Lenny’s Podcast92 min
Joe Hudson · Aug 8, 2024
Key learnings- Treat the critical inner voice as usually wrong and unhelpful; rather than trying to silence it, respond to it differently…
- Respond to a fearful inner critic with compassion, such as acknowledging it is scared and that you are there with it, instead of…
- Approach emotional change as experimentation and self-discovery, not self-improvement, since failed attempts at self-improvement…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 7, 2024
Aug 7, 2024
Teresa Torres describes a conversation with the Consider and Contact team at Hemnet about moving their opportunity solution trees from Miro to Jira Product Discovery. The team initially found Miro effective, but as…
SVPG · Marty CaganAug 6, 2024
Aug 6, 2024 · 14 min
Marty Cagan and Stacey Langer argue that the product model, though born in commercial product companies, fits government technology work because government also aims to create value and achieve outcomes, just measured…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 150
Aug 6, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyExecutive coach Natalie Rothfels explains why asking for help builds career leverage rather than signaling weakness. The post offers a four-phase method for working through fear of asking, a structured template for…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 6, 2024
Aug 6, 2024 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA paid newsletter post summarizing Lenny Rachitsky's podcast conversation with SEO expert Ethan Smith. It explains the three main types of SEO, contrasts contextual and navigational internal links, and argues that…
Lenny’s Podcast87 min
Brian Tolkin · Aug 4, 2024
Key learnings- Treat operations and product as complementary engines rather than rivals; a company runs best when both feed each other with…
- Start with manual, human-in-the-loop processes to learn, then automate with technology once volume makes manual work break…
- Be explicit about where scarce engineering effort goes, focusing on the core leverage point (like dispatch and pricing early on)…
SVPG · Marty CaganJul 30, 2024
Jul 30, 2024 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that moving to the product model rarely requires a reorganization, because org design is largely orthogonal to whether a company adopts product principles. He describes the two dominant org models…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 184
Jul 30, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky and Palle Broe analyze how 44 application-layer tech incumbents monetize AI features, comparing direct and indirect strategies. They argue direct monetization (add-ons, standalone products, or plan…
Lenny’s Podcast124 min
Timothy Davis · Jul 28, 2024
Key learnings- Paid acquisition suits most businesses because paid search is user-driven, so start by checking where users already find you and…
- Run small signs-of-life tests first, starting with your own customer data for lookalike audiences at a 1% match, before…
- Don't copy winning creative across platforms; user mindset and behavior differ, so adapt messaging for each platform.
Lenny’s Podcast85 min
Roger Martin · Jul 25, 2024
Key learnings- Strategy is an integrated set of choices that compels desired customer action, since customers are the one thing a company cannot…
- Work through the five cascade questions together: winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, required capabilities, and…
- Winning requires being either differentiated or lowest cost; without one of those, competitors can keep pushing you back step by…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 187
Jul 23, 2024 · 8 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares near-real-time U.S. job-market data on product and product-adjacent roles, gathered via a third-party data firm. The post argues that growth roles are expanding fastest, PM hiring has plateaued…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 17, 2024
Jul 17, 2024 · 12 min
Teresa Torres argues that a clear desired outcome sets the scope, latitude, and success measure for product discovery, yet many teams struggle to define one. She distinguishes outcomes (the impact of work on customers…
Lenny’s Podcast91 min
Jess Lachs · Jul 14, 2024
Key learnings- Treat analytics as a business-impact function with a seat at the table, answering 'so what do we do now?' rather than only…
- A central analytics org with pods mapped to partner teams keeps talent bars consistent, creates growth paths, and avoids…
- Carve out intentional time for self-directed deep dives, such as hackathons, because exploratory work is the first thing to slip…
Lenny’s Podcast173 min
Jeff Weinstein · Jul 11, 2024
Key learnings- Treat a customer who takes time to complain as a rare gift; respond quickly and personally, since speed signals that you care.
- Before investing in craft or polish, confirm the product solves a burning problem customers would pause their day for; polish…
- Discount feedback from friends and casual users; focus on the specific target customer who has the problem and would pay to solve…
SVPG · Marty CaganJul 9, 2024
Jul 9, 2024 · 8 min
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones examine whether the product operating model, originally designed for product organizations building technology products, applies to traditional IT departments. They argue it can help when IT…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 268
Jul 9, 2024 · 31 min
Lenny Rachitsky and prompt engineer Mike Taylor ran a blind test to see how close AI comes to doing core product manager work. They argue that most headlines saying AI 'can't do X' rely on weak models and basic prompts…
Lenny’s Podcast131 min
Mike Maples Jr · Jul 7, 2024
Key learnings- Look for inflections: external turning points, whether technological, regulatory, or shifts in belief, that newly empower people…
- Stress-test any inflection by asking what specific new thing exists, how it empowers specific people, and under what conditions…
- A strong insight is non-obvious and non-consensus but also right; if everyone likes your idea, it is probably too similar to the…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 3, 2024
Jul 3, 2024 · 3 min
Teresa Torres argues that atypical customer stories, the ones that stand out from the rest of an interview set, are valuable rather than something to discard during continuous discovery. Teams often focus only on shared…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 177
Jul 2, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky and Kyle Poyar compiled lessons from more than 20 AI product builders on what surprised them about shipping AI features. The post argues that AI products need fresh thinking: prototype to discover what…
Lenny’s Podcast58 min
Dylan Field · Jun 30, 2024
Key learnings- Treat intuition as a hypothesis generator: propose hunches, then debate them and test them against data before committing.
- Read customer feedback constantly and dig past stated requests to find the real underlying problem users are trying to solve.
- Ship early to get feedback faster, but hold a firm quality bar, since software can be iteratively improved after launch.
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Jessica Livingston · Jun 27, 2024
Key learnings- Watch how co-founders interact: whether they get along, finish each other's sentences, or let one partner dominate, since…
- Treat defensiveness under questioning as a red flag; strong founders respond with "here's what I figured out" and engage in a…
- Look for earnestness: founders who admit when they don't know an answer and who have a real personal connection to the problem…
SVPG · Marty CaganJun 25, 2024
Jun 25, 2024 · 7 min
Marty Cagan reflects on his personal regrets from coaching companies through product transformations, prompted by a reader's question about whether every transformation in the book TRANSFORMED succeeded. He admits that…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 117
Jun 25, 2024 · 11 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyThe post compares general management (GM), functional, and hybrid org models, explaining how company stage, how close a North Star metric sits to revenue, and how critical the end-to-end customer journey is shape the…
Lenny’s Podcast109 min
Ami Vora · Jun 23, 2024
Key learnings- Sublimate your ego: prioritize reaching the right outcome over being right, since others often hold information you lack.
- Respond to disagreement with curiosity by asking the other person to explain their reasoning, and pause before reacting to avoid…
- Keep product reviews short, bring a clear recommendation, and use them to calibrate on reusable principles rather than to approve…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJun 19, 2024
Jun 19, 2024 · 19 min
Teresa Torres argues against generative AI tools that try to replace real discovery work, such as synthetic customer interviews, auto-generated opportunity solution trees, or AI-drafted artifacts. She explains that…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 89
Jun 18, 2024 · 17 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky synthesizes lessons from Stytch's CEO and marketing leaders at other startups on running out-of-home (billboard, bus, transit) ad campaigns for B2B software. The post argues OOH is best for brand…
Lenny’s Podcast143 min
Tanguy Crusson · Jun 16, 2024
Key learnings- Assume new bets will most likely fail and say so openly, so the wider company doesn't pile on resources and slow the team down.
- Create scarcity and autonomy for new bets so they can move like a startup, shielding them from processes built for mature…
- Don't assume that what made the core business successful will transfer to a new market; validate the playbook's assumptions early.
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Jeffrey Pfeffer · Jun 13, 2024
Key learnings- Political skill is linked to higher pay, promotions, job satisfaction and lower stress, so treating influence as a learnable…
- Get out of your own way: stop pre-emptory apologizing, stop doubting you deserve your role, and avoid leaking disrespect or…
- Prioritize competence and respect over being liked; you were hired to get a job done, so doing the needed work matters more than…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJun 12, 2024
Jun 12, 2024 · 10 min
Convo's product team set out to test assumptions about a feature letting Deaf users bring an interpreter into a Zoom meeting, but running those tests over Zoom introduced confusing meta-tasks and technical problems…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 335
Jun 11, 2024 · 6 min
Lenny Rachitsky surveyed hundreds of product managers, then ran follow-up calls, to collect concrete ways PMs use Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, in their daily work. The post groups 27 real prompts into six…