From Community Manager to
Director of Product

Nickey Skarstad

Director of Product, Duolingo

12 YEARS IN TECH

The Journey

From Moderator to Director: 10 Years in Product

Started at Etsy in 2010 as a forums moderator, zero PM experience
Got nudged into product by VP Mark Headland, "I think you'd be really good at it"
7 years at Etsy: APM → PM → Director of Product (seller tools)
2.5+ years at Airbnb on Experiences: first PM → Senior Product Lead
Learned that finding "Nickey energy" drives long-term success

The imposter syndrome moment"I was like, 'Oh God, no. Never.' I was like, 'No. Technology what? Engineering? I'd have to work with engineers? I know nothing about engineering.'"

Product Quality

How to Build Quality Into Your Product Culture

Don't ship if it's not good, Airbnb's non-negotiable standard
Pick quality metrics that co-move with growth (e.g., review rate, first sale in 7 days)
Obsession with end consumer experience creates trust and retention
Operationalize quality: host coaching, education, internal processes

At Etsy: First Sale in 7 Days

Slowing down onboarding made sellers more thoughtful. They got first sales faster. Quality predicted long-term success.

At Airbnb: Review Rate

Measured every experience review. If hosts didn't meet standards, coaching happened. Everyone knew it was the north star.

The balancing actGrowth was important, sure. But the most important thing was that the actual customer experience was great.

Strategy Framework

Vision → Mission → Strategy → OKRs

Vision (Top)

Where do you need to go long term? 10-year horizon.

Mission & Strategy

How do we make the vision come to life? What needs to happen?

Objectives (Bottom)

OKRs or goal-setting model. 3-6 months. Specific, measurable.

Get input from everyone, but one person owns the strategy
Talk to leadership and CEO for organizational context
Build strategy top-down, not in a vacuum
Make sure long-term plan grounds quarterly goals
Run quarterly OKR planning in month 3 of current quarter

The pyramid principleEach level should be clear and layer down in abstraction. The strategy connects vision to what you actually build.

Execution

Making Strategy Actionable

Pre-fill your Miro or FigJam with headers before the brainstorm
Include competitive landscape pre-reads so people come prepared
Use timers with music (FigJam's sounds are excellent)
Synthesize ideas in-meeting by bucketing similar concepts
Don't try to finalize vision in one meeting, draft, get feedback
Connect every Jira ticket up to strategy and back down

The brainstorm setupMake it cross-functional. Pull in marketing, policy, partners. Frame it as "we're thinking in 5-10 year timeline. Don't worry about today."

Contrarian

What Product Managers Get Wrong

✗Strategy has to be finalized upfront in one meetingINSTEAD →✓ Come up with ideas together, take a stab at drafting, get feedback, iterate.

✗You build vision in isolationINSTEAD →✓ Talk to leadership, the CEO, and adjacent teams to understand organizational context.

✗Growth metrics are enough to measure successINSTEAD →✓ Pick quality metrics that co-move with growth. They predict long-term marketplace health.

✗Dogfooding doesn't matter at scaleINSTEAD →✓ Using your product firsthand tells you immediately if the experience is five-star or broken.

Based on Nickey Skarstad's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Read the episode on Lenny’s Newsletter

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