Lenny's Reads

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comYour product builder's Product Pass just got even better. In this episode, we introduce the seven new premium partners joining the Product Pass, bringing the total value of a paid newsletter subscription to over $25,000. We cover all the new products, what they do, how people are using them, and the key details you need to know before subscribing.Listen now: YouTube | Apple | SpotifyIn this episode, you’ll learn:• Key features of each of the seven new products• Applicable, real-world examples of how people are using them• Which products are exclusive to Insider subscribersReferences:• Affinity• Amp• Canva Business• Duolingo• ElevenLabs• Every• Factory• Flourish• Framer• Harvey• Kernel• Leonardo.Ai• Lovable• Manus• Meta• Metabase• Mozart AI• n8n• Nvidia• Perplexity• Product Pass codes• Railway• Sentry This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Noam Segal, AI Insights Manager at Figma, shares the results from our comprehensive survey of 1,750 product managers, engineers, designers, and founders on how AI is reshaping their work. The findings are striking: more than half of respondents are saving at least half a day per week on their most important tasks. Since the quality of AI tools are improving at breakneck speed, Noam reveals we're watching the early innings of a compounding productivity revolution.In this episode, you'll learn:• Why 55% say AI has exceeded expectations and how it's improving work quality• Which roles are winning with AI (and which are struggling)• Where the biggest opportunities are• Which AI tools have product-market fit• Which AI tool dominates for most roles• Why engineers prefer specialized tools• Why 92% report significant downsides to AI tools• What AI agents need to take offReferences:• Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/• Build your personal AI copilot: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/build-your-personal-ai-copilot• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/• Claude: https://claude.ai/• Cursor: https://cursor.com/• Figma: https://www.figma.com/• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/• GitHub: https://github.com/• Granola: https://www.granola.ai/• How to build your second brain with ChatGPT: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-your-pm-second-brain• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/• Lindy: https://www.lindy.ai/• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/• Manus: https://manus.im/• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/• Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/home• Monday.com: https://www.monday.com• n8n: https://n8n.io/• Noam Segal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noamsegal/• Notion: https://www.notion.com/• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/• Replit: https://replit.com/• v0: https://v0.app/• Zapier: https://zapier.com/Read the newsletterhttps://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ai-tools-are-overdelivering-resultsSubscribe to Lenny’s Newsletterhttps://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeSubscribe• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastAboutWelcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comHow do certain early employees keep picking generational companies—again and again—before the rest of the world catches on? In this episode, we distill lessons from five such super-spotters whose resumes include Palantir, OpenAI, Facebook, Stripe, Linear, Figma, Notion, Slack, Box, Spotify, and Dropbox. You’ll learn the three rare traits they all look for, and how you can apply these signals to your own career and company-building.In this episode, you’ll learn:• How “ludicrous” ambition shows up• The underrated signs of founder greatness• How to evaluate an early product• What a “Jurassic Park” moment in startups means• How to think about risk as an early employee• Tactics to “optimize for serendipity” when breaking into rocket shipsReferences:• Alex Karp: https://x.com/PalantirTech• Bob McGrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobmcgrew/• Box: https://www.box.com/• Christina Cordova: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinajcordova/• Daniel Ek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ek-1b52093a/• Dylan Field: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanfield/• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/• Figma: https://www.figma.com/• Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/• Ivan Zhao: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanhzhao/• Linear: https://linear.app/• Meter: https://www.meter.com/• Notion: https://www.notion.so/• OpenAI: https://openai.com/• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/• Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/• PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/• Rasmus Andersson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rasmusandersson/• Sean Rose: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-a-rose/• Slack: https://slack.com/• Soleio: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soleio/• Spotify: https://www.spotify.com/• Stewart Butterfield: https://www.linkedin.com/in/butterfield/• Stripe: https://stripe.com/• Terrence Rohan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrencerohan/Read the newsletter:• https://open.substack.com/pub/lenny/p/how-to-spot-a-top-1-startup-earlySubscribe to Lenny’s Newsletter:• https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeSubscribe:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastAbout:Welcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comYour product builder’s starter pack keeps getting better. In this episode, we continue the guide to getting maximum value from the Product Pass, with seven tools that have reshaped how I prototype, research, take notes, manage email, and move faster every single day.There’s also a new perk for Insiders: 40% off Stripe Atlas to go from idea to incorporated startup without the tax/legal slog.In this episode, you’ll learn• Why Lovable has become my go-to for vibe-coding apps and prototypes• How Bolt plugs into frontier coding agents so you can keep your favorite setup and still ship fast• How Granola quietly captures meetings from your device audio and turns notes into shareable, searchable summaries• What makes ChatPRD a PM-native copilot for specs, templates, and Linear workflows• Five Superhuman power moves beyond inbox zero• Everyday Raycast workflows that make it an instant Spotlight replacement• Why Perplexity’s Comet browser became my default for deep research and agentic browsing• Plus a bunch of practical examples that you can copyReferences:• Anton Osika: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonosika/• Bolt: https://bolt.new/• “Building Lovable” podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZtGxNs9AVg• ChatGPT: https://openai.com/• ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/lenny• Claire Vo: https://clairevo.com/• Claude Code: https://www.claude.com/product/claude-code• Comet: https://www.perplexity.ai/comet• Cursor: https://cursor.com/• Eric Simons: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-simons-a464a664/• Gamma: https://gamma.app/• GitHub: https://github.com/• Granola: https://www.granola.ai/• “Inside Bolt” podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L22DtAHLmzs• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/• Linear: https://linear.app/• Lovable: https://lovable.dev/• Magic Patterns: https://www.magicpatterns.com/• Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/• Rahul Vohra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulvohra/• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/• Stripe Atlas: https://stripe.com/atlas• Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/• “Superhuman’s secret to success” podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igjSRZyX-w• Tailor Labs: https://www.tailoredlabsai.com/• Read the newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/part-2-of-how-to-get-the-most-outSubscribe• Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny• X/Twitter: https://x.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastAboutWelcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comClaude Code isn't just for developers - it’s actually one of the most underrated AI tools for non-technical people.In this episode, I share 50 ways to use it: decluttering your hard drive, enhancing images, synthesizing customer calls, drafting presentations, and more, all collected from 500+ stories shared by this community. If you've been sleeping on Claude Code, then this episode is your wake-up call.In this episode, you’ll learn:• Exactly how to install and launch Claude Code on Mac and Windows• Five ways I used it this month• 45 creative non-technical workflows, from file organization, to lead discovery, roadmap support, and social listening• Ten more detailed advanced Claude Code use casesReferences:• Adobe: https://www.adobe.com/• Apple: https://www.apple.com/• arXiv: https://arxiv.org/• Asana: https://asana.com/• Brex: https://www.brex.com/• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/• Claude Code: https://www.claude.com/product/claude-code• Clay: https://clay.com/• Cursor: https://cursor.sh/• Dan Shipper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danshipper/• Docker: https://www.docker.com/• Fireflies: https://fireflies.ai/• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/• Git: https://git-scm.com/• GitHub: https://github.com/• Gmail: https://mail.google.com/• Homebrew: https://brew.sh/• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira• Linear: https://linear.app/• Mercury: https://mercury.com/• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/• Notion: https://www.notion.com/• OpenAI: https://openai.com/• Playwright: https://playwright.dev/• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/• Slack: https://slack.com/• VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/• Warp: https://www.warp.dev/• X (Twitter): https://x.com/Subscribe to Lenny’s Newsletter• Substack: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeRead the post • Substack: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyone-should-be-using-claude-codeSubscribe to Lenny's ReadsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcast To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.comIf you’ve been wondering how to get real value from the subscriber product pass, this episode is for you. I break down exactly how I’m using eight of the tools today - from what they’re great at, what surprised me, and where they slot into a modern PM’s stack. Consider this your field guide to turning these tools into real workflow improvementsIn this episode, you’ll learn:• What each tool actually does for PMs (beyond the tagline): where it shines vs. falls short• How to vibe code entire apps with Replit, including auth, DB, testing, and auto-fix loops• Why Warp turns your terminal into an agentic sidekick• Linear’s sweet spot for teams• When voice beats typing: workflows where Wispr Flow is faster and more accurate• Rapid content creation with Gamma 3.0, including decks, landing pages, and shareable summaries• Fast prototyping with Magic Patterns using your own component library• How non-video-people ship great video with Descript + Underlord• Smart real-life examples of how PMs and teams are using each tool right nowReferences:• Read the post: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-product• A peek at an upcoming episode on evals: https://the-rise-of-ai-evals-q62i0s7.gamma.site/• Announcing 15+ free premium tools available exclusively to paid annual subscribers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/productpass• Ben Horowitz’s episode on leadership: https://gamma.app/docs/10-Hard-Truths-That-Built-Billion-Dollar-Companies-onh55jsg26xrzp5• Brendan Foody’s story of Mercor: https://ai-revolutions-hidden-bo-3k6n3li.gamma.site/• Creating a unique resume: https://suchita-kaundin-bsb2sbo.gamma.site/• Ethan Smith’s episode on AEO: https://gamma.app/docs/Mastering-Answer-Engine-Optimization-n4gxgak9z9tpzhc• Lenny’s product pass: https://lennysproductpass.com/• Turning PRDs into decks: https://x.com/clairevo/status/1968002491724988923• Yoto: https://us.yotoplay.com/Tools + use-case examples:Descript: https://descript.com/lenny• Creating ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBGR5cSeNw• Creating avatar-based demos: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/burkhauser_guys-now-on-descript-you-can-instantly-create-activity-7320888554761453568-Eex_• Adding big juicy text to videos: https://youtube.com/shorts/phEBSCJP8xw• Creating a rough cut with AI: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RtC7_wQ1Arg• Creating YouTube Shorts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rXZkt6YkZw• Underlord example: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fatemeh-alavizadeh_ever-wonder-how-ai-actually-thinks-about-activity-7350929550232444928-fc6sGamma: https://gamma.app/partners/lenny• Gamma 3.0: https://x.com/thisisgrantlee/status/1967943621782413388• Generating custom decks for each sales outreach: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yonathan-cohen_gamma-30-just-dropped-i-built-a-29-reply-activity-7373718410439942144-sKqM/• Creating landing pages: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/charlie-hills_how-to-make-a-landing-page-in-5-minutes-activity-7321473049843621888-BTLe/• Turning meeting notes into a deck and follow-up email: https://x.com/riyazmd774/status/1967978262015160802• The story of Gamma: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/technology/ai-silicon-valley-start-ups.html• Turn Granola notes into presentations with Gamma: https://zapier.com/templates/details/meeting-notes-to-presentations-granola-gammaLinear: https://linear.app/• Claire at ChatPRD on building an agent in Linear: https://linear.app/integrations/chatprd• How Commure is building dashboards to monitor their team’s progress: https://linear.app/now/commure-dashboards in Linear• Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products with Nan Yu (their Head of Product): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTr21kgCFF4• How Linear uses Linear to manage their own customer feedback: https://linear.app/now/how-we-think-about-customer-experience-at-linearMagic Patterns: https://magicpatterns.link/lpp1• Copy-and-pasting PRDs, creating a Magic Patterns prototype, and then: https://magicpatterns.link/llp1x sharing with engineering• Creating personalized customer demos: https://magicpatterns.link/lpp1lu• Skipping Figma entirely: https://magicpatterns.link/llp1jh when prototyping• Magic Patterns tutorials: https://www.magicpatterns.com/docs/documentation/ai-prototyping-course/introductionMobbin: https://mobbin.com/lenny• Copy-and-pasting best-in-class flows into your Figma: https://youtu.be/E4idM0hC_AY?si=tJA95mUdzSmya0Wa&t=1537• Designing a viral app: https://youtu.be/T64X2GUoDwc?si=8f98NKkKPygr9QHS&t=360• Elevating your design taste: https://youtu.be/8mMH6Pq8qnE?si=xCt-KLIZsOhxrV-v&t=533• Getting design inspiration: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3px5ESAwxA/• Studying in the best way: https://x.com/rexan_wong/status/1967789508717650388Replit: https://replit.com/?utm_source=lenny&utm_medium=lenny&utm_campaign=v2• Building a fully featured website for Saastr: https://x.com/jasonlk/status/1967408276825575753• Building a social networking platform (in 193 minutes): https://x.com/anthropiast/status/1966109218479714593• Coming up with startup ideas: https://x.com/daniel_mac8/status/1966260595143094534• Vibe-coding automations: https://x.com/omarsar0/status/1966949907149058551• Taking on Upwork projects: https://x.com/niconley/status/1966505076849074618Warp: http://go.warp.dev/lenny• How Warp helps a dad teach his kids how to build websites: https://x.com/some_user123/status/1950443062016041377• Building a Strava clone: https://youtu.be/cmHheGcDWTQ• Converting MRI imaging files to JPEGs: https://x.com/aaronwhite/status/1958281839333794057?s=46• Warp tutorials: https://warp.dev/universityWispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai/• Doctors transcribing their notes: https://x.com/RutaB_/status/1956099269544567236• Slow typers speeding up their workflows: https://x.com/rywiggs/status/1937991165217017879• Talking to chatbots: https://x.com/MatthewGattozzi/status/1967952481419403609• Vibe coding: https://x.com/tankots/status/1891138380404060298• Writing: https://x.com/deedydas/status/1930130567649210879 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at https://add.lennysreads.comIn this episode, we dive into the fast-emerging discipline of AI evaluation with Hamel Husain and Shreya Shankar, creators of AI Evals for Engineers & PMs, the #1 highest-grossing course on Maven.After training 2000+ PMs and engineers across 500+ companies, Hamel and Shreya reveal the complete playbook for building evaluations that actually improve your AI product: moving beyond vanity dashboards, to a system that drives continuous improvement.In this episode, you’ll learn:• Why most AI eval dashboards fail to deliver real product improvements• How to use error analysis to uncover your product’s most critical failure modes• The role of a “principal domain expert” in setting a consistent quality bar• Techniques for transforming messy error notes into a clean taxonomy of failures• When to use code-based checks vs. LLM-as-a-judge evaluators• How to build trust in your evals with human-labeled ground-truth datasets• Why binary pass/fail labels outperform Likert scales in practice• Evaluation strategies for complex systems: multi-turn conversations, RAG pipelines, and agentic workflows• How CI safety nets and production monitoring work together to create a flywheel of continuous product improvementReferences:• Read the newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-eval-systems-that-improve• AI Evals for Engineers & PMs: https://maven.com/parlance-labs/evals• A Field Guide to Rapidly Improving AI Products: https://hamel.dev/blog/posts/field-guide/• Aligning LLM-Assisted Evaluation of LLM Outputs with Human Preferences: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.12272• Aman Khan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanberkeley/• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/• Arize Phoenix: https://phoenix.arize.com/• Braintrust: https://www.braintrust.dev/• Beyond vibe checks: A PM’s complete guide to evals: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/beyond-vibe-checks-a-pms-complete• Frequently Asked Questions (And Answers) About AI Evals: https://hamel.dev/blog/posts/evals-faq/• Hamel Husain: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamelhusain/• LangSmith: https://smith.langchain.com/• Not Dead Yet: On RAG: https://hamel.dev/notes/llm/rag/not_dead.html• OpenAI: https://openai.com/• Shreya Shankar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrshnk/Listen:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeFollow Lenny:• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastSubscribe• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreads• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypTooj• Substack: https://lennysreads.com/Follow Lenny• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/• Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@lennyspodcastAboutWelcome to Lenny's Reads, where every week you’ll find a fresh audio version of my newsletter about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career, read to you by the soothing voice of Lennybot. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

In this episode, Aishwarya Reganti and Kiriti Badam introduce a powerful new framework for building AI products: the Continuous Calibration/Continuous Development (CC/CD) framework.If you’ve ever shipped an AI demo that looked magical but struggled to scale, this framework will resonate. The CC/CD framework provides a practical and structured approach to navigating these realities and building AI systems that are stable, intentional, and trustworthy.Listen: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lennysreadsApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lennys-reads/id1810314693Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IIunA06qMtrcQLfypToojNewsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribeIn this episode, you’ll learn:• The two core differences every AI builder must account for: non-determinism and the agency–control tradeoff• The six phases of the CC/CD loop• How to scope capabilities across different versions of your product to gradually earn trust and agency• The role of reference datasets in taming unpredictability and guiding evals• How to design application-specific evals that act as the equivalent of tests for AI• Why control handoffs are essential for maintaining user trust• How to transform deployment from a finish line into the start of continuous calibration• Why you should never “jump to full agency” before the system earns it• How to apply the CC/CD loop with real-world examples: customer support, marketing assistants, and coding copilotsReferences:• Beyond vibe checks: A PM’s complete guide to evals: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/beyond-vibe-checks-a-pms-complete• “Building agentic AI applications with a problem-first approach” [Maven course]: https://maven.com/aishwarya-kiriti/genai-system-design• Cursor: https://cursor.com• “Don’t build AI products like traditional software” [Free lightning talk]: https://maven.com/p/88a325/don-t-build-ai-products-like-traditional-software• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot• Why premature pptimization is the root of all evil: https://stackify.com/premature-optimization-evil/• Why your AI product needs a different development lifecycle: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/48e7fb02-1fc1-4bb7-bf85-85f4165e8225 To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com