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By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny Rachitsky lists five habits that make product managers annoying to their teams and suggests how to avoid them. The core argument is that great PMs add much value, but rigid process worship, impulsive prioritization, unrealistic speed expectations, avoiding decisions, and over-prescriptive specs erode trust and morale.
Subscriber post — summary only01Key takeaways
- Adopt frameworks only if the team is bought-in and they fit your company's stage and context.
- Explain the 'why' behind priorities in writing and in person to keep teammates trusting the roadmap.
- Ask what would need to be true for a request to be doable, instead of promising quick turnarounds.
- Make decisions with incomplete information and move forward, rather than waiting for full consensus.
- Favor conversation over heavy documentation, and reserve written detail for nuances that truly need it.
“With people, slow is fast and fast is slow.”Stephen Covey · Lenny’s Newsletter
“Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had.”Jeff Bezos · Lenny’s Newsletter
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.