Nickey Skarstad

Nickey Skarstad (Airbnb, Etsy, Shopify, Duolingo) on translating vision into goals, operationalizing product quality, second-order decisions, brainstorming, influence, and much more

Source 2272022-07-1813,175 words

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Opening

Lenny (00:00:04): When I asked in my newsletter Slack community who I should have on the podcast who's a bit under the radar, but amazing, Nickey Skarstad was the first name that I heard. And I was not surprised. I actually overlapped with Nickey at Airbnb, where she had a legendary reputation as a PM who everyone loved, but got shit done. Before Airbnb, Nickey worked at Etsy for over seven years where she went from being a forum moderator to director of product management....

The opener starts with biography before advice. That order makes the guest legible as a person before the listener extracts tactics.

Low-ego framing

done. Before Airbnb, Nickey worked at Etsy for over seven years where she went from being a forum moderator to director of product management. Then she went on to work at Airbnb for a couple...

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly

Nickey Skarstad (00:03:28): Thank you. Thanks for having me. Lenny (00:03:30): My pleasure. Today, you are director of product at Duolingo, which is...

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.

Carry memory

Lenny (00:37:57): I'm going to pull out a thread of something you mentioned earlier of how to finally make decisions. And how in your experience the PM kind of is often sort of a final decision maker....

Returns to something said earlier, proving the conversation has memory.

Low-ego framing

do I want to do next? I really loved the marketplace component at Etsy. And I don't know if this is just says something about my personality, or actually probably your personality too, is marketplace...

Uses we/us, uncertainty, or learner framing instead of performing authority.

Accept praise cleanly

Nickey Skarstad (01:00:29): I love it. Lenny (01:00:33): And thank you so much, Nickey. Nickey Skarstad (01:00:34): Yeah. Thank you, Lenny. Lenny (01:00:35): That was awesome....

Accepts praise without shrinking from it or turning it into a performance.