This article should really be titled, “How to interview a product manager (if you aren’t a product person) “ Because customer success, marketing, sales, support, and other operational roles are key stakeholders in a SaaS organization they are often called into the interview process for product managers. Especially for a company’s first product hire when there […]
How to Stop Solving Every Problem Yourself
In a startup, the early staff has to build literally everything from scratch, figure everything out, and solve every problem. There are no playbooks, rules, norms, or guidelines. There is just get stuff done, be scrappy and figure it out. It is a special breed of person who survives and thrives in very early start-up […]
You Hired a Bad-Fit Executive. Now What?
We don’t need an article to tell you what to do. If you hired a bad fit executive you need to have them exit the business. Doesn’t matter how long it took you to find the person. Doesn’t matter how much money you spent on a recruiter. Doesn’t matter than now you are questioning your […]
How to Hold People Accountable
How do you hold people accountable? I’ve written a little about it when I learned the phrase “Say-Do”. And I think OKRs help tremendously. I can’t imagine creating an accountable culture without OKRs or a similar framework. They are designed to be visible so that the entire organization can see objectives (goals) and key results […]
Elevating SaaS Customer Success to a Strategic Function
Yesterday, I spoke at the Churn Zero Big Ryg customer success conference in a session titled, “When customer success is a second-class citizen”. Throughout my time as an entrepreneur and working in startups, I’ve always been responsible for customer-facing functions—sales, support, and customer success. And now, as an outside advisor to growing startups, I am […]
Can Professional Services and SaaS Coexist?
My SaaS and startup DNA includes a lot of experience in running professional services organizations. But knowing how professional services revenue is valued in the market (not as much as you would think), and how hard it can be to maintain high margins, I can never recommend a SaaS launch a professional service offering. But […]
How and Why to do Quarterly Reviews
If you know me, you know I really dislike annual performance reviews. I think everyone dislikes them actually. No surprise there. And yet, formalized time to discuss employee performance, goals, and growth is important. I think a quarterly cadence is the right frequency that fits with the rhythms of modern work. Here are some tips […]
Sales Motions for a Product-Led Company
A reoccurring theme of conversations I’ve had lately is what types of sales-motions fit best at a product-led company, and how to get an inside sales machine set up to complement product-led growth. Many product-led companies start out purely product-led. There may be some light sales assistance, but the bulk of new customer acquisition comes […]
How to Roll Out OKRs for the First Time
Many companies struggle to roll out OKRs for the 1st time. It takes a few OKR cycles to feel like you really hit your stride. So, it’s probably not going to go perfectly when you are just getting started with OKRs, and that’s OK. Here are a few tips to help smooth the path and […]
My (Real) Advice for Handling all the Post-Acquisition Feelings
SaaS acquisitions have been “frothy” (to say the least) over the past 5+ years. And while valuations may push lower given the current climate, the M&A market for SaaS is probably going to increase as more companies explore financing options in the Coronavirus era. This is not an article about how to get acquired. It’s […]
