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.

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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.

Learn more and get early access → https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding

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

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Where to find Emily Wang, CEO of Bento:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyyidanwang/

* Website: https://www.trybento.co/

Where to find Kate Syuma, Growth Advisor (ex-Miro):

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-syuma/

* Newsletter: https://katesyuma.substack.com

* X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/kate_syuma

Where to find Oscar Torres, Product Designer at Miro:

* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscartorrestryme/

* Website: https://www.oscartorres.me/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oscar_towers_/

What we’ve covered in this episode:

00:00 Emily's Mission to Start Bento

03:46 Emily's Personal Mental Model Shift

05:00 The Importance of Building a Company

10:00 Understanding Different Parts of a Company

12:14 The Right Time to Introduce Experimentation

15:00 The Role of Leadership in Company Building

16:44 Killing Features and Simplifying the Product

17:12 Balancing Product and Design Team Priorities

20:00 Creating a Company Culture

22:32 Product-Led Growth and Finding the Right Fit

25:00 Building a Strong Team

30:00 Effective Communication within a Company

34:47 Shifts in the Macro Environment and Impact on Product Growth

40:00 Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

47:33 Onboarding vs Everboarding

45:00 Conclusion

51:03 Where to Connect with Emily

Resources referenced:

* Get a 10% discount for the Maven course on Onboarding and Activation before 15th March: https://maven.com/growth-course/self-serve-onboarding

* Behind the Cloud, Mark Benioff: https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Cloud-Salesforce-com-Billion-Dollar-Company/

* Leadership and Self-Deception, The Arbinger Institute: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out-Box/

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Why PLG Doesn't Fit All: Experimentation vs Foundation | Emily Wang (CEO at Bento, ex-Intercom)

Growthmates: Create and Grow Meaningful Products & Careers

Why PLG Doesn't Fit All: Experimentation vs Foundation | Emily Wang (CEO at Bento, ex-Intercom)