PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership

Season 2 of the ProducTea! Adam is funny, a friend, and a dad from San Francisco, and does not get any kickback for not recommending JIRA. He’s also an incredibly accomplished brain when it comes to anything Growth and Growth Leadership.We have both a united love for actionable metrics and we talk about those that we (almost) never touch because they are not:NPS / CAC / Burndown points and MQLs.Timestamps:0:00 Adam’s Introduction03:45 The tire fire that JIRA is, Stockholm Syndrome as a Service07:05 Notion is like a grandma’s attic08:15 How would Adam & Leah define a useless metric11:30 NPS at Patreon and Leah’s evolution of disgust17:00 TrustScore at Patreon & CES at Smallpdf20:52 The problems with CAC27:50 Team efficiency, burndown charts33:10 Measuring what your team does36:00 Why Machine learning works the same way as good product teams38:15 MQLs & Followers Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 of the ProducTea! Tanja is the founder of Product Academy, a Mom, an Angel Investor, and someone that wrestled control over her calendar through years of experience, burnout, and other incredible lifehacks.Her family runs on OKRs and we both dive deep into how our understanding of behavior is driving everything.Timestamps:0:00 Tanja’s introduction08:20 Saying no to people, being intentional about your time10:12 Burnout13:46 OKR planning for your family and yourself17:50 Incentivization is the main predictor of how a company is run19:32 Tanja’s most influential source of wisdom - Entrepreneurship22:10 Putting people before companies and when to make the decision to leave25:09 Unmeasured “product sense” is bullshit31:00 Unschooling, we prepare our kids wrong for life37:00 Leadership and strategic thinking42:45 Being disciplined and vulnerable at the same time45:30 Learning how to give good feedbackSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 of the ProducTea! Gagan is a serial entrepreneur who cannot get enough when it comes to enabling efficient learning. He co-founded Udemy and Maven, both huge learning platforms.We’re talking about the importance and future of learning and why it’s becoming more relevant than ever and the entire AI craziness around it.Timestamps:0:00 Gagan’s introduction02:00 The perpetual wheel of serial entrepreneurship pain and why we still do it05:15 Efficiency by way of experience in running companies08:55 The ideal person to learn something from cohort-based learning like Maven11:20 Leah’s experience learning stuff in cohorts13:27 Universities are getting beat by their own game18:30 Companies and learning budgets24:15 Learning how to learn, completion rates by format30:05 AI / AR / VR and trends that never really get hold in the market, is AI going to be THAT crazy?35:55 What’s happening if you sleep on learning about AI in the next couple of years40:14 The goal of the AI revolution for you in product43:40 Trends Gagan is betting on - the future of work48:00 Leah’s PLG cohort focus50:40 How should people get in touch with GaganShow notesMaven: https://maven.com/Leah’s product-led growth Cohort: https://maven.com/leah-tharin/productledgrowthSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 of the ProducTea! Petra is an expert in coaching and wrote one of the most popular books on the topic “Strong Product People” which is a fantastic operative, down-to-earth guide to growing future leaders.Timestamps:0:00 Petra’s Introduction04:40 The issues with conferences09:20 What do people get wrong about Petra?13:30 The time is right to be in Product Management17:40 Academia-led education is losing its importance & Petra’s most valuable source of knowledge20:05 Who are Petra’s favorite product people to help out?22:50 How does anyone in product prepare for this industry today?27:00 Define your realistic Learning Roadmap29:50 People idolize thought leaders, and realism in our day to day34:00 Learnings from Being a public product figure35:40 Personal Development, learning from and with each other39:30 Most of the time we’re just not correct. We live in an “it depends” world43:50 Trends in the industry, where does this all go?Show notesPetra Wille: Strong Product PeopleConnect!Petra’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petra-wille-b8b1329Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

*This is a remastered, recut episode recorded earlier in the year with better audio and listening quality* Elena and I talk about everything product-led growth and particularly dive into product-led sales and what product-qualified accounts are all about when we combine sales and product.Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

*This is a remastered, recut episode recorded earlier in the year with better audio and listening quality* We're discussing what people may not see from the outside and our favorite topic: Impostor syndrome in a professional environment. If you want to hear a very personal perspective.In part 2 Remastered we talk specifically about product-led growth which will be released as a separate episode shortly after this episode.Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 of the Productea, product-led growth! April is an expert in positioning and she graced me with her presence to talk about it. Turns out we are quite fun together and spilling the tea with her was incredibly fun. She even managed to interrupt me at times.“Creating a safety net for me messing up unlocked me”What an incredible time and learnings she shared in her typical direct way.Timestamps:0:00 April’s Introduction02:30 What do people get wrong about you April?04:15 April’s path to consulting and being empowered because of choice07:20 April interviewing Leah. What has changed in the last 2 decades in our industry09:30 How startups used to be built in the past vs. today12:00 The effect of venture capital being everywhere14:30 Positioning vs Messaging18:30 The fear of having to “decide” to serve certain customers and how to get around it25:50 Hacks vs. scaleable, repeatable tactics30:10 Charging for leverage instead of scarcity33:00 How do you deal with impostor syndrome?33:20 Putting others on a pedestal39:10 The one advice April wished she had earlier in her career44:15 What trend do you see in the industry that you bet on? “Growth Hacking”47:00 Trying to copy things instead of thinking about what you can sustainShownotesApril Dunford: Obviously Awesome (Amazon)Rise & Trout: Positioning the Battle for your MindConnect!April’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/April’s Website: https://www.aprildunford.com/Connect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharinSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 of the Productea, product-led growth! Yuriy the advising legend. The man that crashes your browser memory because he has so many companies listed. He helped bring Grammarly to its legendary status and is an advisor to lots of prestigious companies like Airtable, Canva, Oyster, Whimsical, Flo, and many more.Timestamps:0:00 Yuriys Introduction12:10 Leah’s garbage CV16:18 How does Yuriy position himself?21:00 Interesting advising clients…. Airtable24:00 Canva and how Yuriy landed it as an advising gig27:35 Talking about what we do expands our knowledge30:00 Machine learning in Tech, what’s the deal?34:33 Warping the message and reality of the market by oversimplifying the message.36:48 Looking from the outside looking in vs. being inside a company42:50 What Traction is a success metric for Yuriy in advisory?47:00 Discovery conversation and their structuring49:10 Trends that Yuriy bets on51:43 Where would Yuriy have liked to be a fly on the wall years agoConnect!Yuriy’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuriytimen/Yuriy’s Website: https://www.yuriytimen.com/Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Timestamps:0:00 Blake’s Introduction03:15 What do people get wrong about Blake?05:58 The effect of VCs suddenly knowing your domain really well.08:15 When VCs tell businesses to focus09:48 The effects of AI and how it changes the entire market11:45 Market dynamics explained on the example of being a musician.16:30 The difference between consumer vs business20:15 The biggest B2C businesses have a B2B model. Meta, Facebook, google22:00 Misconceptions about “product-led growth”24:52 Hacks vs. sustainable growth to capture VCs’ interest28:56 Going viral and how to make the unrepeatable valuable31:10 Blake’s talent for simplification without diluting the message on different social media channels33:53 How to make yourself stand out as a company37:10 The bloodbath market situation and the hangover41:20 Insecurities and the realization that we’re all a bit shit. The creators perspective, and being a board member when things go south46:15 How we get used to “scale” and the psychology behind it49:13 How businesses distort their accomplishments on social media53:10 Nonobvious trends that Blake is betting on - Product-led Growth, everywhere, the fall of enterpriseConnect!Blake’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakebartlett/Blake’s PLG123 on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaVvQTEaCyt2bbkoAh7wPygConnect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharinSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Season 2 is all about product-led growth! Ben Williams is a friend and an amazingly structured advisor in the product-led growth space. If you have ever wondered specifically how we structure our work, either as someone that looks into advising themselves or as a company that wonders how this episode is for you. Timestamps:0:00 Ben’s introduction and relevance to Leah02:20 What do people get wrong about Ben?03:20 Ben’s model as a consultant in the product-led growth space04:50 Going full-time as an advisor, how to make the scary jump08:40 The Growth model Rubick’s cube: How to explain growth motions13:28 PLG is easy in principle but hard in practice to pivot towards15:25 What steps do we always take at the beginning of PLG?18:15 Companies need to be intentional about their data and the structure around it21:41 Centralizing data competency vs. data organization25:05 The deal with engagement metrics and why should use them more27:50 Why engagement is not measured properly and the effects of it33:40 Breadth of engagement vs depth of engagement37:03 Engagement is not only a function of your customer but of your employees as well39:00 How to engage with BenSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube