How to find hidden growth opportunities in your product | Albert Cheng (Duolingo, Grammarly, Chess.com) · Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth summary

Key takeaways

User retention is critical; companies should focus on keeping their users engaged.
The Explore-Exploit framework can effectively uncover new growth opportunities.
AI can enhance product features and streamline the experimentation process.
Gamification strategies can significantly improve user engagement and retention.
Failure can provide valuable lessons to drive future successes in product development.

Summary

Exploring Growth Opportunities with the Explore-Exploit Framework

Albert Cheng discusses the 'Explore-Exploit Framework' which helps identify growth opportunities within consumer subscription products. In the exploratory phase, companies find suitable areas to focus on, while exploitation concentrates resources to maximize impact in those areas. Cheng illustrates this with an example from Chess.com, where changing how users engage with features resulted in a significant increase in user engagement and retention.

Retention as the Golden Metric for Consumer Subscriptions

Retention is crucial for consumer subscription models. Without retaining users, companies face difficulty converting free users into paying customers. Cheng emphasizes that companies should aim for high user retention, noting that users’ repeated engagement often drives growth.

Leveraging AI for Growth and Experimentation

AI's role in optimizing growth strategies is highlighted, with Cheng mentioning tools for data analysis that allow teams to run more efficient experiments. He also shares how Chess.com is using AI to enhance the user experience, such as improving tutorials and user guidance.

Gamification as a Growth Strategy

Cheng illustrates the importance of gamification in enhancing user experience and retention. He mentions the three pillars of successful gamification: core loops, metagame, and user profiles. These aspects create a richer user engagement that encourages ongoing interaction with the products.

Learning from Failures in Product Development

Albert Cheng shares insights on the importance of learning from failures when experimenting with new product features. He recounts his experience at Chariot and the lessons learned about understanding users, validating ideas before launch, and maintaining clear communication across teams.

Show notes

Albert Cheng has led growth at three of the world’s most successful consumer subscription companies: Duolingo, Grammarly, and Chess.com. A former Google product manager (and serious pianist!), Albert developed a unique approach to finding and scaling growth opportunities through rapid experimentation and deep user psychology. His teams run 1,000 experiments a year, discovering counterintuitive insights that have driven tens of millions in revenue.

What you’ll learn:

1. How to use the explore-exploit framework to find new growth opportunities

2. How showing premium features to free users doubled Grammarly’s upgrades to paid plans

3. What good retention looks like for a consumer subscription app

4. Why resurrected users drive 80% of mature product growth

5. Why “reverse trials” work better than time-based trials

6. The three pillars of successful gamification: core loop, metagame, and profile

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Where to find Albert Cheng:

• X: https://x.com/albertc248

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertcheng1/

• Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/member/Goniners

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Referenced:

• How Duolingo reignited user growth: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-duolingo-reignited-user-growth

• Inside ChatGPT: The fastest-growing product in history | Nick Turley (Head of ChatGPT at OpenAI): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-chatgpt-nick-turley

• Explore vs. Exploit: https://brianbalfour.com/quick-takes/explore-vs-exploit

• Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/

• Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/

• Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/

• 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

• Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika

• Figma: https://www.figma.com/

• Cursor: 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

• Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code

• GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot

• Noam Lovinsky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noaml/

• The happiness and pain of product management | Noam Lovinsky (Grammarly, Facebook, YouTube, Thumbtack): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-happiness-and-pain-of-product

• Kyla Siedband on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylasiedband/

• The Duolingo handbook: https://blog.duolingo.com/handbook/

• Lenny’s post on X about the Duolingo handbook: https://x.com/lennysan/status/1889008405584683091

• The rituals of great teams | Shishir Mehrotra of Coda, YouTube, Microsoft: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir

• Duolingo on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@duolingo

• Kasparov vs. Deep Blue | The Match That Changed History: https://www.chess.com/article/view/deep-blue-kasparov-chess

• Magnus Carlsen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen

• Elo rating system: https://www.chess.com/terms/elo-rating-chess

• Stockfish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockfish_(chess)

• AlphaGo on Prime Video: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/AlphaGo/0KNQHKKDAOE8OCYKQS9WSSDYN0

• Statsig: https://www.statsig.com/

• The State of Product in 2026: Navigating Change, Challenge, and Opportunity: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/state-of-product-2026

• Erik Allebest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikallebest/

• Daniel Rensch on X: https://x.com/danielrensch

• Chariot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_(company)

• San Francisco 49ers: https://www.49ers.com/

• Breville Barista Express: https://www.breville.com/en-us/product/bes870

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Recommended books:

• Snuggle Puppy!: A Little Love Song: https://www.amazon.com/Snuggle-Puppy-Little-Boynton-Board/dp/1665924985

• Ogilvy on Advertising: https://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903X

• Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Squares-Chess-Saved-Life/dp/1541703286

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com

How to find hidden growth opportunities in your product | Albert Cheng (Duolingo, Grammarly, Chess.com)