6 Substack Lessons From a Product Manager With Zero Followers (That Doubled My Subscribers in a Week)

What I learned in my first month writing online with no audience, no hacks, and no idea what I was doing.

I started on Substack with imposter syndrome as my co-pilot. For the first week or so, I didn’t even dare to post anything. Just lurked and learned.

Week 1

I spent my time keyword-searching for topics that interested me, then binge-reading everything I could find.

I was studying:

• Are there any profiles similar to mine?

• Who else writes like me?

• What makes a Substack post spark actual authentic conversation?

Which if you think about it is a classic PM behavior: scan the field, detect patters and only then consider making a move.

Eventually, I realized that it was almost risk free. Unlike on LinkedIn, where I have over 6K followers (just through networking, no newsletter), I had no following here.

So whatever I posted, there was no guarantee that someone would actually read it. No expectations, no pressure, just me, throwing thoughts into the void. And weirdly enough, that’s what calmed me down.

Zero followers = Low Stakes

Weeks 2 - 5 (Today)

But it didn’t feel like a void for too long, because the Substack community is amazing.

• Day 2 (since sharing my first post): a few people have found my writing, one responded.

• Day 3: Someone subscribed.

• Day 35: Now, one month in, I've just hit 270 subscribers - half of them in the past week.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far (packaged neatly, just like a ‘‘proper’’ PM would do it):

1. Thinking at Full Bandwidth

PMs are used to condensing everything:

• Meeting notes? Bullet points.

• Roadmaps? One-pagers.

• Strategy? TL;DR.

Simplifying complexity is PMs’ superpower.

We’re basically human condenser machines, constantly translating technical complexities into user value, user needs back into something Engineers can actually build, and all of that into business outcomes.

PM, a Human Condenser Machine. Illustration by Karo Z. Drawn in Procreate.

And while storytelling is a crucial PM skill, we’re mostly doing it verbally on the fly: during workshops, on stage, in hallway chats, or mid-stride on our way to yet another meeting.

But Substack forced me to slow down. To explore why things matter, and to drink my coffee while it's still warm, instead of abandoning it to a slow, tragic death while I chase the next “urgent” task.

It’s less: ‘‘Here’s what I think’’ and more ‘‘Why do I think that’’.

In a way, writing feels like debugging my own thoughts: hunting down the messy logic and refining the structure.

2. Innovation Comes From Friction

If you’re used to building products, you know this: the best ideas don’t magically appear in a vacuum.

They emerge from friction: from pain points, tension, and inefficiencies.

Turns out, the same applies to writing. So far the post that brought me most subscribers is the one where I laid out my struggles as a PM, my own pain points and tensions.

Which brings me to my next point:

3. You Attract Your People By Being You

If you knew me in real life, you'd know that I tend to be straightforward and that authenticity is veeeeeery important to me. I don’t enjoy small talk, surface-level chats, or tiptoeing around real issues. I thrive on conversations that matter, honest, direct, and meaningful. Not rude, not reckless, just real.

So when I started writing on Substack, I knew I had to bring that same energy. The last thing I wanted was to sound like a corporate jargon machine. I get enough of that in my daily job.

I also made one ironclad promise: I will not, under any circumstances, use the word “alignment.” No matter what. If you ever catch me typing it, assume my Substack has been hacked, and send help, please.

So far, this approach seems to be working. Some of my confessions have turned into conversation starters. People reach out with questions, and my Substack inbox now has two messages from product folks I once dreamed of working with.

4. Creating When Life Won’t Slow Down

Finding time to write is not easy. I have a full-time job, a husband, two kids, two dogs, and two laundry baskets that seem to respawn overnight. Some days, it feels like my only uninterrupted thinking time is…was in the past.

But somehow, I make it work. Mostly by lowering the bar for what “making it work” means.

In my case, that means: only one post per week, one note per day. Just getting words out, however imperfect they are (and since I always find something to fix after posting, they’re definitely imperfect).

I choose to trust you, my more experienced Substack Friends 💚, when you say that consistency matters more than quantity. Take a look at Philip Hofmacher’s advice:

Wes Pearce agrees:

5. Ship, Learn, Iterate

💬 What if my content flops?

It probably will, and that’s fine.

In product development, we don’t expect every feature to be a hit on the first try. We ship, we learn, we tweak. Rinse and repeat.

So if a single feature’s success (or failure) doesn’t define the entire product, why should a single post define our writing journey?

Also, iteration matters.

It’s hard to predict what will resonate the most - at least for me. The post I poured days of research into, hoping to crowdsource insights, barely got a handful of responses, while a quick note racked up 13,288 impressions in 5 days and doubled my subscriber count.

I stopped seeing my flopped posts as failures, and started treating them as feedback.

• Ok, so this is not what resonates

• Maybe it’s too niche?

• Maybe the timing was off?

• Maybe the hook was not strong enough?

• Maybe it was too long? Too short?

etc.

From Mark Willis:

6. You Don’t Have to Be a Senior PM (or a senior anything) to Start On Substack

A junior PM messaged me:

💬 Should I wait until I have more experience to write?

After I made sure they understood that any advice I can give about Substack is still limited, I suggested they try to leverage the fact that they’re a junior.

Your "newbie" perspective could be your unfair advantage.

You see things seasoned folks overlook.

Fresh eyes = fresh insights.

Key Takeaways

• Your first post may feel terrifying. Post it anyway. No one is watching. Yet.

• Your weirdest, most honest thoughts will likely be your best posts.

• A quick note could double your subscribers overnight.

• Flopped content isn’t failure, it’s feedback.

• Writing makes us better thinkers.

• Consistency beats overthinking. A ‘’meh’’ post that is published is better than a brilliant draft collecting dust.

Happy writing!

- Karo 🤗

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👇 What was your first 5 weeks of writing like? 👇

Drop a comment, I’d love to learn from you too!

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