How to build your product team from scratch, attract top product talent, go multi-product, and more | Rohini Pandh…
How to build your product team from scratch, attract top product talent, go multi-product, and more | Rohini Pandhi (Mercury, Square)Rohini Pandhi on building beautiful products in “boring” industriesListen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Brought to you by: • Cloudinary—The foundational technology for all images and video on the internet — Rohini Pandhi is a product leader at Mercury, and previously spent over seven years at Square/Block leading product work on Square payments, invoicing, and the Bitkey hardware Bitcoin wallet. She’s also the co-founder of the startup bootcamp Transparent Collective and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss:
Skip the Mercury Personal waitlist: https://mercurytechnologies.typeform.com/lenny Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-your-product-team-from-scratch-rohini-pandhi Some takeaways:
Where to find Rohini Pandhi: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinipandhi In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Rohini’s background (05:00) The role of product managers at Mercury (09:51) Key indicators that it’s time to hire PMs (13:18) Building the product team at Mercury (19:53) Why you should avoid hiring PMs too early (22:26) The different flavors of product management (26:15) How to attract top talent (35:59) Advocating for quality in product development (44:10) Going multi-product (46:37) Organizational structure for multi-product success (50:57) Organizational culture for multi-product success (52:07) Customer obsession and product development (57:36) More lessons from going multi-product (01:05:57) Transparent Collective: supporting underrepresented founders (01:09:54) Lightning round Referenced: • Immad Akhund on X: https://x.com/immad • Mercury: https://mercury.com • Square: https://squareup.com • Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners [Wardley]: https://orghacking.com/pioneers-settlers-town-planners-wardley-9dcd3709cde7 • Jason Zhang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-zhang-5645a860 • What is ‘Dogfooding’?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html • Mercury Bill Pay: https://mercury.com/bill-pay • Zip: https://zip.co • Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira • The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam (Monetizing Innovation, Simon-Kucher): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan • Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product • Gokul Rajaram on X: https://x.com/gokulr • Transparent Collective: https://www.transparentcollective.com • 16 Reading Tips from Naval Ravikant: https://alexandbooks.com/archive/16-reading-tips-from-naval-ravikant • Shrinking on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/shrinking • Bad Sisters on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/bad-sisters • Slow Horses on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/slow-horses • Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance • Presumed Innocent on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/presumed-innocent • Waymo: https://waymo.com • Adam Robinson on X: https://x.com/IAmAdamRobinson • Cyan Banister—From Homeless and Broke to Top Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ More): https://tim.blog/2024/11/28/cyan-banister • Bobby Matson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbymatson • Jobs at Mercury: https://mercury.com/jobs Recommended books: • Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays: https://www.amazon.com/Vectors-Aphorisms-Ten-Second-James-Richardson/dp/0967266890 • The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314 • Pachinko: https://www.amazon.com/Pachinko-National-Book-Award-Finalist/dp/1455563927 • Cutting for Stone: https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367 • The Song of Achilles: https://www.amazon.com/Song-Achilles-Novel-Madeline-Miller/dp/0062060627 Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. You're currently a free subscriber to Lenny's Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
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