Sub Club by RevenueCat
Lessons From Building a 70 Person Growth Team — Jason van der Merwe, Strava
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Embracing 'managed chaos' is key to handling inevitable app business uncertainty.
- Testing every idea in a safe environment is crucial for sustainable growth.
- User-centric approach and feature education are vital for growth team success.
Deep dives
Strava's Growth Team Focuses on User Value and Impact
The Strava growth team, led by Jason Vandemurva, focuses on connecting users with the value of the product and expanding that value. They prioritize user and business impact, emphasizing continuous learning to drive growth. Strategies range from small optimizations to building impactful features that align with business and user goals.
Strava's Early Marketing Strategy Relied on Word of Mouth
In Strava's initial stages, a significant portion of their growth came from word of mouth within the cycling and running communities. The community engagement was so strong that the phrase 'if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen' became popular. This organic growth approach minimized the dependency on paid marketing and highlighted the importance of making a product that users love to promote naturally.
Evolution of Strava's Growth Team and Functionality
From a single growth team focusing on user activation to expanding into acquisition and other growth functions, Strava's growth team evolved significantly. The team transitioned to encompass activation, acquisition, and monetization aspects, emphasizing reducing friction and increasing user value. The team's structure shifted to accommodate cross-functional collaboration and experimentation.
Strategic Approach to App Store Optimization and Marketing
Strava's approach to app store optimization involves testing app store assets, utilizing app store ads, and improving user ratings and reviews. They prioritize optimizing app store assets for conversion while also understanding the impact of user ratings on app store visibility. The team also collaborates with Apple and leverages app features to enhance app store visibility and discoverability.
Balancing Data-Driven Decision-Making with User Experience Insights
Strava's growth strategy involves balancing data-driven decisions with user experience insights and gut instincts. While data metrics inform optimization efforts, user feedback and experience insights drive decisions related to branding, messaging, and feature implementation. The integration of quantitative data and qualitative user insights allows for a holistic approach to growth and user satisfaction.
On the podcast we talk with Jason about some of Strava’s big growth wins, the importance of feature education, and whether or not all product teams should actually be growth teams.
Top Takeaways
🛠 The shift in mindset that comes with "growth engineering" — it's about a greater focus on the user and a willingness to go a little faster than usual...
🌀 While chaos in an app business may be unavoidable, the secret is learning to embrace "managed chaos"
🔬 How the key to growth is testing — and creating a safe space where it's possible to test every idea
👩🏫 Why having employees who use the app every day is both a blessing and a curse (hint: it's connected to the new user experience and feature education)
About Jason van der Merwe
👨💻 Director of Growth Engineering at Strava
💡 “Make it easy enough to test any and every idea.”
👋 LinkedIn | Twitter
Links & Resources
‣ Check out Strava
‣ Work with Strava
‣ Check out Jason’s site and musings on growth and more
Follow us on Twitter
‣ David Barnard
‣ Jacob Eiting
‣ RevenueCat
‣ Sub Club
Episode Highlights
[1:58] Growing as an engineer: Jason explains what the role of a growth engineer entails — most importantly, thinking like a product manager.
[4:10] If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen: Growth by word-of-mouth is the holy grail. How Strava grew before Jason joined looked different to how it grew once he joined.
[10:31] Flying blind: The board said that top companies have growth teams and to make it happen. Jason’s team had no idea what they were doing at first — it all started with tinkering and analyzing the metrics.
[16:26] From 0 to 100: Jason talks about how Strava’s growth team grew from nothing into five multidisciplinary teams with 70 people.
[20:37] Conflicts and scaling: Smaller meetings are more successful, but can be a challenge for creating a more overarching narrative.
[26:26] Core values: Strava has different teams focusing on different values, but all teams are platforms.
[28:13] Feature education: Developers can miss fundamentals — Jason explains how Strava factors this into development. Perfect observability remains a problem, but Jason says it’s important to move forward and make decisions in spite of that.
[31:31] Test churning: Because he was close to the problem, Jason could test nonstop. But now his role has changed, he needs to trust his teams and help them do their jobs well — illustrating the importance of engineers thinking like product managers.
[34:39] Stay focused: When debate about what to do becomes time-consuming and you’re not moving fast, you know it’s time to test more. Metrics like measured (not modeled) outcomes are key at Strava.
[40:09] Black box: No app developer has control of the App Store. App store optimization (ASO) might ease the pressure, but at the expense of the novelty effect. The best advice? Don’t depend on it.
[45:30] The power of copy: Visual design can be distracting for users, as well as powerful. But copy — no matter where it is — always has a huge impact.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
