The essay argues that AI does not remove the core difficulties of product and engineering work, namely complexity, coupling, coordination costs, uncertainty, and system decay. What AI changes is the cost, speed, and…
A reader asks how to manage up with a difficult manager, and the post answers with five practical tactics. The core argument is that managing up is a core skill at every level: communicate proactively, set realistic…
Marty Cagan argues that enterprise software is in poor shape: products are often hard to use, don't work out of the box, and force customers into costly professional services. He contends that good product management…
“Two and a half years ago, I introduced the opportunity solution tree. It’s been a blast seeing product people put it into practice. Today, I’m excited to share Hope Gurion’s thoughts on using opportunity solution trees. Like a true Agilist, she hasn’t just adopted the tool,”
Marty Cagan revisits his earlier argument that the product manager should also be the product owner, admitting he made a strategic mistake by treating the two titles as synonyms. Many people who took short product owner…
Emily Kramer, who led marketing at Asana, Carta and other companies, argues that much marketing work wastes time because teams lack alignment before work begins. She introduces GACCS (Goals, Audience, Creative…
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…
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…
Marty Cagan argues that product managers should validate a product specification before handing it to engineering, rather than trusting the spec and planning to adjust after beta feedback. Because prototyping costs have…
Marty Cagan uses an anecdote about Apple, Xerox PARC, and the graphical desktop computer to explain what a product vision and a 'visiontype' (a vision prototype) are for. He argues that a compelling visiontype helps…
This podcast episode argues that AI tools deliver useful product work only when they are given the right context, much as a new teammate needs onboarding. Teresa Torres and Petra Wille explain why most AI outputs…
Lenny Rachitsky argues that learning to work alongside AI tools like ChatGPT is quickly becoming a baseline skill for product managers, not something that replaces them. The post surveys a dozen concrete ways PMs…
A guest-written post in which an SEO leader lays out a strategy for an early-stage company to compete with entrenched incumbents: build many valuable, templated pages targeting long-tail keywords, using proprietary…
Lenny answers a reader who is joining a team with a history of underperformance, arguing that a turnaround is both risky and a strong career opportunity. He advises setting expectations with the manager early, since…
Teresa Torres describes a design problem with a job posting form's location options, where combining multiple location types and telecommute rules created excessive complexity. Instead of designing from scratch, her…
Katie Dill, a design leader who has worked with hundreds of PMs, offers five practical tips for building a strong product management and design partnership. She argues that PMs and designers share the same goal of…
Marty Cagan argues that many product teams spend their discovery effort on usability and performance fixes when the real problem is that users do not see why the product is worth using at all. Polishing a workflow or…
Cagan argues that product discovery, the practice of validating ideas with real customers before building, is still essential in heavily regulated industries such as finance and healthcare, even though legal and…
Marty Cagan argues that consumer internet services differ sharply from traditional enterprise software: there is no sales force or distribution channel between the product and its users, so ideas can be tested and…
Lenny 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…
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…
This post announces the 2026 Continuous Discovery Habits Book Club, a monthly reading program built around Teresa Torres's book to help readers practice continuous discovery rather than just read about it. The January…