Ramli John

Author of Product-Led Onboarding (+30K copies sold) | First Round Fast Track Mentor | Content Director at Appcues.

⭐️ Follow me for helpful tips to onboard, delight, and keep your customers coming back to your product.
📔 Author of Amazon #1 bestselling book "Product-Led Onboarding." 👉 𝙎𝙀𝘼𝙉 𝙀𝙇𝙇𝙄𝙎, Founder of GrowthHackers.com: "Product-Led Onboarding is 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 embarking on the critical activity of improving their user onboarding." 


⚡️ I use my multi-disciplinary skills in marketing, design, and software development to help product-led SaaS companies analyze their whole customer's journey and funnel to identify growth opportunities to 2-3X their MRR. 

Often, that means designing and implementing experiments to increase activation rate (trial-to-paid or free-to-paid conversions), decrease churn rate, or increase average revenue per user (ARPU)

If you asked my friends and colleagues how they would describe me, they'd say I'm resourceful, proactive, and entrepreneurial

►► CONTACT INFO
▷ Send a connection request
▷ Write me a note at ramli [at] ramlijohn.com

Founder

A weekly show and newsletter for marketers looking to level up their marketing and career. I interview world-class marketers to uncover the secrets, strategies, and frameworks behind their wins. In each episode, guests reveal three things:  (1) a marketing power-up,  (2) a real-world example of that in action, and (3) a power-up that’s helped them take their career to the next level.

Ramli "RJ" John

When your product team skips user research (and just builds fast with AI)... 🤡


AI lets you ship in days, not weeks. But without user research, speed just gets you to the wrong place faster.

A product leader was about to ship a feature last week. AI-assisted code. Cloud deployment ready. Built in 3 days.

Then someone from customer success flagged something: "This solves a problem our users stopped complaining about 6 months ago."

One conversation. Saved weeks of wasted effort.

We can build faster than ever. AI tools, cloud code, vibe coding—the speed is real.

But speed without direction is just efficient wandering.

The real question isn't "Can we ship this?"

It's "Should we?"

That's where user research becomes non-negotiable.

Here are 5 ways to quickly validate ideas before you ship:

1. Run a 5-second test on your concept (does it communicate what you think it does?)
2. Send a quick survey to your target segment (10 questions max)
3. Do 3-5 unmoderated usability tests on a prototype
4. Interview 5 users who match your ICP (even 15-min calls work)
5. Card sort your information architecture before building navigation

None of these take weeks. Most can be done in days.

Tools like Lyssna make this even faster. You can recruit from 690K+ vetted participants, run moderated or unmoderated tests, and get results before your sprint ends.

Speed is a competitive advantage.

But only when you're building the right thing.

What's your go-to method for quick validation?

PS. Save this for the next time you're tempted to ship something fast without validating it first. Future you will thank you.

Join the AI Product Leaders Summit on 3/24 for free at PLSummit.ai. Founder @ Delight Path. 2x best-selling author. New book “Eureka” now available. Author of “Product-Led Onboarding” (+40K copies sold).

Less than 5 days until the AI Product Leaders Summit with 12 speakers from Adobe, Google, and more. Register for free https://lnkd.in/gWfqMNZN

Every speaker is actively building AI products or leading teams through AI transformation right now. No theory. Just what's actually working (and what flopped).

The lineup:

→ Deepti Pradeep  and her team (Adobe) on how Photoshop got 100k+ of users in 30 days by launching inside ChatGPT

→ Jacob Bank (Relay.app, ex-Google Gmail/Calendar) on the 3 AI agents every product leader should "hire"

→ Mickey Alon (Foldspace AI) on Agent-Led Growth—when your product does the work for users

→ Christine Itwaru & Katy Nardozzi (Userflow) on dogfooding their way to better product decisions

→ Joe Formica (Lyssna) on where AI misleads product decisions (and how to avoid it)

Plus two expert panels:

→ Angela Sze (Sr. Director of Product at Fullstory), Shannon Vettes (CEO/CPO at Usersnap), Lauren Schuman (VP of Product Growth at Close) on shipping AI features without losing customer trust

→ Betsy Shaak (VP Product Voxpopme), Greg Leach (Sr. Director at 7shifts), and Partho Ghosh (VP Product @ Uberall) on how product teams are using AI to cut the busywork

Here's what you'll walk away with:

1. How Adobe turned ChatGPT into a growth channel (and whether you should too)
2. Which AI agents actually save PMs time vs. pure hype
3. How to ship AI features without confusing users or breaking trust
4. Where AI creates blind spots in product decisions

March 24th. 10 AM - 3:30 PM ET. Virtual. Free.

Register for free: https://lnkd.in/gWfqMNZN

What's the biggest challenge you're facing with AI products right now?

PS. Tag a product leader who needs to see this. They'll thank you for it. 😊

It's been 2 years since I've had a podcast show. Tomorrow, that changes! Product Leaders Lab by Delight Path drops at 8 am ET. 🎉


I waited because I didn't want another show. I wanted something that actually aligned with what I'm building—a media and community brand for product leaders.

The first episode is "The AI Adoption Pressure."

Your team is scrolling LinkedIn, seeing posts about AI replacing jobs. Leadership is pushing hard on adoption. Everyone's overwhelmed. No one knows where to start.

Two product leaders faced this exact moment. Same pressure. Completely different approaches.

Greg Leach (Sr. Director/GM of Expansion Revenue at 7shifts) built a cross-functional AI committee. Volunteers from every department. Monthly demos drawing 100+ people. Department budgets for experimentation. Bottom-up learning across the entire company.

Joseph King (Sr. Director of Product at Crucial Learning) took a different path. His team invested in sending four leaders to Kellogg for AI certification. Frameworks first. Leadership alignment before company-wide rollout. Top-down, methodical approach.

Both worked. But for very different reasons.

This episode breaks down what each leader did, why they chose their approach, and what you can learn from both paths.

No generic advice. Just real decisions, real trade-offs, and real outcomes.

🎧 Search "Product Leaders Lab" on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Tomorrow. 8 am ET. See you there!

Most product onboarding fails because of "click tax." More clicks = higher drop-off. AI can fix this. Here's how...


First, here's what the traditional flow could look like:
→ Click on Document Templates
→ Pick a template
→ Update the template
→ Save and send

4 steps. Each one adds cognitive load. In B2B, it's worse. You've got multiple personas with different expertise, different outcomes they're chasing.

One-size-fits-all education doesn't work.

AI can fix this. The shift: Don't educate → generate.

Instead of teaching users how to navigate your platform, help them generate the outcome directly.

Anvil did this. Now users just describe what they need: "Create a template for a B2B SaaS purchase agreement."

Then they watch it get built. Custom-made for them.

From 4 steps to 2. From education to generation.

Tools like Foldspace AI are making this possible without custom code. Your team doesn't have to build an agentic experience from scratch.

This is where activation is headed. Less hand-holding. More instant value.

How are you using AI to reduce click tax in your product?

ChatGPT isn't just a tool anymore; it's a growth channel. It's how Adobe got 100K+ new users in 30 days. They're sharing exactly how they did it...


Most product leaders are asking: "How do we add AI to our product?"

Adobe asked a different question: "How do we get our product INTO AI platforms?"

That reframe led to one of their boldest growth bets.

They launched Photoshop inside ChatGPT. Six weeks. Ungated. No login required.

Here's the shift that matters:

Instead of treating AI as a feature to bolt on, Adobe treated AI platforms as the new top of funnel.

Think about it:

→ Millions of people already inside ChatGPT daily
→ Zero friction to try Photoshop (no login, no paywall)
→ Users discover Adobe where they already are

This isn't about adding AI to your product anymore.

It's about getting your product in front of AI users.

Want to hear the full story?

Deepti Pradeep (Sr. Director of Product Management, Growth at Adobe) is sharing the decision, the trade-offs, and what they learned—along with her team members Anthony Lewis (Principal PM) and Shalini Ahuja (Senior PM, Photoshop).

They're speaking at the AI Product Leaders Summit I'm hosting.

📅 Tuesday, March 24 | 10 AM - 3 PM ET
💻 Virtual. Free.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gWfqMNZN

What AI platform could be YOUR distribution channel?

Your biggest product launch just flopped. Do you protect your team or fix the product first? What do you do? Here's what Christine and Matt did...

Christine Itwaru (VP Product and Design at Userflow) knew two hours in. She immediately went into "mama bear" mode—told her PM to shut out Slack, took the heat herself, and shielded her team while they fixed it.

Matt LeMay (Product Advisor and Author) watched their Bitly relaunch get publicly destroyed. Roger Ebert posted about how terrible it was. People threatened to burn down their office! It took months before they could pivot.

One moved in hours. One struggled for months. Both eventually recovered.

This episode breaks down:
→ How to protect your team when everything's on fire
→ Why setting success criteria BEFORE launch saves you from rationalizing failure
→ When to fix fast vs. when a full pivot is the only path forward

🎧 Stream the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. 
Search "Product Leaders Lab by Delight Path."

💬 What's the most common reason you've seen product launches fail? 
Drop it in the comments.

🔁 Share this with a product leader who's been through launch hell.

—

Thank you to our partners for supporting the show:

🏆 Userflow: Guide users, answer questions in the moment, and continuously improve product adoption—all without writing code.
🙋‍♀️ Lyssna: Create research studies, recruit the right participants, and gather feedback to shape products users truly love
🤖 Foldspace AI: The AI Operator that turns your SaaS AI-first in days. Their embedded agent understands your users' intent and executes it on their behalf. 

—

My favorite quote from this episode: "Someone's threatening to come to our office and burn it down. Should we delete that or keep it?" — Matt

Episode 1 of Product Leaders Lab is officially LIVE. 🎉 Leadership is pushing AI. Your product team is overwhelmed. They're watching what you do next. What do you do? 

Two product leaders faced this exact moment. Same pressure. Completely different solutions.

Greg Leach (7shifts) built a cross-functional AI committee. Volunteers from every department. Monthly demos drawing 100+ people.

Joseph King (Crucial Learning) was one of four leaders from his company who joined the Kellogg School of Management's AI certification. Frameworks first. Leadership alignment before rollout.

Bottom-up vs. top-down. Both worked. But for very different reasons.

This episode breaks down what they did, why they chose their approach, and what you can learn from both paths.

🎧 Search "Product Leaders Lab by Delight Path" on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

💬 Drop your biggest takeaway in the comments.
🔁 Share this with a product leader feeling the AI pressure.

PS. Thank you to the founding partners of the Product Leaders Lab: Userflow, Lyssna, and Foldspace AI. They've made this possible and whole 10-episode season possible.

Product Leaders Lab show drops next week. And honestly? It's never been harder to be a product leader.

The pressure to ship AI features. The endless stakeholder alignment. The decisions that keep you up at night.

Product Leaders Lab by Delight Path is where real product leaders share how they handled their toughest moments.

The decisions.
The tradeoffs.
The consequences.

Featuring stories from leaders at Google, Spotify, and more.

No theory. Just real leadership.

📅 First episode drops February 24

🎧 Follow & subscribe:
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g2FsrjUb
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gWwS-Rv8
Apple: https://lnkd.in/gAzQJb7Q

See you there.

undefined undefined

Hey!

Thanks for commenting on my post about my User Onboarding audit template. 

You can grab it below for free, which includes a video explaining it.  

There's also the link to join my weekly newsletter there.

Let me know if you have any questions!

https://www.appcues.com/product-adoption-academy/templates/user-onboarding-flow-audit-template





Product Leaders Lab by Delight Path

"AI is going to kill SaaS." I keep hearing this take. And I think it's wrong. Here's what people forget...

SaaS platforms aren't just "dumb databases" with pretty menus.

They encode years of business logic, compliance rules, permissions, and audit trails. They reflect the exact processes enterprises rely on to run safely.

You can have the smartest AI in the world. But, without trusted infrastructure, it can't:

❌ Close payroll
❌ Enforce a security policy
❌ Run a complex supply chain workflow

Execution liability has to live somewhere.

But here's where the shift IS happening:

The future isn't AI replacing SaaS.

It's an Agentic Layer sitting on top of SaaS—making it exponentially more productive.

Mickey Alon (CEO of Foldspace AI) breaks this down into three layers (h/t for the image he created)

1. Interactive AI Layer (Synchronous) – Captures real-time intent and orchestrates complex UI instantly. No more "click tax."

2. Asynchronous AI Layer (Proactive) – Continuously processes data, surfaces insights, and triggers actions before you even ask.

3. SaaS Layer (Deterministic) – The system of record. Trusted execution, rigid permissions, business logic.

SaaS isn't dead. It's getting a massive upgrade.

Mickey's going deeper on this at the AI Product Leaders Summit (March 24)—his workshop on "Agent-Led Growth" covers how to implement an agentic roadmap to unlock growth

If you're building AI into your product, this is the session for you.

Register via my profile link → Ramli John

What's your take—will AI replace SaaS or sit on top of it?

Teams are using AI to build faster. They're not using it to validate faster.

Tools like Cursor, Bolt, and v0 let you go from idea to working prototype in hours. PRDs are getting shorter. Shipping is faster than ever.

But here's the problem:

Speed without validation is just efficient wandering.

AI made it easier to skip research. And many teams do.

The result? Fast, confident, and wrong.

Here are 3 ways research keeps you from building the wrong thing faster:

1. Validate direction before building

AI lets you prototype in a day. But a prototype of the wrong idea is still the wrong idea. A few user interviews before you build can save weeks of wasted effort.

2. De-risk big roadmap bets

Major launches carry uncertainty. Research lets you pressure-test before you scale. The cost of 5 usability tests is nothing compared to a failed launch.

3. Diagnose why metrics are moving

When activation drops or conversions stall, analytics show what's happening. Research shows why. It turns "users aren't converting" into "users don't understand the value on step 2."

Tools like Lyssna make this faster. You can run usability tests, recruit participants, and get real human insight before your sprint ends.

Joe Formica from Lyssna is speaking at the AI Product Leaders Summit on March 24th about exactly this. 

He'll share how to use AI to validate product features more quickly. Real examples of insights that only surfaced through deeper research.

AI made building faster. It didn't make building the right thing easier.

That still takes research.

How has AI changed your team's approach to validation?

🚀 Only 3 days to go! The first episode of Product Leaders Lab drops this Thursday! 🎙️ Don’t miss it, follow us and turn on notifications so you’re ready!

#ProductLeadersLab #Countdown #ProductManagement #LeadershipJourney #TuneInThursday

4 product leaders. 4 company sizes. 1 obsession: killing the product team coordination tax with AI.

Product teams are drowning in status meetings, Slack threads, and decision docs. The busywork is eating the actual work.

This panel at the AI Product Leaders Summit breaks down how high-performing teams are fighting back:

→ Greg Leach (Sr. Director, 7shifts) — Chairs a cross-functional AI committee at a 250-employee SaaS. His focus: cutting the red tape that slows teams down.

→ Betsy Shaak (VP Product, Voxpopme) — Using AI prototyping and AI agents to collapse the product development timeline.

→ Partho Ghosh (VP Product, Uberall) — Rethinking the entire product lifecycle as AI-native from day one.

→ Priyanka Sahni (Product Lead, Meta) — How a +75,000-person company is using AI to move faster, not slower.

What they'll cover is how their team is using AI to create:

- Meeting summaries that actually get read
- Async updates that replace status syncs
- Decision documentation that doesn't take hours

Less time coordinating. More time shipping and talking to customers.

March 24th. 10 AM - 3:30 PM ET. Virtual. Free.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gWfqMNZN

What's the biggest time sink on your product team right now?

AI isn't optional anymore. It's the future of your business. But forcing it with memos and hoping it'll stick? That’s a recipe for failure. 

Building an AI-ready culture starts with genuine support, not just mandates. What’s your biggest challenge with AI adoption? Drop your thoughts below.

🎥🎧 Stream the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! 

#AITransformation #LeadershipTips #FutureOfWork #BusinessGrowth

People rush to add ChatGPT features or AI tools, expecting instant wins. But without a clear strategy, those features often flop after months of effort.

What's your biggest concern with AI adoption right now?

🎥🎧 Stream the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!

#AIstrategy #ProductGrowth #BusinessInnovation #TechTips

Two years ago, we thought AI would take our jobs. Turns out, standing still is what actually will.

I talked to Joseph King, Sr. Director of Product at Crucial Learning, about how his team went from fear to treating AI as a collaborator.

But here's the part that stuck with me:

His company had an AI strategy. It just sat in a Slack channel nobody checked.

Teams didn't know the company's actual stance on AI. So they guessed. Or did nothing.

The fix wasn't complicated. Document it. Share it. Make it visible.

Most companies aren't failing because they lack an AI vision.

They're failing because nobody knows it exists.

Does your team actually know your company's AI stance? Or is it buried somewhere?

🎥🎧 Stream the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Search "Product Leaders Lab."

Andrew Capland

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | former growth @ Postscript, Wistia, HubSpot

I help heads of growth have more influence and impact with 1:1 coaching -  and I help early-stage SaaS teams scale as a product-led growth advisor.

After coaching more than 50 clients, it's become clear... Most Growth Teams face the same struggles:

You’re not always sure which lever to pull to drive meaningful impact.

You don’t have a repeatable operating system, so there's no structured process for prioritizing experiments, aligning across teams, or scaling execution

You're spending too much time convincing instead of executing. You're constantly selling ideas internally, securing resources, and fighting for buy-in.

Your role feels misunderstood because your boss has never done your job, and leadership sees the numbers but doesn’t always recognize the full impact of growth.

You’re ready for the next level but don’t have a clear roadmap to get there.

I'm Andrew

I’m the former growth lead at two high-volume PLG businesses: Director of Growth at Wistia, and Head of Growth at Postscript.

I’ve been where you are.

I’ve built and scaled growth teams from scratch, run hundreds of experiments, and made every mistake in the book. I know what "good" looks like, and I know how overwhelming it can feel without mentorship from someone who's done your job.

Now, I take everything I've learned to help other growth leaders increase their impact and influence.

☎️ Book a call to work with me ☎️
https://deliveringvalue.co/get-started

Delivering Value offers coaching & advising for product-led growth teams.

Because scaling a product-led business is hard. It's a really effective go-to market model, when done right. But, it’s still relatively new and most companies don’t have someone with extensive PLG experience. 

That means you spend a lot of time and money making mistakes trying to figure it out. Or, you feel overwhelmed by all the content out there, trying to teach yourself.

That’s were the idea of Delivering Value was born. To help early-stage tech companies save time by avoiding common mistakes, learn proven frameworks & methods instead of trying to figure it out themselves, & ultimately grow faster.

Services include:
* 1:1 coaching for heads of growth
* PLG advising for SaaS teams
* Digital products for the growth community

I specialize in helping clients who work at small to mid-sized SaaS companies (usually starting around $8-$10 million in ARR), not tech unicorns. If that sounds like you, send me a message!

My friend took a new job and said, "i'm sure it'll be a sh*t show there too - I just don't know why yet." He figured he'd give it one year, then reevaluate the fit.

That was the smartest career advice I've ever heard.

He'd just spent eight years at the same company, and left frustrated. Things had changed so much over the last two. So, instead of pressure-testing every new gig against some unrealistic criteria, he set a different goal.

"I'll give it one year, then see how it feels."

That framing changed how I think about my own career. And it's changed how I coach every client who's nervous about saying yes to another difficult founder, another early-stage company that might not work out, another opportunity that doesn't check all the boxes.

I've started calling it, “the one year deal.”

Because things are changing so fast.

The "hot" companies of 2026 weren't on anyone's radar two years ago. And companies that felt "safe" two years ago, have struggled to maintain PMF. 

Nobody predicted this.

The most successful VPs and leaders know this better than anyone. They move around. They find perfect moment-fit, not forever-fit. 

And when the moment changes, they go find a new company where the fit is right again.

Go in with eyes open. Give it everything you've got. Then sit down with yourself after a year and ask: does this still fit? Is this still the right place for me?

If yes, great. If not, you're not a failure. You did exactly what you were supposed to do.

The guilt you're feeling about taking a job that doesn't check every box is the wrong story.

The right story is: I made a smart decision for where I am right now, and I'm going to own it with intention.

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | Former 2x growth lead (Wistia, Postscript) | Co-Founder Camp Solo | Host Growing Forward Pod 🎙️

As of this month, I've been running my business 4.5 years, which is longer than I held any of my previous w2 jobs. But there was a moment about two and a half years in where I wasn't sure I was going to make it.

I didn't leave my last startup job because things were going great. 

After thirteen years in SaaS, five startups, and two layoffs - I was burnt out, anxious, and desperately needed a reset. 

Starting my own thing felt like the way out.

But early 2024, I found myself right back in the same place.

We moved.
We had another baby. 
And then, I lost a few clients

All in the same window. 

My head was stressed about work and our finances. I was exhausted from a newborn. And every day I had this feeling that I was failing at both.

Not doing work right. Not being a present dad.

And underneath all of it was this weird guilt - because I had left the startup world to specifically avoid feeling this way. 

Here I was, feeling it again. Except now it was my fault.

I started quietly debating whether to go back in-house.

I didn't. 

But it was closer than I've ever admitted publicly.

Four and a half years later, my roster has been full for the last twelve months straight. 

But I wish I could go back in time, and whisper to myself that everything was going to be okay.

Still glad I didn't fold.

One day, my CEO walked over to my desk, sat down next to me, and said, "stop, that's not your job."

I still remember that moment vividly.

We hadn't worked much together at that point. So it was a heart-racing moment at the time.

Before I started and scaled my first growth team - I was a growth marketer focused on user acquisition. 

And our CEO would occasionally Slack me ideas he'd heard from his startup founder network - tests they'd run, channels they were scaling, copy that converted, and other random stuff they'd tried.

And every single time, I said "yes, great call. Adding it to the next sprint."

I thought I was being helpful. 

But he saw the situation differently.

He said: "My job is to bring growth ideas to the right person - that's you. Your job is to evaluate if the ideas are any good for us. Not to automatically say yes because I'm the CEO. I have bad ideas all the time."

That conversation changed how I think about prioritization entirely.

Because until that point, I'd been rewarded for saying yes. For being helpful. For taking things on. That instinct got me promotions and raises before.

But that instinct was also quietly costing me.

Every yes meant something more important got delayed. Every yes meant my actual priorities got diluted. And every yes sent a signal that I didn’t have a clear point of view on what actually mattered.

And after coaching more than 90+ growth leaders since then, I've learned the ones who build the most influence and impact say no way more than they say yes.

(and when they do say no, they explain the trade-off clearly: "If we take this on, here's what we're delaying.")

That's how you build trust.

I made a video breaking down the 5 prioritization skills that separate growth leaders who have real impact from the ones who just stay busy.

Take a peek on youtube if you want my deep dive here https://lnkd.in/eXXGYfsJ

When used appropriately, saying no can be a career superpower.

I just spent 5 days snowboarding with my dad in Utah (and slept on a couch the entire time). 10/10 would do it again.

Last Tuesday, I headed to Powder Mountain. A place I've been with my dad and my uncle a few times before. While my my wife, my two kids, and my mother-in-law held it down at home. 

And for the first two days, I was super distracted. 

Thinking about my family. Feeling selfish for taking a personal trip and being gone for so long. Second-guessing the timing. Objectively, it wasn't a great week to disappear.

Then something happened on the chairlift.

It was snowing hard (which was an absolute gift if you've been following the snow situation out west). And I finally settled in.

Being in the mountains tends to do that to me.

I wasn't stressing about my next linkedin post. How behind I feel about the AI tech stack. Or thinking about my group program launch. 

Just sitting next to my Dad on a chairlift in the mountains, feeling genuinely grateful for the time.

Younger me would have taken that moment for granted.

But I just turned 40 (and my Dad is 70) and with two little kiddos at home these moments don't happen as often as they used to.

Here's the part I find a little embarrassing: 

I tell growth leaders this all the time. When things get busiest, when the pressure is highest - when you're feeling the most burnout - that's exactly when you need to step back and refill the cup. 

But I had a million reasons why I couldn't do this myself.

The couch wasn't comfortable - and my back and quads are still tight. But this trip was exactly what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again.

No alternative text description for this image

My guest pulled up his worst performance review and read it out loud:

"I've yet to see Dan make teams greater than the sum of their parts."

He'd been a senior leader at Reforge. Built teams at HubSpot. Sold a company to HubSpot before that.

And the thing that made him exceptional as an individual contributor was quietly killing his team's ability to function without him.

I didn't say anything in that moment. 
Because I've lived a version of this myself.

I can remember reading my own review the night before my performance convo.

There was a line (that's permanently seared into my brain) about how my exec team hoped I'd have more impact in my role.

The company had prioritized hiring more devs vs staffing my team. So I'd been scoping projects to the resources I had available vs advocating for what I really needed. I thought I was being a team player. Adjusting without complaining.

But the next day, sitting across from my manager, he said something that caught me off-guard:

"Your job is to pound the table for what you need. If you're not getting it, break down 99 doors until you get through the 100th. That's your job. Not to let up."

My honest first reaction? I don't want to pound the table. I just want to quietly do good work and let it speak for itself.

But I didn't push back. Because underneath that reaction, I knew he was right.

In the process I learned one of the hardest parts of growing as a leader: doing the right thing might not always feel good for you.

And the skill that earned me the role (being a great team player and adapting to changing resource constraints) was the exact skill now holding me back in it.

Daniel Wolchonok's version of this story is more brutal than mine. He read the actual review out loud on the podcast. 

I can't do his story justice. So I hope you catch the full thing yourself:

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eMQrniSt
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eD47Yh5n

We can't be the only ones. What's your version of this?

My dad: "Hey buddy, how's it going?"

Me: "I feel really anxious, but I can't figure out why."

Also me: "Have you ever felt like that?"

My dad, after a pause: "Uh, no. I don't think so."

Then we both laughed. But I wasn't really laughing.

That was me at peak imposter syndrome + burnout. I woke up tired and anxious almost every morning during that time. 

Always focused on what I hadn't done.
Ways I was falling short. 
Goals I hadn't hit.

I didn't even realize how much my focus was impacting my confidence until my coach asked me a question during one of our sessions:

"What was a win you had this week?"

I gave her one. 

She said: "What else?"

And I came up with another. 

She kept pushing. By the time I had three, I realized - I actually had been doing okay. I was just ignoring my wins. And instead focusing on what I hadn't done well.

She gave me an assignment: 

Write down 3 wins every day.

Didn't have to be big. Praise from a teammate. An experiment that moved the needle. A hard conversation I didn't avoid. A KPI headed in the right direction.

And after a few weeks of this exercise I realized that my brain started scanning for wins during the day instead of scanning for everything I hadn't done yet. 

Like a muscle. The more I trained it, the stronger it got.

I've given this same assignment to almost every client I've coached. It's not a cure for imposter syndrome. But it's one of the most underrated tools I know for rebuilding your confidence over time.

If you're a growth leader who's been silently carrying that "general state of uneasiness" - you're not alone. 

Most people just don't have the courage to say this stuff out loud.

And if nobody's asked you how you're actually doing lately, I'm asking.

"We're just too busy. There are more things we could be doing. We don't have time to do them."

I've heard some version of this from almost every new Director trying to make a case for more headcount.

And I get it. You ARE too busy.

But so is every other team lead asking for another hire right now.

And "we're drowning" is not a compelling hiring argument. That's just how it usually feels working at a startup.

On a call last week, I pushed back on a client who came in with exactly this framing. I asked them one question:

"Are you hiring to get rid of work that feels annoying - or are you hiring into an opportunity that would move the needle in a major way for the business?"

They paused. Nobody had ever framed it that way for them.

Here's what I've seen from the growth leaders who are most effective at getting headcount approved:

They lead with what's being left on the table. Not how busy they are. 

They walk into that conversation and say:

"If we had someone who could execute on X, here's what we'd be able to achieve. Here's what it would mean for our main goals. And here's what it's costing us every month we don't."

That's a more compelling case.

The modeling/math can go in the appendix (of however you make this argument). But the story, the opportunity, and the cost of inaction - that's what you lead with.

(The one exception: if YOU are the specific bottleneck on something that would unlock outsized impact for the business, then yes - hiring to free you up is absolutely the right move. But that's a different argument, and it still needs to be framed as opportunity, not overwhelm.)

I’ve found this approach works much better.

I spent years pushing for a promotion - and felt completely lost after I got it.

I was leading a cross-functional growth team at a cool tech startup. The title I'd been chasing. Director of Growth. 

I'd told myself everything would be way easier once I got that title. People would finally trust my decisions. I wouldn't have to fight so hard for budget, justify extra headcount, or sell my strategy up down and sideways.

But within a few weeks I realized I was having the same debates - with a new title. It was frustrating.

I just wanted to quietly do good work. 

I didn't want to complain. Because who complains after a promotion? 

But on the inside I was really frustrated because I had pushed so hard for something I wasn't enjoying.

My team could hear about it - that would impact their motivation. My execs definitely couldn't know - they'd question if I was the right person for that job. And talking about it at dinner with my wife felt crazy.

It wasn't until I started working with a coach that I learned this is actually a documented thing. High performers who've spent years working toward a goal often fall into a low-grade depression after they achieve it.

The person chasing the goal was their identity. When the goal is gone, so is the motivation and sense of self.

That conversation didn't fix everything. 

But it was the first time I'd said it out loud to someone who didn't need anything from me. Someone I could think out loud with without it costing me anything.

It took me months to figure out a new title wasn't the finish line.

taplio

The Battle

Ramli "RJ" John

Andrew Capland

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRamli "RJ" John's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAndrew Capland's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ramli "RJ" John

Andrew Capland

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ramli "RJ" John's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAndrew Capland's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRamli "RJ" John's LinkedIn Performance