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Carl Vellotti

Jul 9

I used to hate product management.

A year into the role, I wanted out.

7 years later, I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.

The flip all happened in a few fateful sprints 👇

1/21

My career started at a small "Uber for Doctors" startup — on-demand urgent care booked through an app.

When I joined the company as an intern, there were only 6 employees.

Over my three years there, we raised our $100M Series B round and grew to >100 employees.

2/21

My first year as a PM didn’t feel at all like what I’d signed up for.

I thought I knew what product management was from my internship.

I'd conducted user interviews, helped set up the company's inbound calling system, and built a prototype of our knowledge base.

3/21

Read 23 tweets

Carl Vellotti

@carlvellotti

Jul 2

Every product needs a solid activation experience.

Done well, they can mean hugely successful conversion from discovery to sign-up for your app.

Here's a breakdown of Duolingo's legendarily strong activation experience.

Complete activation experience breakdown in 🧵👇

First and foremost, like usual, you need to have a strong understanding of your user.

I know that's cliché, but you'll see why it's so important in a moment.

Consider your users':
1. Demographics
2. Goals and desired benefits
3. Experience levels

Now to the experience.

Think of your users as being highly skeptical and not-that-motivated when they check out your product.

They want to know if your product will really help them, but they're biased *against* believing this.

There are 4 questions you'll need to answer:

Read 10 tweets

Carl Vellotti

@carlvellotti

Jul 1

Most people think notification = sending a message

But this barely scratches the surface.

Every notification is part of a whole experience.

Here's a breakdown of the 5 main types of notifications with the 4 stages every notification entails

More tips in 🧵👇

Notification Types

In general, almost every notification falls into one of these categories.

⏰ Time-Based
📍 Location-Based
🔀 Change-Based
🙋‍♂️ Peer-Based
🤖 Rule-based

Always consider all types! You might be surprised at what you come up with.

For any kind of notification, there are 4 stages.

1️⃣ Trigger

What causes the notification? Ideally should be based on an action the user's previously taken, like setting a reminder.

Read 10 tweets

Carl Vellotti

@carlvellotti

Jun 7

When my manager used to say I needed to 'think more strategically' - I had no clue what that actually meant.

I'd consume tons of strategy content but couldn't apply it.

Nothing helped until I learned to ask myself these ultra-specific questions:

Overall company vision

Can I clearly explain our company's North Star and business model? Have I connected my team's work directly to company OKRs and customer outcomes? Do I understand our key strategic bets?

Really long term planning

Am I planning 2-4 quarters out instead of just this sprint? Have I spotted market trends impacting our roadmap? Can I frame our work around bigger narratives like platform shifts or cost optimization?

Read 10 tweets

Carl Vellotti

@carlvellotti

Jun 5

Interaction design separates good from great products.

The best way to learn is by seeing it in action.

So I made this MASSIVE post with 54 original examples!

1) Remove friction with suggested options

⚠️ BEWARE ⚠️

The proceeding knowledge cannot be unlearned! The examples cannot be unseen.

Continue down this path and you will soon find yourself frustrated by bad interaction design in many, many products.

You’ve been warned.

2. Display relevant dynamic information

🔹 Show live data, not stale info - keep it fresh and relevant
🔹 Users need to know what's happening right now, not yesterday
🔹 Make your interface feel alive and trustworthy

Read 57 tweets

Carl Vellotti

@carlvellotti

Aug 11, 2024

How often should PMs communicate with stakeholders? 🤔

↳ It depends on the project.

Matching communication to project complexity is key.

Here's a 5-step process to get it right 🧵👇

1️⃣ Document Stakeholders and Their Concerns

Identify all the stakeholders involved and pinpoint their specific needs and concerns within the project.

Ex: Marketing needs weekly updates on feature development for promotional planning; Sales requires monthly revenue forecasts.

2️⃣ Assess Risk and Impact

Evaluate the risk level and the impact of not communicating effectively with each stakeholder group.

Ex: Engineering is working on a high-risk, business-critical module; Marketing is focused on a seasonal campaign with high revenue potential.

Read 7 tweets

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