← All newsletters

How to use Perplexity in your PM work

2024-06-11·1,439 words

27 examples (with actual prompts) of how product managers are using the AI-powered search engine today

👋 Hey, [Lenny](https://twitter.com/lennysan) here! Welcome to this month’s ✨ free edition✨ of Lenny’s Newsletter. Each week I tackle reader questions about building product, driving growth, and accelerating your career.

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:

1. [On saying no](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-say-no) 2. [The art of the pivot, part 1: The definitive list of successful pivots](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-of-the-pivot-part-1-the-definitive) 3. [The art of the pivot, part 2: How, why, and when to pivot](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-of-the-pivot-part-2-how-why) 4. [In defense of feature team PMs](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/in-defense-of-feature-team-product)

Subscribe to get access to these posts, and every post. For more: [Podcast](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/podcast) | [Lennybot](https://www.lennybot.com/) | [Swag](https://lennyswag.com/) | [Best of Lenny’s Newsletter](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-best-of-lennys-newsletter-2023) | [Hire your next product leader](https://www.lennysjobs.com/).

Chatbot tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are quickly becoming de facto co-pilots for product managers. I ran this poll on X and LinkedIn, and holy shit, over 50% of PMs who responded are now using a chatbot daily. And 85% are using one weekly 🤯

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

Robert Bye, a PM at Figma, shared a common sentiment:

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

When was the last time a new tool went from non-existent to daily use for the majority of product managers? Things are changing fast.

Interestingly, Perplexity was the second most mentioned chatbot, behind ChatGPT. I’m not surprised. I recently did a deep dive on how Perplexity builds product, and while working on that piece, I got to talking to their team about how product managers use Perplexity to do their work. The conversation led to an in-depth survey, which received more than 300 responses, which led to 30 follow-up calls and, finally, to the post you’re reading now.

Sourced from hundreds of product managers who filled out our survey and hopped on calls, I put together a comprehensive collection of ways PMs are using Perplexity to do their work, including:

1. Understanding and crafting growth strategy 2. Finding benchmarks 3. Doing market research 4. Learning best practices 5. Evaluating popular tools 6. Understanding technical jargon

This collection builds on How PMs use ChatGPT to do their work (currently my fourth most viewed post) and expands on my collection of advice for integrating AI into your PM workflows. Whether all this change scares you or gets you excited, you should be carving out time to play around with these tools. Here’s a bunch of stuff to try.

27 ways PMs are using Perplexity in their day-to-day work

Actual prompts shared by readers, including links to try out the prompt and screenshots of some of the results:

a. Understanding and crafting growth strategy

1. Explain growth accounting to a product manager

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

2. Walk through the evolution of Dropbox’s referral program. Why did it work?

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

3. How are the app store top charts calculated?

4. Give me examples of a reverse trial that led to an increase in conversion rate

5. Incrementality test designs for advertising campaigns

6. Google Play and Apple App Store optimization techniques

b. Finding benchmarks

7. What is the average open rate for push notifications on Android and iOS?

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

8. Using Lenny’s Newsletter research, what is good retention for a consumer product?

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

9. What is CSAT and how is it calculated? Include CSAT scores from top technology companies.

10. What is Net Promoter Score and how is it calculated? Include NPS scores from top technology companies.

11. Explain the product-market-fit survey by Rahul Vohra

c. Doing market research

12. Notion’s AI go-to-market strategy

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

13. Provide a detailed overview of Deel’s go-to-market strategy

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

14. How many rides does the average ridesharing user take per month?

15. How does Airtable upsell users to an Enterprise plan?

d. Learning best practices

16. List of brainstorming techniques for product managers

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

17. How did Spotify use the Jobs to Be Done framework?

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

18. Walk through the evolution of Slack’s personalized user onboarding experience

e. Evaluating popular tools

19. Compare and contrast product analytics tools: Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Posthog. Include key features, existing customers, differentiation points, and user reviews.

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

20. Compare and contrast Zendesk, Drift, and Intercom. Include key features, existing customers, differentiation points, and user reviews.

21. What is the difference between Segment and Freshpaint?

22. Weather APIs by developer preference

23. Most popular tools for in-app localization

f. Understanding technical jargon

24. Explain what DAU/MAU means

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

25. What is Kubernetes?

Image from How to use Perplexity in your PM work

26. What is the difference between GraphQL and REST?

27. What is the difference between follow and no follow backlinks?

For more, check out this slick landing page the Perplexity team put up.

I’d love to hear in the comments about how else you use Perplexity, or other AI tools, in your day-to-day work.👇

Leave a comment

As I’ve said before, the best way to prepare for this fast-approaching future is to get your hands dirty. So go try one of these prompts for yourself.

Have a fulfilling and productive week 🙏

👀 Hiring? Or looking for a new job?

I’m piloting a white-glove recruiting service for product roles, working with a few select companies at a time. If you’re hiring for senior product roles, apply below.

Apply to join

If you’re exploring new opportunities yourself, use the same button above to sign up. We’ll send over personalized opportunities from hand-selected companies if we think there’s a fit. Nobody gets your info until you allow them to, and you can leave anytime.

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend, and consider subscribing if you haven’t already. There are [group discounts](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?group=true), [gift options](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?gift=true), and [referral bonuses](https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/leaderboard) available.

Sincerely,

Lenny 👋