Thanks for doing this Q&A Jeff, so far I've been a big fan of the blog posts that you've been writing on your experience in Growth.
My two questions for you:
- What's your process for deciding what projects/tasks to work on in a roadmap?
- How do you document the work that you're doing or the features, what do you consider in terms of comms/legal/experimentation/analytics before you launch something.
Actually, Justin, I'm wondering if you have any other tests you've run recently? Not sure if I can include a non-significant test which improved open rates by less than 2%. All good if not!
yeah buddy!
I cannot explain enough how many sugar cravings I head during this piece :)
Love it!
A delicious read! đź‘Ś
You make me blush Steven. Thank you. Brands as unique as TJ's are a joy to research and write about.
How do you do it Dejan, you keep writing these interesting case studies about special brands that made it. It's a joy to read, as were your previous ones. Keep it up man!
1) Not much has changed. We are still product first. Our investors are aligned around how we want to run the business, being product first, and the large opportunity we are going after (that will not involve short term shortcuts) So we haven't had pressures to change who we are or what we believe in. We didn't need the capital and haven't been reliant on it to operate which helps with that. Capital does allow me to think longer term and sleep better at night. But if I were to do it all over again -- I would still bootstrap for as long as we did. I believe that is what forms a culture and company DNA of sustainability.
2) We have a marketing team focused on growth. But unlike some companies we don't see that as just acquisition. I firmly believe that working on our own customer experience and obsessing about helping SMBs grow is the best growth vehicle we could possibly have -- as well as the most sustainable over tie.
Great question and it isn't easy. Slowing down (or what feels like slowing down) at times is part of it. Ensuring you don't hire the wrong people just to solve short term problems, and being obsessive of your customer experience as well as your team experience. If you find yourself with a ton of distance between your team members you will lose sight on what things you can do from a leadership standpoint to influence and help mold the culture. It is also important to realize that the culture will change. If you try to retain the same exact culture at 300 people compared to the culture at 10 people you will likely have a problem. But you can retain what you value most -- just more directionally instead of having the culture remain static.
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