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Hi Reader, What happens when a 20-year product leader walks away from the corporate track and bets on herself? Elena Luneva spent her career leading product at Nextdoor, OpenTable, BrainTrust, and BlackRock. Then she went independent. Not because she was pushed out, but because she already knew how to do the old job. She wanted to learn something new. What we covered:
Key takeaway: Everyone's talking about building. Elena's focused on the harder question: you built a thing, now who's going to buy it? As building gets easier, the people who understand go-to-market, pricing, and positioning will matter more than ever. Question to sit with: If you decided to go independent tomorrow, what would you do with those first three months? Connect with Elena: Substack | Maven | LinkedIn Enjoying the podcast? A quick rating or review helps more people find these conversations. Pick your platform: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify Let's Chillaborate, Dina Founder, Chill Labs PS: Know someone thinking about going independent? Forward this to them. They'll thank you later. 💙 |
Chill Labs is a boutique consultancy helping companies think strategically, solve business problems, and streamline operations utilizing Product Management, Software Engineering principles and AI. Combining a decade of experience running complex, globally distributed software products with expertise in product discovery, user research, and strategy, Chill Labs helps companies build products that users want and do so in a way that supports growth and scale. Dina Levitan, Founder and Principal at Chill Labs, based out of Seattle, WA, brings over 15 years of experience as a product and technical leader ranging from startups to companies like Google.
Hi Reader, Last week I facilitated a workshop for grad students, and one of them wasn't sure her restaurant job counted as "real experience." It hit me: this isn't just a student problem. I hear the same thing from mid-career professionals every week. "I don't have the right AI skills." "My background isn't technical enough." "There's so much to catch up on." What I'm Noticing Everyone's chasing the same playbook right now. Prompting courses. Context engineering. AI certifications. Tool after...
Hi Reader, This month's idea comes from an Arthur Brooks talk I heard. One line stuck with me: never make the mistake of meeting a complex need with a complicated tool. In AI terms: it's very easy to start using a powerful tool to solve problems that aren't actually tool problems. What I'm Noticing When things feel uncertain (a hard decision, messy collaboration, fear of getting it wrong), we tend to reach for AI the same way people reach for their phone: as a way to calm the discomfort....
Hi Reader, This month marks 4 years since I started Chill Labs and went fractional. What I’m Noticing It wasn’t because I wanted less work. It was because I wanted better, more interesting work. Work with people I choose. Going fractional was my first act of “automating myself” as an entrepreneur. Not with AI, but by redesigning how I work. Now, I use them in tandem: I work with a portfolio of clients, and I automate the parts of work that don’t need me. That’s the Automate Yourself...