Lenny Rachitsky: preference

Transcript context

…before reacting is the key to mindful communication and being a successful product manager. I think a lot of times we are taught to have all the answers, or we're expected to have all of the answers. And people assume we have all of the answers so it's a really frustrating, sometimes, place to be in. But, if you listen and you know where to go to get the answers, that in itself is like a tremendous place to be. So I think the power of meditation, being able to pause before reacting lets you do things like conversate in the language of the listener. So when I'm talking to my journalists I'm not using technical terms or like content management technology terms. They have a whole different vocabulary that they use, they have shortcuts that they have lingo for in our content management system. They call things nicknames, and so you have to speak many different languages as a product manager. And if there's one thing that learning and teaching mindfulness has strengthened, it is that communication, yes, it's very important. How do you become an effective communicator? I think a lot of times we think of speaking articulately first and foremost, or we think about writing well, which those two are really, really important things. But those can't be effective for us as product leaders if we're not listening, so I think listening and being able to converse in the language of the listener is the utmost importance. And how do you do that in your day-to-day? It's like, okay, if you're having a conversation with your customer are you actually listening to what they say, or are you going in with your own assumptions? Because maybe you're a user of the product. And it was very interesting, because I actually started writing freelance for CNN this past year. And I was like, "Oh, okay, I'm a user now." And no I'm not, I'm not going to say that it helped me understand their pain points so much more and where they're coming from in a whole different light. But again, I am merely a proxy, I'm not actually the user. What they do is still drastically different. And so when having those customer interactions and stakeholder interactions, the priority should be to listen. And I think that is one of the most important things I've learned, and it's also helped build trust and respect between a previously fragmented structure where product and editorial didn't talk to each other, and now we're a unified partnership. Oh, I love that. I love the reminder that a lot of communication is incredibly important for product managers, and so much of it is not actually you talking, it's you being really good at listening, and that makes you a better communicator. I imagine some people listening to this are going to be like, "Yeah, meditation, I should be doing that." What's like one thing someone could do to move forward on the path to starting to meditate? Is there a resource to recommend, a tip of just starting to do something there? Totally. I think when people think of meditation, you immediately think of sitting on a mediation cushion like a monk for an hour. And that doesn't have to be true, especially if you're just starting. And there's also of course social media has commercialized what meditation is a lot as well. But at its core, all it is is being deeply aware of the present moment. So I always tell people who are for example like really busy moms who have no time in the morning for an hour-long meditation is, "Okay, take something in your day that you do every single day. You brush your teeth every morning, right? Okay, take brushing your teeth. Can you brush your teeth and just brush your teeth? And when you're brushing your teeth you are engaging all of your senses, and being fully present and aware of how it feels, how it smells, how it sounds." That's two, three minutes of your day. That's meditation, and I think it's an amazing way and an easy way... Oh, sorry, not easy. Simple, not easy way, always, to think about what meditation actually is. Is like, instead of like having to uproot your whole life and the way you live to bring meditation in, think about what you already do every day and how you can just be more present, like fully present. And that's one of the core examples I give, is start with brushing your teeth and just brush your teeth. There's an old app I've been using for a long time if you're into that, I stopped using it recently but it's still amazing. It's called Insight Timer, the free version is amazing. It started as like a single-frame app probably about 10 years ago, and it's turned into this... They've done amazing things with that product. So that's what I recommend, but again, you don't... I think, again, when people have a vision of meditation in their mind they're like, "Well I need these tools, and I need these resources, and I need these things, and I need knowledge." You don't need anything, you need five minutes and yourself, and that's it.…

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