Brandon Chu on building product at Shopify, how writing changed the trajectory of his career, the habits that make you a great PM, pros and cons of being a platform PM, how Shopify got through Covid

Brandon Chu is VP of Product at Shopify, where he leads the app platform ecosystem, new initiatives group, and M&A investments. Brandon helped scale Shopify’s PM team from five to hundreds, and worked his way up from an IC Senior PM. Prior to Shopify, he was a Director of PM at FreshBooks and, before that, a founder. Brandon might be best known for his writing on the art and science of product management as part of a collection on Medium he calls “The Black Box of Product Management.” — Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible: • Stytch: https://stytch.com/ • Persona: https://withpersona.com/lenny • PostHog: https://posthog.com/lenny — In this episode, we cover: 1) Brandon’s path to VP of Product at Shopify. 2) What has Brandon found to be the most important skill set for super-successful PMs? 3) What is it like to build product at Shopify? 4) How did Shopify adjust after the shock to e-commerce during Covid? 5) How did Shopify build a one-click team offsite flight/hotel/activity booking platform? 6) How did Brandon motivate himself to start, and keep, writing? 7) As a PM, why is writing one of the highest-ROI uses of your time? 8) What’s Brandon’s favorite piece of writing? 9) What are the biggest surprises, pros, and cons about being a platform PM? — Where to find Brandon: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandonmchu • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonmchu/ • Brandon’s writing: https://blackboxofpm.com/ • Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager: https://blackboxofpm.com/making-good-decisions-as-a-product-manager-c66ddacc9e2b This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe