Popular Pays, a Lightricks Company

Product Management Lead - Brand Platform

LiveRamp

Product Management - Distributed Identity

Kinesso

Director of Product Management

Signal ™

Managed a team that established and executed roadmaps to build business partnerships and deliver complex audience data integrations with top players: Adobe, Salesforce, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, Pandora, Spotify, Verizon Media and others.

These integrations provided the basis for new product offerings from Signal.

Product Management and Business Development

Conversant, Inc.

Sr. Product Manager for the creation of Conversant Access - a customer facing reporting portal:
http://blog.conversantmedia.com/2015/10/08/are-you-in-the-drivers-seat-of-your-data/

Led the creation of Conversant Access, a client facing website providing reporting, ad previewing/approval, and self-serve campaign management for direct to brand and agency clients, including Williams Sonoma, Cabela’s, and Victoria’s Secret.

Sr. Product Manager, Platform

Outerwall

Outerwall is the parent company of Redbox.

I served as Head of Technology, New Ventures for Star Studio. I managed all hardware and software for Star Studio, an interactive photo booth kiosk found in 65 malls across Southern California, Texas and the Northeast.

Prepared detailed financial forecasts for costs and revenues to scale from 65 to 350 kiosks. Plans included hardware costs, software costs (staffing), and other capital and operating expenses to support use of investment funds.

Senior Manager, New Ventures

Discovery Communications

The Strategy and Emerging Businesses team identified, evaluated and developed innovative digital business initiatives. Operating with an entrepreneurial focus, the team sought growth opportunities for Discovery Digital Media to build internally or create through partnerships.

Contributed to presentation that secured internal funding for Curiosity.com which was later spun out into a standalone business.

Director of Product, Emerging Businesses

Allstate Financial

•	Implemented project and portfolio management tools for department of 600 users in nine locations across United States, Europe and India.  Created interactive dashboards to communicate request pipeline, project delivery calendars and resource allocation to senior vice presidents.  
•	Maintain systems and processes for prioritization, scheduling and staffing of projects up to $10 million.
•	Administered Salesforce.com for 60 national wholesalers generating $3 billion in annuity and life insurance sales in 2008.

Program Manager

MK Capital

•	Created market research presentation for cloud computing market.
•	Performed due diligence, validated financials, sourced and evaluated companies for investment.

Venture Capital Intern

ASAP Software / License Technologies Group (Acquired by Dell)

•	Managed marketing, development and vendor teams to design, build and launch website and software-download manager used by Microsoft for the Office 12 Beta global release. Product was translated to 5 languages.  Multiple Office products reached 500,000 downloads per day. 
•	Designed a software maintenance renewal process for Computer Associates.  CA increased software renewal percentages from 10% to 30% per quarter – revenue increased from $5 million to $15 million per quarter.
•	Created a web-based software license portal for publicly traded software firms that enabled sales, support and customers to generate and assign product license keys.  Worked closely with sales to acquire first customers, determine pricing and establish product positioning.
•	Customers included Embarcadero Technologies, Macromedia, and Adobe.  Reported to CTO.

Product Manager

Product Leader in AdTech and Influencer Marketing | Ex: LiveRamp, Redbox, Discovery, VC | Kellogg MBA

- Product management and marketing leader with experience delivering for top internet firms like Facebook and Google and early stage companies funded by premier VC funds. 
- Successful at leading cross-functional teams to conceive, build and market digital products. 
- Demonstrated capabilities in digital marketing, online advertising and channel development.  
- Track record of managing budgets, attaining revenue targets and achieving cost reduction goals for senior leadership.

Specialties: 
- Product management, product marketing, market research, channel strategy, SaaS
- High growth software and internet technologies, venture capital, financial modeling, due diligence
- Social Networks, Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Programs, Search Engine Marketing (Google AdWords Certified) 

"Here's a prompt that you can use to run [storytelling or strategy framework X] for your product."

I get the appeal of this kind of thing. But it misses a bunch of really important stuff. 

When you're synthesizing information and aligning a team, the process you engage in is just as important as the outputs that come out of it.

It might even be *more* important.

Two magical things happen when a team of people participate and have a sense of ownership of a positioning or messaging process.

1. Everybody gets it. They were there for the creation of the thing, so they don't need to be onboarded, educated, or convinced.

2. Everybody gets behind it. If they feel the group thoroughly thought through its options and made the best possible choice, they advocate for and faithfully execute on the output of the process.

This kind of outcome is much more likely to happen through a collaborative, facilitated conversation between colleagues working together as a team.

It's a lot less likely to happen when an individual or a small team does the work on their own.

...whether you do it with a pencil and paper or with a bunch of AI prompts.

I often hear from marketers and PMM teams who feel confident in their ideas but can't get their non-marketing colleagues on board.

If that's you, you need collaboration more than an AI shortcut. 

David Speigel

More software teams (including marketing) should care more about their most important audience: those paying and using your product!

It’s not all about acquisition and conversion. Don’t forget retention.

CMO Advisor • Brand, Social & Content Officer • AdAge Marketing Trailblazer • ex American Eagle, BMW Group, Day One Agency • 🇰🇷🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

I know we love talking about Duolingo’s social but I want to talk about this. 

Because this 1,000% caused me to open up the app today and do my Korean lesson and I guarantee you that hundreds of thousands if not millions of users re-opened up their app when they saw this…. and it’s so gd simple it’s almost infuriating. 

As marketers, we spend so much time on the top and middle of the funnel and hang up our coats when we hit acquisition but we too often forget about loyalty and return and this is such a beautifully thoughtful (and insanely simple) way to do this without having to send notifications or emails that we all mute or archive.

We often give flowers to Zaria and the social team (deservingly) but today here’s a bouquet 💐 to the product marketing and product design team.

No alternative text description for this image

What if there was a social network that combined the best features of each? Let's imagine... 
 
I already think LinkedIn has one of the best social network features with "Who viewed my profile?" <- what a sticky habit loop builder! 
 
Yes, I know TikTok now offers something similar, but LinkedIn's version gives you analytics, too.  
 
How about other social networks?  
 
What are their best features, and wouldn't it be nice if LinkedIn could add some of them here, for us?!? 
 
🤝 𝗫: Lists, bookmark counts, following, timely updates, widest reach? 
🤝 𝗧𝗶𝗸𝗧𝗼𝗸: For you, following, best content creation tool (CapCut), profile page posts 
🤝 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺: Separate photo and video feeds, creator marketplace, others? 
🤝 𝗦𝗻𝗮𝗽𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘁: Shared stories, quick add (how you were found), BFs (tracks engagement), boost snap every 5 days  
🤝 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸: Memories, groups, others? 
🤝 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗧𝘂𝗯𝗲: Best search and suggestions for long tail content, channel page videos, amazing analytics 
🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝘁: Up/down votes, subreddits (kind of like groups) 
 
I'm not a big fan of LinkedIn groups. I think Facebook's and Subreddits are better. 
 
I really wish LinkedIn would add a following feed and specifically, public and private lists, like X.  
 
Shared posts and a way to see followers who engage with you like Snap would be nice to promote reciprocation. 
 
Finally, it would be great if we could find posts  and topics better on LinkedIn like you can on YouTube search and channel pages. 
 
What did I miss? What are your favorite social network features? What should LinkedIn prioritize? 
 
Comment and please repost so we can get a variety of opinions! 
 
#influencermarketing, #social, #socialmedia, #marketing

How can LinkedIn improve its search functionality?

What are some examples of successful Subreddits?

Hey LinkedIn,
I follow a lot of people I know post regularly. Why are you only showing me a handful of regulars from my DMs and a smidgen of top influencers?

Learn from TikTok FYP and gimme just a little serendipity. Ok. Thank you. Have a nice weekend.

What is LinkedIn's algorithm for showing content?

For all my Ad Tech friends...The Ad Tech Is So Easy song...

https://lnkd.in/dpkEyFQc


I took a pic of the Eclipse as viewed from Chicago today.

Now time to think of how to relate this to PLG. Haha.

Product Led Growth doesn't have to feel so complex! (see image). You can keep your complexity and simplify at the same time. 
 
As a growth PM, your goal should be to break down the complex into simple actionable steps.  
 
All the paths on the complex image on the right (thank you Dave McClure for your Pirate Metrics!) should have straightforward direct paths like the simple image on the left. 
 
This will make life easier for a number of reasons: 
1. Easier for users to move through a pipeline 
2. Easier for your team to track metrics 
3. Easier to explain to management 
 
PLG can be super complicated for many reasons - and that's okay.  
 
Break each part down into clear, uncluttered explanations and your users, your team, and your leadership will appreciate it. 
--- 
PS - I'm in the early stages of my advising practice. If you're a product manager in growth, send me a LinkedIn request and let me know your top challenges. I'm interested in learning where people are struggling.

How can a pipeline be optimized for Product Led Growth?

What are some best practices for Product Led Growth?

What are some key metrics to track for Product Led Growth?

What's your biggest pain point implementing PLG? 
 
Yes, I'm borrowing a Twitter post style, the "hivemind" request. 😏 
 
𝗜𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽? 
📌 Business model 
📌 Value proposition 
📌 Team alignment & collaboration 
 
𝗜𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀? 
1. Acquisition 
2. Activation 
3. Retention 
4. Referral 
5. Revenue 
 
𝗢𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀? 
 🧠 Product/Engineering/Design 
 🧠 Marketing 
 🧠 Measurement/Analytics 
 🧠 User research 
 
There are many aspects to Product Led Growth.  
Tools. Frameworks. Skills. Methods. 
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽?  
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄? 
 
PS - If you don't want to share in the comments, you can also send a direct message (you may need to request a connection first). 


What are some best practices for team alignment and collaboration in PLG?

What are the benefits of Product Led Growth?

graphical user interface, text, chat or text message

Not to add another “parenting is like B2B SaaS comment,” but… This is exactly like asking your kids what they want to eat and getting them to help you make it. The odds of buy in (eating the food) are so much higher than telling them their favorite dish is already on their plate.

Why is collaboration more important than an AI shortcut?

How can you get non-marketing colleagues on board with your ideas?

Positioning for growth-stage B2B tech companies

This helps me understand why there are so many podcasts.

What are some tips for starting a podcast?

How have podcasts impacted the media industry?

SaaStr Europa is June 4-5 in London!! See You There!!

It's OK if only 50 people listen to your podcast

If:

15 are prospects
15 are customers
20 are potential hires

An insidious culprit is crushing your growth metrics - especially for Sales Led orgs adding Product Led Growth. 
 
It's product design debt. 
 
Usability matters way more in product led growth than with sales led software.  
 
With Sales led, users are typically required to work in the software purchased by their company or team. Usability issues can't drive them away (although I have horror stories about terrible software - let's share in the comments) 
 
With product led, users are signing up and paying themselves or driving corporate demand to buy team licenses. Time and ease to value are important.  
 
Usability is paramount. 
 
If you're moving from sales led to product led:  
On top of investing in building product led growth motions, you also need to consider  investing in considerably up-leveling your overall product design and usability. 
 
From what I've seen a number of times, it's quarters if not years worth of work. Sometimes from multiple teams or even departments! 
 
Think about that in your budeting as you explore your horizons of growth.

My favorite animal personality comparison is Tiggers and Eeyores. 

Tiggers = overly optimistic, impulsive, ready to try new things
Eeyores = pessimistic, anxious, rather prefer the status quo

You need both on a product team. Sometimes they can exist in the same person.

How can a pessimistic personality be valuable on a product team?

Are you a beaver or a llama? When it comes to product and your product career, the answer is critical. Let's dig in:

Let's not. There's no way you can divide the world into beavers and llamas.

10 reasons why a solar eclipse resembles aspects of product-led growth: 
 
Drawing parallels between a solar eclipse and product-led growth (PLG) is an intriguing and creative way to explore the dynamics of PLG strategies.  
 
𝗥𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Just as a solar eclipse is a rare event that draws people's attention, product-led growth strategies can create unique and compelling product experiences that attract and retain users. 
 
𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: During a solar eclipse, the moon casts a shadow over the Earth. Similarly, in PLG, a product can cast a significant influence over the market, subtly shaping user behavior and preferences. 
 
𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹: As the eclipse progresses, different phases of the sun are gradually revealed. This is akin to the iterative nature of PLG, where products evolve based on user feedback and data, revealing new features and improvements over time. 
 
𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮 𝗩𝗶𝗲𝘄: Eclipses have a wide appeal, and people from all over come together to witness them. Similarly, successful PLG products have broad appeal and can attract a diverse user base, uniting them with a common interest. 
 
𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon, and Earth align perfectly. This alignment is similar to the alignment between product, user needs, and market demand in successful PLG strategies. 
 
𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: An eclipse dramatically changes the light environment for a short period. PLG can be a beacon for companies in competitive or saturated markets, offering a new pathway to growth through product excellence and user satisfaction. 
 
𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Safe viewing of a solar eclipse requires special glasses. Similarly, PLG emphasizes the importance of visibility and transparency in product features and benefits to ensure users understand and value what they're getting. 
 
𝗡𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗻: Just as a solar eclipse is a natural event, PLG relies on the organic spread of product usage and word-of-mouth, rather than forced growth through aggressive sales and marketing tactics. 
 
𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: The anticipation of an upcoming eclipse can create buzz and excitement. In PLG, anticipation for new features or product launches can drive user engagement and retention. 
 
𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁: Finally, experiencing a solar eclipse can be a transformative moment for many. Similarly, PLG can transform companies by placing the product at the center of growth, changing how they operate, market, and scale. 
 
This post was assisted by AI. I hope you enjoyed my prompt. 

What are the benefits of product-led growth?

How do successful PLG products attract a diverse user base?

Is it sign the economy is cooling off when firms cut discretionary spend on consulting? 
Or is it that firms are able to discover top consulting and advising talent more easily due to influencers promoting themselves and their skills on platforms like LinkedIn?

The best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. 
🌲       🌲       🌲
The next best time to plant a tree? Today.

Helping you grow with YouTube | Creator w/ 700k YouTube subs

If you know you need to build your audience, why not start right now? What's REALLY stopping you?

It's kind of like getting married or having a kid: There's never going to be a "perfect time" where the universe shows you a cosmic green light and gives you permission.

You just have to go for it, keep showing up, and trust that you'll figure it out along the way (you will!)

Also, the longer you wait the harder it's going to be:

→ Feeds get more crowded

→ Audiences get higher expectations

→ Your life gets busier

So if you've been hearing that voice in your head telling you that maybe it's time to start building your personal brand and growing an audience, my suggestion is to listen to it.

Oh, and pay me to help you figure it out 😇 Don't play on hard mode if you don't have to!
--
📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

So many good one one liners in this one!

I hope you like acronym soup… 🤣

A snapshot into the simplicity of adtech
Parody by Wes Waterston

Open video: Adtech Is So Easy (COMEDY) - Wes Waterston on youtube.com

Adtech Is So Easy (COMEDY) - Wes Waterston

Unsure if marketing is attracting the right leads? Are leads taking the desired actions once they arrive?  
 
Here's a simple way to get these answers:  
𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 
 
These are loved and hated in PLG circles.  
😩 "Reduce friction!" say some  
🤔 "Gather and use insights!" say others 
 
I'll touch on how to address both and point out some pitfalls you may want to avoid. 
 
At Popular Pays, we implemented an Onboarding Questionnaire early in our PLG journey for two reasons: 
1. To understand who our ads were attracting 
2. To personalize visitors' experiences with less clicks later 
 
Our questionnaire asked only a few quick multiple choice questions on a 2 state, dismissable modal: 
1. Brand vertical? 
2. Marketing budget? 
3. Role? 
4. Goal with our platform? 
 
Make sure you communicate the value of responding to your users!  
Our response rate more than doubled after adding these instructions:  
"Thank you for taking time to answer a few questions. 𝗪𝗲'𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲." 
 
👉 For our users, we applied brand vertical and marketing budget to surface creators in the brand's industry and price range. No need for them to figure out our search interface! 
👉 Internally, we were able to tell that we attracted mostly CPG brands with really low budgets. Time to improve our ads and social content messaging! 
 
For roles and goals we directed users to different starting places in the platform. This increased funnel progression for our desired activation paths. 
 
Finally, I was able to make a pivot table to illustrate brands in various buckets and further refine our ICP based on those users' activities and conversion rates. 
 
The onboarding questionnaire was a huge help to gather data and make better decisions early in our PLG journey. And it was super simple to implement - only a few days of 1 designer and 1 engineer. I probably could have done it myself in Pendo or another tool as a backup. 
 
Onboarding questionnaires: Love them or hate them? Please share your experiences (as a user or implementer) in the comments. 
 
 
 


What is Popular Pays and how did they use onboarding questionnaires?

How can onboarding questionnaires help personalize user experience?

What are some best practices for improving PLG journeys?

Is Zoom trying to creep on Loom's features? 
Zoom clips look like Loom videos to share short asynch videos.

This is an awesome story. So many lessons:
1. Early PLG can often require manual steps to get the automation right later (early Amazon is famous for this too)
2. Apollo was lucky that Krishan Patel learned and led. Advice: hire an expert advisor! The PLG space has many good ones. (Applies to other disciplines too though)
3. Let people succeed. I’ll bet a top reason this thread resonates is because we’ve all felt too held back by stupid reasons or egos before. 
4. “Praise in public, criticize in private.” Kudos to you, Tim Zheng, for publicly recognizing your team members by name. Looks good all around, yet so few do it. 
5. Yes, Reforge has great PLG content!

Apollo.io drives millions in self-serve sourced revenue monthly… 

But I can’t claim our PLG motion started with a stroke of genius. 

Truth is, it’s origins were somewhat less glamorous than you’d expect… 

Never overlook the impact a single person can have on an organization.

Let’s flash back to 2017 year. Krishan Patel entered Apollo after being the top-performing SDR at Oracle. 

At the time, our young company was still called ZenLeads. Within three months Krishan had been promoted out of the SDR role into an AE role. Then senior AE role. Then, Krishan did something different. 

If there is one thing to take from this post — it’s to give people the space to be creative and stretch themselves. To allow them to innovate and push themselves to accomplish more than what they thought they were capable of alone. 

Krishan taught himself product. Using Reforge, reading everything, and working with me, he ran a monetization experiment on our self-serve product to generate our first $120K in semi-automated self-serve revenue. It was nowhere near our smooth streamlined PLG funnel today. 

For a while, we scraped by. 

We called it “Krishan-Led-Growth” because there was a manual “Krishan” step in every sale. 

Then, Krishan stepped into product — he ran a marketing experiment to semi-automate a personalized outbound email strategy which outperformed our 5-person SDR team and generated over 150 Opportunities / Month. This marked the beginning of our product-led growth journey. A journey where it would take years before we invested heavily into sales or marketing again. 

I’m so glad someone like Krishan pushed themselves, and through that, pushed our company, and the industry forward.

For those looking to bring their company to the next level. I’d encourage you to surround yourself with brilliant people and, after they’ve earned your trust, give them the space to evolve and learn. 

Hire amazing people who proactively solve difficult problems. 

To me, it’s the people who have made the Apollo journey possible. 

Thank you, Krishan. 

#plg #hiring

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