Functional expertise beats people management

Hire executives who know how to execute. Let's say Sanchan's entire team disappears, and then I go to Brian and say, 'Hey, Brian, I got to hire this organization, I got to hire these people, and then I'll tell you what to build.' Now I should be able to then crawl up my sleeve and do exactly what my team did.

A design leader's job should be managing the design first, the people second. How do you manage the people without managing their work? How do you give them development if you're not in the details with them on the work?

They passed all the technical questions. They do all this, they do all that. But then you neglect to find out can this person show up and work with these engineers, these designers? Can they inspire them? Is this somebody that they want to follow?

I think the way I've come to think about it is that the product manager is responsible for the whole team thinking like a CEO, if that makes sense.

You have to shift from doer to editor is the way I think about it. You have to shift from, 'My job is to do the work,' to, 'My job is to make the work better.'