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…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 89
Jun 18, 2024 · 17 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky synthesizes lessons from Stytch's CEO and marketing leaders at other startups on running out-of-home (billboard, bus, transit) ad campaigns for B2B software. The post argues OOH is best for brand…
Lenny’s Podcast143 min
Tanguy Crusson · Jun 16, 2024
Key learnings- Assume new bets will most likely fail and say so openly, so the wider company doesn't pile on resources and slow the team down.
- Create scarcity and autonomy for new bets so they can move like a startup, shielding them from processes built for mature…
- Don't assume that what made the core business successful will transfer to a new market; validate the playbook's assumptions early.
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Jeffrey Pfeffer · Jun 13, 2024
Key learnings- Political skill is linked to higher pay, promotions, job satisfaction and lower stress, so treating influence as a learnable…
- Get out of your own way: stop pre-emptory apologizing, stop doubting you deserve your role, and avoid leaking disrespect or…
- Prioritize competence and respect over being liked; you were hired to get a job done, so doing the needed work matters more than…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 335
Jun 11, 2024 · 6 min
Lenny Rachitsky surveyed hundreds of product managers, then ran follow-up calls, to collect concrete ways PMs use Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, in their daily work. The post groups 27 real prompts into six…
Lenny’s Podcast98 min
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 Newsletter♥ 146
Jun 4, 2024 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyGuest author Ben Erez argues against the view that feature-team PMs are merely project managers, contending they do real product work and that feature-factory setups can suit CEOs with strong product visions. He…
Lenny’s Podcast74 min
Cam Adams · Jun 2, 2024
Key learnings- Cameron says Canva replaces traditional managers with specialty coaches, roughly 800 to 1,000 internal people who help colleagues…
- Cameron argues that scaling requires 'giving away your Lego': hand off tasks you personally own, like writing every email, so you…
- Cameron advises founders to build something they are truly passionate about, since passion sustains them through the dark…
Lenny’s Podcast85 min
Matt Dixon · May 30, 2024
Key learnings- Most lost qualified deals end in 'no decision' rather than to competitors, so diagnosing indecision is a core sales skill.
- Customers fear being blamed for a bad choice (messing up) more than missing out, so pushing FOMO late in a deal often backfires.
- Before pushing, judge the buyer's level of indecision using 'pings' that surface whether the hesitation is about choice overload…
Lenny’s Podcast135 min
Bangaly Kaba · May 26, 2024
Key learnings- Optimize for impact rather than compensation, since pay and scope follow from the impact you deliver.
- Score your environment (manager, resources, scope, team, compensation, culture) quarterly to see which factor is limiting your…
- Your manager is the most powerful environment variable; if it's a bad fit, first try to understand what they optimize for before…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 252
May 21, 2024 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares how he learned to say no to the constant flow of requests as a solopreneur, arguing that protecting focus on the few things that made you successful is essential. He offers a decision framework…
Lenny’s Podcast98 min
Kenneth Berger · May 19, 2024
Key learnings- Treat your complaints as clues: every complaint implies a dream, so reverse it into the better future you actually want.
- Articulate your wants out loud, checking whether the dream is both inspiring and credible rather than embarrassing or unrealistic.
- Hold a high bar for yes: anything short of an enthusiastic 'hell yes' should be treated as a no and explored further.
Lenny’s Podcast101 min
Jag Duggal · May 16, 2024
Key learnings- Start from a deep, emotionally felt customer pain point rather than a feature idea; Nubank tied its origin to widely hated…
- Use the Sean Ellis survey as a gate before scaling: ask how disappointed users would be if the product disappeared, and raise the…
- Keep small, measure whether customers truly love it, and avoid scaling problems that aren't yet solved; scaling early creates big…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 130
May 14, 2024 · 31 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyPart two of Lenny's pivot series argues that pivoting is fundamentally about opportunity cost and distinguishes early ideation pivots from hard pivots on live products. It draws on founder-reported data to suggest…
Lenny’s Podcast78 min
Vikrama Dhiman · May 12, 2024
Key learnings- Early in your career, prioritize shipping concrete outputs and being useful to your team; strategic influence comes as you earn…
- Keep producing hands-on artifacts like PRDs, strategy docs, and briefs even as you grow senior, since quality artifacts signal…
- Work on your operating model: raise difficult issues without being difficult to work with, surface topics without centering…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 159
May 7, 2024 · 3 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky introduces a two-part series on startup pivots, drawing on research into 30+ successful pivots. The post points to a companion spreadsheet covering why each company pivoted, how long it took, how the new…
Lenny’s Podcast65 min
Hamilton Helmer · May 5, 2024
Key learnings- Start thinking about strategy and power even before product-market fit, focusing on the underlying characteristics that might…
- A real power needs both a benefit (cost or price advantage) and a barrier that competitors cannot easily mimic; Helmer calls this…
- Early-stage startups should prioritize counter positioning, then consider network economies, scale economies, and switching costs…
Lenny’s Podcast98 min
Annie Duke · May 2, 2024
Key learnings- Make implicit judgments explicit (e.g., a hiring rubric) before using intuition; Duke cites Kahneman's work lifting hiring hit…
- Gather opinions independently and asynchronously before meetings, then use the meeting only for discussion, focusing on where…
- Reserve meetings for discussion; discovery of views should happen beforehand and decisions should be made by an accountable…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 306
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…
Lenny’s Podcast115 min
Kayvon Beykpour · Apr 28, 2024
Key learnings- Treat sacred cows as a built-in roadmap: list what the org believes can't change, then start challenging those assumptions one by…
- Culture change requires alignment from the top; without leadership backing, pockets of the company advocating for change get…
- Optimizing the core experience can reignite growth, but balance it with a portfolio of bold bets that add genuinely new…
Lenny’s Podcast96 min
Carole Robin · Apr 25, 2024
Key learnings- Relationships sit on a continuum from contact-without-connection to functional, robust, and exceptional; you can build the skills…
- Practice progressive disclosure using the 15% rule: step slightly outside your comfort zone, observe the response, then gradually…
- Share appropriate vulnerability, such as admitting uncertainty or mistakes, rather than either oversharing or hiding everything…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 262
Apr 23, 2024 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA guest post by Kyle Poyar compiling 25 low-effort, high-impact quick wins that operators at well-known tech companies used in their first months in a role. The ideas span funnel friction, pricing tweaks, workflow…
Lenny’s Podcast122 min
Mihika Kapoor · Apr 21, 2024
Key learnings- Build a vision that ties together a user pain point, a proposed solution, and a proof point such as a testimonial or prototype…
- Pull research, design, and engineering feasibility into the vision early so it reflects what users feel and what the team can…
- Lean on prototypes and mocks before a project gets approved; seeing and feeling the future often persuades more than…
Lenny’s Podcast103 min
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♥ 233
Apr 16, 2024 · 19 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyKen Rudin introduces ARIA, a repeatable framework for growing a product by increasing engagement with features it already has rather than launching new ones. He argues that most growth comes from incremental…
Lenny’s Podcast116 min
Todd Jackson · Apr 11, 2024
Key learnings- Treat product-market fit as a progression across four levels rather than a binary, and expect it to take several years for most…
- At the nascent level, prioritize delivering insanely satisfying results to three to five customers; inefficiency such as manual…
- When stuck, change one or more of the four Ps (persona, problem, promise, product), and recognize that some companies keep one…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 294
Apr 9, 2024 · 14 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky argues that AI will hit the high-level strategic parts of product management, such as strategy, vision, and goal-setting, harder than the people-centric work. He contends that soft skills like…
Lenny’s Podcast108 min
Claire Vo · Apr 7, 2024
Key learnings- Know what you want from your career and your next role, and ask for it clearly, framed around how the role solves a real problem…
- Time promotion conversations to the company's talent calendar and pitch concrete org-level gaps you can fill, such as an org…
- Lean into your zone of genius by auditing your calendar, grouping activities by energy, and deliberately protecting time for the…
Lenny’s Podcast139 min
Dharmesh Shah · Apr 4, 2024
Key learnings- Treat public speaking and other hard skills as decomposable into sub-skills, then practice and measure each incrementally, such…
- Structure humor by ending a bit on the punchline, then pausing so the audience can react, and reuse a story's setup to land…
- Decline roles you are not good at and do not enjoy; Shah avoided direct reports because he would rather spend his energy on…