Opening
Ken Norton (00:00:00): Part of what I think is pretty exciting about product management is you are a leader from day one in product management. There's leadership all over the place, but that's your job. You're a leader. You don't have any formal authority, but you're a leader. You're expected to lead Lenny (00:00:22): Over his 14-year career at Google. Ken Norton led product teams at built Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, and even did a stint at Google Ventures....
The opener starts with biography before advice. That order makes the guest legible as a person before the listener extracts tactics.
Low-ego framing
coach specializing at working with product leaders. In our conversation, we cover the creative versus reactive mindset, why the art of product management is much more important than the science...
Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.
Accept praise cleanly
Ken Norton (00:02:58): Thank you and thanks for having me. The feeling's mutual. Obviously a big fan of your work and all the things you've done for...
Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.
Name the work
a couple questions I wanted to ask you outside of coaching, around some of your posts that you've written before we get to our exciting lightning round. One is around this idea of 10X versus 10%....
Names a concrete strength, artifact, or contribution instead of offering generic praise.
Ask with curiosity
Ken Norton (00:28:03): Yeah. It sounds easy, right? This is part of...
Turns a moment that could become critique into a question about the guest's thinking.
Accept praise cleanly
Lenny (01:13:41): What an awesome answer. Thank you for being here, Ken. Ken Norton (01:13:43): Thanks for having me, Lenny. Lenny (01:13:46): That was awesome....
Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.