Ebi Atawodi
Director of Product Management at YouTube (Google)
Director of Product Management at YouTube overseeing the creator experience, previously Director of PM at Netflix and Head of Product for Uber Wallet, Checkout, Pay, and Financial Products at Uber.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Ebi Atawodi shares an exceptionally tactical framework for developing and communicating product vision, drawing from her experience at Uber, Netflix, and YouTube. She outlines three concrete methods — the 'Once Upon a Time' Mad Libs, the newspaper headline article, and visual mockups — along with her empathize-create-evangelize process for building vision from the ground up. The conversation also covers her philosophy of product management as 'clarity and conviction' and building strong product culture through genuine care for people.
Leadership Principles
- → Product management is clarity and conviction — you must be able to clearly articulate the problem and the vision
- → A vision must be lofty yet realistic, devoid of current technical limitations, and grounded in a clear user problem
- → Product sense is a feeling, not logic — exposure to great products and curiosity refines it over time
Notable Quotes
"I do not believe in being liked. I believe in being loved. Love is the choice to extend yourself for the spiritual growth of oneself or another."
— On her leadership philosophy and approach to giving feedback to team members
"If I could put all the research into ChatGPT and it could spit out a PRD, then you haven't done your job."
— On the unique value add of product managers beyond data synthesis
"Product management is clarity and conviction. And in writing the headline, you have to focus."
— On using the newspaper headline framework to crystallize product vision
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