Lenny Rachitsky

If you're an experienced IC who loves the work, don't let anyone pressure you into management. Use your expertise to negotiate strong comp — the data is on your side.

"You shouldn't have to rise into management to increase your compensation. You're equally valuable as a domain expert." — Tal Raviv, Senior IC PM

Advocating for differentiated senior IC titles at your company isn't just about status — it creates a compensation progression path for yourself and others.

The time it takes to find PMF for marketplaces is no different from non-marketplace startups. Marketplaces have real advantages—network effects, scalability—but they aren't magical.

Any thought you're having in your head — more than likely someone else in your company is thinking about it too. Not talking about it creates more uncertainty and stress. Communicate clearly and often.

Human IQ caps out around 160. Einstein level. But there's no theoretical ceiling on machine intelligence. We're going to have AI models with IQ 200, 250, 300 — and that's great. The world is obviously better with more Einsteins.

Tobi Lütke didn't just say 'using AI is now a baseline expectation.' He shared concrete tactics he expects to see, like making AI prototyping part of the company's GSD process.

The rise of the IC track isn't just a comp story — it's a structural shift. Recent layoffs hit middle managers hardest, flattening orgs and raising the value of ICs who can actually build things.

The correlation between total comp and job satisfaction is just 0.31. Money matters — but not as much as you'd think.

We are not being nearly creative enough about how to use AI for learning. The entry-level grind exists to build judgment through reps. AI can compress those reps radically — we don't need to recreate the inefficient two-year model.

Negotiating for higher comp showed no significant impact on satisfaction. Chasing more money in negotiations won't make you happier in your role.

Steve Jobs and Mike Tyson have the same career advice: You can plan all you want, but it won't work out the way you expect. Follow your interests — and only looking backward will it make any sense.

Mission, vision, values is a performative approach to culture. If it were an airline, you would not allow any family to fly on it. It does not arrive at most of its intended destinations.

The single goal of a pre-PMF startup: make 10 customers VERY happy. Everything you prioritize should serve this goal. If you can't do it for 10, you don't have a business.

I practiced charging my friends $1 via invoice just so it wouldn't feel weird the first time I charged a real customer. Send the invoice, get the dollar, have your logo in the top right. Do it before it matters.

Increasing conversion is one of the highest ROI investments a growth team can make. Not only do conversion improvements make your existing growth channels more efficient — the wins last forever.

At least one post every single week for an entire year — 64 posts total. Consistency compounds.

"Originality is fragile. Our newest and most daring ideas are 'ugly babies'… They are truly ugly: awkward and unformed, vulnerable and incomplete. They need nurturing—in the form of time and patience—in order to grow." — Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar

Prioritization is just another name for sequencing. Just because something isn't currently prioritized doesn't mean it will never happen.

AI prototyping tools have been available for less than six months and have already absolutely changed the speed at which teams can ship.

93% of the 200+ tech job seekers I've coached landed jobs at Google, Meta, Uber, Airbnb, Stripe, or similar top-tier companies—without burning themselves out or winging it.

At the root of Airbnb's success was a very good idea — affordable and unique travel experiences for guests, and great income for hosts. That being said, an idea is nothing without execution.

Make work trial tasks open-ended. Too precise = you end up hiring the engineer with the neatest code instead of the one who can ship products people want. —James Hawkins, PostHog

The problem with OKRs at metric-driven companies: you end up with teams optimizing local maxima. The product stops feeling good. You can literally see the org chart through the product — and that's a failure.

Don't become a PM because you think it'll be easier than engineering. There are far fewer PM roles than engineering roles. It's a harder path to break into, not an easier one.

Atlas has above 80 NPS with almost a 50% response rate. For context: Apple is in the low 60s, AirPods is 75. They still chose to do another full year of automation work on top of that.