Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 240
Feb 7, 2023 · 20 min
Lenny Rachitsky and Dan Shipper walk through how a Lenny-specific chatbot was built on GPT-3 using his newsletter archive. The piece explains the difference between GPT-3 and ChatGPT, why raw language models tend to…
Lenny’s Podcast64 min
Marily Nika · Feb 5, 2023
Key learnings- Avoid the shiny object trap: only add AI when there is a real, well-defined pain point worth solving, and identify the problem…
- Don't use AI for an MVP; fake the AI behavior with a clickable prototype and test desirability with users first.
- Use ChatGPT as a sounding board for sharpening mission statements and generating user segments, personas, and motivations, while…
Lenny’s Podcast88 min
Eeke de Milliano · Feb 2, 2023
Key learnings- Process reduces variance but can pull down top performers; introduce it deliberately and give high performers escape hatches…
- Reframe failure as learning: rename postmortems 'retrospectives' and have people share failure learnings publicly to normalize…
- Lower the stakes of big bets by using small teams, getting customer feedback early, and not waiting for perfection before testing.
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 140
Jan 31, 2023 · 21 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky profiles how Coda's product organization plans, reviews, and builds product, drawing on an interview with CPO Lane Shackleton. The post covers Coda's evolving planning cadence, OKR philosophy, review…
Lenny’s Podcast105 min
Zoelle Egner · Jan 29, 2023
Key learnings- Start with a laughably small MVP, as Zoelle's team did with a spreadsheet and phone calls, to learn what infrastructure you…
- Repeat your core message relentlessly; people fill gaps with wrong assumptions, so the leader's job is saying the same things…
- Punch above your weight as a small company by polishing emails, landing pages, and sample content so customers feel the product…
Lenny’s Podcast69 min
Vijay · Jan 26, 2023
Key learnings- Protect your core product: rather than moving people from the core to new ventures, invest the core's profits into new bets…
- Be cautious adding adjacent products in new categories; bolt-on products that are only mid-tier in crowded categories rarely move…
- When a product is losing customers to competitors, a focused 'speed' phase working directly from ranked churn reasons can close…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 83
Jan 17, 2023 · 12 min
“If you’re just joining us, make sure to read part one of this series, where I cover the first three steps of starting your PLG motion: - Step 1: Map your funnel - Step 2: Pick a starting point - Step 3: Anticipate the most common pitfalls Now let’s continue with step 4. You can find on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Substack. Make sure to check out the Reforge courses she teaches, Advanced Growth Strategy and Experimentation & Testing, and…”
Lenny’s Podcast135 min
John Cutler · Jan 15, 2023
Key learnings- Start with introspection about your own leadership beliefs; you can flex away from your default, but expect to move only…
- Highly performing teams tend to have coherence between their structure and their current strategy; fixing structure to match…
- Top teams hold strong opinions loosely held: they commit to convictions, especially about the power of product, while staying…
Lenny’s Podcast72 min
Naomi Ionita · Jan 12, 2023
Key learnings- Don't set pricing once and forget it; treat it like the roadmap and revisit monetization every 6 to 12 months, especially when…
- Start monetizing earlier than feels comfortable, since delaying cheapens the product, removes pricing feedback loops, and creates…
- Match price to value by choosing a value metric tied to how users get value, so revenue grows naturally as usage increases.
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 232
Jan 10, 2023 · 20 min
Hila Qu, a former VP of growth at Acorns and PLG lead at GitLab, lays out a practical guide to starting a product-led growth motion for B2B SaaS. The piece argues that PLG is not just a feature set but a go-to-market…
Lenny’s Podcast87 min
Yuhki Yamashata · Jan 8, 2023
Key learnings- Storytelling is a core PM skill; Yamashita suggests resetting your context and retelling the situation as if the listener knows…
- Own the 'why' of a product: when teams can't have detailed specs, a shared understanding of the problem lets people make good…
- Use the 'five whys' on problems, asking not just why a customer wants a feature but why they have the underlying problem in the…
Lenny’s Podcast88 min
Jules Walter · Jan 5, 2023
Key learnings- Build skills one at a time, dedicating a few months to each with weekly practice tied to a concrete outcome rather than just…
- Create a forcing-function outcome when learning something new, then work backwards to the questions you need answered and seek…
- Practice interviewing with dozens of mock interviews, ideally with people skilled at interviewing, since interviewers rarely give…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 148
Jan 3, 2023 · 17 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky argues that true viral growth is rare and short-lived, and that most products spike when a large one-to-many broadcaster shares them. Drawing on Derek Thompson's Hit Makers and examples like Spotify…
Lenny’s Podcast72 min
EOY Review · Dec 29, 2022
Key learnings- Start positioning by identifying competitive alternatives, including the status quo, since many B2B deals are lost to 'no…
- Map each product capability to the customer value it enables, then group these into two or three differentiated value themes…
- Treat metrics as insights only when they explain why a behavior happens and change what you do; otherwise they are entertainment…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 314
Dec 27, 2022 · 7 min
Lenny Rachitsky's year-end roundup revisits his 250-plus past newsletter posts and podcast episodes, selecting the most popular ones and sorting them into problem-based categories such as building product, go-to-market…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 187
Dec 20, 2022 · 5 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky recommends a curated set of product management courses, split into five for senior PMs and five for up-and-coming PMs, plus honorable mentions. He limits picks to live, cohort-based courses that have run…
Lenny’s Podcast112 min
Chris Hutchins · Dec 18, 2022
Key learnings- Committing to a steady weekly cadence, even for just 10 weeks, puts a podcast in roughly the top few percent of all shows ever…
- Only start a podcast if you would keep doing it for free for a long time, because most shows take many months to gain traction…
- Structure a first season as a fixed number of episodes (e.g., eight) so you can test whether you actually enjoy the work before…
Lenny’s Podcast75 min
Pete Kazanjy · Dec 15, 2022
Key learnings- Founders should personally run sales first, since outsourcing it early breaks the feedback loop on whether the product and…
- Build a repeatable sales motion before hiring: aim for roughly a 15-25% conversion from first meeting to customer across cohorts…
- Iterate on your pitch continuously: after each objection, update slides, talk tracks, and collateral so the next cohort of…
Lenny’s Podcast90 min
Camille Ricketts · Dec 11, 2022
Key learnings- Treat content like a product: define who the audience is and what painful job they need done before creating anything.
- Community-led growth works best when the product creates something users want to share, such as templates or creative workspaces.
- Measure brand discovery with net new visitors to your site month over month, rather than starting with rigid community ROI…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 82
Dec 6, 2022 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares tactics from angel investor and founder Sam Corcos on getting real value from investors. The post argues founders often fail to activate their networks because they don't ask well, and covers…
Lenny’s Podcast110 min
Sahil Mansuri · Dec 4, 2022
Key learnings- Plan next year conservatively, but set short-term checkpoints (e.g., Q1 revenue targets) that unlock extra spend or trigger…
- Avoid founder optimism bias in forecasts; predetermine what decisions will follow from hitting or missing each milestone.
- Rethink sales comp so reps are rewarded for renewals, retention and customer quality, not just new bookings, since current plans…
Lenny’s Podcast92 min
Petra Wille · Nov 27, 2022
Key learnings- Define what a good product person looks like in your specific context, since many leaders only hold this as an implicit feeling…
- Start coaching with a development plan for each PM, even before a formal assessment, because most people already know what they…
- Identify the next bigger challenge for each direct report each quarter and deliberately assign it to help them grow faster.
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 108
Nov 22, 2022 · 26 min
Suril Kantaria, co-founder and CEO of Savvy, recounts the arc of a fintech startup that let employees buy their own health insurance with payment cards, from early missteps to a 2022 acquisition by a market incumbent…
Lenny’s Podcast85 min
Ian McAllister · Nov 20, 2022
Key learnings- New PMs should focus first on communicating, prioritizing, and executing, since other skills grow in importance with seniority.
- Answer first and then explain; when asked a 'when' question, give a date, and grade yourself after feedback to improve…
- Prioritization is a core PM skill across themes, projects, sequencing, scope, and personal time, and it strongly multiplies…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Gergely · Nov 17, 2022
Key learnings- Build real depth in a specific field before writing about it, since credibility from hands-on experience is hard to fake and…
- Set controllable goals, such as publishing on a fixed cadence, rather than outcome goals like subscriber counts you cannot…
- Create external deadlines and accountability, such as promises to paying readers or a publisher, to overcome the procrastination…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 291
Nov 15, 2022 · 10 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky opens a series on how top product teams work, using Figma's CPO Yuhki Yamashita as the first case. The post walks through Figma's planning cadence, its shift from OKRs to narrative 'headlines' and…
Lenny’s Podcast88 min
Alex Hardimen · Nov 13, 2022
Key learnings- Define impact in service of mission: at a news company, subscriber growth matters, but so does a deeply reported story driving a…
- Build an essential subscription bundle by pairing a trusted news core with adjacent products like games, cooking, audio and…
- Organize product teams along two axes: functions (craft, career growth, standards) and cross-functional missions (consumer…
Lenny’s Podcast89 min
Matt Mochary · Nov 10, 2022
Key learnings- When you sense fear clouding judgment, make a low-stakes bet with a peer on the opposite prediction; Mochary says fear has…
- Deliver layoff news one-on-one, never via email or group chat, since impersonal delivery is what turns layoffs into anger and…
- Separate the decision from its implementation: decide based on what serves the customer, then address the hurt of each affected…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 135
Nov 8, 2022 · 17 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA follow-up on activation metrics explaining a three-step method: brainstorm candidate moments from usage data, test them with regression against retention, then run experiments to confirm causality. It adds real reader…
Lenny’s Podcast111 min
Ben Williams · Nov 6, 2022
Key learnings- Start with a narrow, deep use case for one developer community (Snyk began with Node.js developers) to validate product-market…
- Design acquisition loops into the product itself, such as Snyk-branded pull requests that educate other developers and drive them…
- Build programmatic SEO assets, like Snyk Advisor's package health pages, that generate and index large volumes of pages…