Why every company now needs to think and operate like a lab team | Josh Woodward (VP Google Labs)
Oct 11, 2026 · 1:02:12
Josh Woodward, head of Google Labs, the Gemini app and AI Studio, tells Lenny Rachitsky every company now needs to operate like a labs team to find what's newly possible before competitors or startups eat their lunch. He says the best ideas rarely come from design sprints but from small obsessed teams, so his labs keep an "almost possible" list—like immersive entertainment—and act when tech crosses a phase shift. Product-market fit is "way more art than science": the metric is eyes lighting up at prototypes, not DAUs, and the team usually knows to kill an idea before the leader does. He hires for "unlearning rate" and "explosive endurance," rejects the "everyone's a builder" hype, and says labs teams need independence, "users first, Google second," and license to make "good trouble."
