By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny Rachitsky's first weekly Q&A newsletter answers three reader questions: how to learn growth as a PM moving into a growth role, what a new PM should do in their first 90 days to earn trust, and whether an MBA is worth it for product managers. Across the answers he argues for learning by doing, building trust before directing work, and treating hands-on PM experience as the strongest credential. He lists curated reading, books, videos and people for growth, and offers practical alternatives to an MBA for accelerating a PM career. The piece is useful as a compact primer on onboarding into a PM role and on career-development tradeoffs.
01Key takeaways
- Learn growth through a few ideas at a time, applied with your team, rather than trying to absorb every resource.
- In your first 30 days, ask lots of questions and talk to customers before telling anyone what to do.
- Deliver two or three quick wins early, such as unblocking a blocker or fixing an annoying process, to build credibility.
- Within 60 days, check whether people know their priorities, whether meetings are wasteful, and whether blockers are resolved quickly.
- By 90 days, form a point of view on strategy and draft a 6-12 month roadmap, socializing it with managers beforehand.
- For accelerating a PM career, hands-on experience usually beats an MBA; a manager-led growth plan, a PM mentor, and varied work are stronger levers.
02Key sections
- Learning growth for a new growth role
- Rachitsky recommends a curated set of online essays, books, videos and people to follow on growth. He cautions readers not to absorb everything at once and to test a few ideas with their team.
- First 30 days: building trust
- A new PM should ask many questions, talk to customers, and deliver a few quick wins before proposing changes. The goal is to be seen as a collaborator rather than someone arriving with answers.
- Days 30 to 60: execution and impact
- The focus shifts to tightening execution by checking clarity of responsibilities, cutting wasteful meetings, unblocking work, and aligning the team on deadlines.
- Days 60 to 90: developing a strategy point of view
- The PM forms a long-term view, drafts a 6-12 month roadmap with the team, and pre-socializes it with managers and stakeholders so the plan does not fail in front of them.
- Is an MBA worth it for PMs?
- Rachitsky generally advises against an MBA for those already in PM roles, since hands-on experience matters most to hiring managers. He sees it as a reasonable route into PM or a way out of a career rut, and lists alternatives such as mentors, varied projects, and internal moves.
03From the post
“Thank you for all of the questions that have come in over the past week! I was half-worried no one would take me up on the offer — instead, we now have a backlog of over two dozen intriguing questions. To avoid completely nerd-sniping myself I’m going to keep it to three questions per week. If you don’t see your question answered below, stay tuned for future posts! 🙏 Note: If you find this valuable, can you do me a favor and click the little gray heart below the title above? It helps get the word out about this budding newsletter. 😍 On to this week’s questions! Q: I just applied to a growth role at a payments company — it looks like I’ll get the job. I’ve done a bit of growth before, but mostly retention. What do you advise I read up on to learn more about growth? I have a few go-to resources that I generally share, but I decided to take this question to Twitter and got back a motherload of great stuff. Below is a…”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.