As a PM, having a technical background is like having a superpower: You can predict timelines, anticipate blockers, and avoid black holes of endless work. In this week's post, I share advice for how to quickly level up your technical skills. Summary in 🧵 lennysnewsletter.com/p/getting-more…
1/ Learn the basics
Start by learning the basic terms, technologies, and concepts involved in building product. Investing a few hours here will immediately level up your game.
Here's a lesson plan (links in the full post):
2/ Ask questions
Leverage the gift right under your nose: the engineers you work with! Guess what, they are experts at the very thing you want to learn. How convenient. And in my experience, most engineers love nothing more than explaining their craft to curious people.
2b/ Questions you might want to ask:
- Can you draw me a rough diagram of how our system is architected?
- Say we were to add feature x—what would be involved in making it happen, from idea to launch?
- What slows your work down the most, in general?
3/ Build something yourself
If you want to reach the pinnacle of being a technical PM, you need to learn to code and then build something yourself. Here are a few places to embark on your coding journey:
1/ How long does it normally take to expand from a single market to a second market?
On average, 8 to 12 months. A few marketplaces, like Caviar and OpenTable, launched their second and third markets at essentially the same time, while Grubhub took three years.
2/ When should you expand to a second (and third) market?
As soon as your first market starts to work.
Expand too early and risk both markets failing. Expand too late and you give your competition a chance to race ahead.
As a small token of appreciation to my newsletter Slack community (now over 5k strong!), I've created crypto-punk-inspired NFTs of the 40 most helpful and active members from over the past year. Cause why not! Check them out in all of their glory opensea.io/collection/len…
For much more, including five takeaways and a bunch of insights from people smarter than I, check out this week's post lennysnewsletter.com/p/gtm-motions
One correction (thanks @KyleHParrish!): Figma primarily targets Mid-market and Enterprises
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2/ The book is called "Maybe This Will Help: How to Feel Better When Things Stay the Same." It’ll make you laugh, think, and feel the feels. It’ll also make a great gift for anyone in your life going through something 🥺
3/ Once you pre-order her book, submit this quick form with a copy of your receipt and I'll get you the subscription within 24 hours forms.gle/VsswG1JovUbZRd…
New: A compilation of my all-time best posts, across
📈 Growth strategy
🤌 Product management, the work
🦸♀️ Product management, the career
🔭 Finding PMF
📣 Marketing and GTM
🌱 Scaling your startup
🎭 Marketplaces
📊 Metrics
💼 Management and career lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-best-of-…