How They Built DoorDash and Square: Gokul Rajaram on Speed, Small Teams, Product Management, and the S.P.A.D.E. Decision Framework

“The best product leaders coach people across the company, not just in their team, and help develop them into the future leaders of the company.” – Gokul Rajaram EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.outlieracademy.com/episode/102 CHAPTERS This episode is our definitive guide to product management in small, speedy teams. In it we cover: (00:00:00) – Introduction (00:02:26) – Gokul’s background in product management (00:06:58) – Applying a computer science background to product management (00:10:26) – What great product vision looks like (00:16:32) – The product analyst role (00:23:11) – Focusing on controllable inputs (00:26:07) – Experiment design (00:34:54) – Editing vs. managing a product (00:42:50) – S.P.A.D.E. decision making (00:55:18) – Speed in product creation ABOUT GOKUL RAJARAM Gokul Rajaram is part of a new wave of solo capitalists, like Elad Gil and Lachy Groom, that play an outsized role in funding and helping many of the world's best startups. As Gokul says in this interview, his goal is for every founder he backs to say that he's the most helpful investor on the cap table. And if there is another thing that Gokul is known for, it's his expertise around product management and decision making, including the Spade framework he created at Square for making transparent decisions at the highest levels. Spade is now used by many of the world's best startups for large, important, and strategic decisions that need to be made transparently so the whole company understands why the decision was made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices