Delivering Value: Tough Career Moments - Lessons from Growth, Marketing & Product Leaders

Growth advisor Kate Syuma reflects on career lows, adjusting leadership style, and hiring mistakes. She shares pivotal moments, embracing uncertainty, and balancing authenticity as a solopreneur. Topics include feedback impact, career conversations, and intuition in decision-making.

In this episode, Samantha Leal, Growth Advisor, discusses her journey and experiences in the SaaS PLG marketing world, the importance of understanding and practicing critical thinking and effective communication in leadership roles, and the blend of art and science in marketing.In this episode, you’ll hear about:1. When Samantha knew she needed a radical shift in her approach and decided to hold a no-holds-barred feedback session with her team2. Samantha’s boss telling her word-for-word she “lacked critical thinking skills”3. The moment when Samantha had to take over the marketing and felt like she was failing continuouslyThings to listen for:[03:13] Writing started to feel draining for Samantha[13:13] Her ‘welcome to the league’ moment when she felt ashamed for not knowing her role[18:09] Samantha’s wakeup call from office gossip[33:36] The constant feeling of failure that she felt in her new role[34:45] When her CEO told her she “lacked critical thinking skills”[49:17] Samantha’s goals at the stage she’s in right nowResources:- Connect with Sam on LinkedIn- Work with Sam- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Work with Andrew- Learn more about Appcues

In this episode, Joe Wilkinson, Founder and CEO at Artisan Strategies, discusses some of the challenges he’s faced in his career, his personal journey into handling workplace stress, and the lessons learned from handling transparency during company changes.In this episode, you’ll hear about:1. The time when Joe trained an individual to take over the team he was leading, just for him to transfer to a different team2. When Joe was stuck between choosing his friend or the company he was working at3. Joe’s boss telling him, “Great job everything is going amazing! You are the only one of your peers who won’t get promoted or a raise. No reason why.”Things to listen for:[03:32] When Joe gained the courage to go off on his own[07:21] His ‘aha’ moment into entrepreneurship[11:33] When Joe’s trainee was supposed to take over his team, but was persuaded to join a different team[18:10] Will he choose his friend? Or the business?[29:49] When Joe was told, “Great job! But you’re not getting a raise” at his performance review[37:30] Feedback can either make or break a relationship[41:16] Joe’s self doubt journeyResources:- Connect with Joe on LinkedIn- Check out Artisan Strategies- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Work with Andrew- Learn more about Appcues

In this episode, Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, talks about some of the low points in her career, the toughest feedback she’s ever received, how she navigates burnout, and how she’s been able to find her authentic voice as a leader.In this episode, you’ll hear about:1. When Amanda was told ““Wow. Rand opened up a lot of doors for you!”2. Amanda’s boss said it was obvious when she didn’t know what she was doing3. When Amanda was told “You’re too junior” and “You’re too direct”Things to listen for:[06:34] When Amanda was told “Wow. Rand must have opened up a lot of doors for you”[15:39] During the pandemic, she was furloughed from her job at Liftopia[19:01] Amanda felt powerless in her personal and professional life…[27:29] Being told “It’s so obvious you don’t know what you’re doing” by a manager[31:11] Seeing feedback as positive and her co-workers wanting to help[32:38] Being told “You’re too junior” and “You’re too direct”[39:34] “I don’t know” shows maturity and awareness on a personal level[45:57] The skills she wishes she worked on earlierResources:- Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn- Check out SparkToro- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Work with Andrew- Learn more about Appcues

We kick-off the miniseries by exploring the background and scale of the Navattic business to contextualize many of the growth challenges they’re facing and systems they use (which we’ll explore in upcoming episodes)In this first episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. How Navattic got started and settled on building interactive demos for the PLG market.2. Navattic's go-to-market approach, size/scale of the business, funding strategy, and current funnel.3. The hardest part about working in growth at this stage of the company.Things to listen for:[00:52] What is Navattic and how did it start?[01:45] Getting into Y Combinator[02:24] Discovering the PLG use case[02:52] How Navattic makes money / go-to market model[03:43] The scale of the Navattic business[04:10] Fundraising history[04:54] Number of employees[05:43] The pros and cons of not raising a huge round[06:07] A deep dive into Navattic’s funnel[07:26] The hardest part about working in growth at this stage of the companyResources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn or Twitter- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic

In this third episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. What the Navattic growth team is focused on right now, why those things, and how they get buy-in.2. How they make sure they’re solving the right problems, and get aligned with execs.3. How they manage the tension between staying agile and being laser focused.Things to listen for:[00:33] What Navattic is focused on right now, why those things, and how they got buy-in[01:30] The two main pillars Navattic is focused on [02:30] Specific KPI's related to their goals[03:08] Getting internal alignment and approval with execs[04:55] Defending the dissertation[06:06] Making sure we’re solving the right problems[06:50] We have our growth strategy - now what?![07:35] Managing the growth roadmap[08:43] Biggest concerns about their growth strategy [09:26] The importance of adaptability in growthResources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic

In this second episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. What growth is at Navattic, how they’ve scaled their team, and what their growth operating system looks like. 2. Areas of the growth model they have ownership and accountability for.3. The challenges faced by small growth teams; resource allocation, focusing on impactful experiments, and managing ideas from cross-functional stakeholders.Things to listen for:[00:37] What is growth at Navattic?[01:20] Balancing increasing metrics and learning in their experiments[02:00] The areas of the model growth owns[03:00] How they categorize their tests[03:25] Areas of the growth model that are “off limits”[04:05] Roles and responsibilities on the team[05:55] Slow is smooth and smooth is fast[06:27] Hiring Head of Growth before Head of Marketing[07:42] KPIs they’re accountable for[08:46] Getting resources to scale the team[10:12] Hardest part of being a two-person growth team[11:19] Systems to manage all the growth ideas being suggested[13:27] Managing experiments across channels[14:09] Running in sprintsResources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn or Twitter- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic

In the 4th episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. How the Navattic team manages and implements growth experiments using tools like Notion2. Why certain tools like Trello were passed over in favor of an all-in-Notion system and the benefits from this decision3. How the team collaborates on experiments, their scheduling of reviews and brainstorming sessions, and the informal yet structured approach they take towards retrospective meetingsThings to listen for:[00:35] Tools Navattic uses to get growth projects done[01:18] The project management systems to manage the work[3:522] Their growth experimentation “home base” artifact [05:02] What a typical week of meetings looks like for Raman and Natalie[06:28] The role of team retros[07:01] Their biggest operational challenges[08:01] Who needs to approve their work[08:38] Navattic’s process behind price experimentationResources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic

In the 5th episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. What’s in Navattic’s growth dashboards (and what isn’t).2. What gets shared internally, how often, and with who.3. Their biggest challenges when it comes to tracking and reporting - and how they navigate those.Things to listen for:[00:46] What KPIs they look at on a regular basis[01:15] The two dashboards that get presented weekly[02:05] The role of drill-down views broken down by channel[03:04] What gets shared at the company level[03:28] Sharing individual experiment data in a Slack Channel[04:10] Metrics they don’t track - but feel like they should[05:28] Their north star metric[05:54] What stresses them out the most about KPIs?[06:55] Handling the “why is this metric down?” questionResources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic

In the 6th episode of the Behind the Scenes Miniseries with the Navattic growth team, you’ll learn:1. How Natalie and Raman approach their portfolio of growth bets.2. How they blended qualitative insights (like customer feedback and market trends) with quantitative data (like metrics and analytics) to make approach a pricing challenge.3. How Natalie and Raman navigate the pressures to deliver wins and substantial results in a challenging 2024 economic climate.Things to listen for:[00:55] The biggest challenges Natalie and Raman face working in growth at Navattic[01:55] How the team approaches their portfolio of bets[03:00] A recent growth challenge Navattic has faced and how they conquered it[03:55] Using a blend of qual and quant to problem solve[05:17] Signals they should have public-facing pricing[06:03] The two things needed to prioritize a problem[06:58] Balancing qualitative and qualitative signals for pricing discovery[08:15] The pressure to deliver and perform right now[09:40] The realities working in growth in 2024[10:02] Raman’s ramp-up process and early-wins[12:03] The value of the 30-60-90 day plan Resources:- Binge the whole series on the Delivering Value Substack- Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn- Connect with Raman Khanna on LinkedIn- Connect with Natalie Marcotullio on LinkedIn- Learn more about Navattic