Sam Kaner
Growth Marketing Platform · Uber

Marketing tech,
at Uber scale.

I've been a PM for over a decade — starting as an APM at IBM and working through marketing technology ever since. These days I work on Uber's Growth Marketing Platform, the infrastructure and intelligence layer behind how Uber reaches and retains its riders and drivers around the world. My work has spanned campaign automation, AI integration, and most recently, personalization at scale.

Below are the three principles that have stayed constant across every role and team I've worked with.

1

Prioritizing by impact, not volume

There's always more to build than time to build it. I try to spend less time asking "how do we ship this?" and more time asking "should we?" — weighing value to the user, to other teams, and to the business before anything touches a sprint.

2

Communicating like it matters

PMs don't have direct authority over much, so clarity and trust become the whole job. I write things down, say the hard thing early, and make sure the people building with me understand not just what we're doing but why.

3

Ship, then keep going

A v1 that's live is worth more than a perfect spec that isn't. I'd rather get something real in front of people early and improve from there than wait for a version that covers every edge case before anyone's actually seen it.