Elena Luneva on What Happens After You Leave the CPO Chair


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:

  • Why constraints ("no more hiring") forced her team to get creative with AI, and how that changed how she thinks about what's possible
  • What she learned about using AI to tailor messages for different audiences instead of defaulting to another meeting
  • What nobody tells you about going solo: even with 20 years of operating experience, the go-to-market for "you as a product" is a completely different skill

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?

🎧 Listen to the full episode

Connect with Elena: Substack | Maven | LinkedIn


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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

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.

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