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Clarity

Tom Leung

San Francisco, CA

Product Management Director at Google and previously YouTube; Over twenty years of software product management experience; co-founder of talent marketplace Anthology.co backed by $3.3M from Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and former general counsel of Facebook (acquired by randrr, Inc. in March 2018); Harvard MBA; Stanford d.school Design Thinking Boot Camp; product management coach. Love to share experiences and insights around product strategy -- particularly as it relates to startups and product management.

Sorry, can not discuss anything that competes with Google Health. Can take calls at 5pm PT or weekend afternoons.

$5.00/min

34 Calls

67 Reviews

39 minutes
Avg. call

Entrepreneurship Product Design Start-ups Marketplaces Product Management Product Strategy Coaching Business Strategy Career Development Interview Preparation

Call me to talk about

Product Management

I am a PM Director at Google and lead a product team for YouTube comprised of 8 product managers. I've been in product management for the last 15+ years including as a PM and founder of venture-backed startups.

http://www.alwaysbeshipping.com

Angel Stage Startups

I've raised $4M from 30 angels. My last startup (acquired by randrr, Inc. in March 2018) is now a Harvard Business School case study on entrepreneurial journeys, pivots, and investor relations. It is taught in the second year Harvard MBA class "The Entrepreneurial Manager" where I've been a guest speaker for the last 3 years.

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=51893

Product Management Job Interview

I'll conduct a standard 45 minute tech company product management interview of you and afterwards, send you a short written summary of my assessment (recommendation, likes, wishes) that I would have sent to the hiring manager.

Career Optimization

I've made lots of big career decisions over the last 20 years from first job, HBS, Microsoft, Google, VP at small cap, founder of startup, etc. I also run a startup in the recruiting space so I see a lot of data.

Applying to a Top 10 MBA Program

I'm a HBS graduate. Previously I was an admissions consultant where my clients got in to schools like Stanford and Duke. I can't really get you in to a school but I can help you maximize your chances by helping you craft your essays, figuring out what career choices you should make before applying, and deciding on which programs to apply to and attend.

Answers 6
Reviews 67

Answers

Tom Leung answered

Optimize career for learning or responsibility?

I'd consider finding some middle ground. Be careful of SEM farm agencies where it's a bit more of a factory atmosphere. That said, your current gig doesn't seem to be challenging you. So I'd consider a change but I'd be more picky about where you go so you can find an environment where you can learn but also be happy.

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Career Management

Personal Branding

Career Development

Tom Leung answered

Can we give non-voting shares to an existing partner to increase their equity?

You can do whatever is mutually agreed to by all the affected parties. That said, in general you want to keep things simple, standard, and nothing too exotic. Of course, if your usage and revenue numbers are doubling every month, investors will be a lot more flexible and just happy to get a seat on the rocket ship.

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Entrepreneurship

Corporate Development

Corporate Finance

Tom Leung answered

Who have experience of using user testing?

1. Do you use such services? If so, what do you choose?

I used UserTesting in the past.

2. How you choose it?

I used it to test new feature ideas and to refine existing UX.

3. What was the main problem of using such services?

It got kind of expensive for us (we were a startup) and sometimes the users were not as targeted as we wanted (especially when we were testing b2b stuff).

4. If you didn't use it, tell me please why?

5. Will you use such services in future?

I now work at a large company so probably not since we have researchers on the team who do their own recruiting and testing. That said, I find the insights from DIY things like userTesting to be good enough especially if you've done testing before and have some experience with user studies and UX design or product management.

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Start-ups

User Experience

Usability Testing

Tom Leung answered

Would my "Shazam" like idea work for a furniture purchasing app?

Cool idea. Biggest question is market size. I presume the furniture market is big -- the question will be how many people will shazam furniture and what kind of revenue could you generate from those purchases? Maybe the broader opportunity is to shazam any product you can buy...

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Business Ideas

Mobile applications

Tom Leung answered

How can you strengthen the relationship between co-founders of a business?

1. Make sure you share similar values and complementary motivations for starting the business.

2. Identify your respective strengths, weaknesses, and interests.

3. Be open and honest with each other, always -- especially when it's uncomfortable.

4. Get some wins together. Accomplish some key tasks or objectives as a team.

5. Have a defined process for how to make decisions when you don't agree. e.g. certain decisions are handled by one, others require unanimity, others require input from both but the tie breaker is...

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Start-ups

Tom Leung answered

Is there a patent on Kindle's paperwhite technology?

I would be shocked if a company of that size didn't patent a ton of things that involve their Kindle business -- paperwhite is a big selling point to them so if they didn't patent it originally, I'd expect that to have bought it or licensed it from whoever did.

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Product Development

Product Design

Reviews

Tom was great!

Rony Hage Source: Clarity

Excellent!

Elliot K Source: Clarity

Highly recommend chatting with Tom, who was very insightful. Look forward to talking again.

Conrad Wadowski Source: Clarity

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!

Auto Costa Source: Clarity

Tom provided great clarity for me on career dev and strategies for moving into product management. We did a mock interview, in which he was able to give honest valuable advice.

Spencer Boone Source: Clarity

Tom had some fantastic advice for my career development. Clear in his thoughts and very approachable. I plan on working with him more in the future.

Colin Howard Source: Clarity

Tom is very insightful. Really enjoyed the call. Will talk to him again.

Waqas Younas Source: Clarity

Tom gave me very valuable advises and he was very straight and specific with his answers. I recommend him as a consultant.
Thanks Tom!

Gabor Mayer Source: Clarity

Tom offered some really great advice for a new Product Manager, thank you Tom!

Kyle Bolton Source: Clarity

It's a pleasure to be speak with somebody who has been there and done it before. Tom was very approachable, challenging and really knows his stuff. Hope to stay in contact.

Trevor O'Hara Source: Clarity

After speaking with Tom for 30 minutes, I came away with two pages of notes and a number of insights into my Product Management challenges. I appreciated the thought he put into listening to my situation and openly sharing his experiences. Wouldn’t hesitate contacting him again in the future for more advice!

Ryo Chiba Source: Clarity

Member since December 2012