PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership

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

Kyle Poyar joined me on the ProductTea to talk about anything that makes businesses and VCs tick.I love this conversation for the simplicity of how Investors make decisions and what the future of our industry might very well look like. You should leave this podcast once you listened to it with some great insights into what makes product-led growth companies run differently than their competitors. 00:00 Kyle and Leah’s introduction04:00 Using LinkedIn to validate concepts and Ideas07:20 The balancing act of what we say and what we mean in different channels08:45 Consistency on LinkedIn and challenging established things like the NPS13:00 Kyle’s “Growth Unhinged” posts as a well of knowledge of the past 6 years in PLG15:30 The business model of “Openview”, Investment profile, and typical companies to invest in18:45 How to determine whether a company has reached product-market fit22:15 How to “show” product-market fit with non-obvious numbers26:20 How long it takes to “proof” a certain motion, typical Lifetime Value numbers29:30 The data Gap of tracking emails instead of people34:57 Investing into companies that have no revenue to show for39:00 Pre-Seed investment methods43:33 Do you know how the business you work in, works?45:00 Putting a price on Customer Success and the increasing business literacy around it47:30 When risk profiles are driven by greed and how PLG runs on a “skeleton crew”50:15 Where PLG companies spend more money than others51:50 Product-Led Sales and the maturity it’s in.Connect!Kyles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/ Kyle’s Substack: Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged Connect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharin Send us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Wes Bush joined me to talk about everything product-led. Wes specialized in advising companies on product-led growth through his courses and successful book. He’s a fun, authentic person to be around and I loved every minute we spent together.His no-bullshit approach to product-led growth is exactly why I started following him closer 5 months ago and have not regretted it in the slightest. There are a ton of very specific learnings in this talk condensed to one hour.00:00 Wes and Leah's introductions04:00 On the fundamentals of Product-led Growth and how its fundamentals are still basic business07:10 How consulting differs from how we represent PLG on LinkedIn and other spaces.09:40 How to get everyone on the same page in company consulting. Start at the very basics.10:55 How the term Product-led Growth is misleading and misunderstood.12:30 Product-Led Growth is not a binary, it’s a spectrum16:30 Coaching around PLG and how it is a tricky business to get buy-in from the entire organization19:15 Trying to convince people vs. doing team building around product-led growth21:50 ProductLed the company and how the product changed25:00 Chairs and ICPs28:00 Empowering anybody to do anything.30:40 How a product-led growth approach transcends everything33:45 The ideal customer for Productled39:35 Product-led Sales and whether it’s too early yet44:50 The mixup with Customer Success and the ensuing bloodbath48:30 What happens if Wes goes missing? How would his friends describe him to the police?50:00 If Wes had a time machine, what company would he have joined?53:15 Trends Wes believes inSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube

Dave Boyce started to talk to me about meatloaf. The logical follow-up to this topic is of course that he is a board member at Forrester. And a great human to be and spend time with. He advocated for PLG through Winning by Design, an amazing gig that gets the numbers right about PLG. Their visualizations are legendary and the reason for this is the people behind them, David is one of them.0:00 Dave and Leah introductions05:30 What do people get wrong about Dave Boyce08:40 How Dave sees his growth mindset and puts his ego where it belongs.09:45 Why we should not hold back from sharing our learnings16:15 Dave’s beautiful story of realizing that we’re all just humans during his entire career20:35 Leah’s framework about leaders and why it’s impossible to have it together all the time23:00 Dave’s definition of leadership. Bringing people somewhere they can’t see yet26:00 When letting people go becomes difficult, and how some decisions are impossible to get right.28:50 The connection to middle management. Do not resent people for making mistakes under you.30:40 Winning by Design and its mission to push into unexplored territory connected to PLG35:15 Why the math of Sales-Led doesn’t work when PLG could work.36:30 Leah’s take on PLG43:00 How sales can be a miserable experience47:15 It’s not about pretense anymore, it’s about bringing the best we have to offer to our fellow humans48:30 How Hubspot brought PLG to Leah56:00 How to bring Product-led Sales into a Sales-led organization59:15 The trend about bringing Product to SalesSend us a textLeah on Linkedin / Twitter / Youtube