Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth - 10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)
The conversation highlights common growth tactics that often fail, such as hiring growth teams too early, relying on rebranding for growth, and over-experimenting. It stresses the importance of founder-led growth until a company reaches a significant ARR milestone, as founders are best positioned to understand and drive initial growth. Additionally, it advises against relying solely on external channels like SEO and SEM, advocating instead for developing owned or earned channels through product-led growth, virality, and user-generated content. The discussion also touches on the importance of not copying competitors blindly and the value of hiring advisors to gain insights and avoid common pitfalls. Practical insights include focusing on creating sustainable growth loops and diversifying growth strategies to avoid stagnation.
Key Points:
- Delay hiring a growth team until achieving product-market fit and significant ARR.
- Avoid relying on rebranding or redesigns for growth; they often don't yield results.
- Focus on creating owned or earned channels rather than relying solely on SEO/SEM.
- Hire advisors to gain insights and avoid common growth pitfalls.
- Diversify growth strategies and avoid over-reliance on a single growth model.
Details:
1. 📈 Introduction to Growth and Common Misconceptions
1.1. Introduction to Growth
1.2. Common Misconceptions about Growth
2. 🚫 Ineffective Growth Tactics: What to Avoid
- Outsourcing growth team efforts to determine product-market fit is ineffective; this process must be internal and aligned with the company's core vision to ensure authenticity and effective adaptation to market needs.
- Rebranding or redesigning a marketing site rarely leads to improved performance, despite frequent promises of increased acquisition. Instead, focus should be on understanding customer needs and optimizing user experience based on data-driven insights.
- New CMOs often redesign based on personal taste rather than strategic need, which typically fails to produce tangible results. Decisions should be grounded in customer feedback and market research to align with brand goals and consumer expectations.
3. 🎙️ Podcast Highlights: Elena Verna's Insights on Growth
- Every growth initiative being an experiment indicates a lack of strategic planning, suggesting a shift from trial and error to more deliberate strategies.
- Ten commonly failing growth strategies are highlighted, prompting companies to reassess their investments in these areas.
- Three growth frameworks are introduced, offering structured alternatives to traditional strategies, enhancing understanding and implementation of growth initiatives.
- Non-traditional career paths in growth are explored, providing unique perspectives that could enhance growth strategies and overcome challenges.
- Concrete examples and case studies are discussed to illustrate the successful implementation of growth frameworks and the pitfalls of common strategies.
4. 📡 Sponsored Segments and Product Advertisements
4.1. Podcast Promotion
4.2. Introduction to Cinch
4.3. Cinch's Market Reach
4.4. Emerging Messaging Trend
4.5. RCS Features
4.6. US Carrier Adoption and Early Access
4.7. Vanta Introduction
4.8. Vanta's Compliance Automation
4.9. Vanta's Market Impact
4.10. Vanta Promotion
5. 🔍 Challenges and Misconceptions in Tech Startups
6. 💡 Strategies for Building Effective Growth Teams
- Avoid treating every growth initiative purely as an experiment; it indicates a lack of strategic planning.
- Establish a balance between experimentation and informed strategy to ensure sustainable growth.
- Utilize data-driven decision-making to prioritize initiatives with the highest potential impact.
- Implement a structured framework for evaluating the success of growth experiments and scaling successful initiatives.
- Encourage cross-functional collaboration to leverage diverse perspectives and expertise in growth strategies.
7. 🔁 Iteration and Experimentation in Growth
7.1. Growth Frameworks
7.2. Cinch's API Adoption and Impact
7.3. Advancements in Messaging with RCS
7.4. Vanta's Compliance Platform
8. 🧠 Growth Frameworks and Career Optionality
8.1. Introduction and Context
8.2. Insights Per Minute as a Metric
8.3. Growth Frameworks and Tactics
9. 🎉 Memorable Moments and Closing Remarks
- Avoid hiring for growth too early; focus on achieving $1 million ARR before creating growth teams.
- A founder-led approach is critical in early stages to establish product-market fit.
- In B2B SaaS, prioritize hiring sales teams if the business is sales-led.
- Growth teams can only optimize existing success, not fix fundamental product or marketing issues.
- Rebranding or redesigning a homepage rarely drives growth and can result in setbacks.
- Copying competitors without understanding context can lead to poor results.
- Focus on creating owned or earned channels like user-generated content for sustainable growth.
- Evolve growth strategies to include product, marketing, and sales-led initiatives.
- Introduce new growth models every 18 months and a new channel every five years to maintain momentum.
- Hiring advisors accelerates learning and provides diverse insights for growth teams.
- Excessive reliance on experimentation can slow down decision-making and innovation.