My Personal Growth Machine
** Jan 2022 Update: Added new resources as I continue to iterate on my growth machine **
A few months ago I read Maya Grossman’s “Invaluable”, where she described a 5-step framework to build a “Personal Growth Machine”; Optimizing the data sources (newsletters, podcasts, books, etc.) you use to continuously learn and grow your career given the limited amount of time in a day.
While the goal of continuing to learn wasn’t new to me, this framework enabled me to be more intentional about my personal development. I continually look for new resources and curate my existing ones (I highly recommend checking it out and creating your own!).
Throughout my Product Management journey, I’ve been optimizing my Growth Machine quite frequently and wanted to share those who made the top of my list (and give a shoutout to some talented tech writers!). Hopefully others on similar journeys will find them useful as well.
Newsletters 📰
Morning Brew: Daily piece of catch-up for the millennial/Gen Z audience. Bite-size cleverly-written and entertaining daily news. They also have industry-focused editions that go out a few times a week (I also subscribe to the Emerging Tech and Marketing editions, which are very well done).
Digital Native: Rex Woodbury (Principal at Index Ventures) writes about the intersection of people and technology. Lately, he has been giving a fresh point of view on the latest in the creator economy and the future of tech and media, with a focus on consumer behavior. I like how he buckets trends and concepts into digestible pieces of information.
Lenny Rachitsky: Previously a Product leader at Airbnb, Lenny writes a weekly column about “product, growth, working with humans, and anything else that stresses you out at the office” (you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or get the monthly edition for free). Majorly endorsed by the community (e.g. Ryan Hoover from Product Hunt).
Benedict Evans: UK-based VC and tech writer. The free weekly edition includes a few short stories and 2–3 longer essays (e.g. really enjoyed this piece on AWS and Amazon’s ads business).
Stratechery: Before substack was a thing there was Ben Thompson. Well articulated deep dives into the top of the agenda topics in technology and Big Tech specifically. My Entertainment and Media Strategy professor was using his articles instead of HBR cases, should I say more?
Technically: I’ve been scorching the internet for decent technical deep dives for non-coders. Technically was one of the best I came across. Connected so many dots for me and a reason for many “aha!” moments. Posts include basics like “What’s HTTP” and “What’s a web app”, Deep Dives, and breakdowns of technical companies like AWS, Hashicorp, and Datadog.
Podcasts 🎧
Pivot: Kara Swisher and Prof. Scott Galloway discuss anything business and tech, including guest speakers, listeners' mail, and predictions. An entertaining way to get the latest word on the street. New episodes come out every Tuesday and Friday.
Startup for Startup (for Hebrew listeners): If you speak Hebrew — you are in luck! The BEST podcast for anything startup-related and specifically B2B SaaS. The team at Monday.com shares anecdotes from their challenges as a company from inception to the current time (100mm+ ARR) with no fluff and without spearing any details, digging into the heart of the business. They did a SaaS metrics series not too long ago which is especially recommended to anyone looking to sharpen their SaaS basics. Cannot recommend it enough!
Acquired: I love research-heavy podcasts, and you probably cannot get more research-focus than Acquired. In each episode, they break down a different business in a very tech-nerdy way with great storytelling.
Business Breakdown: Another company-specific podcast I really enjoy. This one is more of a conversation with an expert in the market discussed given his take on the company. The Facebook episode is a really good one to start with.
Thought Leadership 💭
PLG123: Bite-size videos on the latest updates on SaaS and Product Led Growth by Blake Barlett of OpenView. PLG123 is shared weekly on his LinkedIn account, covering 3 news stories on the latest product launches and funding rounds in SaaS. Also, for anything Product Led Growth, check out OpenView’s website for plenty of helpful guides and Ebooks.
Nir Eyal: Writer of the best seller “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”. Have some good stuff on habit-forming and human behavior on Twitter. Also posts an occasional product breakdown according to the Hooked model which I quite liked.
Shreyas Doshi: The GOAT for Product thought leadership today and an early adopter of Twitter Super Fans. Lots of good snippets posted on Twitter and LinkedIn. Rumor has it they all going to come together into a book soon.
Hope this was helpful in improving your own growth machine. I will keep on curating as time goes by. Any must-haves that I missed? Add them in the comments!
