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Productivity News
Leah’s ProducTea
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Should you Product-led Growth?
- Product-led Growth (PLG) can be a survival strategy, but it's a nuanced one and requires consideration of where you are now and where you're headed. You don’t simply decide 'Yes, we’ll do PLG' or 'No, we won’t do PLG'.
- Understand where your Ideal customer profiles stand with your product. Consider the lifetime value (LTV) of your users and the human activation energy needed to onboard them.
- Five activation levers are at your disposal for engagement models, which include: Gary the Sales Guy (High-Touch Sales), Interactive Demos, Trials, Freemiums, and Ungated Freemiums. The ideal customer prefers an activation journey for different ICPs.
- In order to get ahead of the competition, you need to recognize the 'Dangerous Gap' and take action before it's too late as it leaves customers room to go to more frictionless competitors.
- The key difference in outcomes between HubSpot and Salesforce lies in their ability to adapt their product and organizational structure to the demands of PLG.
- When should you NOT do too much self-serve? If your product's interface is only slightly optimal for the use case it covers or differentiation factors are outside of self-serve value. Freemiums may undersell your product's true strengths in those cases.
- Your distribution model is not a tactic, it's a strategy. The decision to use PLG must be carefully considered, especially when certain conditions suggest that other models, such as trials or high-touch sales, may be more effective.
- Deciding when to adopt a PLG strategy is not just a tactical decision; it's a strategic one that requires careful consideration of your product's position, your customers' needs, and the overall market dynamics.
- By shifting to a PLG model, you can enhance customer experiences and drive growth. By continuously reassessing and adjusting as needed, you can confidently answer the question, 'When do I do PLG?'
- Freemium models can be powerful tools in a PLG strategy, but they are not always the right choice. Trial periods with some level of guided support should be considered when excellent customer support or a high level of service is a key differentiator for your ICP.
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Minis
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This popular interview question ‘trips a lot of people up,’ says hiring expert—the best way to answer it
- The interview question "Tell me about yourself" can be tricky despite its common use as an icebreaker.
- Hiring experts advise keeping your response concise, ideally 1-2 minutes, focusing on strengths, relevant experience, and excitement for the role. Avoid long-winded biographies; instead, offer a brief elevator pitch that highlights a recent challenge or a leadership experience to demonstrate self-awareness and maturity.
- Tailor your answer to the job you're applying for, emphasizing the skills and qualities that align with the position. This approach sets a positive tone for the rest of the interview.
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Lenny's Newsletter
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Succeeding as an introvert, building zero-to-one, and why you should PM your career like you PM your product | Deb Liu (CEO of Ancestry, ex-Facebook, PayPal, eBay)
- Deb Liu, CEO of Ancestry and former VP of Product at Facebook, shares her experiences with building businesses and thriving as an introvert in the workplace.
- She discusses strategies for treating your career like a product, incubating new products within large companies, and creating a successful 30-60-90-day plan when starting a new job.
- Liu also touches on the challenges of perfectionism and how to overcome the limitations of introversion in the business world.
- She advocates for a focus on personal growth and alternate roles to balance learning and impact in your career.
- In her experience, introverts need to learn to speak up and market their wins to progress in their career. Leaders can also create an inclusive environment where everyone has an opportunity to share their opinions and successes.
- Liu suggests breaking long-term career goals into actionable milestones with metrics for success to continually review and adjust the plan based on progress and changes in the industry.
- She recommends creating a structured 30-60-90-day plan when starting a new role, focusing on listening and learning for the first 30 days, aligning and planning for the next 60 days, and executing the plan and focusing on impact in the last 90 days.
- Liu also shares her experiences with resilience and turning failure into stepping stones for personal growth.
- Finally, she recommends leveraging coaching and accountability to continue developing in your career, and shares some additional resources for personal and professional development.
- This podcast episode is brought to you by Pendo, WorkOS, and Webflow.
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Minis
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Indian engineer gets 1:30 am call from senior colleague for 6 am shift. Reddit says ‘resign’
- An Indian support engineer, Vinit Patil, shared on Reddit that he missed a 1:30 am call from a senior colleague informing him to report to work at 6 am, despite his shift starting at 7:30 am.
- The unexpected schedule change came after Patil had finished work at 9 pm the previous night. Reddit users criticized the unprofessional behavior, with some advising him to apologize for missing the call, while others warned against setting a precedent of always being available.
- This incident highlights the increasing pressure on employees to be constantly accessible, blurring the lines between work and personal life.
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Minis
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HDFC Says Wealth Manager Pay Hikes of 50% May ‘Haunt’ Industry
- HDFC Bank's wealth management arm is facing a talent shortage, leading to a surge in pay hikes of 40% to 50% to attract skilled professionals.
- With assets under management totaling 6.47 trillion rupees ($77.2 billion), the bank is hiring retail bankers internally and externally to serve its wealthy clients. Rakesh K. Singh, group head for investment, private wealth, and international banking, noted that these aggressive pay increases may have long-term repercussions for the industry.
- The shortage of wealth management talent is pushing firms to offer substantial incentives, potentially causing challenges in the future.
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Minis
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The Great Tech Reset: Unpacking The Layoff Surge Of 2024
- The tech industry, once a symbol of innovation, is now facing a wave of layoffs in 2024, with over 124,000 workers affected.
- This downturn follows a period of aggressive hiring during the pandemic, compounded by inflation, higher interest rates, and economic uncertainty. Companies like Intel and Cisco are making significant cuts, while the rise of AI and outsourcing is reshaping the workforce.
- The layoffs echo the dot-com bust, but with more experienced workers now impacted. As the industry navigates this "Great Reset," resilience and adaptability are key for those affected, with opportunities in AI, data centers, and emerging fields.
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Minis
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Don’t ask about work-life balance in a job interview, says ex-Google recruiter; here’s why
- When interviewing for a job, ask questions that demonstrate your eagerness to contribute and help the company grow.
- Former Google recruiter Nolan Church advises against asking about work-life balance or professional development during the interview. Questions like these can raise red flags, indicating you may not want to work hard or are focused on personal gains rather than team success.
- Instead, Church suggests asking specific questions like, "What is the company's north star for the next 12 months?" or "What traits do top performers share?" These questions show your commitment to the company's success and help you assess the work environment.
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Minis
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The smart way to negotiate a job offer in today’s slowing labor market
- List your priorities beforehand: Identify your must-haves, nice-to-haves, and nonnegotiables to steer your job search and negotiations effectively.
- Gather information early: Clarify role details, including salary and work flexibility, during initial conversations to avoid late-stage surprises.
- How to counter an offer: Approach negotiations with positivity, emphasizing your value before making requests, and know that early-career professionals are expected to negotiate.
- Know how far you’re willing to go: Determine your walk-away point and maintain professionalism to avoid being perceived as difficult in a competitive market.
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Minis
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Mark Zuckerberg reveals email ID he used to create his first account on Facebook
- Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed the email ID he used to create his first Facebook account on Threads.
- Responding to a humorous post about needing a .edu email to join Facebook, Zuckerberg shared that his first account was created with "[email protected]." This sparked a nostalgic conversation among users, reminiscing about their early days on the platform.
- While Zuckerberg was the fourth person to have an ID on Facebook, the first three accounts were reserved for testing and later deleted.
- Zuckerberg's post quickly gained attention, with many sharing their own memories of joining Facebook during its early years.
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The Beautiful Mess
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TBM 307: The "P" Word, Legitimacy, and Challenging Our Default Models and Frames
- The current industry climate is one of asymmetry. People—executives, investors, upper managers, and middle managers, and front-line contributors—experience very different realities and generate and circulate very different narratives.
- Tech companies, in particular, and modern companies generally use organizational structures and operating models that closely resemble military organizations.
- Hierarchical structure, chain of command, boundaries of decision-making authority, etc.
- Tech companies and militaries have two things in common: Apolitical and Meritocracy.
- Images of Organization invites readers to explore different frames of organizations. These include different frames such as Machines, Organisms, Brains, Culture, Political System, Psychic Prison, Instrument of Domination, Flux, and Transformation.
- Companies don't have a singular culture. In many ways, we are fighting each other, or at least pushing back on competing and opposing narratives.
- Despite efforts to convey otherwise, layoffs are overtly political endeavors if we define politics as the negotiation of power, influence, and competing interests within an organization.
- Mission command works through trust, shared awareness, and understanding of the commander's intent. When that contract breaks, mission command breaks.
- In short, mission command works when there is an overall sense of integrity, representation, and legitimacy in the system.
- Legitimacy is not binary—no authority structure can ever be perfectly legitimate to 100% of its constituents all the time.
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Lenny's Newsletter
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Unorthodox PM wisdom: Automating user insights, unselling job candidates, logging every decision, more | Kevin Yien (Stripe, Square, Mutiny)
- Great product managers (PMs) must also be great writers.
- Improve your writing skills by reading widely and critically, emphasizing clarity, tailoring your writing style to your audience, experimenting with cadence, and practicing regularly.
- Keep a decision log to improve your product sense by including the date, decision made, rationale and expected outcomes. Revisit decisions every 3-6 months to reflect on what worked, what didn't and why.
- Before presenting a job offer, send job candidates an “unsell email” that lists all the reasons why they may not want to work at your company.
- Automate user research to save time and gain direct insights, by using tools like User Interviews or integrating Gong with Slack.
- When facing setbacks like layoffs, separate your self-worth from your job performance and re-assess the business and skill fit.
- AI will inevitably displace jobs but its impact on future generations depends on how we shape it.
- Kevin recommends Shopify, Figma, Stripe, Twilio, and Gong as useful tools for PMs
- Kevin is the product lead for merchant experiences at Stripe, he built the restaurants business and ecosystem team at Square, and most recently was head of product and design at Mutiny.
- Find more insights from Kevin on LinkedIn or on his personal website.
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Minis
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Always ask these 4 questions when you’re interviewing for a job, says ex-Google recruiter
- ‘What is the company’s north star for the next 12 months?’ This question helps you understand the company’s priorities and whether they align with your career goals.
- ‘What is the common trait of your top performers?’ Discovering the traits valued in top performers allows you to assess if your strengths and work style fit well with the company.
- ‘What’s the one thing you love most about the culture?’ This provides specific insights into the work environment and helps you decide if you would thrive there.
- ‘What problem do you want me to solve in the first 30 days?’ Understanding immediate expectations shows your eagerness to contribute and prepares you for success from day one.
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63 Likes
Minis
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'A helper at a momo shop earns Rs 3 lakh per annum!': Bengaluru startup founder takes a jab at Cognizant's fresher pays
- A Bengaluru momo shop listing offering ₹3 lakh per annum sparked online debate when compared to Cognizant’s ₹2.52 lakh per annum for freshers.
- Amit Misra, CEO of Dazeinfo, drew attention by sharing the ad, saying, “Cognizant is offering ₹2.52 LPA for engineers! Meanwhile, a helper job at a momo shop earns ₹3 LPA!” The social media backlash highlighted the low entry-level IT salaries in costly cities like Bengaluru and Pune.
- Comments included, “Wow, Rs 2 lakhs per year? My driver makes way more than that.” Wipro’s similar packages with strict conditions also raised concerns about industry salary standards and living costs.
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Minis
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The 3 New Rules Of Recruitment In An Age Of AI
- Move Beyond Traditional Credentials: Employers should move away from traditional markers like degrees and focus more on skills and potential, which increases the talent pool's depth and diversity.
- Prioritize Potential: Focus on a candidate's flexibility, learning agility, and creativity. Tools like IQ assessments can predict long-term success better than college credentials, reducing bias in hiring.
- Emphasize Soft Skills: As hard skills quickly become outdated, soft skills like creativity and emotional intelligence provide a more durable measure of a candidate's ability to adapt and innovate.
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Lenny's Newsletter
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Summary: April Dunford on product positioning, segmentation, and optimizing your sales process
- April Dunford is an expert at product positioning and wrote the book on it - Obviously Awesome.
- Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering some value that a set of companies care about.
- It's hard to measure bad or weak positioning, but you can feel a sluggishness with customers who do not understand the product.
- Most cases April has dealt with are misalignment problems within orgs and not positioning problems.
- The five key steps to figuring out your product’s positioning are: competitive alternatives, unique attributes, translate into value, target customers and the market you win.
- An early-stage company trying to find PMF does not need to nail positioning as it involves a lot of validation of the product hypothesis first.
- Segmentation involves things like firmographics, while personas are created to identify who the internal champion is for prospective buyers.
- Positioning is a precursor to messaging, which is the text on the homepage. Branding is the differentiation for the brand to be distinct.
- April has worked hands-on with over 200 companies on positioning, including Google, IBM, Postman, and Epic Games.
- April helped Help Scout figure out its differentiation, which they found to be their philosophy of customer service.
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