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Vikrama Dhiman

lines on the record: 71
first: 2024-05-12
most recent: 2024-05-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Thank you, Lenny. It's been great talking to you as well. Hopefully, this turns out well. You can reach out to me either on LinkedIn, Vikramad Heeman, or you can reach out on Twitter. Twitter works better. And the listeners can be useful to me by just sharing whatever they feel. And I continuously follow a lot of people, a lot of people who are not yet famous. Just tell me what your story is. Just tell me what you are working on. And as long as you are passionate about it, I will try and find time. Maybe I cannot talk to everyone, but I'll definitely try and find to chat with you and listen out and support or connect you to someone who can help you.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Singapore, there are multiple. So, Singapore is a melting pot of different cultures. There are four official languages. And the only thing I will advise is depending on your taste buds, whatever you want to do, you should go and visit a hawker center. And it's an amazing experience in itself. And those of you who've seen Crazy Rich Asians, the first thing they do when they land in Singapore is go to the Hawker Center. It's an experience of its kind. And if you are looking for a specific recommendation, go to La Pasa. If you are a fan of Indian, you'll get that. If you're a fan of Malay cuisine, you'll get that. If you're a fan of Singaporean Chinese, you'll get that. And you pick what works for you.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, the most important thing has been that I started my career very late in tech. I was already 25 years, I worked in a small tier two town in India. I came to Delhi only in 2013. And I joined Gojek in 2018. I think I've done reasonably well for myself. So, and It's never late to do what you want to do and what you want to be. I think that's the thing that I really, really believe in. And I also advise, especially as the world is aging and a lot of people are thinking about it, I would say that it's not too late ever. You can be and do what you want right now.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, you can start with Drama Box, you can start with short meals and so on. And there are multiple of these. And those of you who are very familiar with TikTok, you would have seen that some of these show you the first 10 episodes on TikTok and then they take you to their app to view the.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Has need how all these products have been put together on unlocking the lamification aspects of it, the storytelling aspects of it, the content cutting part of it, and even the selection of the stories part of it. And what I'm told is that since I've learned about it, I've also been reading about it. There are actually companies which are able to give you tools where you can construct this app yourself. And multiple people are two people, three people companies are churning these out and earning a lot of profit from it as well.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the reason why I've not watched a lot of the drama or TV recently is because I've discovered these short video apps through Instagram. And all of these apps, they dub Chinese TV serials into English or they will meet subtitles in English. And they are delivered in TikTok style two-minute videos. And it's a master stroke in how the series are constructed. The first few episodes, which is like 10 episodes, which is about 10 to 15 minutes, sets up the story in such a way that you have to unlock the next 10. And these videos are quite expensive. They end up, one series takes more than the entire cost of monthly cost of Netflix to view. But it's just amazing how the whole product.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are some obvious check marks that are they able to first abstract out and figure out what the overall goals for the product are, who the users for that product are, what would they be focusing on right now, whether this will align with that or not. And then reason backwards that, okay, maybe this won't work, but something on these lines, are you obsessed about this feature or are you obsessed about, okay, what this enables you to do? So this is what it enables you to do. Then are you okay with considering some other options and so on? So I think that's the direction which usually goes in the right way.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it's not really one question, but what I like to do with them is to brainstorm choices on an actual product. And I'll typically pick up a product that they use most often. And then I will be like, okay, what if this product were to do this? Then what do you think it makes sense? Don't think it makes sense. What about this? Okay, how would it evolve in six months? What would happen in 12 months and so on? I think it gives you a far better insight into how would it be on working with them on a real case. And you also keep, and what I like about it is that you can keep going back deeper into it and develop it together. So I typically try and pick a product that I will also not have very Strong opinions on so that it can become a two way conversation.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In terms of TV shows, I think the show that I really go back to all the time is Shits Creek. I think it's a show which operates at so many different levels without taking itself that seriously. And it just lands. And especially as a product manager and as a leader who obsesses a lot about diversity, I think it did a fantastic job in showing different sides of motherhood, of the LGBTQI communities, and also teenage girls figuring themselves out as well. I think it did a fantastic job.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Haven't seen a lot of movies recently, I think. But while I was on the flight back from Dubai, I saw a miscongeniality again. And it really, really enjoyed it. I thought it's a very fun movie, but also had a pretty good message. I know it's probably not the movie which anyone would want to have cited, but I think it's sometimes good to just watch good entertainment.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Century kind of thing. It's a book that gives you a very good reality check. And the third book that I'll recommend is definitely Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. I think especially the thinking slow part becomes very, very important piece as well. And the reason why change is hard, the reason why feedback is hard is because we are used to thinking fast and we are not used to thinking slow. While if you'll actually think slow, you'll actually welcome change and growth.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first book is a book which I feel is not quoted enough in product management community is a book called Small Data by Martin Lindstomp. He got insights very quickly from, and what are some of the takeaways that are there for people working in product space, not just product managers, but designers, researchers, strategy people, anyone really, I can't recommend that book more and I've cited that book a lot internally. The second book that I recommend is Adam Rand's original. I think it's a very important book. It changed a lot of things. When I spoke about that I was going through this crisis of, oh, I'm behind so many things after joining Goj. Originals was one book that I read which really, really helped me think about my growth and how I see myself. And anyone who is stuck or anyone who feels they are superstars, they are the innovators of the”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think it has been great talking to. I hope it was useful to people. I've tried to keep it real, but also in takeaway format. And if there are any questions that you have that I feel I have not answered, I'm happy to answer them”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Critically incorrect to say over the years when I was younger, it was the norm that, yes, you will have to put in the effort, you will have to put in the hours to grow and improve your skills. And it's not even about your growth in the company. It's just your own growth. You have to spend the time, effort, and energy into growing. I think a lot of that is getting lost in the debates between complete workaholism and just being not a very serious about your growth at all. So I think those are the two that I find myself having to explain myself again and again and why I feel this way.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What I've seen is that it's not enough. Your actions, your behavior, and the way you communicate, the way you collaborate, that also has to communicate and show who you are as well. So intent is not enough. And that's the thing which I think a lot of people in my age group just don't get. But people who are slightly starting off their career, it resonates well with them. Second thing I think where I feel that it's become, I don't know, is it contrarian or it's become politically incorrect is that you still need to put in the effort and number of hours is effort. And I think that's one thing which has become very equal.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Used to think intent is the most important thing, right? And when I was starting off, that used to be the advice that, you know, as long as your intent is right, even if some of your words are not landing, even if some of the comms are not landing, that will work out”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you are not in charge of okay, are you focused on growth? Are you focused on revenue? Are you focused on profitability? That's someone's choice. Are you going to pick this country? Are you going to pick that country? But once that is picked, what are the user segments that you're going to focus on? What are the needs of those user segments? How are we going to figure out what the right product for them will be? What is the order in which we are going to work on that? That whole piece of product strategy is with the product managers. And again, in the first case, you are basically going to rely on everyone to tell you do this, do this, do this. In second and in the level five cases, you are able to articulate a very coherent product strategy at a broad level as well.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On internet, and you'll be like, okay, I don't know what it is. And while on the other end, you are able to have deep debates and good probably write technology design documents yourself as well. I think sometimes people get confused between data science and in different organizations. I see data science bucketed either in data or in technology. Either is fine as long as you are clear on what your organization's framework is. Similarly, then there is strategy. Strategy is, I think, another area in product management, which gets very confusing because there is obviously corporate strategy. There is business strategy. There is pricing strategy, there's strategy everywhere. Product strategy for me is where you are able to define that while somebody defines that this is the mountain that you're going to climb, but okay, how are you going to climb that mountain is basically the product strategy.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And level zero is someone who cannot even basically define the basic metrics for this particular product and won't be able to figure out is this particular thing impacting orders or users or revenue. And so you'll really not be able to figure even that piece out. Similarly on design and research, for product managers, we focus a lot more on problems. And are you able to identify problems from a user's perspective? That's at level zero. And level five will be somebody who's able to define the user problems, but is also able to tie them to business goals as well. So that makes it the holistic. Similarly on technology, it's one of the skills which is relatively easier to define where you don't have any tech understanding. Like if somebody asked you what is HTTP or API.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So each one of those skills, like the most growth ladders, what they will do is they will have, say, for data, they will have level one exhibits these traits, level two exhibits this trade, level three exhibits this trade, level four and level five and so on. That's how they'll describe it. But five is absolute ninja level data quality. Like, you know, you could probably do a data startup of your own.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Organizational skills and community. I think those are very, very important because One of the things, and one of the things which one of the product managers works with me continues to say, and I really plus on that a lot, is that product manager is your community enabler in the team, in the organization. And that community is the software aspect which ties everyone together towards a common mission of delivering an output. And that, I think, is a very, very important goal in today's context, especially for teams which are becoming more remote or teams where people are not co-located or they're distributed, that community aspect becomes a very, very important part that product.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You see yourself as playing a role and not your title and not your function. And that just clarifies a lot of things for people. And different people will play different roles. And depending on the kind of a PM you are you in a specific domain or you are slightly generalist, the role that you will be playing in different teams can be different and the variety of roles that you can play makes you a better product manager.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can be played by someone else. It doesn't necessarily need to be called a product manager, but if you are being called that product manager, you figure out that that's the time piece that you are and you are, when you are added to the team, you must dream the team's overall contribution, overall energy, and overall output up and not down.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What we spoke about earlier, that instead of figuring out what is product management, figure out what's your contribution, what's your output, and figure out, are you contributing on these axes on data, on design, on technology, and on strategy? And one of my favorite things is that if you created this four circles of strategy, of technology, of design, and of data, and you created a product management circle which encircles each one of these, so you are the only discipline which is the co-ollaborator for all of these disciplines and tying all these things out. So it's not about you standing alone, it's you always collaborating and pairing with someone else, but you are the only one who's pairing with everyone else. And therefore, you have that unique insight which no one else in the team will have. That role.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What I've figured out is that there are certain functions and there are certain disciplines which you can't define, but you can only become better at with practice. For instance, what is an actor or what is a dancer? So these are things that you will get better at as you become skilled at it. And earlier these things used to be looked at as something which is very artistic. Only the people who are talented or only specific kind of people can do it. But now each one of those has become method and frameworks as well. So there are courses on filmmaking, there are courses on acting, there are courses on dancing and so on. And similarly, product management is kind of that space as well. So you have to understand there's an art to it and there's a science to it, but you can use the science to figure out the art. So that's the philosophical side of it. The second side of it is.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't know what to expand. And the number one question I get from stakeholders is a product manager expected to do this because they also don't know, okay, is this expected from a product manager or not? And my general answer to that is if this is something which is blocking the progress on the product, then yes, the product manager should work on that. But that works if the product managers have had some training and they have had some training in working with different stakeholders and they've had something on the job.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we've been in technology product for several decades now, but we still are figuring out what an exact definition of product management is. And even the strongest definitions are slightly principled and philosophical in nature. They're not very concrete. And that also means that different technology companies have gone through different journeys and they've defined the roles very, very differently. And even within a very large company, you will see that different teams, different divisions are approaching the roles very, very differently as well. And on top of that, what that does is that not only internally, the product managers are figuring this out, their managers, their leaders are figuring these things out for them. But the other stakeholders who have to work with these product managers are also confused.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Enterprise product, and she's doing an amazing job as well. Again, going through that path of okay, these are the things that you need to leverage. The only watch out is that it doesn't work out always. In some cases, some PMs will pick these things up fast and it also makes a big difference if you are transitioning when you are slightly younger in your career. If you are already senior in a function and then you are transitioning, sometimes it can take a lot of time in transitioning and picking up those skills. But it's definitely doable if you get a very strong product leader working with you who's able to shape those skills for you. And so it's sometimes okay to go a little slow when you're transitioning so that you're able to go faster later rather than getting faster somewhere and then being stuck there for a while”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Data background that makes it even more special. Similarly, the BM who transitioned from research, I kept giving feedback on technology and data skills are the ones that we need to check. And I need to hear from engineers that, yes, they are able to work with her very strongly. And once she was able to do that, she's recently turned a very heated question on one of the features that we were doing into a full blown solution with designs, with trade-offs and everything and able to now convert it into a question or leadership on how we should be approaching this particular product and direction. So I think that's proven successful as well. Similarly, there's another person who took, who was originally from research and again worked a lot on our products, including our”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, for instance, we recently had two pms, one who came from a growth background. There's actually Crystal's team and one from a research background. And with both of them, we use very different tactics. So we gave one of finding driver redesign, which was very much a very design focused product. But it also, we still had them leverage their data skills because we were able to create a PRD with incredible amount of data on exactly what different segments of customers were doing. And that then we worked with designers on what the designs and the framework for that will be. And even now, Plenny, if you will come and see our finding driver redesign next time you're in Asia, it's a piece of art. And if you would see that that was worked on by a product manager who actually came from a growth.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're coming from a data or tech background, then you pick design and research. And that gives you the maximum leverage because that's a skill that you will necessarily not have developed over the years. Once you've demonstrated on two of these three between data tech and design and research, then you start focusing on strategy. We've had great success at Gojek in transitioning a lot of product managers, especially in Indonesia using this framework. And it's produced a lot of good product managers for us.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Different skills take different time and how you are progressing also depends a lot as well. For skills which are softer in nature like communication and collaboration and community, those are skills that you will work on all your life. You'll never achieve anywhere near two or five on five on those ever. There'll always be something that you will miss. There will always be a new context. There will always be a new set of stakeholders, new company cultures that you have to adapt to. For others, you have to see that what gives you the maximum leverage in your career. When you're starting off, my recommendation is that you pick between data and tech one and definitely on design and research and strategy. So usually that's the combo that I recommend. My advice is if you're coming from design and research background, then you pick data or take.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Improve on. You can't improve on every single area. That's what overwhelms you. You need to pick which is the area, which is the maximum leverage for you and improve on that particular aspect and then move on to the next area, then move on to the next area and so on. Obviously, if you are floundering in something, if you're really negative in something, then you fix that first because that will give you the highest leverage. But if you are picking up data and design and strategy and technology all at the same time, that's going to overwhelm you.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ideas, product managers, it becomes difficult because you Because product management is so ambiguous and still not defined, the stakeholders can also give feedback on variety of dimensions. Some of them may not even be important enough to give feedback on, but they are important enough for them. And so therefore they give you feedback. And therefore, you have to shape that feedback in, but you also have to consider that there are these A taxes that we spoke about, the data axis, the design and research axis, the technology access, the strategy axis, communication axis, collaboration access, organizational skills access, and the community access. You need to channelize feedback into, okay, is this an area that you're targeting for growth or not? And one of the most important things that I learned was that when I joined Gogek or even earlier, there would be so many different areas that I needed to improve on and still need to.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't want to be a high agency person. I want to be a mindful agency person. So, and you know, so these terms are very important because these are the stories that you keep telling yourself. And these also then start shaping your behavior. I do feel that I have a lot to do. I have a lot to learn on these skills. But these things definitely keep you grounded and you keep coming back to the learning phase again.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are always learning. And I also found that seeing yourself as someone who's a learner is an enabling story to tell yourself. It may not be the most exciting story. It may not be the most memorable story about yourself, but it is definitely one of the enabling stories as well. Similarly, I think one other thing that I used to say about myself was more that I'm very high agency PM. As I started working more in Southeast Asia, I learned that mindfulness is also very, very important, that you can not every teen, not every culture will work with you in a very hyper aggressive style. So you still need to get the work done. And I'm still learning on that. And therefore, I've started using a word.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, what is it that I am missing? What is it that I am doing wrong? And it auto calibrated me in my eyes on where it was. But that also created a hunger in me that this is what I need to fix. And I immediately corrected my assessment of myself that I'm not the strongest product manager on data. I'm not the one who knows all the strategy pieces or even strategy frameworks or how to bring everything to a strategy point of view or communicate it from an effective perspective. And then I started framing, I'm still in a learning phase. When I see that I'm not in that phase now, I try and make myself humble by interacting with people who are far smarter than me on different scales or reading different books, watching podcasts like yourselves. And that keeps you grounded on the fact that, okay, you”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I'll give an example of when I joined Gojek. The very first thing that I learned in my career was SQL and Oracle. And I was very proud of the fact that my data skills are awesome and I know several frameworks and I know several tools and so on. And when I joined Gogek and I saw one of your guests, Crystal, and I saw the work that she was doing and her team was doing. I just immediately was like, yeah, no, this is not, I'm nowhere near, right? And similarly, I also thought that my communication skills are really good and my product strategy skills are very good. But then I worked with people like Dito and people like Sedu who was so good at their craft that it challenged me to see that”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You at a basic level, which is then very hard to correct through frameworks and structures. So figure out what is the story that you are telling yourself if you are not able to figure that out, talk to the people you trust so that they can tell you that as well and then correct those stories. And the moment you are able to correct those stories, you may be back on the growth path again.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Earlier on, I used to think that, okay, I need to give this kind of work to these product managers. I need to fit them with these kind of teams, these kind of work areas, these kind of opportunities. But then I started understanding these things are not just signaling, they are also anti-signaling. They are like, oh, I'm high agency. So it's sometimes okay if I'm little brash. If I cut corners somewhere, if I sometimes come across as a little rude to some people and so on, right? Similarly, if I'm seen as a hyper collaborative person, so it's okay if sometimes I'm not very discer, if I'm not moving fast and so on, because I'm this kind of a PN. So it's very important that you check for what are the stories that you're telling yourself. Because those stories are defining”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which limits you, especially as you start growing in your career and you reach mid senior levels, is how you see yourself. I see a lot of product man, and I've been a guilty of that. Like when I see that, you know, a lot of product managers, that's included me at some stage doing these things. People will come back and say, oh, I am a very high agency PM, or I'm a very collaborative PM.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Figure out who and you may be four on data out of five in data within your organization. Start benchmarking yourself with the best in the industry. You'll automatically see that your scale drops. And as your scale drops, you start seeing what you need to improve and do. If you start seeing that on communication and collaboration, you're reaching four out of five within the PMR, start mapping yourself to other stakeholders in other functions. Again, your score will fall in your eyes and you will start figuring out what are the things that you can do as well. So keep your focus on rate of change and rate of growth will automatically take care of itself. Sometimes it also involves changing your theme or even changing your company. But those should be the last results. There are significant things that you can do within that as well. One of the final things that I”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Second aspect of it is your relationship with change. Again, when you are younger, when you are starting off, rate of change is crazy. You are growing almost every six months. You are picking up skills and experimentation. You're picking up skills in how to analyze. You're picking up skills in how to work with different kind of stakeholders. And since the rate of change of your skills is high, your rate of growth is also high. Again, as you start becoming mid-senior, I start seeing conversations on”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Outside your control. And it is very, very important that you keep your focus no matter what stage of career you get into what you can control. And again, it's easy to say that everything in universe should be in your control. It doesn't happen like that. But a large number of things that impact your career are within your control. And go back to the W three W's that we spoke about, what you work on, what you produce, or what you bring to the table, and what's your operating model. And there is tons to do on data, tons to do on technology, tons to do on communication, collaboration, design and research strategy and community. And you can spend years and years and years crafting those things. Focus on those things. Growth will happen at every single stage.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Most of the work that you're doing is in what you control, right? You're very obsessed with feedback. You're very obsessed with, okay, can I do this? Can I do this? Okay, I'll probably not do this. I'll probably do this and so on. You're not worrying about the overall corporate strategy. You're not looking at what the competitors are doing, what is their market cap and all those things. You're focused a lot on your craft. You're focused on a lot on your output and you're focused on how you are growing. As you start becoming mid-senior, I see the conversation shifts from what can I do, how am I learning, how am I growing to why is the organization not doing this for me? Why can that stakeholder not change this thing about themselves? Why do I not get to work on projects like this? Things which start going”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think part of it is on a lot of us in product leadership space. We've not done a very good job in defining rubrics, growth frameworks, and so on. But even in places where growth frameworks exist, like 3Ws, what I've seen is that three mindset shifts and changes can enable faster growth. But if those mindsets and changes also can hinder your growth, right? The first thing is whether you are focusing on things you control or whether you're focusing on things that are beyond your control. Second, what's your relationship with change? And third is how you see yourself. The third is very, very powerful, and we'll talk about that as well. The first is what you control. If you drew an axis of what you control and what you cannot control, as you're starting your career,”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What I've seen is that people who do pushback very successfully and are still considered not difficult to work with, they are also able to bring Tempo of the conversation to a more logical space from an emotional space. I think that's such a useful skill. And I sometimes am guilty of operating on a slightly emotional note, which is useful sometimes. You need a war cry, you need high pitch, you need execution on war footing. All that is fine, but it's only fine in some cases. In other cases, it's always very important that you're able to bring it down to the logical space so that a logical and little more equal footing of the discussion can happen. And a lot of this is something that leaders need to ensure is happening. But product managers and product leaders who are working with executives who are able to bring this tempo down and bring it to a little more logical space will also do.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I think the art of Bushmark is another important factor because you can, if you're pushing back a lot and the way you're pushing back matters a lot as well, just don't be someone who's seen as an obstacle and a hindrance and as someone who's just very difficult to work with, but rather see as someone who's able to actually add value to whatever your leader, your stakeholders, your product area demands and you are able to advance the product and the direction and execution forward. Once you do that, I think keeping that as the intent and ensuring that your team is getting unblocked and not getting to do work on anything which is stupid or is likely to be changed, then you've really got it.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What you bring to the table is one of the most misunderstood attributes and aspects of product management. On one end, you could get around and say, here is my BRD, here is my Jira board, here are my stories, here is my pre-sprint planning or reiteration planning document and go. It's not just about the spread and the width of the things that you're doing, but it's also about the depth.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, absolutely. It's always within your control. And it's always with the things that are within your control that you should be controlling rather than focusing on the things that are not within your control and obsessing about those.”
2024-05-12 · Lenny's Podcast · A framework for PM skill development | Vikrama Dhiman (Gojek) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source