Rose Grabowski

Product Mgmt & UX enthusiast by day, eccentric ice cream maker, baker, and ceramist by night.

[Jemele Hill @jemelehill]

To let you further know the Supreme Court is on some bullshit, they said it’s totally fine for military academies to consider race in admissions. Now why is that? https://t.co/uiF9sScIty

[Simone Sebastian @SimonesNews]

Reading Thomas's opinion on affirmative action, and this quote is...whew!

"Meritocratic systems, with objective grading scales...have always been a great equalizer—offering a metric for achievement that bigotry could not alter."

This is not only ahistorical, it's delusional

[Alexis Ohanian 🗽 @alexisohanian]

Y'all are gonna bring that same energy to end legacy admissions at universities, too... Right?

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

Why does it seem like there are a zillion fintech startups right now? Is that really an industry that needs a ton of innovation?

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

5 common problematic situations in business & life, and the epiphanies & questions to tackle them with logic:

1) Feeling offended
2) Worrying a lot
3) Dealing with unfairness
4) Making tough decisions
5) Tackling a difficult project

~
These are based on my personal experience. I had these epiphanies at different points during my 20s & 30s i.e. an eternity ago

Back then, I was proud of my logical thinking, so I used logic to convert these epiphanies into guiding questions to ask myself when I found myself in one of these situations.

~
Situation 1:
When I am feeling offended

Epiphany:
Feeling offended is a “me” problem, not a “them” problem

Guiding questions:
If someone’s words can spark so much inner disarray & disturbance within me, is the power with me or with them?

Where do I want the power to be?

The right answers just follow.

Do this regularly, and voila, the world has a diminished ability to offend you.

~
Situation 2:
When I am worrying a lot

Epiphany:
My past worries have either not materialized or they have not destroyed my life like I had imagined

Guiding question:
If this <bad thing> does happen, will it be a bad day, bad week, bad month, bad year, or a bad life?

This question provides much-needed perspective (and also helps prioritize the worries!)

And the answer is very rarely “a bad life” (even if it might feel that way initially).

~
Situation 3:
When I think someone is being unfair or unreasonable

Epiphany:
They clearly do not think that way about themselves
They did not wake up in the morning thinking they want to be a difficult / unfair person

Guiding questions:
What is the story they are telling themselves?

Under what conditions might their perspective be valid?

These questions help build empathy, and often also provide a way to navigate the situation in a way that gets us both what we want. Win-win.

~
Situation 4:
When making tough & important decisions

Epiphany:
Choices with long-term impact are still heavily biased by my current feelings

Guiding question:
Which of these choices will look wisest to me 20 years from now?

This question forces me to step away a bit from my current feelings, seek the right counsel, and generally helps accelerate wisdom.

~

Situation 5:
When a problem or project seems too hard

Epiphany:
Harder things have been achieved by people with fewer resources

Guiding questions:
Is this problem truly as unique and difficult as I think?

What might another person or team (whose work I admire) do here?

These questions help reframe the situation, build confidence, and make more room for creative execution.

~
To sum it all up, it’s largely about:

Self observation + Logic + Long outlook

Best of luck!

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

@carlvellotti @lukehohmann Yeah productivity-stuff is maybe half of my AI-related feed tweets

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

@lennysan @GustavS There is a lot of (possible) mythology about the tribe/squad way of working from Spotify, popularized many years ago… how do the product development teams ACTUALLY work now?

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

Great list for successful Product folk as well

[Leo Alexandru @theleoalexandru]

As an engineering manager and CTO, I've managed 100s of software engineers.

I can tell after a couple of weeks if a developer is going to have a great career or not.

Here are my top 10 predictors of successful engineering careers (that apply to any field, in fact):

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

From what I can tell in my testing so far, ChatGPT will NOT yet be able to replace the Am I The Asshole subreddit. Good news for humanity?

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

@carlvellotti 🤖

[Carl Vellotti 🥞 @carlvellotti]

PMs – I've said it before and I'll say it again:

✅ AI won't replace you
❌ PMs using AI will

I'm building out PM use cases with instructions + killer prompts.

Eventually I'll sell the full table for $50, but for the next 24h: FREE.

Follow + RT + comment "🤖" for access.

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

@Patticus dude I am so impressed by you! If you're ever in Chicago, let me know ... I'd love to meet up. Hope all is well with you, too.

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

JOY listening to this today, bc of the content itself but also bc I remember working with @Patticus ~10 yrs ago when I ran Product and he was in Customer Service @ an ecomm startup. I remember Patrick being hungry, inquisitive, genuine, and humble. Congrats on your success, PC.

[Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan]

You’re probably underinvesting in this retention lever

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

every time my iphone buzzes with a haptic alert but there is no visual alert to explain it, an angel sheds a tear

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

Your y axis is dumb and deceiving. 1% increase isn’t “promising” anything other than that people will show up to watch your personal dumpster fire burn

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Recent trend is promising

[Alan Cooper @MrAlanCooper]

The one thing good bosses don't do is come into a new situation and immediately make changes, lay off staff, and issue decrees. You start by asking, listening, observing, and learning. Musk violated that rule with bells on.

[Lisa Zane (She/Her) @LisaZane15]

While most people focus on “hard skills”, frameworks, and strategy, if you aren’t building on a good foundation your house will crumble.

At its base, being an exceptional product manager means being a great human.

To me, essential human skills include being:

[Harvard Business Review @HarvardBiz]

Companies need to stop fostering cultures that burn out high-achieving women. https://t.co/DZAmoVoYx8

[Rose Grabowski @rosegrabowski]

This! I got similar advice early in my career and it was invaluable

[Lisa Zane (She/Her) @LisaZane15]

One of the best decisions I've made career-wise is to start a document called "Cheerleading".

It's not what you think...