[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/product-manager-career-growth-fareed-mosavat#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/product-manager-career-growth-fareed-mosavat","headline":"From IC to PM Leader: Career Advice from Fareed Mosavat","name":"From IC to PM Leader: Career Advice from Fareed Mosavat","description":"\ud83d\udcfa Today’s recommended deep-dive video: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oo0jSep7pzc Crossing the Product Leader Canyon: Lessons from Pixar to SlackThe Anatomy of PM GrowthCrossing the Product Leader CanyonThe Four Pillars of Product StrategyKey TakeawaysQ&A Crossing the Product Leader Canyon: Lessons from Pixar to Slack... ","datePublished":"2026-07-03","dateModified":"2026-07-03","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/author\/flextech-admin\/#Person","name":"flextech-admin","url":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/author\/flextech-admin\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=150&d=mm&r=gforcedefault=1","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=150&d=mm&r=gforcedefault=1","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"terabox","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/logo\u4ea7\u54c1\u540d-\u7ad6\u7248.png","url":"http:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/logo\u4ea7\u54c1\u540d-\u7ad6\u7248.png","width":900,"height":900}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/oo0jSep7pzc\/maxresdefault.jpg","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/oo0jSep7pzc\/maxresdefault.jpg","height":"","width":""},"url":"https:\/\/blog.terabox.com\/insights\/product-manager-career-growth-fareed-mosavat","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oo0jSep7pzc#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oo0jSep7pzc","name":"How to build trust and grow as a product leader | Fareed Mosavat (Reforge, Slack, Instacart, Pixar)","description":"Fareed Mosavat is Chief Development Officer at Reforge, where he leads production, content, and new-product experiences. Previously, he led growth and product teams at Slack and Instacart, was a GM at Zynga, and also served as VP of Product at RunKeeper. Before all of that, Fareed\u2019s fascinating career began in engineering for Pixar, where he learned the art of storytelling and collaboration. In today\u2019s episode, we talk about how his time at Pixar influenced the way he thinks about product, why it\u2019s so difficult to become a better PM, and how to avoid the \u201cmanager death spiral.\u201d Fareed shares important insights on how to earn the trust of your manager and coworkers, the four types of product work\u2014and why you need to understand all four. He also provides solid examples of how to generalize your learnings and explains why this will expand your options, make you a better PM, and boost your chances of moving into a leadership role.\u00a0\n\nFind the full transcript here: https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\/p\/how-to-establish-credibility-and\n\n\u2014\n\nWhere to find Fareed Mosavat:\n\n\u2022 Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/far33d\n\u2022 LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/fareed\/\n\n\u2014\n\nWhere to find Lenny:\n\n\u2022 Newsletter: https:\/\/www.lennysnewsletter.com\n\u2022 Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/lennysan\n\u2022 LinkedIn: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lennyrachitsky\/\n\n\u2014\n\nThank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:\n\n\u2022 Coda: http:\/\/coda.io\/lenny\n\u2022 Amplitude: https:\/\/amplitude.com\/\n\u2022 Vanta: https:\/\/vanta.com\/lenny\n\n\u2014\n\nReferenced:\n\n\u2022 Naval Ravikant\u2019s Twitter thread about specific knowledge: https:\/\/twitter.com\/naval\/status\/1002104865919664128\n\u2022 Merci Grace on Lenny\u2019s podcast: https:\/\/www.lennyspodcast.com\/merci-grace-ex-head-of-growth-at-slack-on-plg-interviewing-storytelling-building-a-diverse-team-hiring-salespeople-building-a-growth-team-and-much-more\/\n\u2022 \u201cCrossing the Canyon: Product Manager to Product Leader,\u201d by Fareed Mosavat and Casey Winters: https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/blog\/crossing-the-canyon-product-manager-to-product-leader\n\u2022 Casey Winters on Lenny\u2019s podcast: https:\/\/www.podpage.com\/lennys-podcast\/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within-your-company-casey-winters-eventbrite\/\n\u2022 Reforge: https:\/\/www.reforge.com\/\n\n\u2014\n\nIn this episode, we cover:\n\n(00:00) Fareed\u2019s background\n(03:55) Lessons from Pixar\n(09:07) What Fareed does at Reforge\n(11:57) The scale of Reforge at this time\n(13:51) Why it\u2019s so difficult to become a better PM\n(18:03) A PM pie chart\u2014execution, generalizing your solutions, communication, and scaling\n(23:00) How creating trust helped Fareed\u2019s career grow\n(26:24) How to gain trust by leveraging your curiosity and communication skills\n(33:50) How to move from PM to Product Lead\n(36:43) The manager death spiral and how to avoid it\n(40:43) The four types of product work\n(44:13) Moving from IC to product manager \n(47:15) How to ask for the proper resources\n(50:00) The trend of senior PMs diversifying into advising, teaching, and angel investing\n(57:20) The downsides of being your own boss\n(01:00:45) Advice for breaking into advising\n\n\u2014\n\nProduction and marketing by https:\/\/penname.co\/. 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