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20Growth: Biggest Growth Lessons from Reddit and Zynga on Scaling to Millions of Users | Why, When and How To Hire Your First Growth Hires | The Biggest Mistakes Founders Make In Hiring, Onboarding and Integration for Growth Teams with Vaibhav Sahgal, VP

40 snips

Oct 26, 2022

Vaibhav Sahgal, VP of Consumer Product at Reddit and former Head of Growth at Zynga, shares invaluable insights on scaling growth teams. He discusses the distinction between value connection and creation, emphasizing that growth is both an art and a science. Vaibhav advises on the right time to hire growth professionals and the common mistakes founders make in the hiring process. He also outlines his structured interview approach, highlighting the essential questions to ask and what to look for in candidates to foster an effective growth culture.

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ANECDOTE

Accidental Entry to Growth

Vaibhav Sahgal accidentally entered product and growth by A/B testing image sizes in emails at Hi5.
This sparked his interest in data-driven experimentation and led him to Zynga and Reddit.

ADVICE

Know Your User

Deeply understand your users by talking to them and learning their motivations.
Create user personas like "Mary from Ohio" to keep your target audience in mind when making decisions.

ANECDOTE

Burning Out Channels

At Zynga, Vaibhav's team overused Facebook notifications, burning out the channel.
This led to platform changes by Facebook to prevent similar spamming.

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Vaibhav Sahgal is VP of Consumer Product @ Reddit where he has been for close to 5 years. Prior to his leading consumer product, Vaibhav spent 3 years as Head of Growth at Reddit. Before Reddit, Vaibhav spent an incredible 8 years at Zynga across different roles including Director of Product and GM for "Words with Friends".

In Today's Episode with Vaibhav Sahgal We Discuss:

1.) Entry into Product + Growth:

How did Vaibhav come to lead some of the best growth orgs in the world at both Reddit and Zynga?
What are 1-2 of Vaibhav's biggest takeaways from working with Mark Pincus @ Zynga?
What is the most painful growth lesson that Vaibhav learned that he is also pleased to have learned?

2.) WTF Really is "Growth":

How does Vaibhav define growth today? What is it not?
How does Vaibhav fundamentally differentiate between value connection and value creation?
Is growth an art or a science? What tactics have died a death? What remains stronger than ever?

3.) Hiring Your Growth Team:

How does Vaibhav advise founders on when is the right time to hire their first growth professionals?
Where should they sit within the org? In product? In marketing? Standalone growth team?
What are the biggest mistakes Vaibhav sees founders make when hiring their first growth hires?

4.) The Interview Process:

How does Vaibhav structure the interview process for all new growth hires? What are the steps?
What are the must-ask questions when hiring for growth? What are good answers?
How can founders use case studies and data to determine the quality of a growth candidate?

5.) The Onboarding and Integration:

What is the optimal onboarding process for all new growth hires?
What are signs in the first 3 days that a growth hire will vs will not work out?
What can leaders do to ensure growth hires are integrated with the rest of the teams?
What are the biggest mistakes founders make when onboarding growth hires?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode:

Vaibhav's Favourite Book: Andrew Chen: The Cold Start Problem