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🤔 Lenny Rachitsky's thoughts on product, newsletters and working with humans

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🤔 Lenny Rachitsky's thoughts on product, newsletters and working with humans

Tech Twitter's most helpful person has a lot to say

Brett Goldstein
Jul 7, 2020
3
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🤔 Lenny Rachitsky's thoughts on product, newsletters and working with humans

socialstudies.substack.com

Yo! ✌️ I’m Brett! I am a Product Manager, musician, and Twitter power user. Twitter is where all the action happens in the tech industry but it’s not easy to keep up with. I write this weekly newsletter to help people stay informed on the most important discussions happening on Tech Twitter.


🤔 Who is Lenny Rachitsky?

Lenny Rachitsky is the most helpful person on Tech Twitter. And he’s not even a VC (though he does invest). After spending years as a serial entrepreneur and an early PM at Airbnb, Lenny has made it his mission to share his wisdom and the wisdom of others with the world.

Lenny writes one of the most popular newsletters on Substack, Lenny’s Newsletter, where he does incredibly thorough deep dives on product, growth, management and “anything else that stresses you out at the office.” He also recently created a private Slack community for his paid subscribers.

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
Life alert: I’m adding a paid plan to my newsletter 🤞 After much prodding from readers and friends, I’m going to take the leap and give this life-path a shot. Consider subscribing and joining me on this journey 🙏 lennyrachitsky.com/p/this-newslet…
lennyrachitsky.comThis newsletter is growing up 🌱Starting in two weeks, only paid subscribers will get this newsletter weekly. In addition, paid subscriber questions will be prioritized, plus they’ll get a few other goodies (see below). Free subscribers will now receive this newsletter only about once a month.
1:44 PM ∙ Apr 7, 2020
278Likes22Retweets

If you’re a product manager, founder, or growth person this may be the most valuable newsletter in your inbox.

I met Lenny a year ago when both of us were first getting our newsletters off the ground and I was looking for some career advice. What he shared then was incredibly helpful and I’m super excited that he’s bringing his insight to a larger audience with his newsletter.

🤔 Q&A with Lenny

🤔 What gives you the most satisfaction in what you do?

Nothing beats hearing from someone who has used a nugget that I shared in their life, and it made a big difference for them.

🤔What is one thing most people misunderstand about product and growth?

In terms of product, a lot of people think they'd be better off without PMs. This usually just means they're working with a bad PM. Good PMs make your life easier and better.

In terms of growth, there's a sense that growth is still mysterious. It's fairly straightforward actually. The majority of businesses grow through one of four ways: sales, performance marketing, virality, or content/SEO. Everything else either a one-off spike (e.g. PR), or accelerants (e.g. conversion)

🤔What would you say to someone just starting their career in tech today?

Do it. Just tell people it's an experiment, and that you're tinkering. That cuts down on the pressure. Use this time to see how it feels, to see if you can keep at it, and if you actually enjoy it. If not, it's OK to drop it.

🤔What would you say to someone deciding whether or not to start a newsletter?

Do it. Don't even tell many people about it at first. Just use it as a place to crystallize your thinking. See how it feels. If you like it, keep at it. If not, forget it.

Just remember: It's easy to start a newsletter. It's hard to keep at it.

🤔What are your plans with your newsletter / community?

With the newsletter, my main goal is simple: Get to a place financially where I can avoid having to get a job.

With the subscriber Slack community, I wanted to see what happens when you bring smart, driven, interesting people together. Turns out, wonderful things happen.

🤔What are you most excited about as an investor?

I get excited about so many things, but my sweet spot is (1) software companies (2) that are good for the world. Marketplaces, consumer, enterprise, SaaS and not SaaS – I look at them all.

🤔What have you been reading/watching/listening to lately?

Hamilton on Disney+ 💯

🤔What are your thoughts on Twitter and who are your favorite follows?

Twitter = 🤔 😂 😭

President Joe Biden (So-Called) is my current favorite follow

🏆 Lenny’s top tweet

Lenny is the king of sharing useful information in tweetstorms. It’s a little meta but his top tweet ever is part of a tweetstorm about learnings from writing his newsletter. If you’re at all thinking about writing a newsletter, read this thread:

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
After ten months of a free newsletter, and now six weeks into paid, this thing is for real: 🙏 ~450 paid subscribers 👋 ~13,000 free subscribers 🤯 ~$56k ARR (before fees) For anyone thinking about newsletter'ing, some early learnings in the thread below 👇
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12:07 AM ∙ May 26, 2020
2,741Likes234Retweets

If you’re interested in launching a paid newsletter, check out more of Lenny’s advice here.

💱 …On Marketplaces

Having spent seven years at Airbnb, and previously starting a consumer mobile marketplace app, Lenny is one of the foremost experts on marketplaces. That said, he regularly synthesizes insights from other experts in the space. These tweetstorms are amazing - be sure to click in.

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
After months of work, dozens of interviews, and countless hours – I'm very excited to release part one of a truly epic research project I've been quietly working on: "How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business" More context below (1/8) 👇 lennyrachitsky.com/p/how-to-kicks…
lennyrachitsky.comHow to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business – Phase 1: Crack the Chicken-and-Egg Problem 🐣Insights from 17 of today’s biggest marketplaces, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Thumbtack, Etsy, Uber and many more
3:30 PM ∙ Nov 20, 2019
2,128Likes407Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
3/ Thus, over the past few months I’ve had the good fortune to interview dozens of incredible people with direct experience building some of the most successful marketplaces in the world. I’ve consolidated their learnings into a sort-of-playbook for building a marketplace.
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3:30 PM ∙ Nov 20, 2019
22Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
How Airbnb, DoorDash, Uber, Instacart and Caviar onboarded new supply (Thread) Airbnb: “For every new listing we brought onboard, we went through a 12-point checklist (e.g. number of pictures, length of title, etc), so that every listing that went live had a minimum standard..."
6:18 PM ∙ Dec 18, 2019
875Likes141Retweets

📈…On Growth

Lenny oversaw Airbnb's host referral program which was instrumental for the platform’s supply growth. Here are a few of his top tweets around growth. Again, these are tweetstorms / articles so be sure to click in.

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
New post 🔥 An investigation into how the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users. Tons of learnings, including that just 7 strategies account for every big consumer apps' early growth. Highlights in thread below 👇 lennyrachitsky.com/how-the-bigges…
lennyrachitsky.comHow the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users - Issue 25Considering every startup confronts this question at some point, I was surprised by how little has been written about it. Particularly anything actionable. So I decided to do my own digging. I spent the past month personally reaching out to founders, scouring interviews, and tapping the Twitterverse…
2:02 PM ∙ May 12, 2020
1,648Likes358Retweets

What I like about Lenny’s tweetstorms is that he gives away the goods before you even click into the articles:

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
1/ Top 7 strategies to acquire your first 1,000 users: 1. Go where your target users are, offline 2. Go where your target users are, online 3. Invite your friends 4. Create FOMO in order to drive word-of-mouth 5. Leverage influencers 6. Get press 7. Build a community pre-launch
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2:02 PM ∙ May 12, 2020
48Likes15Retweets

This post on retention stirred up quite a controversy.

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
🔥 New post in collaboration with growth legend @onecaseman 🔥 A deep dive into what GOOD and GREAT retention look like, for all types of businesses, with concrete recommendations from 20 of the world's top growth experts. Highlights in thread below 👇 lennyrachitsky.com/p/what-is-good…
lennyrachitsky.comWhat is good retention - Issue 29Although retention is widely considered to be the most important metric to get right when building (or investing in) a business, it’s also one of the least understood. Why? Because unless you’re a growth expert or an experienced investor, you’re often relying on anecdotes, dated blog posts, and misg…
2:15 PM ∙ Jun 9, 2020
759Likes152Retweets

💼 (Product) Management

Here are some great threads for Product Managers:

Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
How do you know if you have that fabled ✨Product/Market Fit✨? I've collected the top 10 best descriptions of PMF I've come across in the thread below, sorted by most to least concrete. If you have any others you've found useful, particularly pre-product, please share below 👇
3:40 PM ∙ Jan 22, 2020
1,200Likes274Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
Setting goals –– a thread (1/20) 👇 1. Why set goals 2. How to set goals 3. Picking the metric 4. Pick the threshold 5. How to use goals once you have them
5:22 PM ∙ May 4, 2020
332Likes57Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
What’s the difference between a first-PM hire vs 25th PM hire? 1st PM needs to: * Embrace change * Ship quickly * Help with hiring, sales * Be jack of all trades 25th needs to: * Embrace process * Ship reliably * Help make case for resources * Delegate to functional experts
3:37 PM ∙ Jul 8, 2019
1,385Likes225Retweets
Twitter avatar for @lennysan
Lenny Rachitsky @lennysan
Managing up is an essential skill at every level (even CEO). It enables you do your best work, and get the recognition you deserve. A few tips for managing up well (thread 👇)
3:13 PM ∙ Jul 10, 2019
2,334Likes460Retweets

🙏Thanks

Be sure to subscribe to Lenny’s Newsletter!

Twitter avatar for @thatguyBG
Brett Goldstein @thatguyBG
Translated @lennysan's "how the biggest consumer apps got their first 1000 users" for the Tik Tok generation! (This is how I imagined him typing it out 😂) On Tik Tok: vm.tiktok.com/J8g9CnY/ OP: lennyrachitsky.com/p/how-the-bigg…
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1:11 AM ∙ Jul 9, 2020
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🤔 Lenny Rachitsky's thoughts on product, newsletters and working with humans

socialstudies.substack.com
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