Working notes from product people

Ask the people who’ve done it.

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01 — TopicsFourteen drawers, sorted.

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Open drawer · 04

Pricing & monetization

76 notes · 23 people · 2005–2026
HEY World · Jason FriedAug 26, 2026

$5300 in $100s

Aug 26, 2026

“$5300 in $100s please. That's what we said at the bank this morning. See, whenever you have a free IRL event, you tend to get a lot of no-shows. Plenty of people sign up and RSVP, but ultimately far fewer show up. This isn't a big deal if you have unlimited space and anyone can just show, but if you…”

Lenny’s Podcast111 min

How to close $100K+ enterprise deals, step by step

Jen Abel · Aug 23, 2026
Key learnings
  • Target only the executive decision-maker or their direct report (N minus one) using a 'pincer' approach, with the founder…
  • Lead outreach with the executive-level value, the alpha your product unlocks for their career and business unit, not just…
  • Run the intro call as an informal one-on-one conversation: no demo, no slides, no recording, and let the buyer talk first to…
Lenny’s Podcast145 min

5 questions to ask when your product stops growing

Jason Cohen · Jan 25, 2026
Key learnings
  • Compute your growth ceiling: new customers added per month divided by monthly cancellation rate gives the maximum customer count…
  • Ask 'what made you cancel?' rather than 'why did you cancel?' and use open-ended responses, since multiple-choice lists skew…
  • Be skeptical of 'too expensive' as a cancellation reason; customers who already bought didn't find the price too high, so dig…
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…
HEY World · Jason FriedDec 3, 2025

Introducing Fizzy, our newest product

Dec 3, 2025

Jason Fried announces Fizzy, a new kanban-style card-and-column tool from the team behind Basecamp. He argues that popular issue-tracking tools like Trello, Jira, and Asana have grown bloated and complicated, drifting…

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.