Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Inside Gong: How teams work with design partners, their pod structure, autonomy, trust, and more | Eilon Reshef (co-founder and CPO)

Jan 2, 2025

Eilon Reshef, co-founder and CPO at Gong, dives into innovative team dynamics and product development. He discusses Gong's unique pod model, emphasizing autonomy and trust for rapid decision-making. Eilon shares insights on collaborating with design partners and how AI enhances sales predictions. He also reveals his 'spiral method' for learning complex topics swiftly and balancing quality with speed in product launches. With a focus on creativity and effective communication, Reshef offers a fresh perspective on building successful teams.

56:42

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Eilon Reshef

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Gong's unique pod model fosters cross-functional collaboration, enabling teams to focus on specific outcomes while maintaining autonomy and motivation.

Collaborating with design partners allows Gong's teams to validate concepts and gather real-time feedback, significantly increasing feature adoption rates.

Eilon Reshef emphasizes the importance of quick decision-making to sustain momentum, enabling teams to act decisively in a fast-paced environment.

Deep dives

The Pod Model: A Unique Product Team Structure

The pod model is a distinctive approach to organizing product and engineering teams that emphasizes cross-functional collaboration. Each pod typically consists of a product manager, user experience designer, and several engineers working together towards a common goal. This structure allows pods to remain autonomous while focusing on specific outcomes rather than rigid metrics. The result is a more cohesive and motivated team capable of responding quickly to customer needs and delivering products that align well with user expectations.

Intro

4min

Revolutionizing Product Teams: The Pod Model

4min

Navigating Product Development with Design Partners and Autonomous Teams

2min

Collaborative Design Partnerships

12min

Empowering Teams: Autonomy and Feedback in Product Development

2min

Navigating Trust and Decision-Making in Teams

22min

Management Insights and Culinary Delights

10min

Eilon Reshef is the co-founder and chief product officer at Gong, one of the most ubiquitous B2B products in the world. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Gong’s unique approach to working with design partners

• Their unique pod model

• Why Eilon makes big decisions quickly

• Lessons learned from being early in AI

• The power of extreme focus

• His “spiral method” for learning complex topics quickly

• How to maintain quality while optimizing for speed

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-gong-eilon-reshef

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Where to find Eilon Reshef:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eilonreshef

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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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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Eilon’s background

(04:20) The pod model

(06:33) Working with design partners

(09:13) Finding and coordinating design partners

(13:12) Balancing customer feedback and vision

(15:10) Gong's 95% feature adoption

(17:05) The importance of autonomy and trust

(23:30) How to implement this unique way of working

(27:15) Speed and decision-making

(31:47) Early AI adoption and lessons learned

(35:50) Building effective AI teams

(38:16) The spiral method for learning

(41:36) Narrowing down the initial customer profile

(44:24) Failure corner

(46:35) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Gong: https://www.gong.io

• Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/

• How Gong builds product: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-gong-builds-product

• What is Montessori education?: https://amshq.org/About-Montessori/What-Is-Montessori

• Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

• Amit Bendov on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amitbendov/

• Lessons from scaling Spotify: The science of product, taking risky bets, and how AI is already impacting the future of music | Gustav Söderström (Co-President, CPO, and CTO at Spotify): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-scaling-spotify-the

• Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com

• Figma: https://www.figma.com

• The Spiral Method: https://www.gong.io/blog/using-the-spiral-method/

• Webex: https://www.webex.com/

• L’Oréal: https://www.lorealparisusa.com/

• American Express: https://www.americanexpress.com/

• Slow Horses on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/slow-horses/umc.cmc.2szz3fdt71tl1ulnbp8utgq5o

• Dishwasher basket: https://www.amazon.com/Munchkin-High-Capacity-Dishwasher-Basket/dp/B07ZPMYKKS/

• What most people miss about marketing | Rory Sutherland (Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, author): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-most-people-miss-about-marketing

• Occam’s razor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

• Hanlon’s razor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

• Sabich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabich#Ingredients_and_description