Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…I think one thing that tends to throw people off is putting a lot of pressure on themselves to get the exact right answer. So if they are asked a question and they don't know the answer, a lot of people will then kind of freak out. And I was taught early in my career that if you don't know the answer, you should say, "Let me look into it, I'll get back to you." So that's a fine approach. It's definitely better than making something up, right? So definitely don't make something up. But if you are more experienced and have some confidence in your subject matter area, just saying I'll get back to you, is sometimes a missed opportunity. You can ask for a bit more information to be able to continue the conversation in that moment. So let's say that your exec says what percentage of users came from mobile last month and you don't have that number off the top of your head. So person A says, "Let me look into it and I'll get back to you." Person B might say, "I don't have that number off the top of my head, but in the last quarter the number has been 60 to 70% and it's grown in the past year, so mobile is now a bigger part of our business, et cetera. Are you wondering if we are investing in mobile appropriately or where's that commission coming from, basically? Right? And so being able to answer a similar question in the direction you think the person is asking about and then validating why they're asking that question allows you to still continue that conversation in the moment. I call it the question behind the question, sometimes you get a question, but underneath there's a deeper underlying concern. And many times people don't even know that it's there, right? Subconscious. So it's not nefarious, they're not withholding anything from you. But when you are explaining something and you're kind of getting multiple questions on the same thing, it's a good sign that there might be a deeper question behind the question and it's our responsibility to figure out what might that be. And so probing, asking for a bit more information, answering in that general direction and then validating these are all techniques you can use when you are in the moment without feeling like, oh, I must have every single thing prepared and the moment that I'm caught off guard, everything goes to shit. Another tactic along these lines that's very similar to what you're describing, but I'll share that I learned that was really helpful is just if you're not sure what to say, basically just reflecting back their question and just being like, let me just make sure I understand what you're looking for. You want to understand monthly retention for, and then maybe clarify. And that one gives you time to think about it as you're talking. Two, it helps the person recognize, "Oh, he hears me. Great. Okay, this is good. He's thinking about this." And then at the end of that you could be like, "Okay. I don't actually have that specific number. Let me think about it." Or, "I have the quarterly number. Okay. That's what I know." So there's an interim step almost that I'll add into your piece of advice of just reflect back their question, just better understand what they're looking for. Yeah, I love that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.…

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