The Evolution of Growth at SurveyMonkey | Bradley Belford and Erica Tjader

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This time I had a chat with 2 fantastic leaders from SurveyMonkey — Brad, currently Director of Product, and Erica, who was a VP of Design and Research and recently started a new role at Intuit. 

Both Erica and Brad spent more than 7 years in the company, and we explored the evolution of Growth at SurveyMonkey over these years, and discussed significant chapters in the company's growth journey, including their legendary transition to a product-led growth model.

My favorite part of the conversation was when Brad and Erica shared their expectations of ideal partnerships with each other, and how to build and maintain that partnership at a huge scale over the years.

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This episode is supported by Appcues — the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences.

Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption for free. Check out the template that I created to help companies uncover meaningful improvements. Find an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside and apply it to review any growth flows: appcues.com/growthmates

Key highlights from this episode:

* Optimization of Key Touchpoints: SurveyMonkey's significant growth was driven by the optimization of survey end pages and the homepage, which were critical in enhancing user engagement and conversion rates.

* Product-Led Growth Transition: The company successfully transitioned to a product-led growth model, focusing on refining trial experiences, optimizing pricing structures, and improving conversion flows to better meet user needs and drive growth. Brad shared the evolution of Growth at SurveyMonkey since the time he joined and learned from Elena Verna.

* Integral Role of Design and Research: Design and research functions were crucial in providing insights that drove the company’s strategic decisions, fueling innovation and idea generation essential for growth.

* Collaboration Between Product and Design Teams: Erica and Brad openly shared expectations towards each other on the episode — listen to this part!

* Cultural Emphasis on Collaboration: we discussed the importance of incorporating collaborative practices like design rituals, which include peer critiques and shared design systems, to maintain alignment and visibility across teams.

Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube (new!).

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Where to find our guests:

* Bradley Belford, Director of Product at SurveyMonkey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-belford/

* Erica Weiss Tjader, ex-SurveyMonkey VP of Research and Design: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericatjader/

What we’ve covered in this episode:

[02:14] Welcoming Erica & Brad

[06:02] SurveyMonkey Growth Chapters and Pivotal Moments

[08:11] Transition to Product-Led Growth

[10:15] Every Team as a Growth Team

[17:19] Role of Design and Research in Strategic Moments

[28:59] Product and Design Collaboration at Scale

[37:10] Aligning User and Business Outcomes

[43:41] Fostering Relationships Between Product and Design Functions

[47:36] Balancing Deadlines and Iteration in Growth Initiatives

[50:18] The Importance of Collaboration and Design Rituals

[51:28] Resources and Key Takeaways

Resources Referenced:

* "Inspired: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love" by Marty Cagan: https://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Tech-Products-Customers/dp/1119387507

* "Continuous Discovery Habits" by Teresa Torres: https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Discovery-Habits-Discover-Products/dp/1736633309

* "Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products" by Marty Cagan: https://www.amazon.com/Empowered-Ordinary-Extraordinary-Products-Silicon/dp/111969129X

* UX Collective Community: UX Collective — a platform for product designers and UX practitioners to share insights, articles, and resources (I also published 2 articles on their Medium).

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