Growthmates is where you learn how to grow meaningful products from people standing behind them. Learn from leaders at Notion, Canva, Dropbox, and more in deep dive interviews with Kate Syuma, ex-Miro Head of Growth Design and founder of Growthmates.
Driving a Positive Behavioural Change with Your Product | Amy Bucher (Lirio, Author of "Engaged")
Tuesday, August 27, 2024 • Duration 53:29
Welcome to Growthmates with Kate Syuma — Growth advisor, previously Head of Growth Design at Miro. I’m building Growthmates as a place to connect with inspiring leaders to help you grow yourself and your product. Here you can learn how companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Canva, Loom, and many more are building excellent products and growth culture. Get all episodes and a free playbook for Growth teams on our brand-new website — growthamtes.club, and press follow to support us on your favorite platforms.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
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In this episode, I chat with Amy Bucher, Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio and author of Engaged. We delve into the world of behavioral design, exploring how understanding human behavior can lead to more ethical and effective product development. Amy shares her journey from academia to leading behavioral design teams, and how frameworks like the COMBEE model and Behavior Change Wheel are essential tools for influencing user behavior.
By the end of this episode, you'll learn how to apply behavioral science principles to your product, understand the importance of ethical design, and gain insights into leveraging AI for personalized user experiences 💡
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Brought to you by Appcues — the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences.
Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption for free. Check out the template to uncover meaningful improvements with an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside: appcues.com/growthmates
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Self-Serve Onboarding course is coming back! Get 100€ off 🎁
We open enrollment for the new cohort oftheSelf-Serve User Onboarding course. As an early-bird gift, we giveall subscribers a discount of 100$ with a promocode “growthmates”. Reserve your spot now and join me on live sessions starting from September 16, 2024 (the cohort is limited to 20 participants): https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
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Key highlights from this episode 👇
1: Behavioral Design Defined: Understand the fundamentals of behavioral design and how it differs from traditional UX/UI design.
2: COMBEE Model and Behavior Change Wheel: Learn how capability, opportunity, and motivation drive behavior change and how to apply these concepts in product design.
3: Ethical Design: Discover how to avoid dark patterns like over-gamification and notification fatigue.
4: AI and Personalization: Explore how AI can be used to create personalized and effective user experiences.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube (new!).
Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the show on growthmates.club and get the free playbook with frameworks and insights. If you find this valuable, please share it with your friends and colleagues, and subscribe to this show on your favorite platforms to get new episodes. Let’s keep growing together!
From Designer to CEO: Building Design-led and Journey-centric Business (Jochem van der Veer, CEO at TheyDo)
Tuesday, August 13, 2024 • Duration 54:19
Welcome to Growthmates with Kate Syuma — Growth advisor, previously Head of Growth Design at Miro. I’m building Growthmates as a place to connect with inspiring leaders to help you grow yourself and your product. Here you can learn how companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Canva, Loom, and many more are building excellent products and growth culture. Get all episodes and a free playbook for Growth teams on our brand-new website — growthamtes.club, and press follow to support us on your favorite platforms.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
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In this episode, I chat with Jochem Van Der Veer, co-founder and CEO of TheyDo, about his journey from UX design to leading a successful B2B SaaS company. We dive into the triple diamond framework, customer obsession, and key strategies for scaling a product. By the end, you’ll gain actionable insights on how to align business goals with customer outcomes and effectively grow your company.
By the end of this episode, you'll learn about the triple diamond framework for design thinking, the importance of customer obsession, and practical strategies for scaling a B2B SaaS company 💪
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Brought to you by Appcues — the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences.
Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption for free. Check out the template to uncover meaningful improvements with an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside:
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Fighting for Creatives: From Apple Siri to Becoming a Founder | Mohammed Abdoolcarim (DesignPro, ex-Apple & Google)
Sunday, April 7, 2024 • Duration 43:36
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.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
This episode is supported by Appcues — the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences.
Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption, and you can use it for free. Check out the template which I created to help companies connect growth hypotheses with behavioral patterns to uncover meaningful improvements. Find an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside and apply it to review any growth flows: appcues.com/growthmates
This time we talked to Mohammed, formerly a Product lead on Apple Siri, Product Marketing Manager at Google, and currently a Co-founder of DesignPro. Mohammed shared his journey from studying at Stanford to building innovative products, and reflected on his time at Google and Apple, highlighting the different cultures and approaches to innovation.
I felt so inspired after this conversation, especially when Mohammed shared how Steve Jobs entered their room to acquire Siri, how he embraced trial and error and be okay with failure, and how he uncovered that creativity is a fundamental aspect of human nature and should be prioritized in product development. Here are some highlights you can find in the episode:
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Pricing in SaaS: Best Practices and Dark Patterns | Rob Litterst (HubSpot media)
Sunday, March 24, 2024 • Duration 55:01
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.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
This episode is supported by Appcues — make your product adoption easy!
Appcues is the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences. Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption, and you can use it for free.
Check out the “5-step Growth Flow Review” template which I created to help companies connect growth hypotheses with behavioral patterns to uncover meaningful improvements. Find an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside the template and apply it to review any growth flows: appcues.com/growthmates
Get a 15% discount for my Self-Service Onboarding course
If you're keen on Mastering Product Growth and User onboarding, join the upcoming course starting on the 15th of April. You will get personal guidance to create a stellar onboarding experience and frameworks to turn it into live. Get a 15% discount with promo code “growthmates”. Learn more and get early access → https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Unlocking Activation at Coda and Building Trust Between PMs and Designers | Matt Woods (Product Leader, ex-Coda)
Sunday, March 10, 2024 • Duration 54:12
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.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
This episode is supported by Appcues — make your product adoption easy!
Appcues is the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences. Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption, and you can use it for free.
Check out the “5-step Growth Flow Review” template which I created to help companies connect growth hypotheses with behavioral patterns to uncover meaningful improvements. Find an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside the template and apply it to review any growth flows.
Get a 15% discount for my Self-Service Onboarding course
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 15% discount before 15 March. Learn more and get early access → https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Why PLG Doesn't Fit All: Experimentation vs Foundation | Emily Wang (CEO at Bento, ex-Intercom)
Sunday, February 25, 2024 • Duration 50:21
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.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube(new!).
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.
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
If you find our show valuable, please share it with your colleagues and friends, and leave us a good review.
All the Truth about User Onboarding and Becoming a Founder | Phil Vander Broek (Dopt, ex-Dropbox)
Sunday, February 11, 2024 • Duration 52:55
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 15% discount for your team (most value for PM + Product Designer together).
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.
In this conversation, we invited Phil Vander Broek, Co-Founder at Dopt, previously Head of Growth and Business Platform Design at Dropbox. We decided to talk about User Onboarding and unpack all the truth we know about it. From this episode, you can learn:
* How Dropbox approached User Onboarding and what they learned from experimenting with that
* How Growth and Core teams collaboration looked at Dropbox
* What Rituals can help in building a Growth Culture
* and Best practices for User Onboarding from research with more than 80 companies.
Beyond the Dropbox story, Phill shared his transition to becoming a Co-Founder at Dopt, and how his design background helped him play a founder role.
If you find it valuable, please share it with your network and leave us a good review.
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Inside Intercom’s culture of design in the era of AI and PLG | Thomas Rimmer (Design Director at Intercom)
Sunday, January 28, 2024 • Duration 51:16
We’re happy to welcome you on the Season 2 of the Growthmates podcast where we will dive into insightful conversations with leaders from Amplitude, Canva, Intercom, Coda, HubSpot, and more to come. If you enjoy our show — subscribe to get all episodes right to your inbox on katesyuma.substack.com.
In this conversation we invited Thom Rimmer, a design leader at Intercom, to discuss the importance of a design-led culture and user-centricity. Thom provides insightful perspectives on the pivotal role of design principles and rituals in the creation of top-tier products like Intercom. Thom also explains Intercom's transparent roadmap and how it helps create a company-wide commitment to customer satisfaction. The conversation delves into the shift toward product-led growth and the challenges of experimentation and optimization. We also explored the adoption of AI and machine learning, with a focus on leveraging these technologies to enhance customer service. Finally, Thom emphasizes the significance of mentorship and leadership in personal and professional growth. The conversation covers topics such as building internal connections and mentorship, inspiring advice and quotes, books for building a design culture, and fun team rituals to maintain a thriving culture.
Some Takeaways:
* Design-led culture and user-centricity are essential for creating products in a highly competitive market.
* Transparent roadmaps help to create a company-wide commitment to customer satisfaction.
* The shift towards product-led growth requires deeper attention to product quality.
* AI and machine learning can enhance customer service and improve efficiency.
* Mentorship and leadership are valuable for personal and professional growth. Building internal connections and mentorship is important for designers within an organization.
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
How Canva creates a magical PLG culture that drives value | Iain Dowling (Growth Design Lead at Canva)
Sunday, January 21, 2024 • Duration 47:18
We’re happy to welcome you on the Season 2 of the Growthmates podcast where we will dive into insightful conversations with leaders from Amplitude, Canva, Intercom, Coda, HubSpot, and more to come. If you enjoy our show — subscribe to get all episodes right to your inbox on katesyuma.substack.com.
In this episode, Iain Dowling, Growth Design Leader at Canva, shares insights into his career path and the culture at Canva. He discusses the growth of Canva and the significant changes he has witnessed during his 6 years at the company. Iain also explains the transition from individual contributor to manager and the importance of coaching at Canva. He highlights the 4 pillars of Canva's growth and development framework and the training provided to coaches. Iain discusses the influence of designers on Canva's culture and the role of the “Vibe Team” in creating a positive work environment. He also shares insights into hiring for growth teams and the importance of effective one-on-one meetings. In this conversation, Iain discusses the importance of effective communication and provides valuable insights on building strong relationships, active listening, non-verbal communication, and overcoming communication challenges.
Some Takeaways:
* Canva has experienced significant growth over the years, but has maintained its core values and culture.
* Coaching is an integral part of Canva's leadership approach, focusing on the growth and development of team members.
* Canva's growth team is organized around key metrics, such as monthly active users (MAU) and annualized recurring revenue (ARR).
* The “Vibe Team” at Canva plays a crucial role in creating and maintaining a positive and engaging work culture.
Get full access to Growthmates with Kate Syuma at
Becoming a Leader, prioritising well-being, and building a data-informed culture | Jenny Chang (Head of Design at Amplitude)
Sunday, January 14, 2024 • Duration 51:44
We’re happy to welcome you on the Season 2 of the Growthmates podcast where we will dive into insightful conversations with leaders from Amplitude, Canva, Intercom, Coda, HubSpot, and more to come. If you enjoy our show — subscribe to get all episodes right to your inbox on katesyuma.substack.com.
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In this episode, I talked to Jenny Chang, interim Head of Design at Amplitude, who shared her insights and experiences on transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager and the mindset shifts required to become a leader. In the first part of the conversation, we discussed the key challenges we encountered while transitioning from IC to a Manager and emphasized on the importance of maintaining well-being during career growth. Later in our conversation, we discussed the role of data in decision-making, the need for a data-informed culture, and the collaboration between stakeholders and data teams. Jenny also provides tips for making data meetings engaging and suggests questions that designers should ask their data analysts to build a more informed user experience. Jenny concludes by recommending books and resources for further exploration that you can find below in the episode description.
Some Takeaways:
* Transitioning from an individual contributor to a manager requires a mindset shift and the ability to let go of hands-on work.
* Maintaining well-being is crucial during career growth, and prioritizing health can lead to better career outcomes.
* Data should be used by everyone in a product team, not just data analysts, and collaboration between stakeholders and data teams is essential.
* Engaging data meetings can be achieved by incorporating visualizations, session replay tools, and creating a collaborative environment.
* Designers should ask data analysts about the most engaged users and their actions within the product to better inform the user journeys.
Self-Serve Onboarding course is coming back! Get 100€ off 🎁
We open enrollment for the new cohort oftheSelf-Serve User Onboarding course. As an early-bird gift, we giveall subscribers a discount of 100$ with a promocode “growthmates”. Reserve your spot now and join me on live sessions starting from September 16, 2024 (the cohort is limited to 20 participants): https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding
Key highlights from this episode 👇
1: Triple Diamond Framework: Learn how to apply the triple diamond approach to design thinking, from problem discovery to solution delivery, and how it can be used to design not just products, but entire organizations.
2: Customer Obsession: Discover the importance of aligning your business with customer journeys and how customer obsession can drive significant impact and transformation in your organization.
3: Opportunity Prioritization: Understand how to identify and prioritize opportunities within customer journeys to maximize business impact and improve customer experiences.
4: Enterprise Growth Strategies: Gain insights into scaling a B2B SaaS company, from targeting enterprise clients early on to leveraging product-led growth strategies that drive long-term success.
Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube (new!).
Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the show on growthmates.club and get the free playbook with frameworks and insights. If you find this valuable, please share it with your friends and colleagues, and subscribe to this show on your favorite platforms to get new episodes. Let’s keep growing together!
— Embrace trial and error and be okay with failure in the process of product design and development.
— Customer obsession and understanding their desires and needs are crucial for successful innovation.
— Timing is key in launching products, and being able to tell a compelling narrative is essential for engaging customers.
— Creativity is a fundamental aspect of human nature and should be prioritized in product development.
— Combining the disciplines of product design and product management can lead to more successful and innovative products.
If you find this show valuable, please share it with one of your colleagues or friends — it gives huge support to continue creating it. To receive all episodes right in your inbox — subscribe to katesyuma.substack.com
Share this episode with your like-minded colleagues and friends!
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
This time we talked to Rob Litterst who is leading HubSpot media and Building an insightful newsletter about Pricing in SaaS. We discussed his journey from sales to writing, the emerging trend of employee-generated content and a lot of things connected to user-centric pricing. If you listen to this episode, you will learn about:
— Unethical pricing practices we should avoid
— Why companies started shifting from Freemium to speed up monetization
— And a dozen newsletters that Rob recommends to stay informed on important industry news
If you find this show valuable, please share it with one of your colleagues or friends — it gives huge support to continue creating it. To receive all episodes right in your inbox — subscribe to katesyuma.substack.com
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
This time we talked to Matt Woods, a Product Manager focused on Product-led Growth, who helped companies like Coda increase key activation metrics by 60%, and introduce personalization experience that combines great UX and business impact. Matt also contributed to Reforge artifacts to share examples of his work as one of the earliest contributors to their program. Being a Product Manager, Matt has a fantastic website built with Coda full of insightful case studies. I personally learned so much from Matt, and if you listen to this episode, you will learn about:
* The process of defining activation and aha-moment with examples from Coda
* How connection to customers helped to uncover meaningful wins
* The secrets behind collaboration between product managers and designers in Growth
* and much more
If you find our show valuable, please share it with your colleagues and friends. To receive all episodes right in your inbox — Subscribe to katesyuma.substack.com, your support means a lot.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
* Get early access to the Maven course on Onboarding and Activation (15% discount for teams): https://maven.com/forms/2c51cc
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
* Anyone can be a mentor, regardless of their level of experience.
* Having someone outside of your company to mentor you can provide a fresh perspective.
* Setting weekly goals and holding yourself accountable can help build a strong design culture, and there’s an Intercom approach that Thom also shared in the episode.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.
* Hiring for growth teams requires individuals with a data mindset, an interest in user flows, and a focus on impact and iteration. Effective communication is crucial for personal and professional success.
* Building strong relationships requires open and honest communication.
* Active listening and empathy are essential skills for effective communication.
* Non-verbal communication plays a significant role in conveying messages.
* Overcoming communication challenges requires patience, understanding, and adaptability.
* "Growth and Development 12 Skills" framework — coming soon in a follow-up article!
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com
25:13 Data-Informed Culture and Who Should Use Data
29:22 Collaboration Between Stakeholders and Data Teams
36:00 Engaging Data Meetings
46:24 Data Questions for Designers
49:22 Surprising Data Insights
51:36 Recommended Resources
51:53 Conclusion and Contact Information
Resources referenced:
* Julie Zhuo Zhou, “The Making of a Manager”: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Manager-What-Everyone-Looks/dp/0735219567
* Scott Belsky, “The Messy Middle”: https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Middle-Finding-Through-Hardest/dp/0735218072/
* C. Pam Zhang, “Land of Milk and Honey”: https://www.amazon.com/Land-Milk-Honey-Pam-Zhang/dp/0593538242/
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com
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