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Anneka Gupta

Published podcast speaker

Claims
23
Episodes
1
Shows
1
Named items
4

Books, apps, and tools

The evidenced stack.

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book / likes

Foundation series

“I really like the Foundation series, so starting with that is really good. It's a very different style of writing.”

Lenny's Podcast · 17 Oct 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / likes

Fallout

“Again, on the fantasy sci-fi track, I really like Fallout, which is a dystopian show based on a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear war world.”

Lenny's Podcast · 17 Oct 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

app / uses

Dovetail

“Yeah, we use Dovetail and it's been fantastic. Connects into all of the Zoom calls and everything, it does a great job with summarization, with search, everything.”

Lenny's Podcast · 17 Oct 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / recommends

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, such a great book, great again about mindset of how to approach hard things. Second is I'm a huge fantasy sci-fi fan, so I love Brandon Sanderson's books. I highly recommend those to people as well.”

Lenny's Podcast · 17 Oct 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Anneka said.

23 transcript-backed records

01 / recommendation

Recommends The Hard Thing About Hard Things.

“The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, such a great book, great again about mindset of how to approach hard things. Second is I'm a huge fantasy sci-fi fan, so I love Brandon Sanderson's books. I highly recommend those to people as well.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

05 / belief

I'm just going to summarize in Zoom chat this is what I've heard, and this is what I think we're saying in this conversation.

“I'm just going to summarize in Zoom chat this is what I've heard, and this is what I think we're saying in this conversation.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

06 / belief

I think what I do when I hit a difficult personality and difficult personalities come in all shapes and sizes and forms is I really try to understand what drives that person.

“I think what I do when I hit a difficult personality and difficult personalities come in all shapes and sizes and forms is I really try to understand what drives that person.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

07 / evaluation

Let's say you're working in customer support, well, you have a huge amount of knowledge about what are the big problems that people are calling up the support team or opening tickets on the support team for, and that is valuable knowledge for being a product manager.

“Let's say you're working in customer support, well, you have a huge amount of knowledge about what are the big problems that people are calling up the support team or opening tickets on the support team for, and that is valuable knowledge for being a product manager.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / belief

Yeah, I think join a product adjacent function, which honestly pretty much every function is product adjacent, because what function does product not engage with, but as closely product adjacent as possible, and then yeah, find your way into the product world from there.

“Yeah, I think join a product adjacent function, which honestly pretty much every function is product adjacent, because what function does product not engage with, but as closely product adjacent as possible, and then yeah, find your way into the product world from there.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / belief

I think when you come back curious, people then want to give you more feedback because they know that you're listening and that you're hearing what they say.

“I think when you come back curious, people then want to give you more feedback because they know that you're listening and that you're hearing what they say.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / evaluation

Sometimes there's just too many must-haves to go deal with the nice-to-haves and you have to just be like, well, I know this is a problem, or I know we could be 10% better in this, but it actually doesn't matter as much as fixing these things that are really, really important and are really what's going to help my organization deliver what it needs to for the company and for the business overall.

“Sometimes there's just too many must-haves to go deal with the nice-to-haves and you have to just be like, well, I know this is a problem, or I know we could be 10% better in this, but it actually doesn't matter as much as fixing these things that are really, really important and are really what's going to help my organization deliver what it needs to for the company and for the business overall.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

11 / belief

I think that helps not only think about how you interact with other people, but also combat imposter syndrome because you have something to bring to the table and teach as well as anyone else, no matter what your age is, no matter what your background, and leaning into that and realizing that people can learn from you and you can learn from others in every single situation.

“I think that helps not only think about how you interact with other people, but also combat imposter syndrome because you have something to bring to the table and teach as well as anyone else, no matter what your age is, no matter what your background, and leaning into that and realizing that people can learn from you and you can learn from others in every single situation.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

12 / belief

You have to play that wisely. But I think once you're in a company, then finding a way to make a relationship with the product leader, or if you're in a startup that is really small and they don't have product management, well then you have the opportunity to take on projects for sure that are product management related because no one is doing that work.

“You have to play that wisely. But I think once you're in a company, then finding a way to make a relationship with the product leader, or if you're in a startup that is really small and they don't have product management, well then you have the opportunity to take on projects for sure that are product management related because no one is doing that work.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / belief

" I recognize people that I've worked for, CEOs, that have done founder mode, great founders that have done founder mode poorly. And it opened up a level of discussion that I think is really valuable for everyone to be having, whether you're a founder or you're someone that works for a founder.

“" I recognize people that I've worked for, CEOs, that have done founder mode, great founders that have done founder mode poorly. And it opened up a level of discussion that I think is really valuable for everyone to be having, whether you're a founder or you're someone that works for a founder.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / preference

Five to 6:00 PM is my worst time of day and I know that about myself, so I'm not going to schedule in my most difficult meeting or writing up a strategy deck or something for that period of time because I know that that's not going to be my best and it's actually going to make it more difficult for me to get the work done.

“Five to 6:00 PM is my worst time of day and I know that about myself, so I'm not going to schedule in my most difficult meeting or writing up a strategy deck or something for that period of time because I know that that's not going to be my best and it's actually going to make it more difficult for me to get the work done.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / evaluation

Just starting it on a light note and that elevated my own mood and way I was approaching the meeting, but also adds a level of levity to the situation for other people as well, which I think as a leader is super important because it's not just about your own mindset, but how are you transferring that mindset to the people that you're working with and the people that are working for you.

“Just starting it on a light note and that elevated my own mood and way I was approaching the meeting, but also adds a level of levity to the situation for other people as well, which I think as a leader is super important because it's not just about your own mindset, but how are you transferring that mindset to the people that you're working with and the people that are working for you.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

16 / evaluation

You want that, but some people shy away from that because it's scary because you have to deal with a lot of conflict and it's a way to kind of move beyond the conflict and get to the heart of an issue, which in my mind, that's what the PM job is all about is getting to the very, very heart of a problem.

“You want that, but some people shy away from that because it's scary because you have to deal with a lot of conflict and it's a way to kind of move beyond the conflict and get to the heart of an issue, which in my mind, that's what the PM job is all about is getting to the very, very heart of a problem.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

17 / preference

I didn't know how I was going to manage and at first I felt so scared by what was ahead of me and how much change I was going to have to go through in a very short period of time. But when I got this advice, I started to try to reframe my thinking and it actually really made it so that I was able to get through that hard time and opened my mind up to so many more opportunities.

“I didn't know how I was going to manage and at first I felt so scared by what was ahead of me and how much change I was going to have to go through in a very short period of time. But when I got this advice, I started to try to reframe my thinking and it actually really made it so that I was able to get through that hard time and opened my mind up to so many more opportunities.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

18 / uncertainty

Or it might not just be one hypothesis, it might be a series of hypotheses and assumptions that we're making that are informing the decision. So it might be a hypothesis that this segment of customers is going to be willing to pay for this product because it's solving an urgent and important enough need for them that they're going to go do it and this is the evidence we have to find it, but this is also the stuff we don't know.

“Or it might not just be one hypothesis, it might be a series of hypotheses and assumptions that we're making that are informing the decision. So it might be a hypothesis that this segment of customers is going to be willing to pay for this product because it's solving an urgent and important enough need for them that they're going to go do it and this is the evidence we have to find it, but this is also the stuff we don't know.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

19 / evaluation

When you think about that, especially from an outside-in perspective of what are the customer problems we're trying to solve and how are we going to take this to market, and don't worry about how difficult the technical implementation is going to be, then you start to get to these big ideas that can really be the change agent ideas. So, I've started doing this more and more and I think especially in the past three to six months, and I'm seeing a material difference in terms of the number of big ideas that we're going and pursuing overall as a company and also the quality of the strategic thinking that I can bring to the table, and it's been really exciting and rewarding.

“When you think about that, especially from an outside-in perspective of what are the customer problems we're trying to solve and how are we going to take this to market, and don't worry about how difficult the technical implementation is going to be, then you start to get to these big ideas that can really be the change agent ideas. So, I've started doing this more and more and I think especially in the past three to six months, and I'm seeing a material difference in terms of the number of big ideas that we're going and pursuing overall as a company and also the quality of the strategic thinking that I can bring to the table, and it's been really exciting and rewarding.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

20 / evaluation

By doing that, then at least I have clarity in my mind and I can provide clarity to the team about what is most important and rally the troops around making that stuff happen if that is what is essentially right. And I'll have all the context because I've asked all the questions of why this is right for the business, why is this going to help us with increased margins or get better growth or get into a new persona if that's what we're trying to do as an overall organization.

“By doing that, then at least I have clarity in my mind and I can provide clarity to the team about what is most important and rally the troops around making that stuff happen if that is what is essentially right. And I'll have all the context because I've asked all the questions of why this is right for the business, why is this going to help us with increased margins or get better growth or get into a new persona if that's what we're trying to do as an overall organization.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

21 / commitment

What I have found is that if I can convey, and I will say this very directly to people, I care so much about you and I'm giving you this feedback because I want you to be successful and I want you to be able to reach the pinnacle of what I know you can accomplish.

“What I have found is that if I can convey, and I will say this very directly to people, I care so much about you and I'm giving you this feedback because I want you to be successful and I want you to be able to reach the pinnacle of what I know you can accomplish.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

22 / evaluation

There's a situation where we created a really amazing high value product and we decided not to monetize it, and then we realized after the fact, "Wait, we should have monetized it.

“There's a situation where we created a really amazing high value product and we decided not to monetize it, and then we realized after the fact, "Wait, we should have monetized it.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

23 / prediction

I definitely think that that kind of summarization of information for PMs is a big unlock for organizations and I think we're still in the very, very early days of AI making a meaningful difference to the way that PMs do their work.

“I definitely think that that kind of summarization of information for PMs is a big unlock for organizations and I think we're still in the very, very early days of AI making a meaningful difference to the way that PMs do their work.”
Speaker
Anneka Gupta
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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