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Tal Raviv (Product Lead at Riverside)22 September 2024

Becoming a super IC: Lessons from 12 years as a PM individual contributor

7Frameworks
14Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Productivity4 steps

Deep Work vs. Ping-Pong Day Design

Split every day into deep work and reactive time, and refuse to open Slack before noon.

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Productivity4 steps

Dictate-and-Template AI Story Scaling

Prime ChatGPT with your team's exact template, then dictate context naturally to generate an org's worth of specs.

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Productivity4 steps

Product Scrapbooking

Continuously file every real-world clue about every opportunity so it's ready when the roadmap arrives.

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Leadership4 steps

Seek To Not Be Needed, But Be Valuable

Build a self-reliant team that's resilient to chaos by systematically removing yourself as a dependency.

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Communication4 steps

Street-Smart Decision-Making

Give the customer's perception as much weight as your logic — model the narrative, not just the numbers.

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Influence3 steps

The IC Compensation Anchor

Believe your IC worth, then neutralize the 'grow into management' pay dodge by naming your non-management intent up front.

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Strategy4 steps

The Two Departments That Matter Test

Find the 1-2 departments whose 10x effort produces a 10x company outcome, then work there.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take23:30

Don't Open Slack Before Noon (8 Years and Counting)

Tal strictly splits his day between deep work and 'ping pong,' and hasn't opened Slack before noon in eight years. He keeps a to-do list of messages written as if ready to send, and only sends them after noon because almost nothing is truly urgent. Key colleagues have his phone number for the roughly twice-a-year real emergency.

  • He splits days between deep work and 'ping pong' (constant Slack back-and-forth)
  • Blocks mornings, and goes further by not opening Slack until noon
  • Drafts Slack messages in a to-do list rather than sending them the moment he thinks of them
  • Truly urgent moments happen about twice a year; key people can call or WhatsApp him
  • Over time colleagues respect the boundary rather than resent it

“I don't open Slack before noon I've been doing this for eight years”

Tal Raviv · 23:30

“like you realize how not urgently needed the PM role ever is”

Tal Raviv · 25:00
#productivity#deep-work#focus#time-management
Hot Take52:30

There's No Right Way: Everyone in Tech Is Improvising

Tal moved from Israel to San Francisco out of professional FOMO, expecting the 'big leagues' to know the one right way to work. After working alongside people from Apple, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, and Stripe, he concluded everyone is just improvising, as they should be, because every market and situation differs. His advice: stop chasing others' playbooks and just do great, hard work at a good company.

  • He relocated to SF believing top companies knew the correct way to work
  • Conclusion after working with ex-Apple/YouTube/Facebook/Amazon/Stripe people: everyone is improvising
  • Every company, market, and situation is different, so there is no universal method
  • Best learning and networking is doing genuinely good work at a good company
  • You can end up the one writing the blog posts, not just reading them

“we're all just making it up as we go along in Tech uh we're all just improvising as we should”

Tal Raviv · 53:30

“the best networking is just to do really good work at a successful company”

Tal Raviv · 55:30
#career#learning#product-management#advice

Explainer· 2

Explainer38:00

Every Tech Company Really Has Just Two Departments That Matter

Tal argues that in each company roughly two departments are the reason it wins the market; a 10x job there yields a 10x company outcome, while other teams (sometimes including product) can only do a good job. You identify them by studying the real growth model and what the customer is actually paying for. Being in one of those departments is where career-defining work happens.

  • Roughly two departments determine whether a company wins its market
  • A 10x effort in the right department produces a 10x company outcome
  • Product is sometimes on the list and sometimes not, even at a product company
  • Find them by studying the growth model and what the customer truly pays for
  • Being in the driving department attracts the best colleagues and step-function growth

“it's roughly like two departments that this boils down to in each company”

Tal Raviv · 38:30

“if you're in that department for that company that's going to be your career defining work”

Tal Raviv · 41:00
#strategy#career#growth#company-analysis
Explainer44:30

Book-Smart vs Street-Smart Product Decisions

Book-smart decisions rely on data, strategy, and frameworks; street-smart decisions give the customer's perception as much weight as logic. Tal tells of a pricing change that was correct on every model yet caused an internet revolt and rollback, because users saw the immediate negative before the delayed positive. In another case, revealing previously-locked features all at once would have felt like a cash grab, so they rolled it out in pieces.

  • Street-smart means weighting customer perception equally with logic and data
  • A well-modeled pricing change was rolled back after an online revolt despite the numbers proving out
  • Users saw the negative immediately but the positive only 30 days later
  • Unlocking many paywalled features at once would feel like everything-now-costs-more
  • The skill develops from time in support tickets and customer conversations

“giving the customers's perception just as much weight as you would to logic”

Tal Raviv · 45:00

“the problem was the perception uh the narrative behind it what it looked like when you logged into the product”

Tal Raviv · 46:30
#decision-making#customer-perception#pricing#product-management

Story· 5

Story03:00

Why Tal Raviv Stayed an IC PM for 12 Years

Tal explains he never optimized his career for a title, only for whether he was excited to get out of bed. Watching managers and product leaders, he never envied their calendars, and the colleagues he related to most kept requesting to return to IC roles. He anchors his motivation in autonomy, mastery, and purpose, and cites his professor father who loves his work and refuses to retire.

  • His career 'strategy' is to have no strategy and follow what makes him excited to work
  • He never looked at how managers spend their time and wanted that for himself
  • Motivation framework: autonomy, mastery, and purpose (from the book Drive)
  • PM is one of the most autonomous roles and can stay interesting across industries for a long time
  • Purpose (caring that a thing gets built well in the world) keeps him hands-on and focused

“I don't really have a strategy for my career like my strategy is not to have a strategy”

Tal Raviv · 03:00

“if you feel that you're building something that you really want to see happen in the world and you really want to make sure it's…”

Tal Raviv · 09:30
#career#individual-contributor#motivation#product-management
Story16:00

Using ChatGPT + Whisper to Scale a PM Across a Huge Project

Tal describes dictating a kickoff naturally into ChatGPT (via Whisper voice input) after giving it his team's user-story template, and getting back detailed, correctly-formatted Gherkin stories. The output would otherwise have required splitting the team or hiring multiple PMs. He notes the still-human part is deciding how to break a big change into logical stories.

  • He fed ChatGPT the exact story/epic template, confirmed it understood, then dictated context
  • Whisper voice dictation is built into the ChatGPT desktop and mobile apps
  • Output was detailed Gherkin ('given/when/then') stories needing only light edits
  • Feeding in a raw recorded-kickoff transcript worked less well than live dictation
  • The human still has to decide how to logically split a big change into stories

“that would have taken either dividing the team into smaller pieces or multiple product managers to be able to keep up”

Tal Raviv · 17:00

“I just talked supernaturally to it like just just like I would to a person”

Tal Raviv · 20:00
#ai#productivity#chatgpt#leverage#user-stories
Story57:30

Twice Wasted a Growth Team's Quarter by Skipping User Research

Tal admits he twice burned an entire quarter of a growth team's time through poor use of user research. In one case, 12 failed A/B tests eventually revealed that checkout tactics from Groupon, Amazon, and Booking failed because his customers were in a completely different mindset. Once he understood the customer, the same tests that had done nothing started driving real conversion.

  • Twice cost a growth team a full quarter by under-using qualitative research
  • 12 failed A/B tests forced a hypothesis rethink
  • Tactics that work on Groupon/Amazon/Booking work because of shared mindset, not universal human behavior
  • His customers had a different, high-motivation, long-horizon mindset
  • Second example: shipping a referral program after only interviewing successful users, not the non-adopters

“I've wasted twice twice I've wasted an entire quarter of a growth team's time”

Tal Raviv · 58:00

“all these AB tests that should have printed money did nothing once we realized that then it really started to you know increase conversion”

Tal Raviv · 1:00:00
#failure#user-research#ab-testing#conversion
Story1:02:30

Three Times a Hair From Getting Fired

Tal shares that three times a senior executive told him he was a hair away from being fired. In one, he learned that leadership needed him to disagree and commit rather than be right, since they'd adapt if wrong. In another, after a bad manager fit left him floating without a role, a friend told him to broach the elephant in the room vulnerably, and that honest conversation changed everything and got him onto the team.

  • A senior exec literally told him three separate times he was near firing
  • Leadership needed reliability and 'disagree and commit,' not being proven right
  • A poor manager fit is common and doesn't mean either person is bad
  • Left floating without a role, he risked getting let go
  • A vulnerable, unfiltered conversation with the hesitant director shifted the whole dynamic

“what they need from you is just to rely on you that you're going to be with them even if you the disagree and commit”

Tal Raviv · 1:03:30

“it wasn't about being right it was about just like being supportive”

Tal Raviv · 1:03:30
#failure#vulnerability#disagree-and-commit#career
Story1:10:30

The April Fools' Prank That Ruined an Exec Team's Weekend

Tal and a colleague built an elaborate fake German tech-news website (with a bought domain) claiming a big company had launched their most-feared competitor product in Europe. To get executives to believe it, they recruited each exec's most-trusted senior report to send the link, complete with fake poaching emails and cease-and-desists. One CTO only realized it was a prank days later and stormed out of a meeting.

  • Best pranks touch gently on people's biggest current fears so they do the rest
  • They faked an entire German tech publication and bought a real domain
  • Each exec's most-trusted report delivered the link to make it believable
  • Extras included a fake recruiting-poach email and a fake cease-and-desist
  • The CTO wasn't let in on it and stewed the whole weekend, then walked out of a Monday meeting

“the best April Fool's pranks are the ones that touch just ever so gently on people's uh biggest”

Tal Raviv · 1:10:30

“you just have to touch it a little bit they'll do the rest of the work”

Tal Raviv · 1:11:00
#story#culture#humor

Tool· 2

Tool26:00

Product Scrapbooking: A Living Database of Every Opportunity

Tal keeps a large Notion database where he files every opportunity plus real-world evidence: support tickets, Gong calls, great Slack brainstorms, screenshots. When a roadmap item finally comes up, he already has in-the-weeds clues to start from and to persuade others. It also lets him instantly validate a request in a sales or CS conversation, making people feel heard.

  • A messy Notion database clustering every opportunity, big or small
  • He actively files evidence: support tickets, Gong calls, Slack threads, screenshots
  • Roadmaps look linear but insights arrive non-linearly, so he captures them as they come
  • When an opportunity resurfaces he already has real-world clues to build a case
  • Pulling up prior mentions in a live call makes salespeople and CSMs feel heard

“where I have this like massive notion database of every opportunity big or small that's ever come up”

Tal Raviv · 26:00

“you see like in their face that they they feel heard like you've been listening all this time”

Tal Raviv · 27:00
#productivity#notion#product-management#research
Tool1:19:00

Tal's Best Product Management Book Is a Parenting Book

Tal names 'How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk' as the best product management book he's read. He compares it to Chris Voss's 'Never Split the Difference,' both rooted in nonviolent communication, but says the illustrated, comic-book-style parenting examples made the principles finally sink in for him.

  • Best PM book he's read is the parenting classic 'How to Talk So Kids Will Listen'
  • Both it and 'Never Split the Difference' draw on nonviolent communication
  • The concrete, comic-book-style illustrated examples made the principles click
  • He found it more resonant than the underlying nonviolent-communication source material

“the best book on product management that I've read um is called how to talk so kids will listen”

Tal Raviv · 1:19:00
#books#communication#recommendations

Takeaway· 3

Takeaway11:30

The Line Tal Uses to Get IC Comp Without a Promotion Path

When recruiters counter a high salary ask by promising future management opportunities to grow comp, Tal flips it. He tells them he has no intention of moving into management, so since the industry undervalues ICs, he needs the right number now. He argues step one is genuinely believing an IC's scope and impact are worth top pay.

  • Recruiters often deflect high asks with 'you'll rise into management and grow comp over time'
  • Tal responds that he won't rise up, so the number has to be right now
  • First step is believing an IC can own huge scope, impact, and value
  • Uses the engineering analogy: you shouldn't need to become a manager to be paid like a domain expert

“I actually have no intention of going into management uh or rising up you know in those ranks”

Tal Raviv · 12:00

“the industry traditionally undervalues the IC role so it's really important for me to you know have that number now”

Tal Raviv · 12:00
#compensation#negotiation#individual-contributor#career
Takeaway28:00

'Product Isn't a Role, It's a Team'

Tal's cornerstone team culture is that product is not one person's job but a shared team responsibility. He gently corrects language like 'a case you didn't think about' toward 'a case we didn't think about,' rejecting the hub-and-spoke model where the PM is the center. He argues the real product a PM builds is a resilient, self-reliant team.

  • Rejects the hub-and-spoke model with the PM at the center of every decision
  • Coaches language: 'we found' instead of 'you (the PM) missed'
  • Everyone (design, engineering, PM) owns the product together
  • Culture over process: process scaffolds until the culture is built
  • The team that builds the product is the real thing a PM is building

“product isn't a role it's a team”

Tal Raviv · 28:00

“the real product that you're building as a PM I think is the team that builds the product”

Tal Raviv · 33:00
#leadership#team-culture#product-management
Takeaway29:30

Seek to Not Be Needed, But to Be Valuable

To gain leverage, Tal deliberately removes himself as a bottleneck: he watches for games of telephone routed through him, decisions stuck on his attention, and work happening in DMs. His signature move is redirecting any direct message into a public team channel, so decisions are transparent, searchable, and inclusive. Done enough, it snowballs as others copy the behavior.

  • Look for signs you're the bottleneck: telephone games, DMs, two-person working meetings
  • Redirect DMs into public channels and explain why (transparency, searchability)
  • Aim to become less needed so you can own more scope and even multiple teams
  • Shower people with positivity when they take on what would be your job
  • Public-channel behavior becomes a snowball effect across the team

“to seek to not be needed but be valuable”

Tal Raviv · 29:30

“can you please put it in this Channel with the team I'll answer there but it's really important for me that any decisions we make…”

Tal Raviv · 31:00
#leadership#delegation#leverage#team-culture