Maggie Crowley is VP of product at Toast and previously vice president and head of product at Charlie Health, senior director of product management at Drift, and a PM at TripAdvisor. She’s also the host of Build, a podcast dedicated to product and product management. In today’s conversation, Maggie shares:• The value of building a broad-based PM skill set• Three qualities of the best product managers• A step-by-step guide for crafting a product strategy• How to break into PM• Why great writing is often just simplifying your writing• Why being too data-driven is a red flag• The impact of content creation on Maggie’s career
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Brought to you by ⁠Productroadmap.ai⁠—AI to connect your roadmaps to revenue | ⁠Composer⁠—the AI-powered trading platform | ⁠Eppo⁠—Run reliable, impactful experiments
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Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/mastering-product-strategy-and-growing-as-a-pm-maggie-crowley-toast-dr..
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Where to find Maggie Crowley:
• X: https://twitter.com/maggiecrowley
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-crowley-42a97112/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Maggie’s background
(04:06) Three common traits among the best product managers
(09:33) Strategy is an important but small part of the job
(11:14) How to get better at simplification
(13:39) Tips on simplifying your writing
(15:13) Ownership as a PM
(17:53) Examples of simplifying your work
(19:39) Maggie’s Slack support group
(21:37) How to improve on following up on your work
(23:23) A realistic time horizon for PMs
(26:31) Staying in your role vs. trying a new opportunity
(27:37) The importance of “carrying the water” 
(28:56) Pros and cons of the PM job
(31:42) Advice on landing a PM role
(34:36) Maggie’s step-by-step process for writing your product strategy
(39:55) Not every feature needs a strategy
(46:29) The value of working through the process
(48:09) Maggie’s one-pager doc 
(54:16) Contrarian corner
(55:44) The worst product Maggie ever shipped
(58:33) Why being “data-driven” is a red flag
(1:01:10) Content creation as a career accelerator
(1:14:27) Closing thoughts
(1:15:17) Lightning round
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.