Jessica Fain is a product leader at Webflow and former Chief of Staff to the CPO at Slack, where she worked alongside April Underwood and many past podcast guests including Stewart Butterfield, Annie Pearl, Tamar Yehoshua, and Noah Weiss. She’s spent her career learning how executives actually make decisions—and why most people completely misunderstand the process.
Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
We discuss:
Why great ideas often don’t get buy-in
Why executive calendars are “like strobe lights” and why the first 30 seconds of a meeting matter so much
Why executives are usually optimizing for a global maximum while you are often optimizing locally
The best question Jessica uses when a leader says something that seems wrong: “That’s so interesting. What led you to believe that?”
Why you should go in to learn, not to convince
Why showing only one option is a mistake
Why AI will make influence more important, not less
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Where to find Jessica Fain:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-fain-79b8989
Referenced:
• Box: https://www.box.com
• Slack: https://slack.com
• Brightwheel: https://mybrightwheel.com
• Webflow: https://webflow.com
• April Underwood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilunderwood
• Lessons in product leadership and AI strategy from Glean, Google, Amazon, and Slack | Tamar Yehoshua (Product at Glean, ex-Google and Slack): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/you-dont-need-to-be-a-well-run-company-to-win-tamar-yehoshua
• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com
• Behind the scenes of Calendly’s rapid growth | Annie Pearl (CPO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-scenes-of-calendlys-rapid
• Calendly: https://calendly.com
• Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.co.in/index.htm
• The 10 traits of great PMs, how AI will impact your product, and Slack’s product development process | Noah Weiss (Slack, Foursquare, Google): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-10-traits-of-great-pms-how-ai
• Ethan Eismann on X: https://x.com/eeismann
• Slack founder: Mental models for building products people love ft. Stewart Butterfield: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/slack-founder-stewart-butterfield
• Ilan Frank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanfrank
• Checkr: https://checkr.com
• Ali Rayl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alirayl
• Rachel Wolan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelwolan
• How Webflow’s CPO built an AI chief of staff to manage her calendar, prep for meetings, and drive AI adoption | Rachel Wolan: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-webflows-cpo-built-an-ai-chief
• Barbara Minto’s website: https://www.barbaraminto.com
• How Slack invests in big little details through Customer Love Sprints: https://slack.design/articles/sweating-the-small-stuff
• Building product at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession | Jeff Weinstein (Product lead): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-product-at-stripe-jeff-weinstein
• The Enneagram Institute: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions
• The Pitt on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/The-Pitt-Season-1/dp/B0DNRR8QWD
• Towel warmer: https://www.amazon.com/FLYHIT-Large-Towel-Warmer-Bathroom/dp/B0CB5K34L2
• Casa: https://getcasa.com
• Jimi Hendrix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_Hendrix
• Greek Theatre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Theatre_(Los_Angeles)
Recommended books:
• Pachinko: https://www.amazon.com/Pachinko-National-Book-Award-Finalist/dp/1455563927
• Homegoing: https://www.amazon.com/Homegoing-Yaa-Gyasi/dp/1101971061
• A History of Burning: https://www.amazon.com/History-Burning-Janika-Oza/dp/1538724243
• The Overstory: https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/039335668X
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
