SoC #52: What Kind of PM Are You? Expander vs. Container?

I'm Lisa - welcome to this week's edition of Stream of Consciousness - the newsletter for product leaders who want to build products and their careers more consciously, in ways that are inclusive, holistic, ethical, accessible, and sustainable.

Join 1432 conscious product leaders who want to put their time and energy into building more conscious products (and careers):

Q: What kind of PM are you? Are you an expander or a container?

A quote I'll never forget comes from Shark Tank personality and real-estate mogul Barbara Corcoran:

“Leaders comes in two flavors: expanders and containers,” she explains. 'Expanders' are growth-focused and sales-oriented extroverts, while 'containers' are fastidious organizers. The best leadership teams have a mix of both.”

While there are many takes on "types" of product managers - from builders, tuners, and innovators, to operators, craftspeople, and visionaries, and pioneers, settlers, and town planners, I think this is a split that happens even higher up in the branch.

In PM terms, one way to think of expanders vs. containers is this:

Expander: People that like to push the envelope, think big, dream, connect things that others would not think to connect, are creative, and often are known as an "idea person".

Container: People that are optimizers, are detail-oriented, are great at organizing and planning and knowing specifically what to focus on in a sea of information.

Both types of product leaders working together are necessary to build and launch a product that is successful.

The stage that your product is in matters as well when building out a team and thinking about your ideal expander: container ratio.

For instance, if you're working at a very early-stage startup (i.e. pre-seed), expanders are necessary to help bring your idea from 0 to 1, whereas if you're working at a large enterprise that already has a product in market with a constant stream of user feedback to leverage to improve that product, containers are necessary.

One other important aspect of this idea is that in product terms, I envision this more as a spectrum vs. it being a dichotomy. For example, I think you can be a product manager that is MORE of an expander than a container but that can still do container-types of activities well.

What parts of product development do you enjoy the most? Do these things fall into expansive activities or containment activities? Would you consider yourself more of an expander or a container? Let me know!

P.S. I'm building a course on Personal Positioning For People Transitioning Into Product From Other Careers. If you'd like early access and a discount, let me know here.

Conscious Bytes 📰

"I'M SYDNEY...AND I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU": Days after Google's AI chatbot, Bard, made factual errors in an ad that caused Alphabet's stock to plummet, Microsoft announced it has killed Bing's AI weird alter-ego, Sydney. Listen to a Sunday Special episode of "Hard Fork" here where Times tech columnist Kevin Roose chronicles his bizarre and windy love story with Sydney the AI chatbot.

THE IRRESPONSIBLENESS AND EXTERNALITIES OF PALO ALTO & MOVING TOWARDS THOUGHTFULNESS IN TECH: What is tech's place in the world? And how do tech workers contribute to this? Listen to Malcolm Harris, author of, "Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and The World" share his thoughts on this and more around the 50-minute mark in this episode of the Pivot podcast.

TIKTOK BANS: Canada, the U.S., India, Taiwan, the EU, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have all issued some kind of order banning the use of TikTok on government staff devices over privacy and security concerns amid accusations of sharing data with the Chinese government and collecting more user data than other social media companies.

WHERE THE TECH JOBS AT?: Hear from four experts on tech hiring in this New York Times piece.

Soulwork 💜

🎬 Stutz, a film by Jonah Hill: I watched this a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised. Hill takes you with him into his therapy appointments with the goal of sharing the tools he has learned from his therapist, Phil Stutz, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease and has a hell of a lot of life skills to teach, with you. I recommend watching this with a notebook and pen...and maybe some Kleenex.

I chatted with Holly Hester-Reilly about my why, building products consciously, net-positive product development, hockey., and also...toilets in this episode of The Product Science Podcast.

Thanks for Reading!

1. The Product Manager's Career Guide: If you are an early stage product manager with 0-5 years of experience and want to design your career more consciously this is for you. Get clarity on what to focus on and why, define the trajectory you are moving towards, and use my practical tools and downloadable templates to help you iterate on the systems you are using to reach your goals.

2. Stitch: The Best Resources for Product Managers: The most comprehensive resource for anyone in product looking to save hundreds of hours Googling to search for anything from "How to do customer interviews", "How to get promoted", "Roadmap templates", "How to build accessible products", "Stakeholder alignment", "Product pricing", and more. Over 2000 practical resources organized by product area in a single .pdf.

3. 1:1 Coaching and Feedback: Schedule a 30-minute or 60-minute video session where we tackle the most challenging problem you are facing right now, or ask me for product-specific feedback on something you're building.

Have a great week!

-Lisa ✨

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