Help users build relationships with mentors and sponsors for career growth. Use when someone is looking for career guidance, wants to find a mentor, needs an advocate at work, is trying to build their professional network, or asking how to get advice from senior leaders.
Help the user build meaningful mentor and sponsor relationships using approaches from 19 product leaders.
When the user asks for help finding mentors or sponsors:
Christopher Miller: "Mentors are great... but I would actually describe those folks as being sponsors and advocates, people who were willing to put up capital, whether that's professional, social capital to bet on you." Differentiate between advice-givers (mentors) and opportunity-creators (sponsors). Build trust with potential sponsors by being coachable and delivering results on their behalf.
Gibson Biddle: "Don't ask a person to be your mentor. That's really awkward. First, identify them... then find ways to be helpful. Everybody needs help." Build mentorship relationships organically by offering value first rather than making a formal request.
Jules Walter: "Make the smallest ask possible... 'Is there an example of product that you think was created with this approach?' Something he could answer in literally two minutes via email." Secure high-level mentors by starting with tiny, specific requests that require minimal effort, then build the relationship through follow-ups that show you applied their advice.
Chip Conley: "Brian would go to experts and say, 'I don't know what the hell I'm doing.'... I appreciated that a guy who had a lot of hubris could also have the humility to say, 'I want to learn more about this.'" The most effective way to learn from mentors is radical honesty about your knowledge gaps, regardless of your seniority.
Bangaly Kaba: "It's actually better to have a stable of mentors. You want to have three or four. And ideally, what you do is you meet with each one of them once a month on a different Friday." Schedule meetings with different mentors on different weeks. Ask for mentors by describing a specific challenge rather than requesting general mentorship.
Bret Taylor: "When you ask for advice, don't just ask what to do but why. Be an obnoxious two-year-old kid, why? Why? Why?" Deconstruct their advice into underlying frameworks to avoid misapplying their specific anecdotes to your different situation.
Elena Verna: "Don't think that you have unique problems. You don't... Your problem has been solved by somebody." Reach out to peers at other companies via LinkedIn or X to ask how they solved specific growth challenges. Hire advisors to provide structural frameworks for new initiatives.
Ami Vora: "I had everything I needed, people were so kind and generous, but I didn't recognize it that way because we talk about it differently." Build "emulators" of different leaders in your head to load their specific skillsets. Don't feel pressured to find one perfect mentor who matches your exact life path.
Deb Liu: "I'm in a lean-in group and we support each other... coaching circles give you an opportunity to learn from each other and to get peer coaching." Join or form a coaching circle with peers at a similar career stage to share challenges and validate whether a problem is personal or situational.
Phyl Terry: "Warren Buffett is my mentor, he just doesn't know it... if you really study that moment and study what Jobs did, it can inform your decisions." Select a leader you respect and study their specific actions during critical career moments. Read primary sources rather than just biographies.
Paul Millerd: "If we can't jump on a call, can I send you a list of questions?" When doing cold outreach, offer to send written questions instead of requesting a live call to increase response rates.
For all 23 insights from 19 guests, see references/guest-insights.md