How to build your product strategy stack | Ravi Mehta (Tinder, Facebook, Tripadvisor, Outpace)

Ravi was previously CPO at Tinder, Product Director at Facebook, and VP of Product at Tripadvisor. Currently, he’s co-founder and CEO of Outpace, a coaching platform designed to help people reach their professional goals. In today’s podcast, we dive deep into Ravi’s product strategy stack framework and how it was used to develop a powerful strategy at Tinder. We also cover his other popular frameworks—the frontier of understanding and exponential feedback—and how both of them can help you grow in your career. We discuss the differences between building product at a startup versus a large tech company, and how Ravi has had to shift his mindset as he’s moved away from a product leadership role into a founder role. Finally, he shares a bit about how Outpace is using AI to amplify coaches and help make them more efficient and effective.

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:

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Where to find Ravi Mehta:

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Where to find Lenny:

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Referenced:

Disclaimer: Lenny is an angel investor Ravi’s company, Outpace

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Ravi’s background
(04:24) Why Ravi left Tinder, and what he’s been up to recently 
(08:05) Differences between working at an established tech company vs. a startup 
(12:45) Why founders should network with “early-stage” folks
(17:49) What the product strategy stack is and how to use it
(22:08) Mission vs. vision
(23:37) How Ravi developed his strategy framework at Tripadvisor 
(26:43) Why PMs should understand design, UX, and UI
(28:20) Examples of the product strategy stack in action
(32:42) Why Tinder resisted adding filters 
(34:10) Monetization features at Tinder and the “whales” who spend the most
(38:18) How customer feedback led to new features at Tinder
(42:28) Why goals come after roadmap in Ravi’s framework
(44:30) Tripadvisor’s strategy for increasing bookings
(47:25) How to set goals that drive outcomes
(50:24) The four buckets of the frontier of understanding
(51:38) Different methods for trying to hit goals
(53:08) Understanding why you hit or missed your goal
(54:34) The product management competencies framework
(1:02:08) The exponential feedback framework
(1:04:25) Why you should ask for feedback—and graciously accept it
(1:06:05) How to determine the right amount of leadership your team needs
(1:09:40) What selective micro-management is
(1:12:25) How Outpace uses AI to assist in coaching
(1:15:24) Lightning round

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[devikottary]

Ravi mehta...what a podcast this was. Ravi is immaculate in his thinking and the fluency in his talk without a twitch says it all. Great product podcast again Lenny..

[hcubill]

I love Ravi’s roadmap first approach and his stack is my go to strategy framework. Thanks to this podcast!🎉

[whitebj]

Always enjoy hearing from Ravi. Lenny, great episodes just keep coming thank you!

[romanpowercouple]

The Peak Product Manager diagram is super useful...thank you for the amazing content Lenny!

[viditsinghal]

10:38 I feel its more about momentum rather than velocity at bigger companies. Due to their high mass, their momentum is much bigger which reduces the turning radius whereas smaller companies have much less momentum with higher turning radius

[MikeWilliamsYoroomie]

Whaat, this made my day to hear Ravi mention Everything Marketplaces! Such a great convo and feel honored to be mentioned in a convo with two of my fav product minds.

[daryalightning]

Agree so much with the point that working for a start-up feels 'slower'. This is something that I was really surprised by going from a corporation to a company of 30 people. Ideas iterate faster, but not so many things going on at the same time.

[bootsandladders]

Incredible information. Thank you for sharing this.

[lucasbastos]

Awesome content, thanks Lenny and Ravi!

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