Why can't good PMs build great products?
Sometimes it's because they just don't care enough to sweat the details...
I’m way, way behind on episodes of Lenny’s Podcasts and have been catching up. This podcast with Rahul Vohra is a banger, but this section I heard this evening on attention to detail - in particular his description of how they/he did fonts for Superhuman is a revelation.
It was perfectly timed because earlier this morning a friend and I were discussing why another PM - whom we both think is really, really good - with enough autonomy had shipped a ok, but not great product at his company.
We both came to the same conclusion having done it ourselves sometimes - “He doesn’t give enough of a s#$t! He’s incredibly talented so the product won’t be bad and won’t have mistakes but he’s not obsessing over the details or passionate enough to fight for a strong opinion.”
What does obsession look like? What does not being able to help yourself from doing the very best you can on a subject you care about look like? What does not compromising and settling for “It’ll be fine. There’s other things that will make or break this thing” look like.
Listen to this section: