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    Explore "amplitude" with insightful episodes like "Career frameworks, A/B testing mistakes, counterintuitive onboarding tips, selling to developers | Laura Schaffer (VP of Growth at Amplitude)" and "What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess)" from podcasts like ""Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career" and "Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career"" and more!

    Episodes (2)

    Career frameworks, A/B testing mistakes, counterintuitive onboarding tips, selling to developers | Laura Schaffer (VP of Growth at Amplitude)

    Career frameworks, A/B testing mistakes, counterintuitive onboarding tips, selling to developers | Laura Schaffer (VP of Growth at Amplitude)

    Brought to you by Public—Invest in stocks, treasuries, crypto, and more | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments | Writer—Generative AI for the enterprise

    Laura Schaffer is the brand-new VP of Growth at Amplitude. Prior to this role, she spent over 10 years leading product management and growth teams at Twilio, Bandwidth, and Rapid. In today’s episode, we talk about the role of experimentation and data in growth, and Laura shares stories of big wins from her time leading growth teams. She explains how customer insights helped her uplevel her career and how she (surprisingly) thinks about qualitative versus quantitative data. We wrap up our conversation by discussing where the best ideas come from and what you need to know if you’re selling to developers.

    Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/career-frameworks-ab-testing-mistakes-counterintuitive-onboarding-tips-selling-to-developers-laura-schaffer-vp-of-growth-at-amplitude/#transcript

    Where to find Laura Schaffer:

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraschaffer/

    Where to find Lenny:

    • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

    Referenced:

    • Elena Verna on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/elena-verna-on-how-b2b-growth-is-changing-product-led-growth-product-led-sales-why-you-should-go-freemium-not-trial-what-features-to-make-free-and-much-more/

    • Bandwidth: https://www.bandwidth.com/

    • Twilio: https://ahoy.twilio.com/

    • Jeff Lawson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffiel/

    • The Surprising Power of Online Experiments: https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-surprising-power-of-online-experiments

    • Reforge: https://www.reforge.com/

    • Online Experimentation at Microsoft: https://ai.stanford.edu/~ronnyk/ExPThinkWeek2009Public.pdf

    The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926

    Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299/

    • James Clear on The Tim Ferriss Show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/648-james-clear-atomic-habits-simple-strategies-for/id863897795?i=1000592431628

    The Great British Baking Show on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/food/shows/great-british-baking-show/

    • Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/

    • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/

    • Builder: https://www.builder.io/

    • ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/

    • Lenny Bot: https://www.lennybot.com/

    • Segment: https://segment.com/

    • Senior Growth PM, Monetization, at Amplitude: https://boards.greenhouse.io/amplitude/jobs/6636704002

    • Lead Growth PM at Builder: https://boards.greenhouse.io/builder/jobs/4814755004?gh_src=30cfda2d4us

    • Growth PM at Rapid: https://jobs.lever.co/rapidapi/8d2611d1-6463-4919-9817-31f61e730831

    In this episode, we cover:

    (00:00) Laura’s background

    (04:15) How to carve your own career path, and an example from Bandwidth

    (05:50) Laura’s career growth framework

    (10:18) The value of customer insights

    (12:25) The “voice of the customer” report

    (16:14) Leaning into your strengths

    (18:16) The experiment that shifted the way Laura thinks about friction

    (20:20) Questions that improved Twilio’s onboarding and conversion rate

    (28:53) Thinking about the psyche of your users

    (31:26) The hot dog analogy for burying “scary stuff”

    (33:58) Why it’s better to be iterative and why experiments fail

    (36:21) Saving money by validating fast

    (41:58) Where the best ideas come from

    (49:51) Experimentation lessons

    (52:54) The amount of time a growth team needs to be successful 

    (54:43) The big change at Twilio that led to tens of millions of dollars

    (58:41) The need for both PLG and enterprise, and how Amplitude plans to tap into PLG

    (1:05:42) What it’s like to serve developers

    (1:11:16) Lightning round

    Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.



    Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

    What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess)

    What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess)

    John Cutler writes the popular and beloved product newsletter The Beautiful Mess. For many years, he was a Product Evangelist at Amplitude, which led him to meeting and working with a large number of product teams around the world. Through this role, he gained unique insight into how the best product teams operate. In today’s episode, John reflects on leaving his role at Amplitude, and explains the attributes that the top 1% of product teams share. We also go deep into some of his favorite frameworks and discuss the best way to apply these frameworks to your work. We also unpack skills like product sense and product mindset, and what he’s planning in his new role at Toast.

    Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-differentiates-the-highest-performing-product-teams-john-cutler-amplitude-the-beautiful-mess/#transcript

    Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting this podcast:

    • Merge—A single API to add hundreds of integrations into your app: http://merge.dev/lenny

    • Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/

    • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny

    Where to find John Cutler:

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/johncutlefish

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpcutler/

    • Newsletter: https://cutlefish.substack.com/

    Where to find Lenny:

    • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

    • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

    Referenced:

    • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/

    • The North Star Playbook: https://info.amplitude.com/north-star-playbook

    • Craig Daniel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigmdaniel/

    Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595

    • AppFolio: https://www.appfolio.com/

    • High Leverage Product Evangelism: https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/high-leverage-product-evangelism

    • Satya Nadella on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/satyanadella/

    The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business: https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-Breaking-Invisible-Boundaries/dp/1610392507

    • Innovation Labs: https://innovationlabs.com/

    • BEES: https://mybeesapp.com/

    • Marty Cagan on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-nature-of-product-marty-cagan#details

    Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility: https://www.amazon.com/Sooner-Safer-Happier-Patterns-Antipatterns/dp/1942788916

    • Teresa Torres on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresatorres/

    • Andrew Huberman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab/?hl=en

    • TBM 49/52: Pyramid of Leadership Self/Other Awareness: https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-4952-pyramid-of-leadership-selfother

    • ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/chat

    How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business: https://www.amazon.com/How-Measure-Anything-Intangibles-Business-ebook/dp/B00INUYS2U

    Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations: https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339

    User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product: https://www.amazon.com/User-Story-Mapping-Discover-Product/dp/B08TZGKKF2

    Build with Maggie Crowley podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-with-maggie-crowley/id1445050691

    One Knight in Product podcast: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/index.html#page-top

    Sunny Bunnies on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81286920

    Booba on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81011059

    • Toast: https://pos.toasttab.com/

    • Drift: https://www.drift.com/

    John’s list of high-performing people worth following:

    • Dr. Cat Hicks (@grimalkina) https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcathicks/ 

    • Stephanie Leue https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-leue/

    • Amy Edmondson (@AmyCEdmondson) https://www.linkedin.com/in/amedmondson/

    • Dominica DeGrandis (@dominicad) https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominicadeg/

    • Courtney Kissler https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-kissler-0930681/

    • Christina Wodtke (@cwodtke) https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawodtke/

    • Matthew Skelton https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewskelton/

    • Heidi Helfand (@heidihelfand): https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidihelfand/

    In this episode, we cover:

    (00:00) What is a product evangelist? John’s unique role at Amplitude

    (05:50) John’s reflections and feelings on leaving Amplitude

    (17:28) What John’s doing next

    (18:52) John’s newsletter: The Beautiful Mess

    (27:49) What do the top 1% of product teams have in common?

    (40:08) Different ways companies are successful, and why anyone can improve

    (45:55) Investing in people vs. investing in processes

    (48:49) The importance of culture and values

    (49:59) Global company cultures: the individualist vs. the collectivist  

    (55:55) Why it’s hard to make changes in large companies

    (58:49) How to view frameworks

    (1:01:02) The spectrum of performance in big and small companies

    (1:05:27) Examples of high-performing people who work outside of Silicon Valley

    (1:09:02) The skill of product management

    (1:11:35) The value of learning a bit about everything

    (1:13:46) Why do people often underestimate the loops available at their company

    (1:16:20) Chronic vs. acute issues at companies

    (1:18:07) Unpacking the skills behind product sense and product mindset

    (1:20:44) A place for people without the traditional meritocracy mindset

    (1:22:38) John’s writing process and what he plans on writing about next

    (1:27:52) How to use ChatGPT for learning and levity

    (1:31:56) Lightning Round

    Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.



    Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe