Using the Opposite of Clichés: A Easy Way to Generate Insights

The Method

An easy way to generate insights and impress your audience is to take the complete opposite of the cliché.

Opposite of Cliché Examples

Here are some opposite of cliche examples that I generated for a performance review process:

Example 1

• Cliché: "It's just a formality."

• Opposite: "A meaningful conversation that drives growth."

Example 2

• Cliché: "Checking the boxes."

• Opposite: "Deep dive into skills and achievements."

Example 3

• Cliché: "Going through the motions."

• Opposite: "Active engagement and feedback exchange."

And here are some examples from Jerry Seinfeld's Duke graduation speech in May 2024:

Example 4

• Cliché: "Follow your passion."

• Seinfeld’s Opposite: "Seek fascination, which is 'way better than passion' and 'not so sweaty.'"

Example 5

• Cliché: "Hard work is often glorified without direction."

• Seinfeld’s Opposite: "Pure, stupid, no-real-idea-what-I’m-doing-here effort always yields a positive value."

Example 6

• Cliché: "Privilege is something to be ashamed of."

• Seinfeld’s Opposite: "Use your privilege and be proud of your education, rather than feeling embarrassed."

Example 7

• Cliché: "Life is serious and should be approached solemnly."

• Seinfeld’s Opposite: "Maintain your sense of humor, as it is essential for navigating through life’s challenges and absurdities."

Why the "Complete Opposite of the Cliché" Approach Works

The "complete opposite of the cliché" approach works for several reasons:

1. Fresh Perspective: By presenting the complete opposite of clichés, you offer a fresh and unexpected perspective that grabs attention and encourages deeper thought.

2. Challenge Assumptions: It challenges assumptions and prompts readers to reconsider common beliefs or attitudes, leading to more meaningful discussions and insights.

3. Memorable Impact: The contrast between clichés and their opposites creates a memorable impact, making your message more memorable and resonant with your audience.

4. Encourages Creativity & Critical Thinking: It encourages creativity and innovation by pushing beyond conventional wisdom and exploring new ways of thinking and expressing ideas.

5. Engages Emotion: The stark contrast between clichés and their opposites can evoke strong emotions, sparking curiosity, surprise, or inspiration, and fostering a stronger connection with your audience.

6. Avoids Overused Phrases: By using the opposite of a cliché, you avoid relying on overused and tired phrases that have lost their impact, making your message more engaging and memorable.

7. Adds Humor & Irony: Using the opposite of a cliché can add a touch of humor and irony, making your message more relatable and entertaining, as seen in Jerry Seinfeld's examples.

Overall, this approach helps to break through the noise, making your communication more effective and impactful.

Decode and Conquer: Reader Raves, “I Read It Every Year!"'

I saw Soni’s note not too long ago. I’m honored that she’s reading my books year in and year out.

Decoding PM Interviews in 2024: Trends and Strategies from Top Tech Firms

Recently, I had the opportunity to carefully analyze my PM question bank, which contains over 1700 questions.

This involved examining interview questions from leading tech firms such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and others spanning from 2022 to early 2024.

Through this analysis, I've identified important trends and focus areas that can help PM candidates better prepare for the hiring process.

Consistent Areas Tested

One key observation across all years is that product design, strategy, and analytical thinking have remained the core skills tested through PM interviews at top tech companies. However, the specific types of questions within these areas have shifted over time.

Product Design: Increasingly Open-Ended

In 2022, I noticed product design questions tended to be more constrained and specific, such as "Design an iOS Smartwatch for Tesla owners." However, in 2023, there was a clear shift towards more open-ended design tasks across various verticals. Examples include "Design a product for gardening" and "Design a fitness product for Meta." This open-ended style has continued into 2024 with prompts like "Design an app for people to find a doctor in a new city."

This trend suggests companies are testing higher-level product thinking abilities rather than familiarity with specific products. Candidates must demonstrate versatile product design skills adaptable to diverse domains.

Strategy: From Growth to Execution

When it comes to strategy questions, I observed a progression from high-level growth strategies in 2022 (e.g., "How would you grow 10x in 3 years?") to more tactical execution priorities in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, questions focused on areas like prioritization, pricing, and go-to-market strategies, such as "How to prioritize a new feature?" and "Give discounts for group bookings?"

In 2024, the strategy questions have become even more specific, delving into granular offering strategies. For instance, "How to pitch white label delivery to restaurants?" The focus clearly shifts from broad strategy to tactical execution details as candidates progress through the interview process.

Analytics: Nuanced Trade-off Analysis

Defining goals and success metrics for products and features has been a consistent theme in analytical thinking questions across all years. However, in 2023, I noticed a concentration of such questions around Meta/Facebook properties specifically.

Moreover, in 2024, the analytical questions have started exploring more nuanced trade-offs between metrics. An example is "How would you define success goals for the Work Chat app at Meta? What metrics would you track? Suppose engagement goes up but adoption goes down, what do you do?" This suggests companies are progressively testing more sophisticated analytical skills beyond just basic metric definitions.

Other Trends and Takeaways

A few other notable observations from my analysis:

• Technical and system design questions appeared relatively infrequent across the data.

• Some limited behavioral and leadership questions were present, primarily in earlier stages of the process.

• Overall, there was a consistent focus on PM interviews, but with an evolving scope and depth as candidates progressed.

In summary, while product design, strategy, and analytics have remained the core areas tested, PM interview questions have evolved to dive deeper into specific execution skills and nuanced trade-off analysis in later stages. This likely reflects the evolving scope of responsibilities as candidates advance through PM roles.

The key takeaway for PM candidates is the importance of developing versatile product thinking abilities, strong prioritization skills, and comfort with ambiguous trade-off analysis. Preparation should extend beyond any specific product area and build broad, transferable PM skills applicable across industries and companies.

By staying attuned to these trends, aspiring product managers can better focus their efforts and position themselves for success in the competitive PM hiring process at top tech firms.

Diagnosing and Troubleshooting Your AI Prompts: A Comprehensive Checklist

As AI language models become more advanced and widely used, it's crucial to ensure your prompts are performing optimally. Just like any software, AI systems can encounter issues that lead to errors, inconsistencies, or undesirable outputs. The good news is that many of these problems can be diagnosed and mitigated with the right approach.

Ethan Mollick provided an excellent checklist for identifying common AI prompt issues and exploring potential fixes:

Let's dive into how you can use this resource to get your prompts back on track:

1. Identify the issue

The first step is to pinpoint the specific problem your prompt is encountering. The table lists several common AI errors like persistent misconceptions, faulty reasoning, shallow topic understanding, inconsistent outputs, getting stuck in loops, and argumentative responses.

2. Apply the mitigation approach

Once you've diagnosed the issue, refer to the "Mitigation Approach" column for suggested strategies to resolve it. For example, if your AI is responding with misconceptions, the recommendation is to provide additional context upfront instead of prompting for analogies first.

3. Test and validate

The right side of the table outlines various tests you can run to evaluate if the mitigation approach is working as intended. These tests cover aspects like consistency, trackability, edge case handling, output quality, personalization, and cross-model performance.

4. Make adjustments

Based on the test results, you may need to implement further adjustments like adding constraints, reminders, directions, domain knowledge or changing the prompt descriptions altogether.

This checklist-style approach is immensely valuable for prompt developers and AI product managers. Instead of guessing solutions, you have a systematic way to identify issues, apply proven mitigation tactics, test rigorously, and iterate until the prompts deliver the desired performance.

How ChatGPT Works in Just 75 Words

Ever wondered how ChatGPT deciphers your questions and crafts responses? It might sound like a labyrinth of technical jargon, but fear not—it's simpler than you think.

Let's demystify ChatGPT's inner workings in just 75 words.

1. Ask: You type a question into the chat box.

2. Split: ChatGPT breaks your question into tiny bits called tokens, kind of like individual words or short phrases.

3. Code: ChatGPT turns each token into a special set of numbers that the AI can understand.

4. Predict: ChatGPT uses these numbers to help the AI figure out what you're asking and what a good answer might be.

5. Answer: The AI generates a response based on all this processing.

Unlocking Success: A Customer's Testimonial on Lewis C. Lin's System Design Book

We’re always thrilled to hear from readers. 😊📚

Shivam and I have poured our hearts into creating a system design book that breaks free from jargon, confusion, and intimidation. Our goal was to make it exceptionally clear and readable, even for non-experts.

[Lewis C. Lin Marketing Workshop] How an Attendee Landed a Coveted Offer at Mattel

I absolutely love marketing, and Mattel is one of the best consumer brands out there.

So naturally I’m thrilled to hear that one of my UCI workshop attendees used my materials to secure a coveted offer from Mattel this summer!

🙌

Mastering Product Design Interviews: 2 Examples Using Lewis Lin's CIRCLES™ Method

Always fun to see PM interview candidates do and share practice questions from my book!

In both of these instances, Alex utilized my CIRCLES™ method to navigate through the product design questions.

PS The latest edition of my PM interview questions book has been rebranded as The Product Manager Interview.

[Workshop Takeaways] Lewis C. Lin's Books are Wharton's Secret Sauce for Interview Success

I always enjoy hearing from Wharton students. They really shine in the tech world.

It’s an honor that my books have been used to land PMs their first jobs and particularly in this case at a level higher than expected!

Of course, I'm thrilled to discover that they've made my books their go-to resource for interview preparation throughout the entire year.

[Lewis C. Lin Workshops] Practice, Practice, Practice with UCLA Anderson

It’s a delight working with UCLA Anderson MBA students. Their social finesse is impressive, and they carry themselves with grace and charm.

So, it was no shock to receive feedback from one of these students who appreciated the interactive atmosphere of my workshop. He resonated with my unfiltered, authentic approach.

And what really hit home for him? The fundamental lesson of practice, practice, practice! 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

[Lewis C. Lin Interview Workshops] Inspiring Students at Kellogg

I am delighted by the positive feedback I received from the recent Kellogg workshop I conducted. It brings me great satisfaction to learn that the explanations I offered resonated deeply with the participants and that the stories I shared effectively illuminated the principles we discussed. Discovering that the workshop not only assisted with interview preparation but also offered valuable guidance for real-life career endeavors fills me with immense gratification.

And then, to top it off, hearing that Decode and Conquer got hailed as a game-changer for those interview preps? Man, that's the kind of feedback that makes you do a little happy dance.

Embracing Mistakes: What One Attendee Said about Lewis C. Lin's Workshop

I just love teaming up with those MIT students. Their excitement for all things tech is downright contagious, and they've got this endless hunger for learning that's just inspiring.

And it's no shocker when I hear back from one of them after a workshop, buzzing with joy about the chance to soak up knowledge and maybe stumble a bit along the way.

I mean, who wouldn't prefer to trip up and learn in the safe zone of a workshop rather than flounder in the heat of an important interview?

Lewis C. Lin Workshop Nurtures Minds and Simplifies Idas at the University of Washington

Oh, let me tell you, getting a message from the bright minds at the University of Washington is always a joy for me. You know, our partnership goes way back, and it's such a sweet connection.

He just soaked in the frameworks, you know, like CIRCLES, and gobbled up those corresponding examples. And oh, my heart just lights up knowing he caught onto my knack for untangling those head-spinning complex ideas.

2 Mesmerizing Prompt Frameworks for ChatGPT and DallE

Frameworks are like trusty companions, guiding us through the labyrinth of challenges, offering order and reducing missteps. In the realm of ChatGPT conversations, having a sturdy framework is like having a secret map, preventing haphazard or confusing inputs that might lead to less-than-ideal outcomes.

Embarking on the Journey of Two LLM Frameworks: Let me share the enchanting world of two remarkable Language Model frameworks that have recently sprinkled their fairy dust on my creative endeavors:

The Wonder-Making DallE Prompt Framework

Picture this – a framework designed specifically to summon images from the mystical realm of DallE. It's like having a wizard's wand for image creation, weaving a structured spell that turns creative visions into tangible wonders. Time-saving and enhancing the overall enchantment of the output, this framework is truly a magical ally.

The Charm-Weaving ChatGPT Prompt Framework

Now, imagine a framework crafted with the finesse of a master weaver, tailored for conjuring ChatGPT prompts. This magical tool makes the process smoother than a river's flow, ensuring prompts are finely crafted and comprehensive. The result? Interactions that are not just efficient but downright spellbinding.

Shopify APM Offer: Celebrating Another Success Story from the Lewis Lin Slack Community

Excited to hear another win for the Lewis Lin Slack community. This time for an associate product manager candidate for one of the most respected names in eCommerce 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦.

Mastering PM Interviews: Unveiling the Power of CIRCLES with 40+ Mocks

I'm absolutely thrilled to hear about these undergrads acing it with CIRCLES and Decode and Conquer!

The PM club at UT totally rocked them – one member nailed a whopping 47 practice job interviews 💪. Now, that's seriously impressive. 🚀🎉

You know, back in my university days, I didn't bother with any of that practice interview stuff. I didn’t even know it was a thing! And in grad school, I barely managed to pull off 10. I look back now and think, "What was I even doing?" " 🤷‍♂️

It's like these practice interviews are your pre-show rehearsals. Sure, it might feel like you're doing a lot, but trust me, it's gold when you're aiming for those top-notch job opportunities. Think of it like gearing up for a major game – the more you practice, the sharper you'll be when the real deal hits.

It's all about putting in the work to shine when it truly matters.

🤘🤘🤘🤘

Google Hiring Managers Embrace Decode and Conquer and CIRCLES

Stepping into the world of landing a job at Google is like embarking on an epic quest, and Decode and Conquer and CIRCLES is your trusty sword on this journey. Authored by yours truly, this book is your key to unlocking the mysteries of Google's challenging interview process. It's not just a book; it's your personalized roadmap to conquering the Everest of job hunts.

What makes this journey even more thrilling is the fact that Google's hiring managers, the gatekeepers of your Google destiny, are not just recommending my book casually. They're emphatically endorsing it as the go-to resource. It's like having the insiders' seal of approval, a golden ticket to navigate the intricacies of Google's interview terrain.

So, as the author of Decode and Conquer, I'm not just handing you a book; I'm handing you the key to the gates of Google, and the hiring managers are nodding in agreement. It's not just a journey; it's your personalized quest to conquer Google's hiring process and emerge victorious in your dream job pursuit. Let's decode, conquer, and own this adventure together.

26 Guiding Principles for Interacting with Large Language Models

Here are 26 guiding principles to query and prompt large language models. This is one of the best tip sheets I’ve seen for prompt-writing.

STAR-like Framework for System Design Interviews

I’m always happy to hear from my readers. This time, it’s from a software engineer who read my book, The System Design Interview.

In that book, I introduce a popular framework to answer system design questions called PEDALS™ Method.

The reader absolutely loved it. He called it the STAR framework for system design questions.

How to Write a Cold Networking Email using ChatGPT

Jeremy Schifeling shared a really good prompt to generate a networking message. There are three parts to it:

1. Requested text

2. Context 1: The recipient’s LinkedIn profile

3. Context 2: Your LinkedIn profile

Here’s the example he shared:

Generate a message to an alum in the PM space. Make it focused on what we have in common and have a clear CTA to ask for a 10-minute virtual meeting.

Here is the alum’s LinkedIn profile:

<Insert the alum’s profile>

And here is my profile:

<Insert your profile>

Here’s the output I got using a fictious example:

Subject: Exploring Shared Interests and Opportunities in AI Strategy - Request for Virtual Meeting

Dear [Alum's Name],

I hope this message finds you in good spirits. My name is [Your Name], and I recently came across your impressive profile on LinkedIn. It's motivating to connect with professionals who have made significant contributions to the field of AI strategy.

I was particularly intrigued by your current role as President and CEO at SynthAI Innovations, where you lead an AI strategy consulting firm focused on building competitive advantages through webinars, workshops, and proprietary GPT instances. Your diverse experience, including your current role as a Visiting Professor for AI at Quantum University and your tenure at Nexus Dynamics, Cybershift, and other reputable organizations, speaks volumes about your expertise in the AI space.

Given our shared interest in AI strategy and consulting, I believe there could be valuable synergies between our experiences. I am currently the CEO of OptiMind Solutions, a company specializing in performance feedback generation, and the CEO of Insight Catalyst, an executive coaching practice. My background includes leadership roles at TechSphere, NexusTech, and OmniCorp, where I've been deeply involved in product management, marketing, and strategic partnerships.

I am reaching out to explore the possibility of a brief 10-minute virtual meeting at your convenience. During this meeting, I would love to discuss our shared interests, potential collaboration opportunities, and exchange insights into the evolving landscape of AI strategy.

Please let me know a time that suits you for a quick virtual meeting, and I will ensure to accommodate your schedule. I appreciate your time and consideration and look forward to the opportunity to connect.

Thank you, and I eagerly await your response.

Best regards,

[Your Full Name] [Your Position] [Your Company] [Your LinkedIn Profile/Contact Information]

And then I asked ChatGPT to “Rewrite it so that it's 50% shorter and more casual”:

Subject: Quick Virtual Chat?

Hey [Alum's Name],

Hope this message finds you well. I'm [Your Name], and your AI journey caught my eye on LinkedIn.

Your gig as CEO at SynthAI Innovations sounds awesome! I'm rocking the CEO hat at OptiMind Solutions and Insight Catalyst. I've had my hands dirty in product, marketing, and partnerships at places like TechSphere and OmniCorp.

Thinking our AI vibes might align, how about a quick 10-minute virtual coffee? Would love to swap insights and explore what could brew between us.

Let me know when's good for you. Cool?

Cheers, [Your Full Name] [Your LinkedIn Profile/Contact Information]

Now it's your turn to give it a try! Whether reaching out to an alum or a connection in your industry, use the three-part prompt to tailor your message. Highlight the requested text, delve into the recipient's LinkedIn profile, and present your own profile confidently.