Directly Responsible Individual (DRI): what it is, who uses it, and the best notes

Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 306

How Perplexity builds product

Apr 30, 2024 · 15 min

Lenny Rachitsky interviews Johnny Ho, co-founder and head of product at Perplexity, about how a fast-growing AI search company builds product with a very small team. Perplexity uses AI to answer its own operational…

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Lenny’s Podcast98 min

Sequoia CEO coach: Why it’s never been easier to start a company, and never been harder to scale one

Brian Halligan · Feb 15, 2026

Key learnings

Overrate less your gut feeling in interviews; rely on blind references and ask pointed questions like how likely you would be to…
Prefer spiky candidates with visible weaknesses who will challenge you over polished candidates with the fewest weaknesses, and…
Be cautious hiring executives straight from big companies; they often have mismatched expectations and high attrition in scaling…

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Lenny’s Podcast91 min

Sanchan Saxena (VP of Product at Coinbase) on the inside story of how Airbnb made it through Covid; what he’s learned from Brian Chesky, Brian Armstrong, and Kevin Systrom; much more

Sanchan Saxena · Jul 5, 2022

Key learnings

Careers rarely follow a plan; Sanchan advises taking little bets, learning fast, and pivoting rather than over-planning a…
Choose a role that maximizes how fast you learn product management, and match the startup versus big-company choice to whether…
During a crisis, Airbnb replaced fixed teams with one company-wide team and two-week planning cycles, reacting to fast-changing…

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