
Top Hacks from a PM Behind Two of Tech's Hottest Products - ca98am79
http://firstround.com/article/Top-Hacks-from-a-PM-Behind-Two-of-Techs-Hottest-Products
======
mdkess
"Compliments should always go to the team. Credit should be handed out freely
and generously. Success belongs to the team but failures belong to you."

This is a distinguishing trait of every great manager that I've worked with.

~~~
incision
_> "This is a distinguishing trait of every great manager that I've worked
with."_

If it's genuine, or at least convincing, I would agree.

I've witnessed a few attempts at this which clearly didn't meet that criteria
and it was nearly the most off-putting managerial song and dance I've ever
witnessed.

I get the impression there's a certain group of people who read lists like
these online or in a book somewhere and go about mimicking them without
understanding the underlying prerequisites.

Eating the failure and giving the success necessarily requires a _total_
understanding of the actual successes and failures.

Without that, the selfless routine is doing everyone a disservice by hiding
the actual problems and quashing further discussion that might reveal them.

~~~
shrikant
> I get the impression there's a certain group of people who read lists like
> these online or in a book somewhere and go about mimicking them without
> understanding the underlying prerequisites.

As a somewhat of an aside, I notice this disturbing tendency a lot in rookie
salespeople. One of the bits of sales advice everyone appears to have read in
some list somewhere is something about mirroring and first names.

It would creep me out (and trip the "douchebag alert!" signal) every time I
spoke to a salesperson who would poorly imitate my mannerisms and keep jamming
in my first name between their words.

~~~
sukoto
Fake it till you make it?

------
brianpgordon
> Larry suggested we go way beyond this. His idea was to ‘just OCR’ the entire
> computer screen continuously so that you could easily search and find
> anything you had ever seen on your computer.

This guy founded Google? I wish I could have seen the horrified look on the
engineers' faces when they heard this idea.

~~~
nostrademons
Larry is legendary for absolutely crazy ideas. One of his other ones was to
remove all the buttons from the Google home page:

[http://skrubu.net/2009/10/07/the-day-google-was-
blank/](http://skrubu.net/2009/10/07/the-day-google-was-blank/)

I think this goes to show that the secret to having better ideas is to have
more ideas, and nobody cares about the million that suck, they care about the
one that makes you a million.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
but you cannot work on a million ideas - you have to pick the few that are
actually good. Having a million ideas clearly makes it more likely you have
the Big One, but I am interested in the mental process in picking and in
committing.

or has Mr Page done a ridiculous amount of crazy that will never work things?

~~~
rhizome
_I am interested in the mental process in picking and in committing._

In order to pick, you must have things to pick between. I'm not sure you can
even practice picking without having a backlog.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
most of us have explicit or implicit backlogs. I think there is however
something about just starting a project that tells you if it is feasible,
problematic or interesting that somehow looking at a list does not.

Would be interested in how Page chooses the ones he will invest personal
energy into

------
jasonwatkinspdx
> This is also the logic behind ‘Eating Your Own Dogfood’ as Google has
> monikered it.

 _facepalm_

How has tech media gotten so myopic to any history or context outside it?
Hell, even within tech Microsoft and Oracle have used that phrase for decades
before google was a big deal.

------
gabemart
This is a very small niggle, but I've noticed at least one other website that
invites me to tweet select quotes from the article. I find this invitation
obnoxious and smug. It suggests (incorrectly, I'm sure) that the author is a
little too pleased with their own profundity.

------
ojbyrne
The words "hack" and "hackers" are rapidly becoming meaningless marketing
buzzwords.

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Not really. They're just very misunderstood words and have been used to refer
to contradictory concepts.

~~~
ojbyrne
That's ancient history. We now have:

Typing Hackers (people who type fast):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6659161](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6659161)

Growth Hackers (Marketers):
[http://growthhackersconference.com/](http://growthhackersconference.com/)

and with this story, Project Management Hackers (which is a pretty good
oxymoron).

I'm sure there's plenty more instances of it being used as a meaningless
buzzword.

~~~
cylinder
As a Typing Engineer, I am appalled at this denigration of my profession.

------
sailfast
These are some great points and I would say they apply to general management
as much as they do to technology and product management. Sounds like a great
person to work with - trust, empathy, and transparency tend to make everything
smoother and more productive.

------
jansen
Todd is awesome, really glad to have him as an investor!

------
lifeisstillgood
this sounds like the epitome of a balanced hard working manager / team leader.
It's just that it is a lot of work - and so much of it is based around keeping
everyone onside, talking and not taking their ball home with them.

but am I getting too old ? I prefer people learning to take no for an answer
and still knuckling down to work, knowing there will be a yes around the
corner. this gets more often and so easier the faster you go.

tiptoeing round Larry Page is clearly good for your career and future
prospects, but few of us will work in an office with such personal power
differentials. most bosses of us are the same peons as we are - so honesty
should have little opportunity cost.

in short, conflict well handled is a good thing.

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exo_duz
This article is really good and it gives a lot of information about how Todd
Jackson is a good PM. A lot of what is written can be used in one's own daily
experience as a PM and startup owner.

Looking forward to using some of the points mentioned to work. :)

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joshdance
Love the article, but I don't think the tactics and suggests are hacks?

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poissonpie
Don't know why but I read "be a shit umbrella..." as "don't be a good
umbrella" and really had to do a double take on that sentence before I
realised what he actually meant.

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polskibus
I read that as project manager not product. I'm glad it turned out not to be
about project management, tracking people, managing budget and schedule.

------
andyl
I'm not impressed - this is leadership 101.

~~~
jasonshen
And yet it is rarely done. So we need to keep advocating for it.

