Invaluable Career Advice From Adam Fishman
How to navigate your career path and have success at your new company from day 1
When you arrive at your new company, you can’t do anything until you understand your customer! — Adam Fishman (Tweet)
A few days ago, Adam Fishman was gracious enough to speak at Tradecraft. Adam started and led Growth at Lyft, taking the company from zero rides and zero cities to tens of millions of rides across 70+ cities. He is currently VP of Growth at WyzAnt, the largest private tutoring marketplace in the U.S. Adam discussed growth strategies and techniques that he implemented at Lyft and WyzAnt, but also offered invaluable advice in regards to navigating your career path in tech and identifying the right companies to work for. In this article, I will characterize the principles Adam discussed as they relate to finding the right company for you and how you can be successful when you begin working with that company.
Have a Passion Area and Narrow Your Outreach to Companies with Similar Interests
When you think about which companies you want to work for and where you want to go next in your career, it’s critical to have a passion for a particular area or several areas. For example, do you want to work somewhere that makes the world a better place, do you have a strong interest in connecting people and information, or maybe you really like marketplaces and connecting suppliers and customers. Finding a company that is aligned with your passion is a much better approach than the unfocused route of applying to dozens of jobs in unrelated fields in hopes that one will pick you up. When going through the hiring process, one of the main things that companies look for is whether you’re passionate about what they’re doing and if you’re excited to come to work every day. This often takes precedence over skill set.
Understanding Your Customer Must be Your First Priority
When you first arrive at your new company, you can’t have any type of impact until you can answer two questions: 1) What is the need that the company is solving for people?; and 2) Who are the people the company is solving it for? You must understand the customer you’re going after from an acquisition standpoint. Establishing that as a foundation influences everything else you will do for the next several months. Adam continuously focused on answering these two questions at Lyft in the early days. He spent a significant amount of time speaking with many customers in each of the cities they launched in and explained what Lyft was. He would then ask them to communicate back what they just heard him say in order to understand how they were interpreting the product. Those learnings influenced how the Lyft team packaged and positioned the product from city to city.
Distinguish Between a Traction Stage Business and a Growth Stage Business
Make sure you are aware of the stage your company is in in terms of growth. Are they still working on getting traction for their product or do they have traction and are focused on growth? Your role will be altered by each stage. For example, a company may be in the “we’re still working on getting traction” stage, but the founder believes that if he hires a growth marketer, they will come in and fix the traction problem. Realistically, however, you don’t want someone focused on growth at that stage. You want someone focused on getting traction. Being unaware of a company’s true needs can put unrealistic expectations on your performance and will set you up for failure.
Do Small Projects With Companies To Test Fit
Doing small projects with a few companies over the course of a month or two is a great way to learn about the company from the inside out and really decide if it’s a company you want to work for. A lot of times, what you see in the interview process can be somewhat deceptive and an inaccurate representation of the company’s true values and culture. When you work on small projects, you really get to interact with employees on a professional level and see if there’s a true fit.
Publishing is a Powerful Tool
Use publishing to attract jobs, mentors, and other professional connections. Try to write things that demonstrate some thought and not just your quick hit posts. For example, show you’ve thought about a specific problem and go into detail about how you solved it. From an employer’s perspective, demonstrating how you approached a problem, solved it, and showed results, are very valuable. People will ask you those questions in an interview anyway.
I just want to thank Adam again for taking the time to come to Tradecraft and speak. It’s not often that you meet somebody that has had as much success as Adam and still remains humble and genuinely wants to share his knowledge with others. Thanks again Adam!
Feel free to reach out at dminutillo@tradecrafted.com or Twitter: @danny_minutillo.
