ProductLed Podcast

Sandhya Hegde is a Partner at Unusual Ventures, an early-stage VC firm that provides funding and comprehensive GTM services to early-stage founders. Sandhya leads enterprise investments at the fund, focused on new-age SaaS, data, and fintech. In this episode, Sandhya chats about the role enterprise fits into product-led growth. She touches on the biggest challenges for PLG companies, and shares her #1 piece of advice for founders.   Show Notes [01:13] Sandhya’s background and how she got started at Unusual VC [05:09] Something to brag about from what she accomplished in Amplitude  [07:42] What Product-Led Growth is for her and its misconceptions  [10:05] On the misconception that PLG is all about the product [11:19] How she sees teams work in a Product-Led company vs. Sales-Led company [15:00] The biggest challenges she sees for Product-Led companies  [21:15] Her thoughts on going ahead with PLG for pre-product market fit [26:06] Her advice for companies on transitioning to product-led from sales-led  [32:15] Her thoughts on going product-led for complex products [39:54] On the key focus for getting started with product-Led growth [44:07] Her thoughts on PLG and enterprise  [49:19] A strong piece of PLG advice she has for founders [52:40] Where to find more about Sandhya  About Sandhya Hegde In addition to being a Partner at Unusual Ventures, Sandhya Hedge is currently an investor of four other companies: Webflow, Wonderschool, Flutterwave, and iMerit Technology. Prior to Unusual Ventures, Sandhya spent four years at Amplitude, where she gained significant experience in Product-Led Growth. She earned her BS and MS in Electronics and Computer Science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 2007 and her Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University in 2013. Link Amplitude   Profile Unusual Ventures Sandhya on LinkedIn

Tom Coburn is the co-founder and CEO of Jebbit, a Boston-based startup. The Jebbit platform enables marketers to quickly build beautiful interactive experiences and drives high engagement by providing consumers with immediate value in exchange for relevant information about their motivations, interests and preferences. During this live session Q&A, Tom will reveal how Jebbit found more success after its transition from a sales-led enterprise to a product-led organization. Show Notes [01:08] An overview of Jebbit and how it went from startup to working with big brands [08:08] How Tom’s PLG Task Force gradually created an onboarding flow that the company was comfortable with [12:20] On finding a specific use case [14:09] The initial steps Jebbit took to introduce the free version of its product [17:57] The challenges they had to overcome during beta testing [20:00] Analytics help them discover points where they need improvement [23:00] The start of Jebbit’s success and the developments that took place after that [28:46] How pricing has shifted since Jebbit became product-led [31:02] The differences between Jebbit’s free and premium versions [33:36] On having open dialogues with customers and how Jebbit’s sales team reaches out [38:34] Tom's advice for sales-led businesses that want to become product-led About Tom Coburn Tom Coburn is the co-founder and CEO of Jebbit. The digital marketing startup created the world’s first declared data platform. It was named one of the Top 25 Most Promising Companies in the World by CNBC, and its clients include Procter & Gamble, NFL, and Bliss Cosmetics. Tom is a student entrepreneur who honed his experiences while doing his undergraduate in Boston College. He is also “Settlers of Catan” enthusiast who made it to the 2015 Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list together with Jebbit co-founder Jonathan Lacoste. Links Mentioned On Starting and Scaling HubSpot HubSpot Shopify Profile Jebbit Tom Coburn on LinkedIn Tom Coburn's email

Andrea Saez is the Senior Product Marketing Manager at airfocus. airfocus is an easy-to-use prioritization and road mapping software solution that helps teams visualize priorities, build lean roadmaps, collaborate on strategy, and align vision with the whole organization. In this episode, she will talk about creating a product adoption strategy. She will also give tips and recommendations on doing product adoption and dealing with customers.  Show Notes [00:58] How Andrea defines Product Strategy and how it fits in the product roadmap [01:38] How to start coming up with product adoption strategy in teams for her  [02:41] Her suggestion on the product adoption goal to drive around and how to hit it [04:41] Her way of knowing if a product is already adopted [07:02] The strategies and tactics to achieve the desired goal or outcome  [09:07] An experiment she had on product adoption [10:50] On driving product adoption geared towards a buying persona [12:45] How she measures product adoption on new features [15:57] How she deals with user issues  [18:21] On measuring loyalty, giving delighters, and creating and developing relationships with users [26:18] Her advice for the product-led community and enthusiasts [30:13] Her view on the scope of product adoption [31:22] Her tips for creating a customer experience journey map across teams [33:01] How she handles communication with uninterested customers [36:24] On balancing self-education and personal experience for customers About Andrea Saez Andrea Saez is passionate about product management, growth strategies, and community engagement. She loves to learn, talk, and engage with customers and apply product-thinking to scaling companies. She shares her passion through writing and hosting talks and events. Andrea is the Co-Founder of The Product Dynamic. It is a company that helps teams navigate organizations, defeat cognitive biases and create healthy working dynamics across teams to build great products and drive positive change. She has honed her expertise through her experiences working in various companies such as Evoca, CakeMail, Amilia Technologies, Inc., Brandwatch and ProdPad.   Links Mentioned Miro Hubspot Canva   Profile airfocus Andrea Saez on LinkedIn

Chris Hicken is the Co-Founder and CEO at 'nuffsaid. ‘nuffsaid is a company that builds software that centralizes work apps and prioritizes the messages and tasks that help people focus on the job that matters and be proactive. He sees it as a modern solution to information and communication overload at work as the number of apps and productivity tools onboarded increases. With the help of dozens of Customer Success thought leaders, Chris has extensively researched the low-touch engagement model for product-led and sales-led companies. In this episode, Chris will share the interesting outcomes of that research.  Show Notes [01:15] About Chris and what got him interested in the topic [04:08] About customer support and customer success and the human-led and digital-led models [06:03] The research he has done on the low touch model and its impact [07:37] On deciding on the best approach in implementing the low touch model [10:12] Why companies have to move towards the low or tech touch model for him [13:06] On not considering a free trial or proof of concept product-led growth [14:44] The three levels of maturity he has seen in companies in moving towards low touch [21:56] On getting on top of resolving product issues at the second maturity level [25:05] Where he thinks the proactive component fit in at level two  [29:15] On getting into the third level  [32:21] His thoughts about the effectivity of proactivity in level two and three [34:41] His approach in building his low touch CSM team for success [38:52] His view on the strategic role of support in low touch model in product-led companies [42:56] Final words from Chris  [4437:307] Where to get in touch with Chris About Chris Hicken Chris Hicken describes himself as an artist. He has worked as a business leader at various companies for 17 years and is currently a board member at The/Studio and an advisor at Peer Collective, TestRigor AI, and Acceleprise. Previously, Chris was an advisor at GitPrime and Study.com, a partner at Inspiration Ventures, the former President and COO of UserTesting, and a General Manager and Head of Marketing at Headsets.com. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo in 2003 with a degree in BS Computer Science   Links Mentioned User Testing  Salesforce  Salesforce Lightning RD Station Survey Monkey  Amazon  Low-Touch Engagement Model article   Profile ‘nuffsaid ‘nuffsaid Blog LinkedIn  Twitter The 'nuffsaid podcast

Celebrate the launch of "Product-Led Onboarding," the new book by Ramli John and Wes Bush. In this special bonus episode, learn: The story behind Product-Led OnboardingOne common myth about user onboardingBIG prizes you can win during the book launch Learn more about the book at onboardingbook.com You can purchase the book here https://www.amazon.com/dp/1777717701

Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr are the hosts of The Breakout Growth Podcast. In this podcast, they interview CEOs and product, growth, and marketing leaders from the fastest-growing companies in the world. They do this for the listeners to learn from them how to take growth to the next level. In this episode, they will talk about the difference between growth hacking and product-led growth. Show Notes [00:38] Similarities and differences of Growth hacking and Product-led growth [05:06] On the assumption that growth hacking focus on B2C and Product-Led on B2B spaces [08:39] Another example from Sean and Ethan on conversion and getting value [10:25] On the right approach to get buy-ins to transition from sales-led to product-led [12:22] The fundamentals that everybody agrees on regardless of the strategy chosen [14:35] On figuring out and understanding the people who are not getting the value quickly [17:57] On doing the upfront alignment and the game plan to push for the future [20:35] Some of the big success drivers for today’s fastest-growing B2B companies [23:11] The idea of nailing product-market fit and ways to do it [25:06] The growth mindset drives the test learning process [29:06] How they ensure alignment through measuring and the result that people need to have  [31:01] On customer experiences and retention  [33:33] Set focus on the conversion funnel, its improvements, and the payback window [36:05] On having a growth process even without free trial premium and how they go about it [37:37] Mistakes made by premium companies that made them go out of business [42:59] Where to catch Sean and Ethan  About Sean Ellis and Ethan Garr Sean Ellis co-authors the book entitled Hacking Growth. He is an expert in building growth engines for several highly successful startups, unlocking growth for companies at any stage. He can quickly uncover the barriers to growth in most companies and offer solutions to address these issues.  Ethan Garr specializes in using data and experimentation to drive breakout growth for mobile apps. He helps companies improve their growth trajectories through workshops, coaching, and as a trusted advisor.  He was a speaker on mobile growth at Growthhackers’ Conference 2018 and the Mixergy podcast. He got featured in NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, TechCrunch, and the New York Times.   Profiles  The Breakout Growth Podcast  Product-Led Growth Slack Community 

Esben Friis-Jensen is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, the fastest way for user onboarding for modern SaaS businesses. He is also the Co-Founder and Adviser at Cobalt, a modern application security platform enabling businesses to run on-demand Penetration Testing and vulnerability assessments - Pentest as a Service. The goal of this episode is to accelerate learning while transitioning from sales-led to product-led. Esben will talk about the whole transition: What other leaders are doing in this transition and what mistakes they make to avoid doing it again.  Show Notes [01:09] A brief background about Esben [03:38] His thoughts when they started the product-led movement [07:11] Reasons why they started out as more sales-led [11:15] The challenges they experienced along the way [15:40] How they fostered organizational change  [18:55] The process they went through to get the rest of the team onboard [23:32] How they got buy-in from the teams in the process of transitioning [28:49] First quick wins they had in testing the unknowns [34:50] More advice on iteration from Esben [37:42] The next thing for him at Userflow [39:47] Where to find Esben About Esben Friis-Jensen Esben Friis-Jensen is originally from Denmark but has lived in the United States for the last eight years. Aside from Userflow and Cobalt, he has also worked as a consultant in the SAP division of Accenture, responsible for managing the test and deployment of global large-scale SAP implementations.  Link Product-Led Slack   Profiles Userflow Cobalt LinkedIn

Yuliya Malysh is the Head of Self-service and Growth at Miro. Miro is a fast, free, and simple-to-use online whiteboard built to help you collaborate with others any time, anywhere. She has been with the company since 2013, starting as the Self Service and Data Team Lead. In this episode, Yuliya will talk about how Miro applies product-led growth and how it accelerates its growth.  Show Notes [01:21] The routine Yuliya developed during the lockdown [04:21] Why is product-led growth important, and how has it help grown Miro for her [06:26] How she makes her team learn from customers continuously  [11:02] What the WTF exercise is [12:26] The importance of ‘Time To Value’ and what they do at Miro to reduce it [15:34] Examples of good friction she introduced to her team that bring positive impact on activation [18:16] How she encourages people to share the experience with others [21:09] How she crafts an experience for the multiple-use case for customer engagement [23:44] On limiting use cases in the beginning [26:53] Her recommendation on the right metrics to use in tracking product-led growth success [29:33] How to connect with Yuliya About Yuliya Malysh Yuliya Malysh is a visual thinker. She empowers teams to create excellent products and experiences anywhere and everywhere by making visual collaboration possible and easy, making it her career mission. Links  Facebook Twitter Slack    Profile Miro LinkedIn

Andrew Capland is the Head of Growth at Postscript, focused on driving product adoption and engagement. Postscript is an SMS marketing platform for Shopify stores that allows clients to send campaigns, create automation, and drive new revenue for their store to ensure ROI.  Show Notes [00:53] Who Andrew is [02:58] How to start a growth team from scratch and balancing it with your main job  [05:29] His thoughts around why companies should have a growth team [07:35] The process of being a lone wolf to scaling it up  [10:37] What initiatives he executed in the initial phase before blowing growth up into a department [13:43] Situations wherein he bumped into other teams working on growth and how he handled it [17:12] How he identifies quick wins to get people’s buy-in [20:01] How he strikes a balance between improving the user onboarding and looking at the bigger picture [22:19] What he does quarterly to make sure his ideas are executed  [24:10] About the Full Story Friday and the things he does to do a follow-ups [28:53] Some mistakes he did that he can tell others to avoid [31:54] On developing himself as a growth leader and his team to level up   [34:49] Examples of growth playbooks he can share [38:08] What will he focus on if hired as the Growth head of a company that has not been launched yet [40:45] His view on doing Growth in a Product-Led vs. Sales-Led company [44:06] The great lessons he learned on starting and scaling a growth team [45:32] Something that he is working on that may be useful for growth people or those who are thinking about doing growth About Andrew Capland Andrew Capland is an expert of Product-Led and a Growth nerd. He lives, breathes, and loves all types of growth such as product-led, Growth marketing, Growth product management, etc. He is also a busy person as he welcomes his newborn baby into their family. He has worked all across the funnel from user acquisition, user onboarding, pricing optimization, and retention. He has previously worked in Wistia as Director of Growth and HubSpot as the Principal Outbound Marketing Consultant.   Links  Shopify  Wistia Hubspot VWO Drift Gorgias   Profiles Postscript Delivering Value You were just hired as the Head of Growth at a startup article

Norah Shi is the Growth Analytics Manager, and Eduardo Gomez Ruiz is the UX Research Lead at Miro. Miro is a digital whiteboard that makes collaboration virtually easier. In this episode, the discussion will focus on the guidelines on how analytics and UX Research can give astonishing insights on forming delightful products that customers will love. Show Notes [01:46] What they did before joining Miro [03:25] The size of Miro as a company and a team for them [04:57] What it is like working in UX Research at Miro for Eduardo [07:43] What the Growth team at Miro does and its size as a team for Norah [11:18] How Eduardo collaborates with other teams [10:36] Norah’s transition from dealing with data to dealing with people for research [16:19] The way of researching at Miro [19:20] Sharing her experience in leading her first N2N research and its benefits [23:21] His view on the ideal acceptance rate and number of invites to send out for recruitment [24:37] Their most unforgettable user interview [27:28] The rewards for the research and measuring customer love at Miro  [30:44] How Norah feels about MPS and trying sentiment analysis [32:14] His thoughts on handpicking quotes for MPS [34:22] A walkthrough of the analysis process [37:53] Her brilliant idea of inviting five teams in debriefing sessions [40:45] The most crucial part of the tool tech to support capturing insights apart from Miro [42:08] More about Miro boards [43:58] Eduardo shares some good resources for the listeners [44:25] On working, coordinating globally remotely, and the Miro culture [47:54] What would Norah do differently, knowing what she knows now when she first did her research [48:38] What Eduardo thinks that Norah has done that adds value [49:57] Their recommendations on what the listeners can do to start with research ASAP About Norah and Eduardo Norah Shi is an expert on Growth at Miro. She has honed her skills from Uber as a Strategy and Planning Senior Associate under UberEats EMEA and PwC as an Analytics Consultant.  Eduardo Gomez Ruiz is an expert in multi-market research studies and international business growth. Apart from Miro, he has worked with Uber, leading the Loyalty program creation for Uber Pro, Google, or Mitsubishi Electric.  Links Zoom Paypal  Profile Miro