Teresa Torres argues that every member of the product trio (product manager, designer, engineer) is jointly responsible and accountable for all five risk areas: desirable, viable, feasible, usable, and ethical…
This guest-authored guide by Jason Shah, head of product at Alchemy, explains how the product manager role changes at web3 startups. The author argues that PMs there are more versatile, more art than science given…
Marty Cagan introduces Martina Lauchengco's book LOVED, which argues that product/market fit has two halves: a strong product and a strong market approach. Building on his earlier work on product discovery, he contends…
Lenny Rachitsky benchmarks what counts as good and great monthly SaaS churn, drawing on growth leaders and ProfitWell data across B2C, SMB/mid-market, and enterprise segments. He argues churn should be read by price…
Marty Cagan examines the adage that product managers get blamed for failure but rarely credited for success, and asks whether that is fair. He explains that on empowered product teams the product manager owns value and…
This Product in Practice story describes how Ellen Juhlin, a senior product director at Orion Labs, brought engineers into continuous discovery. Engineers often see product work as order-taking, but their technical…
Lenny Rachitsky lays out seven practical strategies for earning a promotion, drawing on his own roughly nine promotions over a 16-year career. The core argument is that consistent, impactful work is the foundation, and…
Marty Cagan argues that the most damaging way companies try to scale product management is splitting the PM job across two people, the so-called 'two in a box' anti-pattern. The core problem is that the PM on an…
Lenny Rachitsky reviews more than 140 of his angel investments, sharing seven surprises, a practical path into angel investing, and his startup evaluation criteria. His core argument is that access to good deals and a…
Marty Cagan argues that the root cause of many large companies losing their product innovation is an over-reliance on process over people. He builds on his earlier overview of Product Ops models by focusing on why…
Teresa Torres reviews how her coaching business has changed and lays out her plans for 2022. She explains that her main goal is to get more product trios adopting continuous discovery, but that this impact is hard to…
Deb Liu, who led the team behind Facebook Marketplace, recounts how an idea she pitched in 2009 languished for years before a small Groups-based commerce test revealed organic buying and selling behavior. The team's…
Lenny Rachitsky argues that product differentiation is essential, drawing on Michael Porter's view that winners either operate better or perform differently from rivals. The post lays out seven practical differentiators…
Lenny answers a first-time B2B founder's question about prioritization before product-market fit. He argues that typical frameworks suit large companies, lists common early-stage pitfalls, and proposes a single goal…
Marty Cagan argues that 'Product Ops' has become a vague label, with at least six distinct meanings in companies today, making a claim that a company 'has Product Ops' nearly meaningless. He reviews five models he finds…
Guest post by Justin Gage, writer of Technically, offering five practical technical areas product managers should understand to work more effectively with engineers. He argues that a strong technical foundation makes…
Teresa Torres argues that job seekers should evaluate a prospective employer's continuous discovery habits before accepting a role, since most companies are still early in adopting them. Drawing on interviews with…
Lenny Rachitsky polls sixteen growth experts on what counts as a good customer payback period across B2C, SMB and enterprise businesses. The post explains how to calculate payback on a gross-profit basis, why it matters…
This excerpt from Andrew Chen's book argues that networked products should first build a small, self-sustaining 'atomic network' before expanding. The atomic network is the smallest unit that can stand on its own, and…
Lenny Rachitsky answers a question from a newly minted product manager by describing five common early-career pitfalls: acting as a coordinator, a dictator, a dreamer, a feature factory, and a shield failing to filter…
This Product Talk edition profiles how the Collaboration Group at 99designs, a two-sided design marketplace owned by Vistaprint, is building a continuous discovery practice. Senior PM Matt Richmond and his team treated…
David Spinks argues that community is a structure for creating value by helping people help each other, which can scale a product's impact with a small team. Before investing, founders should align community to a…
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader's question about which metrics matter for a consumer app, arguing the right metrics depend on how the business makes money. He walks through five consumer models (trial-based…
Marty Cagan follows up on his earlier critique of 'process people' hijacking product ops. He notes that 'product ops' has no settled definition, and he has identified at least six different versions in his work with…
Teresa Torres argues that handing discovery findings from a product trio to the rest of the delivery team recreates the old waterfall 'game of telephone', losing context and distorting customer needs. Discovery should…
Lenny Rachitsky answers the common interview question of what a product manager does, offering a working definition centered on delivering business impact through a team and customer problems. He frames the day-to-day…
Elena Verna argues that a founder's first growth hire is one of the most consequential hires a startup makes, and that many founders begin with avoidable mistakes. She proposes six rules: define a growth model before…
This post is mostly a promotional announcement for a part-time PM course aimed at early-career product managers, with a reader Q&A in the middle. The core advice in the Q&A explains how to move from a generalist PM role…
Marty Cagan argues that product organizations contain three kinds of contributors rather than two: makers (designers, engineers, researchers), managers, and a growing group he calls process people. Process roles like…
Lenny Rachitsky explains what a 'wedge' strategy is, namely entering a large market through a narrow, sharp initial product and segment. He covers when a wedge is most needed (entrenched or crowded markets), why it…