Working notes from product people

Ask the people who’ve done it.

A free, searchable library of 1,799 of the best product-management essays, podcast episodes and posts, from Lenny Rachitsky, Marty Cagan, Teresa Torres and seven others, that answers your questions with citations.

For PMs, founders and anyone building products

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Answers quote and cite the source notes

Unofficial · not affiliated with any author · every note links to the original

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01 — Topics · the card catalogueBrowse by topic

Postfree essay or newsletter postPaidsubscriber post, summary onlyPodcastepisode with key learningsXpost on XHover a tag for the publication

3 more drawersBrowse all 14 topics →
Open drawer · 02

Discovery & customer research

539 notes · 32 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 123

A Three-Step Framework For Solving Problems 👌

Jun 14, 2019 · 13 min

“[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!zHZ!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fec85cabc-5222-4a71-9e48-159f1981c07e1600x800.png) It’s 2012 and our team has just joined Airbnb. We’re tasked with building out a “social travel” experience for Airbnb travelers. The thinking is that travelers on Airbnb are siloed across the city, and if we…”

Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 363

How to develop product sense

Mar 15, 2022 · 18 min

Jules Walter argues that product sense is a learned skill rather than an innate talent, defined as consistently crafting products that have the intended impact on users through empathy and creativity. He offers four…

@lennysan · Lenny Rachitsky on X♥ 1,037
Trend I'm following: Teams using AI "simulations" to quickly test product ideas and flow tweaks. Products like @simile_ai, @primitivelabsai, @syntheticusers, and others. If you've tried something like this, how'd it go?
Lenny’s Podcast103 min

Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Resilience, tar pit ideas, pivoting, more

Dalton Caldwell · Apr 18, 2024
Key learnings
  • Keep the startup alive: the core mantra is 'don't die,' since much of startup success comes from persisting through near-death…
  • Before quitting, ask whether you still enjoy the work, your co-founders, and your customers; if you love those, lean toward…
  • A good pivot moves 'warmer,' toward domains you already know or have built experience in, and often grows out of what you learned…
Lenny’s Podcast94 min

The ultimate guide to JTBD

Bob Moesta · Aug 24, 2023
Key learnings
  • Customers hire products to make progress in a context; understanding the context and desired outcome matters more than simply…
  • Start from the struggling moment that causes demand, since a product alone does not create demand; use those moments to guide…
  • Model switching as forces: push and pull drive change, while anxiety of the new and habit of the present hold people back, and…
@ttorres · Teresa Torres on X♥ 292
AI evals have been the "it" skill for product teams for over a year. I've even called evals a new discovery habit. But I still meet product teams who only have a vague idea of what evals are. And it's not their fault. Most of the writing on this topic is intended for engineers or just isn't…

02 — FrameworksModels, annotated.

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03 — PeopleWho wrote the notes.

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04 — QuestionsAnswered from the notes.

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Where notes come from

NewsletterLenny’s Newsletter110 free posts, with a longer excerpt.
Subscriber postsSummary only233 paid posts: our summary, at most two short quotes, and a link.
PodcastLenny’s Podcast323 episodes, each with 5–8 key learnings and timestamps.
EssaysSVPG · The Beautiful Mess499 essays from Marty Cagan and John Cutler.
Substack & blogsShreyas · Julie · Jason · Hiten577 essays and posts from independent writers.
XPosts on product66 posts, filtered for product relevance.