Brandon Chu on building product at Shopify, how writing changed the trajectory of his career, the habits that make you a great PM, pros and cons of being a platform PM, how Shopify got through Covid

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:03)
If you're a product manager, you've almost certainly come across one of Brandon Chu's medium posts. His writing about all aspects of the job is some of the best writing out there on the skills of being a PM, and has informed a lot of my thinking on both product management and writing.
Brandon is currently a VP of product at Shopify, where he's been for seven years. And in our conversation, we talk about what it's like to build product at Shopify, what Shopify has learned about being effective working remotely, having done it from day one, the impact of writing on one's career and how to get started, the benefits of becoming a platform PM, the manager track versus the IC track, and a bunch of other stuff. Brandon is a wealth of knowledge on the art of product management, and I'm really excited to bring this episode to you.
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Brandon, thank you so much for joining me. Hey Lenny, thanks for having me. I'm curious, when you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

**Brandon Chu** (3:06)
An astronaut. Say more. I've always just had a longing for space. I have a vision in my mind and I still think I'm going to do this. One day, I'm going to see the whole earth in one view and it's going to make me feel, this is going to sound weird, but make me feel really small, which I think will make me feel connected. Even since I was 16, I've been saving $2,000 a year in a separate account that I just invest in the market because I calculated that it would cost half a million dollars by the time I was 55
And I think it's going to actually work out like timing-wise because it's like the cost is coming close.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:39)
This is an amazing story. That's like a very PM-y way of approaching it. Just like start putting money away. Plan for going to space, hoping that tech would catch up. This is going to be a great podcast V2 when you're on your way to space.

**Brandon Chu** (3:51)
Yeah, we'll do it for sure. I'll bring my Starlink up there.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:54)
I just got an email from Starlink that you can now move your Starlinks around and get internet as you move.

**Brandon Chu** (3:58)
Oh, that's amazing. So you're going to have a mount on Teslas and you just plug it into your Tesla and just, yeah.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (4:05)
It's all coming together.
Okay, so you wanted to be an astronaut, eventually got into product. I'd love to hear how you like that segue. How you got into product initially and then just kind of your journey to where you are today, which is VPR product at Shopify.