Lenny RAG MCP Server

{ "episode": { "guest": "Hari Srinivasan", "expertise_tags": [ "Product Management", "Marketplace Design", "Talent Solutions", "Skills-Based Hiring", "LinkedIn Learning", "Complex Systems", "Organizational Leadership" ], "summary": "Hari Srinivasan, VP of Product at LinkedIn for Talent Solutions, discusses how LinkedIn is reshaping the hiring market through skills-first hiring and values-based job searching. He shares insights on building and maintaining complex ecosystems with multiple interconnected marketplaces, LinkedIn's transformation from a 'cringe' platform to a valuable content source, and lessons from his product management course. The conversation covers tactical advice for job seekers, frameworks for decision-making in complex organizations (RAPID, five-day alignment), and his philosophy on building products that connect people to economic opportunity.", "key_frameworks": [ "Skills-First Hiring", "Marketplace Model", "RAPID Decision Framework", "Five-Day Alignment Rule", "PM Skills Triangle (Creator, Data Scientist, General Manager)", "Connecting People to Economic Opportunity", "Cause and Effect Thinking in Complex Systems", "Orange and Red Priorities Planning" ] }, "topics": [ { "id": "topic_1", "title": "LinkedIn's Transformation: From Cringe to Credible Content Platform", "summary": "Lenny and Hari discuss how LinkedIn shifted from being perceived as a cringey platform to becoming a genuinely interesting source of content, even outperforming Twitter for some users. Hari attributes this to their focus on helping members connect to economic opportunity through relationship connections and knowledge-sharing content.", "timestamp_start": "00:06:32", "timestamp_end": "00:14:15", "line_start": 58, "line_end": 129 }, { "id": "topic_2", "title": "Skills-First Hiring: Rebalancing the Job Market", "summary": "Hari explains how COVID-19 highlighted a critical market inefficiency: people were looking for specific job titles rather than recognizing transferable skills. LinkedIn implemented skills-first hiring, which is now used by 47% of recruiters. This shift is fundamentally changing how people find jobs and how companies hire.", "timestamp_start": "00:16:15", "timestamp_end": "00:20:25", "line_start": 153, "line_end": 189 }, { "id": "topic_3", "title": "Open to Work: Destigmatizing Job Seeking", "summary": "The evolution of LinkedIn's 'Open to Work' feature from a secret signal to recruiters to a public declaration. Hari discusses how social stigma around job seeking changed during COVID and how LinkedIn is now exploring 'Open to Internal Work' for employees seeking internal mobility.", "timestamp_start": "00:20:51", "timestamp_end": "00:22:13", "line_start": 193, "line_end": 201 }, { "id": "topic_4", "title": "PM Job Market and Hiring Challenges", "summary": "Hari provides statistics showing PM hiring is down 50% year-over-year in tech and shares three tactical tips for PMs job searching: build relationships, signal intent through skills and credentials, and focus on industry-specific experience as differentiation.", "timestamp_start": "00:22:22", "timestamp_end": "00:26:56", "line_start": 205, "line_end": 240 }, { "id": "topic_5", "title": "Finding Jobs on LinkedIn: Seniority and Tactics", "summary": "Discussion on how LinkedIn's job discovery works at different seniority levels, with senior roles typically found through relationship-based recruiting rather than job applications. Hari covers open to work signaling, skills verification with credentials, and the importance of showing hiring managers.", "timestamp_start": "00:27:05", "timestamp_end": "00:28:38", "line_start": 241, "line_end": 255 }, { "id": "topic_6", "title": "LinkedIn Culture: North Star and Decision-Making", "summary": "Hari shares a transformative early experience where Jeff Weiner critiqued his product review, leading him to focus on LinkedIn's core mission: connecting people to economic opportunity. This North Star guides all decisions across complex business units and creates organizational alignment.", "timestamp_start": "00:28:51", "timestamp_end": "00:32:34", "line_start": 259, "line_end": 288 }, { "id": "topic_7", "title": "Metrics for Success: How LinkedIn Measures Impact", "summary": "Hari explains how LinkedIn operationalizes its mission through concrete metrics: number of hires and job conversions for the hiring marketplace, and time spent learning for the learning marketplace. These metrics reflect the goal of connecting people to economic opportunity.", "timestamp_start": "00:32:46", "timestamp_end": "00:34:11", "line_start": 292, "line_end": 320 }, { "id": "topic_8", "title": "Building Complex Ecosystems: Frameworks and Processes", "summary": "Hari discusses the unique challenges of building interconnected products and marketplaces. He explains how RAPID (Recommender, Agree, Decision-maker, Input) and five-day alignment rules help manage complexity, prevent endless debates, and ensure swift decision-making.", "timestamp_start": "00:35:55", "timestamp_end": "00:39:51", "line_start": 334, "line_end": 387 }, { "id": "topic_9", "title": "Talent and Systems Thinking at LinkedIn", "summary": "Hari emphasizes that managing complex ecosystems requires different skills than building simple products. He discusses how LinkedIn prioritizes hiring people who can see systems holistically and work effectively across boundaries, not just optimize within their own product area.", "timestamp_start": "00:39:56", "timestamp_end": "00:41:34", "line_start": 391, "line_end": 420 }, { "id": "topic_10", "title": "LinkedIn's Value Creation: Beyond Optimization", "summary": "Addressing the perception that LinkedIn is purely optimization-focused, Hari highlights invisible but transformative innovations like skills-based hiring, values-based job filtering, and LinkedIn Learning. These represent strategic bets on how people find jobs and learn.", "timestamp_start": "00:41:34", "timestamp_end": "00:43:17", "line_start": 409, "line_end": 420 }, { "id": "topic_11", "title": "LinkedIn Learning: Platform and Business Model", "summary": "Hari explains LinkedIn Learning as a marketplace connecting learners to instructors. LinkedIn brings world-class instructors into film studios (in Europe and Santa Barbara, acquired from Lynda.com) to create professionally-produced courses. The business is primarily enterprise-focused.", "timestamp_start": "00:43:29", "timestamp_end": "00:45:05", "line_start": 424, "line_end": 431 }, { "id": "topic_12", "title": "Creating a PM Course: Product University at LinkedIn", "summary": "Hari developed LinkedIn's internal Product University bootcamp after a survey revealed PMs felt they lacked job skills. The course uses case studies and LinkedIn examples, recently filmed for external release. It covers validation frameworks, prioritization, and growth loops with real examples from LinkedIn's experiences.", "timestamp_start": "00:45:05", "timestamp_end": "00:48:19", "line_start": 433, "line_end": 464 }, { "id": "topic_13", "title": "Breaking Into Product Management: The PM Skills Triangle", "summary": "Hari presents a three-skill model for great PMs: creative/building skills (Steven Spielberg type), data science capabilities, and general management. He argues great PMs live on the edges of this triangle, leveraging two skills deeply rather than being mediocre across all three.", "timestamp_start": "00:48:29", "timestamp_end": "00:49:38", "line_start": 469, "line_end": 474 }, { "id": "topic_14", "title": "Finding Your PM Passion: Working on Products People Love", "summary": "Hari shares his experience working on the Hybrid Escape at Ford as foundational to understanding what great product love feels like. He encourages aspiring PMs to find early career experiences where they can feel and experience product love from users.", "timestamp_start": "00:49:38", "timestamp_end": "00:50:40", "line_start": 475, "line_end": 480 }, { "id": "topic_15", "title": "Developing PM Skills: Ownership and Building", "summary": "Hari advises PMs to own their products explicitly and speak up about direction. He emphasizes the importance of building things as a continuous muscle—whether side projects or formal work—to stay sharp and creative.", "timestamp_start": "00:50:56", "timestamp_end": "00:51:57", "line_start": 484, "line_end": 489 }, { "id": "topic_16", "title": "Mind of Hari: Creative Side Projects and Building for Joy", "summary": "Hari shares his personal website mindofhari.com where he builds various creative projects purely for the love of creating—not for business. Projects include bedtime story notebooks, board games like Parallel Universe, and healthy gummy bears made from scratch.", "timestamp_start": "00:52:12", "timestamp_end": "00:54:48", "line_start": 493, "line_end": 513 }, { "id": "topic_17", "title": "Recommended Books and Media", "summary": "Lightning round: Hari recommends 'Thinking in Systems', 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow', and 'An Immense World'. He discusses watching Star Wars and ET with his family and a sci-fi podcast called Case 63.", "timestamp_start": "00:55:11", "timestamp_end": "00:57:56", "line_start": 535, "line_end": 590 }, { "id": "topic_18", "title": "Interview Question: Complexity and Systems Thinking", "summary": "Hari's favorite interview question asks candidates about the most complex thing they've built, looking for two signals: whether they gravitate toward hard problems and whether they can simplify and explain complex systems clearly.", "timestamp_start": "00:58:06", "timestamp_end": "00:59:35", "line_start": 595, "line_end": 606 }, { "id": "topic_19", "title": "Favorite Products: Gamified Toothbrush", "summary": "Hari loves a gamified toothbrush (Baby Shark themed) that turns the annoyance of teeth-brushing into a moment of joy for his youngest child. He appreciates how it solves the problem and creates delight.", "timestamp_start": "00:59:42", "timestamp_end": "01:00:35", "line_start": 616, "line_end": 627 }, { "id": "topic_20", "title": "Process Improvements: Orange/Red Priorities and 15-Minute Reviews", "summary": "Hari discusses two recent changes to product development process: shifting from bottom-up to top-down planning with clear big rocks (orange and red priorities), and experimenting with 15-minute product reviews instead of hour-long sessions to drive clarity faster.", "timestamp_start": "01:00:44", "timestamp_end": "01:02:34", "line_start": 631, "line_end": 653 }, { "id": "topic_21", "title": "LinkedIn Pro Tips: Skills and Learning", "summary": "Final advice: pay attention to the skills section of your profile, as skills-first hiring is becoming increasingly important. Also check out LinkedIn Learning, which is underutilized because it's sold primarily through enterprises.", "timestamp_start": "01:02:47", "timestamp_end": "01:03:30", "line_start": 658, "line_end": 668 } ], "insights": [ { "id": "insight_1", "text": "LinkedIn's feed success comes from understanding that members want two things: to stay connected with their professional network and to access knowledge and advice from outside their immediate network. The algorithm focuses on amplifying these signals.", "context": "Discussion of how LinkedIn improved its feed quality", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 68, "line_end": 72 }, { "id": "insight_2", "text": "The biggest untold story in hiring is the shift to skills-based hiring. During COVID, there were hospitality workers available but customer service roles unfilled because people weren't recognizing transferable skills. This has become a permanent change in how the market operates.", "context": "Skills-first hiring impact", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 157, "line_end": 167 }, { "id": "insight_3", "text": "When building products in marketplaces, you must be receptive to signals from members and amplify them rather than imposing top-down changes. Members have to want the feature for it to work—whether skills-first hiring or values-based job filtering.", "context": "How product changes actually get adopted", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 184, "line_end": 188 }, { "id": "insight_4", "text": "The stigma around being 'open to work' decreased dramatically during COVID because circumstances changed the perception. This shows that social perceptions of employment status can shift rapidly when the market context changes.", "context": "Evolution of Open to Work feature", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 193, "line_end": 195 }, { "id": "insight_5", "text": "PM hiring is particularly difficult right now—down 50% YoY in tech. Success requires: 1) building relationships, 2) signaling intent clearly, and 3) leveraging industry experience as differentiation since you can't differentiate on functional title alone.", "context": "Advice for job-seeking PMs", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 205, "line_end": 215 }, { "id": "insight_6", "text": "Skills-based credentials are becoming critical for recruiting. Instead of needing the exact job title, candidates can now add work products, recommendations, and other evidence against specific skills. Recruiters can see this evidence and use it to recommend candidates to hiring managers.", "context": "How skills change recruitment", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 236, "line_end": 239 }, { "id": "insight_7", "text": "A strong North Star mission, consistently reinforced by leadership, becomes embedded in organizational DNA. At LinkedIn, 'connecting people to economic opportunity' guides decisions across completely different business units because everyone understands and believes in it.", "context": "How culture and mission drive decision-making", "topic_id": "topic_6", "line_start": 280, "line_end": 288 }, { "id": "insight_8", "text": "In complex ecosystems, you must think through second, third, and fourth-order effects of every change. A feature like 'Open to Work' affects job seekers, recruiters, hiring managers, and company perception—all of which need to be managed simultaneously.", "context": "Challenges of building in interconnected systems", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 344, "line_end": 348 }, { "id": "insight_9", "text": "Complex ecosystems require different decision-making mechanisms. RAPID clarifies who decides (single owner is critical), five-day alignment puts time pressure on escalation, and one-hour email rules prevent endless debate. These systems are what make complex organizations function.", "context": "Processes for managing complexity", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 350, "line_end": 363 }, { "id": "insight_10", "text": "The ability to see systems holistically and work effectively across organizational boundaries is a rare skill. Most talent systems measure individual or team success; great system thinkers understand the broader ecosystem and optimize for it.", "context": "Hiring for system thinkers", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 391, "line_end": 396 }, { "id": "insight_11", "text": "LinkedIn's most impactful innovations (skills-based hiring, values-based job filtering, LinkedIn Learning) are invisible to many because they're embedded in marketplace mechanics rather than flashy features. Value creation at scale often happens in unsexy, systematic ways.", "context": "Where real product impact lives", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 413, "line_end": 419 }, { "id": "insight_12", "text": "When building a learning business, you can't just rely on content creators who are already good at producing content. You need to invest in infrastructure (studios, scriptwriters, makeup artists) to help subject matter experts become great educators.", "context": "LinkedIn Learning's production philosophy", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 428, "line_end": 429 }, { "id": "insight_13", "text": "You can't teach product management through frameworks alone. Real learning requires case studies, examples, and seeing how frameworks apply to actual situations. This is why LinkedIn's Product University uses LinkedIn's own projects as teaching material.", "context": "How to teach product management effectively", "topic_id": "topic_12", "line_start": 437, "line_end": 438 }, { "id": "insight_14", "text": "Great PMs don't live in the center of the skills triangle (creator, data scientist, general manager). They live on the edges, with two strong skills and one weak. Trying to be good at everything leads to being mediocre at everything.", "context": "PM skills model", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 470, "line_end": 474 }, { "id": "insight_15", "text": "Early career experience with a product people genuinely love is invaluable. It sets the bar for what success feels like and creates an internal standard that guides all future product work.", "context": "Importance of early product love experience", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 476, "line_end": 480 }, { "id": "insight_16", "text": "Most PMs are scared to take true ownership of their product and clearly state where they want to drive it. Clarity of ownership and willingness to shape direction is what attracts other talented people to the work.", "context": "How to be an effective PM", "topic_id": "topic_15", "line_start": 485, "line_end": 489 }, { "id": "insight_17", "text": "Building is a muscle that atrophies without practice. PMs should constantly build things, whether side projects or formal work, to stay sharp in their core skill—the ability to create and shape.", "context": "PM skill development", "topic_id": "topic_15", "line_start": 488, "line_end": 489 }, { "id": "insight_18", "text": "The best products solve problems and create moments of delight, not just eliminate friction. A toothbrush that turns annoying teeth-brushing into a game isn't just solving a problem—it's transforming a moment from negative to positive.", "context": "What makes products great", "topic_id": "topic_19", "line_start": 620, "line_end": 621 }, { "id": "insight_19", "text": "Bottom-up planning often leads to misaligned priorities and wasted effort. Top-down clarity about 'big rocks' and honest communication about priorities lets teams plan effectively and understand trade-offs.", "context": "Orange and Red priorities planning", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 632, "line_end": 636 }, { "id": "insight_20", "text": "Product review processes need to be reset every quarter because they naturally institutionalize and become bureaucratic. The goal should always be: quickly get to problem statement, then design from there.", "context": "Maintaining effective product processes", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 638, "line_end": 641 }, { "id": "insight_21", "text": "The skills section on LinkedIn profiles is underutilized, but its importance is increasing as more recruiters move to skills-first hiring. Job seekers should invest in completing and verifying their skills.", "context": "LinkedIn profile optimization", "topic_id": "topic_21", "line_start": 659, "line_end": 662 }, { "id": "insight_22", "text": "LinkedIn Learning is a hidden gem because it's sold primarily as an enterprise product. Individual members often don't know it exists, missing out on world-class professional development content.", "context": "Underutilized LinkedIn features", "topic_id": "topic_21", "line_start": 662, "line_end": 663 }, { "id": "insight_23", "text": "The way you make decisions in a multi-stakeholder ecosystem is fundamentally different from building single products. You need mechanisms to clarify authority, time-box decisions, and prevent endless consensus-building.", "context": "Decision-making in complex systems", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 350, "line_end": 351 }, { "id": "insight_24", "text": "Senior roles are rarely found through job applications on LinkedIn. Instead, successful senior hiring happens through relationship-based recruiting where recruiters actively identify and contact candidates.", "context": "Senior hiring dynamics", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 254, "line_end": 255 }, { "id": "insight_25", "text": "Showing hiring managers to candidates is a high-leverage tactic because it removes uncertainty about who will make hiring decisions. Personal access to decision-makers is often what converts interest into applications.", "context": "Tactics for candidates", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 248, "line_end": 249 } ], "examples": [ { "id": "example_1", "explicit_text": "We were just watching COVID hit. It was just this heartbreaking moment where in the feed you were seeing all these people, by no fault of their own, starting to post that they've lost their job. We started seeing in our data is you had some areas like maybe hospitality was really getting hit, but some areas like customer service that just couldn't hire enough.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (speaker is Hari Srinivasan, VP of Product at LinkedIn)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "COVID-19", "Hiring", "Market Inefficiency", "Hospitality", "Customer Service", "Data Insights", "Skills Gap" ], "lesson": "Demonstrates how real-time data can reveal market imbalances that aren't solving naturally—hospitality workers available but customer service unfilled because of job title mismatch, leading to skills-first hiring solution", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 1, "line_end": 5 }, { "id": "example_2", "explicit_text": "When you work on something, oftentimes jobs and learning, it's rare I think that it's in the influencer conversation. It's not necessarily something you or other people are properly experiencing on day-to-day.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan at LinkedIn", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "Jobs", "Learning", "Product Invisibility", "Impact without Glory", "B2B Product" ], "lesson": "Shows that important products solving real problems (hiring, learning) often don't get media attention or influencer coverage, making it hard to tell the stories of impact", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 43, "line_end": 45 }, { "id": "example_3", "explicit_text": "I came through a small acquisition that they made of our company, and I thought it was such a telling moment in this first product review. I went in and as you can imagine when you join a company, there's a lot of advice on how you should make that product work. I didn't know anything. I'd never been a PM. I remember taking a lot of that advice and putting together a presentation and just getting destroyed during that review.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan at LinkedIn (after an acquisition)", "confidence": "95%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "Acquisition", "First Product Review", "PM Onboarding", "Failure", "Learning", "Leadership Feedback" ], "lesson": "Demonstrates the value of receiving critical feedback from strong leaders. Jeff Weiner's harsh but kind critique pushed Hari back to first principles (connecting people to economic opportunity) and became foundational to his approach", "topic_id": "topic_6", "line_start": 259, "line_end": 263 }, { "id": "example_4", "explicit_text": "I was on the first team that did a hybrid SUV in the US. At the time, it was the Hybrid Escape at Ford. I came from the Midwest and it was one of those products where people would really drive out for hundreds of miles and see, and really a community gravitated around because it was a very special product.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan at Ford", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Ford", "Hybrid Escape", "Automotive", "Product Love", "Community", "First Product Experience", "Market Creation" ], "lesson": "Shows how early career experience with a genuinely beloved product sets the bar for all future product work and creates an internal standard of excellence", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 476, "line_end": 480 }, { "id": "example_5", "explicit_text": "One of the things we started at PM internally was product university. We had our own internal university, which was basically we got some survey, we sent it out. I think everyone told us, well, it's literally the most negative one was people said, 'I don't have the skills to do my job.'", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (Hari Srinivasan's team)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "Product University", "PM Training", "Internal Development", "Skills Gap", "Education" ], "lesson": "Identifying a specific problem (PMs feeling unskilled) through employee surveys led to a solution (Product University) that was so good it was eventually released externally", "topic_id": "topic_12", "line_start": 433, "line_end": 438 }, { "id": "example_6", "explicit_text": "We have two large film studios. We bring in instructors. We film a lot of content. One's in Europe and one's in Santa Barbara. It was all started with the Lynda acquisition. We have a large team of content creators and teams, everyone from makeup artists to script writers.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (via Hari Srinivasan)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn Learning", "Lynda.com", "Content Production", "Film Studios", "Creator Economy", "Enterprise Learning" ], "lesson": "Demonstrates the infrastructure investment needed to transform subject matter experts into great educators, going beyond just hosting user-generated content", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 141, "line_end": 143 }, { "id": "example_7", "explicit_text": "If you're able to get into something that people really love and feel that and experience that, and really understand what that looks like and what it takes to get there, I think that's actually been a really valuable lesson throughout my career because you can understand the whole path on the way up.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan reflecting on his Hybrid Escape experience at Ford", "confidence": "95%", "tags": [ "Ford", "Product Love", "Career Development", "PM Skills", "Early Career", "User Connection" ], "lesson": "Early exposure to a product that users genuinely love creates a lasting mental model for what great product work feels like", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 479, "line_end": 480 }, { "id": "example_8", "explicit_text": "My youngest just hates brushing his teeth. Just was like, it was always a thing. I should actually find the name of the toothbrush, but you can just Google or Amazon this and you'll figure it out. Basically, it's like it was this Baby Shark toothbrush, but it's a game. You play that game for two minutes and you can try to pick up different prizes, you brush your teeth.", "inferred_identity": "Gamified toothbrush (likely exists on Amazon but specific brand/maker not named)", "confidence": "70%", "tags": [ "Gamification", "Children's Product", "Habit Formation", "Delight", "Problem Solving", "Consumer Product", "UX Design" ], "lesson": "A great product doesn't just solve a problem—it transforms a moment from negative to positive, creating genuine delight", "topic_id": "topic_19", "line_start": 617, "line_end": 627 }, { "id": "example_9", "explicit_text": "We made a board game recently that I know Stanford Design School or some professors there have been using, and it was called Parallel Universe. It's, how do you have a card and then be able to see maybe the card says there's no windows in this world anymore, and then what would happen in that world? You got to list 10 different things that would happen.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan via mindofhari.com", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Parallel Universe", "Board Game", "Stanford Design School", "Creative Project", "Speculative Thinking", "Educational Game" ], "lesson": "Side projects can have educational impact beyond their creator's intention (Stanford professors using it in classes) by tapping into genuine creative expression", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 497, "line_end": 498 }, { "id": "example_10", "explicit_text": "One of the things I found when I had kids is, no matter what I was trying to do, there was candy and sugar everywhere like any Halloween, any birthday party, et cetera. You can't get rid of it because it was just hard to do. So we were like, hey, we're going to sit down and make our own gummy bear.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan (personal project)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Gummy Bears", "mindofhari.com", "Food Product", "Health", "Parenting", "DIY", "Side Project" ], "lesson": "Personal frustration (sugar in kids' food) can be the genesis of a creative solution that actually becomes a real product", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 503, "line_end": 507 }, { "id": "example_11", "explicit_text": "One of the things that I found is, this is just a fun tidbit for your readers, if you open a Twizzler or one of those, about 80% of what's in there is sugar because they're optimizing for shelf life. They're optimizing for what's in the store. What we were able to do is basically create a gummy bear. About 40% of it is sugar.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan's gummy bear project", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Gummy Bears", "Food Science", "Optimization Tradeoffs", "Product Design", "Health", "Consumer Goods" ], "lesson": "Traditional products optimize for shelf life/retail distribution rather than health; alternative approach reveals the gap between what's optimized and what consumers actually want", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 503, "line_end": 507 }, { "id": "example_12", "explicit_text": "One of them was a book me and my oldest wrote, and it was a set of bedtime stories we did. And then one day I was like, 'Hey, we should just make this a notebook.' And we did it. I think it's got about half-a-million readers now.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan and his son via mindofhari.com", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Bedtime Stories", "Notebook", "Children's Book", "Family Project", "mindofhari.com", "Creator", "Publishing" ], "lesson": "Simple ideas from personal life (bedtime stories with kids) can reach massive audiences (500k readers) when executed thoughtfully", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 494, "line_end": 495 }, { "id": "example_13", "explicit_text": "At this point, roughly 47% of our recruiters will come in, explicitly use skills when they start looking for candidates. That's a pretty big change that we're actually seeing hold.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (Hari Srinivasan's team data)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "Skills-First Hiring", "Adoption", "Recruiters", "Market Change", "Metrics" ], "lesson": "Shows measurable adoption of a major product change (skills-first hiring), demonstrating that it's not just aspirational but operationally real", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 167, "line_end": 167 }, { "id": "example_14", "explicit_text": "If you look at tech, it's down about 50% year-over-year. We look at hires over total population on LinkedIn. You can go to Economic Graphs and you can see how it compares trends industry.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn Economic Graph data (cited by Hari Srinivasan)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn Economic Graph", "PM Hiring", "Tech Industry", "Market Data", "Job Market Trends" ], "lesson": "Public data (LinkedIn Economic Graph) provides transparency into hiring trends, showing PM hiring is down 50% YoY in tech", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 206, "line_end": 207 }, { "id": "example_15", "explicit_text": "I do like to ask people what the most complex thing they ever built was. I just love to understand mostly, what do they gravitate to? Is there something you gravitate to? And two, are they able to simplify it? I think those are two really important skills.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan (interview philosophy)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Hiring", "Interview Questions", "Systems Thinking", "Complexity", "Communication", "PM Skills" ], "lesson": "Great interview questions reveal both what candidates are drawn to and their ability to explain complexity—both critical PM skills", "topic_id": "topic_18", "line_start": 596, "line_end": 596 }, { "id": "example_16", "explicit_text": "I think there's only a particular group of people who gravitate to those kinds of problems. I do think more and more openly. I think that's a lot of, in my opinion, the ways the world is going to get better by the things that are really, really hard to solve. Intimacy doesn't scale. When you think about how people are going to feel more connected, it's going to be a lot more difficult to solve.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan's philosophy on talent", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Hiring Philosophy", "Hard Problems", "Systems Thinking", "World Impact", "Talent Selection" ], "lesson": "The people who gravitate toward genuinely hard, interconnected problems (not easily solvable ones) are the ones who will create breakthrough solutions", "topic_id": "topic_18", "line_start": 602, "line_end": 603 }, { "id": "example_17", "explicit_text": "There's always been a focus on connecting people to opportunity. There's always been a focus on that. I think what's happened over time is we've gotten more and more clear with what our members really want, which is this ability to feel close to those relationships and the ability to really get that knowledge that they need.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (Hari Srinivasan's perspective as VP of Product)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "Product Strategy", "Feed", "Relationships", "Knowledge", "Member Value" ], "lesson": "Product improvement isn't about dramatic pivots but getting clearer on what users actually want and dialing existing levers in the right direction", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 76, "line_end": 77 }, { "id": "example_18", "explicit_text": "The other one, which is new, but I'm just particularly excited about, we're starting to do a lot of things which are gen AI-assisted. You basically can come in and get some prompts and people can bury their perspective on that. I think that combination, it's very early, but it's very exciting on how we might be able to help people unlock knowledge.", "inferred_identity": "LinkedIn (Hari Srinivasan's team)", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn", "AI", "Gen AI", "Content Creation", "Feed", "User Generated Content" ], "lesson": "Using AI to help users express perspectives rather than replacing human creativity", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 88, "line_end": 90 }, { "id": "example_19", "explicit_text": "If you happen to have worked in automotive before, have a knowledge about cars, that's a very helpful way to get in. I think if you're able to show that you can show an industry knowledge and an understanding of it, I think it's a real nice way to think about how to position yourself against some of the other candidates.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan giving job search advice", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "Job Search", "Differentiation", "Industry Knowledge", "PM Hiring", "Competitive Advantage" ], "lesson": "Industry experience is a high-leverage way to differentiate in a competitive PM job market, more important than trying to match exact job titles", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 221, "line_end": 221 }, { "id": "example_20", "explicit_text": "I think it's really hard to know how to validate and what the bar is for a new idea in any organization. I think it's really hard to say that. We provide a lot of framework. Simple things from, 'Hey, you got to prove to the world why there's duct tape in here.' There's someone actually physically going out and trying to do it.", "inferred_identity": "Hari Srinivasan in LinkedIn's Product University course", "confidence": "100%", "tags": [ "LinkedIn Learning", "Product Management", "Validation Framework", "Teaching", "PM Skills" ], "lesson": "Validation requires both conceptual frameworks and proving real need exists—can't be purely theoretical", "topic_id": "topic_12", "line_start": 455, "line_end": 457 } ] }