Nickey Skarstad

Director of Product Management at Duolingo

Nickey Skarstad is a Director of Product Management at Duolingo, formerly at Airbnb and Etsy (where she rose from forum moderator to Director of PM), known for setting vision, executing strategy, and maintaining product quality.

The Craftsperson The Operator

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 75%

Execution & Craft 80%

Data & Experimentation 45%

Growth & Distribution 40%

Team & Leadership 80%

User Empathy & Research 65%

Key Themes

vision to execution alignment product review sessions maintaining product quality strategy made actionable team alignment and focus career growth from IC to leader

Episode Summary

Nickey Skarstad shares her approach to setting product vision, translating it into actionable goals, and maintaining quality through well-designed product review sessions. Drawing on her journey from Etsy forum moderator to Duolingo product director via Airbnb, she covers how to keep teams aligned, make strategy actionable, and which skills have most contributed to her career success.

Leadership Principles

→ Set a clear vision, translate it into goals, then execute — keeping teams aligned and focused throughout
→ Design your product review sessions to be the forcing function for quality
→ Making strategy actionable requires constant translation between vision and daily work

Notable Quotes

"Nickey Skarstad was the first name that I heard. She had a legendary reputation as a PM who everyone loved, but got shit done."
— Lenny describing Nickey's reputation among the newsletter Slack community

"Making your strategy actionable and keeping your teams aligned and focused is the core challenge of product leadership."
— On the gap between having a strategy and actually executing on it

Want to know how you compare?

Take the Assessment