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Nikita Miller (The Knot, Trello)06 April 2023

Driving alignment and urgency within teams, work-life balance, and the changing PM landscape

5Frameworks
14Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Leadership4 steps

Artist / Scientist / General Manager Spike

Hire PMs by which of three modes they spike in, and compose the team so the spikes cover each other.

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Productivity5 steps

Output as the Leading Indicator of Outcomes

Outcomes are the goal, but shipping rate is the only early signal you'll get that you'll hit them.

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Communication6 steps

The Gnarly-Problem Offsite

Remote by default, but collapse a stalled hard decision into a tightly-agenda'd 48-hour in-person burst.

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Leadership5 steps

The Roles and Responsibilities Contract

Each function writes what it expects of the others, then the group negotiates one shared contract.

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Self-Mastery5 steps

What Are You Optimizing For?

Replace 'balance' with 'optimization' — name the one thing this horizon is for, then let the trade-offs follow.

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Insights & moments

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

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take25:30

Don't Swing Too Far on Outcomes and Forget Output

Nikita argues the industry became obsessed with outcomes, and she herself swung too far that way. Good ideation, documentation, and briefs are worthless if the team isn't shipping to market fast enough. Output and velocity are the indicator that the outcome work is actually landing.

  • The industry over-indexed on 'outcomes outcomes outcomes'
  • She personally swung too far toward outcomes and forgot output is an indicator
  • Great ideation and briefs don't matter if you're not shipping quickly
  • Every team she's been on has to revisit this outcome-vs-execution tension

“it was all about outcomes like everyone was outcomes outcomes outcomes which is right you want to make sure you're doing the right thing with…”

Nikita Miller · 25:30

“if you're also not shipping a lot of things to Market quickly enough then it just doesn't matter that much”

Nikita Miller · 26:00
#outcomes#execution#velocity#product-management
Hot Take27:30

Product's Job Is to Drive Urgency

Nikita believes product managers are the ones who need to drive urgency, and that most teams lack a sense of it. She creates urgency not by demanding lists of everything shipped, but by discussing the experimentation backlog and keeping a healthy pulse on competition. She cites Frank Slootman's book Amp It Up on never letting off the gas.

  • Most teams lack an understanding of their role in urgency
  • Software especially can't forget it, because competitors are moving too
  • Demanding 'show me everything you shipped' doesn't work and demoralizes
  • Talk about the experimentation backlog and keep a pulse on competition instead
  • References Frank Slootman's book Amp It Up on always keeping urgency

“there's not a lot of um like understanding of our role in urgency like right it's urgent and software in particular probably can't forget that…”

Nikita Miller · 27:30
#urgency#competition#execution#leadership
Hot Take40:00

Stop Saying Balance, Start Saying Optimization

As a working mom, Nikita has stopped using the word balance and uses optimization instead. The real question is what you're optimizing for right now, whether today, this quarter, or this year, accepting you can't have it all equally at the same time. Early in her career that meant all-nighters before releases; now it means picking specific weeks to do all the school drop-offs.

  • She replaces 'balance' with 'optimization'
  • Ask what you're optimizing for today, this quarter, this year
  • You can't have it all equally at the same time all the time
  • Sometimes you sprint hard; other periods you recharge, at different life stages

“I don't use the word balance I use optimization right it's this question of like what are you optimizing for right now whether it's today…”

Nikita Miller · 40:00
#work-life-balance#optimization#career#parenting

Explainer· 3

Explainer06:30

Why Trello Won on Progressive Disclosure

Nikita explains what made Trello stand out: progressive disclosure. You start with a small problem and Trello grows with you as your needs get more sophisticated, rather than starting with complexity you have to strip away. Its early strength was simplicity, tactility, and easy onboarding for non-software users.

  • Progressive disclosure: start simple, the product grows as your problem does
  • Competing tools start complex and force you to tease features apart to simplify
  • Trello's early edge was simplicity, ease of use, and single- or multiplayer onboarding

“this this concept of progressive disclosure where you start with a small problem and as it gets more sophisticated Trello grows with you”

Nikita Miller · 06:30
#trello#product-design#onboarding
Explainer12:30

How PMs and People Getting Married Are Alike

Having built for product managers at Trello and for engaged couples at The Knot, Nikita draws the parallel. Wedding planning is a high-stakes, emotional, multi-stakeholder project with a 12-to-18-month horizon, much like shipping product. The big difference is the sheer volume of decisions and the emotional weight, since most couples only do it once.

  • Weddings are high-pressure, high-expectation projects like product work
  • Both involve many stakeholders and vendors to coordinate
  • A wedding is a 12-18 month project once you engage
  • The emotional stakes are higher because couples usually won't do it again

“the time Horizon for a wedding once you engage is anywhere from like 12 to 18 months so it is a long time project”

Nikita Miller · 12:30
#product-management#the-knot#user-empathy
Explainer34:30

PMs More Technical, Designers More Business, Engineers More Product

Nikita describes how the disciplines are converging. After a swing toward generalist PMs, the expectation is swinging back toward PMs being more technical. Designers are increasingly expected to be business-oriented, and engineers to be more product- and user-focused. To her this convergence signals deeper collaboration and is where a lot of the magic happens.

  • Product management has become mainstream, with degrees and a whole business around it
  • PMs are swinging back toward being more technical after a generalist era
  • The best designers are also exceptionally savvy business people
  • Engineers are becoming more product- and user-focused
  • This cross-discipline care is where deep collaboration and 'magic' happen

“I think there was a moment where they were Technical and then it was no no we're all generalists and now I think we're going…”

Nikita Miller · 34:30
#product-management#career#team-roles#collaboration

Story· 1

Story44:30

Wave the Flag: Get Remote Teams Together for Gnarly Problems

Nikita's whole career has been remote and distributed, and she's found that hard problems are much harder to solve with people you've never met in person. When a really gnarly problem comes up she 'waves the flag' for a tight, two-day, two-night in-person session with a well-agreed agenda plus built-in dinners and long lunches. In one cross-functional case, the unlock was simply giving the data person the floor to educate everyone so all decisions started from the same foundation.

  • Solving hard problems remotely with people you've never met in person is much harder
  • For gnarly problems she 'waves the flag' for a 2-day, 2-night in-person offsite
  • The agenda must be tight and agreed before arriving, with built-in dinners and long lunches
  • In one case the unlock was letting the data person educate everyone to a shared foundation
  • Overlapping work hours across a distributed team made a big difference at Trello/Atlassian

“solving a hard problem remotely with folks that you haven't spent in person time with that you haven't broken bread with that you haven't like…”

Nikita Miller · 44:30

“there's a really gnarly problem I like wave the flag and I say hey everyone why don't we try and get together for two days…”

Nikita Miller · 45:00
#remote-work#distributed-teams#offsites#collaboration

Q&A· 2

Q&A09:30

Trello vs Jira: Ideation Versus Decided Work

Nikita gives a simple heuristic for choosing between Trello and tools like Jira. Trello shines for smaller teams and ideation, when you haven't landed on what to build and are still pulling ideas, prioritizing, and tracking discovery. Once work is decided and it's about breaking tasks down and assigning them, Jira is the better fit.

  • Trello is great for ideation, prioritizing ideas, and tracking discovery
  • Jira suits work that's already decided and ready to break into assigned tasks
  • Smaller teams and founders who haven't decided what to build benefit most from Trello

“I think that smaller teams especially folks that are ideating right when you haven't landed on what you're going to build yet I think Trello…”

Nikita Miller · 09:30
#trello#jira#tools#product-management
Q&A56:00

Her Favorite PM Interview Question: Artist, Scientist, or GM?

Nikita's favorite interview question for product managers frames product through three archetypes: artist, scientist, and general manager, and asks where the candidate spikes. There's no single right answer; the ideal spike depends entirely on the current composition of her team.

  • The frame: artist, scientist, general manager, where do you spike?
  • There is no universally correct answer
  • The ideal spike depends on the existing composition of the team

“we think about product in the context of artist scientist General general manager where do you spike”

Nikita Miller · 56:00
#hiring#interviewing#product-management

Takeaway· 5

Takeaway19:30

Where Project Management Went After Scrum Masters Vanished

Nikita notes a shift that surprises people: scrum masters have largely disappeared from many companies, but the project-management work didn't. That responsibility, especially owning whether sprint goals are met, has increasingly moved onto engineering managers, whereas it used to land on PMs and caused a lot of friction.

  • Scrum masters have largely disappeared in many companies
  • The project-management work still exists and had to go somewhere
  • It increasingly sits with engineering managers, not PMs
  • Historically this fell on PMs and caused a lot of issues

“scrum Masters have like largely in many companies just kind of disappeared but then you think well where did that responsibility go because someone has…”

Nikita Miller · 19:30
#project-management#engineering-managers#team-roles
Takeaway22:30

Why Data Scientists Should Be Embedded, Not Centralized

Nikita pushes for embedding data scientists directly into product teams rather than negotiating with a centralized data team for resources. As a PM, data access was always a blocker. Dedicated data people also get better and spot patterns faster when they're focused on one area of the product instead of context-switching every time a ticket comes in.

  • Getting data was always a blocker for her as a PM
  • Centralized data teams force resource negotiation with other teams
  • Dedicated data people spot patterns better when focused on one product area
  • Whether they're 'data scientists' or 'analysts' depends on the team's work

“data scientists as with most humans like we get better the more focused we are and the more in-depth we are in understanding the product…”

Nikita Miller · 22:30
#data-science#team-structure#product-management
Takeaway24:00

The PM's Real Velocity Problem Is Deciding, Not Building

When teams aren't moving fast enough, Nikita first identifies where the velocity issue actually is. For PMs it's usually the velocity of decision-making: how long it takes to go from 'we need to do a thing' to defining it and deciding whether and how to build it. Execution velocity, by contrast, tends to fall on both PM and engineering.

  • Diagnose where the velocity problem actually lives before fixing it
  • For PMs the bottleneck is usually speed of decision-making
  • It takes most companies a long time to go from need to defined decision
  • Execution velocity is shared between PM and engineering

“for PMS it's often around the velocity of decision making right how long does it take us to actually from saying we need to do…”

Nikita Miller · 24:00
#decision-making#velocity#product-management
Takeaway31:30

The Simple Question That Gets Teams to See Their Own Output

To help a team recognize it isn't delivering without triggering defensiveness, Nikita just asks questions. The core one is 'what did you deliver this Sprint,' followed by 'what did you deliver to production' and 'how long was the cycle time.' The goal is to seek understanding and let people see their own output as they review their work.

  • Ask questions rather than accuse to avoid defensiveness
  • Core question: what did you deliver this Sprint
  • Follow up with what shipped to production and how long the cycle time was
  • The questions help people see their own output as they review it

“the biggest thing is just you know if if folks are working on a Sprint it's very simply like what did you deliver this Sprint…”

Nikita Miller · 31:30
#execution#coaching#output#leadership
Takeaway53:00

The One Question Nikita Asks Constantly: What Are You Optimizing For?

The question Nikita asks herself, her team, her friends, her husband, and even her five-year-old is 'what are you optimizing for.' Applied across short, medium, and long time horizons, it's an illuminating way to examine how you spend your time. In product it maps directly to OKRs and goal-setting, and re-asking it each quarter with new information surfaces the trade-offs.

  • The recurring question: what are you optimizing for?
  • Apply it across today, this quarter, this year, or any time horizon
  • It's illuminating for both personal time and product goal-setting
  • Re-asking it each quarter with new info clarifies the real trade-offs
  • A paired question she likes: what problem are we trying to solve?

“I always ask what are you optimizing for like that's the question it's what are you optimizing for”

Nikita Miller · 53:00
#prioritization#goal-setting#decision-making#okrs