Becoming a super IC: Lessons from 12 years as a PM individual contributor | Tal Raviv (Riverside)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Gamma and WorkOS, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Tal Raviv, a product manager at Patreon, Wix and AppsFlyer who joined Riverside as its first PM, about staying an individual contributor for twelve years and counting. Raviv's career strategy is not to have one: he follows what makes him excited to wake up in the morning, and he has never looked at a manager's calendar and wanted that life - a pattern he shares with colleagues who tried leadership and insisted on returning to IC. The conversation covers tactical PM productivity, why every tech company has just two departments that matter, and an extended Failure Corner, including the time thousands of people tagged his CEO demanding he be fired - because Raviv wants people to see that successful people fail a lot and those failures make you better. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the IC philosophy and failures; the productivity tactics are not covered. These are Raviv's own views and experiences, not independently verified.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Lenny's Podcast episode, sponsored by Gamma and WorkOS, in which Lenny Rachitsky talks with Tal Raviv, a product manager at Patreon, Wix and AppsFlyer who joined Riverside as its first PM, about staying an individual contributor for twelve years and counting. Raviv's career strategy is not to have one: he follows what makes him excited to wake up in the morning, and he has never looked at a manager's calendar and wanted that life - a pattern he shares with colleagues who tried leadership and insisted on returning to IC. The conversation covers tactical PM productivity, why every tech company has just two departments that matter, and an extended Failure Corner, including the time thousands of people tagged his CEO demanding he be fired - because Raviv wants people to see that successful people fail a lot and those failures make you better. PARTIAL COVERAGE: this summary highlights the IC philosophy and failures; the productivity tactics are not covered. These are Raviv's own views and experiences, not independently verified.