Head of Product, Asana
Search every verified Alex Hood interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Alex Hood, Head of Product at Asana, has spoken publicly about product management practices and the philosophy behind Asana's design. In a 2020 talk, he described a "product review toolkit" that emphasizes pre-publishing questions, clarifying the fidelity of designs, and categorizing feedback into categories such as "do, trot, try, and consider." He stated that poorly run product reviews can slow work and disengage teams, while well-run reviews can be collaborative. In another 2020 appearance, Hood discussed building products in a remote-work context, arguing that information workers spend 60% of their time on "work about work" such as email and status meetings. He advocated for asynchronous communication and for leaders to "protect the personal flow time" of their teams. Hood has also described Asana's product strategy and customer impact. He said that Asana's goal is to serve as a "coordination layer" and a "central nervous system of an organization," and that the company surveyed premium customers who reported being 45% more efficient using Asana compared to email and Slack. He noted that the three core actions driving conversion are creating a task, commenting on a task, and assigning a task to another person. In a 2019 talk, Hood advised product managers to apply a "product mindset" to their own careers, emphasizing humility, curiosity, and the importance of fit with a company's culture and leadership.
“We spend 60 percent of our time as information workers doing work about work, like trolling through email, getting hit up with notifications, sitting in status meetings. It's the work that facilitates the work but it's not the actual deliverable.”
“Regaining time to focus on the work that matters might be the best way for you to serve your team. 83% of teams feel like they're not as effective as they could be because their process is not that great.”
“Collaboration is growing exponentially, but productivity is growing linearly. That back and forth happens because there's a lack of clarity—who's doing what by when, what's the plan, who's accountable. That's where a lot of that 60% of work about work is generated.”
“Having a customer focus scales because your product teams will be much more likely to build the right things. Vision-led or sales-led companies often guess or wait for input, but customer-led companies build solutions that solve big customer problems and have product-market fit.”
“Great teams have three things: a place where their content lives, a place where communications live, and a coordination layer for who's doing what by when and who's accountable. You do your best work when you don't have to ask anybody and all the things you rely on come along in real time.”
“Protecting the focus of your team is critical. If you tax them with work about work or lack of clear priorities, they just end up chasing their tail. Challenge yourself to protect the personal flow time of your team as a highly scaled operation.”
“Check-ins are part of the old form factor of work that's outdated. You don't need to have meetings daily or hourly to check in. If you know what people are responsible for and can see their progress in a tool, you can check in a lot less.”
“We built Asana to get you back to work, not to attract eyeballs. Unlike Facebook, which monetizes attention, Asana cares about people being in their flow time and making it easy to connect work and assign accountability.”
“Introducing a new tool is a change management exercise. There will be startup costs for everyone to learn it, but once people see the benefits, like less time on email and more accountability, it's a beautiful thing.”
“We're excited about Asana becoming the central nervous system of an organization, where work happens, resources are allocated against objectives, and clarity helps teams avoid the consequences of remote work and have more time in flow state.”
“Done poorly, product reviews can be something that slows work down, creates lack of clarity, and actually disengages teams. Done well, it can be an enormously collaborative activity between a leader and teams.”
“When I see product reviews fail, it's usually because there's a lack of clarity, and clarity really drives velocity and innovation.”
“Product reviews can be a fantastic coaching tool, and if you're a person who has to present, this toolkit is a great way to set the stage and teach leaders how they should be interacting with you.”
“We use a product sequence called the Double Diamond at Asana, which emphasizes identifying pains before solutions, going broad to understand pains, then narrowing in on specific pain points for target customers.”
“Asana helps you understand who's doing what by when, giving clarity around all the pieces coming together for a project, which is a better way of running projects and how teams work together.”
Here are my 5 favourite features of Asana that save us time and help us to standardise the processes within our business.
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How do you build a product that enhances workflow for today's professionals? Asana Product VP Alex Hood shares his unique ...I provide executive support to Alex hood and if you want to talk more about why a sauna was a better best place to work you can ...
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