Casey Winters
Growth Advisor & Former CPO at Eventbrite / Pinterest / Grubhub
Legend in the growth and product community; former CPO at Eventbrite, growth leader at Pinterest and Grubhub; has advised companies including Reddit, Canva, Airbnb, Tinder, and Thumbtack; co-creator of growth frameworks at Reforge.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Casey Winters, a legendary growth advisor who has shaped strategy at Pinterest, Grubhub, Eventbrite, Reddit, and Canva, shares a critical insight about the danger of PM framework worship. He observed that over-reliance on 'the right way' of doing product management created a culture where no one took risks, and argues that frameworks should be tools pulled out when relevant, not coloring books that constrain thinking and action.
Leadership Principles
- → Frameworks are tools in a toolkit you pull out when relevant — they're not a coloring book to stay inside the lines of
- → When every new PM acts like they work at Google with infinite resources, focusing on 'the right way' rather than taking risks, the product stalls
- → The danger of PM frameworks is creating a process-worship culture where no one takes any risk — sometimes you need to just ship
Notable Quotes
"Every new person on the product team is acting like they work at Google and have these infinite resources and infinite time to make sure everything is perfect. It became such a focus on the right way of doing product management that no one's taken any risk."
— On the over-process anti-pattern he observed at Eventbrite
"At Reforge, we're building frameworks that are tools in a toolkit. You pull them out when relevant. They're not a coloring book to stay inside the lines of."
— On the right way to use product and growth frameworks
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