Episodes
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The nuances of executive communication and the importance of building buy-in for ideas with Wes Kao. The role of credibility, understanding bandwidth in conversations, and strategies for framing discussions to enhance clarity and reduce cognitive load.
De-risking strategies to avoid surprises and the significance of celebrating good decision-making processes rather than just successful outcomes.
Takeaways
Working autonomously means communicating more, not less.Surprises in the workplace are generally unwelcome.Celebrate the process of good decision-making, not just results.Make your proposals easy for others to present.Communication should be proactive, not reactive.Chapters
01:51 Introduction to Wes Cowell and His Journey
02:51 Obsession vs. Discipline in Achieving Success
06:30 The Art of Executive Communication
07:51 Building Buy-In for Ideas
11:10 The Role of Credibility in Communication
15:24 Understanding Bandwidth in Conversations
19:34 Framing Conversations for Clarity
22:22 Reducing Cognitive Load in Communication
27:31 Cross-Functional Communication Strategies
30:51 Effective Communication in Leadership
34:06 De-risking Proposals and Feedback Loops
39:38 Celebrating Good Decisions Over Results
44:10 The Importance of Rigorous Thinking
54:30 Preparing Others for Success in Presentations
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Kristi Faltorusso, a CS executive and coach, joins me in this high-energy conversation about customer success-assisted onboarding, alignment, and the dreaded realities of cross-functional working with product & sales.
We explore effective onboarding strategies, the importance of aligning customer success with product development, and the necessity of quantifying challenges faced by customer success teams.
What’s the importance of defining effective KPIs for customer success, focusing on leading indicators rather than lagging ones? How DO we measure customer happiness? Is the NPS as useless as I believe it is?
takeaways
Onboarding strategies must focus on delivering value quickly by measuring time to value.Consultative approaches to customer success add significant value.Customer success teams often act as advocates for product improvements.Focus on leading indicators for customer success.Customer segmentation should be based on use cases, not just size.Chapters
04:45 Understanding Customer Success and Onboarding Strategies
09:48 The Role of Customer Success in Product Development
14:50 Bridging the Gap Between Customer Success and Product Teams
19:56 Quantifying Customer Success Challenges and Solutions
23:41 Understanding Product Impact on Business Metrics
28:19 Defining Effective KPIs for Customer Success
33:06 Measuring Customer Engagement and Value
38:07 The Myth of Customer Happiness
43:11 Data-Driven vs. Data-Informed Decisions
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Missing episodes?
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Founder-led sales done well has a lot of power especially in product-led companies. Tadas Labudis shares his experiences with founder-led sales and how it helped him build confidence in the product and himself.
How to embrace your vulnerabilities and the importance of leaving a positive impression in sales interactions while getting insights you would never get just by looking at data.
How to balance product-led growth with effective sales strategies before its too late.
takeaways
Sales can be enjoyable once you find your own style.Calculated risks in entrepreneurship are often misunderstood as reckless.Product-led growth can coexist with sales-led strategies.The definition of product growth is evolving. Founder-led sales is crucial for early-stage startups.Hiring salespeople too early can be risky.Sound Bites
"I learned to enjoy sales.""Entrepreneurship is not as risky as it seems.""You cannot hurry your clients.""Sales is about refining the ICP and messaging.""Product-led growth is about cost efficiency."Chapters
03:09 Understanding Risk in Entrepreneurship
05:59 The Psychology of Product Development
08:48 Balancing Product-Led and Sales-Led Approaches
12:06 Navigating Early Sales Challenges
14:52 The Importance of Customer Retention
18:11 Building a Product That Sells Itself
21:00 The Role of Paid Pilots in Sales
23:57 Leaving a Lasting Impression in Sales
27:36 The Power of Founder-Led Sales
30:26 Misconceptions About Sales and Selling Styles
33:16 The Importance of Personal Sales Experience
36:19 Leveraging Sales Insights for Product Development
43:01 Refining Messaging and Understanding Customer Expectations
48:03 Balancing Product-Led Growth and Sales Strategies
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Maranda Dziekonski on the evolving landscape of customer success, the importance of driving value for customers, and owning revenue outcomes for a function that traditionally never has. Like product.
Why the traditional role is shifting to a more integrated approach and how this works when “the sale never ends”
We discuss the complexities of customer success, the impact of budget constraints on customer retention, and the importance of understanding customer churn.
What it means to build around mission-critical services and having the correct timing to introduce customer success to a company. How does sales compensation integrate with customer success actions and how can we transition customers smooth between sales and customer success?
What do “Head of” titles mean if anything?
Without a doubt one of my favorite episodes I have ever recorded.
takeaways
The role of customer success is evolving to include revenue ownership.Customer success can be seen as an extension of sales but with a different approach.The sale never truly ends; it's an ongoing relationship.Customer success leaders need to demonstrate their impact on revenue.Customer success should be integrated into product development.Sales compensation should align with customer success goals.Sound Bites
"Own revenue outcomes.""The sale never ends.""A ‘head of’ is a lawyer for their function."Chapters
06:46 The Evolution of Customer Success
13:48 Revenue Ownership in Customer Success
19:57 The NPS Debate: Metrics and Insights
28:21 Understanding Customer Churn and Budget Constraints
31:08 The Role of Customer Success in B2B SaaS
33:59 When to Introduce Customer Success Management
36:14 Sales Compensation and Customer Success Integration
39:37 The Importance of Smooth Handoffs in Customer Success
40:34 Connecting Product Usage Data to Sales
45:22 Navigating Titles: Head of vs. VP in Organizations
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What is driving a company's value in 2024? How do we identify and copy trends that work until they don’t anymore? Why is product-led growth no longer a differentiator but becoming a table stake fast?
Why is everyone suddenly providing a pipeline from product, marketing, sales, and customer success while the only way that most companies measure pipeline is through Marketing and their MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)? Why does this old model not work anymore?
takeaways
Demand comes from various sources, but visibility is lacking.MQLs are often an arbitrary measure of lead quality.Valuations in the market are not always reflective of true value.Building a sustainable company requires a focus on customer conversion. MQLs often lead to inefficient marketing practices.Sound Bites
"There's very little visibility into what's actually working.""MQLs are an arbitrary definition of leads.""It's very spray and pray-oriented."Chapters
04:56 The Evolution of Growth Strategies
10:01 The Dichotomy of Product-Led and Sales-Led Growth
15:05 The Importance of Founders and Team Dynamics
19:54 The Future of CRM and Data Integration
25:07 Rethinking MQLs and Sales Incentives
27:30 Rethinking MQLs: A New Approach to Marketing
30:55 Defining Success: The Role of ICPs in MQLs
34:41 The Interplay of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success
39:42 Navigating Customer Journeys: The Role of Support
44:03 The Future of Investment: AI and Market Dynamics
49:10 The Evolution of Inbound Marketing: Finding New Channels
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Vincent Pierri interviews me (Leah Tharin) about my journey into public speaking, particularly within the tech industry. How I found a platform, overcame stage fright, and built confidence. How does it feel to speak to different audience sizes?
How do you train this muscle? And where do memes fit into our dry tech industry? Why is building a brand such a painful experience due to the needed consistency,
Interview conducted by Vincent Pierri 🙏 (Public Speaking Voice Coach), who offered his time to generously donate his time to turn me into a guest for once about a topic I don’t specifically talk about.
Takeaways
Different audience sizes require different speaking strategies.Feedback loops are essential for improving public speaking skills.Humor can be a powerful tool in public speaking.Consistency is key in building an online presence.Having a unique point of view is essential for engagement.Rising recognition can lead to a more isolated experience.
"Public speaking is not just in the public.""You should not be a senior leader if you cannot speak well."
Sound BitesChapters
02:45 The Journey into Public Speaking
09:11 The Importance of Content and Delivery
12:00 Navigating Different Audience Sizes
14:53 The Role of Feedback in Public Speaking
18:10 The ROI of Public Speaking for Tech Leaders
20:52 Crafting Effective Presentations
26:52 Gary: The Memorable Character from Sales
29:50 Preparing for Talks and Finding Your Voice
38:14 The Value of Podcasting
42:02 Navigating LinkedIn for Audience Building
47:01 The Pain of Personal Branding
51:49 The Journey of a D-List Celebrity
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Learnings from the transition from B2C to B2B in the fintech space focus on what can be carried over and what not. Forming behavioral habits and the challenges of building a sustainable business model while addressing the social determinants of financial health were just a few topics in this fascinating episode I recorded with Erin Papworth.
The complexities of navigating the B2B sales landscape suddenly after selling to individuals.
takeaways
“The core concept was how can we get people to do something for less than three minutes a day around their finances.”The shift from B2C to B2B requires different strategies.Internal tools often fail to meet market needs.Navigating the complexities of B2B sales is a learning process.Chapters
06:00 Innovative Approaches to Financial Health
11:48 Engagement Strategies in Fintech
18:12 The Human Connection in Financial Services
24:06 Building a Sustainable Business Model
27:22 Financial Stress and Mental Health Nexus
30:39 Challenges in Internal Tooling for HR
32:31 Pivoting from B2C to B2B Strategies
36:03 Data-Driven Insights for HR
40:56 Navigating the B2B Sales Landscape
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The importance of vision, careful pivots, and the balance between innovation and optimization.
Her concept of a vision is, to me, one of the very few that I think is actually cutting through the noise and has an impact aside from the cookie-cutter frameworks we had so far.
It’s beyond processes over mere goal-setting in achieving long-term success in startups.
takeaways
Pivots should be treated as silver bullets, used deliberately.A strong vision can save not just a product line but also sanity.Innovation should not be sacrificed for optimization.Processes should be prioritized over mere goal-setting for better outcomes.Chapters
17:28 The Importance of Vision in Startups
36:54 Aligning Teams Through Vision and Strategy
51:26 Balancing Innovation and Optimization
01:02:17 The Role of Processes Over Goals
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We discuss the complexities of change management, the importance of direct communication, and the evolving dynamics of workplace relationships vs in the past. How to build trust within teams, the significance of clarity in roles, and the challenges of hiring in today's market, particularly for executive positions.
What’s the difference between really good leaders and bad managers?
Takeaways
Change management should simplify processes, not complicate themWorkplace dynamics are influenced by external advice.Hiring should focus on long-term vision and fit.Leadership requires balancing urgency with pragmatism.Sound Bites
"People are getting too much of their work advice from TikTok."Chapters
02:55 The Art of Direct Communication
05:50 Navigating Workplace Dynamics
09:07 Building Trust in Teams
11:55 The Evolution of Work Structures
14:48 Effective Team Management
18:05 The Importance of Clarity in Roles
24:04 Hiring for the Future
26:54 The Role of Leadership in Change
30:01 The Challenge of Executive Hiring
33:13 The Impact of AI on Recruitment
36:02 Networking in Today's Job Market
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The dynamics of leadership in product management, the importance of a low-hierarchy organization, the challenges of founder mode, and the balance between control and empowerment.
Data in product management, the limitations of traditional tools, and the future of product management with AI.
Takeaways
Founders often struggle with letting go of control.Micromanagement can be necessary but should be balanced with empowerment.Traditional product management tools often fall short in meeting modern needs.AI will transform the way product management operates.Unshipping features is essential for product evolution.Sound Bites
"Ego should really never play a role here.""I never make any decisions here alone.""There's nobody more incentivized to make this whole thing work than the founders."Chapters
03:12 The Journey of AirFocus
05:59 Navigating Founder Mode and Micromanagement
09:13 Balancing Control and Empowerment
11:59 The Role of Data in Product Management
14:53 Challenges of Traditional Product Management Tools
18:03 The Future of Product Management with AI
20:55 Empowering Engineers in Product Development
23:49 Unshipping Features and Product Evolution
27:03 Connecting Sales and Product Management
29:51 The Importance of Customer Insights
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Summary
The branding experts Shannon Deep and Kevin Lee dig into exploring the multifaceted nature of brand measurement and strategy.
Misconceptions surrounding brands and risks associated with brand decisions, the importance of aligning brand strategy with business goals, and the challenges faced by founder-led brands in maintaining their identity.
What does marketing look like in the future? Where does product marketing sit?
Takeaways
Many senior leaders conflate brand with just design and visuals.Brand is an additional filtering mechanism for attracting the right customers.Measuring brand effectiveness can be complex but is crucial for growth.Founder-led brands face unique challenges in separating their identity from the company.Brand marketing is becoming increasingly important in the current business landscape.You can measure brand through various metrics, including share of search and brand awareness.Sound Bites
"Brand is the sum total of all experiences."Chapters
07:31 Understanding Brand Beyond Visuals
14:41 Navigating Brand Decisions and Risks
22:46 The Role of Brand in Business Strategy
30:43 Measuring Brand Effectiveness
37:28 The Challenge of Founder-Led Brands
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Ami Vora, CPO at Faire, brilliantly lays out a lot of concepts about how she views senior leadership:
How to build a strong bench of performers, balancing authenticity and urgency. How do you make yourself care about boring topics and find joy in work?
Why feedback loops and building team connections become more important as an organization scales. How do we deal with weak performers, skip-level meetings, and when to invest in strong performers?
Why growing others is always paying dividends and make you more secure.
Takeaways
Balancing authenticity and urgency is a challenge in leadership, but it is important to be true to oneself while maintaining a sense of urgency.Transitioning from an operative role to a product leadership role involves a shift in power dynamics and the need to build connections with team members.Managing weak performers can be challenging, but it's important to depersonalize the conversation and focus on finding the right match for the role.Skip-level meetings provide unique insights and opportunities for career development.Generosity and supporting others in their growth are key qualities of a secure leader.Sound Bites
"Invest in what you think the future looks like""Recognize and address mistakes, then move forward""What I do like is like calling everyone on the phone and saying like, 'How are you? What's going on with your career? What can I help with?'"Chapters
00:00 Investing in the Future: Building a Strong Bench
06:03 Balancing Authenticity and Urgency in Leadership
08:19 Forgiving Oneself: Learning from Mistakes
18:13 Finding Motivation: Understanding Why
25:08 Building Connections: Fostering Unity in Scaled Organizations
26:03 Navigating the Shift in Power Dynamics
27:28 Building Connections through One-on-One Conversations
28:55 The Importance of a Growth Mindset and Feedback
31:20 Managing Weak Performers with Empathy
32:17 The Role of Skip-Level Meetings
34:07 Investing in Strong Performers for the Future
36:27 The Power of Generosity in Leadership
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Cringe Marketing, Dogfooding, and the limitations of Hubspot and Salesforce with Austin Hay, the Co-Founder of Clarify (CRM).
I talked with Austin on the rise of superficial marketing tactics and what they do to the importance of building a strong brand.
We discuss why Product Managers cannot ignore Marketing anymore and the value of good dogfooding in product development when everyone tells you to “listen to your customer”.
How to transition from being your own ideal customer to targeting a different market segment.
Takeaways
Marketing is moving from a deterministic approach to a more probabilistic approach, where marketers have less control and understanding of who and how to reach people.The rise of superficial and cringe-worthy marketing tactics on platforms like LinkedIn is a result of increased competition and the need to stand out.Traditional CRMs have limitations in terms of speed, data entry, and automation.Sound Bites
"Marketing is moving back to the ways things were done in the 1960s to the 1990s, where you're not going to have as much control and understanding about who and how to reach people.""We're just shifting market shares around without deriving value to the customer.""You can be a really good dog fooder of your product, but you may not be the ideal ICP for your product in the future.""The core product is never done. Whenever you add something else, it becomes a little bit worse, and then you need to repatch it up."Chapters
08:12 The Rise of Superficial and Cringe-Worthy Marketing Tactics
13:55 The Importance of Building a Strong Brand
23:40 The Role of Marketing in Product Development
29:03 The Value of Dogfooding in Product Development
31:25 The Value and Challenges of Dogfooding
38:12 The Never-Ending Process of Product Development
39:07 Balancing Customer Feedback and Vision
53:46 The Limitations of Traditional CRMs
01:00:15 Introducing Clarify: Disrupting the CRM Market
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If you spend money on paid ads, chances are that you’re being taken advantage of. The biggest providers do it to you because they can and they optimize their systems more and more towards it.
Rand Fishkin and me discuss the challenges and limitations of paid advertising, the role of AI in marketing, the importance of organic initiatives and why you can’t skip good quality audience research.
Takeaways
Many marketers spend money on ads that are shown to people who would have converted anyway.The best marketing channels are often the hardest to measure. Paid advertising can be limited and may not always provide the desired results because you don’t see how they really perform.Sound Bites
"There's lots of people being taken advantage of in the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem today.""There are literally hundreds of billions of dollars that flow into that ecosystem that don't necessarily have careful accounting.""We're going to need to do these sketchy things that essentially take credit for sales that would have already happened, show people more ad results, reduce the quality of the organic results, make it harder to identify ads, force people to scroll down further, lazy load the organic stuff and quick load the paid stuff.""Treat digital advertising the way Coca-Cola treated billboards in 1965. Test different messages and campaigns in specific markets and analyze the lift in same-store sales to determine effectiveness."Chapters
06:30 The Issues with Digital Advertising
10:22 Taking Advantage of the Digital Marketing Ecosystem
13:14 The Challenge of Proper Accounting and Attribution
18:29 The Misleading Nature of Digital Metrics
23:03 The Difficulty of Measuring the Best Marketing Channels
23:59 The Limitations of Paid Advertising and the Need for Innovation
25:27 The Impact of AI on Marketing and the Changing Web
28:10 The Value of Organic Initiatives in Marketing
29:31 Testing and Experimentation in Marketing
34:13 The Importance of Working with Competent Experts
41:26 The Significance of Qualitative Metrics in Marketing
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John Cutler on the challenges of scaling and operating a collaborative product organization.
We discuss different mental models for how different functions work together as teams and why it’s important to clarify and document the operating model, especially during times of growth, turnover, or changing strategies.
John talks about the concept of scaffolding is introduced as a way to navigate the process of change and improvement and why most crossfunctional initiatives fail.
Takeaways
Define in an operating model team sizes, roles, and responsibilitiesReduce single points of failure and promote shared accountabilityEstablish a shared language around team and domain evolutionStay firm on the chosen operating model and evaluate it within a specific timeframeSound Bites
"We invest in teams, products, and outcomes, not individual projects and deliverables.""What are the valid reasons to ask for money and what kind of rigor are you going to put for them for their team?""Teams respond well if there are a small number of things that people are stubborn about."Chapters
06:45 The Need for an Operating Model in a Growing Company
08:04 Running a Collaborative Product Organization
14:32 The Challenges of the CPO and CTO Tandem
19:26 The Importance of Clarifying and Documenting the Operating Model
29:00 Scaffolding and Navigating Change
38:23 Team Size and Misalignment in SaaS Teams
39:18 Investing in Teams, Products, and Outcomes
41:27 Valid Reasons to Ask for Money and Team Rigor
45:03 The Importance of Being Stubborn
46:46 The Power of Enable Constraints
51:54 Defining Team Sizes and Roles
01:05:30 The Role of Engineering Managers in Teams
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Summary
Pedro Góes, the founder and CEO of InEvent, discusses with me the challenges and strategies of selling to enterprise clients in the event tech industry.
Why in-person interactions and relationship-building can’t be beat by pure self-serve. The value of certifications and how they contribute to higher retention rates.
He shares insights on the event tech market, the role of AI in their product, and the differences between doing business in the US and Europe.
Takeaways
In-person interactions and relationship-building are important for establishing trust and are not just limited to sales.Expanding in-person operations and support can be a key differentiator.The challenges and regulations of doing business in Europe and the US differ.Finding a niche and focusing on a specific market segment can lead to success in an oversaturated market.Sound Bites
"We have been trying to focus on this type of clients because it's better retention.""We have been building this for 12 years and it's not ready yet."Chapters
04:43 The Value of Certifications
09:48 Challenges and Opportunities in Enterprise Sales
18:07 Focusing on Key Product Offerings
23:30 The Importance of In-Person Interactions
28:41 Overcoming Sales Challenges
32:30 Expanding In-Person Operations
39:30 Navigating the European and US Markets
42:21 Conclusion
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What is the role of product managers in the age of AI and the potential impact of AI on roadmapping and expectation management?
Janna Bastow, CEO & Co-Founder ProdPad / Co-Founder of Mind the Product, shares her perspective on how AI is just another tool that can help product managers synthesize feedback and speed up certain aspects of their job.
Why AI should not replace the human element of product management, such as getting alignment from stakeholders and gathering feedback from real users and how we can think about evaluating roadmaps when they all look the same.
Why product managers being skilled in asking the right questions and validating their ideas with real customers is not optional anymore.
The value of a roadmap lies in the roadmapping process, not just the document itself.AI can be used as a sense checker and sidekick to provide feedback and support decision-making, but human judgment is still crucial. Creating a company culture where employees feel comfortable challenging ideas is crucial for innovation and growth.Product managers need to understand how their work connects to revenue and develop roadmaps that align with the company's strategy.
Takeaways
"The job of a product manager is to get out of the building and understand what users and the market want. Especially with AI being around""Nobody's getting fired for using AI.""Product managers who do not understand how their work connects to revenue will be in trouble in the future."
Sound BitesChapters
00:00 The Role of Product Managers in the Age of AI
09:08 AI as a Tool for Feedback Synthesis and Speeding Up Product Management
23:17 Human Judgment and Decision-Making in Evaluating Roadmaps
25:34 Creating a Culture of Innovation and Openness
26:22 The Role of Product Managers in Driving Growth
27:41 The Impact of AI on Product Management
32:26 The Importance of Asking the Right Questions
35:19 Adapting to the Changing Landscape of Product Management
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When is PLG just a fad? Vijay Iyengar, Senior Director of Product at Mixpanel discusses with me about the misconceptions around PLG and the role of analytics in driving business growth and why first principles is in our field the only thing we have.
Do PM’s really need to have a basic understanding of data and how it is stored and analyzed with LLMs being the norm? Why business intelligence (BI) tools are not the answer.
Which key metrics and questions are correct to start with if you’re trying to get your data under control?
Takeaways
PLG is not suitable for every businessBusiness intelligence (BI) tools are good for consumption and reporting, but not for analysis.Data quality is a challenge, and engineers need to care about data and be involved in tracking.Sound Bites
"There's no best practices the way there are in other fields. Like it's all being written. It's all first principles.""There's plenty of businesses that can monetize much better and grow much better focusing on a different segment of the market where PLG isn't the appropriate sales motion.""Core root analysis, just following people around this is very, very underappreciated.""BI tools are good at consumption. It's good when you've predefined a set of metrics and dimensions and you want to push that out for general consumption.""Reporting is great to just keep a pulse on things, but nobody ever found an insight from reporting or nobody ever found something that's needle moving from a report."Chapters
03:23 The Relevance and Overrating of Product-Led Growth (PLG)
05:15 Finding the Right Sales Motion for Your Business
09:28 The Importance of Tracking and Analytics in Sales Motions
13:44 Focusing on Churn and Retention for Sustainable Growth
22:14 Understanding the First Week Experience and Power Users
26:27 Understanding Data in Product Management
27:52 Limitations of BI Tools
29:19 Challenges of Data Quality and the Need for Engineers to Care
31:44 The Role of the CTO and CPO in Driving Data-Driven Decision-Making
46:34 Getting Started with Data Analysis: Focusing on Key Metrics
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Laura Schaffer, VP Product Growth @ Amplitude shares her experience of launching a self-serve paid plan and a free plan at Amplitude, a sales-led organization.
We discuss the changing landscape of selling, the power of self-serve product experiences, and the expectations of users. The conversation also delves into the tensions between sales and self-serve motions, the importance of buy-in and clear decision-making frameworks, and the structure and purpose of trials and freemium offerings.
We also talk about the disappearance of classical websites, questioning the need for a separate website and sign-up flow. What’s the role of Product, Growth and Marketing in that future?
Takeaways
The digital landscape has changed, and users now expect self-serve product experiences that allow them to try and evaluate products themselves.
Product-led growth (PLG) is a powerful approach that can drive pipeline and accelerate sales, but it requires buy-in and clear decision-making frameworks.
Trials and freemium offerings are effective ways to lower the friction of pricing and onboard users, but they need to provide enough value to get users over the next hurdle.
Digital web experiences and digital product experiences are becoming more similar, and the need for a separate website and sign-up flow is being questioned.
Sound Bites
"Whenever you layer in a self-serve motion into a sales led company, it will shed spotlight on any issues that are there at the company."
"Companies will start merging the website and product experience to avoid losing potential customers in the funnel."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Challenges of Implementing Self-Serve Motion
06:42 The Changing Landscape of Selling and the Power of Self-Serve Experiences
13:54 Tensions Between Sales and Self-Serve Motions: Navigating Conflicts and Gaining Buy-In
21:02 Trials and Freemium: Lowering Friction and Onboarding Users
26:02 Balancing Self-Serve and Sales-Led Motions: Serving Lower-End and Enterprise Segments
29:09 The Blurring Line Between Digital Web Experiences and Digital Product Experiences
37:01 Merging Website and Product Experiences
44:30 Measuring Success in a Product-Led Growth Model
50:36 The Importance of Support in the Self-Serve Environment
My Blog / Newsletter: www.leahtharin.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtharin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeahThar
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Summary
Activation and aha moments in product growth with Henrique Cruz, Head of Growth at Rows.com. How to find the right activation metric that predicts retention and how to iterate on the onboarding flow to improve activation.
Examples of activation metrics and the challenges of tracking and improving activation. The importance of branding, the land and expand strategy, and positioning a brand against larger competitors.
Benefits of dropping the homepage and allowing users to immediately access the product.
Takeaways
Importing a CSV file has no correlation with week one retention for Rows, while pulling data from an integration is strongly correlated with retention.
The onboarding flow and the post-onboarding flow are both important for activation.
Start by analyzing the actions of high engagement users to form hypotheses about activation metrics.
Separate core users from less engaged users to focus on retention.
Send churn emails to users who have stopped using the product to understand the reasons for churn.
Dropping the homepage and allowing users to immediately access the product can increase sign-up rates and provide valuable data for experimentation.
Sound Bites
"Importing a CSV file has basically no correlation with week one retention."
"Activation really only starts after onboarding."
Chapters
08:59 Iterating on the Onboarding Flow for Better Activation
10:53 Analyzing User Behavior to Improve Activation
18:02 Understanding Churn and Retention
23:00 The Impact of Embeds on Activation
23:30 Branding and Positioning
34:27 Dropping the Homepage and User Data
37:34 Selling to Enterprise Customers
46:42 Generating Curiosity Through Social Media
My Blog / Newsletter: www.leahtharin.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtharin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeahThar
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