The non-technical PM’s guide to building with Cursor | Zevi Arnovitz (Meta)
The non-technical PM’s guide to building with Cursor | Zevi Arnovitz (Meta)
The non-technical PM’s guide to building with Cursor | Zevi Arnovitz (Meta)
Shownote
Shownote
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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—
Zevi's Slash Command Bank for Claude:
[https://zeviarnovitz.com/]https://zeviarnovitz.com/
[https://zeviarnovitz.com/]
—
Episode transcript:
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor]
—
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 [https://x.com/ArnovitzZevi]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zev-arnovitz
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/zev-arnovitz]
• Website: https://zeviarnovitz.com [https://zeviarnovitz.com]
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com]
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan [https://twitter.com/lennysan]
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/]
—
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
—
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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-super-ic-pm-tal-raviv]
• Wix: https://www.wix.com [https://www.wix.com]
• Building AI Apps: From Idea to Viral in 30 Days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2w4y7pDi8w
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2w4y7pDi8w]
• Riley Brown on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcoud_ZW7cfxeIugBflSBw
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMcoud_ZW7cfxeIugBflSBw]
• Greg Isenberg on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GregIsenberg
[https://www.youtube.com/@GregIsenberg]
• Bolt: https://bolt.new [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons]
• Lovable: https://lovable.dev [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika]
• StudyMate: https://studymate.live [https://studymate.live]
• Dibur2text: https://dibur2text.app [https://dibur2text.app]
• Claude: https://claude.ai [https://claude.ai]
• Everyone should be using Claude Code more:
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyone-should-be-using-claude-code
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyone-should-be-using-claude-code]
• Bun: https://bun.com [https://bun.com]
• Zustand: https://zustand.docs.pmnd.rs/getting-started/introduction
[https://zustand.docs.pmnd.rs/getting-started/introduction]
• Cursor: https://cursor.com [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell]
• Wispr Flow: https://wisprflow.ai [https://wisprflow.ai]
• Linear: https://linear.app [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linears-secret-to-building-beloved-b2b-products-nan-yu]
• Cursor Composer: https://cursor.com/blog/composer
[https://cursor.com/blog/composer]
• Replit: https://replit.com [https://replit.com]
• Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO):
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad]
• Base44: https://base44.com [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo]
• v0: https://v0.app [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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch]
• Cursor Browser mode: https://cursor.com/docs/agent/browser
[https://cursor.com/docs/agent/browser]
• Google Antigravity: https://antigravity.google [https://antigravity.google]
• Grok: https://grok.com [https://grok.com]
• Zapier: https://zapier.com [https://zapier.com]
• Airtable: https://www.airtable.com [https://www.airtable.com]
• Build Your Personal PM Productivity System & AI Copilot:
https://maven.com/tal-raviv/product-manager-productivity-system
[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
[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
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ai-tools-are-overdelivering-results-c08]
• Yaara Asaf on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaarasaf
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaarasaf]
• The Pitt on Prime Video:
https://www.amazon.com/The-Pitt-Season-1/dp/B0DNRR8QWD
[https://www.amazon.com/The-Pitt-Season-1/dp/B0DNRR8QWD]
• Severance on AppleTV+:
https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx
[https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx]
• Loom: https://www.loom.com [https://www.loom.com]
• Cap: https://cap.so [https://cap.so]
• Supercut: https://supercut.ai [https://supercut.ai]
...References continued at:
https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-non-technical-pms-guide-to-building-with-cursor]
—
Recommended books:
• The Fountainhead: https://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153
[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
[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
[https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322]
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For
inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com
[podcast@lennyrachitsky.com].
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
[https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language]
Highlights
Highlights
In an era where AI is reshaping how software is built, non-technical professionals are gaining unprecedented power to create real products. This episode dives into the practical strategies that enable product managers without coding backgrounds to design, develop, and ship applications using cutting-edge AI tools.
Chapters
Chapters
Introduction to Zevi Arnovitz
00:00Zevi’s background and journey into AI
04:48Overview of Zevi’s AI workflow
07:41Screenshare: Exploring Zevi’s workflow in detail
14:41Building a feature live: StudyMate app
17:18Executing the plan with Cursor
30:52Using multiple AI models for code review
38:32Personifying AI models
40:40Peer review process
43:37The importance of postmortems
45:40Integrating AI in large companies
51:05How AI has impacted the PM role
53:42How to improve AI outputs
57:02AI-assisted job interviews
58:15Failure corner
1:02:57Lightning round and final thoughts
1:06:20Transcript
Transcript
Lenny Rachitsky: You are a product manager shipping product without knowing how to write code, barely knowing how to review code.
Zevi Arnovitz: I have zero technical background. Did music in high school when ChatGPT 3.5 came out. I remember watching a Yo...

