I was early Marketing at Uber spending 5 years building Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle Marketing Data Science teams. I got to work with & learn from world-class marketing, data science, and martech leaders. Over the course of my career there I've measured over $1Bn in Marketing Spend and estimate that I've helped drive $200M+ in incremental revenue and cost savings . 

Then I moved on to a few early stage startups and scaleups (both as a FTE and Consultant) where I learned how to be even scrappier when building Marketing. 

Now I help Marketers make smarter decisions through my newsletter & podcast on Consumer Tech Marketing with how-to guides, case studies, and stories. 

I'm doing this because I love the marketing stories and people behind it in a world where Product seems to get most of the credit. There's so much magic in Marketing and I want to share more about it. 

Check it out here → https://experimental.beehiiv.com/

Outside of my newsletter and podcast, I love spending time with my 2 beautiful kids and my incredible wife in Amsterdam. We used to love traveling and eating out but you know... kids ...  so now I love cooking and exploring all the fun things little kids can do!

Sundar Swaminathan

One of the hardest things about having kids has been reconciling my professional identity before vs after. 

Before, I cared so much about my career. 

Being raised Indian and American, what I did defined who I was.

Even as a kid, you’re asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” 

“Doctor. President. Astronaut”

What you wanted to BE was what you DID. 

Early career, I’d chase promotions and titles and cared about so many small things. 

Post kids, I couldn’t give a sh*t. 

And I don’t mean I want to do sh*t work. 

I still have pride in my work. 

I mean I don’t care whether I get that next promotion or whether I am “changing the world” or working on something cool. 

I don’t have career ambitions. 

I just want to hang out with my kids. 

And I am working to live not living to work. 

But the gap between how much I care about my kids vs my career is widening. 

So much so that I now have an aversion to the idea of going back to a job. 

Like actually disgusted. 

Lol my friends have described this as me just having a “mid life crisis” but I think it’s something deeper.

It’s an existential one. 

One where everything I had been working for 15 years towards now carries zero meaning and significance in my current view of life.

Former Head of Marketing Science at Uber where I optimized $1Bn+ in spend across Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle → ✏️ & 🎙️ on Growth and Marketing in Consumer Tech

No alternative text description for this image

I’ve been using A.I. for over 30 years.

I use it for literally everything:

- Writing this post 
- Finding new recipes
- SQL when I was an FTE
- Speeches when I present 

The list goes on and on. 

But the weird thing is every time I tell someone I’ve been using A.I. that long they question me. 

They call me a liar.

That I’m just saying it for the likes. 

It hurts. 

But I can’t do anything to change. 

I was born with Average Intelligence. 

I was born with A.I. 

It’s who I am. 

Note: this post was written with A.I.

Former Head of Brand Science at Uber | Optimized $1Bn+ of Marketing | Author and host of experiMENTAL ✏️ & 🎙️ on Marketing Strategy and Science

CEO: Simple question.Should we do brand marketing?

CMO: Simple answer. Will you give me 6 months without pulling the plug?

CEO: That's a long time.

CMO: That's likely how long it takes to see brand impact compound. If you'll panic before then I'm not going to even bother. 

CEO: What happens at month 6?

CMO: Your performance CAC will do one of two things:
1. We either keep the same volume and lower CAC 
OR
2. We keep the same CAC and do higher volume. 

Depends on what our strategy and goals are.

CEO: How do we know it's working before? 

CMO: Proxy metrics, share of search starting to go up, increased "direct" traffic.

CEO: Those sound fluffy...

CMO: This is exactly why I asked for 6 months of you backing off, but here's another question for you that might change your mind. 

Are you happy with the current performance?

CEO: HECK NO! 1. We're burning profit 2. Our CACs are skyrocketing 3. The quality of users is really going down. 

CMO: And why do you think that is?

CEO: Idk.

CMO: I do. We ran out of people that know about our product after we picked all the low hanging fruit. 

CEO: Ugh that sounds right. We've been in market for a few years.

CMO: Exactly, but our product is awesome and we love it and we need more people to know about it.

CEO: Hmmm that makes sense to me.

CMO: Here's the best part... our competitors aren't doing this which means we can get a head start and start building a moat that both improves our growth AND slows theres down.

CEO: Ohhhhhh siiiiiick! Okay, you're right! Let's f*cking go! 

CMO: Heck yes... just remember...6 months. 

--
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CMO: We need to invest in marketing data science. 

CEO: Why now? What changed?

CMO: We did. At Series A, we had 1 channel and 1 market. Now we have 3 channels across 10 countries.

CEO: So just add more rows to the dashboard.

CMO: Not good enough. The measurement approach that got us here breaks at our current scale.

CEO: What do you mean breaks?

CMO: At Series A, I could eyeball attribution and make calls. Now, channels are cannibalizing each other, and I can't tell which ones are actually driving incremental growth.

CEO: Give me an example.

CMO: We're spending in paid social and paid search. Both show great ROAS. But when we scale one up, the other's conversions drop. They're fighting over the same customers.

CEO: So what do we need?

CMO: Incrementality testing. Holdouts. Geo experiments. The stuff that actually measures causation, not just correlation. But, I can't do it myself because I don't know how to. We need to bring in data science.

CEO: That sounds expensive.

CMO: Way cheaper than wasting budget on channels that aren't working. At our scale, a 10% measurement error is a seven-figure mistake.

CEO: Why didn't we need this before?

CMO: At Series A, our biggest risk was moving too slow. At Series C, it's moving confidently in the wrong direction.

CEO: How do justify upgrading our measurement?

CMO: The cost of being wrong is bigger than the cost of certainty. We're past that point.

CEO: Alright. What do you need from me?

CMO: Budget for proper testing infrastructure including data engineering and patience for answers that take weeks not hours.

CEO: Done. Now why are you texting me at 2AM?
 
CMO: Because wasted marketing spend never rests. 

--
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CEO: I need 30% more keeping CAC flat by Q3. 

CMO: Sorry, that would break physics. 

CEO: What do you mean?

CMO: Between high volume, fast speed, and low cost, you can only pick two. 

CEO: Explain more.

CMO: Sure thing. If we want:

High volume + fast speed → High cost

The only way to pump up volume quickly is inject more spend but it'll be inefficient and so cost will spike.

High volume + low cost → Slow speed

To get high volume at low costs we'll need to do everything from better campaign structures, experimentation, data pipelines, and even upper funnel campaigns. That'll take time.

Fast speed + low cost → Low volume

If we need to get to lower costs quickly, the easiest way to do that is to cut spend which means low volume. 

CEO: So there's no way to get high volume, fast speed, and low cost?!

CMO: No. My hands are tied. It's literally Marketing physics. Anyone, including your other CEO friends, that says they can do this is lying or hiding something. 

CEO: Crap. Are there other laws of Marketing physics?

CMO: Yes. At least four more. You should read this article by Sundar. He writes about Marketing Strategy and Science from his time at Uber.

CEO: Sounds great. Send it over.

CMO: Here you go → https://lnkd.in/gG3UkXnm

Jr Marketer: Hey, I'd love to become more data driven 
Manager: *slacks 10 articles below*
Jr Marketer: *1 day later...* Whoa. 🤯. IQ +1000

--

1. Everyone tells Marketers to be more data-driven, but not everyone knows where to start. Here are 10 of the most common analytics terms that's a good starting place.
https://lnkd.in/gZA9-wce

2. We need to get smarter about measuring marketing and here are 5 different tactics we can use to measure what we're doing.
https://lnkd.in/gw3mXHGh

3. MAU is a KPI for us but we've been measuring it all wrong. This is one of my favorites on hwo to properly calculate MAU.
https://lnkd.in/g9MEku7h

4. As we transition to increasing personalization and need smarter segmentation, I really reading how Uber did it with their 600M+ customers.
https://lnkd.in/gHXiYMSg

5. We're coming up in 2026 planning and this one helped me shape how we're going to be doing planning and target setting for our team. 
https://lnkd.in/gmH8VV8T

6. Given we don't always have analytics resources at our disposal this one is great for when we need to run a pre / post analysis ourselves. It's not about perfection but just slightly smarter decisions.
https://lnkd.in/gbbw4yz7

7. We know how important LTV is to everything we're doing but turns out we had been doing it all wrong. I took this article to our Finance team and we've rebuilt it.
https://lnkd.in/gxUqcxcw

8. This one is just WHOA! This article is why we've added a measurement strategy to our campaign briefs and why our data science team loves working with us again.
https://lnkd.in/gPrr-tAF

9. This is a complement to the LTV article above but it's how we're defining CAC moving forward. It helped me align with Finance and why we're now BFFS.
https://lnkd.in/gmvsqxvF

10. This is just a fun article on how Duolingo turned around slow growth and grew 900% by being more data driven
https://lnkd.in/gWDnDj9X

Former Head of Brand Science at Uber | Author and host of experiMENTAL ✏️ & 🎙️ on Growth and Marketing in Consumer Tech

CFO: Our attribution model is amazing!

New CMO: Nice! I won’t be using it much. 

CFO: What? This cost us a ton of $$

CMO: It tells us what happened, not what we caused.

CFO: What’s the difference?

CMO: Attribution says Facebook drove 1,000 conversions last month. It doesn’t tell us how many of those 1,000 would’ve converted anyway without Facebook.

CFO: Wait. You’re saying the model is wrong?

CMO: I’m saying it’s precise and useless. It gives us confidence in the wrong answer.

CFO: How is that possible?

CMO: Because customers see ads everywhere. Attribution gives credit. Incrementality measures impact. Facebook might get last-click credit, but the customer already decided to buy after seeing our TV spot.

CFO: So we’ve been optimizing for the wrong thing?

CMO: We’ve been optimizing for who gets credit, not who deserves it.

CFO: Then what should we be using?

CMO: Holdout tests. Geo experiments. Incrementality studies. They’re messier, take longer, but actually tell us what’s working.

CFO: Why didn’t we start with that?

CMO: I don’t know but I just got here. Most of the time we confuse precision for confidence.

CFO: I’d rather be roughly right than precisely wrong.

CMO: That’s the mindset shift. We’re gonna fix this! 
–
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Who reads my newsletter on Marketing in Consumer tech? 

Marketers in consumer tech. 
Also data scientist.
And founders. 

When I set out to write this newsletter, the biggest doubt I had (which is most people’s fear) is that no one would read it.

I’d just be writing into a void and while it gave me joy, it wouldn’t be a business. 

Almost 50 articles later and a year into it, I know that’s no longer true. 

50+ articles. 
2,800 readers.
60% open rate. 

And most importantly?! 

The audience I’m writing for is who reads it.

Marketing leaders across the funnel from Brand to lifecycle at companies like Uber, DoorDash, Apple, AirBNB, Spotify, Google and so many more. 

It’s just motivating to be able to take a step back and see the daily efforts translate to something. 

Anyway, Im excited and think my best work is yet to come. 

Thank you to everyone that supports me! 

Onwards and upwards.

CMO: We need to A/B test this launch!

Me: We can't. But here's what we can do...

Propensity matching.

CMO: Wait, why can't we A/B test?

Me: I don't think we want to hide the launch of our loyalty program from 50% of our users. 

CMO: Fair point. But, I'm being asked to show the ROI of the loyalty program. Will we be able to do that?

Me: Yes! We can use propensity matching.

CMO: Say more fam.

Me: So in a normal A/B test, we randomize users before and then measure the difference. 

Propensity matching is the opposite.

We start by looking at the users we want to analyze, which in this case is everyone who signed up for the loyalty program.

Then we look at everyone who USED to behave the same but didn't sign up for the loyalty program.

Then we measure the difference in their behaviors. 

Here's an example:
User 1 starts as an X then becomes a O.
User 2 starts as an X and stays as an X. 
We measure the difference between O and X. 

X → O (Treatment)
X → X (Control)

CMO: Woah! Basically it's a way for us to compare more apples to apples without an A/B test.

Me: Yes, exactly. 

CMO: This is awesome. Thanks for saving my a*s

Me: No problem. If you want to read more check out this article I sent to 2,800+ Marketers → https://lnkd.in/gcHsSpqy

CMO: Damn, we are not data driven at all.

CEO: What do you mean?! I've tried to be since day 1!

CMO: Because no one changes their mind based on the data.

CEO: I don't understand. We hired data scientists. We have dashboards everywhere. How are we not data-driven?

CMO: Again, because no one changes their mind based on the data.

CEO: That's not true. We look at reports every week.

CMO: Looking at data isn't the same as being driven by it.

CEO: What's the difference?

CMO: Last month, we tested two pricing models. The data showed Model B was 8% better. We still went with Model A.

CEO: We had strategic reasons for that.

CMO: Exactly. That's being opinion-driven with data decoration. Nothing wrong with it, but let's not pretend it's something else.

CEO: So what does data-driven actually look like?

CMO: It means you make the uncomfortable decision when data contradicts your intuition. Most companies can't stomach that.

CEO: Give me another example.

CMO: Our best performing acquisition channel according to dashboards? I wanted to cut it. You pushed back because "it's always worked." That's not data-driven.

CEO: But you didn't have proof it wasn't working.

CMO: Our team had a solid analysis that suggested it was plus experience. We wanted to run an incrementality test proving it out. You wanted more proof. That's the problem. Data-driven companies trust the data AND run tests to confirm hypotheses. You just wanted a narrative that felt right.

CEO: This is uncomfortable to hear.

CMO: I know. It’s not easy for me to says That's how we know we're getting somewhere. We say we want data-driven culture but actually want data-supported decisions.

CEO: What's it take to actually become data-driven?

CMO: Start saying "the data changed my mind" more than "the data confirms what I thought." Been reading Sundar's posts on this. He calls out the theater constantly.

CEO: This Sundar guy is on to something. Send me his LI profile.

CMO: Sent below 
--
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New CMO: Why do we separate brand and performance?

CEO: Because they’re different things.

CMO: How so?

CEO: Brand is long-term and hard to measure. Performance is short-term and drives revenue. We split the budget 30/70 to keep it clean.

CMO: That’s the problem. You’re acting like they work in isolation.

CEO: They don’t?

CMO: Our performance channels work better when brand awareness is high. And brand campaigns drive some immediate conversions. They’re not separate games.

CEO: So how should we think about them?

CMO: Stop asking “is this brand or performance?” Start asking “what’s the full impact of this investment?”

CEO: That sounds complicated.

CMO: It is. But pretending they’re separate is why companies think brand doesn’t work.

CEO: Explain.

CMO: We run a brand campaign. Performance metrics don’t move much immediately. You call it a failure. But we didn’t measure if it lowered our CAC or improved conversion rates on paid channels.

CEO: How would we measure that?

CMO: Geo holdouts. Test brand in some markets and not others. Then measure the impact on all channels, not just brand-attributed conversions.

CEO: Why doesn’t every company do this?

CMO: Because it’s easier to keep them in silos. Brand team reports on awareness. Performance team reports on ROAS. No one connects the dots.

CEO: We’ve been doing exactly that.

CMO: I know. Time to change it up. 
–
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experiMENTAL Newsletter & Podcast  has 500 downloads! 

If you’re a consumer tech marketer looking to learn what works class teams are doing, I biasedly think this is the best place to start.

I cover everything from brand building to deep data science with leaders from Uber , Spotify , Anthropic , Wayfair , and so many more amazing companies! 

I’m now up to 10 episodes out too so you don’t need to just listen to one episode and then get sad you can’t keep bingeing. 

Start listening now: https://lnkd.in/gFGjqJ3e

Or watch : https://lnkd.in/g8VPT8MD

Here are 4 stories from my time leading Uber's Brand Data Science team that will change your mind about the impact of Brand Marketing:

All of these stories are empirical with data backed causal studies and not theoretical. 

1. DoorDash kicks our b*tt
In 2018, UberEATS and DoorDash were neck in neck in the US. 

Now? It has 66% marketshare.

The most readily obvious reasons are selection and focusing on suburbs. These are definitely primary reasons but they also outspent us on Brand Marketing early. 

They were on TV and OOH faster and bigger which is exactly where suburban audiences consume and it made them the entrenched preference.

The UberEATS team is world class but once that brand moat sets in it becomes a tough uphill battle. 

2. Needing to be always on

We ran a brand campaign in the UK where we were testing a new concept for Uber as a whole.

During the campaign, awareness went up massively. 

Think XX%. Signups did too across Rides and Eats.

But we then had to pause the campaign and within a month that awareness came plummeting back to the pre campaign base line. 

And signups? You guessed it. 📉

We then advocated for always on budget. 

3. Know where your audience is

In India, we were launching a new campaign around women's safety in Uber Auto.

The classic perf marketing channels work but not as well as other channels especially in dense cities in India and we wanted the message to be more public.

So OOH and TV were where we invested and we saw Auto trips go up by 6% within a short period. 

4. In Australia, we went all in with a campaign called "Tonight I'll be Eating" for UberEATS that featured Kim Kardashian and a well known Australian comedian. 

The campaign took off! 

We were hitting record bests and the impact was immediate cementing our place as the #1 app in Australia.

I've got a dozen more stories, but the point is as someone who was lucky enough to causally measure these campaigns, I got to see the impact of Brand at a scale that no other marketing type can touch. 

Brand campaigns have massive impact.

You just need to figure out how.
--
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Sebastian Hewing 🚀 is my next guest on experiMENTAL Newsletter & Podcast! 

He's a data and AI advisor to VC and PE-backed startups after working at some of the fastest growing startups ever with Rocket Internet SE.

On today's episode we chat about: 
• how to build data setups that empower, not babysit, your stakeholders
• a three-step framework that’s helped 40+ companies
• best traits of high-leverage your first analytics hire
• why solution-first thinking fails data teams

My favorite quotes from our conversation:

"I always implement a role that I call the super user, which
is a role that that I think is lacking in a lot of data setups and causes all kinds of problems."

"I think it's a very poetic point. The data advisor is not coming in for the data analyst they're coming for to help out another function."

"I think there's the pre AI problems and then there's the pre AI challenges and then there's the additional challenges that come with everything that's happening around AI."

Sebastian is by far one of the best data leaders I've had the pleasure of chatting with and if you're either a data leader looking to uplevel or a stakeholder looking to learn how to best implement data practices, this one's for you.

Tune in wherever you love listening to podcasts:
Listen: https://lnkd.in/ebSGnypU
Watch: https://lnkd.in/gPacUgjP
Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/gPacUgjP

CEO: Revenue is up but margins are down?!

New CMO: Yup, we’re just renting growth.

CEO: Explain. 

CMO: There’s a difference between earning growth and renting it.

When you started, CAC was $50 and customers had strong word-of-mouth. We were earning growth. Now CAC is $120 and referrals are flat. We’re renting it and paying the paid tax. 

CEO: So we’re spending more to acquire customers?

CMO: Worse. We’re spending more to acquire lower-quality customers. The easy audience is tapped out.

CEO: How do you know they’re lower quality?

CMO: Day 30 retention dropped from 60% to 45%. LTV is down 25%. We’re hitting diminishing returns on paid channels.

CEO: What happens if we keep scaling spend?

CMO: Revenue goes up. Profitability goes down. Eventually, we’re growing unprofitably, and the board pulls the plug.

CEO: So we stop spending?

CMO: No. We need to slow down marketing. We fix the unit economics first. Better onboarding, improved retention, stronger referral mechanics. We also need to invest in Brand Marketinf after. Then we scale again. 

CEO: Why can’t we do both at the same time?

CMO: Because resources, priorities, and bad growth masks the problem. If revenue is climbing, no one feels urgency to fix retention. Then one day, the channels stop working and we realize we built on sand.

CEO: How do we know when we’ve hit this wall?

CMO: When CAC is rising faster than LTV. When our payback period gets too long. That’s the signal.
–
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Measuring marketing is NOT about the latest and greatest tools.

A successful strategy has 4 components: 

1. Goals
2. People
3. Culture
4. Channels

Goals 
⮑ What is the business trying to accomplish? 
⮑ How does Marketing fit in?

People
⮑ What skillsets do you have?
⮑ What's the hiring roadmap look like? 

Culture
⮑ Are you willing to experiment?
⮑ Does leadership understand the risks?

Channels
⮑ What are the main channels used?
⮑ Are we launching new ones?

If you find yourself struggling to prove the ROI of Marketing, take a step back and figure out which of these 4 places is lacking. 

The most successful Marketing Science teams start at the top. 

The tools are never the answer. 

What’s the number one thing you focus on to implement an effective measurement strategy? 

--
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This visual perfectly captures what building experiMENTAL Newsletter & Podcast has felt like.

After my short stint as an FTE this year, I was super stoked to go full steam ahead on my newsletter and podcast about Marketing in Consumer Tech. 

It let me chase the joy of sharing everything I've learned in my career while having the ultimate flexibility to hang out with my kids and wife.

But then you run your family's financial model.

And reality sets in that your passion has to be a business.

Writing an article goes from shipping for fun to shipping and tracking if people opened, read, and converted. I'm microanalyzing every survey response or piece of feedback. 

It sucks the fun out of writing and I couldn't put my finger on why until I saw this chart from Peter Walker.

Simply, the largest change in happiness happens after "Initial Enthusiasm" when it becomes "Reality sets in". 

It has by far the steepest slope (1st derivative for you math nerds). 

And that's where I'm at.

It's scary. 

And the only thing that gets me through? 

Unwavering faith in my work. 

Faking it til I'm making it. 

Experimenting. Pivoting. Grinding.

And now I get why founders have this insane ability to force visions and missions because that's what's required.

Not only do I want to believe I produce the best content on Marketing Strategy & Science in Consumer Tech, but I have to. 

I have to believe my sh*t is worth reading.

I have to believe it's worth buying.

I have to believe it's worth it.

Because then everyone else will too.

Love, 
Sundar

Dear post reader, 

Happy Thanksgiving from 0-3 weeks ago! 

I can not control when this surfaces, but I hope you have fully recovered from the binge eating, career sh*t talking, and your football team’s loss. 

I also hope that you were able to celebrate with everyone you were thankful for and that you recognize the good things going on in your life even if it’s surrounded by some other bad. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍽 🦃 🥘 🌽 

Sincerely,
Sundar

My next podcast guest is Mattia Santin, Senior VP of Marketing at Contentsquare (ex Hotjar, Uber)! 

On today's episode we chat about: 
• the career leaps that shaped his approach 
• what happens when CMOs get their hands dirty 
• why too many marketing teams mistake motion for progress 

and much more.

My favorite quotes from our conversation:

"The first thing I do is spend as much time as possible talking to people"

"You have to go down, into the trenches also in the numbers and understanding, making your own assessment of what, what you're seeing"

"Everybody was pushing me to spend more. It, it didn't feel right, in part because I never had that experience, in part because I didn't feel comfortable in our measurement and our ability to understand truly ROI."

Mattia is a brilliant strategist AND executor knowing how to drop in and build impactful Marketing teams. If you’re looking to get a leg up on how to navigate strategy, scale, or structure inside a fast-growing company, this one’s for you.

Tune in wherever you love listening to podcasts:
Listen: https://lnkd.in/gFGjqJ3e
Watch: https://lnkd.in/gueY5bYq
Subscribe: https://lnkd.in/gxR5c4Xd

‼️Launching accelerator: babY Combinator

Focused on seed and preseed stage for founders aged 7 and below. 

The new generation is born with AI from day 1 and understand the technology better than anyone.

In addition, when they build products for their peers, that demographic will have the highest LTV with an average of 75-80 years ahead of them. 

The math is undeniable. 

There of course will be some challenges:
- Additional facilities for diapers
- Cofounder tantrums 
- Naps 

But we believe we can over come them and create the next generation of truly generational founders. 

It is never too young to ride the AI wave. 

DM me if you want to be an LP. 

If you’re sold, skip the convo and Venmo me

I wasn’t always seen as a good PM.
Even when I delivered results, I was overlooked.
Underestimated.
Told I wasn’t cut out for the role.

It shook my confidence, quietly but deeply.

But I didn’t let it define me.

Over time, I stopped chasing external validation
and started trusting the way *I* lead best.

Fast forward:

* I managed teams as large as 9 PMs, and managed people managers
* I built products used by hundreds of millions
* I presented alongside Mark Zuckerberg
* I was awarded Additional Equity 3 years in a row and grew my comp from ~$300k to ~$900k in 6 years
* And I retired (FIRE'd) from Big Tech at 40

But I never forgot what it felt like to over-prepare
because deep down, I **still** didn’t think I belonged.

That’s why I now coach L6-L9 leaders who are ready to lead differently.

Not louder. Not flashier.

Just with more trust in themselves.

Because the truth is:

You already know a lot.
You’ve done a lot.
But you’re still not being *seen* as the strategic, grounded leader you are.

I work with leaders who are navigating transitions, interviews, and high-stakes influence, and are ready to:

* Rebuild confidence without chasing perfection
* Communicate with calm, not over-explanation
* Be seen as strategic in rooms that move fast
* Lead with presence, not pressure

**And when that shift happens, things start to move.**

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

* Frozen in interviews → landing roles at Meta, Google, Microsoft, and other top tech companies
* Scared to negotiate for higher offers → getting both Meta and Microsoft to increase their offer from $850K to $1.2M TC
* Stuck at L6 for years → getting put up for promos within a half
* Overlooked in the room → being sponsored by executives

If you’re in that gap, between how much you’ve done and how little it’s landing, you don’t have to keep figuring it out alone.

Check out the Featured section for stories and resources.
Or feel free to connect if something here resonated.

Your next chapter doesn’t have to be louder.
It just has to be truer, to no one else but you.

Nancy Chu

Today we are celebrating a client who landed 2 L6 offers: Google and Coinbase. TC $700K - $850K depending on performance ratings. 

Base: $244K
Bonus: 15%
Sign on: Almost $100K
Remaining amount is equity (initial + performance)
 
When they started working with us, their goal was simple: ace the interviews after getting rejected. And they definitely exceeded that goal.
 
Now we are pivoting from acing interviews to fast-tracking their onboarding and credibility.
 
A lot of people think of landing their dream offer as the finish line.
 
In reality, we all know it’s step 0, especially in this market where layoffs have become "common".
 
Your first 6 months in a new role is the real interview.
 
And you’re competing with other leaders at your same level, many who’ve already been in that environment, who know the culture, the systems, the unspoken rules, and are already moving fast.
 
And that’s why those first 6 months are so crucial.
 
That’s when your leadership communication, stakeholder alignment, and ability to influence across functions are truly evaluated.
 
This client's journey is a reminder that up-leveling doesn't end after the job offer.
 
It comes from building the skills that make you credible, trusted, and impactful, from the moment you step into the role.
 
And that’s precisely what we focus on: Not just helping you land the offer, but supporting you to be the leader who thrives with calm after it.
 
Want more actionable advice on acing L6-L9 interviews, AND to accelerate credibility and impact once you’re in the seat? Click on the link below to visit my YouTube channel!

Empowering L6-L9 leaders to land in top Tech faster, lead with presence, and thrive with calm || Helping enterprises with AI-First Thinking || Barista FIRE’d at 40 || x Meta PM Manager, Roku PM Director

Every year around this time, I notice the same pattern. The leaders who win Q1 aren’t the ones winding down in Q4.

They’re the ones accelerating.

Companies are finalizing 2026 headcount plans, budget approvals, and hiring priorities.

They’re mapping which roles will open in January.

It’s the best time to make bold moves, because the current is already carrying you forward.

When energy moves, things that felt heavy start to loosen.

When you move with it, not against it, progress comes fast.

Every year, my clients and I ride this wave intentionally.

In Q4, you can make more progress, in clarity, confidence, up-leveling in 60 days than you did all year.

Because resistance is lowest.

Decisions get made faster.

Momentum compounds.

The biggest blocker I see is when Leaders set a goal, then spend weeks debating if they can actually do it.

They try to logic their way into belief.

They wait for evidence before they decide.

But the universal law says that the evidence always follows belief, not the other way around.

The $700K - $1M+ offers my clients have landed didn’t happen because they waited for proof.

They happened because they decided.

They come from certainty.

When you choose, “This is happening for me too,” and hold it lightly, with no attachment, no proving, no grasping, everything aligns faster.

That’s how the energetic side of the universe works.

You start attracting opportunities you couldn’t have planned for.

Hiring managers reach out. Opportunities appear. The next chapter unfolds naturally.

I don’t have a program that helps you solve your “doubting” problem.

But I do have one that helps you land the plane once you decide to fly it, the same process that’s helped my clients land $700K–$1.M+ TC offers in 2025.

The latest data point I have is a $1.4M TC offer from Stripe.

If you’re ready to work with this Q4 acceleration energy intentionally, check the links in the comments to join us.

I will also put a link below to my YouTube channel if you want to learn more before you leap.

The season's already moving. The only question is whether you want to move with it.

Are you caught in balancing your day-to-day demands and your next-level goals? It’s that worry that if you invest time in yourself in up-leveling,

- networking, brushing up your interview skills, strategizing your next move

- your performance at work will drop

- and then people might start questioning if you’ve still “got it” at work.

That was how a client felt recently. But they came out on the other side stronger than ever. ❤️ 

Their breakthrough was so impactful, I had to share it with you!

Their responsibilities at work were compounding. 

Meanwhile, they wanted to prepare for interviews and get serious about landing their next role.

They feared their managers would think they were slipping if they dedicated energy to anything outside their current role.

The interesting thing was - it wasn’t true at all!

In fact, their managers were handing them more and more projects, because they saw them as a reliable top performer.

So where was the disconnect?

It was in their own mind!!

They realized they've been telling themself a fake story: 

“Working on my own goals means I’m going to drop the ball at work.” 

But that story didn’t match reality. 

The same discipline, strategic thinking, and resourcefulness they use for job search actually ENHANCED their performance at work. 💡 

Instead of competing, those goals became complementary.

- They were sharper in their presentations, because we've been working on strategic framing and narratives.
 
- They were more decisive in their planning processes, because we've been working on first principles thinking.

- They were more strategic in their daily decisions, because we've been working on deep strategic thinking.

They eventually realized that they had more mental and emotional capacity than they were giving themself credit for. 

They didn't need to split their energy at all.

Each sphere of their life was feeding the other. It was a very positive flywheel effect. ❤️ 

So if you’re feeling torn, ask yourself:

- Are they actually based in fact
- Or are they based on your fears?

Can you see the synergy that exists around you?

🎤 How can the skills and insights you’re sharpening for your future role benefit your current job?

Often, we underestimate our own resilience and creativity.

It’s not always easy to catch yourself in these unhelpful stories, but the payoff can be huge. 

My client stepped away from the false choice of “either excel at work or pursue my own ambitions.”

And stepped into a reality where they can do both.

If their story resonates, ask yourself: 

🎤 What if it’s not a zero-sum game after all? 

Because, honestly, it usually isn’t.

Once you have this breakthrough, watch how much capacity you actually have to excel everywhere that matters to you!

2025 has been an incredible year for my clients! 

Offers have up to $1.4M.

Would you like to make your success story the next one? 🚀

Link in comment.

If you’re getting a lot of “We’ve decided to move forward with another candidate” responses, it might be time to rethink how you’re telling your stories. 

The words you use can make a big difference in interviews.

1 common misconception is that presenting yourself as the perfect leader who delivers a flawless outcome will automatically lead to a yes. 

But if the interviewer doesn’t resonate with the difficulty of what you tackled, they might see it as a "junior" problem. 

That's why I recommend to my clients to spend more time in the problem space (similar to approaching a product sense/strategy interview), and add more color to the complexities you faced:

- the trade-offs
- the messy constraints
- and the decisions they had to make.

Interviewers lean in once they see how you think through real obstacles, rather than hearing a quick success story.

Let's walk through an example.

Version 1:

“I led the data infra platform. Our mission is x, and strategy is y. 

I launched a new analytics dashboard and improved abc by 25%.”

Version 2:

“At first, I thought we could adapt our existing platform for the sales team’s new analytics needs. 

But each region had different data sources, metrics, and privacy rules. 

Marketing also needed immediate insights that clashed with the finance team’s monthly cycles.

Reusing our existing backend wasn’t enough. We had to completely rethink the data flows, define ownership for each metric, and rebuild large parts of the UI.

Meanwhile, I only had x engineers.

So I spent a month aligning with leads to prioritize metrics, and aligning with eng on short sprints to handle real-time reporting."

Notice the difference? 

The 2nd version highlights the complexity of the problem, and the decisions you made. 

The words you use in your narratives shape how hiring managers perceive you. 

Operational language focuses on what you did. 

Strategic language focuses on how you think. 

And at L6-L9, it’s your thinking that sets you apart.

Here’s how to make the shift: 

- highlight more complexities.
- show your thought process in trade-offs.

If the interviewer doesn’t appreciate the challenge, they won’t appreciate the solution.

If you’re not landing offers, it’s not because you’re not qualified, it’s probably because your stories aren’t showing the depth of your experience. 

Usually, it’s just a handful of tweaks that move you from no-hire to multiple offers within weeks.

That’s exactly what we do in our Acing L6-L9 Interviews program, where you won't be memorizing stories that don’t help you sound truly senior.

Every week you wait might be costing you $10K-$20k-$40k when your target TC is $500k-$1M-$2M.

We will polish and up-level your stories, showcase your authentic leadership, and help you ace L6-L9 interviews faster and with less stress.

If you want the right actions from the start and a faster time-to-offer, click on the link in comments, and I’ll be in touch!

Leaders often think about leveling up in better strategic communication and framing. It is certainly teachable, but harder to apply.

It's one thing to know that you need to "ladder up to company goals & strategies"

In reality, that's not enough to help you know HOW.

I am seeing that when I share more examples with my clients, it helps them with the application. So I'd like to start sharing more examples with you too.

Today's story is about how a client (Director of Product) has been developing their strategic voice.

They are a Director of Product at a global company with thousands of employees. 

They are actually already functioning at the same level as their VPs, spearheading product strategy, overseeing multiple teams, and consistently driving results.

Yet somehow, their voice wasn't being fully recognized in executive meetings.

While we prepped for an upcoming meeting with the CEO, they originally intended to walkthrough the features that will soon go live.

But when I dug in, it became clear that what the CEO wanted wasn't the scope of the launch. Instead, he wanted:

- assurance that the product was ready to go live,
- that sales had everything needed to start selling,
- and all the cross-functional handoffs were smooth.

So when my client shifted the presentation to go-to-market narratives, it instantly resonated.

In that moment, they instantly INTERNALIZED how executives tune in most when you speak directly to their priorities.

Soon after, they had regular touchpoints with the CTO.

These meetings used to focus on status updates.

But the real breakthrough came when they began to use that time to actively seek the CTO’s perspective so that they can CALIBRATE their own decision-making.

They didn't have a full grasp of the company culture and what was considered acceptable or unacceptable for directors and VPs.

Once they became more calibrated with how this org operates, they could move much faster with more calibrated decision-making.

Now my clients can position themselves as a strategic collaborator to the C-suite rather than "only" a director.

The real-time coaching we do each week turns every executive conversation, every stakeholder meeting, and every presentation into strategic moves every step of the way.

By immediately applying what they learn about executive presence, strategic messaging, and cultural nuance, my client sees tangible shifts in how leaders respond, and gains confidence with each success.

They’re no longer vying for a seat at the table because now they’re shaping the agenda of these C-suite discussions.

If you’ve ever felt that your expertise and leadership should carry you further than it does, you might simply need to reframe how you communicate.

Real-time, situational coaching can help you do exactly that, ensuring you speak the language that matters most to the people making the decisions.

Then, you’re not just operating at VP level in practice; everyone else sees it too.

I had such a good time with the Microsoft team and fellow speakers Vikash Rungta and Dave Siegfried, thank you Garima Tiwari and Swapna M. for the thoughtful invite. 

We used to think building was the bottleneck. Now it’s thinking that is.

The old way made sense for its time. Ship fast, iterate faster. Get something live, measure, and move on.

The bottleneck was output, so we optimized for speed.

But AI has changed the equation.

Now, building isn’t the bottleneck anymore.

It’s deciding what’s worth building, and how we know when it’s good WHILE the world is changing all the time:

- Models are changing.
- User expectations are changing.
- Investor expectations are changing.

The old playbook when we used to build on flat surfaces can’t keep up with this new changing slope (or maybe quicksand?) 

We no longer want to ship fast that will only lead to rework fast.

Motion is not progress and certainly is not depth. 

The new way starts earlier and goes deeper.

It’s not adding AI, but upgrading the organization’s thinking loops.

We don't know how the world will look, but we certainly know it will change weekly, that's why our thinking needs to include more room to allow for more changes.

It's like when Joey from Friends put on his loose pants because he knows he will be eating a lot for Thanksgiving 🦃  🤣 

Similarly, the the organization needs the equivalent of Joey's loose pants knowing that changes need to be made and more changes will be coming.

Leaders will then create the appropriate structures and conditions for teams to developing better taste as a product skill, through more exposure, more play, more hands-on trials.

AI doesn’t only accelerate work, it can also amplify the quality of your thinking.

And when thinking becomes your bottleneck, self-leadership and org-leadership become the craft.

Amit S. and I are planning to host a free session to keep the conversation going on how enterprises and orgs can evolve from AI-adoption to AI-First Thinking, because your next-level goal isn’t just on building faster, but to be the leader in your space who thinks clearly while everything around them accelerates.

If that sounds like a conversation your org needs, stay tuned, we’ll be opening invites soon.

Product Leader @Microsoft | Focusing on Agentic AI | Speaker| Product Management Coach

🚨 "We used to think building was the bottleneck. But now its thinking what's worth building"
This powerful line from Nancy captured the essence of today's GenAI Frontier panel.

In a world where building agents is easy, but shipping them to production is hard, we brought together three extraordinary minds who are reshaping how we think about product management in the era of Agentic AI:
🧠 Vikash Rungta → Shared a candid look into aligning models with human values and why the future of PM is about managing risk budgets, not just outcomes.
🎬 Dave Siegfried  → Challenged us to rethink trust as a competitive moat and showed how his team built a company around authenticity, consent, and speed.
🌀 Nancy Chu → Offered a human lens on AI product leadership: building taste, psychological safety, and adaptability into teams navigating constant change.

🔥 5 Takeaways That Hit Hard:
1️⃣ Internal agents and AI tools are a goldmine - 70–80% of AI value can be unlocked inside your company. Start by experimenting, dogfooding, and learning before you launch externally.
2️⃣ Guardrails are the new MVP - Don’t just build—bound what your agents can do, and define the risks you are willing to take.
3️⃣ Deep personalization is the moat - Defensibility today comes from: memory, domain knowledge, system integration, and workflow learning not just prompts.
4️⃣ Taste is a product skill - Play. Try. Touch. Experiment. Taste isn’t learned from watching demos it’s developed hands-on.
5️⃣ Build for the slope, not the flat - Everything is changing. Your teams need slack to adapt and psychological safety to explore and evolve.

Thank you to our amazing speakers Vikash, Nancy and Dave for your energy and insights. Grateful for my co-host Swapna, our MSD PM community, and to our sponsors Sean, Matt, Jason for helping make these sessions happen. 🙌

💬 DM me if you are exploring agentic AI, redefining PM in your domain, or just navigating this transformation firsthand. Let’s make this a recurring knowledge exchange because better thinking builds better products.

#AgenticAI #ProductManagement #AIProductDesign #MicrosoftLife #GenAI #TechLeadership #AIFirstPM #Innovation

I used to walk into every meeting feeling like I had something to prove.

Every comment felt like a test.
Every decision felt high stakes.
I was measuring myself against everything I wasn’t yet.

Experience.
Track record.
Credibility.

I was so focused on the gaps that I completely missed the foundation I already had.

Things shifted when I started practicing something I once dismissed as too soft: gratitude.

Not performative gratitude.
Not “be happy with what you have” gratitude.
But a deeper kind that helps you recognize what is already true and already working.

And it changed how I showed up.

My thinking became clearer.
My decisions became cleaner.
I stopped gripping so tightly.

Eventually, the opportunities that once felt out of reach started showing up with more ease.

There is neuroscience behind this that is not woo at all. Gratitude activates the parts of your brain responsible for motivation, emotional regulation, and complex problem-solving. These are the exact muscles you need when you are making high-stakes product calls or interviewing for L6 to L9 roles.

Gratitude does not make you complacent.
It gives you a stronger platform to build from.

Gratitude and ambition are not opposites.
They work together.

Early in my career, I thought being grateful meant lowering the bar. Now I see the opposite is true.

The most ambitious leaders I work with practice gratitude intentionally.
They acknowledge their growth.
They recognize their teams.
They see what is already strong before they decide what to strengthen next.

That shift from “I am not ready yet” to “I already have something real to stand on” changes everything.

How you interview.
How you negotiate.
How you lead.

If you want to practice this daily, here are three simple ways:
	
1.	Notice specific contributions. Name the exact insight, decision, or action that moved something forward.
	
2.	Reframe challenges as teachers. Clients who do this show up with more resilience and steadier leadership energy.
	
3.	Track your daily wins, even tiny ones. This gently rewires your mind to orient toward strength instead of scarcity.

The bottom line is that gratitude is an operating system.

When it shifts, everything built on top of it shifts too.

Last time I wrote about the potential to make more progress in Q4, in clarity, confidence, and up-leveling in 60 days than you did all year https://lnkd.in/gidREb44 

I also shared that the latest TC offer from one of our clients is $1.4M from Stripe for an Engineering Management role.

Most people assume big offers are won at the end.

They actually aren’t.

They’re won in the moments where the leader learns how to hold their value without collapsing into over-explaining, softening, or pre-solving for the other side.

This client wasn’t struggling with their worth.

They knew the level they were operating at.

They didn’t know at first how to communicate from that level under pressure - cleanly, calmly, without diluting themselves to make their number feel “reasonable.”

They were doing what many high-achieving leaders do:

Trying to anticipate the company’s constraints instead of stating their own.

Filling silence.

Explaining too much.

Trying to make their ask easier for the other side to digest.

Which is understandable.

Negotiation at this level isn’t 100% logical, it’s actually more emotional.

So our work started there.

Not just with tactics.

But with helping them sit in the pocket of their value long enough for their communication to match the leader they already were.

Once that shifted, they stopped preparing from “Will they think this is too high?” and started preparing from a more grounded state:

“This is the level I operate at. Let me speak from that place.”

That 1 internal shift changed the tone of the negotiation.

From there, the strategy was simple:

Pause before responding so the room leans in.

Give them the problem, not the solution.

Anchor high without wobble.

Use psychology to increase winnability.

Stay warm.

Stay human.

And because their energy had shifted, the room shifted with them.

The offer increased.

Leadership leaned in.

That’s how they landed their $1.4M package, from ~$920K.

Not because they said the perfect line.

But because they learned how to communicate as someone whose value wasn’t in question.

This is the part people underestimate.

Negotiation is a thinking skill, a psychological skill, and a nervous-system skill, long before it becomes a tactical one.

It’s the reason my clients land $700K–$1M+ offers with clarity and calm.

And if you’re ready to work with this same steadiness, the kind that changes how companies respond to you, DM me.

If you’re newer to my world, my YouTube channel is the best place to begin. Will link in comments.

External numbers always move last.

Your internal state moves first.

taplio

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Nancy Chu

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