Jason Shah

Viewing a career as a 'map' rather than a 'ladder' allows for more growth through diverse, interesting, and high-risk experiences.

"The framework I like is ladder versus map, and I think that you can be either person that any point in your life... Ladder is about moving up. It's more influence, more power, a higher title, things l..."

High-quality business writing relies on objective specificity and the removal of subjective adjectives.

"Every employee goes through actually like a business writing class after they start at Amazon. They give you a little card with five tips that you're supposed to keep on your desk about concision and..."

Reframe the concept of 'pushback' from a negative act of disagreement to a constructive effort to align on business success.

"Pushback is, I couldn't imagine a word more viscerally that makes you feel like you're sort of physically going against what somebody else wants, and it gears people into a mindset of then, well, how..."

Job descriptions should be treated as iterative documents that evolve based on the talent available in the market and changing business needs.

"I think taking a product mindset where I meet people all the time now where I don't really know exactly what role they're necessarily going to fill... and looking at a product that we can mold flexibl..."

Asking about regretted risks reveals a candidate's growth mindset and their psychological approach to problem-solving.

"What is a risk you regret not taking, why, and what did you learn about yourself?"

Great leaders build culture by demonstrating that no task is too small for them, combining humility with an obsession for craft.

"I think number one, nothing is above them. I've seen whether it's Brian caring about the full bleed image on the homepage, whether it's Jeff Bezos who famously would receive customer emails, read many..."

In difficult times, team morale is best sustained through tangible product progress rather than motivational speeches.

"I think that the only way to maintain moral is to make progress. I think that no speech, no sort of extrinsic motivators... really works. I think people get really excited when they see progress."

To successfully influence a founder or CEO, reframe your constraints as a way to better achieve their high-level vision.

"It shifted the pushback of like, 'We can't build this thing, it's too many features, we don't have enough time, we don't have enough resources' to, 'Oh, we all want a really elegant, really smooth, sl..."

The most foundational PM skill is identifying which specific problem is the most important to solve, as this dictates strategy, business models, and team motivation.

"Understanding and defining what problem matters is the most important skill that I think I've taken away, and it applies to so many things. It can apply to a specific product we're building. It can ap..."

The working backwards process uses a mock press release to force extreme clarity on the product's value proposition before development begins.

"Amazon is well-known for is the working backwards process, and for those that don't know, the idea is try to define effectively an ideal end state... and usually the mechanism for doing this is what's..."