come to Black PMs and share some insights. You know, those kinds of things happen too. But you have to show the person that you're going to make really good use of their time. So you have to give really specific context. It's not like, hey, let's grab coffee. It's like, hey, here's a very specific question. Can you share some thoughts or point of view? And then they might offer, hey, why don't we just start that sort of thing too. Yeah.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Yeah, and I understand it can be harder for some folks. I mean, now I have two young kids, so I don't do as many events. You know, I've also met quite a few people through introductions. Sometimes it's been cooled outreach, not only. You know, I had a chat with you Shashir through cold outreach.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “So then at some point, I was like, hey, I've applied your problem trend competency framework to crafting the mission for my nonprofit. Here's where we landed. That was super helpful. Thanks so much. Replies back. And then what I would do then later is like, maybe a month later or two months, X months later, I can reach out again for another brahm. And maybe I could say, hey, this time it's a little bit more nuanced. Can we grab 15 minutes? And the person was like, yeah, sure. That person was very, very busy. I was like, hey, let's do it. And then over time, you know, become Facebook friends, you know, that sort of thing. But that's the approach I take.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And you get some advice that's useful. The key is to circle back with them at a later point and show that you've actually made good use of the advice. I think that's the thing nobody does. So what I would do, like for example, there's currently the CEO of a top tech company, MetaNevent. She spoke there. And then she gave some advice that was useful. I emailed her like a quick follow-up type thing. And then she gave me advice about how to rethink the mission statement from my nonprofit, all this via email.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “He was at a product of a major company. And then he gave a talk about different methods to improve products and he had this concept of finding the heat for products. You know, he spoke at the company. I got his email. And I reached out any evening and I was like, hey, thanks so much for speaking today. You talked about finding the heat for products. These are an example of product that you think was created with this approach. Like something he could answer in literally like two minutes via email. That was my question. It wasn't like, hey, you talk now I feel entitled to like meet with you. But then the key is once you get that foot in the door, it could be a quick email, a tweet, a quick chat at an event, that sort of thing.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Finding the right person, and then how do you get a foot in? Now, what I've seen, like a lot of people sometimes get mentors who are too senior or who don't actually think about the topic they're interested in, maybe they did five years ago. But once you find the right person, The key is like, how do you have that initial conversation? Like, how do you get the foot in the door? And what I found is You should make the smallest ask possible, which is the opposite of what ninety five percent of people do. 95% of people, it's like, hey, I've never met you, but I heard your talk or I saw you on Netin or whatever. Can we set up a call? That's like a big ask. So what I do, like, for example, there's this person who came to Slack.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Why they don't really want to explain or cannot explain easily. So that's what I look for. And in terms of where I find these people, it's really everywhere, right? You know, if you look at the list I mentioned earlier, right? So Bengali, I met at an event, like Facebook got a recruiting event. I showed up. I see this guy. I'm like, oh, hi. You know, chat a little bit. I talked about Lawrence, who's now a close friend. I met Lawrence at a dinner. He organized a dinner founder represented PMs, which added one thing led to the other. And then he became a mentor and friend. Bradley was at a fundraiser. And Nikhil, it was an intro via email. Like somebody was like, oh, you should meet Nikhil. So I know this sounds counterintuitive. I don't think the hard parties were to find them. It's more about”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “What I look for are two things. One is are you good at one specific thing I'm trying to get better at? And then two is, are you good at explaining it? And those two, at least for me, they're important. I know people are really good at their roles, at their job and the subject, but they don't actually know how to do it.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Then we had a large number of mentors over the years. Fun fact, when I came to BRIA eight years ago, I didn't know anyone. Go out to sort of build those relationships. So I talked earlier about Bengali Kaba, who sort of helped me figure out how to grow Slack, even though he wasn't working outside, but helped me have the frameworks. I talked about Lawrence Ripscher. You know, he helped me discover my strengths and also how to lean into them. Aaron Tig is another friend and mentor who brought me to Google, actually. And there's also Bradley Horritz, former VP of Google Photos. Also helped me in terms of like, you know, how do you think about leadership and so on? Many other folks like Nikhil Singhal, you know, VP at Meta helped me with like PM career. So lots of mentors for sure.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Depending on context. So, and once you have that, that is for me, I feel more empowered. I'm like, oh, I just have to dial down a little bit here or dial it a little bit here. And I also know this thing is serving me, which is why I keep doing the bad side of it.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Bugle back, and that was a key breakthrough for me, like, especially lawyers, I understand that. So strength and weakness, it's not a binary thing. It's like the same thing, but it's a dial. In some contexts, it's like good, you know. In other contexts, it's not good surveying. So an example in my case is, you know, I talked about, I ask a great question, but sometimes if I ask a question about context, you know, I might come across as less knowledgeable, right? Or another thing for me is I'm able to take very complex problems and then create a mental model that's much simpler, you know, whether it's growth or other things. But until I come up with that mental model, if I'm in a meeting with you, I won't talk much about that topic. I basically, I'm more quiet than other people. When people want to hear my point of view, because I'm just listening and trying to create a mental model of the situation. So you're seeing how the same strength is perceived as a weakness.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “And so that's the key. And I invite people to think. And that's how I was able to find a bunch of strengths for me. Generally, I'm thoughtful, you know, ask great questions. I also simplify problems a lot. I mean, we work together on like product sense article, which is a very complex thing, you know, made it more simple. And then once you identify the strength, then it helps to also think about why are you good at this thing? Because that's the underlying resource that you have. So a big part for me is I'm actually quite curious. And fun fact, I don't think of myself as curious, but people keep telling me I am. And even my mom was telling me when I was a kid, I used to always try to unscrew toys to see how they work in the inside. So that's one thing, right? Like being curious, you know, helped me ask the questions and so on. And then the other thing, too, is once you have the strength, you want to understand the shadow side of it. And that's the connection between your strengths and weaknesses.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “I'm like semi introverted. So I'm like, I don't know. Or jeweled everyone or people will tell me, hey, you ask great questions. And I'm like, I ask basic questions. And then he helped me understand actually that's how you know. It's a strength. Now, what you need to figure out is how do you get more out of that strength? An analogy, by the way, is imagine that you saw a fish and you were like, hey, you're really good at swimming. And then the fish would be like, oh. Doesn't everybody swim?”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “For the strength breakthroughs for me, a lot of it was talking to my mentor, Lawrence, Lawrence Ripshire, and I organized this event for black PMs at Pinterest where Lyons were speaking. And then we were talking about hey, why should they talk about etc? And I don't know how, but in the conversation, he talked about doubling down your strengths more than unfixing your weaknesses. And then he used me as an example. And then the fun part is he had this approach of how you actually find your strength. It's a very simple question where basically he's like, hey, what is something that a lot of people say you're good at, but you think is not a big deal? Or it's not that important. And that's like the key. That's what resonated with me. I was like, oh, a lot of people keep saying I'm really networking.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “I mean, it's definitely they trusted me and they cared about me. So they trust that if they tell me the feedback without translating, that I would see the intent behind it. And they were able to do that because, you know, after months and years of working together, they know how to respond to feedback. Because what happens is most people when you have to give feedback, you kind of have to like really do a lot of translation work so that it lands, you know, don't want to hurt your feeling. I don't want you to take this. So I just told people, you don't have to do that with me. So that's one. And then the other thing too is people reciprocate also how you talk. I'm not saying I talk to people like this, but I try to be vulnerable with people so they know with me they can be vulnerable, you know, and things are safe. Like, I really want to hear things the way you experience it.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “I was like, huh. And then I can see that because I asked the question plainly, like, hey, why did you do this? Or how did you do that? Instead of also saying where I'm coming from, hey, I noticed this, blah, blah, why, blah, blah. You know what I'm saying? Instead of showing I have an understanding of the thing and then asking a follow-up question, I just ask the question bluntly without context. And people feel like, hey, I'm asking a very basic question. So that's the kind of feedback that I particularly value.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “I don't know. You're angry, you know? And then I'm like, oh, really, in what scenario? And then it's like, oh, I was so focused and listening very intently that I could see now why I come across that way. But you could literally go your whole career and nobody ever says these things, right? And that's the kind of feedback that I personally find most helpful is like the subjective feedback. Because nobody will tell me those things. And, you know, when somebody I trust tell me, I'm like, oh, or like, here's an example. I mentioned earlier I'm good at asking questions. I had somebody ask tell me, hey, sometimes when you ask questions, you sound more junior.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Yeah. And then one thing I'll say too, by the way, it's harder to get feedback on the AQ stuff. And that's also why it's harder to develop and why a lot of people reach terminal levels in product because people are like, oh, they like emotional intelligence. And they say that in calibration rooms, but not in your face. So that's also what you want when you hear feedback. You don't want just to like, hey, here's my piece of feedback that I can prove. You also want the part that is like, here's how you make me feel or how you come across that If this is taken out of context, it won't be good for I don't want this to be shared publicly or taken out of context, but I want you to know, you know, and it could be things like, hey, when I talk to you sometimes, I feel like”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “You know, could have been better. And then the other thing I'll see that is very, very important if you're asking people for feedback is if you manage to get them to take the risk, to give you the feedback, your answer has to be enthusiastically like grateful. That's the key. So what people knew at Slack, Google, et cetera, is like, if you give me feedback, I'll be like, hey, thank you so much for giving me this is super helpful. Because people like, oh, he actually likes the feedback. Now, inside, my heart might be melting. You know, I'm like, I thought I got better at this. You know what I mean? Externally, I'm like, hey, thank you. And I mean it. And I think that's the key that most people don't sort of focus on. And if you get more feedback, then you'll just get better at the things.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Having more executive presence. You know, did you feel that to which extent did you feel that I showed executive presence? So it's like a very specific thing, right? Versus, hey, I added a go. So that's one thing you can do. Other thing you can do sometimes is you give yourself critical feedback in front of them and then you give them a chance to agree or disagree. Hey, I feel like this presentation didn't go well for this reason. Like, what do you think? But actually, I thought it wasn't fine. However, this other thing.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “The feedback piece is something that I had to get better at over time, like asking for it. Because what I realized is If people don't feel comfortable with you, they won't give you feedback because it's just they're taking on a risk, right? Especially if it's constructive feedback. And by the way, that's also something that's hard about being underrepresented, right? People sometimes don't have the same natural level of connection with you. So I basically learned to go out of my way to make people comfortable, giving me feedback. And there's different techniques. And Mochari also, Matt Machari also talks about some of them. Sometimes it's basically, you know, you ask in a very specific way, hey, I did this presentation, I'm working on, I don't know,”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Yeah, exactly. So it's those And then he talked about saying back to people what you heard, you know, asking for more information, et cetera”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Always working on something. One I can call out is listening. So one thing about Dekry Stuff, too, by the way, is you hear these words and depending on how familiar you are, you understand or don't understand what it actually means. So when I say listening, I'm good at seeking information to solve a problem. So if you come to me and you're like, hey, Jules, I have this problem. I will know what to listen for and what to ask you. Hey, Lenny, can you tell me A? B. And then I'll help you solve the problem. However, there's also different listening patterns, one of which is you just create space for someone. It's not like you're seeking a particular information. Just give them space to tell you what they want to tell you. And then the other side of it too is you help that person feel heard. You know, hey, I feel like you actually understand me and you've heard what I'm saying. So that's the support I am working on.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Yeah, exactly. So it's more that within six months you're clearly better. Now, you can invest another six months to get to the next level. Or you could say, now I'm going to switch focus to another skill and get that one to a similar level.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Now the other approach you could take is what most people do is like they read an article on your newsletter or some other place and then like, oh, great. I learned an insight. And then you go back to usual.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Yeah, so my approach is typically I'll say I'm giving myself, I don't know, three months, six months. It depends on what's the delta I want to see in my behavior for these things. And I just go all in on that scale. So let's say I wanted to learn strategy, right? So I'd be like, okay, I'm giving myself, let's say, six months. So every week, I'm going to do something related to learning strategy. It's going to be maybe I read the strategy for another feature or brother at my company. And you just divide, right? Let's say there's 10 features or 20. It doesn't matter. You just won a week or 20 weeks. You see what I'm saying? And then the other thing is every week I'm also going to practice it towards my outcome. So I'm going to spend, I don't know, three hours a week, maybe one hour a day just thinking through my own product strategy. And I do that for six months. So you do it enough that you get over the hump and then actually develop the skill.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “You know, like for the IQ stuff within six months, sometimes three months, I can see like clear progress. But you see enough documents. You know, you see five, six of them. You start seeing like 80% of the patterns, right? But then with the EQ stuff, it's things I've been working on for years. You know, I am better at them, but I still feel I'm continuing to work on those things. And a lot of it is like, you know, lifting weights or building muscles. You have to do it every day or every week. And if you stop doing it over time, you atrophy again. So that's something that people need to acknowledge you. Like give yourself time and then also learn these skills one at a time, ideally.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I also, by the way, I always ask for feedback more than I think many people. And I try to see patterns in feedback. So for me, one thing I've observed is I tend to write long sentences. Coming from Haitian, French background. But then I see that because I've seen enough feedback that are about it. So I see the patterns, you know, or as I mentioned earlier, I used to not be clear like, are you seeing this solution or that solution? It's better sometimes to be wrong, but clear than the other way around. So that's like on the com side. And then the other things, it's mostly for me through mentorship, like people like Lawrence, like helping me be real with myself, coaching. I've had a coach for a while. I also do group coaching, which I really love. You know, right now I'm doing group coaching with a company called Pathways on Leadership. So these sort of things have helped me sort of infer what my strengths and weaknesses are and then work on them. And then one thing I'll see also about the EQ, it was the most frustrating learning for me.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Yeah. So on the communication side, I read some stuff like Mintos Pyramid Principles, like extremely helpful. And I know you had an article on that. Mention also that whenever I see a great email exec update or whatever, I literally save it in a special folder.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Yeah, and the other thing I'll say too is a lot of learning happens through the iterations and not by seeing the final product. So, you know, we all see these products, right? Like the iPhone, like, name your favorite product, but you don't know what versions they tried and sort of eliminated. And that's the benefit you also get at a company that has great product management. So I actually sometimes dub the BM, like, hey, don't just show me the one you just did. When are you going to do your next strategy? Can I join you then? I just want to sit and like watch you write down the outline and just understand your thought process. Or I want to see when you're going to write your next exec update and understand like how are you going? And you see them go through this iteration. You see them do things like get feedback that you didn't know they were getting all this feedback from. So seeing the backstage is also really helpful.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Yeah, and similar to the mentor point people are actually happy to talk to you. They're even flattered because no one else asked them. Right.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Every week reflecting, like, oh, I saw these dogs that were great, or I saw this presentation that this person gave. I sometimes crash presentation audits, people, PMs give to executives just to see how they handled the questions or these sort of things. So a lot of it is just spending time observing as well.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “I do as well, where I, whether it's true for all these things, right? So for execution, it would be things like me attending another PM's meeting. Oh, I heard this person is amazing at executing. Let me just see how they're on a meeting. And then you're like, whoa, things you didn't notice or somebody is great at communicating. And this, you know, and I'm like, okay, well, did you send this email? It's great. Let me save it. I'd have like dogs of like where I saved templates of things. And a lot of the reason I think people don't learn through osmosis that way is because one is you're not at a company where you can see great artifacts sometimes. That's why I mentioned like if you can get a better company, do that. The other thing too is even if you see the greatness around you, some people don't try to break it down to understand why is this one great and not that one. So I actually do spend a lot of time.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Whether you have a mentor or not, there's other things you kind of have to do. So for me, for example, one thing I do is I try to identify what's the best practice for something. So for example, let's say strategy, right? There was a phase where, you know, I got feedback, hey, you need to be better at strategy. You know, so then I'm like, okay, well, can you help me understand what are people at this company? You know, that was like, you know, a while back, what do you think have done a great job at strategy? Or what are examples of artifacts? So then I get these artifacts, you know, and I reverse engineering them. You know, so I try to think, okay, what are the questions they answer? Maybe I'm not answering all these questions. How do they do it? And you start seeing the patterns. This person did it in a memo. This person did it in a deck. So it's not about the format, but like, what is it, you know, about, and then this person had a lot of data. This person is quantitative, qualitative. So that's a big part of why.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Yeah, it's the same approach. And sometimes what happens is I have a few mentors that I just keep going to over the years. And it's just a topic exchange. And sometimes I sort of get new mentors who are expert at these new topics. So it's a combination of those two things for me. And the thing is, you obviously can learn without this approach, but this approach makes you, at least for me, makes me learn so much faster.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Yeah, I was trying to learn growth. And I wanted to do it in a context of activation, like new job onboarding. And then later, I also wanted to learn growth, but in a different context, which was monetization. How do you drive revenue growth, not just get more users? And then later it was things like, how do I learn how to create a growth org? How do I structure my team? How do I set work streams that add up to a coherent strategy? And you just keep going.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “After I go to Roloo, where I actually see results, whether they're good or bad, I go back to the mentor. And I'm like, hey, I did this. It was actually a successful. Thanks a lot. Now I'm thinking about this other problem. And that's how I rings to repeat. And over time, I drive the outcome and I also know I'm getting better at this thing by working with the experts.”

    2023-01-05 · Lenny's Podcast · Leveraging mentors to uplevel your career | Jules Walter (YouTube, Slack) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source