Today is my last day at
@CitizenApp
where I joined 4.5 years ago as PM
#1
. I helped get our revenue off the ground and was promoted to lead the Product and Design team. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way, so it felt like a good time to share my guiding principles. A 🧵 1/7
@InternetH0F
The more people who travel to eat good food that Michelin recommends, the more wear and tear they cause on Michelin tires, and the faster they need tire replacements. A+ content growth loop.
@zackkanter
Long term retention on IAP (Apple’s sub service) is much worse than on Stripe. Best in class 12mo on Stripe sub is 60%-80%. On IAP, best in class 12mo closer to 30%-50%.
@zackkanter
Apple bundles all subs into one area and if a consumer goes to cancel one often “power cancel” all.
To juice services revenue, I expect Apple will move subscription management into individual app settings with affordances to pause, cross sell, etc.
@soren_iverson
Now try Uber Danger where you can save 30% by opting for drivers who haven’t been background checked. (This was the gnarliest step in the Uber onboarding funnel.)
@nikitabier
@FlyAerodome
@aerodromefi
@rahoolsidoo
Drone defibrillator delivery will save lives in cities.
Wild how many people die of heart attacks that are preventable if a defibrillator is readily accessible and correctly applied.
@zackkanter
Not giving apps the right touchpoints to manage their subscriber relationships while taking 30% commission dramatically limits the investability of the iOS app subscription ecosystem.
@sarthakgh
My wife and I comment weekly on the absurdity of the rule.
The primary issue is post covid there’s been a large spike in ordering groceries online and having them delivered to your car (a fantastic customer experience).
Most supermarkets do this with reusable bags and don’t
@Austen
My main issue with Perplexity is they don’t stuff irrelevant ads or dodgy SEO blog posts into their results.
Finding myself really missing this charming feature from Google and the open web.
@BenjaminDEKR
His uninspired interview with Harry Stebbings dropping the same time as Zuck’s complete knowledge drop with Dwarkesh definitely accelerated this.
@nikitabier
Hmm, I see things slightly differently. Teen/college apps work because customers haven’t solidified their social networks yet and have the most to gain by meeting people digitally (hookups, friendships, etc.)
Once you get to 30+ year old suburban demos, they have their
.
@MarniHughesTV
thanks for having me on your show tonight to talk about
@CitizenApp
.
I’m proud of what we’ve been building to keep communities safer.
@BritMartinez
This is a lovely story and reaffirms why me, my wife and (5&7) year old daughters are hardcore Swifies.
I met her makeup artist on the 1989 tour on a beach one night in NC and she had similar kind things to say about Taylor. Taylor would duck under the stage between songs to
@kevinb9n
@Google
Sometimes the best thing that can happen to you is other people telling you to step back and do something else. Congrats on what you’ve built. Am sure your next act will be epic.
1/ I love working at
@CitizenApp
because I deeply believe in our mission to “Protect the World.” I wanted to shed some light on an important (and not well known) customer we’re working with in furtherance of this goal: Violence Interrupters
@rezendi
There’s a minimum level of wealth founders seek to set their life on a trajectory where money isn’t a regular stressor. When you’re below that level, getting there soon is tempting. Above that level, more money is less interesting than the chance to build an empire.
Tested UberCopter with
@keithpeiris
today. 20 minutes from downtown Manhattan to JFK was the closest I’ve been to teleportation. Service launches soon and only available to Platinum loyalty members. This could be part of a real competitive moat.
@andrewchen
4 questions for every stop on their resume:
1. Why’d you join?
2. Biggest impact?
3. Biggest failure?
4. Why’d you leave?
Tells you everything you need to know to get a feel for how they think, operate and deliver.
@rrnn
@BlairReeves
I have a suspicion much of the stack could be pre-computed to dramatically reduce costly real-time calculation, but dynamic models are much more fun to build maintain than static ones.
You don’t want to miss this!
@patrick_oshag
and I are doing a live show in New York City on October 19th
Patrick has interviewed 300+ of the world's best investors and founders on his podcast
I've read 300+ biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for mine
We will
@nandoodles
Recently reading Flash Boys and then finding this thread reminds me how little regulation exists in Tech relative to Finance.
I’d bet the SEC equivalent for Tech regulation will be created this decade.
@aschrock
@profmusgrave
At Apple during the first 128GB iPhone ramp we ran our supply forecast from a spreadsheet model that I built. It was more flexible and faster than a (7 figure) IBM supply allocation tool which couldn’t elegantly handle factory capacity constraints.
@SarahKSilverman
@AOC
lol it took me 2.5 hours to get the gov’t to create 2 pieces of paper for me at the DMV.
@amazon
can deliver most things in the world to my doorstep in less than 48 hours. Think we have very different “cost” equations.
@lisatomic5
I’ve been buying my 1st grade daughter workbooks for 2nd/3rd graders and she sits down and knocks them out, teaching herself the concepts by trial and error.
Learning how to learn outside of the confines of the classroom might be the most essential 21st century skill.
I’m hiring a Sr. Product Manager. Know anyone who might be interested?
At Fi, we've created a smart dog collar + companion mobile app that's already an essential tool hundreds of thousands of dog parents. Our subscription revenue is scaling and our team in NYC is growing. We're
Some personal news: recently noticed I’m beginning to go gray, meaning I’ll only have another 5 years to make meaningful contributions as a tech operator before I’ll be forced into VC.
7/7 As for me, I will be joining Fi as VP of Product. My family loves dogs and their product is the iPhone of dog collars.
@jbensamo
is a great leader building a great company.
@lennysan
@andrewchen
As an early PM with
@CitizenApp
this resonates. Would also add:
* establish process
* create cultural norms
* help with org design
Thought I’d take a page out of
@ava
’s playbook and share my progression over this past decade. This decade happened to coincide with my 20’s, so hopefully this can also provide a helpful lens to others early in their
#productmanagement
career.
I’m hiring a Sr. Product Manager. Know anyone who might be interested?
At Fi, we've created a smart dog collar + companion mobile app that's already an essential tool hundreds of thousands of dog parents. Our subscription revenue is scaling and our team in NYC is growing. We're
10/ At Citizen, we’re going to continue to work with organizations like this committed to protecting their communities. If you’re interested in joining the team, please reach out and let me know!
My wife and I took 5 and 7 year old daughters to Disney for Spring Break and we crushed 4 parks during the busiest week of the year. Sharing our tips and tricks for my fellow parents thinking about a Disney trip during a peak week.
Buckle up for a 🧵
@TurnerNovak
One way to extract value is to destroy it for free users and preserve it for paid.
The risk is this damages your free network effect/growth flywheel but given Twitter’s stickiness I’d guess it won’t.
@mkruz
Staying at Uber thru 2017 was the best decision of my career. I became a product manager and helped lead an end-to-end redesign for our most important customer-drivers around the world. Adversity compounds learning.
Dumb idea I pitched at
@uber
: Futures market for ride prices. I should be able to buy a 1AM midtown Manhattan ride for this coming New Years and sell it to someone looking for price security as the date nears.
@antoniogm
It’s amazing how many problems that seem like they need full time help actually just need the PM to spend a weekend becoming dangerous in a new area (SQL, Figma, etc.).
@tanayj
Fraud at scale is insane. 2015 Uber in China had entire cities that “went bad.” Fraudulent requesters would overwhelm honest drivers and offer to split the ride promo (often 1-2x the fare) otherwise they would report them for bad behavior and deactivate them.
@jessechenglyu
@rabbit_hmi
Does this mean we can create a real world Pokémon Go by hiding stuffed limited release Rabbit versions all around the US? First one to catch them all on Rabbit wins.
NYC product people: I’ll be giving a talk at
@productschool
tomorrow on “Building With Customers.” I’ll be sharing some lessons learned from re-designing the Uber driver app and helping the
@CitizenApp
transition from crime news to safety utility.
The app has cool onboarding but I’m not convinced we need another app like this. Reminds me of dispo & paparazzi from a couple of years ago. It seems popular among gen Z. I am out on this app already, hate the pyramid scheme.
Apple should punish this behavior imo.
The darkest pattern in tech is Apple defaulting to Live Photos to chew up storage 3x faster, forcing boomers to upgrade their iPhone every year and a half.
This is really strong writing.
An underrated method of evaluating TAM is the refresh rate for a given market. e.g. Apps that target high schoolers get a steady refresh every year, the housing market seems big but can freeze up as interest rates rise.