No Batteries Included - Shreyas Doshi's blog

Job Search Tip: how to find start-ups that are hiring

Many people I know are looking for a job these days and most of them are considering start-ups in their job hunt. The trouble is that it is not obvious where to find interesting start-ups that are hiring. So heres a tip - I end up sharing this tip pretty regularly in conversations with friends, so I figured I'd also blog about it:

- Go to CrunchBase - the tech company database owned by the guys at TechCrunch

- Look for the recently-funded section (link). This shows which companies have recently gone through a successful funding round, in reverse chronological order. They update the list approx once a month

- Work your way down the start-ups in this list, check out their Careers page for openings

Why does this work? 

The obvious reason is that a company that has recently obtained funding is highly likely to open new positions - one of the major reasons (and sometimes, the only reason) for a new funding round is to hire more people.

Moreover (and this is the best part), if you find a start-up you like, but it is not hiring for the position you're looking for, I suggest you apply anyway by sending email to their jobs@ list. If you really really really like the start-up, find the company's execs on LinkedIn People Search (or try their Company Search for a list of employees) and send one of them a direct message on LinkedIn. Be clear in your note that "I know you are not looking for a business development guy right now, but I am very interested in your company/product and would love to stay in touch or have a quick chat. My resume is attached." 

Why do this? 

Because, unlike large companies where recruiters are only hiring for specific positions, a start-up has the advantage of being flexible. Few things excite a CEO/VP of a start-up more than a resume from an amazing candidate - especially when things are looking upbeat (which they usually are after a new round of funding). If the CEO/VP does anticipate a need for your skill-set in the near future, it is possible that s/he will at least write back to you, even if its a "sorry, we're not looking right now, but i like what you did at XYZ Inc. do stay in touch". That is a pretty good outcome, considering that the company isn't currently hiring for the positions you're applying . 

This is from my own experience during my job search in early 2008. I hope you find this useful.

A little bit about work

Since I joined Google, many folks have asked me what product I work on. If you are one of those folks, you probably got a vague reply from me. Also, thanks to that reply, I am probably not getting invited to the next party at your house. 

So I am quite glad that we recently announced the product that I am working on (the New AdWords Interface), along with a wonderful team of PMs, engineers, designers, and several other Googlers. 

Of all the things that I find exciting about building products, the most exciting has to be when you take the product to a very large number of users and get their reaction - hence, these are exciting times..

Make Opposition Matter

Conflict magnifies and illuminates who you are. It seizes and startles you into seeing what makes you uncomfortable. It pushes your boundaries -- intellectual, emotional, and physical. Conflict, if treated properly, offers the chance to change your mind altogether.

When faced with conflict, explore the possibility that opposing forces can both be true simultaneously. Taking this perspective immediately dissolves animosity and piques curiosity. You find yourself wondering, "Whats their truth? Where is the value on their side?" When you finally give up the belief that yours is the only truth, it changes the game forever. Now you're in a position to see what new truth you can create together.

I recently came across these lines in the book Change the Way You See Everything through Asset-based Thinking (page 73 - Make Opposition Matter). These lines strongly resonated with me because they describe the attitude that I have consistently seen in the most effective product managers. When faced with conflict, these product managers:

• don't squelch their curiosity. they do try their best to understand what the other person is saying and why
• don't feel the compulsion to be right. they do feel the compulsion to do whats right, based on their new insights
• don't view the process as adversarial. they do view it as an opportunity to make their product better than they had imagined by themselves

Managing conflict is an integral part of a product manager's job description. So the next time you are facing conflict, do what effective product managers do - your users will thank you for it.

Who needs online password managers or OpenID when we have this?

Picked up this 'ultimate web solution' at the Container Store today. $8.45 solves all your password woes. I will never forget another password again.

More seriously though, from having seen numerous people use login, registration, and forgotten password flows in usability sessions, I can see how many people will actually use this. 

Now, the only remaning challenge is to remember where you have kept this diary. 

They have cologne for babies???

Found this during my recent trip to Babies R Us.

Unbelievable. Apparently others are befuddled too.

Why am I seeing this ad on Facebook?

Is it because of my mad poker skillz? ;-)

Facebook down? Hmm... This is not supposed to happen

Recent experience at the Nike store

I recently walked into the Nike store at the Great Mall in Milpitas to return a pair of shoes. What I saw next was brilliant because it was so simple and obvious once I saw it. Along with my return receipt, I was handed a coupon for 20% off one item - valid for 2 hours only. And since I was at the Nike factory outlet store (theoretically with already lower prices on many items), I felt a compelling urge to browse through the store to use this coupon. Not only that, I felt "special" because this coupon was just for me - the other shoppers walking in through the doors (without a return item) could not avail this generous discount.

The brilliant thing about this is that the folks at Nike used a simple incentive to convert me - someone who only wanted to return an item that day - to an actual buyer. This is the first time I have seen such an incentive, though I wouldn't be surprised if it has been tried elsewhere. Anyway, the point is that most people would probably end up at least browsing the store to find something worthwhile to buy with the coupon. And many of those would probably end up buying something (I bought 3 items - the discount was for one item only). Regardless of whether Nike ends up overall net positive with this incentive, and whether they continue running it or not, this is a great example of doing something different with an annoying experience (i.e. returning goods), which is pretty much the same EVERYWHERE.

There is some inspiration in here for product managers - especially those working on web products - after all, can you think of experiences that are pretty much the same (i.e. universally bad) everywhere on the web? How about account creation or SMS code verification as examples? But there is hope. Tatango provides something different and better to the tired experience of creating an account. Twitter generates a code that employs only the first letters of each triple-tap key on a normal mobile phone (i.e. 'a' from 'abc', 'd' from 'def', etc.) - so that, wait for this... you only have to tap once for each letter in the verification code!

What are you doing with your product thats equally brilliant?

How parenthood changes you

Becoming a parent changes everything. Much more than getting married, moving to a new country, getting a new job, going to college and many other things that happen to us over our lifetimes. My friends who are not parents (pretty much all of them) often ask me what its like being a parent. In one sentence, it is life-changing. No matter how much you've told yourself that things won't change, they will. After all, you have to know that your life has changed when you:

1. Hate Velcro products with a passion
2. You can drive to the nearest Babies R Us in your sleep - and you often do
3. Finish all your meals in 1/4th the time
4. Realize at the end of the day that you washed your hands 40 times that day
5. Find yourself offering Purelle to everyone who comes within 2 feet of the baby
6. Notice for the first time how bumpy your neighborhood  sidewalks are
7. First thing out of your mouth when you meet other new parents is "does yours sleep through the night?"
8. Take 1000 pics of your baby but don't find the time to ever filter them or post them online
9. Crave for some "alone-time" with your spouse, but when you do get it, you talk about what the baby must be up to - THE ENTIRE TIME!
10. Your back hurts. A lot
11. You finally understand why your friends used to say that, after having children, they had not watched a single movie in one sitting
12. In spite of all this, you discover that nothing could bring you more joy than that first faint hint of a smile from your little one

Shubh Doshi at 2 months

This was also posted on mom's new blog - check it out.

On leaving Yahoo! and my next gig

If you have been following me on twitter, you probably know that I am no longer at Yahoo!. My last day at Yahoo! was Friday, June 13 2008. Since then, I have found ample reasons to procrastinate on writing this post. As my temporary break from The W2 Life ends very soon, I can procrastinate no more. So, for those of you who don't already know, I am excited about joining Google next week (more about it in a future blog post).

I was at Yahoo! for a little under 2 years and I can say without any hesitation that I have never had as much fun at any job as I did as a purple-loving Yahoo. I was lucky to have led some high-impact platform product initiatives and to have worked with an amazing group of people both within and outside of Yahoo!. Yahoo! is a great company, with compelling products that touch the everyday lives of an astounding number of people. There are only a handful of companies in the world where one can improve the web by positively impacting 100s of millions of users (which, btw, is a really fun product management challenge) and Yahoo! is clearly one of them.

It was a hard decision to leave Yahoo!, but after carefully thinking through my medium- and long-term career goals, it became apparent earlier this year that this was the correct next step for me. The initiatives I started at Yahoo! are in very good hands and the time is right to start a brand new adventure!