Meta’s Head of Product (and 29th employee) on working with Mark Zuckerberg, early growth tactics, why PMs are like conductors, and more | Naomi Gleit

**Naomi Gleit** (0:00)
I really believe in frameworks for things that helps drive extreme clarity. I work on a lot of different projects. A lot of times, I'm ramping up mid-project. I'm like, where can I learn what I need to learn about this project? I ask five different people, get five different answers. That is unacceptable. Of course, I'm sure there's hundreds of docs associated with the project, but there needs to be one canonical doc. Everyone should know exactly where the canonical doc is. That's the one place I can go to, to get all the information I need about a project, and it will link to all the other docs. Things on the canonical doc are.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:32)
Today, my guest is Naomi Gleit. Naomi is Head of Product at Meta. Other than Mark Zuckerberg, she's the longest serving executive at Meta. She joined what was then called Facebook as employee number 29 and has been at Meta for almost 20 years. She's seen the company scale from 30 employees to the one and a half trillion dollar business that it is today. Naomi does very few podcasts and interviews, and so I was really excited to chat with her and have her on this podcast. In our conversation, we dig in to the many lessons that she learned from Facebook's early and legendary growth team, her superpower of taking really complex and gnarly problems and projects, simplifying them and delivering results. We also get into leadership lessons she's learned from Zuck, including his recent transformation into possibly the coolest CEO in tech. Also, YPMs are the conductor of product teams, some very tactical tips for running meetings, writing docs, working out, getting better sleep, and even how to get more protein in your diet. This was such a fun conversation and such a wide-ranging conversation, and whether you are in product or growth or any other tech function, you will get something useful out of this conversation. If you enjoy this podcast, don't forget to subscribe and follow it in your favorite podcasting app or YouTube. It's the best way to avoid missing future episodes and helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Naomi Gleit. Naomi, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.

**Naomi Gleit** (2:00)
Thanks so much for having me. As I told you earlier, I refer your podcast all the time, and so I can't believe I have the opportunity to actually talk on it.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (2:08)
Wow. I'm so flattered. I never get tired of hearing that. Appreciate you sharing that. I want to share a couple of tidbits about you because it's pretty crazy when you see this list. Okay. So you're Meta's longest serving executive other than Mark Zuckerberg. You're employee number 29 at Facebook. You've been there for over 19 years. Sorry, at Meta, formerly Facebook.

**Naomi Gleit** (2:35)
I do that all the time. That's what happens when you've been at Meta for 19 years, is you can't get the name right.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (2:41)
Okay, good. I won't feel bad about that then. And then the last thing is just you've been at the center of some of the most foundational products that Meta and Facebook have worked on, including working on the early growth team and thinking about the early growth strategy. Basically, you've been there from employee number 32 today, one and a half trillion dollar company, one of the largest companies in the world today. Very few people have ever seen this sort of growth and scale from the inside. First of all, I guess, let me just ask this, do you ever reflect on this and just realize like, holy shit, what a journey I've been on, how wild.

**Naomi Gleit** (3:18)
It's a great question. I would love to say that I reflect on it. The truth is, I think I barely have time to reflect right now. I'm thinking about all the things that I need to do on my to do list. So I'm pretty in it still. Even after 19 years, I am really focused on the work that I need to do. I do honestly have moments where I get to reflect, for example, like on this podcast. Sometimes people do ask me, you know. And I think especially as I approach the 20 year milestone, my 20 year face first three, I'm sure that will give ample opportunity for me to look back.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (3:55)
Such a classic product manager answer. Like I'm just too much to do. Too busy. I have to think about this. Yeah. I got to hit some goals here.

**Naomi Gleit** (4:02)
Yeah.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (4:04)
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