Three years have passed since I packed up all my belongings in Maryland and drove across the country to start my career in Silicon Valley. During this time I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of bright, talented entrepreneurs who challenge assumptions, encourage debate, and demand excellence. As I reflect on all the ways I have changed there are several key aspects of my professional outlook that will define my approach to the next phase of my career:
- 1) A Great Product is the Cornerstone of a Great Company
- When I was tasked with designing the first self-serve marketing suite for Facebook I told the team that the product was going to be so compelling, so easy-to-use, and so powerful that we were going to immediately assume control over the market. 100,000 customers and over 200,000,000 fan relationships later I'd say the proof is in the pudding. (By the way, we achieved market dominance solely through word-of-mouth and no marketing budget)
- 2) Decision Non-Making Is Just As Important As Decision Making
- There is no lack of 'good ideas' in the workplace, especially in Silicon Valley. Whether it's high-level strategy planning or macro-level product ideation, when playing in an Internet sandbox it's easy to lose sight of the end goals and the means to reach them. Throughout my short career I have taken pride in identifying negative value propositions and ensuring that resources are spent on only the most promising of ventures.
- 3) Product != Engineering
- End-users could care less that you've built a complex rails stack on top of Amazon Web Services, or that your load balancing has triple redundancies. As far as they are concerned, 'Product' is what they interact with on-screen every day. Every pixel. Every click. That is the product.
- 4) I Have a Lot to Learn
- What I do not know far exceeds what I do know. With this in mind I am always seeking alternate opinions from people who either have more knowledge or a different perspective than I do. This helps me not only resolve the issue at hand, but, more importantly, realize more fundamental learning opportunities which can be applied to a broader range of issues.