Episodios
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WHOOP has made a name for themselves as the go-to wearable for those at the top of their game. You may have spotted elite athletes like LeBron James and Michael Phelps wearing the slim, screenless device. So what has made the device so successful?
In this week’s episode of Building One, Tomer Cohen sits down with Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of WHOOP, to discuss how focusing on a narrow product vision and owning the entire user experience led to the brand’s success in the saturated fitness tracker market.
Before founding WHOOP, Will was a competitive athlete and quickly recognized the need for more precise, actionable health data. WHOOP’s simplicity and dedication to providing pro athletes and everyday users with the most meaningful insights are central to the company’s approach.
Tomer and Will discuss:
The virtues of building a product with a narrow and deep focus.
How avoiding product scope creep helped WHOOP create a best-in-class wearable.
Why building original hardware was key to WHOOP’s competitive advantage.
The role of restraint in showing users the data that truly matters.
How WHOOP’s design for professional athletes translates to better experiences for everyday consumers.
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In a world where finding information at work is often more of a headache than it should be, Arvind Jain’s innovative solution is transforming the way enterprises manage and access knowledge. In this week’s episode of Building One, Tomer Cohen sits down with Arvind Jain, CEO and founder of Glean, to discuss how the AI-driven platform is reshaping the future of enterprise search.
Prior to founding Glean, Arvind was a Distinguished Engineer at Google, where he honed his deep technical expertise and understanding of search products. Passionate about building products that solve real-world problems, Arvind has been a key advocate for building with scalability in mind from day one.
Tomer and Arvind discuss:
Why Arvind Jain’s personal frustration with information search in the workplace led to the creation of Glean.
Why Glean’s team designed their product with large enterprises in mind from the very beginning.
How Glean uses both explicit and implicit data to measure success and improve its platform.
The challenges of staying true to your product roadmap while meeting the diverse needs of enterprise customers.
Why AI’s greatest potential lies in solving enterprise-level challenges and how Glean is leveraging this technology to improve workplace efficiency.
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What does it take to build a brand that not only survives but thrives by prioritizing the planet over profit? In this episode of Building One, host Tomer Cohen sits down with Jenna Johnson, the President of Patagonia, to explore how the iconic brand is reshaping the future of business through innovation and sustainability. Together, they unpack how Patagonia anticipates customer needs, drives environmental change, and builds products with purpose—not just for today, but for the planet’s future.
Jenna has served as the President of Patagonia for over four years, after spending a decade with the company in other roles. She has held several leadership positions with Patagonia, including Vice President of Technical Outdoor and Senior Global Director for Technical Outdoor. A passionate rock climber and outdoor enthusiast herself, Jenna brings a unique perspective to her role, using her personal experiences as an athlete to inform Patagonia’s product design and testing.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
How Patagonia anticipates customer needs and innovates beyond current market expectations
The company’s mission-first approach and how they balance sustainability with product releases
The challenges and rewards of leading in a circular economy and establishing a secondary-market for products
Why changing the internal culture is critical for successful sustainability shifts
The high stakes of moving toward a fully sustainable supply chain and the importance of long-term partnerships with producers
If you’re building a business or leading a brand that seeks to prioritize sustainability, this conversation will offer actionable lessons on how to drive innovation while remaining committed to a greater purpose.
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In this week’s episode of Building One, Tomer sits down with Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming and Xbox. With decades of experience, Phil is at the helm of one of the largest gaming platforms on the planet, overseeing iconic franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and Candy Crush. As a lifelong gamer, Phil’s passion for gaming runs deep, allowing him to bring a deeply personal approach to leadership.
In this conversation, Phil dives into how Xbox has expanded beyond consoles to create an ecosystem where games are accessible across devices, maximizing reach and convenience for players. He also discusses how the emotional connection gamers have with their platform plays a crucial role in Xbox’s success, noting that feedback—no matter how harsh—should always be seen as a gift.
Phil highlights the importance of taking risks in game development, explaining how innovation thrives through bold decisions and how Xbox balances established franchises like Call of Duty with new, experimental titles. He also emphasizes that, for Xbox, success isn’t about hardware—it’s about delivering compelling games and creating an environment where developers have the creative freedom to push boundaries while still adhering to the platform’s broader goals. And for anyone looking to break into the gaming industry, Phil offers valuable advice: seek out indie studios, where creativity is abundant and there’s always a need for fresh talent.
Listen now to hear more about Phil’s vision for the future of gaming, how Microsoft Gaming is shaping the next generation of interactive entertainment, and what aspiring game developers can do to get started.
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This week on Building One, Tomer talks to Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, about building one of the world’s most impactful educational platforms. From tutoring his cousin in 2004 to reaching over 150 million learners globally, Sal shares his approach to creating a “minimal lovable product” (MLP) that goes beyond functionality to foster trust and connection with users.
Sal discusses the concept of mastery learning, both in the way Khan Academy teaches and in the way Khan Academy was built. Sal emphasizes how important it is for students to have a strong foundational understanding before moving on to the next lesson. The conversation also dives into scaling educational tools, integrating with school systems, and how AI in education can personalize learning while freeing teachers to focus on emotional support and motivation.
Finally, Sal reflects on Khan Academy’s non-profit status and discusses the broader implications of building purpose-driven companies in markets that don’t function as they should.
Tune in to hear how Sal built a platform that’s more than just a learning tool—it’s a relationship.
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Since 1985, when the first pair of Air Jordan’s were released to the public, the Jordan brand has stood at the intersection of culture, design excellence, and self-expression. Today, Jason Mayden, Chief Design Officer of the Jordan brand at Nike, is ushering in the next era. Jason, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, started as an intern at Nike and worked his way up to lead the design of iconic shoes for the Jordan brand.
In this episode of Building One, Tomer Cohen sits down with Jason to discuss the power of emotional connection in product design. Jason shares his philosophy that great design goes beyond product features—it’s about how a product makes people feel about themselves. He explains why emotional resonance, rather than just performance specs, is the key to building lasting brand loyalty and remaining culturally relevant.
Jason also opens up about his neurodivergence, explaining how embracing his unique cognitive strengths has helped him innovate and excel in design. He shares how understanding his brain wiring allowed him to think differently and bring fresh perspectives to Nike’s product creation process.
Part of Jason’s approach is fostering creativity by involving non-design functions—like HR and legal—early in the process. He believes that bringing in fresh perspectives from across the company can lead to more innovative products and a stronger sense of ownership across teams.
Finally, Jason emphasizes the importance of a growth mindset, a principle he learned from Michael Jordan himself. He shares how continuously learning and evolving is crucial for long-term success, both for individuals and brands.
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Get ready for a brand new season of Building One. Tune in Jan 14 as we kick things off with Nike’s own Jason Mayden, the Chief Design Officer of the Jordan brand. But that’s hardly all - we’ve got a great lineup of guests for you this season: Sal Khan of Khan Academy, Jenna Johnson of Patagonia, Arvind Jain of Glean, and Will Ahmed of WHOOP are just a few of the new voices we’ll hear from!
And if you can’t wait, it’s never been a better time to catch up on great interviews from our past season, like our interviews with Spotify’s Gustav Söderström, Plaid’s Zach Perret, or even Michelin-starred Chef, Dan Barber. -
Last week we welcomed Spotify Co-President and CPO Gustav Söderström to the show to discuss his professional journey and the evolution of Spotify. We’re back this week with a few more questions for Gustav to get to know him better.
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For our Season 1 finale, we’ve got a real treat for you. Spotify has been bringing music to listeners' ears since 2008. Today, they are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription, offering over 100 million tracks, 6 million podcasts titles, and 350,000 audiobooks. Spotify Co-President, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Product Officer Gustav Söderström joins us today to discuss the evolution of the platform, Spotify’s future, and his own professional journey. Over the course of his career, Gustav’s resistance to labels and entrepreneurial experience has allowed him to successfully innovate across various disciplines. He sits down with Tomer to discuss Spotify’s long term bets, why the company will never “move fast and break things,” the value of explanations, what AI means for the future of Spotify’s platform, and so much more.
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We’ve talked a lot this season about building various apps, platforms, and software. This week, we’re discussing a different type of product: seeds. Michelin Star chef Dan Barber joins us to talk about his new venture, Row 7 Seed Company, where he’s implementing a seed-to-table approach to optimize produce for flavor while also delivering yield and disease resistance to meet today’s needs. Dan draws upon his experience as the chef behind renowned farm-to-table restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns to help influence plant breeding and pioneer new paths in gastronomy. Dan sits down with Tomer to talk about the process of making his product accessible and sustainable and Row 7’s recent partnership with Whole Foods. He shares his approach to looking at chefs and cooks as tastemakers who can influence demand, as well as his strategies for connecting farmers and cooks at either end of the value chain.
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Last week we welcomed Cerebral CPO Alex Stried to the show to discuss the benefits of directly connecting with your users. We’re back this week with a few more questions for Alex to get to know her better.
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Technology has an undeniable impact on mental health: not just on mental health issues like anxiety and depression, but also on mental health care and the way we access it. Founded in 2020, Cerebral provides online access to psychiatrists and therapists with the aim of offering affordable, high-quality, long-term mental health care to anyone who might need it. As Chief Product Officer, Alex Stried spends a lot of time focusing on user experience. Drawing from her experience at Cerebral, as well as her time at Ellevest and Weight Watchers, Alex talks about best practices for building user-centric products. She shares strategies for directly connecting with your users, building profiles of them, and retaining users once they're on board.
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We're back this week with Noah Weiss, formerly the CPO of Slack. He's joining Tomer for a rapid fire round of questions.
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Since 2013, Slack has helped teams connect and communicate seamlessly. It stood out early amongst enterprise software - which is often characterized by layered complexity - by bringing the craft and frictionless experience of consumer products into its design. As a B2B product, Slack created a messaging platform with features like channels and huddles that make it easier for businesses to collaborate internally. Slack’s former CPO Noah Weiss helmed this innovation for 8 years. He joins Tomer to talk about Slack rediscovering its market fit, the company’s core building principles, and how Noah fostered curiosity across his team.
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We're back this week with Zoom CPO, Smita Hashim. She's joining Tomer for a rapid fire round of questions.
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When the pandemic began, workplaces quickly needed a way to operate without meeting in person and Zoom stepped up to the challenge. If you haven’t heard of Zoom, it’s the video conferencing software that supports remote workers around the world. Smita Hashim is Zoom’s Chief Product Officer. She’s a tech veteran, who has spent her career building at companies like Google and Microsoft. Smita joins Tomer today to discuss how her team responds to customer needs, the importance of great feedback, and her experiences coming up in a male dominated industry.
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We're back this week with Plaid CEO, Zach Perret. He's joining Tomer for a rapid fire round of questions.
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Over the years, technology has transformed banking for everyday people. You can now access your money without ever having to touch a dollar bill. But what powers the apps that have so simplified the banking process? Look no further than Plaid. Plaid securely connects apps like Venmo, CashApp and Robinhood and many others to your financial accounts. Today, Plaid co-founder and CEO Zach Perret joins Tomer for a conversation on the intricacies of designing an app for the financial sector. As a highly regulated industry, Zach has a unique design challenge and today he’ll break down how he puts simplicity first for the sake of the user.
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Looking for more after last week's episode with Nick Daniel? We're back with four more questions with the Etsy CPO.
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In 2005, Etsy staked its claim on a unique piece of the e-commerce landscape– arts and crafts. The site has since become the go to place for one of a kind handcrafted goods. Etsy’s approach has focused on building community amongst their sellers and today’s guest is breaking down how they balance those needs with that of their buyers. Nick Daniel is the Chief Product Officer of Etsy. He sits down with Tomer to discuss how the platform differentiated itself from other marketplaces early on, and what it takes to foster a creative community that feels empowered to make original products.
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