What It Feels Like to Launch at Two Google Events in the Same Week

And what changes when someone else sets the deadline

Last Thursday night at the Google I/O After Hours event, I was standing at a demo booth showing Pomelli to anyone who walked up. It had been a long week. We’d launched several new features at Google I/O then followed it up with another big feature the next day at Google Marketing Live, and here I was - still demoing, still talking about what we’d built, still watching people’s reactions as they tried it for the first time.

I was beyond exhausted (part of me thought that I’d collapse in bed instead of making it out to the event that evening), but when I got there and saw “Pomelli” on the demo sign, I got a second wind and loved every second of it.

The several weeks leading up to that moment, though - that was a different kind of experience; one I want to reflect on, because I think there’s something worth sharing about what it’s like to build toward a deadline that isn’t yours.

What We Shipped

At Google I/O, we launched three new capabilities for Pomelli: the Pomelli Agent, which builds your Business DNA from scratch; brand books; and websites.

Then, in the Google Marketing Live keynote, we shipped the ability to push assets directly from Pomelli into Google Ads. A small business can now generate on-brand creatives and put them into their ad campaigns without having to download and re-upload anything. You still leave Pomelli when you want to run the campaign itself, but the handoff is seamless.

Building on Someone Else’s Calendar

Most of the year, my team controls our own launch cadence. We decide when something is ready and we set the date. We rarely push deadlines; we’re good at estimating, but knowing that we can gives us the space to aim for quality-driven launches. We iterate, we feel good about where we’re at, and then we ship.

I/O and GML are different. Those dates are fixed. And if you’re shipping something as part of those moments, you are working backwards from a date you didn’t set. That’s a fundamentally different operating mode than choosing a date that feels reasonable and iterating toward it.

I’ve also made it a point in my professional life to do everything I can to make sure products are available the day they’re announced. You can announce something in a keynote and ship later. But I think there’s something important about a person hearing about your product for the first time and being able to go try it right then. That means the deadline isn’t just “have the mocks ready.” It’s “have the product ready.” And it has to actually work.

This changes a lot of things about how you work. Decisions get sharper because you can’t defer them. Prioritization gets more honest because “we’ll figure that out later” stops being an option. Every conversation about scope becomes a conversation about what matters most, because you have to be willing to cut the rest.

The Other Side of the Pressure

There are obvious downsides to a deadline you can’t move. It’s more pressure. Sometimes it means longer days toward the end. You have to be more disciplined about making sure nothing slips, because there’s no buffer.

But there’s an upside that’s hard to replicate any other way: you’re part of a big moment, and you know it. There’s an energy to I/O week that I look forward to every year. It’s not just about launching products and features - it’s about the people.

This year, I got to spend time with some incredible builders and creators - Marily Nika, Ruben Hassid, Poonam Soni, Jerrod Lew - the kind of people who are deep in this space and building things I find genuinely inspiring.

Google I/O Behind The Scenes

I also loved spending time with so many Googlers and teammates - and even some of you! The amazing people who read my posts (thank you - I really appreciate every one of you that came and said Hi).

What’s Next

We launched at I/O and GML in the same week. I’m proud of the team. And yesterday, we were already back in a room dedicating over eight hours planning the next big set of milestones for the second half of this year.

Stay tuned for more from the Pomelli team - especially now that the deadlines are ours again.