What it takes to become a top 1% PM | Ian McAllister (Uber, Amazon, Airbnb)
November 20, 2022
AI Summary
5 min readIan McAllister, a senior director of product at Uber with prior roles at Amazon and Airbnb, discusses principles for becoming a top 1% product manager, drawing from his influential 2014 post and 12 years at Amazon. He emphasizes skills like communication, prioritization, and execution, while detailing Amazon's working backwards process and lessons from leaders like Jeff Bezos and Jeff Wilke.
Core Attributes of Top 1% PMs
McAllister lists key skills separating elite PMs: think big, communicate clearly, simplify, prioritize, forecast and measure, execute, understand technical tradeoffs and design, write effective copy, earn trust, dig for data, push back effectively, adapt to change, and stay driven by impact over promotion. No PM masters all; success comes from strength in a few high-leverage areas. Communication tests clear thinking, prioritization unlocks 5x impact by focusing resources on metrics that move the business, and execution requires driving teams to ship compact, high-yield solutions.
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What you'll learn
- 1 `* (03:57) **Intro and Impact of "Top 1% PM" Post**`
- 2 `* (08:31) **Career Background and Current Role at Uber**`
- 3 `* (11:28) **Attributes of Top 1% PMs**`
- 4 `* (14:33) **Core Skills for New PMs: Communicate, Prioritize, Execute**`
- 5 `* (23:17) **Skills for Senior PMs: Think Big, Earn Trust, Impact-Driven**`
- 6 `* (37:27) **Amazon Culture and Leadership Lessons**`
- 7 `* (46:33) **Working Backwards Process Deep Dive**`
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Ian McAllister is the Senior Director of Product for Vehicles at Uber. Before moving to Uber, Ian spent over a decade directing teams at Amazon, where he created and led Amazon Smile. He was also Director of Product Management at Airbnb, where I was lucky enough to have worked alongside him. In today’s episode, we discuss Ian’s famous document about the essential attributes of the top 1% of product managers. Ian outlines the most important skills to focus on for entry-level PMs and how to broaden your experience and diversify skills as you move up the ladder. He also shares what he learned working with Jeff Wilke, Jeff Bezos, and other leaders at Amazon, and goes in depth on Amazon’s working-backwards framework.
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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-top-1-pm-ian-mcallister-uber-amazon-airbnb/#transcript
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Where to find Ian McAllister:
• Newsletter: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ianmcall
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmcallister/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:
• Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/startups
• Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lenny
• AssemblyAI: https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=lennyspodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nov20
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Referenced:
• What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Substack: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/p/what-distinguishes-the-top-1-of-product
• What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-distinguishes-the-Top-1-o
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