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 · 09

Startups & founders

288 notes · 89 people · 2005–2026
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 330

How to kickstart and scale a consumer business

Jul 5, 2022 · 64 min

“As a startup founder, you need to do the impossible. You build something that has never been built before, with a team that’s never worked together before, while learning dozens of new skills, making countless no-going-back decisions, all before you run out of money (and energy). It’s like being lost in the wilderness, in the dark, with only a vague sense of where you’re heading. Imagine if you had a map. From TikTok to Reddit to Uber…”

@hnshah · Hiten Shah on X♥ 28
Founders are doing product marketing earlier than they think. The market starts teaching you how buyers see the product almost immediately. What they compare it to affects the story you tell. Objections and lost deals often expose something deeper about the product itself. That
Lenny’s Podcast98 min

Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member

Uri Levine · Jun 9, 2024
Key learnings
  • Start with a meaningful problem you feel personally passionate about, since the journey is long and hard and passion sustains…
  • Validate a problem by speaking with many people outside your close circle; if they describe the problem in their own words, it is…
  • Expect a journey of failures and iterate quickly; failing fast leaves time for more attempts, which raises the odds of success.
Lenny’s Podcast103 min

Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Resilience, tar pit ideas, pivoting, more

Dalton Caldwell · Apr 18, 2024
Key learnings
  • Keep the startup alive: the core mantra is 'don't die,' since much of startup success comes from persisting through near-death…
  • Before quitting, ask whether you still enjoy the work, your co-founders, and your customers; if you love those, lean toward…
  • A good pivot moves 'warmer,' toward domains you already know or have built experience in, and often grows out of what you learned…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 148

How to validate your startup idea

May 10, 2022 · 56 min

Todd Jackson, a seed-stage investor at First Round Capital, interviewed founders of eight companies (Vanta, Flexport, Cocoon, Good Dog, Snackpass, Rec Room, LaunchDarkly, Pinwheel) about how they chose and validated…

@ttorres · Teresa Torres on X♥ 12
What does it take to build an AI app builder specifically for product managers—not engineers—inside an already crowded market? In this episode of Just Now Possible, Teresa Torres talks with Brian De Haaff (CEO and Co-Founder), Chris Waters (CTO and Co-Founder), and Sarah Moisan-Thomas (Senior…

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.