Building minimum lovable products, stories from WeWork and Airbnb, and thriving as a PM | Jiaona Zhang (Webflow, WeWork, Airbnb, Dropbox)
Jay-Z, SVP of Product at Webflow and Stanford lecturer, shares insights on common PM mistakes, the concept of minimal lovable products, and unique frameworks for roadmapping and OKRs. She also discusses lessons from her time at WeWork and structuring the first 90 days as a product leader.
Deep Dive Analysis
14 Topic Outline
Common Mistakes New Product Managers Make
Lessons from Airbnb Plus Failure
Balancing Big Vision with Execution
How to Push Back Against Founders
Minimal Lovable Product vs. Minimal Viable Product
Elements That Make a Product Lovable
Effective Roadmapping and Prioritization Strategies
Accelerating a New Product Manager's Career
Designing Ambitious and Effective OKRs
Key Learnings from WeWork Experience
Jiaona Zhang's First 90 Days Playbook
Importance of Building Trust as a Leader
Core Product Lessons from Four Companies
Transformative Advice: Asking for Help
5 Key Concepts
Solution-first approach (mistake)
New PMs often jump directly to building a specific solution they envision. This approach is problematic because it bypasses understanding the user's actual problems and market opportunities, leading to potentially irrelevant or suboptimal products.
Minimal Lovable Product (MLP)
This concept emphasizes building a product that not only meets basic functionality but also resonates deeply with users by providing a high-quality, polished, and delightful experience. It's considered the 'new MVP' in a crowded market where quality and user satisfaction are paramount.
Roadmapping as Storytelling
Instead of a spreadsheet of projects, roadmapping should involve telling a cohesive story with overarching themes. This approach helps teams understand the 'why' behind their work, allowing for flexibility and adaptation as new learnings emerge, rather than rigid adherence to granular details.
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) Philosophy
OKRs should focus on ambitious, qualitative goals that define what 'crushing it' looks like for users and the business, rather than being safe, easily achievable green metrics. The aim is to guide innovation and fast movement, accepting that missing ambitious targets is preferable to hitting suboptimal ones.
Trust as a Leader's Bank
Building trust is crucial for product leaders, especially in new roles. It's like a bank where you deposit social capital before withdrawing it to push for change. Rushing to implement changes without sufficient trust can be detrimental.
11 Questions Answered
New PMs often jump directly to solutions they want to build, rather than first understanding user problems and market opportunities, which can lead to building the wrong product.
Airbnb Plus struggled because it was a solution-first approach to a trust problem, attempting to manage inventory and inspect homes, which was operationally difficult for Airbnb and had poor unit economics compared to leveraging existing review systems or targeted, cheaper solutions like lockboxes.
Leaders should understand the spirit of what the founder is trying to achieve, get aligned on the user and business goals, and then propose better, data-backed alternative solutions that are more scalable or aligned with the company's strategic strengths.
Lovable products are high-quality, not "janky," and often include "pixie dust" – small, extra delightful features that exceed user expectations, like keyboard shortcuts for power users or smart templates.
Roadmapping should be approached as storytelling, focusing on themes and the "why" behind investments, rather than just a spreadsheet of projects. This provides a clear scaffold for teams while allowing flexibility for new learnings.
New PMs should strive to become really good at and known for something specific within their company, such as complex launches, technically challenging problems, or strong analytical skills, as this leads to more responsibility and reputation.
Leaders should focus on setting ambitious, qualitative OKRs that define what "crushing it" means for users and the business, rather than playing it safe. It's better to miss ambitious targets and learn why than to consistently hit suboptimal ones.
A crucial lesson was the importance of not overhiring, as laying off staff is a terrible experience. Companies should be thoughtful about hiring, linking it to clear milestones and results rather than scaling too quickly.
The most important thing is to quickly build context by speaking to a wide range of people across functions and levels, identifying strategic shifts, and laying out a clear plan with assigned research tasks before any leave.
The overarching lesson is to deeply understand why people love your product, invest heavily in that core concept, and build everything else around that strength, rather than chasing competitors or spreading resources too thin.
The most transformative advice was to always ask for help, even as a leader. Being honest about what you don't know and seeking input from partners, peers, and your team leads to better solutions and avoids being stuck with suboptimal ideas.
37 Actionable Insights
1. Focus on User Problems First
As a new PM, resist the urge to immediately think about what to build. Instead, focus first on understanding users and their real-world problems to identify genuine opportunities before jumping to solutions.
2. Lead by Influence, Not Authority
Recognize that a PM’s job is not to ‘call the shots’ or ‘make decisions’ through authority, but rather to understand opportunities, pull together possibilities, and edit, primarily through influence.
3. Double Down on Core Lovability
Deeply understand why people love your product and continuously invest in that core concept. Build everything else around this strength, rather than getting distracted by competitive chasing or non-core initiatives.
4. Leverage Core Company Strengths
When considering new initiatives, ensure they align with your company’s strategic strengths and existing ‘wheelhouse.’ Building capabilities from the ground up where the company lacks muscle can be very difficult and may lead to unsustainable unit economics.
5. Validate Unit Economics Early
Don’t rely on ‘magical thinking’ that unit economics will work out at scale. Instead, ensure the unit economics are viable from the very beginning to avoid investing in unsustainable ventures.
6. Push Back with Better Options
If you have strong conviction that a leadership idea is flawed, your job is to say no. Understand the spirit of what they’re trying to achieve, get aligned on the user/business goal, and then propose better, data-backed alternative solutions.
7. Actively Seek Help and Input
As a leader, overcome the intuition to always have the answers. Actively ask for help from partners, peers, your team, and mentors to bring in diverse perspectives, leading to better solutions and preventing you from struggling alone.
8. Acknowledge Knowledge Gaps
Be transparent about your knowledge gaps and what you don’t know. Asking for help when you’re unsure is a core principle that leads to building better products and making more informed decisions.
9. Prioritize Problem-Solving, Not Solutions
When developing products, avoid being ‘solution first’ or ‘competitor afraid.’ Instead, step back to identify the real user problem to solve, rather than immediately implementing a specific solution.
10. Tailor Solutions to Specific Problems
Instead of applying one ‘blunt instrument’ solution to a broad problem, identify specific user problems for particular listings and target them with tailored, cost-effective solutions.
11. Phase Big Visions for Learning
While dreaming big is crucial for innovation, couple it with clear, phased execution plans. Define explicit learning goals for short periods (e.g., 3-6 months) and be clear about the phase you’re in to avoid open-ended, unscalable investments.
12. Set Short-Term Go/No-Go Milestones
To combat sunk cost fallacy, articulate clear success metrics and ‘go/no-go’ milestones for short, defined intervals (e.g., quarter-long). This allows for early course correction and prevents investing years into a failing initiative.
13. Strive for Lovable, Not Just Viable
In a crowded market, strive for a ‘minimal lovable product’ that deeply understands and meets a quality bar that resonates with users, rather than just a ‘minimal viable product’ that barely meets a quality bar.
14. Do Fewer Things, Do Them Well
Instead of building many features to a minimal viable standard, prioritize doing a few things (e.g., five features instead of fifteen) exceptionally well with a high degree of polish to create a more lovable and impactful user experience.
15. Strategically Add Delightful Touches
After meeting basic table stakes, strategically add ’extra pixie dust’ or delightful features in a few chosen areas. This goes beyond user expectations and creates lovability, but avoid over-investing everywhere due to time/scope constraints.
16. Adjust Quality to User Needs
The required ‘polish bar’ for your product depends on user expectations and existing alternatives. If replacing manual, terrible workflows, a lower bar might be acceptable, but for sophisticated users or competitive markets, a higher quality bar is essential.
17. Roadmap as a Strategic Narrative
A roadmap should be a story with clear themes, explaining why certain levers are being pulled and why these investments are important. Avoid merely presenting a spreadsheet of projects with impact/cost columns, as humans crave understanding the purpose behind the work.
18. Document Roadmaps in Prose
Write roadmaps as prose in a document to articulate granularity and themes, rather than relying solely on decks. Link out to actual working artifacts and systems (e.g., Jira) to ensure the roadmap remains current and reflects the team’s ongoing work.
19. Qualitatively Define OKR Success
Get crisp on the qualitative definition of success for your OKRs, asking ‘what would make you say, yes, we did a great job?’ This helps avoid fear-driven sandbagging and ensures OKRs guide toward truly impactful outcomes for users and the business, even if numbers are missed.
20. Encourage Ambitious OKRs
Foster a culture where teams are not punished for ambitious OKRs that turn red, as long as they learn from the misses. Green OKRs often indicate a lack of ambition, leading to suboptimal outcomes and a failure to innovate.
21. Chart a Path for Ambitious OKRs
When setting ambitious OKRs, ensure there’s a clear plan and path forward, breaking down the ‘moonshot’ into meaningful, quarter-over-quarter milestones. This demonstrates leadership and a strategic approach, even if the ultimate goal isn’t achieved immediately.
22. Implement Tech Spikes for Complexity
For complex products with intricate tech stacks and interactions, implement ’tech spikes’ early in the process. This helps understand technical difficulty, identify unknowns, and gather details to avoid going down unfeasible paths later.
23. Integrate In-Context Learning
For complex tools, integrate learning resources (e.g., university, AI assistance) directly into the product context. This allows users to learn and take action faster without switching tabs, overcoming activation hurdles.
24. Cultivate a Niche of Excellence
To accelerate your career, identify a specific area where you can become exceptionally good and known for it within your company. This builds reputation, earns more responsibility, and attracts opportunities.
25. Be Known for Getting Things Done
Consistently work hard and ‘get shit done.’ This is a lasting piece of advice for PM success, as ultimately, you are responsible for the outcome, and demonstrating strong execution builds trust and leads to more responsibility.
26. Lead with Empathy, Especially in Crisis
In leadership, especially during challenging times like layoffs, prioritize empathy for your team members. Consider their individual circumstances and provide thoughtful transition plans, recognizing your responsibility for those you hired.
27. Avoid Over-Hiring, Maintain Hygiene
Be very conscious about not over-hiring, especially on the tech side, and maintain strict hiring hygiene. Clearly define milestones and results that unlock further hiring, preventing the difficult situation of laying off a large portion of your team.
28. Rapid Cross-Functional Context Building
In your first 90 days as a leader, prioritize quickly building context by speaking to a wide range of people: direct team, leadership peers, and individuals across various functions and levels to understand the tech stack, day-to-day challenges, and overall dynamics.
29. Build Trust Before Driving Change
View trust as a ‘bank’ where you deposit social capital before making withdrawals. Prioritize gaining trust with your team and peers before pushing too hard or too quickly for change, especially in a new role.
30. Pre-Plan for Absences
If facing an extended absence (e.g., maternity leave), ensure you leave a clear strategic plan for your team. Identify what makes sense to continue, what needs more research, assign research tasks, and set up clear decision points for your return.
31. Flag Gaps to Leadership
Proactively identify and flag critical gaps (e.g., understaffing in engineering) to the entire leadership team and board. Create awareness around these issues and ask other executives to step in and be accountable to address them.
32. Deep Dive into Product Fundamentals
While balancing context-building and team dynamics, make time to deeply understand the product itself, especially its complexity. Hands-on usage helps build trust and provides a strong foundation for product decisions.
33. Utilize Design Sprints
Read ‘The Design Sprint’ by Google to learn a structured process for quickly solving big challenges and testing new ideas.
34. Study People Management
Read Julie Zhuo’s book on managing people to become a better manager and leader.
35. Interview for Ambiguity Navigation
When interviewing PM candidates, ask behavioral questions about how they navigate ambiguous situations. Look for candidates who can structure a path forward, seek inputs, and define milestones to assess progress.
36. Use AI for Creative Ideation
Use AI tools like Midjourney for creative ideation, even with children, to practice articulating specific ideas and bringing them to life, focusing on the creative process rather than just execution.
37. Share Career Challenges for Feedback
If struggling with career challenges, reach out to experts or mentors to share your problems. This feedback helps refine advice and resources for others facing similar issues.
5 Key Quotes
I would rather have all the OKRs be red or yellow and like we missed everything and we learned around why we missed it, than everything to be green. In fact, when everything's green, you're like, we definitely did not set ambitious enough OKRs.
Jiaona Zhang
Minimal lovable products is the new MVP, right? The new minimal viable product.
Jiaona Zhang
You're not a CEO, you're not here. You actually have very little true authority because you don't actually manage anyone. It's a lot of it is all through influence.
Jiaona Zhang
If you don't ask for help, there are so many times where you're just going to be sitting there with your problems. And there's like, whatever you have in your mind is just not the global best thing.
Jiaona Zhang
People tend to flock and give responsibility to the people that are known for being excellent at something.
Jiaona Zhang
1 Protocols
First 90 Days as a Product Leader (Time-Bound)
Jiaona Zhang- Rapid Context Building: Speak to a wide range of people across the company, including leadership, peers, and individuals at different levels (e.g., engineers who have been there longest) to understand the tech stack, day-to-day challenges, and overall context. Aim for 40-50 conversations across functions.
- Identify Strategic Shifts and Lay Out a Plan: Pinpoint what makes sense to continue executing and what doesn't. Identify areas needing more research and assign team members to conduct that research, ensuring a body of work is ready for review upon return.
- Create Awareness and Accountability: Communicate identified gaps or critical needs (e.g., engineering hiring) to the entire leadership team and board. Ask other executives to step in and take accountability for these areas.