Alexandra Dworsky

Michelle Kislak from Netflix is looking for a Product Manager! It’s Friday people, so you know what that means there will be a lot of product manager roles posted this afternoon, but you have to learn how to pitch yourself to get an interview beyond sending an “I’m interested” message to the hiring team. Do you want access to the rest of the product manager jobs instead of just getting them one by one, then sign up for our exclusive newsletter here.  https://lnkd.in/g7stR_Nj In addition to sending you a fresh batch of urgent product manager roles each day like hot bread out of the oven, I will also be sending you some LinkedIn templates on how to convert these LinkedIn postings into interviews.  https://lnkd.in/g7stR_Nj For whatever reason I have been getting a lot of hate comments about posting this many product manager jobs from real product managers. I have no clue how some people can be that angry considering I am trying to help the community out. You can sign up for the postings in my newsletter here.  https://lnkd.in/g7stR_Nj I am hosting 7 live trainings next week with the intention of helping as many people land a product manager job as possible for FREE. My team is still posting up the meetups on Eventbrite, but I will be sending an invitation to the following trainings over the weekend.  https://lnkd.in/g7stR_Nj Real Reason Nobody is Landing Product Manager Jobs in 2024 How to Interview Against Product Managers with More Experience Cold Product Manager LinkedIn Message Templates to Convert Interviews Product Manager Resume Templates for Startups and Big Tech Roles Big Tech Product Manager Case Studies of 2024 Secret Product Manager Job Boards and Referral Network How to Increase Product Manager Job Applications w/ Chat GPT + AI PS Please RESHARE this post for all your colleagues still looking for a job. #productmanagement #productmanagementcareers #productmanagementjobs #speedtolead

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🎉 Excited to share an update (and a confession)… Our shiny, brand-new StartupStage website was supposed to launch last Friday. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. 😅 Turns out, reengineering an entire platform takes a little more time than I planned. Luckily, we have rockstar talent like Li Zeng (award-winning UX/UI wizard 🧙‍♀️) creating a design that’s light-years better. And Ken Vermeille + his team are working tirelessly to make it a reality. 🙌 New launch date? Dec 1st. 🗓️ While we wait, let me share why I’m so pumped about StartupStage: 💡 Our mission: Scale startups from Launch to Legacy. We help founders with tools, community, and expert guidance to grow smarter and avoid the pitfalls that crush 90% of startups. We’re not a directory, agency, or constantcy. We’re founders helping founders. We’ve walked this road, felt the pain, and come out the other side—stronger, smarter, and ready to share what works. Want a sneak peek? Here’s what we offer: • Founders’ Circle: Private community, SaaS discounts, and 1-on-1 strategy sessions. • Smart Scale: CoFounder-on-Call, automation tools, and expert coaching. • Rapid Scale: Bespoke scaling strategies for businesses aiming for IPO or acquisition. True story: we recently saved a founder from a branding disaster that could’ve cost them their business. Sometimes, it’s not about what you do but what you avoid. That’s what StartupStage is all about. Dec 1 can’t come soon enough. Until then, message me if you’re a founder looking to scale—happy to chat and share insights. #StartupStage #ScalingStartups #FounderLife

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💡 Founders & hiring managers: How do you attract top-tier design talent to your startup? It’s not just about the paycheck—here’s what really matters: 1️⃣ Business Stability: Designers want assurance that your company isn’t going under in 6 months. Share facts and figures—demonstrate financial health, runway, and growth trajectory. 2️⃣ Sell Your Product: Why is it the best? How is it different from competitors? Showcase your product’s innovation and long-term vision. Designers want to contribute to something meaningful and scalable. 3️⃣ Design’s Role: A+ designers want to join companies that value design as critical to product success. When design is integral to your strategy, you’ll attract those who can take it to the next level. Boom! 🚀 #DesignLeadership #Startups #Hiring

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We've been fortunate to be early partners to multi-billion dollar companies like Stripe, Gusto, Netlify, and Commure. Through Designer Fund Partnership, we’re offering founders up to $1 million in funding and applying the design best practices we've honed over the past decade. What we look for in investments: 🌱 Early stage startups, Pre-seed to Series A 💪 Mission driven founders who have technical, design, and business domain expertise 🌎 Companies aligned with our impact goals of health, prosperity, and sustainability 📈 Products that are 10x better than existing alternatives 💸 Multi-billion dollar markets with poor user experiences There's just 10 days left to apply—get your application in by Friday, October 4 if you’re in the early stages of building a company: https://bit.ly/3WWNq74

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Want to help set every candidate up for success in an interview? SET AN AGENDA AT THE START OF THE CONVO 📋 It's a simple but impactful step for a better candidate experience. So how consistently do companies do this today? We looked at 175k interviews to find out... TLDR - The range is massive! Some orgs do it in just 4% of interviews, others do it in 95%! 🤯 The avg & median org sets an agenda in 61% of their interviews. 70% of orgs set an agenda between 45% - 75% of the time Only 20% of orgs set an agenda in >75% of their interviews Here’s how agenda-setting varies across different scenarios: 🔍 BY INTERVIEW STAGE - Recruiters set agendas in 68% of interviews vs. 59% for HMs 🔍 BY FUNCTION - Eng interviews include an agenda 67% of the time vs. 44% for sales 🔍 BY GENDER: - Female set an agenda 69% of the time vs. 63% for Male recruiters - Oddly, a smaller diff for HMs, with FM HMs at 61% vs. 58% for M HMs - Agenda-setting is most common w/ F candidates paired w/ F interviewers We think setting an agenda is a small step that makes a big difference. ❓ What do you think? ❓ PS: This is one of the metrics we track in BrightHire!

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What does true fulfillment in a career look like? As a founder, I’ve spent countless hours reflecting on this question — not just for myself, but for the incredible talent I work with. Recruiting is one of the most important and rewarding parts of my role, and in recent conversations with candidates, I’ve shared a framework I’ve used to help reflect on career choices. It has three sets: 🌟 Skills and Strengths: What am I good at doing? 📊 Business Requirements: What does the business need me to do? 💭 Desires and Goals: What do I want to do? Focusing only on the first two, your skills and business needs, might lead to short-term success. But without aligning with your personal goals, true fulfillment can feel out of reach. That sweet spot, where all three intersect 🎯, is where you’ll thrive and contribute most meaningfully. As we step into 2025, I encourage you to reflect: Are you operating at the intersection of these three areas? How do you approach finding alignment in your work? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Wishing you a happy and fulfilling New Year! 🎉 P.S. Some have pointed out similarities to Ikigai, the Japanese concept of life purpose. While this wasn’t the inspiration, it’s a reminder of how universal the pursuit of fulfillment really is.

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Hey current and former Meta friends, some questions for you. 1. Do you like coaching/mentoring? 2. Have you conducted interviews at Meta? If you answered yes to both of these then I'd love for you to consider becoming a Hello Interview coach. As a coach, you'd conduct mock interviews for candidates preparing for upcoming FAANG interviews. 1. Mocks are an hour long: 5 min intros, 35 min mock, 20 min feedback & questions. 2. You set your availability and do as many or as few as you'd like. 3. You get paid for each mock. 4. You learn a ton and become a better interviewer and interviewee. Most importantly, it's incredibly rewarding. It actually surprised me just how rewarding it is. Some of us take for granted working at FAANGs (I'll be honest, I did), but for many of the candidates we work with, landing one of these jobs is truly life-changing for them and their family. If this all sounds interesting, either reach out to me directly to learn more or apply directly at:

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With Grit: Our Merch Is Here We’re rolling up our sleeves (literally) and stepping into the swag game. Introducing the Scalrr Shop, where industrial grit meets startup hustle. This isn’t your typical logo-on-a-tee collection; it’s gear designed for the bold and industrious. Think machinist caps, workman shirts, and hoodies that say, "I build the future and know how to fix an electromechanical system." Here’s the deal: we didn’t create this shop because we expect to sell a ton of gear (spoiler alert: we don’t). This started as merch for our team, but we loved it so much, we decided to share it with the world. Plus, all profits are going to support youth STEM programs—because the next generation of inventors deserve a shot to build what’s next. ⚙️ Orders will take 2-3 weeks (plus shipping) because good things take time. This is a labor of love, not mass production. 👷‍♀️👷‍♂️ Gear up, and let’s make the future happen together. Check it out: https://lnkd.in/gnvFNdyA #ScalrrShop #BuildTheFuture #IndustrialStyle #STEM

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I'm noticing some founders run one-sided interview proceses. For many candidates, this is a concerning red flag. It's not that candidates don't want to answer hard questions off the bat. The ones unwilling to go deep are the ones who often aren't suited for startups and how fast they move. And the good ones relish a robust and challenging interview process. Rather, it's important for candidates to leave with a sense of excitement about the role, mission, and vision. And if a founder spends all their time screening out the candidate, with no time to invite the candidate into the fold there's insufficient conviction on the candidate end. We see a broad array of interview processes, so here's what I like to look for: A strong first screen will filter out about a third to a half of good candidates. You'll need 45 minutes for it because 30 is insufficient to go deep. But -- all candidates, regardless of whether they're passing on or not, should leave the conversation excited about the company and role. You want the candidates to go "oh wow, it would be awesome to partner with this founder and work on this, even if I don't have the perfect background." Unfortunately we're seeing some cautious founders take a different approach. All one-sided questions. No trust building. And the candidate leaves with a poor impression of the founder and the role, even if the company seems like it's doing well. The candidates just don't want to take on the role. We hear this in our backchannel debriefs. And this is why at Candidate Labs we take a consultative and also completely transparent approach. We share the brututally honest feedback with founders. And - most critically - we bring solutions. Just this week I've personally written at least four interview guides, all tailored for individual personas, that are designed to facilitate a better interview process. Because at the end of the day, these hires will often work shoulder to shoulder with a founder. They know it, and the founders know it. And that's why chemistry and personal connection is so important to create early on in the process.

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I recently listened to Zach Perret, founder of Plaid, on the 20VC podcast discussing his evolution in recruiting. His mindset shift resonated with me. Here are three key takeaways: ▶ Be yourself and do it. Cold emails and genuine curiosity unlock unrecruitable people. People love to talk about things they're passionate about. ▶ Embrace the hunt. The best founders love to compete for talent. They understand the value each person can bring and don't like losing. This skill will also translate into founder-led sales. ▶ Hire for "Spike". This is essential when building an early team. I often think of it as the shape of a "T"—someone with deep expertise in one area but is open and curious to learn and contribute in other areas outside their core strength.

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CAREER ADVICE: BE A FUNCTIONAL SPECIALIST A friend messaged me: "At my startup, I’m technically a product manager but have taken on a much broader, generalist role. I’ve been juggling sales, product, engineering, ops, and more. I’m wondering if I should focus on something specific instead, like honing down into just the product role. Would love to hear your thoughts and advice!" My reply: "Be a functional specialist. As the startup grows, the top change they will make is to hire specialists. As a generalist, you'll almost certainly be sidelined and ultimately exited. You need to choose your functional path - I'd recommend product - and become excellent at it. This is the way to career success and growth." The only situation this advice wouldn't apply is if someone is transitioning from I-Banking or Consulting into an Operating role, where it will likely be into a Chief of Staff role.

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A standard approach to new hire equity for public tech companies is a new hire grant ~2x the refresh grant, followed by annual refreshes, all with 4-year standard vest. The problem with this approach is the big drop off in vesting in Year 5 — in effect, you’re signaling to employees that’s the time to leave. How can we avoid this cliff? A simple way to accomplish this goal is with the combination of a front-loaded new hire grant and ratable refreshes. The key drivers to make this program work are: Front-loading the NH grant — this helps eliminate the cliff in year 5 Reducing the NH grant multiple — this also reduces the cliff, and lowers total spend Moving to 3-year vests — this pulls more vesting value forward Notice this actually saves the company money too. When we lower our new hire multiple from 2.0x to 1.5x, should we be worried it’s less attractive to the candidate? I think no, for a very specific reason: people rationally discount future value. Check out my full post below. 👇 And this isn't the only solution - how else can you adapt your stock comp design to minimize cliffs? #compensation #totalrewards

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Half of LinkedIn has already weighed in on Paul Graham's recent essay Founder Mode, which criticized the approach of running large companies with "efficient managers." The discussion was sparked by Brian Chesky, who, during an event at YC, lamented that hired management nearly destroyed his company. Everyone in attendance nodded in agreement. Let’s set aside the fact that guys in Patagonia vests may not be the best sample for assessing the success of "Founder Mode." The success of some of these individuals is hard to replicate, not just in other countries, but even in the U.S. under high-interest-rate conditions. Survivorship bias in action. The key question here is: are motivation and accountability for the company’s mission the critical factors for a startup's success? In my opinion, they come second, right after the ability to continuously learn and adapt to changes in the company. For example, the founders of Instagram stepped aside at the right time (maybe unwillingly), allowing efficient managers to build the second-largest social network in the world and a huge cash cow for Meta. An efficient manager, Imran Khan, came to Snapchat from Alibaba, helping the company make a great IPO and improving a lot as a CSO. Bill Gates handed over management to one of his early employees, Steve Ballmer, who in turn passed it to Satya Nadella, allowing Microsoft to become one of the world’s largest companies. Steve Jobs long resisted the necessity of releasing the iPhone and was ultimately convinced by multiple managers, who saved the company, which at the time was relying on a single product line. My conclusion from the stories above: one must constantly learn and evolve to align with the product's tempo. If you fall short due to a lack of skills, motivation, or health, it's better to let more flexible and competent people handle these challenges. You can't blame failure in people management on an inherent flaw in the hired management system.

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what city should you build your startup in? I was in SF for a few days last week and I've been reflecting on this age old debate what I've noticed about this question, is that people always talk their bags. - if you live in LA, you'll talk about quality of life - if you live in NYC, you'll talk about how cosmopolitan NYC is - if you live in SF, you'll talk about how SF is coming back - if you live in St. Louis or some other random city, you'll talk about how great remote work is having lived in 3 major hubs - SF, LA, and now NYC - I've come up with a simple heuristic for making this decision: there's a spectrum: SF -> NYC -> .... -> middle of nowhere the more advantages you have, the further right you can (not "should") move. advantages include: - strong network (of investors, hires, customers, etc) - experience in startups - experience building great software - strong work ethic - credibility in startups (e.g. multi-time founder, worked at a top tech co) - traction with your company the reality is, because SF has so much density of people who have invested in and built the most influential tech companies in the world (even still after the pandemic) and because there's basically nothing to do there except work, it is the best place to passively accumulate these advantages. this means, for most unproven, non-conventional founders (esp. who are new), SF is the best place to be. and even for folks with every advantage, it's still crucial to visit SF and build relationships with people who live there. I remember hearing a stat that YC companies based in SF were 2-3x more likely to succeed than ones that weren't. so why am I living in NYC instead of SF? family at the end of the day, stacking advantages is irrelevant if you don't have your basics accounted for. NYC is the closest tech hub to a lot of family that lives in Pittsburgh. as I've gotten older, being close to them has become more important to me. additionally, meeting a partner to start my own family is just easier in NYC than SF, which is something I'd like to do soon. I've noticed that my effectiveness as a leader is just exponentially higher when I'm in a loving relationship. having spent 8+ years in SF (on top of graduating from Berkeley and growing up in the Bay Area), I've also accumulated a lot of the advantages listed above. that coupled with staying active on twitter/linkedin and visits to SF nearly every other month, give me many of the benefits of the city without having to live there. there are many exceptions that do not follow this heuristic, but startup success is a probability game and the more things you can do to increase that probability, the better. fwiw SF is also one of the most beautiful cities in the world, this is a pic I took while on a walk during the pandemic

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The week that broke my brain (and calendar) at Stytch was March 2022 -- there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy that week. No key launches, no fundraise, etc. but somehow my calendar looked like the below. Something I wish I’d learned sooner in my journey founding Stytch was how important it is to block out time for important thinking and deep work. This week in March 2022 was a few months after our Series B. I was in 30-60 minute meetings all day long, and constantly context switching between interviews, 1:1s, team meetings, sales calls. Ever since then, I’ve kept three blocks on my calendar: 1. 30 minute “Most Important Thing” block each morning - Setting aside time early when my brain is fresh to dedicate to whatever is most critical that day 2. Wednesday work block (3 hours) - Wednesdays are our ‘no meeting’ days, so I set aside three hours for deep thinking and strategic planning for Stytch’s future 3. Lunch (30 mins): Because blood sugar matters, and some of the most valuable conversations happen over a sandwich! I’ve heard of other strategies, too; using Clockwise to consolidate focus time, having separate internal/external/personal calendars to manage bookings. Let me know if there’s anything else I should try. Anything people find really works for them to preserve thinking time?

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It's rather special to see Wordware (YC S24) featured up alongside incredible companies like Retool, Vercel and Replit. Less friction ➡ more iterations ➡ better products. Wordware does this for our customers when working with LLMs. Neon does this for our engineers when building Wordware. Neon 🤝 Wordware What a match. #llms #serverless #ai #postgres

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We recently hired Ben M. as our new Director of Organic Growth Strategy. The interview process with him was what I imagine anyone who's hiring hopes for. 1️⃣ He interviewed us as much as we interviewed him. He asked thoughtful questions about the team, the company, future plans, challenges we're facing. 2️⃣ He was interviewed by the team he would lead. They brought their A-game, expecting to grill him with their most challenging questions. He blew them away. Everyone gave high scores. 3️⃣ We provided some real challenges we're facing and he put together a presentation for us that walked through how exactly he would solve the challenges drawing from his past experience. I was learning from him. I took notes the entire time. All of that is to say, I'm very excited for him to join the team. (Thanks to Usman Akram for pointing him in our direction 😉) Welcome to the team Ben! PS: He's hiring 😁

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A stroll through San Diego led me to Geppetto's, where a life-sized puppet and friendly staff turned me into an unexpected customer. 🌟This IS the magic of independent retail. 🌟 With consumer spending down, small businesses need innovative strategies beyond discounting to thrive without sacrificing profitability. Curious about how #indieretailers are navigating these challenges? Check out my latest article in Total Retail. #Retail #SmallBusiness #CustomerExperience #Innovation #IndependentRetail #SMB #boutiqueowner #retailer #fashion

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