Substack · Strategy · Mid · 45 to 60 minutes

How should Substack solve discovery?

Substack is a platform where writers publish directly to readers, often through paid email subscriptions. Answer this product management case and get it graded line by line against a weighted rubric.

Product strategy
Trade-off analysis
User insight
Platform thinking
Metrics

The situation

You are a PM in Substack's reader and network experience group. Leadership wants a recommendation on how the product should help readers discover new writers and how writers and readers should interact inside Substack, rather than relying mostly on email and outside social platforms. Substack already has more than 35 million active subscriptions across its network, which creates real potential reach, but the company is built on direct subscription relationships, not advertising. Writers want better growth and readers want easier ways to find relevant voices, yet a more social product could pull time and attention away from the core subscription experience or import the incentives of attention-first feeds. The question is not just whether discovery matters, it is what kind of in-product layer, if any, fits Substack's model and principles. Assume the team can make one major product area investment in the next year. Your job is to propose a strategy that closes the discovery gap without weakening the trust and economics of writer reader subscriptions.

What to produce

Write a 1 to 2 page product strategy memo.

Your answer must

Define the core problem to solve, including the main user needs for both readers and writers.
Present 2 to 3 strategic options, including keeping the current approach, and compare their benefits, downsides, and fit with Substack's business model.
Recommend one strategy and explain how it improves discovery and conversation while keeping direct subscriptions as the foundation.
Explain how Substack could use its existing network scale to bootstrap adoption of the chosen approach.
Specify success metrics, leading indicators, major risks, and at least one mitigation for each major risk.

Constraints

Do not assume an advertising business model or goals based on maximizing time spent at any cost.
Your recommendation must build primarily on Substack's existing writer reader subscription network and owned product surfaces.
Keep the proposal to one coherent product area strategy, not a set of unrelated bets or a company reorganization.

Format

Use sections: problem, options, recommendation, adoption plan, success measures, risks.

How Substack actually played it

Substack explains why it launched Notes, a short-form feed inside the product, grounded in its subscription network of more than 35 million active subscriptions. The post sets out the reasoning that discovery and conversation should sit on top of direct reader relationships instead of an ad-driven feed. Worth reading as a platform-extension decision with a clear principle behind it.

Extend the core model into a new surface when it addresses a gap such as discovery.
State the principle that rules out the usual social design (attention for ads).
Use existing scale to bootstrap a new feature's audience.
Keep the subscription relationship as the foundation of the new surface.

Built from Introducing Substack Notes by Hamish McKenzie, Chris Best and Jairaj, Substack.