Working notes from product people

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01 — TopicsFourteen drawers, sorted.

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Open drawer · 03

Growth & retention

208 notes · 72 people · 2005–2026
HEY World · Jason FriedAug 27, 2026

$5300 in $100s: The verdict

Aug 27, 2026

“Yesterday I wrote about a free event we were throwing which cost $100 to attend, but the full $100 was refunded at the door if you showed up. I said I'd share the results. Ok, so the event was this morning. It went incredibly well. Here are those results: 55 people paid $100 to attend. 50 of those people showed…”

HEY World · Jason FriedAug 26, 2026

$5300 in $100s

Aug 26, 2026

Jason Fried describes an experiment for a free in-person Basecamp event in Chicago: attendees pay a $100 refundable deposit at registration and get the cash back at the door if they show up. The problem is that free…

@shreyas · Shreyas Doshi on X♥ 204
This happens to smart people because of: 1. Deep-rooted identity of “I am good at product” (vs. “I am good at winning” or something like that) 2. Moral aversion against marketing & distribution 3. A habit of seeking virtue points by proclaiming “I just want to serve my users”
Lenny’s Podcast148 min

Anthropic’s $1B to $19B growth run: how Claude became the fastest-growing AI product in history

Amol Avasare · Apr 5, 2026
Key learnings
  • Expect most growth time to go to 'success disasters' once growth is rapid; firefighting breaking systems matters as much as new…
  • In AI-first products, skew the growth portfolio toward larger swings, since future product value could be orders of magnitude…
  • Treat activation as a top lever in AI products: identify user traits that predict which feature fits them, then guide them there.
Lenny’s Podcast117 min

90 minutes of unfiltered product advice from Snap and Discord’s product chief

Peter Sellis · Sep 20, 2026
Key learnings
  • Collaboration carries hidden coordination costs that slow teams down to the pace of the slowest node; a clear ideology plus clear…
  • Give product leaders explicit, repeatable phrases that shortcut the company strategy, and tie them to both a mission and concrete…
  • Growth often comes from deepening engagement with your core users (higher daily or weekly use) rather than chasing new monthly…
The Looking Glass podcastMar 11, 2026

What Excellent Growth Teams See That Others Miss

Mar 11, 2026
Key learnings
  • Excellent growth teams look for opportunities that others in the organization tend to overlook, rather than only chasing the…
  • Growth work at a marketplace like DoorDash requires balancing consumers, merchants, and dashers, so teams should consider the…
  • Seven lessons framing suggests growth is treated as a repeatable discipline with distinct principles rather than a series of…
@ttorres · Teresa Torres on X♥ 2
NHS clinicians get ten minutes with a generalist, if they can get an appointment at all—leaving little room for the specific, personal questions women's health actually requires. Hertility Health made a longer intake mandatory before purchase, and something unexpected happened: conversion went up…

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.