What podcasts say about Tom Verrilli
Every statement, with the speaker, the exact quote and the moment it was said.
What Tom Verrilli has said on podcasts
54 statements · 30 positive · 11 negative · 1 mixed · 12 neutral
Excessive PM hiring undermines engineers’ and designers’ decision-making abilities
“Hiring so many PMs infantilizes the engineers and the designers”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 0:08
Companies should hire PMs only where a specific need exists
“You hire one where there's really specific need.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 0:33
Removing product decisions from engineers and designers weakens their decision-making skills
“the more you abstract your engineers and your designers from doing the same thing, their muscle gets underdeveloped.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 0:50
Engineers and designers can make strong product decisions with sufficient user context
“engineering and design had the context that they needed to just make great decisions”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 4:31
Teams should avoid assigning PMs where design and engineering can make product decisions
“wherever possible, it's kind of optimal to not have a product manager”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 5:29
Tech companies commonly scale through fixed engineer-to-staff ratios
“Every time you hire six engineers, you add a designer, you add a pm, you add an EM”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 6:42
Notifications infrastructure generally does not require a dedicated PM
“you probably don't need APM for notifications infrastructure”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 6:58
Some engineering or design specialties do not transfer well to product management
“certain skill sets don't necessarily translate super well.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 9:26
Whatnot allows any function to propose product changes
“anyone can bring change forward”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 10:17
Whatnot assigns PMs to problems or projects rather than permanently to teams
“we tend to map them to kind of problems or kind of like core projects.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 10:43
AI substantially increases the productivity leverage of individual contributors
“AI certainly means that there's an enormous amount of leverage for an ic.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 12:58
AI-enabled tools let PMs retrieve complex data far faster than previously
“You can pull data now on a hex thread. That is basically what it would take a week, two weeks with an Amazon L7 data scientist in 2017.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 13:23
- on Senior versus entry-level PM staffingPositiveAug 2, 2026· Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
One senior PM can outperform three entry-level PMs across multiple responsibilities
“you can have one very senior PM across more things and they can be more efficient than having three relatively entry level PMs.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 14:22
Whatnot employs approximately 21–22 product managers
“we've just passed 20pm we have kind of, I think 21, 22PMs in the building today”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 15:29
Whatnot is reducing preference for candidates focused on alignment and stakeholder management
“It's folks who spend a lot of their time in their interviews talking about those like alignment meetings and driving alignment and stakeholder management and those pieces.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 18:04
Strong PM candidates must demonstrate both strategic and detailed thinking
“can we see both the macro thinking and the micro thinking?”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 18:48
Mental scenario planning enables faster development of local solutions
“you can build quick local solutions if you have done the mental exercise in your head”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 20:42
Teams should anticipate risks and then proceed with execution
“know, then go”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 21:16
High-growth companies should prioritize experiments with major business impact over small wins
“you're not really looking for a 5% stat sig win. You're looking for something that kind of like totally moves the business”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 22:00
Whatnot’s PM managers spend over 90% of their time on individual-contributor work
“All of them would spend 90 plus percent of their time doing IC work.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 23:11
One owner across competing product feedback loops reduces organizational conflict
“when you put the same person across multiple feedback things, they tend to organically align those things”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 25:10
PM individual-contributor work includes customer support, data, specifications, and execution
“all of that is just like core individual IC work.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 26:49
Product organizations will split between hands-on and managerial operating models
“there will be a bifurcation across the industry.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 27:32
- on Executive-level individual contributor compensationPositiveAug 2, 2026· Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth
Paying a small number of highly impactful ICs at executive levels may be easier
“I actually think it's easier.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 29:02
Hands-on senior leadership can remain effective as organizations scale
“what we found is that's actually not true.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 29:59
Teams should pursue fewer priorities and execute them exceptionally well
“we're going to do fewer things, we're going to make sure we execute the hell out of them”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 30:50
AI substantially amplifies the benefits of hands-on product work
“AI huge leverage for all of this.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 31:34
PM leaders should begin individual-contributor work in their current roles
“Start doing IC work in the role you're in would be my push.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 32:53
AI tooling helps teams detect product regressions and interaction effects faster
“you can spot regressions and weird knock on effects of two products intermixing more quickly than you used to be able to.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 36:29
AI may reduce staffing per output without reducing total data-science employment
“I would be surprised actually if we ended up with like net fewer.”
Open the episode · This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)Listen at 43:39
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.