Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 214
Apr 2, 2024 · 23 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyDuolingo's VP of Engineering Sean Colombo shares five growth lessons from scaling daily active users from 5 million to nearly 30 million. The core argument is that urgency and fast experiment rollout compound growth…
Lenny’s Podcast97 min
Matt Abrahams · Mar 31, 2024
Key learnings- Visualize the whole experience, from walking to the stage to stepping off, including the audience responding well, to desensitize…
- Prepare in order to be spontaneous; practice is what makes improvisation and on-the-spot speaking go well, as it does in…
- Strive for connection over perfection by daring to be dull: just answer the question and stop judging every word, which frees up…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 432
Mar 26, 2024 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky, with instructor Colin Matthews, offers a practical primer for product managers who want stronger technical fluency. It walks through application architecture (client, server, database), how APIs work…
Lenny’s Podcast117 min
Kunal Shah · Mar 24, 2024
Key learnings- Use the Delta 4 test: if a new product is at least four points better than the existing alternative on a 1-10 scale, it tends to…
- Check whether a feature is genuinely more efficient than the old way; adding technology alone does not guarantee a Delta 4…
- In low-income markets, evaluate user counts with caution: India can deliver huge DAUs but low ARPU, so judge business potential…
Lenny’s Podcast124 min
Emilie Gerber · Mar 21, 2024
Key learnings- Press often delivers second-order value: third-party validation for sales emails, recruiting outreach, and investor or sponsor…
- For funding announcements, keep the pitch simple: amount raised, investors, and one line on why it matters, offered as an…
- Follow up respectfully every three or four days with new information, and move on to other relevant reporters after a few…
Lenny’s Podcast82 min
Noam Lovinsky · Mar 17, 2024
Key learnings- Advocate for what is best for the business even when it means shutting down your own project; in healthy organizations, that…
- Don't hesitate to ask for a different reporting structure if it will make you more productive; Noam layered himself under a peer…
- Set guiding principles for trade-offs, such as serving customers first, then supply, then the company, to resolve thorny…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 293
Mar 12, 2024 · 20 min
“Q: What’s in your podcast stack? I’m approaching two years of podcasting (and just crossed 10M downloads and 3M YouTube views!), so now feels like a good time to reflect on how I got here. I was incredibly hesitant to start a podcast. There are a trillion podcasts, they’re a lot of work, and it’s so dorky to tell people you have a podcast 🤦. But thanks to a nudge from Harry Stebbings, and having a newsletter platform to help kickstart…”
Lenny’s Podcast87 min
Ray Cao · Mar 7, 2024
Key learnings- Succeeding in global markets requires sending people in, hiring local talent, and understanding local culture, since the…
- Adopt a 'context, not control' mindset: give teams full information and ownership, then let them proactively think and reactively…
- Hire for curiosity, discipline, and prioritization skill; Cao notes that hiring quality over speed is a mistake he made early on.
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 102
Mar 5, 2024 · 22 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyThe post argues that a Product Hunt launch is worth the heavy time investment only for the right product and goals, and outlines seven tactics for a strong launch alongside five common myths. It frames…
Lenny’s Podcast145 min
Boz · Mar 3, 2024
Key learnings- Ask your manager for help earlier; your job is to get the work done well, and managers hold tools and context you may be missing.
- Frame updates for busy leaders with 'no response required' messages, and say exactly where you are blocked and what specific help…
- Communication is the job: your impact comes only through artifacts or words that move other people, and when things fail, examine…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 280
Feb 27, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky compiles 25 high-signal interview questions gathered from roughly 150 podcast guests, grouped by theme: handling hard situations, how candidates think, how they build and drive impact, who they are as…
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Donna Lichaw · Feb 25, 2024
Key learnings- Treat the stories you tell yourself as hypotheses: check them against real feedback from colleagues instead of assuming they are…
- Start leadership growth from the inside out: lead yourself first, then one-on-ones, teams, and the wider business.
- Ask how a limiting habit or belief, like imposter syndrome, currently serves you before trying to suppress it.
Lenny’s Podcast82 min
Elizabeth Stone · Feb 22, 2024
Key learnings- Economics framing, especially thinking through incentives and unintended consequences, is a useful lens for product and business…
- Hold a high personal bar: be responsive, follow through on commitments, and show up on time so colleagues are not left waiting on…
- Give high-standard feedback in private and specific terms, then help the person close the gap by working on the work with them…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 517
Feb 20, 2024 · 15 min
Lenny Rachitsky argues that product and business teams should start experimenting with custom GPTs now, since AI tools are often dismissed as a fad or too complex. He explains what GPTs are, how to build one by…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 185
Feb 13, 2024 · 24 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyKristen Berman walks through the four main quantitative willingness-to-pay methods (Van Westendorp, Becker-DeGroot-Marschak, multiple price list, and discrete choice), comparing their strengths and biases. She argues…
Lenny’s Podcast124 min
Jake Knapp + John Zeratsky · Feb 11, 2024
Key learnings- Start each day by choosing a highlight: imagine the day is over and decide what you'd want to call the highlight, then protect a…
- Don't rely on willpower; change your environment by logging out of apps, deleting infinity-pool apps from your phone, or adding…
- Use your calendar as a design tool by blocking focus time, meals, exercise, and personal priorities, then adjust the template…
Lenny’s Podcast91 min
Logan Kilpatrick · Feb 8, 2024
Key learnings- Products built on general-purpose AI should either be radically better than ChatGPT in specific ways or focus on a narrow…
- Give models rich context about who you are, your goals, and your audience; Logan argues context is the main lever for getting…
- Treat prompt engineering like briefing a capable human with no background: explain the situation, the audience, and what good…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 324
Feb 6, 2024 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky compiles several lightweight decision-making frameworks, ordered from most to least structured, and explains when each fits best. He stresses that frameworks suit only high-stakes, one-way-door choices…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Megan Cook · Feb 4, 2024
Key learnings- Pair product managers in small peer feedback groups every couple of weeks so people can share rough drafts and get feedback in a…
- Treat psychological safety as a precondition for bolder ideas; Megan argues the opposite of play is fear, not work.
- Schedule a recurring block for working through conflict early, so disagreements are addressed before they grow.
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 121
Jan 30, 2024 · 32 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky compiles practices from six companies known for work trials (Linear, Automattic, 37signals, Gumroad, Auth0, PostHog) into a guide covering what work trials are, why they help, example projects, time and…
Lenny’s Podcast88 min
Jonny Miller · Jan 28, 2024
Key learnings- Calm the body first: changing breath and physiological state tends to shift thoughts and feelings faster than trying to reason…
- Use a longer exhale than inhale (e.g., 4-4-8 breathing) to downshift; a longer inhale or energizing breath can raise activation…
- Build a daily practice of two to five minutes in the morning so calming techniques come naturally in stressful moments, since…
Lenny’s Podcast103 min
Geoffrey Moore · Jan 25, 2024
Key learnings- Don't take any customer you can find to generate revenue; instead concentrate on one narrow beachhead segment defined by…
- Pick a beachhead big enough to matter but small enough to lead, where you could plausibly reach 30 to 50 percent share within a…
- Win a marquee customer whose name people recognize, but make sure the reference that pragmatists trust is a pragmatist peer, not…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 131
Jan 23, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview with Gong's chief product officer on how the company builds product. It covers two-tier annual and quarterly planning, autonomous multi-skill pods organized around problem areas, the decision to skip OKRs…
Lenny’s Podcast100 min
Richard Rumelt · Jan 21, 2024
Key learnings- Treat strategy as a response to one or two real challenges, not a list of ambitions, priorities, or aspirations; Rumelt suggests…
- A solid strategy has three parts: a diagnosis of the situation, a guiding policy for dealing with it, and coherent actions that…
- Test your strategy for bad signs: goals dressed up as strategy, fluffy jargon, missing diagnosis, and actions that contradict one…
Lenny’s Podcast76 min
Heidi Helfand · Jan 18, 2024
Key learnings- Treat reteaming as a people-layer problem to be designed for deliberately, not just a product or delivery concern, since teams…
- Use transparency tools like whiteboards showing proposed team structures, names, missions, and open roles to gather input and…
- Clarify who requests, who gives input, who decides, and who executes each change (the RIDE framework, credited to Pat Wadors) to…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 512
Jan 16, 2024 · 13 min
Lenny Rachitsky and Dan Hockenmaier argue that every business can be reduced to a simple equation, and that you don't fully understand your business until you can write one. Building the equation forces teams to name…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Ethan Evans 2.0 · Jan 14, 2024
Key learnings- Do your current job well first; you can't grow your career while your manager wishes you were different about your performance.
- Ask your manager directly how you can help them, then do what they ask even when the work is unglamorous.
- Once trust exists, tell your manager your specific career goal and ask what they need that would also advance you; managers help…
Lenny’s Podcast121 min
Sam Schillace · Jan 11, 2024
Key learnings- Treat 'why not' objections as signals to examine, and answer them with 'what if' questions about how far an idea could go if it…
- Judge disruption by polarization: if people either love or hate something, it is more likely disruptive than something met with…
- Make experiments cheap and fast so you can test ideas quickly, since you will almost always be wrong about the product until you…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 275
Jan 9, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA founder whose product isn't gaining traction gets seven concrete options: talk to more users, narrow the target audience, rework positioning, try growth 'kickstarts', pivot to whatever shows pull, allow more time, or…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Will Larson · Jan 7, 2024
Key learnings- Treat engineers as capable adults by giving them hard problems and accountability, which lets them grow into senior leadership…
- Build simple stock-and-flow models of processes like hiring pipelines, then compare them against historical data to find where…
- Write your engineering strategy down, even imperfectly; an unwritten strategy cannot be debugged or improved, and every function…