Humanizing product development | Adriel Frederick (Reddit, Lyft, Facebook)

Oct 20, 2022 1h 7m 11 insights Episode Page ↗
Lenny chats with Adriel Frederick, VP of Product at Reddit, about his journey from Trinidad to tech leadership at Facebook, Lyft, and Reddit. They discuss fostering diversity, leading through controversy, designing for operational control in algorithmic products, and effective growth strategies.
Actionable Insights

1. Define Algo & Human Roles

As a product manager working on algorithmic products, define what algorithms are responsible for and where humans make judgment calls, designing interfaces that empower people to make strategic decisions and amplify their intent. Algorithms often lack understanding of long-term effects, human response, or product intent, necessitating human oversight.

2. Cultivate Org Design & Empathy

As a senior leader, prioritize organization design (building great teams, clear goals, smooth processes) and cultivate empathy for peers and team members. The latter involves setting aside your own perspective to understand others’ motivations and fears, fostering collaborative solutions.

3. Observe Users Beyond Data

Supplement data analysis with direct observation and conversation with users, especially “marginal users” (those on the cusp or struggling most), to uncover problems and insights that data alone cannot reveal. This helps understand their real-world context and motivations.

4. Prioritize Operational Control

For products with significant operational components, treat operational requirements and control as a first-order design problem, integrating human judgment into algorithmic systems. Algorithms alone cannot account for dynamic, real-world variables like local events, taxes, or competitor actions.

5. Grind on Core Product Value

Focus growth efforts on continuously improving the core product experience and making fundamental actions “stupid easy” for users, rather than relying solely on “growth hacks.” Sustainable growth comes from providing real, fundamental value and removing friction for marginal users.

6. Buffer Team During Controversy

As a product leader, buffer your team from external chaos and bad press by reminding them of the mission and the truth of their work, while also staying close to users to discern valid criticism from noise. This helps maintain focus and morale.

7. Value Diversity for Growth

Recognize that diversity provides concrete business value, making teams faster and more efficient at building global products by incorporating varied perspectives directly into design discussions. Foster an environment that values, utilizes, and rewards diverse talent to ensure retention and facilitate recruitment.

8. Integrate R&D Teams

When setting up R&D or incubation teams, ensure their work is perceived as core to the company’s mission and contributes to everyone’s success, not just their own. This prevents “organ rejection” and fosters a culture where innovation is encouraged across all teams.

9. Balance Experiment Portfolio

Develop a balanced experimentation portfolio that includes both “cannonball” (large, fundamental changes) and “lead bullet” (small, incremental) initiatives, adjusting the mix based on product maturity. Avoid the trap of focusing solely on easy, small experiments that don’t add up to significant impact.

10. Use Milestones as Rallying Cry

Create discrete, memorable activation milestones (e.g., “10 friends in 14 days”) not for their exact magical correlation, but for their power to galvanize teams and provide a clear, concrete goal for everyone to chase.

11. Ask “Teach Me Something”

Use the interview question “Teach me something you don’t think I know” to assess a candidate’s empathy, breadth of knowledge, and ability to communicate complex ideas effectively. This question often leads to mutual learning and reveals multiple valuable skills.