Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 171
Sep 10, 2024 · 21 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyTara Seshan, a former Stripe and Watershed product leader, shares a playbook for presenting product tradeoffs so leadership actually makes a decision rather than defaulting to "do both." The post covers framing…
Lenny’s Podcast126 min
Sean Ellis · Sep 5, 2024
Key learnings- Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product; a high share saying 'very disappointed' is a leading…
- Survey a random sample of users who have actually experienced the product and used it more than once recently, not just sign-ups…
- Use the very-disappointed group as a filter: find their primary benefit and the context ('why is this important to you') to craft…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 314
Sep 3, 2024 · 32 min
Phil Carter introduces the Subscription Value Loop, a framework for growing consumer subscription apps that face hard problems: app store control, dependence on paid acquisition, high churn, and low, hard-to-grow ARPU…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 337
Aug 27, 2024 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares seven more practical productivity tactics following his popular time management post. The core argument is that small, concrete habits, such as arbitrary deadlines, physical to-do lists, graceful…
Lenny’s Podcast105 min
Nikita Bier · Aug 25, 2024
Key learnings- Look for latent demand: when users go through a distorted workaround to get a value, that signal can reveal a product idea with…
- Target teens for social and communication products, since invitations per user drop roughly 20% per year from age 13 to 18, and…
- Build a reproducible testing process: Bier argues that the number of shots at bat and how reliably you test ideas matters more…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 261
Aug 20, 2024 · 7 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky argues, in response to anxiety over AI replacing product managers, that PMs are the best-positioned tech role to thrive in an AI-driven world. He contends that AI excels at execution while PMs' soft…
Lenny’s Podcast115 min
Kevin Yien · Aug 18, 2024
Key learnings- Consider entering product management from engineering, design, or sales, since those roles teach you the front-line work a PM…
- Treat product management as converting a team's potential energy into realized customer value, and only add PMs where that work…
- Write clearly and compellingly enough that others can act on it; Kevin argues a PM who cannot sell or support their own product…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 1,177
Aug 13, 2024 · 12 min
Lenny Rachitsky shares ten time-management tactics he uses daily after years of trying productivity books, emphasizing ones that have lasted beyond a few weeks. The core argument is that small, durable habits, such as…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview-based post with April Dunford, a positioning consultant, covering how to diagnose positioning problems, her five-step positioning exercise, and how positioning differs from messaging, branding…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 9 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview-style episode with Marily Nika, an AI product leader, on how product managers can use AI in their work and build AI-powered products. She covers practical ChatGPT prompts, when to build versus buy models…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 13, 2024
Aug 13, 2024 · 8 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA recap of a conversation with Y Combinator Group Partner Gustaf Alströmer, drawing on his work with more than 600 startups and his Airbnb experience. The core argument is that most startups fail because they don't talk…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 12, 2024
Aug 12, 2024 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyHila Qu, a growth advisor and former GitLab and Acorns growth leader, walks through how B2B companies can add a product-led growth (PLG) motion alongside sales. Her core argument is that PLG and sales are complementary…
Lenny’s Podcast160 min
Evan LaPointe · Aug 11, 2024
Key learnings- Send questions to the right mental mode: most people over-rely on fast, recall-based thinking, so deliberately route problems to…
- Start meetings with priming, stating the context, shared goal, and guiding principles before jumping into decisions; mismatched…
- Know your own personality and openness level, then be vulnerable with your team about how you naturally react to abstract vision…
Lenny’s Podcast92 min
Joe Hudson · Aug 8, 2024
Key learnings- Treat the critical inner voice as usually wrong and unhelpful; rather than trying to silence it, respond to it differently…
- Respond to a fearful inner critic with compassion, such as acknowledging it is scared and that you are there with it, instead of…
- Approach emotional change as experimentation and self-discovery, not self-improvement, since failed attempts at self-improvement…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 150
Aug 6, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyExecutive coach Natalie Rothfels explains why asking for help builds career leverage rather than signaling weakness. The post offers a four-phase method for working through fear of asking, a structured template for…
Lenny’s NewsletterAug 6, 2024
Aug 6, 2024 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA paid newsletter post summarizing Lenny Rachitsky's podcast conversation with SEO expert Ethan Smith. It explains the three main types of SEO, contrasts contextual and navigational internal links, and argues that…
Lenny’s Podcast87 min
Brian Tolkin · Aug 4, 2024
Key learnings- Treat operations and product as complementary engines rather than rivals; a company runs best when both feed each other with…
- Start with manual, human-in-the-loop processes to learn, then automate with technology once volume makes manual work break…
- Be explicit about where scarce engineering effort goes, focusing on the core leverage point (like dispatch and pricing early on)…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 184
Jul 30, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky and Palle Broe analyze how 44 application-layer tech incumbents monetize AI features, comparing direct and indirect strategies. They argue direct monetization (add-ons, standalone products, or plan…
Lenny’s Podcast124 min
Timothy Davis · Jul 28, 2024
Key learnings- Paid acquisition suits most businesses because paid search is user-driven, so start by checking where users already find you and…
- Run small signs-of-life tests first, starting with your own customer data for lookalike audiences at a 1% match, before…
- Don't copy winning creative across platforms; user mindset and behavior differ, so adapt messaging for each platform.
Lenny’s Podcast85 min
Roger Martin · Jul 25, 2024
Key learnings- Strategy is an integrated set of choices that compels desired customer action, since customers are the one thing a company cannot…
- Work through the five cascade questions together: winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, required capabilities, and…
- Winning requires being either differentiated or lowest cost; without one of those, competitors can keep pushing you back step by…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 187
Jul 23, 2024 · 8 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares near-real-time U.S. job-market data on product and product-adjacent roles, gathered via a third-party data firm. The post argues that growth roles are expanding fastest, PM hiring has plateaued…
Lenny’s Podcast91 min
Jess Lachs · Jul 14, 2024
Key learnings- Treat analytics as a business-impact function with a seat at the table, answering 'so what do we do now?' rather than only…
- A central analytics org with pods mapped to partner teams keeps talent bars consistent, creates growth paths, and avoids…
- Carve out intentional time for self-directed deep dives, such as hackathons, because exploratory work is the first thing to slip…
Lenny’s Podcast173 min
Jeff Weinstein · Jul 11, 2024
Key learnings- Treat a customer who takes time to complain as a rare gift; respond quickly and personally, since speed signals that you care.
- Before investing in craft or polish, confirm the product solves a burning problem customers would pause their day for; polish…
- Discount feedback from friends and casual users; focus on the specific target customer who has the problem and would pay to solve…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 268
Jul 9, 2024 · 31 min
Lenny Rachitsky and prompt engineer Mike Taylor ran a blind test to see how close AI comes to doing core product manager work. They argue that most headlines saying AI 'can't do X' rely on weak models and basic prompts…
Lenny’s Podcast131 min
Mike Maples Jr · Jul 7, 2024
Key learnings- Look for inflections: external turning points, whether technological, regulatory, or shifts in belief, that newly empower people…
- Stress-test any inflection by asking what specific new thing exists, how it empowers specific people, and under what conditions…
- A strong insight is non-obvious and non-consensus but also right; if everyone likes your idea, it is probably too similar to the…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 177
Jul 2, 2024 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky and Kyle Poyar compiled lessons from more than 20 AI product builders on what surprised them about shipping AI features. The post argues that AI products need fresh thinking: prototype to discover what…
Lenny’s Podcast58 min
Dylan Field · Jun 30, 2024
Key learnings- Treat intuition as a hypothesis generator: propose hunches, then debate them and test them against data before committing.
- Read customer feedback constantly and dig past stated requests to find the real underlying problem users are trying to solve.
- Ship early to get feedback faster, but hold a firm quality bar, since software can be iteratively improved after launch.
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Jessica Livingston · Jun 27, 2024
Key learnings- Watch how co-founders interact: whether they get along, finish each other's sentences, or let one partner dominate, since…
- Treat defensiveness under questioning as a red flag; strong founders respond with "here's what I figured out" and engage in a…
- Look for earnestness: founders who admit when they don't know an answer and who have a real personal connection to the problem…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 117
Jun 25, 2024 · 11 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyThe post compares general management (GM), functional, and hybrid org models, explaining how company stage, how close a North Star metric sits to revenue, and how critical the end-to-end customer journey is shape the…
Lenny’s Podcast109 min
Ami Vora · Jun 23, 2024
Key learnings- Sublimate your ego: prioritize reaching the right outcome over being right, since others often hold information you lack.
- Respond to disagreement with curiosity by asking the other person to explain their reasoning, and pause before reacting to avoid…
- Keep product reviews short, bring a clear recommendation, and use them to calibrate on reusable principles rather than to approve…