1. Mentors & coachability
When Tony Fadell first sat across Bill Campbell, he braced for questions about ideas, markets, or tech. Instead, Bill locked eyes and asked one thing: “Are you coachable?” Not “are you smart?” Not “what’s your vision?” Just: will you take advice, admit when you’re wrong, and change? Fadell realised later that this was the only trait that determined whether you survived the grind of building.
“I remember he looked directly into my eyes with a dead stare… and asked, ‘Are you coachable?’ … That was the only qualification… the ability to admit that you don’t know everything… and that you’re ready to learn from those screw ups, listen to advice, and act on it.”
“You can make do without a cofounder… But you can’t make it without a mentor. Find at least one person who you deeply trust and who believes in you… an operational, smart, useful mentor who has done it before.”
Bill’s stare forced Fadell to admit he didn’t want flattery; he wanted someone who’d cut through his excuses.
If I'm defensive with criticism → ask: am I being un-coachable?
If I’m about to make a big decision → call one operator who’s done it before.
Keep a log: advice → what I did → outcome. Every month, send the mentor one line: “Here’s what changed because of you.”
2. Managing up & around
At Apple, young engineers obsessed over pixels or tolerances. But Fadell noticed the ones who grew weren’t just “heads down.” They regularly looked up to see the mission and looked around (to understand other functions. That’s how they spotted roadblocks before they killed projects.
“As an IC, you need to occasionally do two things: 1. Look up… to your ultimate goal: the mission… 2. Look around: Get out of your comfort zone… Talk to the other functions… It can give you an early warning if your project is not headed in the right direction.”
Managing up means anticipating your boss’s headaches. Managing around means building empathy with sister teams. The combination makes you promotable because you reduce risk at scale.
If I haven’t asked my manager in 2 weeks: “What’s keeping you up at night?” → I’m blind.
If I don’t know support’s top 3 tickets or marketing’s next big push → I’m only half a teammate.
3. Data vs opinion
After General Magic collapsed, Fadell joined Philips. Determined not to repeat his mistakes, he leaned hard on consumer panels. The problem: customers contradicted themselves week to week. Execs clung to tests as shields because nobody wanted to take responsibility.
“Every decision has elements of data and opinion… But data can’t solve an opinion-based problem… This leads to analysis paralysis… On Monday the customer panel would pick option X. On Friday… option Y… The data wasn’t a guide… It was analysis paralysis.”
Data comforts us because it spreads blame. But at the start, the ratio has to flip: V1 = vision & gut; V2 = data & scale.
If the team says “let’s just test it” → ask: Would the result actually change this decision?
If we’re on V1 → kill the instinct to optimise; protect the instinct to ship.
Maintain a vision doc: a) problem b) why now c) who it is for d) three falsification tests we'll run after launch
4. The three generations rule (V1 → V2 → V3)
When Nest launched its first thermostat, investors panicked at the high support costs and bad margins. Fadell explained it's fine because V1 is not a business. It’s a test of demand. By V2 you fix the product and start hitting gross margins. By V3, you fix the company itself including operations, scale, distribution, net margins. He codified this into the “Three Generations Rule.”
“You typically need to create at least three generations… V1 not profitable… V2 gross margins… V3 net margins. … You make the product. You fix the product. You build the business.”
Most companies kill themselves by demanding V3 outcomes from a V1 product. The right lens: V1 = learn, V2 = prove, V3 = scale.
5. Nest’s $1.50 screwdriver
Nest's beta testers bought a $249 thermostat but wasted 30 minutes just hunting for a screwdriver to install it. Fadell’s team decided to ship the product with a screwdriver. But not just any throwaway IKEA tool. A sleek Nest-branded screwdriver with 4 interchangeable heads. Cost: $1.50 per box. Outcome:
Install time halved.
Support calls dropped.
Customers now had a little Nest artifact in their junk drawer. A souvenir reminding them of the brand every time they fixed something else.
“They spent the first thirty minutes looking for tools… So we changed the prototype… We added… a little screwdriver… four different head options… The original Nest screwdriver cost around $1.50… It functioned as a marketing tool long after sale… It turned a moment of frustration into a moment of delight.”
If install or setup >10 min in user testing → fix or bundle the fix.
If a <$2 addition can prevent angry calls → add it, always.
If an accessory can live on in customers’ homes → make it beautiful enough to keep.
Run a 30-min cold install simulation each sprint.
Prototype packaging copy + quickstart guide before the product is final.
Assign every launch one “Nest screwdriver move”: a friction-killer that doubles as brand memory.
6. PMs must own the story
Engineers told Jobs the new iPod battery life dropped from 15 hours to 12. Fadell and Greg Joswiak reframed: “Look at commuters. They listen an hour a day. Students? A few bursts between classes. Joggers? Half an hour.” For real people, 12 hours meant a week of use. Jobs understood instantly.
“We didn’t bring Steve numbers… we brought him customers… commuters… students… those twelve hours actually lasted most people all week long… The numbers were empty without customers, the facts meaningless without context. … That’s why product management has to own the messaging.”
If I only have numbers in a debate → stop and add a customer story.
If I can’t explain why customers will care in 2 sentences → the spec is unfinished.
Keep a combined Spec+Messaging doc (top lines: Why / Who / Proof).
Run a weekly “voice of customer” sync with support/marketing.
For every feature, write a persona dry run showing how it plays out in daily life.
7. Hiring
At Nest, Tony was seeding culture with hiring. He called these early hires “seed crystals.” These people were so talented and so well-respected that they’d draw other great people around them, like molecules attaching to a crystal lattice.
“Seed crystals are people who are so good and so well loved that they can almost single-handedly build large parts of your org… Once they’re in, a tidal wave of other awesome people will typically follow.”
Every early hire is a cultural multiplier.
If I can’t name the first 5 people I’d hire before starting a company → don’t start yet.
If I feel “they’re fine, but not amazing” → don’t hire.
Maintain a seed crystal list of 10 people I’d drop everything to hire.
In interviews, always ask: Why did you leave your last role? What did you fix? Are you coachable?
Day 1 of any hire: write a coaching plan for their biggest gap.
8. Mission-driven “Assholes” vs real assholes
“Pushing for greatness doesn’t make you an asshole… A mission-driven ‘asshole’ might tear apart your work, but they won’t attack you personally. They won’t call you names or fire you for disagreeing with them. That’s the difference between a mission-driven ‘asshole’ and a controlling one.”
Intensity is necessary. Cruelty isn’t. Whether the behaviour makes the product and team better, or just makes someone feel smaller.
If I’m tearing into work → ask: Am I attacking the person or the product?
If someone else tears into me → check: are they protecting the mission or just flexing?
Before giving feedback, write: Why this matters for the mission.
Keep a “hot topics” doc: my stance → evidence I’d accept → what would change my mind.
9. Career
Fadell tells young people not to chase McKinsey-style jobs. Big consulting firms look prestigious but are safe, slow, and far from building. Instead, ask: “What do I want to learn?” Choose jobs that maximise learning, risk, and proximity to great people.
“The best way to find a job you’ll love and a career that will eventually make you successful is to follow what you’re naturally interested in, then take risks when choosing where to work. The correct place to start is this: ‘What do I want to learn?’ and not ‘How much money do I want to make?’ not ‘What title do I want to have?’”
“Just whatever you do, don’t become a ‘management consultant’ at a behemoth like McKinsey or Bain… These corporations… call in the management consults… to do a massive audit… and present leadership with a new plan that will magically ‘fix’ everything.”
If I’m evaluating a job → first question: What will I learn here in 18 months?
If I don’t have a “knowledge advantage” in my domain → I’m under-learning.
Maintain a personal learning agenda: 3 skills I’m chasing in the next 18 months.
In every expert call, end with: Who are the 3 smartest people I should talk to next?
Track my surface area to the problem (users, product, revenue). Choose the path with max exposure.
10. How to spot a great idea
“There are three elements to every great idea: 1. It solves for ‘why’… 2. It solves a problem that a lot of people have in their daily lives.… 3. It follows you around… you can’t stop thinking about it. … The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins.”
A great idea should haunt you. If you can forget it, you should. The “follow you around” test is a gut-check most people skip.
If I forget an idea after a week → kill it.
If I can’t write 3 pages on why people desperately need it → it’s a vitamin.
Keep a kill list: 3 reasons not to do the idea. Run 1 experiment/week to disprove a reason.
Run a 1-month chase: talk to 10 target users, write the anti-thesis, test a straw-man model.
11. Caring deeply ≠ Micromanagement
At Apple, Fadell would review everything from design, engineering, support docs, packaging, customer service scripts. People accused him of micromanagement. He disagreed: this was caring. If you want a world-class product, every touchpoint must be held to that bar.
“If you want to build a great company/team, you should expect excellence from every part of it… Examining the product in great detail and caring deeply about the quality of what your team is producing is not micromanagement.”
Keep a running list: What worries me about each project/person? If the list gets long, act.
Make “formal reviews” nothing new. Just a write-down of what we’ve been saying weekly.
Explain the why behind my intensity. Make the passion visible.
12. Product marketing
At Nest, Anton Oehlert (Head of Marketing) rewrote packaging copy himself more than ten times. Only after he knew the messaging in his bones did he work with designers. Over time, they built a messaging architecture and activation matrix.
“Finding the best, most honest expression of a product or feature is not easy… It’s marketing. … The messaging architecture and activation matrix turned a soft art into a hard science that everyone could understand.”
Marketing is design applied to words, packaging, touchpoints. The PM’s job is to own both spec and story.
If I can’t write the first version of the packaging myself → I don’t understand the product.
If the name/claim doesn’t survive in-context (sentence, hero image, box, press release) → it’s not ready.
Build a Messaging Matrix per product: Problem → 3 benefits → Proof → Objections → Answers.
Prototype packaging copy before visuals.
Always test names in 3 contexts: sentence, marketing asset, on a box.