Jiaona Zhang: Why All Product Teams Should Have a Scorecard & How to Use It | E1154

Jiaona “JZ” Zhang is the Chief Product Officer at Linktree, the world’s leading
link-in-bio platform empowering 45M+ creators, brands and SMBs. JZ joined Linktree from Webflow, where she served as SVP of Product. Before that, she spent four years at Airbnb where she built and led numerous teams on the host side. JZ’s also held leadership roles at the likes of Wework, Dropbox and teaches at Stanford University and Reforge.
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Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(00:40) Entry Into the World of Product
(02:28) Advice for Entering Product Management
(03:10) Balancing Speed, Scope & Quality
(06:01) Managing Feedback Cycles
(07:51) Documenting Data & Learnings
(10:34) Creating a KPI Tree
(13:12) Different Metrics for Different Teams
(16:40) The Paradox of Planning
(26:01) Building Successful Product Teams
(30:27) Rituals for Effective Product Development
(37:52) Hiring Product People
(43:16) Navigating a Rapidly Changing Landscape
(53:06) Quick-Fire Round
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In Today’s Episode with Jiaona Zhang We Discuss:
1. Entry into the World of Product:
How did JZ first fall in love with product?
Why does JZ believe the best PMs have experience in the gaming industry?
Does JZ think Linktree could be a $100BN business? How could Linktree become a $100BN business?
2. Mastering Product Metrics:
Why does JZ think product is the most chameleon role? Where does product start & end?
Why does JZ think every function should have tension with product?
What is a KPI tree? How does JZ branch business & product metrics?
When does JZ think startups should set up a metric infrastructure?
What are the three levers of product? How does JZ determine which ones to trade off?
3.How to Run Product: Planning, Strategy, & Rituals:
Why does JZ think planning should not exist?
What are strategy and rituals? When should founders do either?
What are JZ’s three core rituals?
What is the scorecard method? How do they help team transparency?
What are product jams? When does it work? When does it not work?
4. Product Career Advice:
When does JZ think founders should hire a product person?
What are the most common mistakes early stage founders make when hiring for product?
Does JZ think domain expertise is important? What does she look for in product hires?
What is JZ’s advice to PMs who want to get promoted today?
What is JZ’s advice to young people who want to get into product?
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[@IvanMakarov]

So many great thoughts and views. Love the episode.

[@saang]

So many buzzwords

[@andersk]

Love these usually, but this felt very low quality. She often wasn't actually answering the questions, contradicted herself, all her responses felt very theoretical and limited. Hopefully you can be more careful with who you get on the show