ProductLed Podcast

Over the years, many companies have made the shift from high touch and high friction sales models to product-led growth. Today’s guest made the same transition and shared what his journey from sales-led to product-led has been like. Brennan McEachran is the CEO and co-founder of SoapBox Innovations. He was also 2015’s Ontario Young Entrepreneur of the Year winner. In this episode, Brennan shared what the transition to product-led growth has been like—from the challenges they encountered down to how he changed the team’s mindset, he covered it all. Show Notes [00:54] How he started Soapbox [02:47] How they pivoted into product-led growth [03:28] What prompted them to pivot into product-led growth [07:29] How he managed the transition [11:23] Biggest challenge of the whole transition [13:32] The experiments he made prior to making the transition and the results he got [21:35] His advice to those who would like to make the jump [25:01] What their org chart looks like [29:15] How support has contributed to growth [37:09] How he changed the team mindset from selling first to adoption first About Brennan McEachran Brennan McEachran is the co-founder and CEO of Soapbox Innovations. Soapbox is the first people platform made to revolutionize management. The amazing tool is designed to help managers coach, collaborate, and communicate with their teams better. Soapbox is trusted by over 100, 000 companies around the globe including HubSpot, GoDaddy, Adobe, Coca-Cola, and Netflix.  Links HubspotChrome ExtensionsSpotifyGmail Profile Brennan McEachran on LinkedInBrennan McEachran on TwitterBrennan McEachran on MediumSoapbox Website

When they redesigned FullStory’s onboarding process, today’s guest scored some definite wins. However, they also made a few mistakes along the way. In this episode, Melanie Crissey shared the six onboarding mistakes they made so you can avoid them! Melanie is FullStory’s product marketing manager. She also serves as product marketing lead for two product programs. In this episode, Melanie shared what onboarding looked like in 2017, how she prevented onboarding from becoming over bloated, and the 6 onboarding mistakes she made and how she addressed them. Show Notes [01:57] What FullStory is and what it’s all about [03:14] Her role and responsibilities at FullStory [04:27] What FullStory is focusing on right now [06:51] How having a conversation can help improve the user experience [08:42] How product-led growth can help traditional sales teams grow the company [11:57] What onboarding looked like in 2017 [14:21] Her thoughts on activation emails [16:25] Negative changes she has seen in terms of user onboarding [17:50] How she was able to prevent onboarding from becoming over bloated  [19:06] How the sales team qualifies the people they’ll call [20:30] The 6 onboarding mistakes product-led businesses should avoid and how to address them [25:35] Things she’s excited to experiment with that’s related to user onboarding [28:20] Her advice for those who are in charge of user onboarding [29:35] Where people can find her About Melanie Crissey Melanie Crissey is a product marketer and customer experience leader. She is also FullStory’s product marketing manager. FullStory is an intelligent platform designed to create groundbreaking digital experiences. FullStory also works by uncovering hidden opportunities to help improve the digital experience. FullStory’s intelligent software can also help pinpoint when, where, and how user struggle affects both retention and revenue.  Links FullStoryFullStory Signup PageEvery Onboarding Mistake I Made (So You Don’t Have To) Profile Melanie Crissey on LinkedIn Melanie Crissey on Twitter

While leading marketing for a marketing-led SaaS company, today’s guest discovered customer-led growth. From there, she used the approach to grow revenue by almost 900 percent! In this episode, Georgiana Laudi talked about product-led growth as well as customer-led growth. Georgiana is a seasoned strategic and growth advisor and marketing executive. She is also the co-founder of Forget the Funnel. In this episode, Georgiana differentiated sales-led from product-led, defined what product-led growth is for her, and shared her thoughts on pricing and its impact, among many others. Show Notes [00:43] What got her to where she is today [07:08] Why some companies are defined as engineering-led [10:15] What product-led growth is for her [14:55] Difference between sales-led and marketing-led [21:44] Types of companies that fits best for different market strategies [27:19] The main barriers she sees for those who are trying product-led growth [36:46] How to figure out the success metric [42:41] One piece of advice for companies who would like to become more customer-led [45:55] Her thoughts on pricing and its impact on the company [47:55] Best place to find her About Georgiana Laudi Georgiana Laudi is a marketing executive and strategic and growth advisor. She is also the co-founder of Forget the Funnel, a company that focuses on executive level growth strategy and support for scaling SaaS businesses. They also help growth and marketing leaders to become more effective through their workshops and trainings. Some of the multi-million dollar SaaS companies they’ve helped include Unbounce, SparkToro, Appcues, MeetEdgar, Saasler, and Calendly. Links HubspotMarketoStripeWordStreamWebsite GraderUnbounceJobs-to-be-Done Theory Profile Forget the FunnelGeorgiana Laudi on LinkedInGeorgiana Laudi on Twitter

To find out how product teams drive growth using data, Mixpanel surveyed close to 500 leading product managers. From the survey, they uncovered the latest trends, focuses, and struggles of product teams across the world. To give us some more insight, we talked to Jeff Beckham, the head of product and content marketing at Mixpanel. In this episode, Jeff shared how their report came together, the key metrics product managers are focusing on these days, and his advice for product teams and managers. Show Notes [01:32] What Mixpanel is and what his role is [02:16] Key metrics product managers are focusing on these days [04:22] How the report came together [05:25] Things that have gotten in the way of product innovation [09:02] Tools that are used to increase KPIs and how Mixpanel stacks up [10:36] His advice for product teams [12:00] His advice to product managers in terms of the skills they need to learn [13:35] How product managers can find the balance [14:05] Where people can find him and the report once it comes out About Jeff Beckham Jeff Beckham is the head of product and content marketing at Mixpanel. Mixpanel is the most powerful self-serve product analytics designed to help businesses understand their users better and to convert, engage, and retain them. Trusted by forward-thinking companies like Microsoft, BMW, Shutterfly, and Microsoft, Mixpanel has provided the support companies need to succeed in their user analytics, from implementation to ongoing support, down to technical consultation, they have it all covered. Profile Mixpanel websiteReport (The State of Product Analytics) 

Why is product adoption vital to the success of any SaaS product? For starters, when product adoption increases, churn also plummets. Preventing churn is one of the primary aims of Gainsight PX. Gainsight PX is the brainchild of Michael Alon, a driven consultant and entrepreneur. In this episode, Michael shares what product-led for B2B means, how to build a powerful product-led growth strategy, and what companies are doing to increase product adoption. Show Notes [00:59] How he became the founder of Gainsight PX [03:51] Difference between sales-led, marketing-led, and product-led growth [07:32] What he thinks is the difference between marketing versus product-led [10:44] When the best time to talk to users is [13:07] How he defines product qualified leads (PQLs) [19:00] What product-led growth for B2B means [26:10] How one should go about building a successful product-led growth strategy [32:43] Things companies are doing to increase product adoption [42:53] Where people can learn more about him and what he’s up to About Michael Alon Michael Alon is a serial entrepreneur who’s passionate about designing, building, and launching innovative products designed to drive business outcomes. Michael is the CEO and founder of Aptrinsic. He is also the CTO and founder of Gainsight PX, a leading customer success platform provider that helps businesses secure and surpass the outcomes desired by their customers. Their evidence-based practices as well as their powerful software platform gives clients the insight they need from customer data so they can take the best action at the right time and maximise customer relationships. Links Insightera(Marketo)HubSpotSlack Profile Michael on SlideshareMichael on LinkedInGainsight

If most conventional CRMs are focused primarily on deal flow, what’s a CRM created for product-led organisations like? That’s one of the questions today’s guest addressed in this episode. Chris Lucas is an entrepreneur, consultant, and startup advisor. He is also the founder of Telemetry and the co-founder of Boardable. In this episode, he shares how he started solving CRM-related concerns for product-led companies, how businesses can deliver the value they promised as quickly as possible, and how one can make the transition to a product-led company happen. Show Notes [01:06] How he started solving CRM-related problems [03:36] How people are solving problems right now using the CRM for product-led companies [07:20] Why he thinks product-led growth is eating the world in SaaS [09:25] Why product-led growth has taken over [10:55] What product-led themes should look like [13:15] How he makes things actionable for people [15:42] What product qualified leads (PQLs) are [17:56] How he determines what the product qualified leads should be [21:27] What companies should do next after they have identified product qualified leads [23:23] How teams can hone in on delivering the value they promised as quickly as possible [26:58] How to make the transition to a product-led organisation happen [29:19] What’s next for him and Telemetry [29:57] Where people can learn about him and Telemetry About Chris Lucas Chris Lucas is a startup advisor, consultant, and entrepreneur focused on product-led growth. He is also the founder of Telemetry, an insights driven CRM created for product-led companies. Telemetry is also designed to qualify leads and take action so businesses can engage their users in one platform. Chris is passionate about growing teams and scaling businesses and has scaled startups from zero to $10mm ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). Links FormstackHubSpotWebsite GradarWordStream Profile TelemetryProduct-led Growth UniversityChris on LinkedInChris on Twitter

For today’s guest, the phrase “jobs to be done” carries with it a lot of meaning. And for people to understand the concept better, he breaks the cycle down in this episode. Alan Klement is a partner at Revealed and author of the book “When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become Great at Making Products People Will Buy.” In this episode, he shares what jobs to be done is all about, how he helps people figure out their jobs to be done, and what they’ve achieved using the process. Show Notes [00:52] How he became the author of a book on jobs to be done [02:43] What jobs to be done is all about [06:53] Two processes that happens that can cause someone to adopt a product [10:54] How he helps people figure out their jobs to be done [14:13] The first step in the process for those who want to nail jobs to be done [16:19] How he gets granular in terms of understanding the needs of the users [19:07] Best way to describe a job to be done [21:40] An example of what they’ve achieved using his process [26:40] What their process is like [30:15] When his next book is coming out [32:50] Where people can check him out to know more About Alan Klement Alan Klement is a partner at Revealed, a company that helps clients understand and respond to what’s going in the market and helps teams move faster, reduce risk, and increase success. Apart from writing the book “When Coffee and Kale Compete: Become Great at Making Products People Will Buy,” Alan has also dedicated himself to understanding and predicting product adoption. This led him to create DGA (Demand-Generation Analysis), a systematic means of studying and predicting demand. Links HubSpotPipedrive Profile Alan on TwitterWhen Coffee and Kale Compete: Become Great at Making Products People Will Buy by Alan Klement

For today’s guest, product is the new marketing and in this episode, she shares why she believes it is so. In today’s show, Sandhya Hegde, VP of Growth and Marketing at Amplitude talks about how they approach product-led growth at Amplitude, what the good North Star metrics are for product-led companies, and how she builds customer empathy within their team. Show Notes [00:47] How she became the VP of Growth and Marketing at Amplitude [04:53] Why she thinks product is the new marketing [08:20] How her team’s thoughts around the product has changed [10:50] Good North Star metrics for product-led companies [14:49] Why their strategy is collaboration [17:13] How she monitors the success of the users for their campaigns [19:40] How they approach product-led growth at Amplitude [24:26] Her thoughts on dummy data [27:25] When should sales step in during the initial touchpoint [30:00] How they use the product to hit their marketing and growth goals [31:21] Skills needed in a product-led company [35:27] How she builds customer empathy within their team [39:18] Where people can find out more about her and her work About Sandhya Hegde Sandhya Hegde is the VP of Growth and Marketing at Amplitude, a computer software that provides product intelligence tools designed to help teams run and grow their digital businesses. To date, over 26, 000 companies use Amplitude for product analytics including Twitter, Intuit, Under Armour, Bonobos, Peloton, and Microsoft. Profile AmplitudeAmplitude Blog

To say product is the new SDR is a bold statement. Our brilliant guest today will share why he believes it is so. In this episode, Moritz Dausinger, founder of Refiner discusses why he thinks product is the new SDR, what the new SDR is in his opinion, and how the hand off is different for product-led businesses. Show Notes [00:56] How he became the founder of Refiner [02:14] Their company mission and the problem they want to solve [03:55] Why he thinks product is the new SDR [06:19] How selling changes in a product-led business [07:35] When should human interaction come into the whole process [10:00] Where they start on the journey of using their products to qualify users [13:10] What he recommends when it comes to qualifying results [14:53] When should companies introduce the traditional MQO with inside sales [16:19] What the new SDR is in his opinion [17:48] Trends he sees in the companies he has helped [20:30] How the hand off is different for a product-led business [22:15] His advice to companies who want to become more product-led [24:38] Where people who would like to reach out can find him About Moritz Dausinger Moritz Dausinger is the founder of Refiner, a user profiling software that’s built specifically for eCommerce, SaaS, and membership sites. The software is also designed to easily integrate into any sales and marketing stacks seamlessly. If you are looking to increase both conversion and retention rates through better customer data, Refiner might be just what you need. Profile RefinerMoritz on LinkedInMoritz on Twitter

For DevOps platforms like GitLab, transparency is crucial as it can provide feedback instantaneously. In this episode, Kenny Johnston, senior director of product at GitLab talks about product engagement, why transparency is important, and how people can build a successful product-led business. Show Notes [00:33] How he became the senior director of product at GitLab Inc. [02:38] How he transitioned from being a web developer to someone who leads product [04:03] What GitLab is [05:20] His process in terms of product engagement [08:56] Where to start when improving product engagement [11:02] How they handle trolls [12:53] How they find ideas and potential products from the feedbacks [15:09] What they look for when analyzing product engagement [17:03] Common mistakes he’s seen people make when improving product engagement [18:37] Signals they look out for when pulling the plug [20:04] Frameworks or methodologies he uses to improve product engagement [22:49] Why transparency is important and how to make it a reality in the business [25:37] How people can build a successful product led business [27:24] Where people can find out more about him and what he does About Kenny Johnston Kenny Johnston is the senior director of product at GitLab, a DevOps platform that changes the way security, development, and Ops teams collaborate and build software. The fast-growing, all-remote company has team members located in over 50 countries. Profile GitLabKenny on TwitterKenny on LinkedIn