Brought to you by Pando—Always on employee progression (https://www.pando.com/lenny), Notion—One workspace. Every team (https://www.notion.com/lennyspod), and Lemon.io—A marketplace of vetted software developers (https://lemon.io/lenny).Vijay Iyengar is Head of Product at Mixpanel, and similar to myself, came from an engineering background before transitioning to product. In today’s episode, he explains how Mixpanel has evolved its growth strategy from a fast-paced, feature-focused approach to a more deliberate approach that prioritizes design and user experience. He also shares how Mixpanel irons out customer problems, including implementing internal tools that allow engineering and product teams to respond to customer feedback directly. Additionally, Vijay shares his top SaaS products, books, frameworks, and more. Tune in to gain valuable insights from a seasoned product leader.Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/an-inside-look-at-mixpanels-product-journey-vijay-iyengar-head-of-product/#transcriptWhere to find Vijay Iyengar:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vijayiyengar• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay4/Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/Referenced:• Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/• Figma: https://www.figma.com/• Notion: https://www.notion.so/• “Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work That Matters”: https://basecamp.com/shapeup• The RICE prioritization framework: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/• BigQuery: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery• Census: https://www.getcensus.com/• Zoom: https://zoom.us/• FigJam: https://www.figma.com/figjam/• A Data Stack for PLG teams: https://mixpanel.com/blog/data-analytics-product-led-growth/• Product analytics in the modern data stack: https://mixpanel.com/blog/mixpanel-partners-with-census-to-bring-product-analytics-to-the-modern-data-stack/• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/en/• Amazon Redshift: https://www.amazonaws.cn/en/redshift/• Event-Based Analytics: https://developer.mixpanel.com/docs/under-the-hood• The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement: https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951• Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco: https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Gray-City-Love-Francisco/dp/1608199606• The West Wing Weekly podcast: http://thewestwingweekly.com/• WeCrashed on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/wecrashed/• Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/• Gibson Biddle on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gibson-biddle-on-his-dhm-product-strategy-framework-gem-roadmap-prioritization-framework-5-netflix-strategy-mini-case-studies-building-a-personal-board-of-directors-and-much-more/• Shishir Mehrotra on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-coda-youtube-microsoft/In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Vijay’s background(04:07) How Vijay learned to be more open-minded to new ideas (06:26) Mixpanel’s journey(12:40) When to optimize for speed(13:49) The feature phase vs. the design phase(17:02) The importance of not losing focus on your core product(19:52) How Mixpanel organizes teams around buckets of problems(20:43) Mixpanel’s most recent six-month time horizon planning cycle(25:08) The RICE framework for prioritization (and when to ignore the C and E)(26:31) The problem with estimations, and why Basecamp suggests using a six-week time box(30:04) How Mixpanel keeps product teams and engineers connected to customers via Slack (33:21) SaaS tools Mixpanel’s teams use(34:54) The biggest product analytics mistakes(37:34) The present and future of analytics (41:05) How adopting a product mindset has helped Vijay grow his career(41:47) Lightning roundProduction and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Vijay Iyengar, Head of Product at Mixpanel, shares his insights on product-led growth (PLG) and the pitfalls of relying on traditional business intelligence (BI) tools. He argues that PLG isn't a one-size-fits-all solution and emphasizes the importance of understanding core metrics. Vijay stresses that while BI tools serve well for reporting, they fall short in delivering actionable insights. He also highlights the necessity for engineers to engage with data governance to properly track and analyze user behavior, uncovering valuable growth opportunities.