Why every company now needs to think and operate like a lab team | Josh Woodward (Google Labs, Gemini, AI Studio)

Josh Woodward is the head of Google Labs, the Gemini app, and AI Studio. He has spent over 17 years at Google and oversees its longest-running and largest labs team, whose products include NotebookLM (now Gemini Notebook), Project Genie, and Flow. His job is to find, experiment with, and scale new AI products, and he has built one of the most distinctive product cultures in the industry for generating ideas, running experiments, and, even more importantly, knowing when to quit.

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In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:

1. Why every company now needs to think and operate like a labs team
2. Where the best ideas really come from
3. The “almost possible” framework
4. How to recognize genuine product-market fit early
5. When to kill an idea
6. What skills are rising in value in the AI era
7. Why roles are not actually blurring into one universal builder role
8. How to set up your internal labs team

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Where to find Josh Woodward:

• X: https://x.com/joshwoodward

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshwoodward

Referenced:

• Google Labs: https://labs.google

• Gemini Notebook: https://notebook.google

• Google Flow: https://flow.google.com

• Google Beam: https://beam.google

• Whisk: https://whisk-ai.io

• Nano Banana: https://aistudio.google.com/models/nano-banana

• Google Stitch: https://stitch.withgoogle.com

• Gemini Spark: https://gemini.google/overview/agent/spark

• Gemini Personal Intelligence: https://gemini.google/overview/personal-intelligence

• Meta Muse: https://muse.ai

• AI’s third era: the rise of persistent AI coworkers | Tara Seshan (Product Lead ChatGPT Work): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/ais-third-era-the-rise-of-persistent

• Lenny & Friends Summit: https://www.lennyssummit.com

• Dan Shipper’s website: https://danshipper.com

• Inside OpenAI | Logan Kilpatrick (head of developer relations): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-openai-logan-kilpatrick-head

Recommended book:

• The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer: https://www.amazon.com/Master-Long-Beautiful-Roger-Federer/dp/1538767368

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.

My biggest takeaways from this conversation: