Aakash Gupta

I loved Hannah Clark and Daniel Danker 's recent podcast episode. The best piece of advice was on scaling product organizations. Daniel mentioned that when scaling, he avoids the trap of more of the same and instead figures out what they should be doing as he scales. To paraphrase, what are the 10X ideas that they should incorporate? Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/guYMfMm3

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The best Product folks have this insane ability to deconstruct consumer behaviors from other apps and apply it to theirs. MPL’s game design, CRED Mint’s referral flows, and Urban Company’s service descriptions are all great examples of these!

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Monkeys on pedestals! 🐒🔥 One of my favorite frameworks for quickly assessing the viability of any project - whether it’s launching a new product, starting a company, or testing a go-to-market motion - is Monkeys on Pedestals. I first came across it through Annie Duke, who learned it from Astro Teller (CEO of X, Google’s innovation hub), and it’s a concept I regularly share with founders I work with. Here’s how it works: Imagine you’re trying to teach a monkey to juggle flaming torches while standing on a pedestal in the town square. Two tasks compete for your time and resources: 1️⃣ Training the monkey. 2️⃣ Building the pedestal. Now ask yourself, what’s the hard part? Spoiler: it’s not the pedestal. The bottleneck - the critical challenge - is getting the monkey to juggle. Building the pedestal might feel like progress, but it’s irrelevant if you can’t solve the monkey problem first. This framework tells us to tackle the hardest, most uncertain task first. If the monkey can’t juggle, the project stops there, saving you time, money, and effort. It’s the opposite of the “low-hanging fruit” mindset. Tackling low-hanging fruit often feels good - it’s familiar and easy - but it offers the illusion of progress, not actual results. Pedestal building is just busywork if you can’t solve for the monkey. So next time you’re evaluating an idea or project, remember: Always tackle the monkey first! 🐒 😉 #monkeyfirst #startups #gtm #annieduke

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Perfecting your product and GTM strategy are surely important. But Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie argues there's one factor that outweighs all others in startup success: recognizing and capitalizing on tech and macro tailwinds. Fighting against them? You're setting yourself up for failure. Our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gEAPFR-A

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Guess what - it's Thursday! Only 1 more power play to go! Next Topic: How to Make Messaging Stick "I’ve seen messaging make or break a launch. One of my first big PMM projects taught me this: if your audience doesn’t feel the value, they won’t care about your product. Here’s a messaging Power Play: 1️⃣ Use your audience’s exact words—dig them out of reviews, surveys, or sales calls. 2️⃣ Focus on emotional drivers first. Logic supports the decision, but emotion drives it. 3️⃣ Test, test, and test again. Messaging is never ‘done.’ I once turned around a project just by rewording the headline —it tripled the click-through rate. What’s one messaging tweak that’s worked wonders for you? Let's hear some insights from the experts: Elizabeth Brigham Maggie Bean Yi Lin Pei Katie Gerard

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What Dropbox Capture's launch reminded me about great UI/UX-- Besides competitive/comparative analysis, since the product is button-by-button the same as Loom. But startup consumer tech gets this simple rule wrong more than half of the time: - Tell me what's about to happen - Tell me why it's happening - Do it without surprises Need to get microphone access on my computer? Show me what the button will look like that's about to pop up, remind me that you need it to capture audio for your beautiful screen recordings, and then when you click OK, it all happens. Need permission to record my screen? Sounds scary! Not if you just reminded me that you are a screen recording app, you'll only use it when I, the user, hit 'record', and tell me what the exact checkbox looks like that I'm about to hit. Good UI/UX isn't just about getting me to my experience with as few clicks as possible, though that is very, very important. It's also about making the user feel like we're being given a big, warm product version of a hug. If my software is a dentist, I want it to say, "You're about to hear a big scary drill noise and a little poke, but don't worry, it's just clearing out that nasty cavity so it won't hurt anymore." Don't just shove the drill in my molar. If you have a new product and want me to provide honest feedback, the first 3 people that slide into my DMs with a safe download link (if you try to phish me, I'll know!), I'll tell you how my initial experience went! #userexperience #userinterface #uiux

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Aditya Vempaty and the team at MoEngage have a genius strategy. Use other brands to help build their own and create a connection between the two. A current campaign they're running is giving people custom Air Jordans for taking a demo. No one bit for $100 gift card... their time is worth more than that. But finding a brand that had emotional and non-monetary value for the buyer (execs) means they'll engage. Even if the conversation goes no where, they'll remember you're the one who gave them the custom Jordans. They'll tell other people about the custom Jordans. They'll give their kids the custom Jordans and remember you every time they see them on their kid. This helps build lift that you couldn't get any other way.

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Sometimes the best product features don’t come from a roadmap. They come from observing how users are already interacting with your platform. This week, I spoke with Sean (Solme) Kim, former Head of Product at TikTok and Amazon, he shared how the Stitch feature came to life. Instead of following the original roadmap, the team noticed users were stitching videos together using third-party tools and re-uploading them. Sean’s team recognized the friction in this behavior and turned it into a seamless, integrated feature within TikTok. What’s even more fascinating is how Stitch evolved. While originally intended for video reactions, users started using it in unexpected ways, like asking questions and creating interactive content that opened up a whole new genre. Listen now for more insights👇 🎧 Apple: https://lnkd.in/eyXPftpt 🎙️ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ex4dMBm3 How do you observe user behavior to drive product innovation? Let’s talk in the comments! ________________________ Did you enjoy this episode? Don’t miss out on future insights—subscribe to the Product Thinking podcast newsletter! 🔔 Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/ewU7KFwu #productthinking #productmanagement #innovation #tiktokstitch #userbehavior #productleadership

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I distilled 𝟭𝟯+ 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 of my go-to-market experience as a CMO/VP/Head of Product into this 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲👇 So, if you need help building a go-to-market plan, this resource is for you. I originally built this for myself for my consultation work. → I wanted a template that covered all of the key considerations in an effective and efficient go-to-market engine. → While also still being lightweight enough to be completed quickly (and no more than ~2 pages if printed out). Here's a summary of what the template covers: 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟭 - 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 • 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼 - what you stand for, the change you're championing, why you should be trusted • 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 - the urgent & important problem you're solving and how you're solving it better than alternatives • 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 - segments, ICP and buying committee 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟮 - 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 • 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝘂𝘆 - jobs to be done, buying triggers • 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆 - objections, fears, alternatives • 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘀 they trust - where they learn and make decisions 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟯 - 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 • 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 and 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 - per customer segment • 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 strategy - how you price vs the market 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟰 - 𝗚𝗼-𝗧𝗼-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 • GTM 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - sales-led, PLG, etc. • 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗪𝗲'𝗹𝗹 𝗪𝗶𝗻 - one sentence statement uniting GTM teams • 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 Gen - how you'll generate demand • 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗻 - how you'll collect demand • 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 - how you'll prospect, nurture and close • 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 - how you'll grow revenue 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟱 - 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 • 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀, 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 and 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 - for Product, Marketing, Sales and CS As I said, it is comprehensive. But as you can see below, it's all done in a lean package. ___ Want the FREE template? 👉 The 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 using a fictional company to help guide you through it. 1. CONNECT with me    ❗don't miss this step, I can't send you the post without :) ❗ 2. LIKE this post 3. COMMENT "GTM" And I'll share it straight with you :) Plus all my future training videos on it. ___ So why am I doing this? → Help better define what a GTM strategy consists of → Help others get a head start building theirs → Get your feedback to make the template better :) So what are you waiting for? ___ ✍️ Connect with me, like the post and comment "GTM" to get the template. ♻️ Reshare if you found valuable. #B2B #B2BMarketing #B2BMarketingStrategy #GoToMarket #Marketing #SaaS #Enterprise #BrandAwareness #DemandGen #LeadGen  #Sales #Data #ROI

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Every company & every product has a name. Yet, few folks truly know how to name one. I’ve named companies and products for startups and big brands. I wrote a post this week about naming the Uber One subscription, and Paul A. responded with a request to write a post about the process. Challenge accepted! Let's start by saying that there are plenty of successful companies and products with bad names. Facebook (so lame), Spotify (what), and even Instagram (now everyone just calls it IG). But a good name is a tailwind. And building a business is all about generating tailwinds. Scrub Daddy - instantly makes it fun Shark - a vacuum that looks like a shark and a name you won’t forget Airbnb - fun and easy to remember—unlike VRBO Apple - for a computer! Love it Skims - so simple So, how do you name a company or product? Here are steps to a simple & comprehensive naming process. Step 1 - Brainstorm A well-structured brainstorm is key. You need the right people in the room, with the right prompts, in an environment comfortable enough for all ideas. The goal is to generate as many names as possible. This is a good opportunity to include stakeholders so they feel part of the input. Step 2 - Evalutation criteria Be specific about your needs, and exhaustive. Your criteria will generally have things like: Trademarking - can we own the trademark in our category? Domains available - if a company, what domains can we get? Internationalization - does this word have meanings in other languages? I recently heard about a startup named Corva, a very bad word for anyone who speaks a Slavic language. Don’t make this simple mistake! Alternate meanings - does this name have multiple meanings? Connotations test - Positive or negative connotations? Relatedness - does this communicate a key aspect of our product? Differentiated - how different is this from our competitors? Etc. Make sure your stakeholders approve the criteria! Your criteria will likely remove 90% of your ideas to help you filter. I recommend using a spreadsheet with your criteria as columns. This creates a simple tool to filter names by criteria easily. Step 3 - Picking a name The hardest part of the process is buy-in. Naming is more of an art than a science. I've generally used a voting process. Some tips: - Put the final names into a deck with the finalists used on the website, packaging, ads, etc., so your team can see it in situ. - DO NOT include the internal code name. It will always win the top votes as it is the most familiar. Even your smartest, most discerning colleagues will fall for the familiarity trap. I saw it at Uber many times. Step 4 - Sell it Unveil the name with a splash! We often did this by creating fun campaign examples with the new name. We made social media posts, billboards, and even ad campaigns to show the team how the name would bring their work to life. Happy naming!

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Thrive is a silent killer of a channel. But driving velocity can be tricky. At least until yesterday. Thrive and Instacart have teamed up to provide Thrive Carrot Ads. Now you can drive velocity with a surgeon's scalpal. Oh, and if you're approaching Thrive's Innovation Program. This is your chance to secure a permanent spot on their digital shelf. If you're interested, feel free to DM me or book a call. (No, I cannot get you 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 Thrive. But I can help you stay there.) ——— 🔹 We grow brands on Amazon. 🔹 We increase velocity in Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Sam's, COSTCO, and lots of other cool retailers. #cpg #cpggrowth #retailgrowth #retailvelocity #omnichannel #retail #amazonagency #retailmedia #shoppermarketing #instacart #thrive #thrivemarket #carrotads

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This 2% conversion projection is brought to you by ‘Optimism Inc. Let’s talk financial projections. I build mine grounded in real numbers, tracking down to every API call, because after years in metric land, I know where actual conversions come from. And I’ve seen it too many times: someone tosses in a '2% conversion' assumption, but when you do the math, that number should be closer to 0.3%. Yet with that magical 2%, suddenly we’ve got a gold mine… until reality hits, and it’s more like, 'Oops, things aren’t as rosy as we pitched. Time to dilute and hit another round.' Investors, are you really swayed by unicorn dust? Wouldn’t a real, grounded plan be worth more than another 2%-of-something illusion? Let’s end the hockey-stick fantasies and get back to what’s real. #RealMetrics #NoMoreHockeySticks #FinancialReality

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new episode alert: Magnite $MGNI CEO Michael Barrett breaks down the future of independent ad tech. we talk competing with Google, why The Trade Desk won, and what actually works in M&A. Plus some great insights on leading turnarounds: https://lnkd.in/eAKc84Qi

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Bangaly Kaba was head of growth at Instagram, an early growth PM at Facebook, VP of Product at Instacart, and is currently Director of Product at YouTube overseeing a global team working on creator monetization. Bangaly is on multiple boards, has been a growth advisor to dozens of consumer companies, (including Twitter), and rarely talks publicly. In our conversation, Bangaly shares: 🔸 A framework for choosing where to work and what to work on 🔸 Why you need time for “understand work” 🔸 The “adjacent users” theory 🔸 Advice for coaching product managers 🔸 Invaluable lessons and wild stories from his time at Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gh_vhnaX - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gEK3cgQy - Apple: https://lnkd.in/gHxaaTgR Some key takeaways: 1. To advance your career, focus on creating impact: impact = skills x environment. a. Environment is everything that enables you to do great work that is outside of your direct control, including: manager, resources, team, scope, compensation, and culture. b. Skills are things that are within your direct control that enable your success: communication (the most impactful), influence/leadership, strategic thinking, and execution. 2. Understanding “adjacent users” can be a key to unlocking new stages of growth. Adjacent users are the next segment of people who can benefit from your product and are showing interest but are not quite converting and retaining how you’d hope. You can identify these users by looking for cohorts showing signals that your product is almost a fit (e.g. signing up) but not quite working (e.g. churning at high rates). For example, at one point, Instacart’s core user base may have been office admins ordering food for their staff, but the adjacent user was a mom of four ordering groceries. The mom of four has very different needs, so it would be important for Instacart to build for those in order to grow into the new segment. 3. Bangaly says to view product management as analogous to coaching a sports team. Just like in sports, not everyone needs to be a star player, but everyone plays a crucial role in achieving success. Similarly, the success of individual team members reflects back on the leader. Investing time and effort into coaching and developing team members not only benefits them but also enhances the leader’s effectiveness in their role. 4. Before executing on a product idea, do “understand work” to truly understand pain points, alternatives, and, ultimately, the best opportunities. Too often, teams have an idea, find some data to justify it, and then start executing. And too often, this leads to failed experiments. Instead, invest time up front in understanding what is happening through things like data instrumentation, data analysis, or talking to users.

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Kayvon Beykpour was the long-time head of product at Twitter, and GM of Twitter’s consumer business up until the day the platform was acquired by Elon Musk. He originally joined Twitter in 2015 through the acquisition of his company, Periscope, which became the world's largest live video streaming platform and inspired every other social network to expand into video streaming. In our conversation, we discuss: 🔸 The story of being let go from Twitter after Elon’s acquisition 🔸 How he turned Twitter’s stagnant culture around 🔸 Advice for building consumer products 🔸 Why Periscope failed 🔸 Kayvon’s thoughts on the limitations of frameworks like Jobs to be Done 🔸 When to copy, when to innovate 🔸 So much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/g2Zs56kh - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gUrVCPGX - Apple: https://lnkd.in/gh2zR7tG Some key takeaways: 1. Kayvon drove change at Twitter by questioning the “sacred cows,” or deeply ingrained assumptions about what must not change in a product. At Twitter, these were things like sticking to text-based content and limiting tweets to 140 characters. Kayvon treated sacred cows like a “built-in roadmap” of innovations worth testing. 2. Twitter accelerated cultural change and innovation through many small acquihires. Founders of acquihired companies led the teams behind Community Notes, Spaces, Super Follows, Fleets, Communities, Tipping, and more. Twitter acquihired entrepreneur types who were ambitious and then gave them responsibility and autonomy to develop new products. 3. To change Twitter’s product culture, Kayvon also focused on building alignment at the leadership level, telling a compelling vision and strategy story repeatedly, hiring entrepreneurial founders through acquihires to take big bets, and identifying who was “on the wagon” or “off the wagon.” But he admits they weren’t swift enough at making organizational changes. 4. Twitter made the mistake of internally competing with its own video platforms, such as Vine and Periscope, instead of integrating them seamlessly into the main product. 5. When deciding to copy a product, the North Star should be doing what’s right for the customer. Copying can be done in good taste or poor taste. With Spaces, Twitter sought inspiration from Clubhouse’s user experience but put their own spin on it and prioritized it as the #1 company initiative, having learned from their failure to move quickly enough with Periscope/Vine. 6. To get better at building consumer products, be a voracious user of products. Try new things, feel what works, what doesn’t, and what you like and don’t like. Hone your taste by consuming and learning from others’ creations. There’s no replacement for curiosity and having practice and muscle memory.

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Half of LinkedIn has already weighed in on Paul Graham's recent essay Founder Mode, which criticized the approach of running large companies with "efficient managers." The discussion was sparked by Brian Chesky, who, during an event at YC, lamented that hired management nearly destroyed his company. Everyone in attendance nodded in agreement. Let’s set aside the fact that guys in Patagonia vests may not be the best sample for assessing the success of "Founder Mode." The success of some of these individuals is hard to replicate, not just in other countries, but even in the U.S. under high-interest-rate conditions. Survivorship bias in action. The key question here is: are motivation and accountability for the company’s mission the critical factors for a startup's success? In my opinion, they come second, right after the ability to continuously learn and adapt to changes in the company. For example, the founders of Instagram stepped aside at the right time (maybe unwillingly), allowing efficient managers to build the second-largest social network in the world and a huge cash cow for Meta. An efficient manager, Imran Khan, came to Snapchat from Alibaba, helping the company make a great IPO and improving a lot as a CSO. Bill Gates handed over management to one of his early employees, Steve Ballmer, who in turn passed it to Satya Nadella, allowing Microsoft to become one of the world’s largest companies. Steve Jobs long resisted the necessity of releasing the iPhone and was ultimately convinced by multiple managers, who saved the company, which at the time was relying on a single product line. My conclusion from the stories above: one must constantly learn and evolve to align with the product's tempo. If you fall short due to a lack of skills, motivation, or health, it's better to let more flexible and competent people handle these challenges. You can't blame failure in people management on an inherent flaw in the hired management system.

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There's a new growth strategy on the block. And I'm dubbing it "The U-Haul Playbook." It's when a founder moves to where their target market lives. Not everyone can do this. Few should. But the real takeaway is in understanding why this matters. Customer discovery is the most important activity for a startup founder who is in pre-market phase, MVP phase, or seed stage. Spoiler alert: the importance never ends, but the tactics can change as you grow. I wrote a bit about this trend and how to think about customer discovery in my latest beehiiv for Five Four!

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Why most A/B tests fail? ROI in A/B testing = Frequency x Cost x Success Rate. Most teams focus on frequency or cost but ignore the success rate (And this is the biggest game-changer) At Snocks, we spent weeks testing upsells to find a winning design. The result? A 35–40% success rate across projects. Cheap tests won’t cut it. Smart iterations will. I hope that video helped! If there are any questions, drop them in the comments or DM me “ROI” to figure out how I can help you.

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