How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite

Name: How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite
Uploaded: 2022-07-21T10:30:03.000Z
Duration: 1 h 50 min 9 s

Introduction to Growth Strategies

Overview of the Episode

The episode discusses Kindle strategies and non-scalable hacks that can lead to significant user growth, referencing successful companies like Pinterest, Airbnb, Tinder, Reddit, and Eventbrite.

Casey Winters is introduced as a prominent figure in consumer product and growth strategy, known for his generosity in mentoring founders and product leaders.

Key Topics Covered

Discussion includes Casey's advice on making trade-offs as a product leader and justifying necessary but unexciting product improvements.

The conversation explores the spectrum of product roles and how individuals can enhance their skills within this framework.

Insights into current growth trends, tactics, strategies for focusing on growth, and Casey's top recommendations for effective growth strategies are shared.

Insights on Coda

What Makes Coda Unique?

Casey expresses admiration for Coda due to its innovative content loops that facilitate sharing best practices among users without needing to know the original creator.

He highlights how Coda integrates these sharing mechanisms into its core product design, which aligns with his passion for scalable solutions in business operations.

Importance of Data Analytics

Role of Mixpanel

The episode emphasizes the significance of data-driven decision-making in startups; relying solely on intuition can be costly when seeking investment or market fit.

Mixpanel offers $50,000 in credits through its startup program to help businesses find product-market fit more efficiently by providing real-time insights via pre-built templates.

Casey Winters' Career Journey

Career Path Overview

Casey shares his career beginnings as an analyst at Apartments.com where he measured marketing channel effectiveness before transitioning into optimizing those channels directly.

His experience at Grubhub involved growing demand from Series A to IPO while working across marketing and product functions without formal titles initially assigned to him.

Transitioning Roles

Career Journey and Insights as Chief Product Officer

Transition to Eventbrite and Role Overview

The speaker transitioned from working with Greylock Partners on growth strategies to becoming a full-time advisor for companies like Eventbrite, Tinder, Thumbtack, and Canva.

After a few years of advisory work, the opportunity arose to take on the Chief Product Officer (CPO) role at Eventbrite, which has been held for three years.

Challenges in Communication as CPO

The discussion highlights the importance of understanding trade-offs in decision-making and effectively communicating these decisions across the organization.

During the pandemic, many managers attempted to handle issues independently rather than escalating them, leading to misunderstandings about project statuses and goals.

Importance of Upward Communication

The speaker emphasizes that leaders need clear communication from their teams regarding challenges faced; without this information, it is difficult to evaluate situations fairly.

There is a common misconception among team members that handling problems alone demonstrates leadership; however, escalation can lead to better support and solutions.

Common Pitfalls in Internal Communication

Many employees undercommunicate upward within organizations but then express frustration when executives seem out of touch with ground realities.

When attempts are made to communicate upward, they often lack clarity or context for executives who may not understand technical jargon or specific details.

Storytelling in Presentations

The speaker uses an analogy comparing effective communication with storytelling; starting presentations at the right point is crucial for engagement.

It’s important not to start too far into a narrative (e.g., chapter six), nor should one begin with overly basic information that everyone already knows.

Coaching Team Members on Effective Communication

Coaching involves helping product managers find balance in their presentations—starting from a known point while avoiding excessive background information.

How to Effectively Prepare for Important Meetings

The Importance of Pre-Meeting Preparation

Effective coaching should occur before meetings, focusing on de-risking rather than creating a high-stakes environment.

Role-playing potential audience questions helps anticipate concerns and prepares the team for executive inquiries.

Understanding that executives have different communication styles is crucial; preparation should reflect this diversity in concerns and approaches.

Strategies for Successful Communication

Encourage pre-meetings with key individuals to address major concerns beforehand, reducing surprises during the main meeting.

A structured approach to training upward communication can enhance team confidence and effectiveness in presentations.

Time Investment in Meeting Preparation

Different individuals require varying amounts of time to prepare based on their personal styles and familiarity with the material.

Confidence often stems from free-form speaking rather than rigidly adhering to bullet points; understanding the material deeply is essential.

Knowing Your Audience

Familiarity with audience members' preferences can significantly impact meeting outcomes; preparation should include anticipating specific questions from executives.

The depth of knowledge about the subject matter directly correlates with effective communication during meetings.

Consequences of Inadequate Preparation

Failing to prepare adequately can lead to negative perceptions from executives, undermining confidence in the presenter’s capabilities.

Anticipating questions from executives like data inquiries is vital; lack of preparedness can cast doubt on overall presentation quality.

Final Thoughts on Meeting Readiness

Comprehensive preparation involves considering all possible questions and having relevant data ready, which may require significant time investment.

Key Decisions in Product Management

Importance of Preparation for Meetings

Effective decision-making in companies often occurs during meetings, making preparation crucial for product managers and designers to maximize their impact.

Under-preparation can significantly hinder career growth; learning from past mistakes is essential to avoid repeating them.

Recognizing when one is unprepared helps anticipate potential negative outcomes in meetings.

Building Confidence Through Preparation

Successful product leaders cultivate an intuition that they are ready for any meeting, whether with executives or external partners.

The need for thorough preparation is emphasized as a means to ensure positive meeting outcomes.

Balancing Simplicity and Functionality in Products

Challenges of Product Complexity

As products grow, maintaining simplicity while adding functionality becomes a common challenge faced by all products.

Scott Belsky's concept of the product life cycle highlights how users initially flock to simple products but may leave as complexity increases.

Strategies to Maintain Usability

Companies employ various design strategies, such as unbundling complex features and using progressive disclosure to manage user experience.

Proactive training and segmented experiences based on user types are also methods used to cater to different levels of sophistication among users.

Eventbrite's Approach to User Experience

Perceived Simplicity Concept

Eventbrite aims for "perceived simplicity," where advanced features remain discoverable yet hidden from casual users who do not seek them out.

This approach ensures that the majority of users are not overwhelmed by complexity while still having access to advanced functionalities if needed.

Examples and Aspirations

WhatsApp serves as a model for effective perceived simplicity, allowing users easy access to advanced features without cluttering the core experience.

Event Marketing Automation and Product Improvement Strategies

Event Marketing Challenges for Creators

Many event creators lack professional marketing skills, making it difficult for them to effectively promote their events on platforms like Eventbrite.

A product was developed to automate Facebook advertising for these creators, leveraging data to enhance results.

The solution offers a simple interface for users who prefer minimal involvement while also providing advanced options for those wanting more control over targeting and creative aspects.

Justifying Non-Sexy Product Improvements

The discussion shifts to the importance of justifying improvements in stability, performance, and developer velocity—areas often overlooked in favor of immediate growth metrics.

Projects that significantly impact user experience or performance are frequently underfunded due to their difficulty in measurement; this leads to a focus on short-term gains rather than long-term sustainability.

Tactics for Gaining Support

Suggested tactics include building custom metrics, running small tests to demonstrate value, and establishing team principles that prioritize essential but less glamorous work.

Team alignment is crucial; having engineering managers and design leaders onboard can facilitate prioritization of important projects that may not yield immediate metric improvements.

Building Buy-In Across Teams

To gain support from leadership, it's vital to illustrate potential risks associated with neglecting non-sexy improvements—such as declining conversion rates or engagement levels if foundational issues are ignored.

Forming a small aligned team can help structure OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that prioritize these critical areas while showcasing their potential impact.

Understanding Growth Dynamics at Scale

As companies grow beyond early stages, the focus should shift from solely driving new growth to maintaining existing successes; neglecting this can lead to losses in established metrics.

Understanding the Importance of Protecting Gains

The Value of Existing Achievements

Emphasizes the necessity to protect gains from past efforts, especially as scale increases. Building something valuable requires ongoing protection and enhancement.

Highlights a chart illustrating that product-market fit is not permanent; continuous iteration is essential to maintain relevance and value in the market.

User Expectations and Market Dynamics

Discusses how user expectations for experience and product value rise daily, alongside an increasingly competitive landscape. Continuous improvement is crucial.

Warns that neglecting to enhance user experience can lead to losing product-market fit over time, which could take significant effort to recover from.

The Role of Operations Teams

Introduces a discussion on operations teams (product ops), suggesting they often indicate inefficiencies within product teams.

Shares insights from previous writings on marketing technology (martech), stressing that successful martech should target engineers rather than marketers.

Concerns About Marketing Operations

The Implications of Marketing Ops

Expresses concern about the normalization of marketing ops roles, implying it suggests deficiencies in marketing capabilities.

Reflects on personal experiences managing large budgets without dedicated marketing ops by focusing on automation and processes instead.

Efficiency vs. Manual Processes

Critiques the idea of establishing stable operations roles focused solely on manual processes, arguing this approach fails to address underlying inefficiencies.

Cites Intercom's blog post advocating for business operations' goal to eliminate their own existence by rooting out inefficiencies.

The Dangers of Empire Building in Operations

Addressing Functional Issues

Argues that expanding operations teams does not resolve functional issues but exacerbates them, leading to empire building within organizations.

A Call for Innovation Over Expansion

Advocates for using creativity and experimentation to improve efficiency with fewer personnel rather than scaling up operational roles unnecessarily.

Job Security Through Effectiveness

What is the Role of a Chief Product Officer?

Overview of CPO Responsibilities

The speaker discusses the versatility of operations professionals transitioning into various roles, highlighting their value in different teams at Airbnb.

A question arises about the role of a Chief Product Officer (CPO), prompting an explanation of daily responsibilities and necessary skills for aspiring CPOs.

Key Functions of a CPO

The CPO is responsible for leading product development that delivers customer value, which in turn translates to business success. Each term in this definition is carefully chosen to reflect its importance.

The scope of a CPO's function can vary; it may include product management, design, research, and growth marketing depending on company size and leadership skills.

A critical part of the role involves selecting optimal product strategies based on available information and continuously adjusting these strategies through feedback loops.

Process Improvement and Team Development

The CPO must define processes for setting product strategy, prioritizing projects, and executing them effectively to ensure customer satisfaction and tangible business results.

Identifying bottlenecks that hinder value delivery is essential. This includes collaborating across departments to enhance awareness and participation in development efforts.

Training team members on effective practices in product management, design, user research, etc., is crucial alongside hiring new talent to strengthen the existing team.

Accountability and Value Delivery

The speaker emphasizes accountability for what gets built while acknowledging that not all products will drive value. Continuous improvement in conversion rates is vital for maximizing impact over time.

Pathway to Becoming a CPO

The speaker shares personal insights about their non-linear career path towards becoming a CPO. They note significant changes from traditional waterfall methods to more agile approaches in both product management and marketing.

Focusing on leverage points within the organization has been key; understanding the entire business helps identify impactful areas regardless of formal structure or career paths.

Leadership Skills Required

A distinguishing factor between being a CPO versus other roles is the need for broader company leadership rather than just functional expertise. Optimizing for overall company benefit often requires sacrificing team interests.

Early exposure to executive-level discussions helped develop communication skills with higher-ups. Understanding executives' perspectives fosters better interactions during inquiries about projects or strategies.

Learning Across Disciplines

Refusing specialization allowed the speaker to acquire diverse skills beneficial for addressing important issues across various topics when engaging with CEOs compared to peers who focused narrowly on specific areas.

Understanding the Spectrum of Product Management

The Spectrum of Product Managers

The speaker discusses a unique spectrum for product managers (PMs), emphasizing the need for upskilling PMs to navigate this spectrum effectively.

Inspired by Omar from Cambly, the speaker describes product teams as "a gang of misfits," highlighting diverse backgrounds such as sales, marketing, analytics, and engineering that contribute to varied skill sets.

Two extremes on the PM spectrum are identified:

Innovators: Highly creative with numerous ideas but often lack execution skills.

Execution-focused PMs: Strong in implementing strategies but may struggle with generating new ideas.

Balancing Innovation and Execution

Innovators tend to generate many ideas, though most may not be viable; however, one successful idea can significantly impact. They often require support to turn concepts into actionable plans.

Execution-focused PMs excel at transforming strong strategies into customer value but typically lack awareness of industry trends and innovative thinking.

The ideal candidate for product teams is someone who balances strategic insight with execution capabilities—these individuals are rare in the job market.

Recruitment Strategies and Challenges

As a Chief Product Officer (CPO), there’s a preference for hiring execution-oriented individuals over purely innovative ones due to the necessity of focusing on actionable ideas within companies.

Venture capitalists might favor innovators since they invest in multiple entrepreneurs where only one needs to succeed for significant returns.

A challenge arises when managing execution-focused individuals who aspire to higher roles; they must develop strategic thinking skills which are often lacking in traditional training programs.

Upskilling Initiatives

To address these challenges, various initiatives have been implemented:

Programs like Reforge focus on enhancing product strategy knowledge among team members.

Mentorship opportunities aim to teach effective strategic practices through exposure to experienced professionals.

The goal is to cultivate team members who can blend strategy with execution effectively, moving them towards being optimal strategists while maintaining their ability to deliver value.

Key Skills for Advancement

Developing strategic skills is crucial for PM career advancement; early-career focus should be on delivering tangible results that customers appreciate.

For those aiming for leadership roles or managing groups of PMs, writing strategy documents independently becomes essential—a skill many struggle with according to observations made during advising roles or at Eventbrite.

Growth Strategies and Insights

Importance of Strategy in Growth

The speaker emphasizes the significance of improving strategy as a means to elevate overall performance, suggesting that many professionals overlook this foundational aspect.

Acknowledges the common challenge of accelerating company growth, indicating a desire to explore effective strategies for achieving this goal.

Challenges in Growth Channels

Discusses the increasing difficulty and expense associated with paid growth channels due to recent changes (e.g., Apple's updates), highlighting the competitive landscape startups face.

Suggests that while new channels may not be emerging, companies are finding ways to leverage existing channels more effectively through improved customer flows and lifetime value.

Product-Led Growth Concept

Introduces the concept of "product-led" growth, where businesses unify self-service loops with sales processes to create a more efficient operational model.

Highlights the potential for B2B companies to break down silos between departments (sales, product, marketing), leading to enhanced collaboration and optimized skill sets.

Evolving Perspectives on Product Market Fit

Notes a shift in conventional wisdom regarding product market fit; founders are now considering growth loops even before achieving product market fit.

Emphasizes that having scalable acquisition strategies is essential for true product market fit, challenging traditional views on user acquisition timing.

Phases of Growth Strategies

Differentiates between two phases of growth: "kindle strategies" (non-scalable hacks by founders for early users) and "fire strategies" (scalable methods like content or viral loops).

Suggests hiring dedicated growth personnel only after establishing scalable strategies, ensuring that efforts can be maximized effectively once a solid foundation is laid.

Underappreciated Growth Tactics

Data Network Effects and Product Value

Understanding Data Network Effects

The concept of data network effects involves treating data as a product that can be monetized, particularly for businesses.

Businesses, especially small to medium-sized ones (SMBs), often struggle to utilize data effectively, which limits their ability to charge for it.

Leveraging product usage data enhances the value of the product over time through personalized results or improved targeting for advertising.

Companies are beginning to realize the importance of generating their own data rather than relying solely on major platforms like Facebook and Apple.

Personal Insights and Recommendations

The speaker shares personal interests in video games and music, indicating a connection between leisure activities and creativity.

Currently playing "Cyberpunk 2077" on PS5; recently completed "Horizon Forbidden West," highlighting a preference for science fiction games.

Enjoying music from the band Broadcast, particularly a recent release of live sessions recorded by the BBC, which serves as a nostalgic experience.

Closing Thoughts

The speaker expresses gratitude for the conversation and emphasizes the importance of supporting future generations in business practices.