20Product: Is the Design Phase Dead in a World of AI | Has Claude Code Crushed Anthropic Already | What Roles of a PM Are Less and More Important with AI | How the Best Product Leaders Tell Stories with Noam Lovinsky, CPO @ Superhuman
Noam Lovinsky is the CPO @ Superhuman (formerly Grammarly). Prior to Superhuman he was a Senior Director of Product Management at Facebook. In his earlier years, he was CPO @ Thumbtack and spent 5 years as a Director of Product Management at Google where he was responsible for all of Youtube's applications.
AGENDA:
03:43 What is Great Product Leadership in a World of AI
07:45 Does the Design Phase Die in a World of Vibe Coding
12:21 How AI Changes Product Development Most
22:23 Accelerating Product Development
29:32 AI's Impact on Product Building
34:19 Predictions for 2026
34:45 Quick Fire Round
38:41 Reflections and Future Plans
SaaStr 742: The Top 5 Secrets for Building Great Products with Leaders at Slack, Rubrik, and Grammarly
SaaStr 742: The Top 5 Secrets for Building Great Products with Leaders at Slack, Rubrik, and Grammarly
As Product leaders, you have to build trust with CEOs and founders, align on vision and strategy, stay focused on the customer's problem, and effectively navigate misalignment to ensure your product has the greatest chances of success right out of the gate.
But how do you tactically achieve all of that? Tamar Yehoshua, former CPO at Slack and Partner at IVP, Anneka Gupta, CPO of Rubrik, and Noam Lovinsky, CPO of Grammarly, shared practical advice at SaaStr Annual from the trenches so you can build great products and great teams all at once.
Follow along with the full write-up of this podcast here.
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The happiness and pain of product management | Noam Lovinsky (Grammarly, Facebook, YouTube, Thumbtack)
Noam Lovinsky has had a distinguished career in product, leaving an indelible mark at Facebook, YouTube, Thumbtack, and currently as the chief product officer at Grammarly. At Facebook, Noam helped establish the New Product Experimentation team; at Thumbtack, he was chief product officer; and at YouTube, he was one of the early product leaders overseeing the consumer experience. In our conversation, we discuss:
• Challenges and lessons from reviving growth at YouTube and Thumbtack
• Lessons from building Facebook’s New Product Experimentation team
• Insights into Grammarly’s success
• Knowing when it’s time to kill your project
• Why diversifying your growth channels is critical
• The power of visioning and storytelling in shaping product strategy
• How to create space for innovation at large companies
• The resilience and motivation of Grammarly’s team in Ukraine
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Where to find Noam Lovinsky:
• X: https://twitter.com/noaml
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noaml/
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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) Noam’s background
(04:18) Noam’s lack of online presence
(08:06) Lessons from YouTube: advocating for what’s best for yourself and the team
(14:31) Prioritizing what’s best for the business
(19:37) Knowing when it’s time to kill a project
(21:47) Lessons from Thumbtack: diversifying growth channels and overcoming challenges
(26:24) How Thumbtack turned growth around
(31:44) Building Airbnb’s instant booking feature
(35:28) Lessons from Thumbtack: team collaboration and product strategy
(38:38) Lessons from Facebook: building the New Product Experimentation team
(40:43) The importance of starting small and building community density
(46:07) Advice for building a startup within a startup
(48:52) Having an incentive system
(49:34) Lessons from Grammarly: adapting to changing user needs and building for the masses
(54:20) The scrappiness and profitability of Grammarly
(56:56) The resilience and motivation of the Grammarly team in Ukraine
(59:08) General career advice
(01:01:02) When to pull back
(01:02:58) Closing thoughts
(01:03:56) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Substack: https://substack.com/
• Hunter Walk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterwalk/
• The rituals of great teams | Shishir Mehrotra of Coda, YouTube, Microsoft: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-coda-youtube-microsoft/
• Salar Kamangar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salar-kamangar-5a059712/
• Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/
• Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/
• FRED on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/FRED
• How Airbnb Proved That Storytelling Is the Most Important Skill in Design: https://www.inc.com/yazin-akkawi/the-surprising-technique-airbnb-uses-to-better-sell-an-experience.html
• Google+: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B
• Marco Zappacosta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcozappacosta/
• Bryan Schreier on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanschreier/
• Whitney Steele on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneydsteele/
• David Shein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidshein/
• The magic of thinking big, by Lenny Rachitsky: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/the-magic-of-thinking-big-by-lenny-rachitsky/
• What Seven Years at Airbnb Taught Me About Building a Business: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/what-seven-years-at-airbnb-taught
• New apps, new experiences: NPE Team, from Facebook: https://tech.facebook.com/engineering/2019/7/npe-team-from-facebook/
• The Origin Story of the BRC Trash Fence: https://journal.burningman.org/2016/05/black-rock-city/leaving-no-trace/the-origin-story-of-the-brc-trash-fence/
• Nike opens high-tech research and innovation lab: https://www.just-style.com/news/nike-opens-high-tech-research-and-innovation-lab/
• ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/
• Microsoft Copilot: https://copilot.microsoft.com/
• How to grow a subscription business | Yuriy Timen (Grammarly, Canva, Airtable): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-grow-a-subscription-business-yuriy-timen-grammarly-canva-airtable/
• “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”: https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-cave-you-fear-to-enter-holds-the-treasure-you-seek-d624e28c3848
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making: https://www.amazon.com/Build-Unorthodox-Guide-Making-Things/dp/0063046067
• For All Mankind on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/for-all-mankind/umc.cmc.6wsi780sz5tdbqcf11k76mkp7
• Fargo TV series on Hulu: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/fargo
• Arc browser: https://arc.net/
• Competing with giants: An inside look at how The Browser Company builds product | Josh Miller (CEO): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/competing-with-giants-an-inside-look-at-how-the-browser-company-builds-product-josh-miller-ceo/
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Production and marketing by https://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.
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