Bending the universe in your favor | Claire Vo (LaunchDarkly, Color, Optimizely, ChatPRD)

1. Define & Advocate for Career Goals

Clearly know what you want from your career and your next role, then communicate these aspirations to your boss and make it easy for them to support your progression.

2. Frame Promotion as Company Problem-Solving

When seeking promotion, focus the conversation on how your new position benefits the company and solves organizational problems, rather than solely on your personal career growth.

3. Operate in Your Zone of Genius

Identify where you are exceptional and derive joy from your work, then lean into these strengths to ensure sustainability and effectiveness in your role.

4. Increase Clock Speed by One Click

Set an expectation to complete tasks one iteration faster than initially planned (e.g., this year’s goal becomes this half’s goal) to accelerate organizational pace and momentum.

5. Normalize Clear, Kind Feedback

Foster a culture where direct and candid feedback is normalized, as ‘clear is kind’ and conflict-avoidant cultures degrade talent by not setting clear expectations or accountability.

6. Bend the Universe to Your Will

Recognize that organizations, especially in startups and growth stages, are fluid and can be shaped around talented, motivated individuals, allowing you to take agency over your career path.

7. Develop Skills for AI Products

Focus on building product skills specifically for non-deterministic AI products to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving technology landscape and unlock new career opportunities.

8. Master AI Prompt Engineering

Understand that prompt quality significantly impacts AI output; invest time in crafting effective prompts and fine-tuning to achieve high-quality results from AI tools.

9. Prioritize Speed Over Perfection

When faced with a choice between prolonged deliberation for a perfect solution and making a decision to execute quickly, consistently choose speed to gain momentum and win in the long run.

10. Optimize for the Whole Organization

Integrate product, engineering, and design functions under a unified vision to optimize for the entire organization’s needs and customer value, rather than individual functional silos.

11. Understand Promotion Mechanics

Familiarize yourself with your organization’s talent norms and promotion cycles to engage in career conversations at the right time and with appropriate context.

12. Explore Roles Beyond Product Management

As a PM, be open to expanding your scope into adjacent functions like marketing or operations, as this can provide broader leadership experience and new growth opportunities.

13. Gain Breadth at Early-Stage Startups

Seek experience at very small startups to develop a wide range of functional skills across product, engineering, design, and operations, preparing you for broader leadership roles like CPTO.

14. Embrace ‘No Lanes’ Cross-Functional Work

Adopt a mindset where functional boundaries are flexible, allowing individuals to contribute across roles (e.g., an engineer writing a spec, a PM sketching a design) to foster health and efficiency.

15. Don’t Let Meetings Dictate Pace

Avoid letting recurring meetings artificially slow down decision-making and next steps; instead, make decisions and commit to actions outside of fixed calendar cadences.

16. Maintain a Fast Personal SLA

Strive to be highly responsive and avoid becoming a bottleneck for your organization, as your personal speed directly impacts the overall pace and effectiveness of your team.

17. Define Specific Talent/Leadership Principles

Clearly articulate specific and measurable leadership principles and career ladder expectations, especially at senior levels, to provide clear guidance and accountability for talent development.

18. Act Quickly on Non-Fits

When individuals are not a good fit for the role or organization, address the situation quickly and decisively to maintain a healthy, effective, and high-performing team culture.

19. Approach Challenges with Curiosity

When facing industry challenges or personal obstacles (e.g., as a woman in tech), maintain a curious mindset to understand structural, cultural, and internal factors, and identify points of leverage for change.

20. Stay Empowered, Reject Imposter Syndrome

Know your value and operate from an empowered space, actively rejecting imposter syndrome, which is not a constructive mindset for personal or professional growth.

21. Normalize Diverse Representation

Actively promote and provide platforms for diverse voices and leaders in technology to challenge embedded concepts of who can be a tech leader and inspire broader participation.

22. Cultivate Scrappiness

Develop the ability to achieve significant results with limited resources, demonstrating resourcefulness and determination to reach your goals regardless of obstacles.

23. Conduct an Energy Audit

Review your calendar and activities, categorizing them by how much you enjoy them, to identify your passions and areas where you can add the most value and engagement.

24. Identify Your Unique Value

Regularly ask yourself what you do that no one else in your organization can replicate, and then lean into those differentiated skills to drive exceptional career growth and personal satisfaction.

25. Conduct AI Product Teardowns

Study existing AI products by performing ‘outside-in’ teardowns to analyze their strengths, weaknesses, and potential improvements, helping you stress-test your own product skills in this new domain.

26. Experiment with No-Code/Low-Code AI Tools

Even without strong coding skills, explore and experiment with no-code or low-code AI tools to stitch together functionalities and understand the capabilities of new technologies.

27. Learn AI Through Play and Creativity

Find joy in exploring AI by engaging with creative tools like Midjourney, using art and personal interest as a fun mechanism for learning about new technologies.

28. Prioritize Joy in Side Projects

When working on personal projects or hobbies, ensure they remain a source of pure bliss and fun, avoiding anything that makes them feel like work to maintain passion and engagement.

29. Embrace Sales-Led Product Development

Be open to commercially oriented, sales-led product strategies, recognizing that tremendous businesses can be built this way while still maintaining a high bar for craft and user experience.

30. Maintain Consistency for Audience Growth

For content creators, consistent posting drives audience growth and engagement, as algorithms tend to favor regular contributions.

31. Treat Content Creation as Documentation

Approach content creation as a form of documentation, sharing reflections on interesting work interactions or insights, which naturally generates a steady flow of authentic content.

32. Appreciate the Privilege of Product Work

Acknowledge the privilege and joy of working in a role that involves creating products from ideas, and strive to have fun and appreciate the opportunity, as many aspire to such positions.