Working notes from product people

Ask the people who’ve done it.

Q:
Answers quote and cite the source notes

01 — TopicsFourteen drawers, sorted.

3 more drawersBrowse all 14 topics →
Open drawer · 03

Growth & retention

208 notes · 72 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 571

How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users

May 12, 2020 · 22 min

“👉 Updated version of this post here 👈 Hello, and welcome to a free monthly edition of my newsletter. I’m Lenny, and each week I tackle reader questions about product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that’s stressing you out at the office. Send me your questions and in return, I’ll humbly offer actionable real-talk advice. 🤜🤛 If you find this post valuable, check out some of my other posts: 1. How To Know If You've…”

Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 1,022

How Duolingo reignited user growth

Feb 28, 2023 · 21 min

Jorge Mazal, former CPO of Duolingo, recounts how the company reversed a slide in daily active user growth and eventually grew DAU about 4.5x over four years. The journey began with failed attempts: a…

@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 Podcast79 min

Growth tactics, retention strategies, and becoming a better writer

Julian Shapiro · Sep 25, 2022
Key learnings
  • Pursue product-led acquisition by designing features where users naturally invite others, such as settling debts, sharing…
  • Build user state, like reputation, audience, or social graphs that cannot transfer off-platform, so accumulated investment makes…
  • Prefer evergreen topics and keep updating old writing, since Julian treats his handbooks and posts as living assets rather than…
@lissijean · Melissa Perri on X♥ 8
Most teams make the mistake of waiting for data to magically appear before building their AI product. They get stuck in the classic chicken-and-egg problem: you need data to build good AI, but you need users to generate that data. So they wait. And wait. And wait some more. /1

02 — FrameworksModels, annotated.

All frameworks →

03 — PeopleWho wrote the notes.

All 10 people →

04 — QuestionsAnswered from the notes.

All 32 questions →

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.