Happy new year!
I’ve been admittedly absent from your inbox because there’s been a lot going on (more below) but I’m looking to get back to writing regularly in 2022.
It’s hard to believe I started this newsletter two years ago. Things have changed quite a bit. In just the two months since my last post in October, a couple big life updates:
After 7.5 years in San Francisco, we moved to NYC. Over Thanksgiving break, Carole, George and I crossed the country in a minivan (3000+ miles over a week) and have been settling into our new home in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
While the PM culture at Facebook (now Meta) was excellent, I found an exciting opportunity with a hyper-growth startup called Attentive and decided to join their team in early November to lead new product initiatives.
A bit more on each of these decisions below.
🌁 SF → NYC🗽
Carole, George and I spent the week of Thanksgiving driving across the country in a minivan from San Francisco to Brooklyn. Most of our stuff would meet us a week later in NYC thanks to the movers, so we took luggage, plants, and some things that we wanted with us when we arrived.
It’s hard to plan everything perfectly for a long trip like this, and it mostly went smoothly other than our plants all dying after we accidentally left them in the car overnight in 10 degrees Fahrenheit weather. The lesson? Bring your plants into the hotel room each night. Now we know.
Along the drive, we actually started developing a routine that included many stops at gas stations, Starbucks and very unhealthy fast food. George was the real winner since every time we stopped at a Starbucks, we got him a “pup cup” aka whipped cream. Now he tries pulling us into Starbucks in NYC every chance he gets.
Why move to NYC?
A lot of thinking precedes big moves like this one and ultimately I’d summarize our considerations with the following:
Our family is spread across Florida, Israel (me) and France (Carole). NYC cuts travel time - and cost - in half to see them.
San Francisco is somewhere between 40-85 degrees all year round, which can be really nice but also lacks seasonal markers throughout the year; we wanted to have real seasons.
We’ve taken full advantage of SF, the Bay Area and California. We explored a ton and started running out of new places to see after being hyper exploratory. This move will allow us to see a whole new area in the East Coast with many unfamiliar places.
We both skipped NYC in our 20’s but still wanted to experience “the city” at some point. Better late than never.
🔵Facebook → Attentive 🟡
When I decided to join Facebook in early 2020, I saw it as an opportunity to learn from some of the world’s best product people. The year and a half I spent there was rewarding and I grew in many ways. It gave me a chance to practice writing more openly at work, which was been both uncomfortable and deeply satisfying (not to mention, effective). It certainly expanded my network and showed me what world-class product teams look like.
Facebook was an incredible place to grow and I’m bullish on their future and will continue rooting for Meta from the sidelines. I wish the outside world could see how FB runs on the inside; people would respect the company a lot more if they could see how the company talks about complex issues internally. I gained much admiration for the company by working there.
With all that said, sometimes opportunity knocks on your door when you’re least expecting it.
After a really hard deliberation, I decided to join a Sequoia-backed, pre-IPO, Series-E company called Attentive, which sits at the intersection of SMS messaging and e-commerce. I’m a Lead PM in their nascent New Product Experimentation org, which will allow me to mentor/coach PMs, accelerating my path to people management.
It’ll also provide a challenging, exciting opportunity to build the NPE muscle of a fast growing startup with a strong core business (I’ll primarily be doing 0->1 work). Prior to Facebook, I spent eight years in early stage startups at the pre-seed to Series C stages so this is a return to my startup roots, albeit at a growth stage I haven’t experienced previously.
Also, Attentive has a big NYC presence which has already allowed me to spend time in person with my team after ~three years of remote work. Excited to see where this chapter of my career goes!
Between the NYC move and our new jobs (Carole recently left Pinterest to join Faire), we probably made life a bit more hectic than necessary for the last part of 2021. The stage should now be set for 2022 is to be a big growth year for us and I’m optimistic we’ll find our way in our new life.
Current priorities are finding reliable dog sitters for George and establishing a handful of close friendships in the area.
Career and Product Stuff
Transition periods have a way of prompting reflection so I published an article with 50 principles, values and observations about my work philosophy as I was winding down from FB.
Also, my friend Mark invited me to join him and his co-host Stewart on the GTM podcast over the summer for a conversation about product management. It was a lot of fun! Link below 👇
On an unrelated note, I tested positive for COVID last week and spent most of the holiday resting and isolating at home. I had a couple bad nights of sleep with cold sweats and shivers but otherwise my main symptom was extreme fatigue and lack of energy. I also experienced a surprising amount of depression and was in a very low mental and emotional state (in addition to the physical exhaustion). I slept, watched a lot of movies and am feeling much better now 🙌