PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
Leah Tharin
Honest, unfiltered conversations with the best from tech - spilling the tea about product, growth, and senior leadership topics.
www.leahtharin.com
All episodes
Best episodes
Seasons
Top 10 PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
80: Leah Tharin - The Art and Pain of Public Speaking
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
10/20/24 • 62 min
Vincent Pierri interviews me (Leah Tharin) about my journey into public speaking, particularly within the tech industry. How I found a platform, overcame stage fright, and built confidence. How does it feel to speak to different audience sizes?
How do you train this muscle? And where do memes fit into our dry tech industry? Why is building a brand such a painful experience due to the needed consistency,
Interview conducted by Vincent Pierri 🙏 (Public Speaking Voice Coach), who offered his time to generously donate his time to turn me into a guest for once about a topic I don’t specifically talk about.
Takeaways
- Different audience sizes require different speaking strategies.
- Feedback loops are essential for improving public speaking skills.
- Humor can be a powerful tool in public speaking.
- Consistency is key in building an online presence.
- Having a unique point of view is essential for engagement.
- Rising recognition can lead to a more isolated experience.
Sound Bites
- "Public speaking is not just in the public."
- "You should not be a senior leader if you cannot speak well."
Chapters
02:45 The Journey into Public Speaking
09:11 The Importance of Content and Delivery
12:00 Navigating Different Audience Sizes
14:53 The Role of Feedback in Public Speaking
18:10 The ROI of Public Speaking for Tech Leaders
20:52 Crafting Effective Presentations
26:52 Gary: The Memorable Character from Sales
29:50 Preparing for Talks and Finding Your Voice
38:14 The Value of Podcasting
42:02 Navigating LinkedIn for Audience Building
47:01 The Pain of Personal Branding
51:49 The Journey of a D-List Celebrity
65: Guillaume "G" Cabane - The Future of Marketing in an AI-Dominated Landscape
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
07/07/24 • 57 min
Summary
Guillaume Cabane and I discuss the future of marketing and the role of humans in a landscape dominated by AI and automation. We’re talking about what does drive marketing and sales teams, and how their future will look like.
The conversation touches on topics such as product-led growth, market penetration, and the role of content marketing in engaging target audiences.
The conversation touches on the use of automation and human interaction in customer reactivation, as well as the ethical considerations of growth marketing. They conclude with insights on understanding churn and implementing effective re-engagement campaigns.
Takeaways
The role of humans in marketing is being challenged by AI and automation, raising questions about the future of engagement and trust.
Sophisticated scams and phishing techniques require marketers to find new ways to build trust with their audience.
Engagement and consumption metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of marketing efforts and the level of interest from potential customers. Long sales cycles and complex products require a different approach to customer activation.
The NPS metric can be valuable for gathering feedback and identifying churn reasons, but it should be used in conjunction with other data sources.
Sound Bites
"Marketing generally has an incentive to over-promise, because that is what brings the people in."
"Why hand over to a human, which is a risk of failure at this point? Just automate the touch."
Chapters
07:31 Building Trust in the Face of Sophisticated Scams
13:13 Aligning Incentives and Metrics for Long-Term Customer Success
27:29 Measuring Engagement and Consumption for Effective Marketing
28:54 Customer Activation and Long Sales Cycles
31:22 The Importance of Customer Data and Tools
34:43 Automation vs. Human Interaction
39:18 Understanding Churn and Reactivation
49:18 The Limitations of NPS and Rebates
52:07 Timing and Strategies for Customer Reactivation
My Blog / Newsletter: www.leahtharin.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtharin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeahThar
#productledgrowth
84: Kristi Faltorusso - Aligning Customer Success and Product Management
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
11/17/24 • 47 min
Kristi Faltorusso, a CS executive and coach, joins me in this high-energy conversation about customer success-assisted onboarding, alignment, and the dreaded realities of cross-functional working with product & sales.
We explore effective onboarding strategies, the importance of aligning customer success with product development, and the necessity of quantifying challenges faced by customer success teams.
What’s the importance of defining effective KPIs for customer success, focusing on leading indicators rather than lagging ones? How DO we measure customer happiness? Is the NPS as useless as I believe it is?
takeaways
- Onboarding strategies must focus on delivering value quickly by measuring time to value.
- Consultative approaches to customer success add significant value.
- Customer success teams often act as advocates for product improvements.
- Focus on leading indicators for customer success.
- Customer segmentation should be based on use cases, not just size.
Chapters
04:45 Understanding Customer Success and Onboarding Strategies
09:48 The Role of Customer Success in Product Development
14:50 Bridging the Gap Between Customer Success and Product Teams
19:56 Quantifying Customer Success Challenges and Solutions
23:41 Understanding Product Impact on Business Metrics
28:19 Defining Effective KPIs for Customer Success
33:06 Measuring Customer Engagement and Value
38:07 The Myth of Customer Happiness
43:11 Data-Driven vs. Data-Informed Decisions
69: Janna Bastow - The challenges and opportunities AI brings to Product Management.
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
08/04/24 • 51 min
What is the role of product managers in the age of AI and the potential impact of AI on roadmapping and expectation management?
Janna Bastow, CEO & Co-Founder ProdPad / Co-Founder of Mind the Product, shares her perspective on how AI is just another tool that can help product managers synthesize feedback and speed up certain aspects of their job.
Why AI should not replace the human element of product management, such as getting alignment from stakeholders and gathering feedback from real users and how we can think about evaluating roadmaps when they all look the same.
Why product managers being skilled in asking the right questions and validating their ideas with real customers is not optional anymore.
Takeaways
- The value of a roadmap lies in the roadmapping process, not just the document itself.
- AI can be used as a sense checker and sidekick to provide feedback and support decision-making, but human judgment is still crucial. Creating a company culture where employees feel comfortable challenging ideas is crucial for innovation and growth.
- Product managers need to understand how their work connects to revenue and develop roadmaps that align with the company's strategy.
Sound Bites
- "The job of a product manager is to get out of the building and understand what users and the market want. Especially with AI being around"
- "Nobody's getting fired for using AI."
- "Product managers who do not understand how their work connects to revenue will be in trouble in the future."
Chapters
00:00 The Role of Product Managers in the Age of AI
09:08 AI as a Tool for Feedback Synthesis and Speeding Up Product Management
23:17 Human Judgment and Decision-Making in Evaluating Roadmaps
25:34 Creating a Culture of Innovation and Openness
26:22 The Role of Product Managers in Driving Growth
27:41 The Impact of AI on Product Management
32:26 The Importance of Asking the Right Questions
35:19 Adapting to the Changing Landscape of Product Management
76: Malte Scholz: Product Management in 2024 and beyond
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
09/23/24 • 43 min
The dynamics of leadership in product management, the importance of a low-hierarchy organization, the challenges of founder mode, and the balance between control and empowerment.
Data in product management, the limitations of traditional tools, and the future of product management with AI.
Takeaways
- Founders often struggle with letting go of control.
- Micromanagement can be necessary but should be balanced with empowerment.
- Traditional product management tools often fall short in meeting modern needs.
- AI will transform the way product management operates.
- Unshipping features is essential for product evolution.
Sound Bites
- "Ego should really never play a role here."
- "I never make any decisions here alone."
- "There's nobody more incentivized to make this whole thing work than the founders."
Chapters
03:12 The Journey of AirFocus
05:59 Navigating Founder Mode and Micromanagement
09:13 Balancing Control and Empowerment
11:59 The Role of Data in Product Management
14:53 Challenges of Traditional Product Management Tools
18:03 The Future of Product Management with AI
20:55 Empowering Engineers in Product Development
23:49 Unshipping Features and Product Evolution
27:03 Connecting Sales and Product Management
29:51 The Importance of Customer Insights
81: Kyle Poyar - Rethinking pipeline responsibility and MQLs
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
10/27/24 • 54 min
What is driving a company's value in 2024? How do we identify and copy trends that work until they don’t anymore? Why is product-led growth no longer a differentiator but becoming a table stake fast?
Why is everyone suddenly providing a pipeline from product, marketing, sales, and customer success while the only way that most companies measure pipeline is through Marketing and their MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)? Why does this old model not work anymore?
takeaways
- Demand comes from various sources, but visibility is lacking.
- MQLs are often an arbitrary measure of lead quality.
- Valuations in the market are not always reflective of true value.
- Building a sustainable company requires a focus on customer conversion. MQLs often lead to inefficient marketing practices.
Sound Bites
- "There's very little visibility into what's actually working."
- "MQLs are an arbitrary definition of leads."
- "It's very spray and pray-oriented."
Chapters
04:56 The Evolution of Growth Strategies
10:01 The Dichotomy of Product-Led and Sales-Led Growth
15:05 The Importance of Founders and Team Dynamics
19:54 The Future of CRM and Data Integration
25:07 Rethinking MQLs and Sales Incentives
27:30 Rethinking MQLs: A New Approach to Marketing
30:55 Defining Success: The Role of ICPs in MQLs
34:41 The Interplay of Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success
39:42 Navigating Customer Journeys: The Role of Support
44:03 The Future of Investment: AI and Market Dynamics
49:10 The Evolution of Inbound Marketing: Finding New Channels
29: Elena Verna: Growth Solopreneur - How to growth advising
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
07/05/23 • 61 min
Season 2 of the ProducTea! Elena Verna joins me to openly gossip about our diverse income streams: Advisory, consulting, and everything else in that word salad. We both dive into our different modes of engagement with an emphasis on what the ideal duration and conditions are for each of them.
If you ever wanted to have an inside look into how growth advising happens, this is your episode.
Timestamps:
03:00 What Elena has been up to in the last 6 months
03:50 What does being a growth advisor/consultant or solopreneur mean?
09:50 Is career optionality a strength or weakness as a candidate?
15:11 How content, advising, and full-time role play into each other
17:04 How to get your first contract?
22:59 It takes a long time for your seeds to grow, learn to seed fast and putting yourself out there including your knowledge
27:19 Leah’s modes of engagements
28:34 Elena’s modes of engagements
34:14 Acceptable durations for different modes of engagements
36:54 The first 3 months as an advisor
39:10 The case for interim positions and why Elena picks them occasionally
43:40 Interim positions and reasons why companies use them
46:55 Contractual conditions you need to set up to have a chance at advising
52:10 Monetizing your advising career too early
54:50 Being a generalist vs. a specialist, disclosing weaknesses
46: Melissa Kwan - Bootstrap vs VC, Mastering the startup game
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
12/16/23 • 61 min
Summary
Melissa Kwan, CEO of eWebinar and serial bootstrapper, discusses the challenges and benefits of bootstrapping a business versus seeking venture capital funding. She is the poster child for urging founders to focus on real customer feedback and paying customers without loading up on VC problems.
We discuss the importance of understanding the customer, personal goals and ambitions, the challenges of building and scaling a product, defining success and financial goals, the desire for financial independence, determining the financial number to sleep well, and the value of personal branding and trust.
Takeaways
- Bootstrapping is a lifestyle choice that offers freedom and control over the direction of a business. At the same time, venture capital funding commits a company to a venture-scale outcome and a different lifestyle.
- The future of tech startups lies in vertical SaaS businesses and smaller, niche solutions that cater to specific markets.
- Why demo calls and salespeople are becoming less necessary as self-serve options and efficient onboarding processes become more prevalent.
- Determining the financial number needed to sleep well varies for each individual.
- Personal branding and trust are valuable assets for entrepreneurs.
- Writing and building an audience can lead to new opportunities and connections.
Timestamps
00:00 The Lifestyle Choice of Bootstrapping vs. VC Funding
05:17 The Trajectory of eWebinar's Growth
09:31 The Challenges of VC Funding and the Importance of Profitability
13:51 The Difference Between Media Validation and Market Validation
19:35 The Rise of Vertical SaaS and Lifestyle Businesses
25:46 The Importance of Analyzing Past Behavior to Predict Future Behavior
32:00 The Problem with Demo Calls and the Shift Towards Self-Serve
37:06 Determining Pricing and the Value of Respecting Customer's Time
45:27 Understanding the Importance of Knowing the Customer
46:25 The Challenges of Building and Scaling a Product
47:24 Defining Success and Financial Goals
48:19 The Desire for Financial Independence
50:38 Determining the Financial Number to Sleep Well
55:41 The Value of Personal Branding and Trust
13: Kyle Poyar, Operating Partner @ Openview
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
02/18/23 • 53 min
Kyle Poyar joined me on the ProductTea to talk about anything that makes businesses and VCs tick.
I love this conversation for the simplicity of how Investors make decisions and what the future of our industry might very well look like. You should leave this podcast once you listened to it with some great insights into what makes product-led growth companies run differently than their competitors.
00:00 Kyle and Leah’s introduction
04:00 Using LinkedIn to validate concepts and Ideas
07:20 The balancing act of what we say and what we mean in different channels
08:45 Consistency on LinkedIn and challenging established things like the NPS
13:00 Kyle’s “Growth Unhinged” posts as a well of knowledge of the past 6 years in PLG
15:30 The business model of “Openview”, Investment profile, and typical companies to invest in
18:45 How to determine whether a company has reached product-market fit
22:15 How to “show” product-market fit with non-obvious numbers
26:20 How long it takes to “proof” a certain motion, typical Lifetime Value numbers
29:30 The data Gap of tracking emails instead of people
34:57 Investing into companies that have no revenue to show for
39:00 Pre-Seed investment methods
43:33 Do you know how the business you work in, works?
45:00 Putting a price on Customer Success and the increasing business literacy around it
47:30 When risk profiles are driven by greed and how PLG runs on a “skeleton crew”
50:15 Where PLG companies spend more money than others
51:50 Product-Led Sales and the maturity it’s in.
Connect!
Kyles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Kyle’s Substack:
Connect with Leah: https://linktr.ee/leahtharin
72: Rand Fishkin - Why paid advertising sucks in 2024
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
08/25/24 • 47 min
If you spend money on paid ads, chances are that you’re being taken advantage of. The biggest providers do it to you because they can and they optimize their systems more and more towards it.
Rand Fishkin and me discuss the challenges and limitations of paid advertising, the role of AI in marketing, the importance of organic initiatives and why you can’t skip good quality audience research.
Takeaways
- Many marketers spend money on ads that are shown to people who would have converted anyway.
- The best marketing channels are often the hardest to measure. Paid advertising can be limited and may not always provide the desired results because you don’t see how they really perform.
Sound Bites
- "There's lots of people being taken advantage of in the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem today."
- "There are literally hundreds of billions of dollars that flow into that ecosystem that don't necessarily have careful accounting."
- "We're going to need to do these sketchy things that essentially take credit for sales that would have already happened, show people more ad results, reduce the quality of the organic results, make it harder to identify ads, force people to scroll down further, lazy load the organic stuff and quick load the paid stuff."
- "Treat digital advertising the way Coca-Cola treated billboards in 1965. Test different messages and campaigns in specific markets and analyze the lift in same-store sales to determine effectiveness."
Chapters
06:30 The Issues with Digital Advertising
10:22 Taking Advantage of the Digital Marketing Ecosystem
13:14 The Challenge of Proper Accounting and Attribution
18:29 The Misleading Nature of Digital Metrics
23:03 The Difficulty of Measuring the Best Marketing Channels
23:59 The Limitations of Paid Advertising and the Need for Innovation
25:27 The Impact of AI on Marketing and the Changing Web
28:10 The Value of Organic Initiatives in Marketing
29:31 Testing and Experimentation in Marketing
34:13 The Importance of Working with Competent Experts
41:26 The Significance of Qualitative Metrics in Marketing
Show more best episodes
Show more best episodes
FAQ
How many episodes does PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership have?
PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership currently has 84 episodes available.
What topics does PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership cover?
The podcast is about Product, Management, Entrepreneurship, Growth, Startups, Podcasts and Business.
What is the most popular episode on PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership?
The episode title '57: Erik Allebest - From 0 to 150 million ARR - The Chess.com story' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership?
The average episode length on PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership is 55 minutes.
How often are episodes of PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership released?
Episodes of PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership are typically released every 7 days, 4 hours.
When was the first episode of PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership?
The first episode of PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership was released on Sep 3, 2022.
Show more FAQ
Show more FAQ