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Ian McAllister is the Senior Director of Product for Vehicles at Uber. Before moving to Uber, Ian spent over a decade directing teams at Amazon, where he created and led Amazon Smile. He was also Director of Product Management at Airbnb, where I was lucky enough to have worked alongside him. In today\u2019s episode, we discuss Ian\u2019s famous document about the essential attributes of the top 1% of product managers. Ian outlines the most important skills to focus on for entry-level PMs and how to broaden your experience and diversify skills as you move up the ladder. He also shares what he learned working with Jeff Wilke, Jeff Bezos, and other leaders at Amazon, and goes in depth on Amazon\u2019s working-backwards framework.\xa0

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-top-1-pm-ian-mcallister-uber-amazon-airbnb/#transcript

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Where to find Ian McAllister:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ianmcall

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmcallister/

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Where to find Lenny:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

\u2022 Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/startups

\u2022 Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lenny

\u2022 AssemblyAI: https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=lennyspodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nov20

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Referenced:

\u2022 What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Substack: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/p/what-distinguishes-the-top-1-of-product

\u2022 What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-distinguishes-the-Top-1-of-product-managers-from-the-Top-10

\u2022 Amazon\u2019s working-backwards method: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/working-backward-amazon-method/

\u2022 Jeff Wilke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffawilke

\u2022 Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Real-Smarter-Successful-Application/dp/0578012812

\u2022 Wool (Wool trilogy #1): https://www.amazon.com/Wool-Trilogy-Howey-25-Apr-2013-Paperback/dp/B011T7ACU0/

\u2022 Energy and Civilization: A History: https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774

\u2022 How I Built This podcast: https://www.npr.org/series/490248027/how-i-built-this

\u2022 EV News Daily podcast: https://www.evnewsdaily.com/

\u2022 Yellowstone on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/yellowstone

\u2022 Everything Everywhere All at Once on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/titles/3493875/everything-everywhere-all-at-once

\u2022 Gibson Biddle\u2019s website: https://www.gibsonbiddle.com/

\u2022 Gibson Biddle on Lenny\u2019s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gibson-biddle-on-his-dhm-product-strategy-framework-gem-roadmap-prioritization-framework-5-netflix-strategy-mini-case-studies-building-a-personal-board-of-directors-and-much-more/

\u2022 Gibson Biddle\u2019s Ask Gib newsletter: https://askgib.substack.com/

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In this episode, we cover:

(03:54) What Ian expected from his initial post on product management

(05:30) How the post impacted Ian\u2019s career

(07:06) How writing can help you crystallize your thoughts

(08:26) Ian\u2019s background

(10:57) Attributes of the top 1% of PMs

(14:32) The top three skills for new PMs to perfect

(20:32) Tips on strengthening communication and prioritization

(23:06) How to level up as a PM

(26:37) What kind of impact should new PMs expect to make?

(29:36) How to broaden your view and think big

(33:06) How to earn the trust of others

(34:30) How Ian could have done more to earn trust at Airbnb

(37:27) Why people tend to stick around Amazon for a while\xa0

(39:53) What Ian learned from Bezos and Wilke

(46:38) How teams get working backwards wrong

(53:51) The two parts of working backwards and how Ian utilizes it at Uber

(58:57) Lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.