Eilon Reshef: Why Gong pods use dozens of design partners

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

January 2, 2025

Duration

56m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

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

— Brought to you by:

• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs: https://workos.com/lenny
• Think Fast Talk Smart—Tools and techniques to help you communicate more effectively: https://fastersmarter.io/
• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-gong-eilon-reshef Where to find Eilon Reshef:

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

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

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 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
• Careers at Gong: https://www.gong.io/careers

Recommended books:

• Marty Cagan’s books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marty-Cagan/author/B00J21JTNM
• “The Machine That Won the War”: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18402398-the-machine-that-won-the-war
• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-3rd-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0062292986
• The Ideal Executive: https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-Executive-Ichak-Kalderon-Adizes/dp/0937120030/
• Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes Are High: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Tools-Talking-Stakes/dp/1260474186/

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

• Eilon Reshef

  guest

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Lenny Rachitsky and Eilon Reshef, Eilon Reshef: Why Gong pods use dozens of design partners explores inside Gong’s pod model: design partners, autonomy, and AI mastery The episode features Gong co-founder and CPO Alon Reshef explaining how Gong builds B2B SaaS products with unusually high hit rates by combining autonomous pods with intensive design-partner collaboration. Each pod is a fully cross‑functional, outcome‑oriented team that works directly with 6–24 customers from idea through launch, dramatically reducing the risk of unused features. Reshef describes his philosophy of extreme autonomy and fast decision‑making, his approach to learning complex domains quickly (“spiral method”), and lessons from nearly a decade of building AI-powered products. The conversation also covers Gong’s hyper‑focused early ICP, why generic AI isn’t enough, and how organizational trust underpins all of this.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

How to build a company that withstands any era | Eric Ries, Lean Startup author

Head of Claude Code: What happens after coding is solved | Boris Cherny

Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead)

Building a world-class data org | Jessica Lachs (VP of Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash)

What most people miss about marketing | Rory Sutherland (Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, author)

5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker)