How I Wrote My 3 Most Viral Posts

Today, we have a very fun episode. We’re teaming up with my long-time collaborator and friend Aatir Abdul Rauf—who’s now a VP of Marketing and spent the past decade in senior product roles. We’re each reviewing 3 of each other’s favorite posts. We’re chatting about: Preview – 00:00:00 Agenda of the Podcast – 00:01:24 Aatir Post 1 – The New Trio in Product (PM–PMM–Growth) – 00:01:34 Common Mission – Sustainable PMF – 00:06:34 Ad (WorkOS) – 00:11:39 Ad (Amplitude) – 00:12:52 Sustainable PMF Continued (in the context of goals) – 00:13:29 How PMs Are Owning Growth – 00:14:38 Why We Need This Trio – 00:17:23 How This Trio Works at vFairs – 00:19:25 Post 2 – 13 Examples of Growth Loops – 00:20:28 → Invite-Based Loop – 00:20:32 → User-Generated Content Loop – 00:22:30 → Expert-Driven Loop – 00:25:30 → Personalized Insights – 00:26:56 → Referral Incentives – 00:29:05 → Multi-Party Goal Loop – 00:31:04 Ad (Linear) – 00:31:57 → Multi-Party Goal Loop Example Continued – 00:32:50 → Achievement-Driven Loop – 00:33:21 → Discussing Other Loops – 00:34:42 Post 3 – Six Languages of Product Management – 00:36:28 Why This Went Viral – 00:41:07 Aakash’s Turn – His Content Creation Process – 00:43:27 Aakash Post 1 – 5 Lessons from Netflix’s Decline – 00:46:24 Write from Experience or Just Research? – 00:48:26 Dealing with Comments – 00:49:19 Aakash Post 2 – “Roadmap Isn’t a Strategy” – 00:51:30 Aakash Post 3 – (Most Viral of All Time) – 00:53:39 Can AI Tools Help with Research for Creating Viral Content? – 00:57:34 How Aatir Manages a Full-Time Job & Content Creation – 01:00:19 How Aatir Designs Posts – 01:03:20 His Content Creation Workflow – 01:07:31 One Piece of Advice He’d Give to His Younger Self – 01:11:17 Final Notes – 01:15:48 Transcript: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/aatir-abdul-rauf-podcast 💼 Check out our sponsors: WorkOS: Your app, enterprise ready - http://www.workos.com/aakash Linear: Plan and build products like the best - https://linear.app/partners/aakash Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity - https://bit.ly/4hl25RG 👀 Where to find Aatir: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aatirar Newsletter: https://aatir.substack.com 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aakashg0/ 🔑 Key Takeaways 1. There’s a new trio in town. We all grew up on the “PM + designer + engineer” model. He advocates for the new trio: PM, PMM, and Growth. It’s a very important concept to think of. PMs build, PMMs tell the story, Growth makes it scale. If even one of those is missing, good luck sustaining anything. 2. PMMs are the unsung heroes of real product impact. Most teams either ignore the role or treat it like launch copywriting. But without a PMM, users don’t understand the product. You can ship the most powerful feature ever but if no one knows it exists or why it matters, it’s worthless. 3. Growth isn’t the first thing; it’s the multiplier. You don’t bolt on a growth loop day one. You ship → PM & PMM find what clicks → then growth turns it into a loop. Premature growth is how startups/teams burn cash and lose trust. 4. PMF alone isn’t enough, you need sustainable PMF. You can hit PMF with a few power users… but what happens when the market shifts? You’ll not be able to sustain. So, always build products that can sustain themselves in the longer run. 5. Alignment is the only way to scale. The trio (PM, PMM, Growth) needs shared answers on: what vision are we chasing?, what’s our real North Star?, and where are users actually getting stuck? This kind of clarity among everyone saves months of confusion later. 6. You can’t copy-paste growth loops, you apply them to your context. He shared his 13 types of loops and literally you should have it on your desk if you do anything with growth. The real insight is pick one that supports your product and the whole ecosystem at the given moment. The one that fits your product’s natural behavior. If you try to force it, it will break. #productmanagement #productmanagers 🧠 About Product Growth: The world's largest podcast focused solely on product + growth, with over 167K listeners. Hosted by Aakash Gupta, who spent 16 years in PM, rising to VP of product, this 2x/ week show covers product and growth topics in depth. 🔔 Subscribe and like the video to support our content! And turn on the bell for notifications.

Aatir Abdul RaufguestAakash Guptahost

May 4, 20251h 16mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: May 4, 2025
Duration: 1h 16m
Channel: Aakash Gupta
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Today, we have a very fun episode. We’re teaming up with my long-time collaborator and friend Aatir Abdul Rauf—who’s now a VP of Marketing and spent the past decade in senior product roles. We’re each reviewing 3 of each other’s favorite posts. We’re chatting about: Preview – 00:00:00 Agenda of the Podcast – 00:01:24 Aatir Post 1 – The New Trio in Product (PM–PMM–Growth) – 00:01:34 Common Mission – Sustainable PMF – 00:06:34 Ad (WorkOS) – 00:11:39 Ad (Amplitude) – 00:12:52 Sustainable PMF Continued (in the context of goals) – 00:13:29 How PMs Are Owning Growth – 00:14:38 Why We Need This Trio – 00:17:23 How This Trio Works at vFairs – 00:19:25 Post 2 – 13 Examples of Growth Loops – 00:20:28 → Invite-Based Loop – 00:20:32 → User-Generated Content Loop – 00:22:30 → Expert-Driven Loop – 00:25:30 → Personalized Insights – 00:26:56 → Referral Incentives – 00:29:05 → Multi-Party Goal Loop – 00:31:04 Ad (Linear) – 00:31:57 → Multi-Party Goal Loop Example Continued – 00:32:50 → Achievement-Driven Loop – 00:33:21 → Discussing Other Loops – 00:34:42 Post 3 – Six Languages of Product Management – 00:36:28 Why This Went Viral – 00:41:07 Aakash’s Turn – His Content Creation Process – 00:43:27 Aakash Post 1 – 5 Lessons from Netflix’s Decline – 00:46:24 Write from Experience or Just Research? – 00:48:26 Dealing with Comments – 00:49:19 Aakash Post 2 – “Roadmap Isn’t a Strategy” – 00:51:30 Aakash Post 3 – (Most Viral of All Time) – 00:53:39 Can AI Tools Help with Research for Creating Viral Content? – 00:57:34 How Aatir Manages a Full-Time Job & Content Creation – 01:00:19 How Aatir Designs Posts – 01:03:20 His Content Creation Workflow – 01:07:31 One Piece of Advice He’d Give to His Younger Self – 01:11:17 Final Notes – 01:15:48 Transcript: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/aatir-abdul-rauf-podcast 💼 Check out our sponsors: WorkOS: Your app, enterprise ready - http://www.workos.com/aakash Linear: Plan and build products like the best - https://linear.app/partners/aakash Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity - https://bit.ly/4hl25RG 👀 Where to find Aatir: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aatirar Newsletter: https://aatir.substack.com 👨‍💻 Where to find Aakash: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aakashg0 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aakashg0/ 🔑 Key Takeaways
1. There’s a new trio in town. We all grew up on the “PM + designer + engineer” model. He advocates for the new trio: PM, PMM, and Growth. It’s a very important concept to think of. PMs build, PMMs tell the story, Growth makes it scale. If even one of those is missing, good luck sustaining anything.
1. PMMs are the unsung heroes of real product impact. Most teams either ignore the role or treat it like launch copywriting. But without a PMM, users don’t understand the product. You can ship the most powerful feature ever but if no one knows it exists or why it matters, it’s worthless.
1. Growth isn’t the first thing; it’s the multiplier. You don’t bolt on a growth loop day one. You ship → PM & PMM find what clicks → then growth turns it into a loop. Premature growth is how startups/teams burn cash and lose trust.
1. PMF alone isn’t enough, you need sustainable PMF. You can hit PMF with a few power users… but what happens when the market shifts? You’ll not be able to sustain. So, always build products that can sustain themselves in the longer run.
1. Alignment is the only way to scale. The trio (PM, PMM, Growth) needs shared answers on: what vision are we chasing?, what’s our real North Star?, and where are users actually getting stuck? This kind of clarity among everyone saves months of confusion later.
1. You can’t copy-paste growth loops, you apply them to your context. He shared his 13 types of loops and literally you should have it on your desk if you do anything with growth. The real insight is pick one that supports your product and the whole ecosystem at the given moment. The one that fits your product’s natural behavior. If you try to force it, it will break. #productmanagement #productmanagers 🧠 About Product Growth: The world's largest podcast focused solely on product + growth, with over 167K listeners. Hosted by Aakash Gupta, who spent 16 years in PM, rising to VP of product, this 2x/ week show covers product and growth topics in depth. 🔔 Subscribe and like the video to support our content! And turn on the bell for notifications.

SPEAKERS

Aatir Abdul Rauf
guest
Product/growth marketer and content creator focused on growth loops, PMF, and viral writing.
Aakash Gupta
host
Creator and podcast host on the Aakash Gupta channel, interviewing guests about writing and growth.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Aakash Gupta, featuring Aatir Abdul Rauf and Aakash Gupta, How I Wrote My 3 Most Viral Posts explores two creators dissect viral posts, frameworks, and their creation process Aatir proposes a “new trio” for SaaS growth—PM, Product Marketing, and Growth—to maintain sustainable product-market fit as markets shift and AI lowers build costs.

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