Taegh S. Sokhey

Have you ever looked for theory that can answer - how to approach investors - what kind of product to build first - how you’ll defend the company against competitors This new article from CDA partner, Kevin Maney extends Steven Johnson's writing from the book Emergence to #CategoryDesign. All #Startups and #VentureCapital teams should dig in. (link to article in comments)

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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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For product-minded eng people out there, our call to action is simple. People Ops software shapes the experience of talented people (due to performance management, compensation, mobility, etc) to an extraordinary extent... Not to mention building something amazing for managers and leaders to run their teams better. What if we could build something as delightful as Linear to shape this experience?

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#SalesEngineers interested to understand what the market rate is for base + OTE? Visual is an average based on: 👷‍♂️ 👷‍♀️ Manufacturing vertical 🔢 Years of experience 💰 Base + variable Comp Engine breaks down compensation data sourced directly from real placements. Addition to the #SalesEngineering role(s) in the #Reliability & #Manufacturing space I'm working on, stay tuned for more details and updates on other searches I'm working on too! P.S. first comment is a direct link to Comp Engine to play around with it 🤸‍♀️

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Starting a startup? Here's how you should think about splitting the pie. What this post doesn't show is how important it is to setup an option pool for advisors and key hires.

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59 out of our first 100 customers were fellow Y Combinator companies. 🧡 Post-pivot, the YC network/community, and bookface (YC's internal forum) were mission-critical for us. Critical for so many reasons: 1) These companies bought our product before they should have. Shout out to Gabriel Spencer-Harper for literally buying our product 1-week before it shipped. 2) Allowed us to get initial feedback from people who really cared. 3) Gave us so many customer referrals. 4) Enabled us to show initial traction ahead of a seed-extension round. 5) Basically free CAC. YC has a lot of benefits, but for us, being able to sell into the community has been arguably the biggest.

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🚀 PushOwl Pods Episode 7: While Shopify reported an impressive $11.5 billion this BFCM, Arvind, CEO of Swym, believes there’s still room to push that number even higher.... Here's how 👇 In this episode, I’m thrilled to host Arvind Krishnan, an e-commerce veteran whose platform empowers 35,000+ retailers to deliver seamless cross-channel shopping experiences. Together, we discuss 3 actionable strategies for brands to capture the intent of "last-minute" shoppers and turn it into real revenue: 👉 Capturing the right signals to inform decisions 👉 Sending timely, contextual alerts 👉 Leveraging innovative campaigns like direct mail (shoutout to our friends at PostPilot!) If you're looking to extend your BFCM momentum and drive better results, this one's for you. Tune in for actionable insights, share your thoughts in the comments, and follow PushOwl Pods for more expert tips! 🎙️ #PushOwl | #Shopify | #BFCM2024 | #Swym | #Wishlist | #PushOwlPods

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Excited to announce that Stigg has raised $17.5M in Series A funding! 🎉 Stigg is revolutionizing how software companies build and manage pricing models by introducing the first unified monetization platform for engineers. On a personal level, the story of Dor Sasson and Anton Zagrebelny is super interesting and inspiring, all the way from early ideation and co-founder search, to the exceptional product Stigg is today, and the exceptional team that makes this magic happen!

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Fascinating and insightful read on the 2024 B2B Buyer Experience Report by 6sense 💡💡💡💡 TL;DR: * The world has long since disappeared 🫥 where buyers depend on sellers to select vendor partners. * B2B buying process has 2 distinct phases: - Selection Phase (spans more than two-thirds of the buying journey, buying groups build a consensus short list of potential partners) - Validation Phase (final 30% of the buying journey, buying groups validate consensus by reaching out to shortlisted vendors, starting with their favourite) * Buyers initiate contact with sellers over 80% of the time; While buyers may receive outreach from sellers during the selection phase, buyers still tightly control point of first contact. 📞 📞 📞 * By the time sellers speak with buyers, those buyers have already chosen a favourite, and that favourite will win the deal more than 80% of the time.  😇 😇 😇 * Crazy finding 🤯🤯🤯 - buyers had their first conversations with the ultimate winner 84% of the time. And Buyers favour the Ultimate Winner throughout the Cycle. 🥇🥇🥇 * Across Europe, the average shortlist is typically four vendors. Every extra vendor adds two people to a buying group and extends cycle by two months. ➕➕➕ #buyingexperience #B2Bselling Link in comments below 👇

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What's the best way to get rapidly promoted? One of my former Meta peers had what I think is a solid playbook for maximizing the chances of getting promoted into senior management. The TLDR version is as follows: 1. Spend a couple of years at a big company. 2. Leave that big company for a more senior role at a smaller, less prestigious company. 3. If things turn out well, return to the same or another big company with an improved title and compensation package. If not, return to step #1. This may seem a bit heretical to some folks - that's a lot of job switching, after all. But I think the strategy is sound. If you're interested in maximizing your career growth, I think it pays to give it a try. https://buff.ly/3yA3GT9

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Last month, we made some exciting updates to ZoomInfo Copilot to help your team stay focused on building pipeline and closing deals. 🤝 From customizable insights and new buying signals to seamless CRM integrations, we’re giving your team the tools to prioritize top leads and close deals faster. Highlights include: • Customizable Account Summaries: Tailor your insights for accurate forecasting, better revenue predictability, and consistent quota attainment. • Enhanced Microsoft Dynamics Integration: Bring CRM opportunity data and buyer intent signals together for a complete view of your target accounts, empowering sellers to prioritize high-intent leads. • Real-Time Buyer Intent Signals with TechnologyAdvice: Don't waste time on cold leads — identify the accounts actively researching your solutions. • New Campaign Account Reached Signal: Align sales and marketing with live data on campaign engagement, ensuring consistent and impactful messaging. Ready to save time, build stronger relationships, and drive revenue? Log in to start taking advantage of our newest features: bit.ly/40DjkJe #ZoomInfoCopilot

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The CXO of Marketing for a $500M restaurant chain told me she’s having weekly calls with vendors to begin building her tech stack. 3 needs are top-of-mind for her: //1 A CDP Identity resolution, personalization, and loyalty are essential cornerstones of her marketing strategy. Naturally, this has made finding a CDP a top priority. She believes a CDP is vital to get analytics that will help effectively personalize their marketing. “It’s about taking a look under the hood,” she says, “to understand the customer and prioritize their wants and needs.” //2 SMS She already has an SMS vendor. But she’s pretty sure they’re not going to be a long-term partner. She doesn’t like how clunky and difficult the platform is to use, so she’s actively exploring her options. //3 Loyalty program She already has a loyalty program up and running for their beer club. And she loves how it offers tailored program benefits and identifies unique customer types. But she doesn’t want to stop there… She says, “Loyalty is crucial for moving the needle to boost use and support business.” So she wants to create an enticing loyalty program for the entire restaurant. __ Vendors – While she’s still in the early stages, this CXO is looking for MarTech that will grow with her stack and support her long-term goals. Like: - Driving sales - Providing more relevant, engaging campaigns - Increasing visit frequency to enhance customer lifetime value (Fun fact: She’s found that shifting lifetime visits from 3-4 up to 5-6 visits is all it takes to significantly benefit their business!) Knowing all this… How would you sell this buyer on your MarTech? Give me your best elevator pitch below.

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I cancelled my 1 on 1s. Hot take 🔥 I've been leading #design at Triple Whale for more than a year. But in the middle of Q2 this year, I was also tapped to lead #product In my expanded role as VP of Product & Design, I manage a combined team of 13 whalers - 7 in product and 6 in design. This expanded role has given me an opportunity to up my game as a leader and organizer. I have a set of rituals that I use to run the team, including bi-weekly 1 on 1 meetings with each member of the team (aka, conventional wisdom). I recently made the decision to eliminate all 1 on 1s with the people who report to me. I want to take a moment to explain the origin and reasoning behind this decision. I was inspired by Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, who famously has 60+ direct reports and doesn't do 1 on 1 meetings with any of them. Instead, the type of discussion that would normally be had in a 1 on 1 is had in front of the entire team that reports directly to him. The value behind this is threefold: 1. No privileged information - everyone on the team gets the same level of access to information and hears the same thing at the same time. There is something deeply democratic about this. 2. Geometric growth - the feedback and learnings that emanate from each person's experience accretes to the entire team, rather than each individual learning in private. This means that the whole team is learning and growing at a faster rate. 3. Time savings - this freed up a staggering amount of time, approximately 52 employee hours per month (13 meetings every 2 weeks with 2 participants). Those hours can be reinvested to do more productive work, accelerate speed, and/or augment work-life balance. This is a recent change, and I'm approaching it as an experiment. I'm excited to see the impact, and look forward to sharing results!

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Ami Vora is the Chief Product Officer of Faire. Prior to Faire, Ami spent over 15 years at Meta where she was VP of Product and Design for WhatsApp (2B+ users), VP of Product for Facebook’s ads system (now a $130B business), and director of product at Instagram where she created Instagram's first ads platform. In our conversation, Ami shares: 🔸 Why execution eats strategy for breakfast 🔸 Using metaphor to rally teams around a shared goal 🔸 “Dinosaur brain,” “Toddler soccer,” and “hill climbing” 🔸 A pro tip for handling disagreement 🔸 Tips for working well with product-minded founders as a product leader 🔸 The story of Ami’s incredible 15-year journey from temp to VP 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQasbCbp - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gQCjrhwn - Apple: https://lnkd.in/ghYTapTG Some key takeaways: 1. Execution eats strategy for breakfast: While strategy is undeniably valuable for guiding direction and setting goals, it’s the execution—the tangible implementation of those plans—that truly drives success. Without strong execution, even the best strategies can’t succeed. This means being willing to get your hands dirty, to tackle the mundane and sometimes tedious aspects of the work that lead to real results. Successful execution allows you to learn from both your triumphs and your setbacks, enabling you to refine and improve your strategy over time. 2. When handling high-stakes product reviews with executives (who are so inundated with information that they can't go deep on all of it, aka "dinosaur brain"), focus on distilling complex information into concise, actionable recommendations. By doing so, you not only clarify your recommendation but also empower execs to offer useful context, patterns, or insights at the right altitude. 3. When having a disagreement, use phrases like “Fascinating! You have to tell me more about why you think that” to show a genuine interest in learning. While everyone loves being right, delivering the best outcome is what truly matters. Put your ego aside, embrace curiosity, and collaborate to broaden your perspective and information set. 4. Use the “hill climb” metaphor to remind your team that moving from a local to a global optimum is like traversing hills and valleys. Imagine your product roadmap like climbing a mountain range, with your current solution being a local peak. Reaching the global optimum or the summit requires leaving your comfortable vantage on an arduous journey to explore other hills and valleys. Trying to play it safe by staying put means forfeiting your shot at reaching the global maximum. Use this analogy to remind your team that achieving the best outcome demands risk-taking and perseverance through challenges. Embrace these hurdles as crucial steps toward success, knowing each stride brings you closer to the summit.

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How does a Senior Product Manager go from layoff to landing a Staff Product Manager role with a significant compensation increase? Join us as we chat with Nora Hughes, a seasoned product manager with a decade of experience in the tech industry. Nora shares her journey from being laid off in October to navigating the challenging job market. She talks about her initial struggles, including the overwhelm of job searching during the holidays, dealing with COVID-19, and the loneliness that came with it. Nora discusses how she discovered the Intentional Job Search (IJS) program and her thought process before joining. She highlights the program's structure and quality and how it helped her regain focus, prioritize effectively, and build confidence in her job search strategy. In this candid conversation, Nora also reveals her aha moments, including the value of peer interviews and the comprehensive support from the IJS community. She explains how the program's personalized coaching and strategic guidance were pivotal in helping her land a dream role as a Staff Product Manager in AI and ML at a large public company, achieving a significant pay raise and working alongside best-in-class professionals. If you're curious about how the IJS program can transform your job search and career trajectory, this video is a must-watch. Nora's story is a testament to the power of structured support and intentional effort in achieving career success. Key Moments in this Episode ======================== 00:00 - About Nora 01:00 - Challenges before IJS 02:45 - How Nora decided to join the program 07:30 - Nora's experience in IJS 17:30 - Negotiations 20:00 - Her message for you https://lnkd.in/eHEBAxpQ

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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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"When you have time for product... then you kind of bend back into that product space and a bit less than the sales space." - Saurabh Jain of TrialKey. Product Led Growth Leaders Episode 25 features TrialKey's Saurabh Jain and dives deep into the journey of being product-led from the start of your venture. Hear how companies sometimes shift towards a sales-led approach in the middle stages of growth. Discover the challenges of maintaining the right focus, building the right products, and keeping confidence high. Finally, learn how successful organizations strike a balance between sales and product once they've established a strong customer base and cash flow. Tune in now to gain insights on navigating your growth curve and finding the right balance for success! 🎧💡 #ProductLedGrowth #StartupJourney #PodcastEpisode #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #SalesLed #Sales

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Your PMM team isn't your launch checklist handler. Stop treating PMM as your go-to-market assembly line. They're your secret weapon for building products people actually want. 💡 Think PMMs just "package" your decisions? Think again. They're your market reality check - and they've got deeper user insights than most PMs realize. ⏰ When to Bring in PMMs: ❌ "6 weeks before launch" ❌ "After the product is built" ❌ "When we need sales materials" ✅ BEFORE YOU WRITE A SINGLE USER STORY 🚀 What happens when PMMs are true partners: - They catch market misalignment early - They spot competitive gaps you missed - They turn "meh" features into must-haves 💼 What Real PMM Collaboration Looks Like: - They're shaping product strategy - They're in customer discovery sessions - They're bringing voice-of-market insights - They're saving your product from irrelevance 💪 The Real Benefits: - Better feature prioritization - Products that actually sell - Market-driven decisions - Fewer pivot moments - Stronger positioning If you think PMMs are just there to "tell the story," you're missing the whole plot. 👇 When was the last time your PMM saved you from a market mistake? Share below! 👋 Found this helpful? Follow me for more #ProductManagement #ProductMarketing #Leadership #Marketing

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