Jackie Bavaro
Former Head of Product Management at Asana
Author of Cracking the PM Interview and Cracking the PM Career, first PM at Asana who grew into head of product management over eight years, previously at Google APM program and Microsoft, known for her deep expertise in product strategy, PM career development, and leveling up PM skills from IC to leadership.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Jackie Bavaro shares lessons from going from first PM to head of product management at Asana over eight years, including the pivotal moment when her coach challenged her to say yes for two weeks instead of reflexively saying no. She explains how she advocated herself into executive planning meetings by framing it as helping her boss, why the IC PM path can be just as rewarding as management, and how her early failure at Google interviews inspired her to write the PM career books that leveled the playing field for aspiring PMs.
Leadership Principles
- → Stop shutting people down — say yes to problems even when you disagree with the proposed solution, because the problem they're describing is probably real
- → Advocate yourself into higher-level meetings by framing it as helping your boss — ask the right questions, then offer to save them time by attending directly
- → You don't need to climb the management ladder forever to have impact or earn well — understand the IC career path and that senior PM at a big company already pays as much as a doctor
Notable Quotes
"I got into this defensive mindset and sometimes people would come to me with ideas and I'd be like, 'Are you telling me I can't do my job right?' My boss said, 'Jackie, you have to stop shutting me down.' And I was like, 'I'm about to get fired.'"
— On the mistake of seeing the PM role as always saying no to people
"For the next two weeks, say yes to everything. You can say, 'yes, I agree that is a real problem. Yes, I think we could test this design with users.' Just see what's different with two weeks of saying yes to people instead of no."
— On the coaching advice that transformed her approach to collaboration
"Once I was in the planning committee, I got a real front row seat to understand how a company is built and what kind of decisions are happening beyond the narrow perspective of building features."
— On how she advocated herself into executive-level meetings at Asana
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