Working notes from product people

Ask the people who’ve done it.

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Answers quote and cite the source notes

01 — TopicsFourteen drawers, sorted.

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Open drawer · 07

PM career & craft

466 notes · 91 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 300

How to get into product management

Jun 14, 2019 · 17 min

“The role of product manager (PM) is the most fascinating role within tech teams right now. PMs are closest to the center of the action, have a disproportionate amount of influence over key decisions, and often go on to start their own companies. It’s no surprise then that product management has begun to show up on lists of the best, hottest, and most promising careers in the U.S. (and not just in tech). Seven years ago, after joining…”

Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 402

The Magic Loop

Sep 19, 2023 · 22 min
Subscriber post — summary only

A guest post by former Amazon executive Ethan Evans introducing the Magic Loop, a five-step cycle for growing your career by doing your current job well, offering help to your manager, and asking for work tied to your…

@shreyas · Shreyas Doshi on X♥ 229
Most mid-career product people who are doing reasonably well make 2 implicit assumptions that affect their quality of life: 1. the ceiling of key product skills is just an inch higher than where they are now (i.e. they’re basically already at the ceiling) 2. the point of any upskilling is to get a…
Lenny’s Podcast85 min

What it takes to become a top 1% PM

Ian McAllister · Nov 20, 2022
Key learnings
  • New PMs should focus first on communicating, prioritizing, and executing, since other skills grow in importance with seniority.
  • Answer first and then explain; when asked a 'when' question, give a date, and grade yourself after feedback to improve…
  • Prioritization is a core PM skill across themes, projects, sequencing, scope, and personal time, and it strongly multiplies…
Lenny’s Podcast98 min

Building a long and meaningful career

Nikhyl Singhal · Jun 11, 2023
Key learnings
  • Think about your career as a product: work backward from the end state you want, and plan several steps ahead rather than…
  • Pursue a diverse set of experiences across pre-product-market-fit, scaling, inside-the-building and outside-the-building…
  • Early in your career, pick a lane of expertise (domain, crafting, market, organizational, growth) and build a story of what you…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 119

Becoming a senior Product Manager

Feb 9, 2021 · 11 min

Jackie Bavaro, drawing on research for her book Cracking the PM Career, argues that the hardest career step for many product managers is progressing from entry-level to senior PM, typically taking around three years…

@shreyas · Shreyas Doshi on X♥ 141
This is also true in tech careers. A lot of people I speak with are successful by every conventional metric, but they find it difficult to decide what to do next, in their career and their life.

02 — FrameworksModels, annotated.

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03 — PeopleWho wrote the notes.

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04 — QuestionsAnswered from the notes.

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Where notes come from

NewsletterLenny’s Newsletter106 free posts, with a longer excerpt.
Subscriber postsSummary only229 paid posts: our summary, at most two short quotes, and a link.
PodcastLenny’s Podcast322 episodes, each with 5–8 key learnings and timestamps.
EssaysSVPG · The Beautiful Mess499 essays from Marty Cagan and John Cutler.
Substack & blogsShreyas · Julie · Jason · Hiten577 essays and posts from independent writers.
XPosts on product58 posts, filtered for product relevance.