Thinking like a gardener not a builder, organizing teams like slime mold, the adjacent possible, and other unconventional product advice | Alex Komoroske (Stripe, Google)
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What is Alex Komoroske’s “Bits and Bobs” document and how does he use it?
So much of the way that we tackle problems and build products is this builder mindset. It's like I have a plan. I then manipulate things to match my plan and make it happen. And this is a way you can create tons of value. Part of the problem, though, is it can't possibly create more value than the effort that you put into it. What I look for instead are things that can be guarded, things that can grow on their own and that you can sort of direct or maybe give a little bit of extra energy to or curate over. and is a totally different mindset for it. If you do this properly, it looks like magic. I've been told that this is completely against all the advice that people get building products nowadays, but I think it's a very powerful approach that works in a lot of different contexts.
Today, my guest is Alex Komorowski. Alex is one of the most original, articulate, and first principle thinkers on the future of product and tech that I've ever come across. This conversation will get your brain buzzing in all kinds of ways. Alex spent 13 years at Google, where he worked on search, DoubleClick. He led Chrome's open web platform team for eight years, led augmented reality within Google Maps, and developed a new toolkit to align company-wide strategy from the bottom up. After a stint at Stripe as head of corporate strategy, he's currently founding a startup that aims to reimagine the web for the AI era. In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover how LLMs and GenAI will impact how we build products in the coming years, what skills will matter most as AI becomes a bigger part of our lives, what companies can learn from slime mold, organizational kayfabe, the adjacent possible, strategy salons, why you should be thinking more like a gardener than a builder,
plus a bunch of productivity tips, life advice, and so much more. This was such a fun episode, and I am sure this is going to get your mind thinking in completely new ways. 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 it helps the podcast tremendously. With that, I bring you Alex Komorowski. Alex, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having
me. I love the way your brain works. My brain immediately starts buzzing anytime I start reading some of your stuff. And one of the more interesting things that you write and do and a really interesting habit you have is you actually have this doc that you keep called Bits and Bobs that I love. And we're going to be touching on a lot of the things that you share in this doc, Bits and Bobs, and we'll link to it. First of all, can you just explain this doc, Bits and Bobs? What's it about?
Yeah, so I think it's like 600 pages now. It's just one Google Doc. Every so often, almost every day, someone will accidentally add a suggestion, like add a space or something, because it takes so long to load that while they're waiting, they'll tap on the screen, and then it'll turn into like taps on adding a comment or something. And I take a lot of notes. I tell people when I'm in meetings with them of like, if you see me on my phone or typing, that means I think you said something very interesting and I'm writing it down. It's not that I'm just disengaged. I try to collect all these ideas. And then once a week I go through, I take a few hours and I just reflect to myself and try to find patterns and unpack and find meaning in things.
And I write those down. And I started, you know, sometime in the past sharing those publicly. And it's now become a thing I literally can't stop doing. I just find someone was like, Oh, if you get more exposure for this, if you broke these up into tweets that you sent out once, you
know,
Throughout the day, it's like, I did this for me. I'm happy to let other people see and peek into my weird mental process if they want, but this is 100% about my own self-reflection. It's not designed... I don't want anyone to feel compelled to read it.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is Alex Komoroske’s “Bits and Bobs” document and how does he use it?
0:00–14:57
2
How will large language models and generative AI reshape product development in the next few years?
14:57–27:52
3
Which skills should product managers double‑down on as AI becomes a core part of their work?
27:52–41:10
4
What is “organizational kayfabe” and how does it influence decision‑making in large companies?
41:10–54:27
5
Why should teams think like gardeners instead of builders when organizing work?
54:27–1:09:31
6
How does slime‑mold thinking create emergent, self‑organizing structures in companies?
1:09:31–1:21:36
7
What practical steps can you take to build and sustain productive communities and strategy salons?
1:21:36–1:24:35
Speakers
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