Lenny Rachitsky

Ten productivity techniques I use every single day:
1. Using my calendar for to-dos
2. Keeping a “waiting for” list
3. If it takes less than two minutes, I just do it
4. Each morning, writing down the top 1-3 things I want to get done that day
5. Setting up, and fiercely protecting, regular deep work time
6. No meetings before 3pm
7. Keeping Do Not Disturb mode on
8. Keeping work async
9. Using a virtual assistant to take on low-impact work
10. Saying no more often, even when it’s hard

More in today's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/efMbh26m

Image credit: Ash Lamb (Check out his wonderful newsletter: https://ashlamb.com/letter)

Milestone: 1,000,000 subscribers 🙏💖🙌

Moments like these are a great opportunity to pause and reflect, so today's newsletter is my first-ever mailbag edition: https://lnkd.in/gm3c4yhy

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter, for sharing it with your friends and colleagues, and for making this work possible. Your support means the world to me.

To make this thread useful and fun, share a favorite podcast episode or newsletter post in the comments 👇

Book update: Samples have arrived, and they look great. We're doing a final pass on layout and content, and we are on track to start shipping them globally by the end of January 🎉

Ramp is the fastest growing SaaS business in history (hitting $100m run rate in 2 years!), and Keith Rabois described their product velocity as “absolutely unprecedented in my 21 years working with technology businesses.“

Here's an in-depth look at how Ramp builds product, with Geoff Charles.

I’m so incredibly thrilled to announce the launch of a brand new podcast: “How I AI” with Claire Vo.

This is the first new podcast in the Lenny’s Podcast network.

Claire's mission with this podcast is to help you learn practical ways to use AI to improve the quality and efficiency of your work and your life.

Each episode will be about 30 minutes (often shorter), and her guests will walk you through a few specific workflows or use cases where they've figured out how to use Al to get something done. They'll even share their screen and walk through it step by step.

What makes this podcast unique is that it’s designed to give you practical tips/tricks/workflows that you can copy and start using in your day-to-day immediately. No philosophical debates about the future of humanity or clickbaity fluff.

I couldn’t imagine a more perfect host for this new podcast than Claire Vo. Claire is an engineer, a three-time chief product officer, a founder, and on the side has been building her own AI product that is already making six figures.

What I love about Claire is that, unlike many people online, she doesn’t only talk about using AI—she lives and breathes it, and is constantly sharing what she’s learning. I can’t wait for you to learn from her and her amazing guests.

This is an important moment in our industry, and we hope How I Al becomes a weekly resource to help you develop your own skills.

Claire will be releasing new episodes every Monday, and the first episode with Sahil Lavingia is live!

Subscribe to make sure to catch future episodes:
- YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g76EQwJ5
- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gff_6FyM
- Apple: https://lnkd.in/gBck6pxG

P.S. For the richest experience, since there will be a lot of screen sharing, you’re going to want to watch the video version, so definitely check it out on YouTube or Spotify, which includes video.

P.P.S. Nominate someone (or even yourself!) to come on the podcast and share their AI use case by filling out this form: https://lnkd.in/ghKTSUuW

I believe the future of product management looks like Tal Raviv.

Tal is an individual contributor (IC) PM who leverages AI tools and a suite of productivity systems to get more done with fewer resources (and management layers).

Tal has chosen to stay an IC throughout his 10+ year PM career, and over this time has honed a set of productivity practices that give him tremendous leverage and impact—beyond what many traditionally believe ICs can achieve. In other words, he’s become a “super-IC.”

In today's post, Tal shares seven of the unique productivity tactics that have gotten him to where he is today—and might help you become a super-IC too.

Product manager is an unfair role. So work unfairly:
1. Get out of tasks before they even reach your to-do list (or anyone else’s)
2. Cheat your way out of meetings with “59-second Looms”
3. Hide, ignore, and automate Slack
4. Cultivate a team that operates without you
5. Get a head start on discovery with product scrapbooking
6. Let AI write for you (but don’t let it read for you)
7. PM your own brain’s freshness

Don't miss this one 👇

Exciting news: I'll be recording a live podcast interview with Dylan Field on stage at Figma Config 🙌

What should I ask him?

Upcoming podcast episodes 🔥

🔸 Jessica Livingston, co-founder of YC
🔸 Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma, recorded live at Figma Config
🔸 Roger Martin, author of Playing to Win
🔸 Ami Vora, CPO at Faire, ex-WhatsApp, FB, IG
🔸 Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman at Ogilvy UK
🔸 Jessica Lachs, Global Head of Analytics and DS at DoorDash
🔸 Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford GSB professor of “The Paths to Power“
🔸 Mike Maples, Jr, Partner at Floodgate, author of upcoming book Pattern Breakers
🔸 Jeff Weinstein, product leader at Stripe

A semi-comprehensive list of the day-to-day work that a PM does, ranked by how much I believe AI will disrupt that work in the future, on a scale of 1 to 5 🤖s. The more 🤖s, the more AI will take it over.

Takeaways:
1. Soft skills—like influence, communication, product sense, creativity, and empathy—will become ever more valuable to the role of product management. Lean into building these skills.
2. Some of the most high-value skills—like strategy, vision, discovery, data fluency (and even engineering)—will be significantly impacted by AI. As a result, you’ll want to learn how to work with AI tools (e.g. asking great questions) to build leverage in these areas.
3. Broadly, PMs will continue to be the “glue” or “conductor” who ties everything together, helping your company’s most important assets (both people and AI) drive the most possible impact in the shortest amount of time.
4. The PM role isn’t going away, and I believe it will become even more important.

For a lot more on this topic (including favorite AI tools within each bucket), don't miss the full post: https://lnkd.in/g9R9YBcv