Claire Hughes Johnson

Most companies don't have a COO — fewer than 20-30% do. It's not an automatic role. Hiring one won't solve your cultural problems, and there's no mythical silver bullet COO out there.

Be a force for positive momentum. It will be a real career maker.

Too many managers wait until they have a million data points before giving someone feedback. Instead, take some data, form a hypothesis, and explore it with the person. That's hypothesis-based coaching.

Product market fit is just the product — and that is not a company. You see companies fall over, and often it's not the product. They didn't build the company well, and that ended up harming the product and the mission.

Explorer, not lecturer: Your job as a manager isn't to be the expert and tell people what to do. It's to explore with them. Form a hypothesis about what you're observing, then get curious about it together.

Product management is one of the hardest jobs in tech. So much accountability. So little authority. Everyone says they want to be a PM — I'm not sure they know what they're signing up for.