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Two years since our last Product Growth Forum, we brought the community back together to tackle one big question: What does it take to build enduring products in a world that’s constantly changing?
Statsig CEO and founder Vijaye Raji opened the evening by welcoming a powerhouse panel of product and technology leaders:
Ami Vora, former CPO of Faire and VP of Product at WhatsApp and Facebook Ads
Rajeev Rajan, CTO at Atlassian and former VP of Engineering at Facebook and Microsoft
Howie Xu, Chief AI & Innovation Officer at Gen, founder of VMware’s networking division, and AI-focused investor and lecturer at Stanford
From the slow burn of AI adoption to the messy realities of product growth, the conversation was rich with honest takes, timeless lessons, and the kind of hard-won wisdom you only get from people who’ve shipped at scale.
Here are the highlights from an unforgettable night of insight, candor, and clarity on what it really means to build for the future.
AI is reshaping everything, but slowly
Howie Xu offered a sobering reminder: despite the AI hype cycle, turning a flashy demo into reliable, real-world software is a multi-year grind. He compared today’s moment to the early days of cybersecurity and networking—domains that had to scale to millions of unpredictable edge cases, well beyond human control.
His core message? Nearly every software category will be rewritten to become AI-native. But the transformation will be gradual, messy, and far from automatic.
Rajeev echoed this, comparing the AI moment to previous tectonic shifts like the internet and mobile. “This one feels different,” he said. “AI doesn’t just affect tech people—it affects everyone.”
Growth requires more than just experiments
Experimentation may be a pillar of modern growth, but the panelists emphasized that it’s not the only lever—and sometimes, not even the right one.
Ami contrasted her work on Facebook Ads (highly experimental) with WhatsApp (deliberately restrained). “On WhatsApp, we couldn’t move buttons around every day. We weren’t just building for early adopters. We were building for everyone—including first-time phone users who needed stability.”
Rajeev Rajan pointed to Atlassian’s product-led roots, where the team obsesses over one critical question: “What gets people to their 'aha' moment by day six? That’s where we double down.”
The takeaway: Context is everything. What works in consumer tech doesn’t always translate to enterprise SaaS. Sometimes, the fastest path to growth isn’t running an experiment—it’s shipping something that just works.
Counterintuitive growth wins
Not all growth plays follow conventional wisdom. The panelists shared unexpected strategies that delivered outsized impact:
Ami: At WhatsApp, the focus was on reliability and making the product feel like a utility or physical object. Fewer tests, fewer changes, and a relentless commitment to stability.
Rajeev: Atlassian steers clear of sweeping UI overhauls in Jira. “It’s like redesigning a car dashboard—you can’t mess with muscle memory.”
Howie: One product simply asked users to “Try me for a week.” That small, low-pressure ask meaningfully boosted engagement—proof that pacing and permission can outperform polish and promises.
Ultimately, growth isn’t always about adding more. Sometimes, the winning move is subtractive: saying “no,” doubling down on what works, and doing one thing exceptionally well.
Saying no is a superpower
On the topic of focus, Ami shared her golden rule: “It’s not prioritization until it hurts.”
True prioritization, she explained, isn’t about just cutting what doesn't work—it’s about cutting good ideas to double down on better ones. And when you do say no, it has to be anchored in a clear “yes.” Tie it back to the bigger mission, and even tough calls start to make sense.
Rajeev Rajan agreed: “Keep the main thing the main thing. Saying no gets easier when your mission is clear.”
The role of marketing and brand in the AI era
Rajeev Rajan shared Atlassian’s unexpected move to sponsor the F1 team Williams Racing. At first glance, it might seem like an odd pairing for an enterprise SaaS company. But it worked.
“F1 is watched by 700 million people. It’s high-performance engineering meets teamwork—and that’s what we stand for.”
The message landed. It wasn’t about features—it was about identity.
Ami and Howie echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that even in an AI-first world, the fundamentals don’t change. The channels may evolve, but the need for a clear, emotional, human story? That remains timeless.
Growth strategies in a B2B world
An audience question touched on the tension between PLG and traditional enterprise sales.
Howie Xu didn’t mince words. “70% of IT budget comes from 2,000 companies. You want those checks? Learn to play golf.”
PLG might get you in the door, but closing big deals takes more than self-serve onboarding. It takes relationships, trust, and a well-placed tee time.
Rajeev Rajan agreed: “You don’t get a $1M contract from PLG alone.”
PLG is a powerful motion, but in the B2B Saas, it’s even more powerful when paired with high-touch enterprise muscle.
Personal growth in the AI age
The panel closed the night with a round of hard-earned career wisdom—grounded, practical, and refreshingly human:
Ami: “Stay on the frontier of learning. It never feels good to be bad at something—but that’s where the learning starts.”
Rajeev: “Forget the next title. Write the book of your life—what story do you want to tell?”
Howie: “The new skill is TQ—token quotient. The more you engage with AI tools, the more prepared you’ll be.”
While the industry is shaped by constant change, their advice was clear: bet on yourself, stay uncomfortable, and don’t wait for permission to adapt.
Building what’s next—together
The Product Growth Forum reminded us that great product thinking balances tools and intuition, velocity and stability, hype and reality.
As we look ahead to an AI-native future—one that’s global, distributed, and deeply human—we’ll need more than just features to win. We’ll need focus. We’ll need stories. And most importantly, we’ll need to keep learning.
A huge thank you to Ami, Rajeev, and Howie for sharing their wisdom—and to everyone who joined us for a night of insight, candor, and community.
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