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Lenny's Written Position

The five most common pitfalls for new PMs are: being a Coordinator (no point of view), a Dictator (micro-managing), a Dreamer (too much strategy), a Feature Factory (shipping without strategy), and a Busted Umbrella (failing to shield the team).

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A technical background is a superpower for product managers because it enables better decisions, understanding of trade-offs, more accurate estimates, and more confident communication with engineers.

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Great PMs take pride in the clarity and conciseness of their documents, emails, presentations, and meetings because people judge the quality of thinking by the quality of communication.

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An IC product manager's performance can be evaluated with three questions in priority order: is the team delivering business impact, are you personally contributing, and do stakeholders regard you highly.

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Early in your PM career, the four things to focus on are shipping wins, learning best practices, getting baseline credentials, and starting your network.

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When seeking a growth role, focus on demonstrating foundational tools like data analysis, user psychology, and experiment-driven methodology rather than listing tactical ideas.

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Impostor syndrome is normal and generally a sign of success; if you were in an unchallenging role, you wouldn't experience it.

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A new PM joining a team should focus on building trust in the first 30 days by asking questions and finding quick wins, improving execution in days 30-60, and developing strategy and vision in days 60-90.

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For most PMs who already have a PM job, an MBA is not worth the investment; better alternatives include working with your manager on a plan, finding PM mentors, and working on a variety of products and teams.

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The seven core PM skills in order of importance are strategic thinking, execution, communication, leadership through influence, data-informed decision making, product taste, and always being prepared.

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Podcast Moments

Donna Lichaw00:00:17
“Pull your superpowers out of your stories from your past, your present, and then eventually figure out how to apply them and transpose them to your future.”

How to discover your superpowers, own your story, and unlock personal growth | Donna Lichaw (author of The Leader’s Journey) · Donna Lichaw

Will Larson00:00:00
“This is how they're going to get the opportunity to grow as well.”

The engineering mindset | Will Larson (Carta, Stripe, Uber, Calm, Digg) · Will Larson

Fareed Mosavat00:00:00
“You can't do homework. You can't do exercises. You can't do fake stuff. You have to work on real products at real companies with real customers, with real data to get better at product management. The real acceleration happens from doing it and getting more reps. There are ways that great PMs use to go faster on this loop, but you still have to do the work.”

How to build trust and grow as a product leader | Fareed Mosavat (Reforge, Slack, Instacart, Zynga, Pixar) · Fareed Mosavat

Ken Norton00:00:00
“Part of what I think is pretty exciting about product management is you are a leader from day one in product management. There's leadership all over the place, but that's your job. You're a leader. You don't have any formal authority, but you're a leader. You're expected to lead.”

How to unlock your product leadership skills | Ken Norton, Ex-Google · Ken Norton

Manik Gupta00:20:00
“Company market fit is just as important as product market fit. The company you join, the people you work with, the culture, the stage of the company, all of that matters just as much as whether the product has found its market.”

Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · Manik Gupta

Gibson Biddle00:25:00
“Build a personal board of directors. Find five to seven people who you trust, who have diverse perspectives, who you can call when you're stuck. This is not a formal thing. It's just a list of people whose judgment you trust deeply.”

Gibson Biddle on his DHM product strategy framework, GEM roadmap prioritization framework, 5 Netflix strategy mini case studies, building a personal board of directors, and much more · Gibson Biddle

Cutting Room Floor

Guest insights on this topic that Lenny hasn't (yet) written about in his newsletters. Potential material for future posts.

Donna LichawUnsynthesized
“Pull your superpowers out of your stories from your past, your present, and then eventually figure out how to apply them and transpose them to your future.”

How to discover your superpowers, own your story, and unlock personal growth | Donna Lichaw (author of The Leader’s Journey) · Donna Lichaw

Will LarsonUnsynthesized
“This is how they're going to get the opportunity to grow as well.”

The engineering mindset | Will Larson (Carta, Stripe, Uber, Calm, Digg) · Will Larson

Fareed MosavatUnsynthesized
“You can't do homework. You can't do exercises. You can't do fake stuff. You have to work on real products at real companies with real customers, with real data to get better at product management. The real acceleration happens from doing it and getting more reps. There are ways that great PMs use to go faster on this loop, but you still have to do the work.”

How to build trust and grow as a product leader | Fareed Mosavat (Reforge, Slack, Instacart, Zynga, Pixar) · Fareed Mosavat

Ken NortonUnsynthesized
“Part of what I think is pretty exciting about product management is you are a leader from day one in product management. There's leadership all over the place, but that's your job. You're a leader. You don't have any formal authority, but you're a leader. You're expected to lead.”

How to unlock your product leadership skills | Ken Norton, Ex-Google · Ken Norton

Manik GuptaUnsynthesized
“Company market fit is just as important as product market fit. The company you join, the people you work with, the culture, the stage of the company, all of that matters just as much as whether the product has found its market.”

Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber, Google Maps) on how to build consumer apps, why it’s useful to be optimistic about technology, creating inflections in your PM career, the changing CPO role, and more · Manik Gupta

Gibson BiddleUnsynthesized
“Build a personal board of directors. Find five to seven people who you trust, who have diverse perspectives, who you can call when you're stuck. This is not a formal thing. It's just a list of people whose judgment you trust deeply.”

Gibson Biddle on his DHM product strategy framework, GEM roadmap prioritization framework, 5 Netflix strategy mini case studies, building a personal board of directors, and much more · Gibson Biddle