Lenny answers a reader's question about how to build a business 'flywheel,' a visual model of which business elements reinforce each other to accelerate growth. He explains how to brainstorm one from assets, actions…
Marty Cagan answers a set of recurring questions he fielded at a conference, distilled into a quick Q&A on how product organizations should be structured. He argues that product management defines what engineering…
“I've spent a lot of January working with folks on goal-setting. Setting the right goal can be hard. Whether it's picking the right metric or determining the target, there are plenty of places where goal-setting can go wrong. The biggest mistake I see is, people set”
Marty Cagan argues that the essential nature of technology-powered products is hard to grasp until you've worked on a strong product team, and that most people think they understand it but don't. He highlights a rarely…
Marty Cagan argues that the head of product management, typically a Director or VP, is one of the most consequential roles in a high-tech company, because a great product can redefine a business and a few failed…
Teresa Torres argues that resistance to product changes often has little to do with whether the new design solves a real need. Instead, people push back because they have grown familiar with the status quo and because…
Teresa Torres, after returning to coding for a product launch following five years away, argues that product managers and designers do not strictly need to code today, but that everyone should learn the basics. She…
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…
Tal Raviv, guest-writing for Lenny's Newsletter, offers a hands-on guide to using AI agents to offload repetitive product management work. He walks through setting up a simple customer-prep agent, a checklist for…
Part six of Lenny Rachitsky's B2B startup series covers hiring an early team, organized around four questions: who to hire first, where to find people, how to persuade them to join, and when to bring on a salesperson…
Jason Fried argues that the best time to invite outside users into a product is only a week or two before launch, when it is essentially a near-final release rather than an early beta. At that stage he is not seeking…
Chris Jones of SVPG argues that many teams believe they practice product discovery but actually misuse it, falling into recurring anti-patterns. These include using discovery to confirm pre-chosen solutions, treating…
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…
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…
John Cutler, writing in response to a friend who wanted his unpolished, opinionated view, presents a set of candid operating takes for product and team leaders. The piece's premise is that leaders often hedge or present…
Teresa Torres describes how she dedicates much of December to reflecting on the past year and planning the next. She runs an annual retrospective asking what went well and what did not, and keeps both lists in view to…
This weekly roundup by Teresa Torres curates readings on building better products, grouped around experimentation, skill development, and influence. Her central point is that experiments only produce value when they are…
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion continue their series on adopting the product operating model, focusing on resistance from leaders and stakeholders rather than pilot teams. They argue that transformation is…
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…
Martina Lauchengco, a long-time SVPG partner, shares her origin story: an instinct for finding better ways that grew from a childhood shaped by her father's habit of challenging the status quo. She recounts early…