Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 300
Jun 14, 2019 · 17 min
“The role of product manager (PM) is the most fascinating role within tech teams right now. PMs are closest to the center of the action, have a disproportionate amount of influence over key decisions, and often go on to start their own companies. It’s no surprise then that product management has begun to show up on lists of the best, hottest, and most promising careers in the U.S. (and not just in tech). Seven years ago, after joining…”
Substack · Shreyas Doshi♥ 364
Mar 4, 2026
The essay argues that as AI makes execution cheaper and faster, the scarce skill for product managers becomes product sense: the judgment to decide what is worth building and why. Mechanical PM tasks like writing specs…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 402
Sep 19, 2023 · 22 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA guest post by former Amazon executive Ethan Evans introducing the Magic Loop, a five-step cycle for growing your career by doing your current job well, offering help to your manager, and asking for work tied to your…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 119
Feb 9, 2021 · 11 min
Jackie Bavaro, drawing on research for her book Cracking the PM Career, argues that the hardest career step for many product managers is progressing from entry-level to senior PM, typically taking around three years…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 403
Jul 4, 2023 · 22 min
Coach Erika argues that first-round interviews exist mainly to filter candidates, so preparing efficiently matters more than endless practice. She presents a method called Minimum Viable Interview Prep (MVIP) covering…
Substack · Shreyas Doshi♥ 324
Dec 30, 2025
Shreyas Doshi argues that clear thinking underpins everything product people do, yet most of us have significant gaps in how we reason. In this year-end essay he offers ten ideas for 2026, framed explicitly as useful to…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 114
Dec 22, 2020 · 7 min
Lenny Rachitsky shares results from a survey of nearly 1,000 responses across more than 600 companies, aiming to show how the product manager role differs across the industry. The survey covers which skills companies…
Substack · Shreyas Doshi♥ 315
May 31, 2026
Shreyas Doshi argues that many ambitious mid-career people in tech feel dissatisfied not because of a single failure but because their career growth has stalled relative to their own expectations. Drawing on years of…
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 Newsletter♥ 162
Nov 16, 2021 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky answers the common interview question of what a product manager does, offering a working definition centered on delivering business impact through a team and customer problems. He frames the day-to-day…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 481
Apr 1, 2025 · 40 min
Ben Erez, a former Meta PM and interview coach, presents a structured playbook for product sense interviews, which are now common across major tech companies. He explains that interviewers look for clear signals across…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 79
May 25, 2021 · 15 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky analyzes more than twenty public PM career ladders to identify the core skills companies value in product managers. He outlines ten recurring PM competencies, the shifts that separate junior from senior…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 466
Jul 15, 2025 · 12 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares seven older essays he considers timeless and formative for product builders, including pieces on delegation, agency, taste, learning, product focus, market vs. team, and Elon Musk's approach. He…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 231
Sep 24, 2021 · 12 min
Niya Dragova, co-founder of Candor, shares ten rules for salary negotiation aimed at tech professionals who find negotiating uncomfortable. She argues that compensation is deliberately opaque and that most people lose…
The Beautiful Mess · John Cutler♥ 158
Jul 6, 2026
John Cutler introduces an intended-but-unwritten book about thriving at work when you think too much, framing his years of TBM posts as already containing the material. He describes a recent breakthrough that clarified…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 739
Feb 24, 2026 · 22 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky and researcher Noam Segal interviewed over 30 tech professionals about using AI in job hunts and found the strongest candidates built personal feedback loops with AI. The post packages those techniques…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 74
May 4, 2021 · 12 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky answers a reader's question about what makes product managers great by sharing 14 habits he has observed and refined over years. The core argument is that effective PMs build habits around clear…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 432
Mar 26, 2024 · 13 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky, with instructor Colin Matthews, offers a practical primer for product managers who want stronger technical fluency. It walks through application architecture (client, server, database), how APIs work…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 63
Jun 15, 2021 · 8 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares his favorite interview questions for product managers, one per core PM responsibility, with notes on what strong answers look like and which red flags to watch for. He also includes a set of…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 363
Mar 15, 2022 · 18 min
Jules Walter argues that product sense is a learned skill rather than an innate talent, defined as consistently crafting products that have the intended impact on users through empathy and creativity. He offers four…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 496
Nov 12, 2024 · 18 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyTal Raviv, a long-time individual-contributor PM, argues that flatter tech orgs demand PMs build their own systems to stay effective and healthy. The post offers practical tactics such as finishing meeting action items…
The Beautiful Mess · John Cutler♥ 64
Sep 29, 2026
John Cutler outlines ten career traps that thoughtful people, including capable product and tech professionals, tend to fall into. The core argument is that good intentions and strong work ethic can quietly steer…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 122
Apr 19, 2022 · 5 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky lays out a three-part approach to preparing for product manager interviews: research the product, company and interview process; practice with real people through mock interviews and coaching; and study…
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 92
Sep 17, 2019 · 6 min
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…