“"Years of experience" has been a gold standard hiring requirement since forever. It's a terrible one. Someone can do something for years and have nothing to show for it. Seek people with "Years of evidence" instead. People with deep examples of work. Piles of stuff they've made. An overflowing collection of output they're proud to share. If someone's brand new…”
Lenny Rachitsky's weekly Q&A newsletter tackles three practical questions: how a startup founder can tell they are approaching product/market fit, what matters most when interviewing for a Director of PM role, and…
Teresa Torres opens 2024 by departing from her usual annual plan, explaining that a sabbatical-style 2023 was derailed by her husband's surgery and a difficult platform migration, leaving her facing burnout. Rather than…
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader worried about layoffs by compiling advice from people who were recently laid off. The post walks through seven preparation steps, including documenting accomplishments, rebuilding your…
Marty Cagan describes the most common confusions he sees in product teams, drawn from a dinner conversation with product leaders who recognized the same patterns. He argues that product teams should discover solutions…
A guest-authored paid guide from a full-time executive negotiation coach who presents GAINS, a five-step framework (Gather, Align, Influence, Navigate, Secure) for negotiating senior compensation. The core argument is…
Teresa Torres argues that job titles and disciplinary boundaries matter for advancing each craft, since naming skills lets people debate, invest in, and share them. However, she warns that the same labels become harmful…
Lenny Rachitsky shares a curated directory of roughly 200 favorite reads, listens, and watches on growth, startups, writing, angel investing, product management, leadership, and frameworks, cleaned up and expanded for…
This weekly newsletter answers three reader questions on product work. A guest contributor, Hiten Shah, argues that remote teams suffer from miscommunication and that clarity, written documentation, screenshare-based…
Teresa Torres shares her favorite books from the roughly 60 she read in 2014, spanning music, decision making, mathematics, persuasion, negotiation, time perception, integrative thinking, customer development, and…
The author, who onboarded fully remotely at Produx Labs during the COVID-19 pandemic, argues that starting a job virtually is daunting but has real upsides. Remote hiring signals the company values the role, offers…
Teresa Torres and members of the Continuous Discovery Habits community share the personal knowledge management (PKM) tools and habits they use to capture, organize, and reuse what they learn about products, customers…
Marty Cagan contrasts the traditional PC-era product manager with the modern Internet-era product manager. He argues that many organizations still operate with the older model, which was often ineffective and poorly…
Marty Cagan argues that product leaders must actively develop their product managers, since strong teams are essential and people leave managers rather than companies. He presents a gap-analysis tool for ongoing skills…
Marty Cagan argues there is a wide gap between how the best product companies work and how the majority of companies work, and that many people don't realize how different the two worlds are. He notes that practitioners…
Teresa Torres argues that curiosity is a core skill for product managers, especially when facing pressure to build one-off feature requests. Rather than arguing or pleading, PMs should investigate the underlying need…
Marty Cagan answers reader questions prompted by his earlier article distinguishing product teams from feature and delivery teams. He clarifies that designers and engineers contribute far beyond usability and…
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille examine why hiring processes often fail product teams despite their rigor. They describe how AI-inflated application volumes, longer funnels, and many stakeholders create noise, and how…
Teresa Torres argues that product managers are essentially designers who solve ill-structured problems, which have no single right answer and several competing solutions. Drawing on educational psychologist David…
Lenny uses the Lord of the Rings, especially Frodo's journey, as a lens for how product managers can build influence without relying on formal authority. He walks through seven strategies, each illustrated with Airbnb…
Marty Cagan addresses a frequent complaint from product managers at large companies: their managers keep shifting direction, producing constant rework and frustration. He acknowledges that such churn is a structural…
Marty Cagan argues that managers of product managers must actively develop their people, since talented PMs will leave for other companies if they lack growth. He presents a gap-analysis skills assessment as the…
Chris Jones, an SVPG partner, describes the hard transition from being a strong individual-contributor product manager to managing other PMs. He recounts advice from his own manager, Steve Roop, that a new hire should…
A 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…