Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)

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Jan 19, 2025

Elena Verna, a sought-after growth advisor with leadership experience at Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey, shares her insights on ineffective growth strategies. She highlights common mistakes, such as hiring growth roles prematurely and relying too heavily on competition. Elena emphasizes the significance of earned media in marketing, encourages embracing failure, and discusses innovative growth frameworks. Listeners are reminded to balance intuition with data-driven decisions and to explore varied career options beyond traditional paths.

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ADVICE

Early Growth Team Hiring

Don't hire for growth roles too soon.
Founders should lead initial growth until achieving product-market fit and substantial data.

ADVICE

Rebrands and Redesigns

Never expect a rebrand or marketing site redesign to instantly boost growth.
These changes often cause initial performance decline, requiring optimization.

ADVICE

Over Experimenting

Avoid over-experimenting and testing every growth initiative.
Trust intuition for smaller changes and focus on rapid iteration.

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