Marty Cagan asks whether product discovery applies to feature teams, which are handed a list of features rather than problems to solve. At a simple level, discovery is irrelevant there because the solution is already…
Teresa Torres argues that user researchers have a vital place in continuous discovery, even though most product trios don't include one by default because companies rarely have enough researchers. She outlines three…
The post answers a founder's question about hiring difficulty by synthesizing advice from several early-stage founders who consistently attract strong talent. It argues that hiring success comes from a compelling…
Lenny answers a new PM's question about how to judge day-to-day performance by proposing three priority-ordered checks: whether the team delivers business impact, whether the individual contributes to strategy and team…
The post argues that distribution, not product alone, separates startups that succeed from those that fail, and that a unique distribution advantage is needed to reach audiences more cheaply than competitors. It lays…
Marty Cagan's first published article, from a 1986 HP Journal issue, is a technical overview of Hewlett-Packard's internal AI Workstation research program and its first product, a Common Lisp development environment. It…
Teresa Torres addresses the most common reader question about her book Continuous Discovery Habits: why user researchers, marketers, data analysts and other roles were not named in the product trio. She explains that…
This is a short announcement newsletter pointing readers to a guest post Lenny Rachitsky wrote for a16z's Future site on choosing a North Star Metric. The guide draws on a survey of current and former employees at more…
Lenny Rachitsky shares his favorite interview questions for product managers, one per core PM responsibility, with notes on what strong answers look like and which red flags to watch for. He also includes a set of…
Marty Cagan, author of four bestselling product books, shares his process for writing non-fiction books, framing the book as a product whose readers are customers. He argues that the decisive factor is whether the…
Marty Cagan argues that the MBA pathology, the set of habits instilled by many business programs, continues to produce weak product managers and weak products despite claims that it would self-correct. He stresses he is…
Shivani Berry, a former PM turned leadership coach, argues that buy-in comes from showing teammates how your idea advances their goals. She explains three common failure modes: assuming others think like you, feeling…
Marty Cagan argues that the product management field suffers from a widespread problem: many people become product managers after only a Certified Scrum Product Owner course, which teaches delivery-process rituals…
Lenny Rachitsky argues that people learn about new products through seven distinct channels, split by whether they encounter the product online, out in the world, or at home, and whether the exposure is organic or paid…
Teresa Torres argues that product trios (a product manager, designer, and engineer) struggle to agree when they start from individual preferences and jump straight to solutions. Instead, they should first build a shared…
The post asks how long marketplace startups take to reach product-market fit and answers by collecting founder accounts from companies like Lyft, DoorDash, Uber, and Airbnb. The core argument is that marketplaces take…
Lenny Rachitsky analyzes more than twenty public PM career ladders to identify the core skills companies value in product managers. He outlines ten recurring PM competencies, the shifts that separate junior from senior…
Teresa Torres announces the launch of her book Continuous Discovery Habits, presenting it as a guide for product trios to run a structured, sustainable discovery practice. She frames it as the distillation of eight…
Carole Robin, co-creator of Stanford's 'Touchy Feely' course, answers a reader whose co-founder relationship is deteriorating while the business still needs it to work. She argues that co-founder friction, like marriage…
Jon Moore, an SVPG partner, argues that the principles behind empowered, outcome-focused product teams are not new and not tech-specific. He points to Ingvar Kamprad's 1976 essay 'Testament of a Furniture Dealer' as…
A reader question about business model types prompts this issue, which the author notes was hard to find summarized anywhere. It lays out eight core ways businesses make money, such as selling a thing, renting, taking a…
Teresa Torres introduces the product trio: a product manager, designer, and engineer who share responsibility for product decisions rather than handing work off in sequence. She argues the traditional handoff model…
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader's question about what makes product managers great by sharing 14 habits he has observed and refined over years. The core argument is that effective PMs build habits around clear…
Marty Cagan revisits the distinction between product teams and project teams, which he says he should have written about sooner, after hoping the problem had faded. A product team is durable and owns an outcome over one…
A guest post by DJ DiDonna of the Sabbatical Project that debunks three common manager objections to sabbatical programs: that everyone will leave, that the company will collapse without the leader, and that people…
Teresa Torres argues that product teams should bring justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles into continuous discovery, since products often encode existing social biases (e.g., pulse oximeters…
Lenny's newsletter opens with his own sabbatical experience and then hands the floor to DJ DiDonna, founder of The Sabbatical Project, who has interviewed over 250 people about extended time off. DJ argues that…
Lenny Rachitsky explains why marketplaces fail, drawing on dozens of failed examples. He argues the core causes mirror any startup: lacking product-market fit on demand or supply, poor liquidity, weak unit economics…
This final session of a three-part webinar series argues there is no single correct way to run product discovery, and that teams should instead be judged by underlying principles that fit their context. It covers two…
Lenny Rachitsky explains how marketplace and platform builders should choose a take rate, the fee charged on each transaction. He introduces a simple formula combining convenience and demand minus competition, walks…