lenny’s newsletter “two-hour product strategy workshop” brought to you by Flatfile

Participants in the session:

  • Click here to give feedback on the workshop

  • Click here for a PDF of the workshop materials (available at end of the session) — Hosts/sponsors: please don’t read the PDF in advance as it will ruin the experience for you.

Additional reading:

  • Click here to read Gib’s series, “How to Define Your Product Strategy.”

  • Click here to read “Branding for Builders.”

  • Click here to read Gib’s daily “Ask Gib” column on Substack

  • Click here to read Gib’s essay on Project v. Outcome-based Roadmaps

  • Click here to read Gib’s essay on “20 Years of Netflix Personalization”

  • Here’s Gib’s essay, “Why Netflix’s Social Strategy Failed,” on Medium

  • Click here if you’d like to check out my self-paced Product Strategy Workshop on Teachable. You can “try before you buy” — the first two modules are free.

To follow Gib on your favorite platform:

Notes for organizers:

  • The event is scheduled for 1/11/23 at 9-11 PT. I am happy to say “hello” via Zoom before the event to answer questions, etc. My contact info is gbiddle616@gmail.com, my cell is 650 867 4338, and my WhatsApp is my cell number.

  • Marketing materials are here: Lenny's Newsletter, "2-Hour Product Strategy Workshop," brought to you by Flatfile

  • Sponsors: I like to do my best to “prove” the value of these events and achieve their goals, so It’s good to discuss your goals and how we can accomplish them. I have many ideas/experiences with this. Together, we provide a lot of value for the audience for free, they understand this, so it’s ok to figure out ways to capture some of this value. The tricky part is measuring it in the long term.

  • Audience size: With up to 150 participants, it’s fine to use Zoom in meeting mode. With more than 150 — and there is no limit to audience size beyond the limit of your Zoom account — it’s best to use webinar mode. For webinars, we should build a little panel that includes me/host/sponsor, and a few others for a total of 4-6 people. It would be good to have reasonable male/female diversity and super bonus points for Black/Latinx participation. My approach is case-based, so the panel gives me an audience to discuss the cases. Typically, panelists and I get online thirty minutes before the start time to lightly get to know each other and get folks comfortable participating. Good if participants are confident and their English is pretty good. No matter what panelists say, I will make them look smart, so there’s not too much to worry about.

  • Introduction: “Gib was VP of Product at Netflix starting in 2005. In 2010, he became the CPO of Chegg, a textbook rental and homework help company that went public in 2014. Today, Gib is a teacher, speaker, and adviser.”

  • In the beginning, please share this link with the audience in chat/messaging to enable Slido polling: https://app.sli.do/event/0e5ojrs4

  • At the end of the talk, please share this link to gather feedback: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/lennyflatfile

  • At the very end (right after the feedback link above), share the link to this page: gibsonbiddle.com/2hoursflatfilelenny

  • Additional notes:

    • I will get on 30 minutes before the session starts to ensure the tech works. It’s fine for the general audience to show up ten minutes before the scheduled start time, as I will ask some Slido questions to warm folks up.

    • It’s difficult to predict timing. If I engage the audience, sometimes it slows things down. But I track the time and will finish within a minute or two of the scheduled time.

    • It’s helpful if the host/organizer scans the chat/Slido for any questions/comments.

    • It’s fine to interrupt me with statements like, “Blank has a question about…” I will sometimes handle the question in real-time or suggest we pick it up later. But it’s fine to talk to me as it’s a casual environment. If there’s a problem/issue, bring it up immediately. It’s ok to interrupt me.

    • I will sometimes ask you what you think about an issue as a way to fill time as we wait for poll responses via Slido.

    • Occasionally I will ask you to “cold call” someone in the audience. Good if you choose someone who likes to talk and is a non-white male — to build diversity “on stage.” Helpful to ask folks who would like to participate to raise their hand using Zoom to indicate interest. When we use a panel, you’ll need to do a little Zoom work to promote them from audience member to panelist so we can see/hear the person.

    • Need host/organizer/Zoom manager to handle details: occasionally muting folks, giving me permission to share my slides, etc. I assume we will be in meeting mode, not webinar mode, as I like to engage the entire audience with questions, etc.

    • If I get dropped, which rarely happens: I will be back within a minute or two. Be patient.

  • Q & A. I gather questions via Slido, and folks are welcome to upvote them, but there isn’t time to answer questions. I do, however, answer all questions eventually via my “Ask Gib” essays, and the questions are super helpful to me— they help me to isolate what I failed to communicate. Pro tip: Q and A is very helpful to the person asking the question, but half the time, the question/answer is not relevant to all, so it’s not “high bang for the buck” given limited time.

  • Laugh at my jokes. (It should be fun.)

Agenda: