Career lessons from Tony Fadell, Co-inventor of iPod, iPhone & Nest
In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people. What you build and who you build it with.
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“In the end, there are two things that matter: products and people.
What you build and who you build it with.” -Tony Fadell
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Tony Fadell is an impressive guy1. He was a key player behind iPod, iPhone, and Nest. That is some resume. He wrote a book - “Build - an unorthodox guide to making things worth making”. Below are some takeaways.
Career is a journey
When you are starting off your career, the correct question to ask is “What do I want to learn?”
Fadell was in 5th grade when he fell in love with programming and a year later bought his 8-bit Apple computer. He went on to start 3 tech startups before he graduated. He helped build hardware devices at Philips before finally ending up at Apple to build iPod.
Find your areas of interest and people that are passionate about those areas. And build your career!
Develop professional friendships(or professional network)
Building product worth building with people you enjoy working with is a dream career.
iPod may have never gotten built if an Apple employee had not had lunch with his professional friends. Fadell talks about how he had lunch with an Apple employee where he talked about his efforts to build a music device. The same Apple employee then went on to have lunch with another Apple colleague who was actively looking for someone to help build the iPod. Fadell got the call from Apple, the next day.
Fadell’s cofounder at Nest was Matt who started as an intern in the iPod team.
Building your professional friendships multiplies your luck!
The team that you work with and the manager you work for will have an outsized impact on your career.
Fadell presents Harry Stebbings as an example of successfully building a network. He started the “The Twenty Minute VC” podcast and became the youngest VC at the age of 20. Below is an audio excerpt from the book where Fadell talks about Stebbings. Narrated by Ethan and Tony2
Work in a small company and a big company
Get a breadth of experience from companies of varying sizes - small and big.
Small companies with 30-60 employees will have the entire company working together to make one precious idea a reality.
Working at a big company exposes you to the different specializations involved including sales, marketing, product, operations, legal, customer support, etc - which come in handy when you end up leading bigger projects and teams.
Look up and Look around
Focus 80% of your time and effort to deliver your projects. Spent the other 20% understanding the big picture, and how different teams contribute to the project's success.
Fadell talks about his experience at General Magic3 where as an engineer he found it very valuable to hear from a Marketing manager.
Choose to be a great manager
Being a good manager is a practice that you can get better at.
Accept that once you become a manager, you will stop doing the things that made you successful in the first place.
Hold your team to high standards.
Be honest with your team and share uncomfortable hard truths
Let the team outshine you
Dealing with a bad boss
Fadell suggests the following 4 phases when dealing with a bad boss. And none of them is a good one4.
Kill’em with kindness - Give them the benefit of the doubt, and go the extra mile to bring them onboard.
Ignore them - In this phase, you realize that there is nothing you can do to work well with them. So, you focus on building your product and ignoring the bad boss.
Try to get around them - You will still need your boss’s blessings for a lot of things. Get those things by working around them.
Quit - If nothing works outs, quit. Another victim to the bad boss5.
Don't be afraid to fail
Fadell made 80 pitches to raise money for his company - Fuse. It is then that he had that lunch with the Apple employee that led him to the iPod team at Apple.
How would you feel if you get rejected 80 times?
After 80 rejections, can you talk passionately about your project for the 81st time?
Fadell talks about his 30-year career as 10 years of failures followed by 20 years of success.
Building a great product
Solve for your customer
Your product needs to solve a real customer pain point. And while you build your product, pay attention to the customer experience.
Fadell talks about how while building the Nest thermostat, he thought of the customer journey as follows
10% on the website, packaging, and in-store display
10% on installation
10% on the hardware design
70% on the users' phones and laptops while using the app to set the temperature and routines
Because of his focus on the customer experience, he decided to add a screwdriver to the Nest package. The screwdriver reduced the installation time by half. And served as a continuous source of customer delight.
Be a Storyteller
Tell your team Why you are building your product. This ‘Why’ will help with your marketing messaging, sales script, website landing page, and even product packaging.
Iterate
When building your product, it takes 3 phases before it can be deemed sustainable.
Version 1 validates the market demand for the product. Answers the question if there are customers willing to pay for the product.
Version 2 validates unit economics. Answers the question if the product can be made for less than it costs to make.
Version 3 validates the business economics so that the company can be profitable. Answers the question if a business can be built around the product.
Get a mentor
Fadell talks about his book, “Build”, as a mentor in a box. He sees a mentor as one of the 4 essential requirements for starting your own company or running a successful project.
Work-life Balance
Fadell recommends at least 2 vacations in a year where you can switch off your work brain6. He also recommends the following
Block parts of your schedule to think and reflect - meditate, read, etc.
Exercise 4-6 times a week. He recommends Yoga.
Eat good food, in moderation. Reduce sugar, smoking, alcohol, etc.
I leave you with another gem from Fadell.
“Success is not a guarantee. No matter how great your team, your intentions, or your product…. But even then, what you’ve made still counts” - Tony Fadell
Great first name too, if you ask me!
Background scores - the crowd cheering
One of the most important companies, you have not heard of.
If you are a manager, please be a good one.
As the saying goes - People Don’t Leave Bad Jobs, They Leave Bad Bosses
The chapter covering work-life balance is ironically called “Killing Yourself for Work”