Supra Insider

What if your job in a behavioral interview isn’t to answer the question at all?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Austen McDonald, former engineering manager and hiring committee chair at Meta and author of Mastering Behavioral Interviews. Austen explains why character is what predicts long-term performance. He covers why ownership and adaptability have become the signals companies care about most in the age of AI. And he argues that your real job as a candidate is to guide the interviewer toward the parts of your career that best predict how you’ll do the role.
They explore every flavor of behavioral interview, from hiring manager screens and project deep dives to Anthropic’s culture round. Austen explains how to handle an inexperienced interviewer using his “decode, select, deliver” loop. He then walks through building a bank of core stories, structuring long stories so the takeaways are obvious, and matching the clock speed of your stories to the company you’re targeting. Marc and Ben share what they’re seeing on the PM side, from take-homes as the real test of AI fluency to Meta’s product sense with prototyping round. The three also debate whether conflict resolution matters more or less as teams flatten.
If you’re a senior engineer or product leader with interviews coming up, haven’t interviewed in a few years and want to know what’s changed, or keep telling strong stories that don’t seem to land- this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (02:09) Why Austen chose behavioral interviews after Meta, and why ownership and adaptability now matter most
* (08:38) Mapping every type of behavioral interview, from recruiter screens to team match and project deep dives
* (13:23) How Anthropic’s culture round changes the rules, and why Austen never let junior interviewers run behavioral rounds
* (19:23) “Your job is not to answer the questions”: the decode, select, deliver loop and how to handle an inexperienced interviewer
* (25:01) Ben’s story of a candidate who flipped the question, and why past behavior is more predictive than hypotheticals
* (29:23) How to prepare: know yourself, build a bank of core stories, and structure them so the takeaways are obvious
* (36:38) Matching the clock speed of your stories to the company, from big tech to the frontier labs
* (40:00) When to start preparing, why most people start too late, and keeping a “yay me” file off company servers
* (44:55) What’s changing: project deep dives at more levels, automated screens, and questions about how you use AI
* (48:59) Marc and Ben’s PM take: take-homes as the real AI fluency test and Meta’s product sense with prototyping round
* (56:57) Do conflict resolution skills matter more or less as teams flatten and building gets cheaper?
* (01:04:56) Where to find Austen: his book, his Substack, and coaching for senior candidates
* (01:05:19) Gratitude Corner: Austen thanks his wife Kokeb, a six-time author and coach for occupational therapists, for showing him the path to entrepreneurship. He also thanks Henry Cheung, a design leader he worked with at Meta, for encouraging him to write the book.
* And more!
Links:
* Mastering Behavioral Interviews (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G6CM9T87
* Mastering Behavioral Interviews (Substack): https://thebehavioral.substack.com
* Supra Insider #119: How I landed a director role in six weeks (Eric Posen): https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/119-how-i-landed-a-director-role
* Kokeb McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kokeb-mcdonald-328a1311/
* Henry Cheung: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henryhycheung/
* Austen McDonald (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@thebehavioral
* Austen McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austenmc/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What if the biggest mistake senior product leaders make in negotiation is countering too soon?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Colin Lernell, co-founder and CEO of Valued, a comp negotiation firm, and a former senior product leader. Colin explains why he coaches every client to hold off on the instant counter. Instead, they run due diligence and role alignment calls with the hiring manager and skip-level. Colin walks through how recency bias and loss aversion turn a candidate into a colleague the company is afraid to lose. He also explains why so many top performers undervalue themselves in a market where pay for elite talent has surged.
They explore how OpenAI and Anthropic handle their no-negotiation stance and which competing offers actually move them. They get into when a lower level beats a bigger title, and whether sharing a number early helps or hurts. Colin shares his “ask for advice, get a job” tactic for building leverage overnight and the doc he has clients bring to every alignment call. Marc and Ben also debate whether negotiation belongs at the very start of interview prep.
If you’re a product leader expecting an offer in the next few weeks, weighing a move into big tech or an AI lab, or unsure how to push for more without damaging the relationship—this episode is for you.
Have or expect an offer? Book a free strategy call at feelvalued.co and tell them “INSIDER LOOPS” sent you for $500 off.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:43) Why a skeptical product leader called Valued “the best money I’ll spend” within days of signing
* (07:39) Colin’s own mistake: losing his cool on an offer call while holding a $2M competing offer
* (11:45) The executive playbook Colin reverse-engineered at Udacity: due diligence before any counter
* (14:57) How recency bias and loss aversion turn you from a candidate into a colleague the company can’t afford to lose
* (21:08) Why top-talent comp has surged and why even the most senior candidates still under-ask
* (31:42) Marc’s devil’s advocate question: does negotiating a big offer put you under a microscope?
* (34:40) When a lower level is the smarter move, from Meta’s freeze on external director hires to the L7-to-L8 trap
* (38:12) How to negotiate with OpenAI and Anthropic despite their no-negotiation policies
* (48:48) Should you share a number on the first recruiter call? A listener’s doubled offer vs. Colin’s counterpoint
* (57:09) When to bring in a negotiator, and how five LinkedIn messages created three Mag 7 processes overnight
* (01:01:39) Marc and Ben debate whether salary negotiation should be step zero of interview prep
* (01:14:28) What goes in the role alignment doc, and how an Apple candidate unlocked double equity
* (01:20:48) Where to find Colin: free workshops, guides, and consult calls at feelvalued.co
* (01:22:37) Gratitude Corner: Colin thanks his first manager in Silicon Valley for showing him how to be warm and politically savvy at once, and his wife, a longtime PM, for teaching him the balance behind a long career
* And more!
Links:
* Supra Insider #8: The Product Leadership Job Search with Aakash Gupta: https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/8-the-product-leadership-job-search
* “How to Land a Product Leadership Job” (Aakash Gupta & Colin Lernell): https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/product-leadership-job-search
* Valued: https://www.feelvalued.co
* Have or expect an offer? Book a free strategy call at feelvalued.co and tell them “INSIDER LOOPS” sent you for $500 off.
* Colin’s first manager in Silicon Valley, Christian Plagemann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/plagemann
* Colin’s wife, Robin Lernell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-marie-miller
* Colin Lernell YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ColinLate
* Colin Lernell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinlernell/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What changes about hiring an executive when the best candidates suddenly have fifteen generational companies to choose from and no reason to pick up the phone?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Nolan Church, who was the first head of talent at DoorDash, then chief people officer at Carta, and who now runs executive searches for a small number of companies at a time. Ben worked for him directly at Continuum, and the two of them walk through what has actually shifted in the executive market: why the clearing price for a great hire is no longer about compensation, why the executive who talks a lot and does nothing has seen demand for their services collapse, and what founders are really buying when they bring in an outside recruiter.
They explore the framework Nolan builds every search around, how he gets almost anyone on the phone cold, why he treats relationship building and assessment as separate modes that companies routinely collapse too early, and what he thinks great executive assessment looks like given that structured interviews are only so predictive.
If you’re hiring your first executives, thinking about your own next move at that level, or curious how the top of the talent market actually works, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:30) Why Nolan calls this the craziest moment in tech history for executive hiring
* (03:14) The clearing price isn’t just comp, it’s life design
* (07:16) “I don’t believe in work-life balance, I just believe in life,” and where 996 actually fits
* (09:55) The three things an executive is really hired to do
* (10:52) The empty suit, and why demand for that kind of executive has gone to zero
* (19:14) Why Elon never pays for an outside recruiter, and what VCs now have to offer instead
* (28:44) What counts as a successful executive hire, and hiring for the next nine to twelve months
* (30:45) Why the best executive search is about removing asymmetry
* (35:49) The MOC framework: mission, outcome, competency, and why it beats a job description
* (42:15) Executives are like flowers in the spring, and why speed at all costs is a fail state
* (46:09) His secret sauce: 98% of the people he talks to start as cold outreach
* (52:02) Why he thinks really good recruiting is a moral good, and the tax that comes with it
* (59:13) What executive assessment actually looks like, and why interviews give weaker signal than people assume
* (1:09:55) Gratitude Corner: Nolan thanks his parents, his wife, and the people who bet on him early
* And more!
Links:
* “The Empty Suit Executive” by Tyler Hogge: https://www.tylerhogge.com/blog/the-empty-suit-executive/
* Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4989687-who
* Andreessen Horowitz executive hiring guide: https://a16z.com/executive-hiring/
* Andrew Munday: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-munday-51479612/
* Tony Xu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/
* Henry Ward: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heward/
* Jeff Clavier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffclavier/
* Chad Packard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-packard-2397022/
* Nolan Church: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

When every individual on your team can suddenly move ten times faster, what stops them from moving ten times faster in ten different directions?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with Andrew Somervell, co-founder of Hamster, an AI-native workspace for product teams. Andrew and his co-founder built Taskmaster, the open-source tool that shipped plan mode before the major coding tools had it, and the question that kept coming back from users was how to take it to work. He explains why that pointed at a team problem rather than a tooling problem, and why he doesn’t believe PMs want to live in a CLI.
They explore the artifacts Andrew thinks a team actually needs, why he killed the PRD and what he ended up building in its place, the three meetings his team runs every week, and Ben’s repeated pressing on the harder question underneath all of it: what genuinely changes when AI becomes multiplayer rather than a set of people each working alone with it.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:33) How Taskmaster led to Hamster: solving context locally, then hearing “how do I take this to work?”
* (05:55) The Cursor Cafe conversation, and why he let go of the open-source moat
* (12:41) Marc and Ben walk through their own clunky brief workflow, and Andrew’s verdict
* (15:35) The three artifacts: a brief for stakeholders, a spec for engineering, a plan for delivery
* (21:52) Killing the PRD, and the graveyard of draft briefs that followed
* (23:28) Their three meetings a week, and why discovery is the one he loves
* (25:27) Treating ideas like pets, and what happens when anyone can ship a huge PR
* (28:03) Direction setting: strategy on a page, tied to live metrics
* (32:14) Ben presses on what’s actually different about multiplayer versus single-player
* (35:33) Andrew’s answer: alignment first, then speed and cohesion
* (40:35) The nine challenges that surfaced from 70-plus calls with product leaders
* (55:43) Ben’s takeaway on why two co-founders stay aligned, and what breaks when you add people
* (1:05:09) Gratitude Corner: Andrew thanks his co-founder Eyal and his Supra group
* And more!
Links:
* Hamster: https://tryhamster.com/
* Hamster community Slack: https://tryhamster.com/slack
* Eyal Toledano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eyaltoledano
* Andrew Somervell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsomervell/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com

What do you do when you’re putting in the same hours, running the same playbook, and the numbers stop moving?
In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc Baselga and Ben Erez talk through the slowdown their business hit over the summer and how they worked their way out of it. They walk through the blockbuster April that became a false baseline, the moment in late June when the trend was undeniable, and what the analytics revealed once they finally looked properly: traffic was down, and the traffic they had wasn’t converting.
They explore why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs rather than from working hard, what momentum actually is and why losing it is so hard to shake, the content system they built that produced consistently bad posts, and the realization that no amount of good execution rescues a weak idea. They also lay out the protocol they’d use the next time one of them stops having fun.
If you’re running a business through a flat stretch, building a content engine that isn’t landing, or working with a partner and wondering how to say the hard thing out loud, this episode is for you.
All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.
New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox 👇
Want company-specific interview intel?
If you’re preparing for PM interviews at Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Stripe, DoorDash, Uber, or Figma… we think you’re going to love Insider Loops. You can read about it in Ben’s LI post, Marc’s LI post or check out the site directly below.
Supra Insider listeners get $50 off all interview guides with promo code SUPRAINSIDER50
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* (01:32) Marc on the first signal: more hours going in, and the numbers refusing to move
* (03:28) The blockbuster April they mistook for a new baseline
* (05:51) What the analytics showed once they looked properly: traffic down, conversion worse
* (08:56) Why Marc thinks burnout comes from inputs not matching outputs
* (09:45) Naming it out loud, and why that gave them permission to change things
* (12:50) Ben defines momentum, and why he couldn’t enjoy a beach vacation without it
* (17:50) Why paid acquisition was premature, and how go-to-market became a content problem
* (23:21) The system they built to draft posts end to end, and why the output was bad
* (26:19) Spending zero time at the idea level, and executing ten out of ten on a two out of ten
* (29:17) Morning writing blocks: using their most productive hours on the actual bottleneck
* (33:56) How a LinkedIn post about rejection turned into an episode booked on the spot
* (45:09) Why “why are you interested in this?” produced a post ten times better
* (50:15) Working up the leverage ladder, and the co-founder benefits they didn’t expect
* (1:12:12) The protocol for next time: name it, check in, find ground truth, scope a step
* And more!
Links:
* Ben’s post about how he handles rejection: https://benerez.substack.com/p/how-i-handle-setbacks-and-coach-resilience
* Episode about Rejection:
https://suprainsider.substack.com/p/120-how-to-stop-taking-rejection
* Insider Loops: https://www.insiderloops.com/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
If you’re a new subscriber, we encourage you to check out some of the recent episodes you might have missed:
To support the podcast, please check out the links below:
* Supra has teamed up with Maven to bring you something special – courses that our own community members have personally curated. And because you’re part of the Supra family, you can get up to 35% off some of these handpicked selections with code SUPRAxMAVEN.
* Check out Ben’s AI Practice Copilot and top-rated Maven course: Self-Paced PM Interview Bootcamp: Product Sense & Analytical Thinking (selected by Lenny Rachitsky as a top course 🔥). Get 25% off the course with promo code suprainsider (auto-applied here).


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com