🛠 The Product Person #31: Lenny Rachitsky

I interviewed Lenny Rachitsky, former PM at Airbnb.

Oct 02, 2020

hey product people! Anthony here.

This is a preview of my 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.

Here’s are some video clips from my interview with Lenny:

Clip #1

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

Clip #2

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

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…”

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…”

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.

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…”

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.

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