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How Product Leaders
Build at Scale

Paige Costello
VP of Product, Asana
JUNE 2023
The Core Insight

Bring the Insight.
Know Thy Customer.

CUSTOMERINSIGHTMARKETCOMPETITOR
"The thing I would say is bring the insight. Know thy customer. Know thy market. Know thy competitors. Know thy numbers. Know thy product."
  • Trust comes from deep customer and market knowledge
  • Young PMs: confidence is built through rigor, not age
  • Garner trust by being more prepared than anyone else in the room
  • Know your numbers, your competitors, your product deeply
Asana's Evolution

Planning at Scale:
The Pillar to Area Model

R&DPILLARSAREASTEAMSNested structurewith specific metrics
3
Core Pillars
6mo
rolling plan cycle
  • Before: Organized by projects and locations
  • Now: Problem-focused pillars with target customers and specific areas
  • Three Pillars: Core Product, Adoption & Enterprise Scale, Workflow
  • Nested metrics: R&D → Pillar → Area → Team (1-2 key metrics per team)
  • Rolling 12mo plan: High confidence next 6mo, lower confidence in following half
The shiftFrom feature-driven roadmaps to outcome-driven strategy that actually aligns product, sales, and marketing.
Process & Rigor

The Double Diamond:
Broad → Narrow → Broad

  • Customer selection: Broad → pick target customer (narrow)
  • Problem discovery: Broad → identify the problem (narrow)
  • Solution ideation: Broad → validate approach (narrow)
  • Phases: Kickoff → Customer & Direction Selection → Concept Review → Design Spec → Experience Review → Launch
  • Prevents opinion-driven decisions by forcing rigor at each inflection point
Key guardrail metric

Teams track metrics like "healthy project use" alongside adoption. Ensures you're not optimizing one metric at the expense of real customer value.

Asana's example area

"Coordinate", helps teams work together through projects, tasks, and collaboration. Metrics: org paying weekly active users + healthy project use.

Leadership Framework

Above or Below
the Line

  • Above the line: Curious, learning-focused, playful, open to questions
  • Below the line: Committed to winning, being right, black-and-white thinking
  • Recognize when you're below the line and shift back to curiosity
  • Notice where others are operating and lead from openness
From The 15 CommitmentsThis vocabulary helped Paige have more effective conversations across her organization.
Paige's Mantras

How to Lead &
Grow Faster

✗Wait until you're readyINSTEAD →✓ Show up and say it before you're ready. Ask for forgiveness. Be vulnerable. Real confidence comes from openness, not armor.
✗Self-select outINSTEAD →✓ Don't self-select. Don't say "I'm not X, Y, Z enough." Apply anyway. Push yourself to not disqualify.
✗Ship in small ways if you're thinking smallINSTEAD →✓ Think big, ship small. Don't get too incremental or wrapped around optimizing one metric. Keep the bigger picture.
✗Accept false trade-offsINSTEAD →✓ Ask "How might the opposite be true?" Pop the scarcity mindset. You can do both. Your shoulders will drop.
Based on Paige Costello's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Watch on YouTubeFollow @paigenow on X
GO DEEPER IN THE EPISODE
04:38 What Paige is responsible for at Asana06:04 The evolution of Asana’s product development process09:10 Planning frequency11:26 Examples of areas and metric tracking at Asana12:46 The double-diamond process and how it’s applied at Asana16:53 Asana’s office-centric hybrid work culture and the future of WFH21:45 How to garner trust and win over skeptics24:45 Why you should befriend researchers26:17 How to exude confidence29:03 The 3Es framework33:43 Advice for early-career PMs38:43 Paige’s latest pillars strategy40:05 AI at Asana41:50 Lessons from Paige’s time at Intuit45:53 Challenges new PMs face48:55 Challenges Paige has faced in her career52:39 Paige’s skill-focused career philosophy55:43 Lightning round
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