Lenny’s Podcast134 min
Nabeel S. Qureshi · May 11, 2025
Key learnings- Define who your company is not for: Palantir screened for independent-minded, intellectually broad, intensely competitive people…
- Avoid meaningless principles like 'move fast'; write principles people can meaningfully disagree with, and pressure-test project…
- Use forward deployed engineers who are real builders empowered to create new product for a customer, working in person with the…
The Beautiful Mess · John Cutler♥ 48
Aug 14, 2026
“I’ve come to believe that teams can prioritize much more effectively by focusing less on the specific things they’re prioritizing (which will naturally be important, and will naturally get attention) and more on the tensions they’re observing and acting out day after day.”
SVPG · Marty CaganJan 18, 2021
Jan 18, 2021
Marty Cagan argues that the pandemic's reduction in commuting gave many people uninterrupted solo time, such as long walks, that is valuable for deep thinking about hard problems. He describes his own experience writing…
Lenny’s Podcast70 min
Upasna Gautam · Feb 23, 2023
Key learnings- Build buffer time into plans for newsroom work, since breaking news routinely pulls journalists away from scheduled research and…
- Use recurring touchpoints such as weekly demo days, multi-session working sessions, and office hours to gather continuous…
- Script breaking-news dress rehearsals to stress-test the platform under realistic time pressure before a real event hits.
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…
@shreyas · Shreyas Doshi on X♥ 50
If it is useful to know, this private playlist provides deep, super-candid answers for the following 23 questions, with 1 video for each question: What signals do you look for that indicate a PM is ready to be promoted to the Director level? How do you get better at storytelling? How do you decide…
SVPG · Marty CaganJul 1, 2018
Jul 1, 2018 · 6 min
Marty Cagan follows up on his critique of SAFe, the scaled-agile framework, by answering reader questions. He argues that process choices are really culture choices, and that adopting a heavy framework signals top-down…
SVPG · Marty CaganMar 9, 2015
Mar 9, 2015 · 5 min
Marty Cagan argues that while empowered, cross-functional product teams have become the norm and boost motivation and ownership, teams often feel constrained by shared foundations. He frames the core tension as a…
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…
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…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Nancy Duarte · Jun 1, 2023
Key learnings- Make your audience the hero of the story and approach every presentation with empathy, since the audience ultimately holds the…
- Position yourself as the mentor who helps the audience get unstuck, offering them a practical tool and an inner resolve for the…
- Use the 'what is / what could be / new bliss' contrast structure to build tension and longing for a future state, even in short…
Medium · Hiten ShahJan 7, 2026
Jan 7, 2026 · 3 min
Hiten Shah argues that many workplace problems are simple to solve once they reach the people directly involved, but they become costly when routed indirectly through intermediaries. Drawing on experiences at…
SVPG · Marty CaganOct 31, 2007
Oct 31, 2007 · 3 min
Cagan argues that a great product comes from pairing a real customer need with a solution that has just become technically possible, which makes the product manager and engineer relationship critical. He frames the two…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 25
Nov 10, 2020 · 7 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky answers a reader moving from a solo startup PM role to a large company, arguing that communication, influence, and data-driven decision-making matter most in that shift. He also notes the shared core of…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 284
Mar 25, 2025 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyMihika Kapoor, who helped build FigJam and launched Figma Slides, shares seven lessons for keeping a startup mindset inside a large company. The core argument is that speed, prototypes, open progress-sharing, strong…
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…
SVPG · Marty CaganMay 21, 2024
May 21, 2024
Marty Cagan argues that some of the best product people are not product managers at all, and that many strong product thinkers he knows are engineers. He defines a strong product person as someone obsessed with solving…
SVPG · Marty CaganJul 25, 2018
Jul 25, 2018 · 5 min
Marty Cagan responds to readers who argued that any tool or process can be used well or badly, so blaming the process is misplaced, and that culture matters more than process. He agrees culture is central but argues…
SVPG · Marty CaganJan 30, 2011
Jan 30, 2011 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that many product companies pride themselves on a 'consensus culture', but in practice this breeds frustration, slowness, risk-aversion and unimpressive products. The root problem, he says, is…
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…
SVPG · Marty CaganMay 7, 2015
May 7, 2015 · 4 min
Marty Cagan examines how product organizations tackle large, multi-team initiatives, such as a usability redesign or a localization push into a new market, that cannot be owned by a single team. He argues that the core…
Lenny’s Podcast114 min
Christopher Miller · Aug 10, 2023
Key learnings- Take ownership of problems nobody has claimed; a radical accountability mindset can surface opportunities the business hasn't…
- Prioritize relentless curiosity and resilience when hiring or growing as a PM, since most growth experiments fail and you need…
- Talk directly to customers and to non-customers; usage data shows what users do, but only qualitative conversations reveal why.
Lenny’s Podcast121 min
Tony Fadell · Jun 7, 2026
Key learnings- Start product ideas from a real, persistent customer pain, then ask whether a new technology can solve it in a way that…
- For a true 1.0 in a new category, rely on a small group of named opinion-based decision makers, since data from analogs is…
- Micromanage the few decisions that truly matter to the customer, cost, or long-term vision, and delegate the rest, instead of…
Lenny’s Podcast97 min
Matt Abrahams · Mar 31, 2024
Key learnings- Visualize the whole experience, from walking to the stage to stepping off, including the audience responding well, to desensitize…
- Prepare in order to be spontaneous; practice is what makes improvisation and on-the-spot speaking go well, as it does in…
- Strive for connection over perfection by daring to be dull: just answer the question and stop judging every word, which frees up…