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.

Every claim is cited

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

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Ask writes only from the library, and says plainly when the library doesn’t cover your question.

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01 · Ask a questionGet a cited answer in seconds.

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02 · Learn a topicRead what the best people say.

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

3 more drawersBrowse all 14 topics →
Open drawer · 01

Product strategy & vision

618 notes · 122 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 614

My favorite product management templates

Aug 4, 2020 · 5 min

“Hello and welcome to thefree monthly editionof my weekly newsletter. I’m Lenny, and each week I humbly tackle reader questions about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that’s stressing you out at the office. Q: I’ve seen you share a few PM templates in the past. Do you have a place to find all of your favorite templates? Now I do! Below are all of my favorite templates and frameworks that I rely on. As a bonus, I…”

Substack · Shreyas Doshi♥ 325

10 ideas for 2026

Dec 30, 2025

Shreyas Doshi argues that clear thinking underpins everything product people do, yet most of us have significant gaps in how we reason. In this year-end essay he offers ten ideas for 2026, framed explicitly as useful to…

Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 199

Positioning

Jan 26, 2021 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary only

April Dunford gives a practical guide to product positioning, using a story about a mispositioned database product to show how context shapes customer assumptions. She argues positioning should be built by starting from…

@hnshah · Hiten Shah on X♥ 30
We asked Claude what changed among Linear's competitors. No skills: an old source treated as recent, and a guess stated as fact. Same model, with our competitive skills installed: every claim dated, the ranking marked as its own view, and a line about what it could not see.
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 1,022

How Duolingo reignited user growth

Feb 28, 2023 · 21 min

Jorge Mazal, former CPO of Duolingo, recounts how the company reversed a slide in daily active user growth and eventually grew DAU about 4.5x over four years. The journey began with failed attempts: a…

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 Podcast97 min

The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product

Ethan Smith · Sep 14, 2025
Key learnings
  • Everything that works in traditional SEO also works for AEO, so start with landing pages targeting high-volume keywords before…
  • In LLM answers you win by being mentioned across many citations, not by ranking first, so pursue multiple third-party mentions…
  • Early-stage companies can win in AEO quickly, since a single citation from a Reddit thread, YouTube video, or blog can get you…
@lennysan · Lenny Rachitsky on X♥ 968
My conversation with Head of ChatGPT and Codex, @thsottiaux We discuss: 🔸 Why the model picker is likely going away 🔸 Why loops and graphs are a passing phase 🔸 Why most actions on the internet will soon be taken by agents 🔸 OpenAI’s approach to AI safety Listen now 👇

02 — FrameworksModels, annotated.

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03 — PeopleWho wrote the notes.

All 10 people →

04 — QuestionsAnswered from the notes.

All 33 questions →

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.