4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he’d asked himself sooner | Former PM leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google artwork

4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he’d asked himself sooner | Former PM leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

October 31, 2024

Shreyas Doshi is a former product leader at Stripe, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo. He’s now a full-time advisor and coach to founders and executives. Shreyas is known for his incredibly insightful writing on products, which has garnered him a passionate following in the PM and startup community.
Speakers: Lenny Rachitsky, Shreyas Doshi
**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:02)
Today, I am super excited to bring you a very special episode with Shreyas Doshi, recorded live at the Lenny and Friends Summit in front of a thousand people in San Francisco. This is Shreyas' second time on the podcast. His first visit is the third most popular episode of all time of this podcast, and I love that Shreyas was game to try this. In our conversation, Shreyas shares three questions, plus a bonus question that he wished he'd ask himself sooner in his career. We talk about why product leaders are so busy, why the job is so frustrating, why it is so essential to build good taste, and also why you're probably not listening as well as you should be. This was so much fun. A huge thank you to Shreyas for doing this. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It's the best way to avoid missing future episodes, and helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Shreyas Doshi. Shreyas, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the podcast.

**Shreyas Doshi** (1:01)
Thanks Lenny for having me. This is amazing.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (1:04)
I was gonna ask, we recorded our first episode, I think, two years ago, and I was in a tiny room in my house, I don't know where you were, but it was very not like this. Thoughts on the setup of this episode?

**Shreyas Doshi** (1:18)
So first, the Lenny empire keeps growing, which is amazing to see.
And second, as I was coming up here, somebody told me this used to be a car dealership, and I actually realized I purchased my car here. What? So crazy, only in SF.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (1:38)
What kind of car was this?

**Shreyas Doshi** (1:40)
It was a Honda CR-V.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (1:42)
Okay. Wow. I am told this venue was also used for Jimi Hendrix performed here, and Aretha Franklin performed here. So we're in, it's like Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin, Shreyas.

**Shreyas Doshi** (1:56)
There we go. That's going up on my Twitter bio soon.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (2:02)
Okay. So usually when we talk, you're full of ideas and you're full of answers. When we were preparing for this, you told me, I have questions. I have questions I want to ask.

**Shreyas Doshi** (2:15)
You know, reflecting on my career as a PM leader over the years, there are some questions I wish I had asked myself sooner, but I did not. And I had the great luck of having a life, a PM life full of suffering.
And I have zero complaints about it. But as I look back, I feel like there are some questions that I wasn't, even if I asked myself some questions, those questions, I wasn't honest to myself about the answers. So that's what I thought I'd do is kind of share the questions that I wish I had asked myself sooner.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:05)
Awesome. Love that.

**Shreyas Doshi** (3:07)
Okay.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:09)
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