Resources

The Toolkit

A curated collection of the best resources for product managers — from Lenny's wisdom to the training programs, people, blogs, and podcasts that will sharpen your thinking.

Curated insights

Lenny's Wisdom

The best quotes and insights from Lenny Rachitsky's conversations with the world's top product leaders — organised by where you are in your PM journey.

For Those Starting Out

7 insights

“

If you simply wake up every day trying to have the biggest impact you can, how you do every part of your day — that's a really good guiding light.

Why it matters: Forget politics, promotion, or empire-building. The simplest north star for any new PM is ruthless focus on impact. Everything else is noise.

career mindset impact

Ian McAllister

Former PM Leader, Uber · Amazon · Airbnb

What it takes to become a top 1% PM

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The biggest mistake new PMs make is jumping to solutions. Your job is not to call the shots — it's to understand problems, then edit possibilities.

Why it matters: Most people enter product wanting to build the thing they already have in mind. The real skill is falling in love with the problem, not your solution.

mindset discovery new PM

Jiaona Zhang (JZ)

SVP Product, Webflow · ex-Airbnb, WeWork, Dropbox

Building minimum lovable products and thriving as a PM

“

As a PM you have very little true authority. A lot of it is all through influence — you're not calling the shots, you're editing possibilities.

Why it matters: The sooner you accept that the PM role is about persuasion and partnership — not control — the faster you'll stop fighting the role and start thriving in it.

influence leadership new PM

Jiaona Zhang (JZ)

SVP Product, Webflow · ex-Airbnb, WeWork, Dropbox

Building minimum lovable products and thriving as a PM

“

The best paths into PM: an APM program, an internal transfer from a product-adjacent role, shadowing a PM and taking on work, or joining an early startup where everyone gets their hands dirty.

Why it matters: You don't need a perfect background to break in. Product-adjacent roles — customer success, sales engineering, design — are often the fastest on-ramp. Proximity beats credentials.

career transition breaking in

Annie Pearl

CPO, Calendly · ex-Box

Behind the scenes of Calendly's rapid growth

“

For new PMs: communicate, prioritize, and execute. Those are the core building blocks. Get good at those three and the rest follows.

Why it matters: Senior PMs obsess over strategy and vision. But early in your career, mastering the basics — writing clearly, saying no to the right things, shipping — is what separates the best from the rest.

skills execution new PM

Ian McAllister

Former PM Leader, Uber · Amazon · Airbnb

What it takes to become a top 1% PM

“

Find something you can be really, really known for. You could be known for shepherding the most complex launches, or working cross-functionally — make that your thing.

Why it matters: Early-career PMs who try to be good at everything stay average. Pick one superpower and become the go-to person for it. That reputation compounds.

career specialization personal brand

Jiaona Zhang (JZ)

SVP Product, Webflow · ex-Airbnb, WeWork, Dropbox

Building minimum lovable products and thriving as a PM

“

If you want to transition into PM, look at the internal job board — the move works best when you're already in a product-adjacent role and can start doing the work before you have the title.

Why it matters: The most successful internal transfers to PM don't wait for permission. They start doing PM work — writing specs, joining discovery sessions, advocating for users — while still in their current role.

transition career breaking in

Annie Pearl

CPO, Calendly · ex-Box

Behind the scenes of Calendly's rapid growth

For Seasoned PMs

8 insights

“

Ask yourself: if you were the CEO of this company, would you fully fund your own team? Frankly, most people I ask that question to don't know the answer right away.

Why it matters: The low-impact PM death spiral starts innocuously — small features, cosmetic improvements — until the next round of layoffs. Aligning every team goal to no more than one step from company goals is the antidote.

strategy impact leadership

Matt LeMay

Author, Product Management in Practice · Impact First Product Teams

The one question that saves product careers

“

There are three levels of product work: impact, execution, and optics. Most team conflict comes from people operating at different levels without realising it.

Why it matters: When a PM is optimizing for optics (looking good in reviews) and an engineer is optimizing for execution (shipping cleanly), they'll clash — not because they're wrong, but because they're playing different games. Naming the level changes everything.

strategy team dynamics leadership

Shreyas Doshi

Former PM Leader, Stripe · Twitter · Google

4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he'd asked himself sooner

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Most execution problems are really strategy problems in disguise. When teams can't ship, look upstream — the strategy probably isn't clear enough to make decisions from.

Why it matters: It's tempting to fix execution with more process. But if people don't understand *why* they're building what they're building, no amount of standup cadence or project management tooling will save you.

strategy execution diagnosis

Shreyas Doshi

Former PM Leader, Stripe · Twitter · Google

4 questions Shreyas Doshi wishes he'd asked himself sooner

“

There was a perception that some people were intrinsically good at strategy and others weren't — as if there was a strategy gene. The answer is: anyone can build great product strategy through a clear, repeatable process.

Why it matters: Strategy isn't a talent, it's a skill. Chandra's process — starting with why people don't understand what you're building, then working backwards to a written strategy — turned Headspace's product around and led to his promotion to CPO.

strategy leadership frameworks

Chandra Janakiraman

CPO, VRChat · ex-Meta, Headspace, Zynga, Amazon

An operator's guide to product strategy

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The AI models you're using today are the worst AI models you will ever use for the rest of your life. If you're building something that barely works right now, keep going — in two months, the models will make it sing.

Why it matters: The biggest mistake experienced PMs make with AI is evaluating product ideas against current model capabilities. The right question is: will this be magical when models improve? If yes, build it now.

AI product strategy building

Kevin Weil

CPO, OpenAI · ex-Instagram, Twitter

OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, and startup playbooks

“

Product strategy should delight customers in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways. If your strategy could be copied by a well-funded competitor next quarter, it's not a strategy — it's a feature.

Why it matters: Gibson Biddle's DHM framework from Netflix cuts through strategic vagueness. A good strategy has all three: customer delight, a competitive moat, and a business model that gets stronger over time.

strategy frameworks moat

Gibson Biddle

Former VP Product, Netflix · Chegg

DHM product strategy framework and 5 Netflix case studies

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If you aren't prototyping with AI to build the thing you want to build, you're doing it wrong. NLX — natural language experience — is the new UX.

Why it matters: The CPO of Microsoft's productivity suite argues that PMs who aren't personally building with AI tools are losing the ability to shape what they're asking engineers to build. Taste requires hands-on experience.

AI prototyping product craft

Aparna Chennapragada

CPO, Microsoft · ex-Robinhood, Google

Microsoft CPO: If you aren't prototyping with AI, you're doing it wrong

“

Influence is the skill AI can't replace. If you don't have the buy-in and backing of your key stakeholders, you can't build great products — no matter how good the idea.

Why it matters: As AI handles more of the tactical PM work, the uniquely human edge becomes the ability to build trust, align organizations, and move people. The PMs who invest in influence now will be the ones who thrive.

influence AI era leadership

Jessica Fain

VP Product, Webflow · ex-Slack

The art of influence: The single most important skill AI can't replace

Level up

Training

The programs, courses, and newsletters that the best PMs in the world recommend for developing your craft.

Reforge

reforge.com

Product strategy and growth programs

Lenny's Newsletter

lennysnewsletter.com

Weekly product management insights

SVPG

svpg.com

Inspired product team frameworks

Product School

productschool.com

PM certifications and courses

The signal

People to Follow

The product thinkers whose writing, threads, and talks consistently raise your game.

Shreyas Doshi

@shreyas

Product frameworks and mental models

Lenny Rachitsky

@lennysan

The #1 PM newsletter and podcast

Julie Zhuo

@joulee

Design and product leadership

Gibson Biddle

@gibsonbiddle

Product strategy masterclass

Elena Verna

@elenaverna

Growth and PLG strategy

Marty Cagan

@caborom

Empowered product teams

Long-form reading

Blogs

Publications worth adding to your reading list — consistently high signal, low noise.

Stratechery

by Ben Thompson

Sharp analysis of tech strategy and the business of technology — essential reading for anyone who thinks about product and markets.

Lenny's Newsletter

by Lenny Rachitsky

Deep dives on product, growth, and career from one of the most respected voices in product management.

The Beautiful Mess

by John Cutler

Thoughtful, nuanced takes on product work, organisational dynamics, and the messy reality of building things.

Department of Product

by Various

Practical resources, case studies, and frameworks for product managers at every level.

Mind the Product

by Various

A community-driven publication with articles, conference talks, and career resources for PMs worldwide.

Ears-on learning

Podcasts

Put these on during your commute, workout, or afternoon walk — they compound quietly over time.

Lenny's Podcast

Lenny Rachitsky

In-depth conversations with world-class product leaders on what it really takes to build great products.

The Product Podcast

Product School

Interviews with senior PMs and CPOs sharing hard-won lessons from real product work.

Intercom on Product

Intercom

Short, sharp episodes on product strategy, design, and engineering from the Intercom team.

Masters of Scale

Reid Hoffman

How great founders and leaders scaled their companies — packed with strategic frameworks for ambitious builders.

How I Built This

Guy Raz · NPR

The stories behind iconic companies, told by the founders who built them from scratch.

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