YouSaid · the spoken record

Manik Gupta

lines on the record: 71
first: 2022-07-14
most recent: 2022-07-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“The good news is that because of Twitter and a bunch of other channels, including your newsletter, by the way, I feel like people are very well informed these days. And I love that. Let me digress for a second and I'll come back to your question. One thing that I'm observing a lot, Lenny, which I feel very, very happy about, is the quality of learning and insights and frameworks and best practices is so universal at this point. It used to be that, hey, you had to be in the valley or being part of like a small group of folks who are doing things at the cutting edge to have those crazy insights about how do you find product market fade and do all the kind of stuff. Today, I talked to people from all over the world for various reasons. And it's incredible, right? How fast people pick up all these insights and frameworks and then they apply them to their local.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About being a builder and being someone who is actually creating a difference. And that really grounds the team and focuses the team that there is some real value here. So some of those things I kind of picked up, both going through that sort of turbulent time I picked up and I've used that even in good times to make sure that we keep building good products”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What are some of the decisions you make around your product roadmap? So I'll give you an example. During my startup, when we were going through that, in order to motivate the team, one of the best tricks that I came up with, and I learned this from a bunch of other people also, is you just give a team a win, right? Like winning really, really drives a lot of energy, right? So we had a choice to make between launching something which will take six months versus launching something that we can launch in a very smallish kind of way, but launch it in a month, right? And we chose the ladder because when we did that, I remember people were giving high fives to each other. People were saying, hey, you know what, this is great. We put something in front of customers. We had like, I think, 10 customers who used it or something because we were so subscaling that feature, but that didn't really matter. So the point was that you get confidence from getting things out, putting it out there, and you feel good.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. Because like I said, you learn a lot about yourself when you go through a situation like this. And you learn both things that bother you or bring you down and things that give you energy, right? It sometimes counterintuitive to think about this. Like when you're going through a bad time, oftentimes people will say, well, during a bad time, I only learn things which are bad. But you also learn things that are good, right? Which is maybe during a bad time you did something and you suddenly felt relieved or energized. And then you look at that and say, wait, I should do more of that even during a good time because can you imagine the compounding power that I would get because, you know, this stuff is good and I'm doing this and I'll feel even better. So I learned a lot in terms of my own personal energy kind of things that get me going, things that really stop me in my tracks. And at the same time, how do you work with the team? How do you motivate them? How do you keep your head down and focus versus getting distracted?”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At the same time, motivate my team. But yeah, those were the two really challenging times that I encountered, at least in my career.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“2017 2018 was crazy at Uber. Oh my god. Like there was just so much going on with leadership changes, with like the brand issues we were getting. And for me, there were times when I would commute up from my house to the office. And while I'm in the car, I will be listening to some news or whatever and I'll hear about things that happen at Uber that day from the news before I got to hear from within the company, right? So it was that crazy during that time. So again, a lot of chaos, a lot of churn at the company as well. And it was something where you just had to keep your head down and just keep staying focused on what the core is. And I think that is where Lani, the optimism in me in terms of what am I really doing? Is this a service that really benefits millions of people around the world? Are we creating true change? You know, those are things that I just had to sort of dig deep into to make sure that I stay grounded on like, why am I here and why I remain to be here?”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Funding, and we had had an acquisition, so the parent company was pretty strong in terms of their balance sheet. So we could continue to do it. But things didn't get better, Lannie. Like, you know, 2000 went by, 2001 came in. We kept waiting for things to improve, but they never improved. And so we had to pivot. We had to pivot as a company. My co-founders actually left the company at that point, right? And I still wanted to be there because I really believe that I can keep moving this company forward. And then I was working with the founders of the parent company. We pivoted multiple times. We tried a few things. I even relocated back from Singapore back to India to set up an engine.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, absolutely. This is really important to talk about as well because we glamorize successes and we don't talk enough about challenges, right? So I'm really happy that you're asking this. I would give you two times which I had a lot of learning from both of them, but they were pretty tough times for me. The first time was I had started my own company at the height of the dot-com boom. We incorporated our company in June 99. And then in March of 2000, we sold our company to another company from Norway. And that was the peak of the dot-com boom. And then within a few months right after that, we had the dot-com bust. And it was terrible, terrible. I know we have a pretty bad economy right now. There's a lot of stuff going on. It was really bad because, you know, people around me, my friends were losing their jobs. Luckily, we had some funding. So we had some of.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Starts the trip using the Uber app, and then he clicks navigate and he goes to Google Maps. And I was sitting there, I was like, man, I built these two to a certain extent, right? It was just crazy to think about how two of my worlds came together at that point. And I still vividly remember that moment where I felt really proud that I had a little bit of a part to play in both those products.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More than 300 cities, if I remember correctly, where you could just open the Uber app and get an Uber in less than average, less than five minutes. And a lot of operational work need to happen for sure, but the technology, the marketplace technology, especially to be able to connect the right rider to the right driver, have the mapping infrastructure underneath it to ensure that the car actually reaches you in that amount of time. I just feel very proud of all the work that happened during that time to make Uber really successful in terms of providing that kind of a service. And one fun anecdote I'll give you where kind of my word came together and it just blows my mind even today. I remember I joined Uber in late 2015 and I made a trip to India to see my parents in sometime around 2016, 2017. I forget like it was around that time. And I was at home in Bangalore and I ordered an Uber and the guy shows up. The driver comes in and I sit in the back of the car.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In terms of usage, of course, a lot of that happened because of Android. So Android took off and Android had Google Maps on it. But it's just incredible to see how in a short span of a few years, it just went up to becoming so useful. And it's not that we were just distributing Google Maps on Android. People were using it, right? So people were actually using it to go from point A to point B. So I feel really proud about that. I think the team did an incredible effort. It wasn't even a big team. It was a relatively small team, very passionate about going and doing this and we made that happen. And then at Uber, initially, before I took on the CPO role, I was leading maps and marketplace. And when I was doing maps and marketplace, again, how do you get the ETA that you see on Uber when you open the Uber app and you request a car, the ETA's average ETAs went down to less than five minutes globally, right? Just think about that for a minute, right? In fact, it was 75 countries.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then the second one was there were always people around that you can just roll down your car window and just ask people, hey, I'm going here and can you just give me guidance to directions, right? That was a norm, right? Like that's how people navigate it for a really long time. And when I started working on it, I think for me, my belief was, again, going back to the tech optimism sort of aspect is why can't we in India have the same quality maps like we have in the United States? Like, why not? Why shouldn't we do it? Like, why are users here not getting the same benefit and same productivity gain, if you will, and less stress in their daily commute and things like that? So we started building it. We started building the data. We went ahead and really mapped the country as much as we could, both ourselves and through a lot of amazing work from our users who kind of co-mapped the world with us. And over time, India became, I think, the second largest country for Google Maps in the world.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so again, I've had just the incredible opportunity to be part of phenomenal companies that have created world-changing products. And I had a small, small, small part to play in that. I always emphasize that it's not me. It was the team. And I really mean it. I'm not just saying it because I'm on your podcast. But it really is, right? I'm particularly proud of the work that I did both at Google and at Uber. So I'll give you a couple of examples to illustrate that point. So when I joined Google in India in 2008, I started off working on Google Maps. I remember how counterintuitive it was for anybody, my friends and family, bunch of other folks whom I talk to, counterintuitive in terms of like, why would anybody ever use maps on their mobile phone in India? And the reason was because the norm was that firstly the country is unmappable because there's no good addressing system. So how do you even locate places?”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it definitely is. And that's actually a really good way. I hadn't thought about that, right? You're right. Like, I think there's definitely that overlap because folks who are in that more, like they really get around more together. And I'm also an angel investor and investor in a bunch of companies, Lenny, you and I have invested in a bunch of companies together as well. And it's like that. It's really about people who have the same kind of frequency in terms of thinking about the world outlook and they wanted to go on to do interesting things. I think that's really what drives the narrative forward.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm a strong technology optimist. There is always a lot of narrative these days around technology and maybe a little bit more pessimism. And I find that bizarre, right? I'm just such a strong technology advocate and optimist because I feel technology is such a strong force for good. I grew up as an engineer myself and I've always been attracted to projects where we can use technology to solve a real human need. I did that with my startup. I did that at Hewlett Packet. I did that at Google and at Uber as well. And the passion that you get if you're a strong advocate of technology and how it can really”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The long name. Once you find someone like that, stick to them, right? As long as they want to hang out with you, but just stick to them because you will go on to do multiple things over your career with the same set of people and the shared trust and experience that you build with A-plus people. It's just going to go a long way. So anyway, so that's pattern number one. I think that has helped me a lot. And I also see a lot of that in other folks whom I talk to. And then the second pattern is This is something I resonate a lot with personally is”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Colleagues and my fellow students, there were a bunch of really, really smart people. So I just learned a lot from them. And that gave me a great start to just go on and do something interesting. And right out of college, I started my own company. And I did that with two of my classmates. And one of them happens to be one of my best friends whom I grew up with. Also came on the same scholarship with me through Singapore. And we were just part of that ecosystem and it gave me a lot of opportunities to try out different things in college and so on and so forth. So I think the main thing that I would say here for people who are early in career is just surround yourself with people who are really good at what they do, learn from them. And by the way,”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And one of the reporters, I think she asked Steve Kerr, the coach what's the secret? And he goes, well, just hang around superstars, right? That's what he said. And he just passed the mic over to somebody else and said, look, this is a team. It's hanging on superstar. And that's exactly what it is, right? If you create enough opportunities, especially early on in your career, as you asked, around hanging around people who are doing interesting things and they are doing things which really are different or they're doing things in a different manner and it's exciting, the right things will happen. And I was lucky in a way that I caught myself in that situation. I grew up in India. And when I was 16, I got a scholarship to move to Singapore to do my high school and then my undergrad studies. And it just turned out that during those days, Singapore, I mean, it still is, but it was a melting pot for kind of the best and brightest folks that you can get from all over kind of the Asia diaspora, if you will. And among my...”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People who have had multiple careers and have gone through a journey where they've learned a lot and they've contributed and things like that. And I think there are two patterns that stand out both when I look at myself in terms of what I've been through and also when I talk to a lot of my friends who have also gone on and done interesting things. And I wanted to cover both of that. So the first one is really about people. It's about surrounding yourself with the best people you can find. It was so funny. I was watching the Warriors game last night and Yay Warriors, we won the NBA Championship. That's great.”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me start by telling you a little bit about my philosophy on this. So I recently, I'm maybe a little bit late to the party, but I recently read this book from Morgan Hausl on psychology of money. And I highly recommend your listeners read it if they get a chance. And there's a chapter in there. He talks about luck and risk. And what he says is, you know, when you look at individuals and you think about or you ask them or you think about like what they have done that have made them successful, we tend to put a greater amount of emphasis on effort and a little less emphasis on luck and risk, right? And I think I strongly subscribe to that, which is the important thing when you look back is how much luck played a big part and of course the risk that somebody took played a big part. So this is something that I've been thinking a lot about myself, which is what are some of the patterns of”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, thanks, Denny, for having me. I'm also a big fan of yours, by the way. Love your newsletter, and it's been incredible to just see how you have also grown both the set of topics that you cover and this podcast. So just really a big fan. So again, thanks for having me”
2022-07-14 · Lenny's Podcast · Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source