Appendix C: Blogs & Resources

While books provide depth, blogs and online resources offer something equally valuable: timeliness and ongoing conversation. The writers I follow have shaped my thinking not through single insights but through years of accumulated wisdom, updated in real time as the industry evolves. Many of these resources are free, which makes them accessible to product managers at any stage of their career.

I have organized these resources by theme rather than by perceived importance. The blog you need depends on the challenge you face today. I return to certain writers when wrestling with strategy, others when thinking about growth mechanics, and an entirely different set when exploring what AI means for our craft.

Foundational Product Thinking

The Pmarca Guide to Startups

Marc Andreessen

https://pmarchive.com

Marc Andreessen's blog archive contains some of the most influential essays ever written about startups and product management. His concept of product-market fit, introduced in "The Only Thing That Matters," has become so embedded in startup vocabulary that we forget someone had to articulate it first. Andreessen argues that product-market fit is the only thing that matters for a startup, more than the team, more than the product itself. When you have it, customers are buying as fast as you can ship. When you do not, nothing else matters.

I discovered these essays early in my career at Voxmobili, where we had visionary technology but struggled to find our market. Reading Andreessen's framework helped me understand why: we were optimizing the wrong things. The product was technically excellent, but we never achieved the pull that indicates true fit. These essays remain relevant decades later because they address fundamental truths about how markets adopt technology.

Paul Graham's Essays

Y Combinator

http://paulgraham.com/articles.html

Paul Graham founded Y Combinator and has funded companies including Dropbox, Airbnb, and Stripe. His essays, written over two decades, cover everything from startup strategy to programming languages to the nature of cities. For Product Directors, I particularly recommend "Startup = Growth," which defines startups by their growth rate rather than their size or industry. This framing changes how you think about product decisions: every choice should be evaluated by its impact on sustainable growth.

Graham's essay "Do Things That Don't Scale" is equally essential. It gives permission to do whatever it takes to delight early customers, even activities that could never work at scale. This mindset is liberating for product teams trapped in premature optimization. I have shared this essay with every product team I have led, usually when they resist manual processes that would teach us what to build.

Stratechery

Ben Thompson

https://stratechery.com

Ben Thompson writes the most rigorous analysis of technology strategy available anywhere. His framework of Aggregation Theory explains why certain internet companies achieve winner-take-all dynamics while others do not. Thompson argues that the internet enables companies to aggregate demand at zero marginal cost, which inverts traditional power relationships between suppliers and distributors.

I subscribe to Stratechery's paid daily updates, which I consider essential reading for any Product Director. Thompson's analysis of platform dynamics, regulatory challenges, and competitive strategy provides frameworks I use regularly in strategic planning. His coverage of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta helps me understand the ecosystem in which most products operate. When I need to explain platform strategy to stakeholders, I often start with Thompson's frameworks.

Growth and Metrics

Lenny's Newsletter

Lenny Rachitsky

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

Lenny Rachitsky built the largest product management newsletter in the world by doing something simple: asking successful product leaders how they actually work and sharing their answers. His interviews and benchmarking data have become industry standards. When I need to know typical conversion rates for a B2B SaaS onboarding flow or how top companies structure their product teams, Lenny's research is my first source.

What makes Lenny's work valuable is his network. He spent years at Airbnb and has access to product leaders at every major technology company. The resulting content is practical and specific in ways that generic advice cannot match. His podcast interviews go deep on topics that matter: how to run effective product reviews, when to pivot, how to build product sense. I recommend subscribing to both the newsletter and podcast.

Reforge

Brian Balfour and Team

https://www.reforge.com/blog

Reforge started as a growth program for experienced product and marketing professionals and has evolved into one of the most sophisticated resources for understanding growth mechanics. Brian Balfour, who led growth at HubSpot, developed frameworks for growth loops, retention curves, and acquisition strategies that have become industry standard.

I introduced the Reforge concept of compounding growth loops at Blacklane, and it fundamentally changed how we approached product strategy. Instead of thinking about growth as a series of one-time campaigns, we redesigned our product to create loops where user actions naturally generated more users. The Reforge blog shares many of these frameworks for free, though the paid programs go much deeper. For Product Directors responsible for growth metrics, this is essential reading.

Andrew Chen

Andreessen Horowitz

https://andrewchen.com

Andrew Chen now works as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, but his blog archives contain years of growth insights from his time leading growth at Uber. His essay "The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs" explains why every marketing channel degrades over time as users develop banner blindness and competitors crowd in. This insight has saved me from over-investing in channels showing early promise.

Chen's analysis of network effects and marketplace dynamics is particularly relevant for Product Directors working on platforms. His breakdown of how Uber achieved liquidity in new markets provides a playbook that applies far beyond ride-sharing. I recommend starting with his essays on growth and working backward through the archives.

AI and the Future of Product

One Useful Thing

Ethan Mollick

https://www.oneusefulthing.org

Ethan Mollick is a Wharton professor who has become the most practical voice on AI's impact on knowledge work. While others speculate about artificial general intelligence, Mollick runs experiments and shares what actually works. His approach matches how I think Product Directors should engage with AI: through hands-on experimentation rather than abstract theorizing.

Mollick's posts on using AI for writing, analysis, and creative work have directly influenced how I work with Claude and other AI tools. He is honest about limitations while remaining optimistic about possibilities. His concept of treating AI as a "co-intelligence" rather than a tool shapes how I think about AI-augmented product teams. For any Product Director trying to understand what AI means for their work, this newsletter is the place to start.

Simon Willison's Weblog

Simon Willison

https://simonwillison.net

Simon Willison co-created the Django web framework and now writes extensively about large language models from a developer's perspective. His technical depth combined with clear explanations makes complex AI concepts accessible. When I need to understand how a new AI capability actually works, Willison's analysis is my first stop.

What I appreciate most is Willison's intellectual honesty. He explores what AI can and cannot do with equal rigor, which helps Product Directors set realistic expectations. His experiments with AI tools for coding, data analysis, and automation preview where our industry is heading. Product Directors do not need to become AI engineers, but following Willison helps develop the technical intuition necessary to lead AI-augmented teams.

Anthropic Research Blog

Anthropic

https://www.anthropic.com/research

Anthropic publishes detailed research on AI safety, capabilities, and alignment. For Product Directors building with AI, understanding how these models actually work helps make better product decisions. Their papers on Constitutional AI and interpretability research reveal the principles behind Claude's behavior, which matters when you are designing products that depend on AI reliability.

I follow this blog not for implementation details but for strategic insight. Understanding where AI capabilities are heading helps prioritize product investments. The research also covers AI limitations and failure modes, which is essential knowledge for anyone building AI-powered products. Reading primary sources from AI labs provides perspective that filtered news coverage cannot match.

Leadership and Team Building

First Round Review

First Round Capital

https://review.firstround.com

First Round Capital's content team produces the most consistently excellent long-form content on startup leadership. Their interviews with founders and executives go deep on specific challenges: how to run your first board meeting, when to fire a co-founder, how to structure compensation. The quality comes from access; First Round's portfolio includes companies like Uber, Square, and Notion.

I have shared First Round articles with my teams more than any other source. Their piece on writing culture documents influenced how I approach team values. Their interviews with product leaders provide models for handling situations that no book covers. The archives are searchable by topic, making it easy to find relevant content when facing specific challenges.

AVC

Fred Wilson

https://avc.com

Fred Wilson has written a blog post every day for over twenty years. As a co-founder of Union Square Ventures, he has invested in Twitter, Tumblr, Etsy, and Coinbase. His posts offer a window into how a veteran investor thinks about technology markets, business models, and startup dynamics.

Wilson's archive is a time capsule of technology industry evolution. Reading his posts from 2008 about mobile or from 2015 about crypto shows how trends develop over years rather than months. For Product Directors, this long-term perspective is valuable. We often overestimate what will change in one year and underestimate what will change in ten. Wilson's ongoing commentary helps calibrate these expectations.

The Skip

Nikhyl Singhal

https://theskip.substack.com

Nikhyl Singhal served as VP of Product at Facebook, Google, and Credit Karma. His newsletter focuses on the specific challenges of product leadership at scale: managing up, navigating politics, building executive presence. This is content you rarely find elsewhere because few product leaders write openly about these dynamics.

Singhal's posts on career development for product managers have helped me think about how to grow my team members. His frameworks for product reviews and strategy documents provide templates I have adapted for my own organizations. For Product Directors who have mastered the craft basics and want to develop executive skills, The Skip fills an important gap.

Design and User Experience

Intercom Blog

Intercom

https://www.intercom.com/blog

Intercom's product and design teams write some of the best content on building software products. Their posts on jobs-to-be-done framework, product strategy, and design principles reflect genuine expertise. Des Traynor, Intercom's co-founder, contributes essays on product decisions that are refreshingly specific about trade-offs.

I discovered Intercom's blog while exploring conversational interfaces at Blacklane, and it became a regular part of my reading. Their content on customer communication and engagement helped shape how we thought about the customer journey. Even if you do not use their product, the blog provides valuable frameworks for product thinking.

Nielsen Norman Group

Don Norman and Jakob Nielsen

https://www.nngroup.com/articles

Nielsen Norman Group has published research on usability and user experience since 1998. Their articles synthesize findings from thousands of user studies, providing evidence-based guidance on interface design. When product teams debate design decisions, I often reference NN/g research to move beyond opinion.

Jakob Nielsen's "Alertbox" column, now integrated into the main site, has been my usability reference for over fifteen years. Their research on mobile usability, form design, and navigation patterns remains relevant because human cognition does not change as fast as technology. For Product Directors who want to ground design discussions in evidence rather than preference, this archive is invaluable.

Finance and Business Models

SaaS Metrics and Benchmarks

David Skok, Matrix Partners

https://www.forentrepreneurs.com

David Skok's blog provides the most comprehensive resource on SaaS metrics available. His posts on customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and churn calculations have become industry standards. When I need to build a financial model for a subscription product or explain unit economics to stakeholders, Skok's frameworks are my starting point.

The depth of analysis sets this blog apart. Skok does not just define metrics; he shows how they connect, when they mislead, and how to improve them. His posts on sales compensation and go-to-market strategy extend beyond metrics into operational guidance. For Product Directors working on B2B or subscription products, this is required reading.

Mostly Metrics

Clouded Judgement

Jamin Ball

https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com

Jamin Ball tracks public SaaS company performance with weekly analysis of earnings, valuations, and market trends. For Product Directors who want to understand how the market values different product strategies, this newsletter provides data-driven insight. Seeing how Rule of 40 performance correlates with valuation helps connect product decisions to business outcomes.

I find this newsletter particularly useful for benchmarking. When evaluating our own metrics or setting targets, understanding what good looks like at scale provides necessary context. Ball's analysis of why certain companies trade at premiums reveals what the market rewards, which informs product strategy even at private companies.

Staying Current

The landscape of product blogs changes constantly. Writers start and stop, quality varies over time, and new voices emerge. I recommend building a reading habit around a small number of high-quality sources rather than trying to consume everything. RSS readers like Feedly help manage subscriptions without the noise of social media.

I spend roughly thirty minutes each morning scanning my feeds, saving longer pieces for focused reading later. This habit compounds over years. The Product Directors I respect most are voracious readers who synthesize ideas from diverse sources. The blogs and resources in this appendix represent my current reading list, but I encourage you to develop your own. Follow the writers who challenge your thinking and help you see your work from new angles.