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

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: www.lennysnewsletter.com

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Where to find Eilon Reshef:• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: twitter.com

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com

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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: www.gong.io

• Cisco: www.cisco.com

• How Gong builds product: www.lennysnewsletter.com

• What is Montessori education?: amshq.org

• Isaac Asimov: en.wikipedia.org

• Amit Bendov on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com

• 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): www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Nvidia: www.nvidia.com

• Figma: www.figma.com

• The Spiral Method: www.gong.io

• Webex: www.webex.com

• L’Oréal: www.lorealparisusa.com

• American Express: www.americanexpress.com

• Slow Horses on AppleTV+: tv.apple.com

• Dishwasher basket: www.amazon.com

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

• Occam’s razor: en.wikipedia.org

• Hanlon’s razor: en.wikipedia.org

• Sabich: en.wikipedia.org

• Careers at Gong: www.gong.io

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Recommended books:

• Marty Cagan’s books: www.amazon.com

• “The Machine That Won the War”: www.goodreads.com

• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers: www.amazon.com

• The Ideal Executive: www.amazon.com

• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High: www.amazon.com

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

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.