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Nikita Miller is a product leader, angel investor, and advisor. She has built and led product teams at companies ranging from early-stage startups to multinationals, and she is currently SVP of Product Management at The Knot Worldwide. Nikita is passionate about scaling product teams to support high-growth businesses and was a product leader at Trello and Atlassian for five years. In today’s podcast, we cover:

• Lessons from building and growing Trello

• Nikita’s roles and responsibilities framework

• How the PM landscape is changing

• Lessons about managing remote teams

• Tactics for driving urgency within teams

• Why working cross-culturally was such a formative experience

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Find the transcript and references at: ⁠https://www.lennyspodcast.com/driving-alignment-and-urgency-within-teams-work-life-balance-and-the-changing-pm-landscape-nikita-miller-the-knot-trello/#transcript

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Where to find Nikita Miller:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikitadyer

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

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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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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00 ) Nikita’s background

(03:56 ) How Nikita helped Trello develop enterprise features 

(09:41 ) Trello vs. Jira

(10:28 ) Similarities and differences between building for users at The Knot vs. Trello

(15:02 ) Pro tips for Trello users

(15:41 ) Nikita’s roles and responsibilities framework

(21:10 ) Why scrum masters are disappearing and what shifts are happening on teams

(21:56 ) Why every team should have a data scientist embedded in it

(23:27 ) The proper cadence for the rules and responsibilities framework, and problems around execution

(25:27 ) Outcomes and output

(28:34 ) The importance of urgency, and how to cultivate a sense of urgency

(29:52 ) How to determine if your team is moving quickly enough

(31:03 ) Prioritization between big bets and optimizations

(31:29 ) Questions Nikita asks to understand her team’s speed 

(33:30 ) Changes in the field of product management

(36:42 ) Advice for people who want to get into product

(38:40 ) Why being a PM is hard, and thoughts on work-life balance

(43:03 ) How to manage remote teams and how to do successful, short, in-person meetups

(47:59 ) The importance of having overlapping work hours and onboarding in person

(49:09 ) The advantages of working in different cultures 

(52:58 ) The question Nikita finds most useful

(55:07 ) Lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Disclosure: I am a Wealthfront client and I have received non-cash compensation for the testimonial in this episode.

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