Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 4, 2012
Sep 4, 2012 · 4 min
“This post is part of the So You Want To Be a Product Manager series. There are a ton of great articles about what you might get asked in a product manager interview. I refer you here, here, and here. I've also written about what I always ask during”
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 2, 2012
Aug 2, 2012 · 3 min
Teresa Torres interviews Oded Korczyn, who moved into his first formal product management role at AfterCollege despite never having held one. Oded draws on his anthropology background and startup experience, where he…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresSep 6, 2012
Sep 6, 2012
This piece is a curated index of the author's earlier posts on breaking into product management. Its premise is that people arrive at product roles from many backgrounds, so there is no single path, and the most common…
Lenny’s Podcast98 min
Jason Shah · Sep 18, 2022
Key learnings- Reframe pushback as shifting direction toward shared goals: first identify what the other person actually cares about, then align…
- Use Amazon's working-backwards PR/FAQ: write the press release, customer quote, and leadership quote before building, forcing…
- Cut vague adjectives like 'great' and replace them with concrete numbers and specifics, since fewer, heavier words force sharper…
Substack podcastJan 3, 2026
Jan 3, 2026
Key learnings- Treat time management as an ongoing experiment rather than a fixed system, testing methods and keeping what actually works for…
- Advanced time management ideas go beyond to-do lists to focus on how you allocate attention across competing priorities.
- Protect blocks of deep, uninterrupted work time, since product work is often fragmented by meetings and reactive requests.
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 39
May 5, 2020 · 10 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyA Q&A post offering advice for someone becoming a startup's first product manager. Drawing on interviews with people who held that role at well-known companies, it covers when to make the first PM hire and what the job…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 49
Sep 21, 2021 · 6 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny answers a reader who lacks a technical background and struggles to follow engineers and make trade-off decisions. He lays out a three-step path: learn core concepts like how software systems, APIs, and databases…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 7, 2012
Aug 7, 2012 · 5 min
Teresa Torres interviews Colin Murphy, a former account manager who moved toward product management and shares lessons from his job search. His core argument is that career switchers must actively sell their applicable…
Lenny’s Podcast94 min
Jiaona Zhang · Jul 2, 2023
Key learnings- New PMs often jump to solutions; start by understanding user problems and whether a real opportunity exists before deciding what…
- A PM has little formal authority and must lead through influence, so editing and synthesizing opportunities matters more than…
- Check unit economics early; magical thinking that a business will work at scale is a common trap, as the Airbnb Plus experience…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresAug 21, 2012
Aug 21, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that a product manager job search should start with self-assessment rather than a list of who is hiring. Companies differ in what they need: technical products favor engineers, market-creating…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 186
Dec 20, 2022 · 5 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky recommends a curated set of product management courses, split into five for senior PMs and five for up-and-coming PMs, plus honorable mentions. He limits picks to live, cohort-based courses that have run…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 24, 2012
Jul 24, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that hiring for product management should hinge on demonstrated ability rather than credentials. As a hiring manager and consultant, she says she cares about none of the usual gatekeepers, such as…
Lenny’s Podcast90 min
Lauren Ipsen · Nov 3, 2022
Key learnings- Define the outcome and 90-day mandate for a senior product hire before starting the search, rather than hiring a head of product…
- Be wary of chasing big-name executives; ask who is best for this specific role at this stage, since senior leaders may be far…
- Decide whether the role is platform, core product, or specialist (growth, monetization, design) so you don't expect one leader to…
Lenny’s Podcast95 min
Shreyas Doshi · Oct 31, 2024
Key learnings- Run a pre-mortem before launches by imagining the project has already failed, then surfacing tigers, paper tigers and elephants…
- Classify tasks as leverage, neutral or overhead; spend extra effort only on leverage tasks, and do less polish on neutral and…
- Beat procrastination on high-leverage work by doing a couple days of low-stakes placebo tasks first, then working from a…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 6, 2022
Jul 6, 2022 · 6 min
Teresa Torres addresses the catch-22 of landing a first product role when employers want experience. Her core argument is that aspiring PMs can manufacture credible experience through self-directed side projects, even…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 30, 2012
Jul 30, 2012
Teresa Torres argues that aspiring product managers can break the 'chicken and egg' problem of needing experience to get a PM job by starting their own side project right away. She notes there is no shortage of unsolved…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 97
May 24, 2022 · 4 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky shares high-level structures from 20+ large companies' product management career ladders, including titles by level, evaluated competencies, and where IC and manager tracks split. He argues career…
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 Podcast99 min
Gergely · Nov 17, 2022
Key learnings- Build real depth in a specific field before writing about it, since credibility from hands-on experience is hard to fake and…
- Set controllable goals, such as publishing on a fixed cadence, rather than outcome goals like subscriber counts you cannot…
- Create external deadlines and accountability, such as promises to paying readers or a publisher, to overcome the procrastination…
SVPG · Marty CaganMar 27, 2008
Mar 27, 2008 · 4 min
Marty Cagan argues that engineers often make excellent product managers because they understand what is technically possible, and that the move from engineering to product management requires specific mindset and skill…
The Looking Glass · Julie Zhuo♥ 131
Apr 21, 2026
Julie Zhuo's short essay, titled "I am an idiot," reflects on intellectual humility in an era when AI systems can seem to know more than we do. The piece is framed as personal notes rather than a formal argument, using…
SVPG · Marty CaganDec 14, 2005
Dec 14, 2005 · 5 min
Marty Cagan argues that product management is demanding and that product managers inevitably face rough days, which matter more because their teams watch how they react. He offers a set of practical habits for breaking…
Lenny’s Podcast102 min
Deb Liu · Aug 4, 2022
Key learnings- Treat your career like a product: write down what success looks like in five years, the milestones and skills needed, and measure…
- Keep balancing learning and impact; the expert you are today will be outpaced by someone still actively learning from the best…
- Treat setbacks as stepping stones; people who recover from hard feedback and failed products often become the strongest leaders.
The Looking Glass · Julie Zhuo♥ 165
May 27, 2025
Julie Zhuo argues that the expertise that made you valuable, such as a specialized craft or deep procedural skill, may be the very thing AI erodes first, leaving some professionals more exposed than others. The source…