#83: Easter eggs from Productlab
This week's newsletter is sponsored by UserTesting— the human insight platform.
📍 🎫 Milan. First time. Sold out. But…
Next week we’re bringing Productlab to Milan for the very first time, in collaboration with Product Heroes. It’s been a long time coming and I can’t wait to finally meet the Italian product community in person.
If you want to double up: the day after, Matteo Risso (host at WeRoad) and I are organising a Lenny meetup at an amazing “Fischladen“ in the city. 25 spots only, and it’s going to be intimate and real.
🗓️ 15th of April
📍 Milan
🎫 UserTesting: From Fast Validation to Autopilots
We come back to Berlin stronger. We have a special evening sponsored by UserTesting and Techspace, and it wouldn’t have happened without Astrid Pocklington and Deniz Sebik making it possible. Genuinely grateful.
Two speakers worth clearing your calendar for: Ronja Quester (PM at Bayer) on AI-driven user insights, and Csaba Tamas (CTPO at Parloa) on building scalable agents. That's already a great night. But honestly, what makes these events is our planned networking around it.
Marco d’Avila, our resident DJ, will be there for the networking. We’re going full yummy with Crosta Berlin (their founder Luca Pignatelli was Senior PM at Delivery Hero, so yes, the food will be excellent and he knows exactly what we need). And Aleksandra Kononchenko will be capturing the moments on video.
🗓️ 22nd of April
📍 Berlin
👀 The PM role isn’t dying. It’s splitting.
We published something last week that hit a nerve: the product manager role isn’t disappearing, it’s diverging into three distinct profiles depending on how you’re actually using AI. The Operator, the Product Builder, the Specialist. The skills that got you promoted two years ago, writing detailed requirements, translating business to engineering, managing the backlog, are no longer what separates you. What does? Judgment. Domain depth. Commercial thinking. The ability to build and evaluate AI systems that work in production, not just in demos.
And speaking of the PM role changing...
We dropped the first names for our Conference on September 17th.
Julius Danek (Head of Product DACH at Stripe) on machine payments and the headless economy.
Jana Waldschmidt (Director of Product at GetYourGuide) on leading teams through AI transformation.
Malte Landwehr (CPO at Peec AI) on how LLMs are reshaping product discovery.
And Csaba Tamas (CTPO at Parloa) on building agentic products at production scale. More names coming.
📰 Product Leaders’ Wisdom
Brought to you weekly by Leila Montazeri
From Empathy to AI: Mastering Product Sense this week
We often call it a ‘gut feeling,’ but Product Sense is actually a muscle built from deep empathy and strategic insight. In 2026, as AI automates routines, your ability to discern the ‘why’ behind user behavior is what distinguishes you from a machine. Without understanding what truly drives users, even the best Agile methodologies won’t save your product.
Diana Stepner breaks down Product Sense as a learnable skill blending deep empathy with creative conviction. She argues that true “sense” comes from prioritizing user needs over rigid methodologies. To keep your Product Sense fresh, you must embrace “scrappy” prototyping and dare to pursue ideas that others might call “crazy.”
In the age of LLMs, Product Sense must evolve. Lenny’s Newsletter reveals how modern PMs need “AI intuition“, understanding how probabilistic models think. By practicing “Vibe Coding“ and hands-on prototyping, PMs can transform unpredictable AI capabilities into deterministic, high-value user experiences that feel intuitive.
Leah Tharin delivers a vital warning: AI cannot simulate human irrationality. While “Synthetic Personas” are tempting shortcuts, true Product Sense is forged through direct human observation. To build authentic trust, PMs must resist the urge to automate empathy and stay grounded in the messy, unpredictable reality of actual users.
💪 Open Roles
Brought to you weekly by Alessia Marchi
🎶 Song of the Newsletter
From our DJ Marco D’Avila