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{ "episode": { "guest": "Josh Miller", "expertise_tags": [ "Product Management", "Company Culture", "User Experience Design", "Hiring & Team Building", "Browser Technology", "Building in Public", "Startup Leadership" ], "summary": "Josh Miller, CEO and co-founder of The Browser Company (maker of Arc browser), discusses his philosophy of optimizing for user feelings rather than metrics alone. He shares how The Browser Company attracts world-class talent by treating the company culture and team as the primary product, implements unconventional organizational structures (storytelling teams, membership teams, no traditional PM roles), and builds in public to establish trust. Miller articulates a long-term vision of Arc as an \"internet computer\" that will become the platform for web-based applications as computing continues shifting to the cloud. The conversation covers values-driven culture development, rapid shipping practices, and why emotional connection matters more than metrics for consumer products in commoditized markets.", "key_frameworks": [ "Optimize for Feelings, Not Just Metrics", "Assume You Don't Know (Beginner's Mind)", "Start by Asking What Could Be", "Company as Product (Team as Primary Product)", "Building in Public for Trust", "First Principles Thinking on Team Structure", "Internet Computer Vision", "Prototype-Driven Culture" ] }, "topics": [ { "id": "topic_1", "title": "Arc Browser Overview and D5/D7 Retention Metric", "summary": "Josh introduces Arc as a replacement for default web browsers and explains The Browser Company's core metric: D5/D7 (how many people use Arc at least 5 days a week). This metric captures retention, engagement, and growth simultaneously and cannot be gamed. Current D5/D7 retention sits between low-to-mid 30s and low 40s. The team focuses on week-over-week growth rate, which has averaged 10%+ for the past 8 months.", "timestamp_start": "00:00:36", "timestamp_end": "00:08:15", "line_start": 4, "line_end": 68 }, { "id": "topic_2", "title": "Product Philosophy: Optimizing for Feelings Over Metrics", "summary": "Josh contrasts his approach with Silicon Valley's traditional focus on metrics and graphs. Rather than purely optimizing for quantitative outcomes, The Browser Company asks: how do we want people to feel using our product? Examples include joy, speed, organization, and focus. He cites Disney, Nike, and Apple as brands that succeed by understanding emotional connection rather than chasing metrics. Uses Facebook's OBPS metric versus Snapchat's human-centric approach as a case study.", "timestamp_start": "00:09:06", "timestamp_end": "00:17:05", "line_start": 82, "line_end": 119 }, { "id": "topic_3", "title": "Operationalizing Feelings: The Peek Feature Example", "summary": "Josh explains how feelings-optimization works in practice with the Peek feature, which lets users preview links without leaving their current page. The team converses about the emotional goal (lightness, airiness, speed, agility) rather than writing formal specs listing emotions. The Peek feature solves the problem of quick URL browsing on sites like Hacker News by creating an effortless, weightless experience.", "timestamp_start": "00:17:05", "timestamp_end": "00:19:26", "line_start": 119, "line_end": 129 }, { "id": "topic_4", "title": "Company Values: The Road Trip Essay Approach", "summary": "Rather than traditional corporate values statements, Josh developed 'Notes on Road Trips,' a semi-biographical essay that tells The Browser Company's values through storytelling. The process took 3 months and involved interviewing every team member to extract their naturally-occurring values organically. Key values include: heartfelt intensity, assume you don't know, what could be, swarm when needed, and make them feel something. Josh explains his initial resistance to values as 'corporate propaganda' and how the team convinced him these values were already embedded in the culture.", "timestamp_start": "00:22:46", "timestamp_end": "00:27:40", "line_start": 145, "line_end": 174 }, { "id": "topic_5", "title": "Hiring Top Talent: Company as Product Strategy", "summary": "Josh reveals that The Browser Company's primary product is the company/team itself, not Arc. The origin was Hursch (co-founder) and Josh's desire to build a company where they could hire their 'favorite people' to work on something ambitious. Rather than pitching candidates, Josh's interview goal is to convince people NOT to join. Recent high-profile hires include Darren (Chrome co-creator, former leader of hundreds at Google), Tara (SVP of Product at Vimeo), and Peter Vidani (SVP of Design at Slack), all joining as individual contributors.", "timestamp_start": "00:28:15", "timestamp_end": "00:34:37", "line_start": 176, "line_end": 199 }, { "id": "topic_6", "title": "Celebrating Individuals and Avoiding CEO Centralization", "summary": "Josh emphasizes celebrating team members publicly rather than centralizing credit on the CEO. The company celebrates new hires as 'product launches' and tags team members publicly when shipping features. This creates a reinforcing cycle where talented individuals feel genuinely recognized and valued, seeing their work celebrated rather than accruing to the CEO as figurehead. Josh acknowledges this is an authentic expression of the company culture rather than a manufactured strategy.", "timestamp_start": "00:34:37", "timestamp_end": "00:38:17", "line_start": 199, "line_end": 214 }, { "id": "topic_7", "title": "Building in Public: Trust Building Over Radical Transparency", "summary": "The Browser Company shares meetings, includes cameras in board sessions, and publicly discusses challenges. Josh frames this as 'radical trust building' not radical transparency—the goal is for people to know The Browser Company team as humans with imperfections so they trust the company's intentions with personal data. Josh worries this could become performative or make him overly central, but believes the risk is worth taking given tech industry's trust deficit.", "timestamp_start": "00:38:17", "timestamp_end": "00:43:24", "line_start": 214, "line_end": 232 }, { "id": "topic_8", "title": "Unconventional Teams: Membership and Storytelling", "summary": "The Browser Company has created non-traditional team structures. The Membership team manages full-stack customer relationships from first touch to ongoing feedback, replacing siloed customer support/success/research functions. The Storytelling team (3 people: Nash, Ellis, Josh Lee) creates narrative and video content for people who don't yet use Arc. Both teams exist because Josh asked 'what are we really trying to do?' rather than copying traditional org structures. Josh acknowledges these experiments may not scale and could break down.", "timestamp_start": "00:45:15", "timestamp_end": "00:50:48", "line_start": 244, "line_end": 271 }, { "id": "topic_9", "title": "Product Managers: Role-Based Rather Than Org-Based", "summary": "The Browser Company doesn't have a traditional PM organization. Instead, different projects have different people filling the PM role based on project needs. Examples include an infrastructure engineer as PM on performance projects, or someone from membership as PM on features serving members. Josh acknowledges this approach has flaws and may eventually require hiring traditional PMs as the company scales, citing Snapchat's similar initial stance that evolved over time.", "timestamp_start": "00:50:48", "timestamp_end": "00:57:30", "line_start": 271, "line_end": 305 }, { "id": "topic_10", "title": "Storytelling Team Composition and Hiring Diverse Archetypes", "summary": "The 3-person storytelling team includes Nash (poet, NBC stint), Ellis (former Verge reporter, Snapchat marketing lead for 7 years), and Josh Lee (indie filmmaker, former White House intern and Facebook designer). Josh deliberately hires radically different people rather than homogeneous archetypes. This diversity can be harder to manage but produces more original work. Similar approach applies to the design team, which intentionally hires people 'all over the place' in background and sensibilities.", "timestamp_start": "00:58:57", "timestamp_end": "01:01:14", "line_start": 313, "line_end": 322 }, { "id": "topic_11", "title": "Airbnb Influence: Snow White Storyboards and Moment Design", "summary": "Josh describes being inspired by Airbnb's early storyboarding approach (Snow White-inspired frames lining office walls), which motivated him to think about designing specific moments rather than just features. This influenced his philosophy of asking 'how do we want someone to feel when they open that door for the first time?' Josh positions The Browser Company's philosophy not as original but as learned from observing companies like Airbnb, Disney, and Apple.", "timestamp_start": "01:01:54", "timestamp_end": "01:03:03", "line_start": 328, "line_end": 335 }, { "id": "topic_12", "title": "General Magic Documentary and Legacy Mindset", "summary": "Josh recommends the documentary 'General Magic' about a legendary pre-iPhone team that failed commercially but had enormous ripple effects on the industry. He views it not as a tragedy but as aspirational—he wants The Browser Company to have similar cultural and technological ripple effects even if the company doesn't become a mega-success by traditional metrics. The team wants their work to influence the industry long-term.", "timestamp_start": "01:03:07", "timestamp_end": "01:04:24", "line_start": 337, "line_end": 344 }, { "id": "topic_13", "title": "Naming as Rhetorical Tactic: First Principles Thinking", "summary": "Josh explains that giving teams or features non-traditional names (like 'storytelling team' vs. 'marketing,' 'membership' vs. 'customer success,' or 'producers' vs. 'PMs') forces first-principles thinking about actual goals. New names shed preconceived notions and get people to really discuss what they're trying to accomplish. Example: Airbnb called PMs 'producers' for 18 months to encourage movie-producer mindset about building experiences.", "timestamp_start": "01:05:01", "timestamp_end": "01:06:42", "line_start": 352, "line_end": 362 }, { "id": "topic_14", "title": "Cohort of Experience-Focused Companies and Market Fit", "summary": "Josh discusses companies like Linear, Raycast, and Cron that obsess over user experience in their categories. He argues this isn't universally applicable but depends on market dynamics. For commoditized consumer software like browsers, experience is a critical differentiator and how you win. For enterprise/cybersecurity products sold to government agencies, rounded edges don't matter. The Browser Company intentionally picked a market where emotional connection drives adoption.", "timestamp_start": "01:06:42", "timestamp_end": "01:12:14", "line_start": 365, "line_end": 388 }, { "id": "topic_15", "title": "Tuple Example: Latency, Quality, and Design Balance", "summary": "Josh uses Tuple (a pair programming/team communication tool) as an example of product that succeeds through balancing multiple attributes: beautiful design, simple UX, AND exceptional audio/latency quality. A product with great design but poor latency wouldn't win; great latency without beautiful design also wouldn't win. Products need to excel at the attributes that matter for their category.", "timestamp_start": "01:13:13", "timestamp_end": "01:14:34", "line_start": 394, "line_end": 400 }, { "id": "topic_16", "title": "Internet Computer Vision: Moving Beyond the Browser", "summary": "Josh articulates The Browser Company's long-term vision: an 'internet computer' that reflects the shift of all computing to the cloud/internet. Applications, files, photos all live on cloud servers, not devices. In 5-10 years, devices will be commodity shells/interfaces to internet-based computing. Arc aims to be to web browsers what iPhone was to cell phones—not just a replacement but a fundamentally new type of interface. Hardware is commoditizing; the real computer is on the internet.", "timestamp_start": "01:15:19", "timestamp_end": "01:18:57", "line_start": 403, "line_end": 413 }, { "id": "topic_17", "title": "Platform Opportunity: Web as Development Platform", "summary": "Josh explains that the web is the best development platform (accessible on all devices, free for developers, no 30% tax, democratic), but it's held back by browser makers with perverse incentives. Apple wants users on native iOS/Mac (to take the 30% tax). Google wants web content indexed for search, not immersive extensions. Browsers underutilize extension APIs as loss leaders. Arc's real long-term opportunity is building APIs and capabilities that make web apps as immersive as native software.", "timestamp_start": "01:18:57", "timestamp_end": "01:22:34", "line_start": 413, "line_end": 427 }, { "id": "topic_18", "title": "Removing the CEO from Product Development", "summary": "Josh shares that in the past January, The Browser Company started removing him from product development processes, which has been surprisingly healthy. This change mirrors his earlier observation about not centralizing credit on the CEO. Letting the team own product decisions without CEO involvement appears to have improved shipping velocity and team autonomy.", "timestamp_start": "01:26:11", "timestamp_end": "01:26:54", "line_start": 487, "line_end": 501 }, { "id": "topic_19", "title": "Rapid Shipping and Closing the Loop with Users", "summary": "Josh mentions that The Browser Company ships meaningful features every Friday and closes feedback loops quickly with users—when someone requests something, the company delivers and celebrates it. This rapid iteration is enabled by the company's values (heartfelt intensity, assume you don't know, what could be), hiring, and flattened structure without traditional hierarchies or excessive process.", "timestamp_start": "00:19:26", "timestamp_end": "00:22:46", "line_start": 128, "line_end": 144 }, { "id": "topic_20", "title": "Lightning Round: Books, Media, Interview Practices", "summary": "Josh recommends 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' (children's book about imagination), 'Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees' (book about artist Robert Irwin, called his favorite PM book), and 'God Saved Texas' (Lawrence Wright). For media: Episode 3 of The Last of Us and Adam Curtis documentaries (especially 'Hyper-normalization'). For interviews, Josh asks candidates 'What would you like to ask me?' and evaluates authenticity in their responses.", "timestamp_start": "01:23:26", "timestamp_end": "01:25:21", "line_start": 433, "line_end": 478 } ], "insights": [ { "id": "i1", "text": "D5/D7 (five days a week usage) captures retention, engagement, and growth in a single metric that cannot be gamed, making it superior to DAU or WAU metrics", "context": "Explaining Browser Company's core metric for tracking success", "topic_id": "topic_1", "line_start": 43, "line_end": 47 }, { "id": "i2", "text": "Optimizing purely for metrics misses a lot; Disney, Nike, and Apple succeeded by making people feel something emotionally connected to the product, not by chasing graphs", "context": "Contrasting feelings-based vs. metrics-based product philosophy", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 92, "line_end": 104 }, { "id": "i3", "text": "Snapchat won because they asked 'Do people feel closer to their friends and family?' rather than obsessing over metrics like OBPS (Objects Posted By Snapchat), focusing on the human outcome", "context": "Example of feelings-based thinking in product development", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 100, "line_end": 104 }, { "id": "i4", "text": "The optimal approach is both: use metrics as tools to keep yourself honest, but fundamentally focus on making people feel something because that's the human purpose of product building", "context": "Reconciling metrics and feelings-based optimization", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 115, "line_end": 116 }, { "id": "i5", "text": "When you pick the right feeling for a feature, it naturally tracks with business metrics (e.g., designing for 'surprise/joy' makes people share, driving growth)", "context": "How feelings map to business outcomes without explicit optimization", "topic_id": "topic_3", "line_start": 110, "line_end": 111 }, { "id": "i6", "text": "Company values don't need to be corporate propaganda; they can be discovered by genuinely asking your team what they love about working there, then codifying the patterns that emerge", "context": "Developing authentic company values through team interviews", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 149, "line_end": 156 }, { "id": "i7", "text": "Give something a new name (like 'storytelling team' instead of 'marketing') to shed preconceived notions and force first-principles thinking about what you're actually trying to accomplish", "context": "Using naming as a rhetorical tactic to prevent inherited assumptions", "topic_id": "topic_13", "line_start": 353, "line_end": 357 }, { "id": "i8", "text": "The real product at Browser Company is the team/company culture itself, not Arc; this makes hiring much easier because you're asking 'Do you want to work on the best possible team?' not 'Do you want to build a browser?'", "context": "Explaining why top talent joins despite Arc being a crowded category", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 185, "line_end": 186 }, { "id": "i9", "text": "Interview candidates by asking them 'What would you like to ask me?' and observe what they ask and how they follow up, which reveals more about them than prepared questions", "context": "Hiring methodology focused on authenticity and curiosity", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 470, "line_end": 470 }, { "id": "i10", "text": "Celebrate new hires publicly and tag team members when shipping features, not the CEO; this creates a reinforcing cycle where talented people want to join and feel genuinely valued", "context": "Building momentum through public celebration of individuals", "topic_id": "topic_6", "line_start": 203, "line_end": 209 }, { "id": "i11", "text": "Building in public with personal transparency (sharing actual meetings, imperfections, team members as humans) builds trust in the company's intentions, which is critical for a browser that handles sensitive personal and professional data", "context": "Trust building strategy for privacy-sensitive product", "topic_id": "topic_7", "line_start": 228, "line_end": 230 }, { "id": "i12", "text": "Merge traditionally separate disciplines (customer support, success, research, user feedback) into a single 'membership team' that owns the full-stack relationship with users from day 1 to day last", "context": "Unconventional org structure based on customer relationship philosophy", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 254, "line_end": 258 }, { "id": "i13", "text": "Don't hire PMs based on org charts; instead, let different project types have different leaders based on what skills that project needs (e.g., engineer for performance, designer for features)", "context": "Project-based rather than organizational role assignment", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 269, "line_end": 269 }, { "id": "i14", "text": "Hiring 'mutts'—people with diverse multidisciplinary backgrounds—is better than hiring specialists, because they have a maker mindset ('I will do whatever verb is needed to make what I want to make')", "context": "Hiring philosophy focused on versatility and ownership mentality", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 281, "line_end": 281 }, { "id": "i15", "text": "Deliberately hire people with radically different archetypes, sensibilities, and backgrounds rather than homogeneous team members; this is harder to manage but produces more original work", "context": "Diversity strategy for creative teams like storytelling and design", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 317, "line_end": 320 }, { "id": "i16", "text": "The Browser Company's philosophy didn't emerge in a vacuum; it's built on observing and learning from great companies (Airbnb, Disney, Apple, Stripe) that came before", "context": "Acknowledging influences and lineage of product philosophy", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 332, "line_end": 332 }, { "id": "i17", "text": "For commoditized consumer software categories, emotional connection and brand is how you win because all competitors are functionally identical; optimizing for user experience becomes the business strategy", "context": "Why experience matters more for browsers than for enterprise software", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 386, "line_end": 389 }, { "id": "i18", "text": "Products don't succeed on just one attribute; Tuple succeeds because it combines beautiful design AND exceptional latency; you need to excel at the attributes that matter for your category", "context": "Balancing multiple product dimensions simultaneously", "topic_id": "topic_15", "line_start": 395, "line_end": 398 }, { "id": "i19", "text": "The web is the best development platform (free, accessible everywhere, no 30% tax), but browser makers with perverse incentives (Apple, Google) prevent it from reaching parity with native software", "context": "Analysis of web platform constraints and browser maker incentives", "topic_id": "topic_17", "line_start": 422, "line_end": 425 }, { "id": "i20", "text": "As CEO, stepping back from product development can be surprisingly healthy for the team's autonomy and shipping velocity", "context": "Leadership lesson on decentralization", "topic_id": "topic_18", "line_start": 488, "line_end": 488 }, { "id": "i21", "text": "Snapchat initially said 'We'll never hire PMs, everyone's a designer' but eventually hired PMs as the company scaled; similar pattern happened at Stripe—companies often start without traditional PMs when founders can do the work themselves", "context": "Org evolution pattern in design-forward companies", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 290, "line_end": 294 }, { "id": "i22", "text": "In 5-10 years, devices will be commodity hardware shells; the actual 'computer' will be cloud-based internet services accessed through various interfaces, making the browser interface itself the primary product", "context": "Long-term vision of computing shifting entirely to cloud", "topic_id": "topic_16", "line_start": 407, "line_end": 413 }, { "id": "i23", "text": "People with successful careers (high salaries, fancy titles, transformative projects) join Browser Company because they believe their work there will define their careers, not for money or status", "context": "What attracts senior talent to smaller companies", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 194, "line_end": 194 }, { "id": "i24", "text": "Start with first-principles questions ('What are we really trying to do here?') rather than copying org structures from other companies; be willing to experiment and fail", "context": "Prototype-driven culture approach to org design", "topic_id": "topic_8", "line_start": 263, "line_end": 269 }, { "id": "i25", "text": "'Assume you don't know' means approaching problems with beginner's mind, walking out the door and exploring rather than planning excessively; default to action", "context": "Company value that drives rapid prototyping and iteration", "topic_id": "topic_4", "line_start": 137, "line_end": 137 } ], "examples": [ { "id": "ex1", "explicit_text": "At Facebook, there was a lot of feelings about how are we doing, should we be worried when Snapchat was ascendant. The way that we would have that conversation would be, how many times per week do people share on Facebook? Do they post something? We even had an acronym OBPS.", "inferred_identity": "Facebook", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Facebook", "Snapchat", "social network", "metrics-obsession", "engagement tracking", "2014-era product strategy", "contrarian case study" ], "lesson": "Companies obsessed with metrics like OBPS miss the human emotional outcome that Snapchat understood: Do people feel closer to friends and family?", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 100, "line_end": 104 }, { "id": "ex2", "explicit_text": "We hired someone named Darren who, as I mentioned, he co-created the first prototype of Chrome and then ran it for 16 years. I think hundreds if not thousands of people reported to him. He joined the Browser Company as an IC.", "inferred_identity": "Browser Company", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Google Chrome", "leadership transition", "senior hire", "individual contributor role", "browser technology", "technology industry" ], "lesson": "World-class talent will join smaller companies for the mission and team when it aligns with their aspirations to work on defining career projects", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 191, "line_end": 191 }, { "id": "ex3", "explicit_text": "We just hired a woman named Tara. She was on the original Paper by 53 team, one of my most inspiring products at the beginning of my career. Most recently she was actually, I believe, Senior SVP of product at Vimeo and a senior director of engineering. She joined our engineering team as an IC.", "inferred_identity": "Browser Company / Vimeo / Paper by 53", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Vimeo", "Paper by 53", "SVP of Product", "senior engineering", "product leadership", "design tool" ], "lesson": "High-level product and engineering leaders will join as individual contributors if they believe the mission and team represent the opportunity to define their career legacy", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 191, "line_end": 191 }, { "id": "ex4", "explicit_text": "We just hired someone named Peter Vidani. When I was 20 building consumer social software, he was the coolest, most impressive person. He was the first designer at Tumblr. Ran the design team at Tumblr for seven years and the most recently was SVP of design at Slack. Joined the team as an IC designer.", "inferred_identity": "Browser Company / Slack / Tumblr", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Slack", "Tumblr", "design leadership", "first designer", "SVP of Design", "consumer social" ], "lesson": "Design leaders from companies like Slack and Tumblr will leave prestigious titles to join ambitious product teams where they can do their best work", "topic_id": "topic_5", "line_start": 191, "line_end": 191 }, { "id": "ex5", "explicit_text": "When I was at Facebook, I joined in the midst of Snapchat's ascendancy... the way that we would have that conversation would be, how many times per week do people share on Facebook?", "inferred_identity": "Facebook", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Facebook", "product management", "metrics obsession", "social network", "engagement", "career development" ], "lesson": "Facebook's metrics-driven approach to competing with Snapchat missed the emotional human truth that drove Snapchat's success", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 100, "line_end": 104 }, { "id": "ex6", "explicit_text": "I started a company also with Hursh, my current co-founder and CTO. We were fortunate enough to have that company acquired or acqui-hired by Facebook and spent a number of years working at Facebook.", "inferred_identity": "Previous startup acquired by Facebook", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "startup", "acqui-hire", "co-founder", "Facebook", "Josh Miller", "Hursh" ], "lesson": "Acqui-hire experiences at major tech companies like Facebook shape founders' product philosophies", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 88, "line_end": 90 }, { "id": "ex7", "explicit_text": "I remember going to Airbnb's offices early in my career and seeing the storyboards lining the walls and just being like, 'I want to work here.'", "inferred_identity": "Airbnb", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Airbnb", "storyboarding", "brand building", "office culture", "product experience design" ], "lesson": "Airbnb's visual storytelling approach to designing user moments inspired product thinking about emotional experience design", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 326, "line_end": 326 }, { "id": "ex8", "explicit_text": "If you Google 'Snow White Airbnb,' you'll actually see these storyboards. They basically hired a Pixar storyboard artist to draw out key frames of the journey of a host and a guest.", "inferred_identity": "Airbnb / Pixar", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Airbnb", "Pixar", "storyboarding", "journey mapping", "design thinking", "brand strategy" ], "lesson": "Hiring world-class artists (Pixar storyboard artists) to design user moments demonstrates commitment to emotional experience over functional optimization", "topic_id": "topic_11", "line_start": 329, "line_end": 329 }, { "id": "ex9", "explicit_text": "I spent two years at a venture capital firm as an investor, called Thrive Capital. They've invested in Slack and GitHub and a lot of really transformative companies.", "inferred_identity": "Thrive Capital", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Thrive Capital", "venture capital", "Slack", "GitHub", "investor", "startup investment" ], "lesson": "VC experience at top firms investing in transformative companies shaped understanding of which product categories require different success attributes", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 371, "line_end": 371 }, { "id": "ex10", "explicit_text": "I've been re-watching all of the Adam Curtis documentaries on YouTube. I'm a huge Adam Curtis fan... Hyper-normalization is my favorite. And I would view his work as less non-fictional documentaries and more video art.", "inferred_identity": "Adam Curtis documentaries", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "documentary filmmaker", "video art", "cultural criticism", "media consumption", "storytelling influence" ], "lesson": "Documentary filmmaking and video art as storytelling influences inform product storytelling and brand approaches", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 446, "line_end": 452 }, { "id": "ex11", "explicit_text": "I recommend... 'Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees,' which is a book about Robert Irwin. That's my number one PM book.", "inferred_identity": "Robert Irwin (artist)", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "art", "visual perception", "artist biography", "product management philosophy", "observation skills" ], "lesson": "Artist-focused books about visual perception and observation are more valuable PM reading than traditional business books", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 440, "line_end": 440 }, { "id": "ex12", "explicit_text": "Our company runs on Linear, and has run on Linear since day one. So, I'm a big fan of that.", "inferred_identity": "Browser Company / Linear", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Linear", "issue tracking", "product tool", "SaaS", "workflow optimization" ], "lesson": "Browser Company uses experience-focused tools like Linear because they align with the company's values around craftsmanship", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 370, "line_end": 371 }, { "id": "ex13", "explicit_text": "We run on Notion, we love Notion, we love Linear. But I'd say the closest hit that I just cannot believe is not a hundred times larger company is Tuple. It is ostensibly a pair programming tool, but don't go in with that mindset.", "inferred_identity": "Notion / Linear / Tuple", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Notion", "Linear", "Tuple", "SaaS tools", "pair programming", "team communication" ], "lesson": "Tuple is an example of a tool that succeeds through design excellence (beautiful, simple) and superior technical execution (best audio) despite being underappreciated", "topic_id": "topic_20", "line_start": 482, "line_end": 482 }, { "id": "ex14", "explicit_text": "Rebecca was a data scientist we use at Cora. She got her PhD in MIT in I think behavioral psychology or something... got some crazy degree at MIT, and then was a software engineer at Stripe.", "inferred_identity": "Stripe / MIT", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Stripe", "MIT", "data science", "behavioral psychology", "multidisciplinary hiring", "technical leadership" ], "lesson": "Hiring 'mutts' with diverse backgrounds (PhD in psychology + Stripe engineering) creates people who can fill multiple roles and have maker mindsets", "topic_id": "topic_9", "line_start": 278, "line_end": 281 }, { "id": "ex15", "explicit_text": "There is a gentleman named Ellis, who is a ... Background, started as a reporter at The Verge... ran marketing strategy for Snapchat for seven years.", "inferred_identity": "Snapchat / The Verge", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "Snapchat", "The Verge", "marketing strategy", "journalism", "storytelling team", "content strategy" ], "lesson": "Hiring journalists and Snapchat marketing strategists for storytelling roles brings outside perspectives and narrative expertise", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 314, "line_end": 314 }, { "id": "ex16", "explicit_text": "Josh Lee... he was an intern at Facebook as a designer, that an intern for me at the White House when I worked at the White House, and then decided that he was over product design and over design, and totally just jumped and be like, 'I'm going to be a filmmaker,' and has been making really fascinating indie films for a few years now.", "inferred_identity": "White House / Facebook", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "White House", "Facebook", "designer to filmmaker", "indie films", "video editing", "career transition" ], "lesson": "Hiring indie filmmakers for video editing brings artistic vision and cinematic sensibility to product storytelling", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 314, "line_end": 314 }, { "id": "ex17", "explicit_text": "Nash's background, she had a brief stint at NBC. But again, you get to know her and she writes poems after hours and her dream is to write a fictional book.", "inferred_identity": "NBC", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "NBC", "broadcast media", "poet", "writer", "storytelling team lead", "creative background" ], "lesson": "Hiring poets and fiction writers as storytelling leads creates authentic, emotionally resonant brand narrative", "topic_id": "topic_10", "line_start": 317, "line_end": 317 }, { "id": "ex18", "explicit_text": "I remember when I was earlier in my career, I'd listen to podcasts like this and take it as dogma, because there are these people that had done it and I respected what they'd built. So, if any of this sounds like 'better than thou,' it's not intended to.", "inferred_identity": "Podcast industry / product leadership education", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "product podcasts", "learning from authorities", "dogma in tech", "respecting founders" ], "lesson": "Early-career product professionals take advice from successful founders as gospel; this can be limiting", "topic_id": "topic_2", "line_start": 86, "line_end": 86 }, { "id": "ex19", "explicit_text": "One of the things I learned is different ideas, product ideas, business ideas, company ideas come with different attributes and things that will matter to their success... if you think about the web browser category... The first is, it's actually one of the most consumer pieces of software out there.", "inferred_identity": "Thrive Capital investment thesis", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "product strategy", "category analysis", "consumer software", "business model", "venture capital thinking" ], "lesson": "Different product categories require different success attributes; browsers are consumer commodities where experience/emotion is the differentiator", "topic_id": "topic_14", "line_start": 371, "line_end": 384 }, { "id": "ex20", "explicit_text": "There was a documentary that I highly recommend called General Magic. And it's one of the best pieces of media I've seen related to technology industry... essentially was the iPhone before the iPhone, with the most legendary group of technologists working there. And it totally failed, completely failed by all traditional business definitions.", "inferred_identity": "General Magic (documentary / company)", "confidence": "explicit", "tags": [ "documentary", "failed company", "legendary team", "pre-iPhone", "tech history", "cultural impact" ], "lesson": "Failed companies with legendary teams can have outsized cultural impact; success isn't just about business outcomes but influence on the industry", "topic_id": "topic_12", "line_start": 338, "line_end": 341 } ] }