Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader's question about which metrics early-stage bottom-up SaaS founders should track beyond MRR, which tools they use, and how they visualize results. He draws on crowdsourced input and…
Lenny Rachitsky previews Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky's upcoming book Click and their new two-day Foundation Sprint for launching big projects. The post traces the origin of the approach to the Google Meet story and…
Marty Cagan compares working at small startups versus large companies, a question he is often asked by people weighing career moves. He draws on experience across company sizes from brand-new startups to firms with over…
The post answers a founder's question about hiring difficulty by synthesizing advice from several early-stage founders who consistently attract strong talent. It argues that hiring success comes from a compelling…
Marty Cagan argues that Product Market Fit and the Product Vision are related but distinct, and that teams often confuse them. The Product Vision describes the services and customers a company intends to serve over…
Deb Liu, who led the team behind Facebook Marketplace, recounts how an idea she pitched in 2009 languished for years before a small Groups-based commerce test revealed organic buying and selling behavior. The team's…
Andy Johns, a growth leader who stepped away from a presidency at Wealthfront after a heart scare, argues that high achievers need a deliberate way to recognize and respect their personal limits. He introduces a…
Step six of Lenny Rachitsky's consumer-business series explains how products grow through a small set of engines: virality, SEO, and paid growth, plus sales and supply-driven demand for marketplaces. It argues founders…
“Happy New Year! For the past several years, I’ve published a state of the business report as my initial blog post of the year. And this year will be no different. In this post, I’ll reflect on the past year and look at the year ahead. Let’s”
This excerpt from Andrew Chen's book argues that networked products should first build a small, self-sustaining 'atomic network' before expanding. The atomic network is the smallest unit that can stand on its own, and…
Niya Dragova, co-founder of Candor, shares ten rules for salary negotiation aimed at tech professionals who find negotiating uncomfortable. She argues that compensation is deliberately opaque and that most people lose…
This case study traces how Pieter Omvlee built Sketch, a lightweight vector drawing app for Mac, into a serious alternative to Adobe's Illustrator and Photoshop. Omvlee started with a student project, charged for it…
This is a weekly roundup of product-building reads rather than a single argument. It pulls together a few threads: deciding what to ignore so you can focus on the most critical work, the primacy of conversion strategy…
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…
The post argues that marketplaces succeed by choosing one of three routes: delivering far more convenience, offering a significantly lower price, or unlocking desirable supply that customers want. It also explains what…
Marty Cagan argues that the coming decade will be among the most productive for product innovation. He points to four converging forces: ubiquitous connected mobile devices, powerful platforms that give apps instant…
Lenny Rachitsky examines how labor marketplaces find and grow their supply side, drawing on interviews with founders and early team members of roughly a dozen fast-growing companies. Because these platforms connect…
Marty Cagan argues that many product teams, both in startups and established companies, spend most of their effort capturing value (pricing tests, ad optimization, cost cutting) rather than creating it. Startups often…
Teresa Torres reviews Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz and argues it is an essential, accessible guide to product and startup analytics. She notes it covers the basics of good metrics and segments…
This episode of Just Now Possible features Mowie's CEO Chris O'Connor and co-founder Jessica Valenzuela discussing how their AI marketing platform for small and medium businesses grew out of a hands-on concierge…
Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, answers a common question: why build something brand new instead of adding it to an existing product? He argues that a fresh start gives teams the freedom to explore new technology…
Teresa Torres recounts a difficult period in 2011 when she was CEO of a struggling startup, dealing with severe anxiety and feeling unable to ask for help. After the company was sold and she stepped away, a master's…
Teresa Torres argues that an MVP should be defined by what you need to learn, not by the smallest or easiest feature set to ship. Using a hypothetical SMS-based event tool for soccer teams, she shows how the riskiest…
Lenny Rachitsky catalogs over thirty examples of 'magical growth loops,' where new users come mainly from existing users rather than paid acquisition. He groups them into four types: supply driving demand, demand…