Gal Benedek | Elementor | How Do You Build a Product for Website Builders?
Host: Eyal David · Guest: Gal Benedek · About the host
Gal Benedek, Director of Product at Elementor, who leads a tribe of five to six platform, data and payments teams, explains what he really looks for in a product manager: not answers memorized from Exponent, but an honest conversation about a real problem, human chemistry and the ability to rally people. In his view, the best way into the role is from the inside, through internal mobility, and a new PM should "come in small and leave big": a month to learn, three months to integrate, and six months to fully own the domain.
In this episode
- Gal's three pillars of a good product manager: don't bullshit (have a real conversation about a problem instead of reciting Exponent templates), be someone people enjoy working with, and be a leader who makes people feel the product is theirs too.
- Elementor's interviews use a real, live problem: "Should Elementor develop an integration with Figma?" Candidates mostly stumble because they don't understand the target audience (how much Elementor and Figma users overlap) and underestimate how hard a seamless integration is to build.
- Onboarding a new PM in stages: in month one, learn the industry, competitors and people; after three months, be an integral part of the team; after six months, be the domain owner. "Come in small, leave big."
- Your first product management job usually comes from within: developers, QA, PMMs and designers who already know the product can move into product. The first step is to interview several product managers, not just one, and to shadow one.
- OKRs written together with the team, not dictated from above, make everyone wake up thinking about the needle they move rather than their own little Jira.
- A platform team treats internal teams as customers: it interviews them, measures NPS, and its leading metric is developer velocity rather than direct revenue.
Listen to this episode
Episode Description
At Elementor, Gal Benedek leads a tribe of teams that never meet the end customer: infrastructure, data engineering, and the store and payments group, and he treats internal teams as if they were paying customers. In conversation with Eyal David, he explains Elementor's promise to the WordPress world, how COVID supercharged the website-building market, who the real competitors are, and what websites will look like in the age of AI and agents. Gal shares the real interview question he asks candidates ("Should Elementor build an integration with Figma?") and where they stumble, the three pillars of a good product manager, his onboarding plan for new PMs, and the path he recommends for anyone who wants to move into product from inside the company.
Chapters
- 0:55 · Gal and Elementor: bringing drag and drop to WordPress
- 3:41 · Gal's tribe: infrastructure, data engineering and the store
- 8:26 · COVID, the website-building market and competitors
- 14:01 · The future of websites in the age of AI and agents
- 19:19 · A day at the office: dashboards and user interviews
- 20:25 · The key product skills: no bullshit, chemistry and leadership
- 24:14 · The interview question: a Figma integration, and where candidates fail
- 31:58 · Gal's path: Intel, Applied Materials and AnyVision
- 35:19 · Product processes at Elementor: OKRs written with the team
- 43:27 · Onboarding a new PM: a month, a quarter, six months
- 46:55 · Internal mobility into product and how to start
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps
Selected quotes
“Don't bullshit me. Bring me a case. Have a conversation with me as if we're working together.”
“I really believe in: come in small, leave big.”
“I need not to keep up with the market, I need to disrupt the market long before it arrives.”
Questions & answers
Who is Gal Benedek?
Gal Benedek is Director of Product at Elementor, leading a tribe of five to six teams: infrastructure, data engineering, and store and payments. Before that he worked at Intel, Applied Materials, AnyVision, ZoomInfo and Zoom Recorder, and he also mentors product managers.
What question does Gal ask in product manager interviews?
He asks candidates to get to know Elementor and then asks: "Should Elementor develop an integration with Figma? If yes, why, and if not, why not." He doesn't expect a correct answer but a conversation, and offers to play an analyst, a developer or a web creator to supply data.
Where do candidates fail in a product interview, according to Gal?
Mainly on two things: they don't understand the target audience (for example, how big the overlap is between Elementor and Figma users), and they don't realize how hard it is to build a seamless integration between two platforms. He also expects candidates to have used the product before the interview.
How long does a new product manager have to ramp up?
Gal sets expectations upfront for a quarter, six months and a year. In month one you learn the industry, competitors and people; after three months the PM is an integral part of the team; after six months they are the domain owner of their area.
How do you move into product management from inside your company?
Interview several product managers from different areas, including senior ones, pick a mini-mentor, check that your excitement is still there after a week, and then shadow a product manager. If it still interests you, build an advancement path. In Gal's view, your first product role usually grows out of your current workplace.
People & resources mentioned
People
- Gal Benedek
- Gilad Ben Nahum — Gal's mentor, product manager at Elementor
Tools
- Figma
- WooCommerce
- NetSuite
- Exponent
- Jira
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