Zevi's non-technical background and AI discovery

Zevi Arnovitz is a product manager at Meta with no technical background who has figured out how to build and ship real products using AI. His engineering team at Meta asks him to teach them how he does what he does. In this episode, Zevi breaks down his complete AI workflow that allows non-technical people to build sophisticated products with Cursor.

We discuss:

1. The complete AI workflow that lets non-technical people build real products in Cursor

2. How to use multiple AI models for different tasks (Claude for planning, Gemini for UI)

3. Using slash commands to automate prompts

4. Zevi’s “peer review” technique, which uses different AI models to review each other’s code

5. Why this might be the best time to be a junior in tech, despite the challenging job market

6. How Zevi used AI to prepare for his Meta PM interviews

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Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor

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Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0

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Where to find Zevi Arnovitz

• X: https://x.com/ArnovitzZevi

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zev-arnovitz

• Website: https://zeviarnovitz.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Zevi Arnovitz

(04:48) Zevi’s background and journey into AI

(07:41) Overview of Zevi’s AI workflow

(14:41) Screenshare: Exploring Zevi’s workflow in detail

(17:18) Building a feature live: StudyMate app

(30:52) Executing the plan with Cursor

(38:32) Using multiple AI models for code review

(40:40) Personifying AI models

(43:37) Peer review process

(45:40) The importance of postmortems

(51:05) Integrating AI in large companies

(53:42) How AI has impacted the PM role

(57:02) How to improve AI outputs

(58:15) AI-assisted job interviews

(01:02:57) Failure corner

(01:06:20) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• Becoming a super IC: Lessons from 12 years as a PM individual contributor | Tal Raviv (Product Lead at Riverside): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-super-ic-pm-tal-raviv

• Wix: https://www.wix.com

• Building AI Apps: From Idea to Viral in 30 Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2w4y7pDi8w

• Riley Brown on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcoud_ZW7cfxeIugBflSBw

• Greg Isenberg on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GregIsenberg

• Bolt: https://bolt.new

• Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons

• Lovable: https://lovable.dev

• Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika

• StudyMate: https://studymate.live

• Dibur2text: https://dibur2text.app

• Claude: https://claude.ai

• Everyone should be using Claude Code more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyone-should-be-using-claude-code

• Bun: https://bun.com

• Zustand: https://zustand.docs.pmnd.rs/getting-started/introduction

• Cursor: https://cursor.com

• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell

• Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai

• Linear: https://linear.app

• Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products | Nan Yu (Head of Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linears-secret-to-building-beloved-b2b-products-nan-yu

• Cursor Composer: https://cursor.com/blog/composer

• Replit: https://replit.com

• Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad

• Base44: https://base44.com

• Solo founder, $80M exit, 6 months: The Base44 bootstrapped startup success story | Maor Shlomo: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo

• v0: https://v0.app

• Everyone’s an engineer now: Inside v0’s mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder & CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch

• Cursor Browser mode: https://cursor.com/docs/agent/browser

• Google Antigravity: https://antigravity.google

• Grok: https://grok.com

• Zapier: https://zapier.com

• Airtable: https://www.airtable.com

• Build Your Personal PM Productivity System & AI Copilot: https://maven.com/tal-raviv/product-manager-productivity-system

• The definitive guide to mastering analytical thinking interviews: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-definitive-guide-to-mastering-f81

• AI tools are overdelivering: results from our large-scale AI productivity survey: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ai-tools-are-overdelivering-results-c08

• Yaara Asaf on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaarasaf

• The Pitt on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/The-Pitt-Season-1/dp/B0DNRR8QWD

• Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx

• Loom: https://www.loom.com

• Cap: https://cap.so

• Supercut: https://supercut.ai

...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor

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Recommended books:

• The Fountainhead: https://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153

• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike: https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike/dp/1501135910

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.