The product framework behind Product with Attitude: person, promise, feedback loops, retention design, and free-to-paid conversion. Part 1 of the series. A read for builders, PMs, and anyone who refuses to ship without thinking.
TL;DRA newsletter is a product a product in development. Products have a person, a promise, a feedback loop, a roadmap, and a retention curve. This is part 1 of how I built Product with Attitude from 0 to Bestseller in 6 months.
I’m going to share a few numbers, not to polish my ego, but to explain the shape of the story:
- I started this newsletter 15 months ago, from zero.
- For the first few months, I didn’t tell anyone in my professional circle that I was running it.
- Six months later, it became a Substack Bestseller.
- My first article has been read only 322 times in those 15 months and has brought in 5 subscribers since 2025.
- My most popular article has been read 106K times in the last 3 months.
- I’m now somewhere around 18K readers.
- My open rate is 39–42% on average.
- My retention rate is, according to Substack, excellent
I’m not a growth specialist. I don’t have everything figured out. I don’t have a viral playbook. I’m not going to tell you to post seven Notes a day. Mainly because most of the time I’d be failing at this advice myself.
What I have is a different bias.
I build products for a living. So from day one, I’ve treated this publication like a product in development.
That means I treat it as something that evolves and needs testingand feedback loopsto deliver value.
This article is the first in a series where I break down the product mindset behind PwA: what I ship, what I kill, what I measure, what I automate and what I ignore.
Today: the foundations.
AI Product Manager and builder. I write Product with Attitude, an AI newsletter of 17,000+ subscribers building with AI and developing critical AI literacy through practice.
The kind where you sit down on a Saturday morning, follow a guide, and walk away with a working agent, automation, or product.
Built by you. Understood by you. Owned by you.
If you’re new here, welcome! Here’s what you might have missed:
→I Analyzed Every Interaction From My First 6 Months on Substack. Here’s What Drove My Rapid Growth. → 10 Mistakes I Won’t Repeat On Substack In 2026
Many people define a product as something you build and sell.
That definition misses the point.
A product is a repeatable experience of value someone chooses to return to.
Experience is what happens to the person using the product.
Experience is not just the interface. It includes:
- the moment someone discovers it
- what they expect before using it
- how easy it is to understand
- what happens while they use it
- how they feel during and after
- whether it solves the problem without creating new friction
- whether they trust it enough to use again
Value is the reason the experience matters and what the user would miss if it disappeared.
It can be practical:
- saves time
- saves money
- reduces effort
- helps someone decide
- helps someone finish something
- makes a task less annoying
It can also be emotional:
- makes someone feel capable
- gives clarity
- creates confidence
- reduces anxiety
- makes someone feel seen
- gives them status, belonging, or momentum
Publication as Product means designing your newsletter as a repeatable experience of value built around a clear promise readers trust enough to return to.
You’re welcome to read my interpretation below, but you can also ask yourself: what newsletters do you come back to, and why?
Want to read the rest? The full post is here → Read on Substack
- (Karo Zieminski, authored, "How I Built Product with Attitude from 0 to Bestseller, without Pretending I Have a Viral Playbook")
- (Product with Attitude, published, "How I Built Product with Attitude from 0 to Bestseller, without Pretending I Have a Viral Playbook")
- (This, is, part 1 of how I built Product with Attitude from 0 to Bestse)
- (My open rate, is, 39–42% on average)
- Analyzed Every Interaction From My First, Attitude, Bestseller, Built, Experience, Experience Experience, Karo Zieminski, Mainly, Mistakes, Months, Newsletter, Newsletter Operating System, Notes, Owned, Product
- AI product management, Karo Zieminski, Product with Attitude, Substack, critical AI literacy
#ProductThinking #AIForProductManagers #ProductStrategy #Vibecoding #AIAssistedCoding #SubstackGrowth