Failure

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

December 13, 2023

Duration

1h 1m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this special compilation episode, we delve into failure—an overlooked source of wisdom. From freezing onstage in front of thousands of people, to coworkers staging an intervention, to huge product investments that went to zero, we’ve pulled our favorite stories of failure from 100+ podcast episodes. I hope these stories serve as a gentle nudge to view failure not as a setback but as a crucial detour toward growth. — Brought to you by Sendbird—The (all-in-one) communications API platform for mobile apps: https://sendbird.com/lenny | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/ Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/failure Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, you’ll hear from: (00:00) Lenny: Why I’m focusing on failure (03:25) Katie Dill: The single meeting that changed how Katie leads forever (08:03) Paul Adams: Freezing onstage in front of thousands of people (18:38) Tom Conrad: Lessons from Pets.com and Quibi—two of the most famous product disasters of all time (33:19) Sri Batchu: When you fail, make sure you fail conclusively (39:00) Jiaona Zhang (JZ): One of the biggest product misses at Airbnb (44:32) Gina Gotthilf: Everyone has an “A side” and a “B side,” and we should all share our B sides more (57:57) Maggie Crowley: Her favorite interview question about failure, and lessons from a personal failure (1:00:33) Thanks for listening 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.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Guest (Airbnb leader sharing an intervention story)

  guest

• Paul Adams

  guest

• Guest (brief laugh only)

  guest

• Tom Konrad

  guest

• Guest (growth/experiments story)

  guest

• Guest (Airbnb Plus failure story)

  guest

• Guest (Duolingo failures/B-sides story)

  guest

• Maggie Crowley

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lenny Rachitsky and Guest (Airbnb leader sharing an intervention story), Failure explores How Product Leaders Turn Painful Failures Into Career-Defining Lessons This compilation episode of Lenny's Podcast assembles candid stories of failure from top product and growth leaders at Airbnb, Stripe, Intercom, Google, Quibi, Duolingo, Ramp, Toast, and more.

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