17 July 2023
This week's additions focus on leadership, mindset, and operations, with new digests from Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth, Rob Walling, and TK Kader. Highlights include PMs facilitate decisions — not make them — to keep teams unblocked Charge for early access from day one — never give it away free
Showing 31 digests for 17 July 2023.
Product-market fit
Podcast
What great PMs do: traits, AI strategy, and Slack's product process
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
July 23, 2023
Product-market fit
9
Business operating systems
8
Management
7
PMs facilitate decisions — not make them — to keep teams unblocked
Slack doubled self-service growth by optimising for learning, not output
AI's core challenge: UI promises must match underlying data quality
MVP & prototyping
YouTube
Beta testing vs. early access: how to launch your first SaaS version
Rob Walling
July 23, 2023
MVP & prototyping
9
Product-market fit
6
Customer discovery
5
Charge for early access from day one — never give it away free
Testing is your job; customers should never be your bug finders
Mixed early users create conflicting feedback that derails product direction
Eight SaaS lead generation tactics and how to prioritise them
TK Kader
July 23, 2023
Growth hacking
9
Prospecting & outreach
6
Start with referrals — fastest feedback, lowest effort, highest trust.
Doing all eight at once guarantees weak results across all of them.
A FedEx envelope gets a 99% open rate — still beats email cold.
Closing techniques
YouTube
Sales conversations follow a repeatable pattern, not instinct
KeyPersonOfInfluence
July 23, 2023
Elite sales requires rehearsal — not natural talent or charm
Six sequential stages every sale must move through to close
Knowing your current stage lets you move faster without skipping steps
AI tools & automation
YouTube
AI-powered analytics will drive better ROI than AI content creation
Neil Patel
July 22, 2023
AI tools & automation
10
Conversion rate optimisation
7
SEO
5
AI's biggest marketing win is spend optimisation, not content generation.
Multi-device attribution makes knowing what converts genuinely hard.
Free tools beat free content for earning backlinks and brand authority.
Moving from director to VP: the skills and mindset shift required
Dr. Grace Lee
July 22, 2023
Management
9
Identity & self-belief
6
Communication
5
Your director skills become baseline requirements at VP level
Cross-function prioritisation and fiscal ownership define the VP role
Self-governance and conviction matter more the higher you go
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Austin Kleon and Ryan Holiday on creativity, parenting, and stoic virtues
The Daily Stoic
July 22, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
6
Reading slumps are a habit problem — go back to proven authors to rebuild momentum.
Assuming your kids are right kickstarts curiosity and dissolves pointless conflict.
Courage, justice, and temperance each sit between two vices — virtue is optimal tension.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
Blitzscaling in practice: growth stages, transitions, and when to stop
EO
July 21, 2023
Hiring & recruitment
8
Pivoting
8
Culture building
7
Your company is a different company at each order of magnitude
Twitter kept hiring after hitting its user ceiling — a fatal mistake
Downturns widen the gap: competitors retrench, talent gets cheaper
Business operating systems
YouTube
How Hot Dish Advertising achieved 30% annual revenue growth with EOS
EOS Worldwide
July 21, 2023
Business operating systems
9
Case studies
7
30% revenue growth every year since adopting EOS in 2019
An external implementer identifies core issues you can't see yourself
Accountability chart clarifies roles — distinct from a standard org chart
Automation & tools
YouTube
Manage associations and events in one place with SmartSuite
Layla at ProcessDriven
July 21, 2023
Automation & tools
9
Retention & loyalty
6
One free template replaces spreadsheets, email, and ticketing tools for associations.
Linked records connect members, payments, and events into a live single source of truth.
Spotlights and formula fields surface at-risk members and dues balances automatically.
How successful startups pivot: real stories from YC group partners
Y Combinator
July 21, 2023
Pivoting
9
Product-market fit
7
Brex, Goat, and GoCardless all pivoted to become billion-dollar companies.
Pivot hell: switching ideas weekly prevents the user contact that reveals the right one.
If you don't know your main KPI each morning, you probably need to pivot.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Building and Selling Software Companies Without Coding Experience
Brett Malinowski
July 20, 2023
Founder interviews
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Business models
7
Productizing existing APIs — not writing code — built two sold companies.
Survey before building: validate price, use case, and demand first.
Build your distribution channel before you build the product.
Productivity & habits
YouTube
How to break out of a productivity trap and find your next level
Silicon Valley Girl
July 20, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Resilience & grit
6
More output can trap you below the ceiling you want to break
Slowing down kept channel growth identical — volume was never the lever
Audit what you love before quitting; redesign the rest
How leaders build great company culture through individual care
GaryVee
July 20, 2023
Culture building
9
Management
7
You work for your employees — not the other way around
Knowing each person's individual motivators is non-negotiable at any scale
One bad-behaviour exception destroys meritocracy and kills culture
Prospecting & outreach
YouTube
How HR professionals can ask for a raise post-pandemic
HR Party of One
July 20, 2023
Prospecting & outreach
9
Communication
6
Why the pandemic permanently expanded HR's scope and pay expectations
Read the room first — bad timing can undermine even a valid raise request
Four-step framework: document duties, benchmark market, then ask formally