Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 92
Sep 17, 2019 · 6 min
“Thank you for all of the questions that have come in over the past week! I was half-worried no one would take me up on the offer — instead, we now have a backlog of over two dozen intriguing questions. To avoid completely nerd-sniping myself I’m going to keep it to three questions per week. If you don’t see your question answered below, stay tuned for future posts! 🙏 Note: If you find this valuable, can you do me a favor and click the…”
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 101
Mar 22, 2022 · 19 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky lays out a practical playbook for interviewing product managers: a multi-stage funnel with screens, a full-day loop, and panel debriefs. He covers which skills to test, sample questions, how to design…
Substack · Shreyas Doshi♥ 92
Jan 12, 2026
The essay argues that mid-career professionals tend to believe the ceiling of mastery in their craft sits just slightly above their current level, a belief that feels humble but quietly limits growth. This assumption…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 111
Feb 15, 2022 · 24 min
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…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 16
Aug 11, 2020 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares five strategies from his own early career for people in their 20s deciding on roles, quitting jobs, and new ventures. He argues against over-optimizing for resume checkboxes, follows interests…
SVPG · Marty CaganJun 11, 2020
Jun 11, 2020 · 7 min
Marty Cagan offers a curated starting path for aspiring product managers who are overwhelmed by contradictory online advice. He argues that the product manager role is about ensuring what gets built is both valuable and…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 4, 2012
Sep 4, 2012 · 4 min
Teresa Torres, drawing on her experience screening and interviewing product managers, outlines the most common mistakes candidates make. She argues that product management is not about personal opinion alone, that…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 2, 2012
Aug 2, 2012 · 3 min
Teresa Torres interviews Oded Korczyn, who moved into his first formal product management role at AfterCollege despite never having held one. Oded draws on his anthropology background and startup experience, where he…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 40
May 5, 2020 · 10 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA Q&A post offering advice for someone becoming a startup's first product manager. Drawing on interviews with people who held that role at well-known companies, it covers when to make the first PM hire and what the job…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 6, 2012
Sep 6, 2012
This piece is a curated index of the author's earlier posts on breaking into product management. Its premise is that people arrive at product roles from many backgrounds, so there is no single path, and the most common…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 49
Sep 21, 2021 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny answers a reader who lacks a technical background and struggles to follow engineers and make trade-off decisions. He lays out a three-step path: learn core concepts like how software systems, APIs, and databases…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 7, 2012
Aug 7, 2012 · 5 min
Teresa Torres interviews Colin Murphy, a former account manager who moved toward product management and shares lessons from his job search. His core argument is that career switchers must actively sell their applicable…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 21, 2012
Aug 21, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that a product manager job search should start with self-assessment rather than a list of who is hiring. Companies differ in what they need: technical products favor engineers, market-creating…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 24, 2012
Jul 24, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that hiring for product management should hinge on demonstrated ability rather than credentials. As a hiring manager and consultant, she says she cares about none of the usual gatekeepers, such as…
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…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 6, 2022
Jul 6, 2022 · 6 min
Teresa Torres addresses the catch-22 of landing a first product role when employers want experience. Her core argument is that aspiring PMs can manufacture credible experience through self-directed side projects, even…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 30, 2012
Jul 30, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that aspiring product managers can break the 'chicken and egg' problem of needing experience to get a PM job by starting their own side project right away. She notes there is no shortage of unsolved…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 98
May 24, 2022 · 4 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares high-level structures from 20+ large companies' product management career ladders, including titles by level, evaluated competencies, and where IC and manager tracks split. He argues career…
SVPG · Marty CaganMar 27, 2008
Mar 27, 2008 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that engineers often make excellent product managers because they understand what is technically possible, and that the move from engineering to product management requires specific mindset and skill…
The Looking Glass · Julie Zhuo♥ 132
Apr 21, 2026
Julie Zhuo's short essay, titled "I am an idiot," reflects on intellectual humility in an era when AI systems can seem to know more than we do. The piece is framed as personal notes rather than a formal argument, using…
SVPG · Marty CaganDec 14, 2005
Dec 14, 2005 · 5 min
Marty Cagan argues that product management is demanding and that product managers inevitably face rough days, which matter more because their teams watch how they react. He offers a set of practical habits for breaking…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 280
Feb 27, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky compiles 25 high-signal interview questions gathered from roughly 150 podcast guests, grouped by theme: handling hard situations, how candidates think, how they build and drive impact, who they are as…
The Looking Glass · Julie Zhuo♥ 165
May 27, 2025
Julie Zhuo argues that the expertise that made you valuable, such as a specialized craft or deep procedural skill, may be the very thing AI erodes first, leaving some professionals more exposed than others. The source…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 263
Dec 10, 2024 · 10 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky, working with a labor-data firm, ranks roughly 50 companies by how much they accelerate the post-departure careers of their former product managers, using promotion, leadership, CPO, first-PM, and…