PM News #3: Lenny Rachitsky

hey! Anthony here. This is my full interview with Lenny Rachitsky. Lenny spent 7 years as a PM and Product Lead at Airbnb before becoming a part-time writer, investor, and advisor in 2019. His newsletter, “Lenny’s Newsletter” focuses on product and growth strategy. It’s some of the best product content on the web.

We talked about a lot, including:

• ⚡️ He broke down the specific details on how he led a team of 80+ people to increase Airbnb’s instant bookings from 5% to 75%.

• ✏️ The most important and interesting things he’s learned about product since starting his newsletter.

• 🌱 His thoughts on growth and building a viral product.

• 🤕 Mistakes he’s learned from at Airbnb.

• 🔥 And lots more!

Here’s Lenny Rachitsky:

This week, instead of writing out snippets of the interview, I made them into short videos that you can watch below:

Clip #1

⚡️ Lenny breaks down how he led a team of 80+ people at Airbnb to make Airbnb’s booking completely instant.

Clip #2

🌱 Since starting his newsletter, Lenny’s learned that “growth is not as mysterious as a lot of people think…”

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

"Growth is not as mysterious as people think." Across companies, there are 4 consistent patterns to driving long-term growth: • Performance marketing • Going viral • Content • Sales - @lennysan

Clip #3

💸 Lenny’s also learned that “[paid] growth is becoming more expensive” and “building a great product is becoming more important…”

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

"Growth is becoming more expensive." • Paid ads • Sales • SEO The solution? Build an amazing product that solves a real problem well, and makes people want to tell their friends about it, for free. - @lennysan

Clip #4

👀 Another thing Lenny learned is that “you shouldn’t rely on one company’s example of how they grew or what they did right…”

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

🔑 Growth tip: "Don't rely on one company's example for how they grew" It might not work for you. Look at different companies and different approaches to see what emerges consistently, not just in one case. - @lennysan

Clip #5

🔥 Lenny shares his thoughts how to combat the rising cost of paid growth: “Build something remarkable.” Growth for today’s products rely on going viral.

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

How to grow via word of mouth: "Make something remarkable —something worth remarking about." It's the only real way. - @lennysan

Clip #6

📍An important lesson Lenny learned from working at Airbnb is to “push back on projects that you’re fairly confident are not going to work out…”

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

🔑 Career advice: 1) "Push back on projects that you're confident are not going to work out." 2) Move on from failing projects. - @lennysan

Clip #7

🔥 Lenny’s hot take: “People think that the best PMs are the ones that write and tweet all day.” The best PMs are the ones that don’t have time for that because they’re actually doing the work.

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

Hot take: The best PMs aren't the ones writing and tweeting and doing talks. They're too busy doing the work. - @lennysan

Clip #8

✏️ How Lenny has been investing in the product of himself: “Writing.”

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

The benefits of writing: • Forces you to create new ideas • Solidifies your thinking • Helps you learn - @lennysan

Clip #9

🚀 Lenny explains why he’s not starting a company anytime soon.

Hear the rest:

Anthony Diké @antdke

Building a company is freaking hard. • It's stressful • It rarely works out • So many things have to go right - @lennysan

🎧 Listen to the full 26 minute interview using the player above.

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You can find Lenny on Twitter.

Also, subscribe his product newsletter, Lenny’s Newsletter.

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Thanks for reading Issue #3 of PM News.

I’m Anthony —You can find me on Twitter • LinkedIn • My Blog

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📌 What did you think? What questions should I ask next? 🤔 Tell me here.