Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 232
Oct 1, 2024 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyJules Walter, a product leader at Google formerly of YouTube and Slack, lays out five tactics for building influence as a PM: gathering intel on how stakeholders decide, framing proposals from their point of view…
Lenny’s Podcast104 min
Benjamin Lauzier · Sep 29, 2024
Key learnings- Before reaching product-market fit, avoid marketplace mechanics and focus on delivering core value to one side of the marketplace.
- Pick the hardest side to grow, which is usually supply, and find a hack or existing channel to jumpstart it before worrying about…
- Measure liquidity as the share of intentful demand that converts, and track a market health metric like ETA that predicts it.
SVPG · Marty CaganSep 26, 2024
Sep 26, 2024 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that product creation is a blend of art and science, though he has long leaned toward the scientific side because of his training. Reading Rick Rubin's book The Creative Act reshaped his view…
Lenny’s Podcast93 min
Tamar Yehoshua · Sep 26, 2024
Key learnings- Excel in your current role before chasing the next one; advancement follows demonstrated impact, not just hitting goals or…
- Evaluate a potential employer's engineering partner before joining, since great ideas that can't be built lead nowhere.
- Don't assume a company must be well run to succeed; hyper-growth firms often run chaotically, but prioritize companies whose…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 175
Sep 24, 2024 · 10 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky's follow-up report uses data from TrueUp (new tech job openings) and Live Data Technologies (job changes) to map the state of the product job market. It covers a slow recovery, a tilt toward senior PM…
Lenny’s Podcast159 min
Eli Schwartz · Sep 19, 2024
Key learnings- Treat SEO as a product: start by understanding the user's search journey and what they would actually type before investing…
- Skip SEO if you can't name the specific searches your target user would make; many SaaS products lack a real search journey and…
- Expect AI answers to absorb top-of-funnel discovery queries, and focus SEO effort on mid-funnel, intent-rich queries where users…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 18, 2024
Sep 18, 2024 · 3 min
Teresa Torres announces a second run of the Continuous Discovery Habits (CDH) Benchmark Survey, aimed at measuring how many product teams have adopted a continuous cadence to discovery work. She argues that the…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 243
Sep 17, 2024 · 24 min
Seed fundraising is presented as one of the most high-stakes and confusing parts of a founder's job, and this guide, co-written by two seed investors who have been involved in over 1,000 seed rounds, aims to make it…
Lenny’s Podcast101 min
Camille Fournier · Sep 15, 2024
Key learnings- Share credit generously with engineers and give them room to present their own technical contributions rather than taking the…
- Show genuine interest in engineering details, even if you don't need to master them, since dismissing them signals a lack of…
- Avoid acting as a go-between for engineers and stakeholders; if you keep relaying questions back and forth, connect the people…
Lenny’s Podcast144 min
Phyl Terry · Sep 12, 2024
Key learnings- Join or form a small Job Search Council of six to eight peers who meet regularly, since shared accountability turns job-search…
- Write a short 'Mnookin two-pager' listing what you want and don't want, then refine it with peers before taking it to the market.
- Run a listening tour with reverse exit interviews, broader network, and recruiters, asking 'If you were in my shoes, how would…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 171
Sep 10, 2024 · 21 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyTara Seshan, a former Stripe and Watershed product leader, shares a playbook for presenting product tradeoffs so leadership actually makes a decision rather than defaulting to "do both." The post covers framing…
SVPG · Marty CaganSep 9, 2024
Sep 9, 2024 · 11 min
Marty Cagan argues that when companies grow, boards often push founders to hand over leadership to professional managers, but the stronger path is to coach founders into strong product leaders. He contrasts two failure…
Lenny’s Podcast126 min
Sean Ellis · Sep 5, 2024
Key learnings- Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product; a high share saying 'very disappointed' is a leading…
- Survey a random sample of users who have actually experienced the product and used it more than once recently, not just sign-ups…
- Use the very-disappointed group as a filter: find their primary benefit and the context ('why is this important to you') to craft…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 4, 2024
Sep 4, 2024 · 12 min
Teresa Torres profiles how Botify, a B2B SaaS company, gradually moved from siloed roles to product trios (PM, designer, tech lead) starting in 2019. The shift was driven by its Chief Product Officer and several team…
SVPG · Marty CaganSep 3, 2024
Sep 3, 2024 · 4 min
The article introduces a two-way feedback model that the author credits with changing how she coaches people. It argues that one-way "radical candor" style criticism can demotivate, so feedback should give both parties…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 314
Sep 3, 2024 · 32 min
Phil Carter introduces the Subscription Value Loop, a framework for growing consumer subscription apps that face hard problems: app store control, dependence on paid acquisition, high churn, and low, hard-to-grow ARPU…
SVPG · Marty CaganAug 27, 2024
Aug 27, 2024 · 6 min
Marty Cagan argues that beyond the business case for the product model, there is a moral case: empowered teams are happier, more fulfilled, and proud of improving customers' lives or society. He notes that organizations…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 338
Aug 27, 2024 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares seven more practical productivity tactics following his popular time management post. The core argument is that small, concrete habits, such as arbitrary deadlines, physical to-do lists, graceful…
Lenny’s Podcast105 min
Nikita Bier · Aug 25, 2024
Key learnings- Look for latent demand: when users go through a distorted workaround to get a value, that signal can reveal a product idea with…
- Target teens for social and communication products, since invitations per user drop roughly 20% per year from age 13 to 18, and…
- Build a reproducible testing process: Bier argues that the number of shots at bat and how reliably you test ideas matters more…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 21, 2024
Aug 21, 2024 · 5 min
Teresa Torres addresses a recurring question from product teams: who should count as a customer for interviews in continuous discovery. She argues that a customer is whoever uses the product or makes the purchase…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 262
Aug 20, 2024 · 7 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky argues, in response to anxiety over AI replacing product managers, that PMs are the best-positioned tech role to thrive in an AI-driven world. He contends that AI excels at execution while PMs' soft…
Lenny’s Podcast115 min
Kevin Yien · Aug 18, 2024
Key learnings- Consider entering product management from engineering, design, or sales, since those roles teach you the front-line work a PM…
- Treat product management as converting a team's potential energy into realized customer value, and only add PMs where that work…
- Write clearly and compellingly enough that others can act on it; Kevin argues a PM who cannot sell or support their own product…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 14, 2024
Aug 14, 2024 · 17 min
This Product in Practice story from Ramsey Solutions explains how the company got engineers to take part in product trios, despite their reluctance. Engineers feared falling behind technically and saw the tech lead role…
SVPG · Marty CaganAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 15 min
Marty Cagan and Josh Kerievsky argue that outsourcing agencies can apply the product model to custom solution work, even though clients often arrive with a fixed solution in mind and fixed-price contracts. The core…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 8 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA recap of a conversation with Y Combinator Group Partner Gustaf Alströmer, drawing on his work with more than 600 startups and his Airbnb experience. The core argument is that most startups fail because they don't talk…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview-style episode with Marily Nika, an AI product leader, on how product managers can use AI in their work and build AI-powered products. She covers practical ChatGPT prompts, when to build versus buy models…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 1,182
Aug 13, 2024 · 12 min
Lenny Rachitsky shares ten time-management tactics he uses daily after years of trying productivity books, emphasizing ones that have lasted beyond a few weeks. The core argument is that small, durable habits, such as…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview-based post with April Dunford, a positioning consultant, covering how to diagnose positioning problems, her five-step positioning exercise, and how positioning differs from messaging, branding…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 12, 2024
Aug 12, 2024 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyHila Qu, a growth advisor and former GitLab and Acorns growth leader, walks through how B2B companies can add a product-led growth (PLG) motion alongside sales. Her core argument is that PLG and sales are complementary…
Lenny’s Podcast160 min
Evan LaPointe · Aug 11, 2024
Key learnings- Send questions to the right mental mode: most people over-rely on fast, recall-based thinking, so deliberately route problems to…
- Start meetings with priming, stating the context, shared goal, and guiding principles before jumping into decisions; mismatched…
- Know your own personality and openness level, then be vulnerable with your team about how you naturally react to abstract vision…