Insights on Product and Operations Leadership

Aug 4, 2024

Lecture on Product and Operations: Insights from Brian Tolken

Introduction

  • Guest: Brian Tolken, Head of Product and Design at OpenDoor
  • Past Experience: Nearly 5 years at Uber, started on Ops Team, led product launch of UberPool
  • Focus of Discussion: Combining product and operations, lessons learned, product reviews, jobs-to-be-done framework, and more

Combining Ops and Product

  • Twin Turbine Jet Plane Analogy: Product and operations should work together efficiently; each can temporarily function alone, but optimal performance is achieved together.
  • Deep Understanding of Business: Starting in ops provides a solid foundation for product leadership by understanding how the business functions daily and being close to customers.

Staying Calm Under Pressure

  • Example: Launching UberPool in China, slept on the floor, dealt with last-minute technical issues
  • Lesson: Reflecting stress onto teams can be counterproductive; maintaining calm can lead to better outcomes.

The Importance of Product Operations

  • Definition: Helps bridge the gap between centralized product teams and globally distributed operations teams.
  • Role: Facilitates the feedback loop between product development and market implementation.
  • Implementation at Uber: Product operations sat with product teams but reported to ops to ensure efficient communication and implementation.

OpenDoor and Zillow Partnership

  • OpenDoor's Core Product: Digital platform to buy and sell real estate with a focus on simplicity and certainty for sellers.
  • Zillow’s Attempt and Failure: Zillow tried to compete directly but eventually partnered with OpenDoor, recognizing the complexities and operational challenges.
  • Key Insight: Complexities of real estate require a blend of tech, operations, pricing strategy, and capital management.

Product Reviews

  • Goals: Accountability and making the product better
  • Approach: Encourage intellectual discussion, avoid making reviews feel like firing squads, emphasize the importance of perspective from those closest to the problem
  • Attendees: Keep the group small (under 10), share artifacts widely for broader understanding and onboarding

Jobs-to-Be-Done Framework

  • Application at OpenDoor: Framework helps put the team in the customer’s shoes, essential for understanding infrequent but significant transactions like home buying/selling.
  • Implementation: Use a template during product reviews to outline context, problem, potential solutions, risks, and success metrics.
  • Cultural Integration: Encourage team discussions about the customer’s job to be done.

Experimentation with Low Sample Sizes

  • Challenges: OpenDoor deals with fewer, larger transactions, making traditional A/B testing difficult.
  • Approach: Run power analysis to determine feasibility, consider long-term experiments, use other methods (customer feedback, observational data) to increase conviction in decisions.
  • Significance: Understand that sometimes intuition must guide decisions when data is insufficient.

Handling Stress and Uncertainty

  • Mantras: “You’re never as good or as bad as you think you are.” Reflecting stress doesn’t produce better outcomes.
  • Experience: Having been through stressful situations helps maintain calm in future crises.
  • Toolkit: Learn from others’ experiences, stay curious, and develop a clear head during crises.

Miscellaneous Insights

  • Uber’s Early Operations: Manual processes evolved into automated systems as the company scaled (e.g., driver onboarding evolving from in-person to automated systems).
  • Product Leadership: Match PMs’ skills and context with specific problem areas, recognize different types of PMs (technical, ops-driven, design-focused).
  • Continuous Learning: Stay open to learning from diverse sources (books, podcasts, biographies).

Lightning Round Highlights

  • Books Recommended: Shoe Dog, Black Swan, Design of Everyday Things, Shantaram
  • Favorite TV Shows: Sports documentaries on Netflix (e.g., Full Swing, Drive to Survive)
  • Favorite Products: Fi Collar for dogs, Artifact news aggregation tool
  • Personal Mantra: Stay curious
  • Influential Person: Jeff Holden, former Chief Product Officer at Uber
  • Interview Anecdote: Interviewed at Uber on July 4th, reflecting the intense work culture