SVPG · Marty CaganDec 6, 2011
Dec 6, 2011
Marty Cagan argues against a common corporate arrangement that splits the product role between a 'product manager' who handles customers and stakeholders and a 'product owner' who handles the backlog and developers. He…
SVPG · Marty CaganDec 29, 2013
Dec 29, 2013
Marty Cagan argues that the largest source of technology waste is not government projects or startups but large non-tech companies such as banks, insurers, airlines and retailers. These firms, often run by CIOs or CFOs…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresOct 9, 2024
Oct 9, 2024 · 9 min
“If you’ve ever felt like working as part of a product trio was hard, you’re not alone. We often field questions or comments from people who are skeptical about how this type of collaborative decision-making can work, so we’ve known anecdotally for quite a while that”
Lenny’s Newsletter · Free post♥ 105
Nov 9, 2021 · 15 min
Elena Verna argues that a founder's first growth hire is one of the most consequential hires a startup makes, and that many founders begin with avoidable mistakes. She proposes six rules: define a growth model before…
@ttorres · Teresa Torres on X♥ 9
🎙️Facilitation Skills Conflict on a product team isn't a warning sign — the absence of it usually is. In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres tackle a question Teresa hears constantly: what should a product trio do when collaboration breaks down and disagreement turns…
Lenny’s Podcast89 min
Matt Mochary · Nov 10, 2022
Key learnings- When you sense fear clouding judgment, make a low-stakes bet with a peer on the opposite prediction; Mochary says fear has…
- Deliver layoff news one-on-one, never via email or group chat, since impersonal delivery is what turns layoffs into anger and…
- Separate the decision from its implementation: decide based on what serves the customer, then address the hurt of each affected…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresFeb 24, 2026
Feb 24, 2026
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille examine the blurred line between product and engineering, where product managers drift into owning bugs, tech debt and architecture. They argue this starts as helpfulness but leads to PM…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 145
Jun 13, 2023 · 22 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyFormer Palantir product leader Adam Judelson shares unconventional product lessons from his seven years at the company, including embedding engineers with customers, hiring top talent, skipping a formal sales team…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJun 5, 2024
Jun 5, 2024 · 16 min
Teresa Torres argues that product trios, small cross-functional teams of product, design, and engineering, should jointly own both discovery (deciding what to build) and delivery. She contrasts this with waterfall…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 131
Jan 23, 2024 · 20 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn interview with Gong's chief product officer on how the company builds product. It covers two-tier annual and quarterly planning, autonomous multi-skill pods organized around problem areas, the decision to skip OKRs…
SVPG · Marty CaganNov 9, 2020
Nov 9, 2020 · 4 min
Marty Cagan announces the pre-order launch of his new book EMPOWERED, co-written with Chris Jones, and explains how it complements INSPIRED. He argues that many companies can teach product teams strong practices but…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 276
May 30, 2023 · 19 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyAn in-depth look at how Notion builds product, drawn from an interview with its Chief Product and Technology Officer. It covers planning cadences, a four-stage product review process, the small size of the PM team, a…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 1, 2025
Jul 1, 2025
This podcast episode, hosted by Teresa Torres with Petra Wille, examines the difference between organizations that fund projects and those that fund teams. The conversation argues that project-based funding clashes with…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresMar 13, 2019
Mar 13, 2019 · 13 min
Teresa Torres, who teaches design-based courses at Northwestern, argues that continuous discovery principles extend beyond product work to broader organizational challenges like engagement, team effectiveness, and…
SVPG · Marty CaganSep 24, 2014
Sep 24, 2014 · 3 min
Marty Cagan argues that UX designers often work in isolation, going off for days or weeks to produce a polished 'grand reveal,' a pattern he calls the 'internal agency model.' This breaks down because requirements and…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresDec 11, 2024
Dec 11, 2024 · 10 min
This Product in Practice profile follows Eva Spexard, Head of Operations and People at Passion.io, who applies continuous discovery habits to the employee experience rather than to a product. She treats employees as…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresJul 2, 2025
Jul 2, 2025 · 17 min
Teresa Torres and Hope Gurion, both coaches, examine how resistance surfaces on pilot teams during a product operating model rollout, even among volunteers. They identify three common objections: "we don't have time,"…
The Beautiful Mess · John Cutler♥ 83
Jun 7, 2026
The piece argues that organizations asking their teams to find ways to use AI for company benefit are undermining that goal by stripping away the agency people need to experiment and decide. The core claim is that…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresApr 28, 2026
Apr 28, 2026 · 3 min
This podcast episode examines why companies drift back to command-and-control leadership during uncertain times, because it feels faster and more decisive. Teresa Torres and Petra Wille argue that no single leader can…
Product Talk · Teresa TorresMay 20, 2025
May 20, 2025
This podcast episode asks whether an organization can run a product operating model and a project operating model at the same time. Teresa Torres and Petra Wille contrast the two: project models organize around fixed…
Lenny’s Podcast72 min
Dmitry Zlokazov · May 15, 2025
Key learnings- Treat product managers as end-to-end owners of their area, closer to local CEOs, with authority over the roadmap, team direction…
- Hire for raw intellect and an unquenched hunger to build things, rather than for years of experience, since experienced hires…
- Look for people who have founded startups or worked as tech co-founders, since they tend to be hands-on across many areas and…
Lenny’s Newsletter♥ 265
Mar 21, 2023 · 19 min
Subscriber post — summary onlyLenny Rachitsky interviews Duolingo VP of Product Cem Kansu about how the company builds product. The post covers its co-lead team structure, quarterly and yearly OKR cycles, a tiered product review process, weekly…
Lenny’s Podcast148 min
Bob Baxley · Jun 12, 2025
Key learnings- Before joining a new company, check whether founders genuinely believe in design; design-led cultures are born that way, not…
- When changing cultures, keep your core values but re-express them in the new company's behaviors rather than carrying over old…
- Keep teams small when inventing something new; add people once the vision is clear, since more people slows creative convergence.
SVPG · Marty CaganOct 24, 2006
Oct 24, 2006 · 4 min
Cagan argues that remote development teams, whether from outsourcing, acquisitions, or internal centralization, magnify normal communication and execution problems and often frustrate organizations. He offers three…