Wes Kao's Recent LinkedIn Posts

When Wes Kao co-founded Maven, she thought leaders had to sound a certain way — serious, polished, formal. Then she realized her most effective communication came when she stopped trying to perform leadership, and started speaking in her own voice. That insight became her framework for founders: personality–message fit. It’s the idea that your communication is most powerful when it aligns with who you naturally are. “You’ve seen people pretend to be Steve Jobs or Mark Benioff — and it’s not landing,” she says. “It’s better to know, ‘this is how I am, this is the constraint, and these are the levers I can pull for people to better understand me.’” Read more from Kao on how founders can master the other PMF — personality–message fit: https://lnkd.in/eAdm7i8R

Excited to be featured in Lenny Rachitsky’s “The AI-Native Product Manager” series. I’ll be teaching a free workshop on the topic “how to get buy-in as a PM.” Of the 1,700 tech operators who have taken my course in the past 1.5 years, product managers are one of the biggest groups represented. About 1/3 of my private coaching clients are product leaders at companies like Meta, DoorDash, Atlassian, Amazon, Google, etc. I love working with product folks, and want to help you succeed because the bar for PMs is getting increasingly higher. In this session, I’ll cover how to: 1. Present to impatient executives: Be prepared to move fast, speak directly, etc. 2. Manage up to senior leaders: Most PMs suck at managing up. We'll cover principles that will serve you now and throughout your career. 3. Anticipate questions and prevent skepticism: How to anticipate questions to avoid endless back-and-forth. You will be able to apply these principles to stakeholders upwards, downwards, and laterally. The workshop will be on Friday, March 13 at 12pm ET. It will be an action-packed 30 minutes. I rarely do free workshops, so if you’ve been curious about my course or found my Lenny podcast episode helpful, I hope to see you there. Sign up link is in the comments.

To improve your writing, delete these 9 words: 𝟭. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲 Saying fine sounds like you’re not fine. In writing, you don't have facial expressions to show warmth. You need to amp up the positivity to compensate. 🚫 “That’s fine.” ✅ “That’s great.” 𝟮. 𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 Use "but" instead. Or rephrase, so you don't need a negating word at all. 🚫 “It should take an hour each day. However, you can do your work on your own schedule.” ✅ “It should take an hour each day. You can do most of your work on your own schedule.” 𝟯. 𝗨𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 Don’t make bad news seem heavier than it needs to be. 🚫 “Unfortunately, the live workshops are on X dates, but recordings are sent the next day.” ✅ “Live workshops are scheduled on X dates and recordings are sent the next day.” 𝟰. 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 When you say “not,” your reader has to think of what is—then think of the opposite. It adds cognitive load. 🚫 “I could not be more proud to...” ✅ “I am incredibly proud to...” 𝟱. 𝗖𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 Don’t state what you can’t do. State what you 𝗰𝗮𝗻 do. 🚫 “I can’t meet until 2pm.” ✅ “I can meet at 2pm and anytime after.” 𝟲. 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 Let’s assume your default is to tell the truth. 🚫 “To be honest, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” ✅ “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 𝟳. 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 Your sentence will be stronger without “just.” Seriously, try it. 🚫 “I just wanted to ask…” ✅ “I wanted to ask…” 𝟴. 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 You’ll come across just as sincere (or more so) without them. This is somewhat stylistic because a good "really" can add emphasis. But use sparingly and intentionally. 🚫 “I truly appreciate you and am very glad to be part of the team.” ✅ “I appreciate you and am honored to be part of the team.” 𝟴. 𝗡𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 I hear operators say “no problem” for requests that are actually a lot of work for them. When you do this, you diminish the effort and care you put into a task. 🚫 "Oh, it was no problem.” ✅ “My pleasure. Glad it was helpful.” 𝗧𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽, 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀: 1. Fine 2. However 3. Unfortunately 4. Double negatives 5. Can’t until 6. Honestly 7. Just 8. Very, really, truly 9. No problem     Keep an eye out for these words because they can creep in. Luckily, they’re easy to spot—and deleting will instantly improve your work. ___ PS If you found this helpful, give it a repost. 🔄 PPS I wrote about this in today's newsletter. If you liked this, join 70,000+ tech operators and get actionable insights on how to sharpen your communication every week. To get regular updates, check out the link in my bio.

Excited to share my conversation with First Round Capital! I talk about some of my favorite communication frameworks, including a checklist of questions to ask yourself to maximize your chances of getting buy-in. Would love to hear what you think. Link in the comments.

To improve your writing, delete these 9 words: 𝟭. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲 Saying fine sounds like you’re not fine. In writing, you don't have facial expressions to show warmth. You need to amp up the positivity to compensate. 🚫 “That’s fine.” ✅ “That’s great.” 𝟮. 𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 Use "but" instead. Or rephrase, so you don't need a negating word at all. 🚫 “It should take an hour each day. However, you can do your work on your own schedule.” ✅ “It should take an hour each day. You can do most of your work on your own schedule.” 𝟯. 𝗨𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 Don’t make bad news seem heavier than it needs to be. 🚫 “Unfortunately, the live workshops are on X dates, but recordings are sent the next day.” ✅ “Live workshops are scheduled on X dates and recordings are sent the next day.” 𝟰. 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 When you say “not,” your reader has to think of what is—then think of the opposite. It adds cognitive load. 🚫 “I could not be more proud to...” ✅ “I am incredibly proud to...” 𝟱. 𝗖𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 Don’t state what you can’t do. State what you 𝗰𝗮𝗻 do. 🚫 “I can’t meet until 2pm.” ✅ “I can meet at 2pm and anytime after.” 𝟲. 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗹𝘆 Let’s assume your default is to tell the truth. 🚫 “To be honest, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” ✅ “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 𝟳. 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 Your sentence will be stronger without “just.” Seriously, try it. 🚫 “I just wanted to ask…” ✅ “I wanted to ask…” 𝟴. 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝘆, 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 You’ll come across just as sincere (or more so) without them. This is somewhat stylistic because a good "really" can add emphasis. But use sparingly and intentionally. 🚫 “I truly appreciate you and am very glad to be part of the team.” ✅ “I appreciate you and am honored to be part of the team.” 𝟴. 𝗡𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 I hear operators say “no problem” for requests that are actually a lot of work for them. When you do this, you diminish the effort and care you put into a task. 🚫 "Oh, it was no problem.” ✅ “My pleasure. Glad it was helpful.” 𝗧𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽, 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀: 1. Fine 2. However 3. Unfortunately 4. Double negatives 5. Can’t until 6. Honestly 7. Just 8. Very, really, truly 9. No problem     Keep an eye out for these words because they can creep in. Luckily, they’re easy to spot—and deleting will instantly improve your work. ___ PS If you found this helpful, give it a repost. 🔄 PPS I wrote about this in today's newsletter. If you liked this, join 70,000+ tech operators and get actionable insights on how to sharpen your communication every week. To get regular updates, check out the link in my bio.