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

Q:
Answers quote and cite the source notes

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

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Answers come from ten product leaders’ essays, podcasts and posts, not the open web.

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Each point carries a numbered citation that links to the note and to the original essay or episode.

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01 · Ask a questionGet a cited answer in seconds.

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14 topics, from strategy to pricing to AI, and 33 common questions already answered.

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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

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Open drawer · 09

Startups & founders

291 notes · 89 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 330

How to kickstart and scale a consumer business

Jul 5, 2022 · 64 min

“As a startup founder, you need to do the impossible. You build something that has never been built before, with a team that’s never worked together before, while learning dozens of new skills, making countless no-going-back decisions, all before you run out of money (and energy). It’s like being lost in the wilderness, in the dark, with only a vague sense of where you’re heading. Imagine if you had a map. From TikTok to Reddit to Uber…”

@hnshah · Hiten Shah on X♥ 28
Founders are doing product marketing earlier than they think. The market starts teaching you how buyers see the product almost immediately. What they compare it to affects the story you tell. Objections and lost deals often expose something deeper about the product itself. That
Lenny’s Podcast98 min

Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member

Uri Levine · Jun 9, 2024
Key learnings
  • Start with a meaningful problem you feel personally passionate about, since the journey is long and hard and passion sustains…
  • Validate a problem by speaking with many people outside your close circle; if they describe the problem in their own words, it is…
  • Expect a journey of failures and iterate quickly; failing fast leaves time for more attempts, which raises the odds of success.
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 Newsletter · Free post♥ 148

How to validate your startup idea

May 10, 2022 · 56 min

Todd Jackson, a seed-stage investor at First Round Capital, interviewed founders of eight companies (Vanta, Flexport, Cocoon, Good Dog, Snackpass, Rec Room, LaunchDarkly, Pinwheel) about how they chose and validated…

@hnshah · Hiten Shah on X♥ 14
Founders are doing product marketing earlier than they think. It usually shows up when a buyer says something you weren’t expecting. That gap between how you describe the product and how buyers see it can change the story you tell and what gets built next. If you’re a founder

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.