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…”
Lenny’s Podcast98 min
Nikhyl Singhal · Jun 11, 2023
Key learnings- Think about your career as a product: work backward from the end state you want, and plan several steps ahead rather than…
- Pursue a diverse set of experiences across pre-product-market-fit, scaling, inside-the-building and outside-the-building…
- Early in your career, pick a lane of expertise (domain, crafting, market, organizational, growth) and build a story of what you…
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 Podcast85 min
Ian McAllister · Nov 20, 2022
Key learnings- New PMs should focus first on communicating, prioritizing, and executing, since other skills grow in importance with seniority.
- Answer first and then explain; when asked a 'when' question, give a date, and grade yourself after feedback to improve…
- Prioritization is a core PM skill across themes, projects, sequencing, scope, and personal time, and it strongly multiplies…
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 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 Podcast115 min
Nikhyl Singhal · Apr 19, 2026
Key learnings- Expect the information-moving part of product work to be automated; judgment about what to build and whether changes are good…
- Build with AI tools to solve your own daily problems; you don't need to be an engineer, you need to know what good looks like.
- Aim to obsolete yourself: automate the parts of your job you dislike, as the best engineers do.
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♥ 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…
Lenny’s Podcast99 min
Ethan Evans 2.0 · Jan 14, 2024
Key learnings- Do your current job well first; you can't grow your career while your manager wishes you were different about your performance.
- Ask your manager directly how you can help them, then do what they ask even when the work is unglamorous.
- Once trust exists, tell your manager your specific career goal and ask what they need that would also advance you; managers help…
Lenny’s Podcast97 min
Julie Zhuo · Jun 7, 2022
Key learnings- Growth often comes from being in uncomfortable, unfamiliar situations; Julie notes that feeling like an imposter tends to…
- Seek environments that are scaling, since growing companies create more opportunities to volunteer for new responsibilities and…
- Share your struggles openly with peers, mentors, and reports; vulnerability builds deeper connections and lets others help you…
Lenny’s Podcast88 min
Jules Walter · Jan 5, 2023
Key learnings- Build skills one at a time, dedicating a few months to each with weekly practice tied to a concrete outcome rather than just…
- Create a forcing-function outcome when learning something new, then work backwards to the questions you need answered and seek…
- Practice interviewing with dozens of mock interviews, ideally with people skilled at interviewing, since interviewers rarely give…
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 Podcast144 min
Phyl Terry · Sep 12, 2024
Key learnings- Join or form a small Job Search Council of six to eight peers who meet regularly, since shared accountability turns job-search…
- Write a short 'Mnookin two-pager' listing what you want and don't want, then refine it with peers before taking it to the market.
- Run a listening tour with reverse exit interviews, broader network, and recruiters, asking 'If you were in my shoes, how would…
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 Podcast105 min
Ada Chen Rekhi · Apr 16, 2023
Key learnings- Run a curiosity loop by asking a specific, unbiased question with a rationale request, sent lightweight to 5-10 people who are…
- Avoid generic advice by making it contextual: weigh each recommendation against your own situation, skills, and experience rather…
- Use a personal values exercise to rank what matters to you, then test big decisions against that internal scorecard instead of…
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…