Airbnb’s Vlad Loktev on embracing chaos, inquiry over advocacy, poking the bear, and “impact, impact, impact” (Partner at Index Ventures, Airbnb GM/VP Product)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2024

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Vlad Loktev spent 10 years at Airbnb, where he started as an IC PM and quickly advanced to lead the core Airbnb marketplace business and then GM the entire homes business, managing over 1,000 people and reporting directly to CEO Brian Chesky. He recently left Airbnb and joined Index Ventures as their newest partner. Vlad was my manager at Airbnb for many years, and is the person I credit most for teaching me how to be a great product manager. Prior to Airbnb, Vlad spent a year at Zynga, where he helped grow Words with Friends to over 14 million daily active users. In our conversation, Vlad shares:

• Insight into Brian Chesky’s leadership style

• Why success as a PM is all about impact, impact, impact

• Why chaos can be good

• Why as a leader it’s OK to let some fires burn

• Why you should learn to “poke the bear”

• Balancing product release speed with quality

• Lessons on prioritization, decision-making, and organizational design

• Advice for founders on building company culture

• Much more

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Find the transcript and show notes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/impact-impact-impact-vlad-loktev

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Where to find Vlad Loktev:

• X: https://x.com/vladimirloktev

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirloktev/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Vlad’s background

(02:54) Reflecting on transformative years at Airbnb

(04:28) Skills and mindsets for success

(11:03) Impact-driven mindset

(13:16) Saying no and inquiry before advocacy

(17:54) “Poking the bear”

(22:46) Psychological tools for leadership

(30:08) Building and scaling teams

(36:12) Letting fires burn

(47:34) Embracing chaos

(54:40) The unsell email strategy

(01:02:01) Finding your place in an organization

(01:05:38) The importance of company culture

(01:13:16) Airbnb’s unique approach to product management

(01:26:41) Failure corner

(01:31:32) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What was it like managing me?
0:01.4	Most importantly, how painful was it to manage me?
0:03.5	Man, how much time do you have?
0:05.3	I used to joke with people that you're kind of this Jedi
0:07.6	where you get crazy stuff done, really hard stuff done in a really subtle
0:10.9	and a really unique way.
0:11.9	I've always used inquiry versus advocacy.
0:14.7	A lot of people approach a conversation with the point of view
0:17.5	and they begin advocating immediately.
0:19.5	We should do this or no, we should not do this, right?
0:22.3	Me, I always have the opposite approach I
0:24.2	inquire first I'm gonna ask a ton of questions because I fundamentally believe maybe
0:28.0	there's something I don't know and there's information that I need to
0:30.6	understand to make a better decision.
0:32.8	Is there something you can share about just what you learn for Brian, about thinking big?
0:35.8	I remember talking to Brian one day.
0:37.6	He was like, something just feels off right now.
0:40.8	And I remember asking him, like, what do you you mean our numbers are open to the right his
0:44.0	response was things are just too calm sometimes you want to create chaos in an
0:50.3	organization to push the organization to think creatively and to actually like make leaps in product development.
0:56.7	And I've always told myself, don't be afraid to poke the bear.
1:00.6	What are some skills that you believe helped you be as successful as you've been?
	...

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