Welcome to Growthmates — the place to connect with inspiring leaders to help you grow yourself and your product. Here you can learn how companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Amplitude, Canva, and many more are building excellent products and growth culture. Subscribe to get all episodes right to your inbox on katesyuma.substack.com.
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Exciting announcement! If you're keen on Mastering Product Growth and User onboarding, join the upcoming course in April. You will get personal guidance to create a stellar onboarding experience and frameworks to turn it into live. Get a 10% discount before 15 March.
Learn more and get early access → https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
This time we talked to Emily Wang, CEO of Bento, previously Product Manager on Growth Team at Intercom. Emily shared her authentic story of becoming a founder, the role of leadership, creating a company culture, and building a strong team. Our conversation went beyond that, and we also discussed:
What’s The Right Time to Introduce Experimentation
Why Killing Features is necessary to grow and evolve your product
Why the PLG model sometimes is not the right fit, and what we all should be aware of in the current market landscape
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Where to find Emily Wang, CEO of Bento:
Website: https://www.trybento.co/
Where to find Kate Syuma, Growth Advisor (ex-Miro):
Newsletter: https://katesyuma.substack.com
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/kate_syuma
Where to find Oscar Torres, Product Designer at Miro:
Website: https://www.oscartorres.me/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oscar_towers_/
What we’ve covered in this episode:
00:00 Emily's Mission to Start Bento
03:46 Emily's Personal Mental Model Shift
05:00 The Importance of Building a Company
10:00 Understanding Different Parts of a Company
12:14 The Right Time to Introduce Experimentation
15:00 The Role of Leadership in Company Building
16:44 Killing Features and Simplifying the Product
17:12 Balancing Product and Design Team Priorities
20:00 Creating a Company Culture
22:32 Product-Led Growth and Finding the Right Fit
25:00 Building a Strong Team
30:00 Effective Communication within a Company
34:47 Shifts in the Macro Environment and Impact on Product Growth
40:00 Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
47:33 Onboarding vs Everboarding
45:00 Conclusion
51:03 Where to Connect with Emily
Resources referenced:
Get a 10% discount for the Maven course on Onboarding and Activation before 15th March: https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
Behind the Cloud, Mark Benioff: https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Cloud-Salesforce-com-Billion-Dollar-Company/
Leadership and Self-Deception, The Arbinger Institute: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out-Box/
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Why PLG Doesn't Fit All: Experimentation vs Foundation | Emily Wang (CEO at Bento, ex-Intercom)