A career accelerator in your inbox.
The Uncommon Executive is a weekly newsletter by Yue Zhao, a product executive with 15+ years of experience leading product & engineering teams across startups and FAANG. She shares her hard-won learnings on career growth, executive leadership, and combating bias.
The newsletter covers topics such as team values, executive communication, strategy & execution, executive presence, maximizing relationships with managers, and overcoming people-pleasing tendencies.
I post every Thursday at 3:14 pm, with sporadic posts shared on weekends.
If you’re new here, here are some popular posts:
Founder Mode, Innovation, and Why Women Are Well-Positioned To Lead (supporting women founders)
Executive Presence - How to Level Up and Express the Authentic you
Overcoming Fear and Reflexive Reliance - Managing the Shadows of Your Superpower (free)
Subscribe now! Never miss an update, and get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
About me
I’m a first-generation Chinese American. I have had a storied career for the last 20+ years that most Asian moms would be proud of:
I got my engineering degree at the University of California, Berkeley.
I flew around the world with McKinsey and Company as a business analyst
I got my MBA at Harvard Business School, co-founded a failed wine startup, and met my tall, dark and handsome husband
I landed at Thumbtack as the 1st PM, riding a crazy growth trajectory with them as they became a Unicorn and raised more than $250M while I was there. I went from entry PM to Director in 4 years
I made a hop over to Meta and Instagram. I led the IG feed and profile teams with 1B+ users, working from the brand-new San Francisco office near Salesforce Park. I also started a family and had 2 beautiful baby boys.
Post the COVID-19 pandemic and baby haze, I left Meta to become the Chief Product & Technology officer at Fuzzy Pet Health, a series-C startup with $88M+ in funding.
And now? I’m running my own coaching business as a solo entrepreneur.
All Subscribers Get:
Weekly post to accelerate your career
Access to all archives
Access to Yue’s Coaching Corner, a kind and supportive community of women and minority aspiring executives.
Monthly office hours with Yue on top-of-mind career challenges (through the community)
1:1 executive coaching (Founding Members only)
Discounts and first access to Yue’s events, courses, and coaching programs.
Self-Promotion
For more of my work, check out:
The Uncommon Executive Leadership Launchpad: https://www.yuezhao.coach/accelerate
My book: The Uncommon Executive: Breakthrough to the C-suite as a Minority
Maven Courses: https://maven.com/yuezhao
1:1 executive coaching: https://www.yuezhao.coach/
For information on corporate team coaching and workshops, please contact me at yuezhao.coach@gmail.com
I hope you enjoy what I write, and I genuinely look forward to hearing what you think as well!
