Vickie Peng: Why the Best Product People Actually Build Less Product? | E1141

Vickie Peng is a Product Partner at Sequoia and one of the co-creators of Arc, their company-building immersion programme for pre-seed and seed stage founders. Prior to Sequoia, Vickie was a product manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo for $200M) and Instagram, where she grew SMB advertising from $200M to $1BN.
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Intro
(01:10) Lessons from TrialPay
(07:32) Product Lessons from Polyvore
(11:56) Biggest Takeaways from Instagram
(16:23) Good vs. Great Product Mission
(21:49) Starting Point for Effective Product Strategy
(27:09) Three Different Types of PMF
(31:10) Advising Founders in Competitive Markets
(37:58) Future Vision
(46:59) Quick-Fire Round
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In Today’s Episode with Vickie Peng We Discuss:
1. Lessons from 15 Years in Product:
How did Vickie make her way into the world of product?
How did Vickie turn a small side business into a massive revenue machine at TrialPay?
How did Vickie scale Instagram SMB ads to $1BN? What were her takeaways?
What was Vickie’s business model at Polyvore that eventually led to the $200M acquisition by Yahoo?
2. Early-Stage Founder Advice:
What does Vickie believe are the biggest mistakes early stage founders make when telling stories?
Which 2 components does Vickie believe every great product mission should include?
How should pre-product-market fit founders set their north star metric?
3. Perfecting Product Strategy:
What was Vickie’s biggest product mistake? What were her lessons?
Why does Vickie think the best product people build less product?
What is Vickie’s advice to product leaders starting their first day on the job?
What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring product teams?
4. Product-Market Fit Masterclass:
Why does Vickie believe product-market fit is a journey not a destination?
What are the biggest reasons founders fail to get product-market fit?
What are the 3 types of product-market fit?
How does Vickie advise founders to differentiate themselves in competitive markets?
What is Vickie’s framework for competing against incumbents?
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#20vc #harrystebbings #vickiepeng #sequoia #product #partnership #founder #venturecapital #instagram #trialpay #polyvore #futurevision

[@20VC]

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[@psyferinc.3573]

such gold. i have been pausing and repeating for the sake of deeper understandings.

[@PrevailPal]

Thank you for sharing. May your day be filled with more thankfulness, encouragement and forward thinking today....

[@Maheshmnz]

This is an unusually good discussion on product. CEO founders are the original CPOs - they need to build the same level of clarity in this craft that Vickie has. They do that by obsessing about the customer, problem and market.

[@20VC]

Really glad you enjoyed it, Vickie was amazing!

[@MarvinMcTaw]

Ditto

[@melissawyborn8593]

This was an amazing discussion, thank you both!

[@20VC]

Thanks for watching!

[@EnricoRos]

Incredibly insightful; where can we learn the full 4 parts framework? (Arc aside)

[@MarvinMcTaw]

Yeah I’d like to know too

[@Nolimit276]

I wonder what someone like her makes. I’m guessing 400k a year?

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

Hmmm I don't agree with the definition of product strategy she's pushing here.

[@anthonypentland2594]

Why

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

@@anthonypentland2594 well essentially its too buzz-wordy and high-level: not deep enough nor truly actionable. This is what causes huge issues and why people end up with garbage strategies that don't make any sense/

[@justtestingonce]

@@user-kg1od9es5dwhat you said makes no sense. So if she used different words but said the same think, you wouldn’t have a problem. Discounting something by saying buzz wordy is very childish.

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

@@justtestingonce see a therapist Vickie.