“May I present to you: The Standard-Setter. The Standard-Setter’s superpower is failing upward while confusing pressure with motivation. They believe everyone has another gear, and that their job is to force people into it.”
Marty Cagan argues that setting team objectives for a quarter is not enough; product teams must actively track and manage progress throughout the period. He explains that ongoing 'keep the lights on' work can crowd out…
Marty Cagan extends Marc Andreessen's 'software is eating the world' thesis beyond software itself, arguing that modern product techniques are disrupting entrenched industries such as automotive, animation, and…
Marty Cagan argues that many teams claiming to be Agile or Lean still operate with a Waterfall mindset, merely adopting the rituals and buzzwords. He identifies three telltale signs: risks deferred to the end…
Lenny 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…
Lenny Rachitsky follows up his earlier analysis by ranking companies whose former product managers most often start companies, raise Series A rounds, accelerate their careers, or become product leaders. Using alumni…
Cagan describes a "Big Bang" release as a project built for months and then launched all at once, a common outcome of Waterfall but also possible under Scrum. He argues it almost never goes well: dates slip or features…
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…
This interview-style post profiles Zaz Harris, a software engineer who moved into a product management role at her own company after her supervisors noticed her interest in product work and needed to fill a gap. The…
Chris Jones argues that the popular slogans "fail fast" and "embrace failure" have outlived their usefulness because they blur risky experimentation with genuinely preventable mistakes. He proposes reserving the word…
Marty Cagan examines the Waterfall product development process, which he notes remains the most common way software products are built despite being decades old and widely criticized. He explains its phased structure of…
Cagan argues that product portfolio planning should be treated like financial portfolio planning: each product effort is an investment whose returns depend on where the company places its bets. Many companies either…
A community roundup from a paid PM newsletter covering threads on sprint cadence for tiny startups, where PM and designer responsibilities overlap, and how to run PM team and leadership meetings. It also touches on…
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…
Marty Cagan argues that product management certification is premature and counterproductive for the software industry. He notes that the field is far from scientific, that software product success rates are poor, and…
This podcast episode, hosted by Teresa Torres with guest Petra Wille, addresses how product people can stay grounded and still act helpfully when the world feels overwhelming. The conversation argues that coping need…
Teresa Torres observes that many individual contributors who love continuous discovery struggle to get their teammates, stakeholders, and leaders on board, because few people have time to read a book or blog post. To…
Jason Fried argues that when we meet a simpler system, idea, or implementation, our instinct is often to dismiss it as insufficient. He suggests a better response is to ask why our own work has become so complicated and…
Marty Cagan argues that the rapid rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney and GPT-4 is a disruptive technology wave comparable to personal computers, the Internet, and the iPhone. He notes that disruptions…
Marty Cagan describes a shared workspace he helped create in Silicon Valley for very early-stage startups, which often struggle with the time and money needed to set up an office. The space offers flexible…
Lenny Rachitsky compiles practices from six companies known for work trials (Linear, Automattic, 37signals, Gumroad, Auth0, PostHog) into a guide covering what work trials are, why they help, example projects, time and…
Lenny Rachitsky shares near-real-time U.S. job-market data on product and product-adjacent roles, gathered via a third-party data firm. The post argues that growth roles are expanding fastest, PM hiring has plateaued…
Marty Cagan argues that platform product management, which means building foundation software that other companies use to create end-user solutions, is among the hardest and highest-leverage jobs in product. He first…
The post, written by a former senior PM turned PM manager, explains how the role shifts from doing product work directly to multiplying a team's output through leverage. It outlines the unexpected responsibilities of…