Jon Simmons’ Post

🤔 How do you make product decisions when you have lots of ideas, some traction, but aren't sure what to build next? Over the past few months, I've spoken to several founders of early-stage climate startups who have all been grappling with this exact challenge. ⚠ They know that focusing on the wrong feature or use case can not only set back their journey toward product-market fit. It could also risk their next round of funding or demotivate their team. Founders at this juncture can get stuck inside the big vision for their business, becoming interested in the many ways they can solve a constellation of problems. If they’re not careful, these leaders will spread their teams too thin by trying five or more different paths simultaneously. How to navigate this? ▶ At Kakuy, our approach is to do one thing at a time, testing and iterating in short cycles until we find the path to product-market fit. 1. [People] Start with the customer. Find a finite group of individuals you’re looking to serve in this next iteration. Narrower is better at the start, because you’re looking for commonalities in their experience that mean many of them will have the same problem to solve. 2. [Problem] Make sure you know what problem you’re solving for your target group. Combine evidence from user interviews, sales calls, product usage analytics, and market research to target the specific problem and what it would mean to your customers if you solved it. 3. [Product] Quickly build a minimum valuable product (or feature) that solves the problem well enough that a customer will pay you something for it. By starting with the customer and quickly validating each of these three aspects of fit, it’s possible to mitigate the risk of wasting time building the wrong thing. 📈 When done right, you can kick off a positive flywheel that generates revenue, which you can then raise against. If you want to find out more, please comment or reach out. #productleadership #productstrategy #MVP

👏 Just a quick shoutout to Kira Klaas for creating an amazing brand strategy course. Coming from a tech startup background, I thought I'd seen it all – but was blown away by your fresh perspectives and innovative frameworks. And thank you for all the templates - saved me so much time. #brandmarketing

Is your product team truly performing at its best? In my latest edition of Rashdan’s Huddle, I break down 5 actionable steps that will redefine how your product team works together, innovates, and delivers results. Whether you're looking to build trust, improve communication, or hire for impact, this guide has practical insights from years of experience in product management. Check it out, and let me know what steps you’re taking to enhance your team’s performance! ⤵️ #ProductManagement #HighPerformingTeams #Leadership #TeamBuilding #ProductLeadership #Growth #Startups #RashdansHuddle

As wrapped up 3 months in fractional design leadership and advisory, I wanted to take this moment to reflect on my journey 🧘♀️. It has been a real change stepping away from senior leadership roles to jumping into solopreneurship. It surely came with a lot of highs and lows. Despite all of that, I truly grateful for the journey I am taking and continue to learn new things about myself, giving a chance to try new things, approaches and opening myself up to new possibilities 🪴 This summer, I've had the chance to engage with teams on a range of projects and challenges related to product design, strategy, and leadership. I'm really enjoying this phase of working with a mix of tools—from shaping design leadership to driving strategy and getting much closer to execution. I love seeing the impact of these partnerships even in short amount of time, supporting startups and scale-ups in their growth journeys. I’m also at the discovery of a new path, more to come on that! Naturally, there were certainly moments of uncertainty and challenge in this journey, but I’m embracing all the feelings 😍🥲🤯🥳🤨☺️. I’m forever grateful to my support system — family, friends & design community all around the world (you're a powerhouse!) that continue to inspire and motivate me in this. As we are moving into the fall season, I’m excited to continue exploring partnerships and have conversations 🥳. And, my new website is now LIVE! 🔴 (link is in comments 🥁) I'm offering both one-off and ongoing service packages tailored to startups and scale-ups at different stages. Whether it’s setting up a solid design foundation, helping navigate complex product pivots, or providing steady leadership guidance on a fractional basis, I’m here to support teams on different challenges. If you’re interested in collaborating or just curious to learn more, let's chat✨

New Post: Leader Spotlight: Transitioning from a startup to a scale-up, with Matthew Mamet - https://lnkd.in/gTY6zeM5 - Matthew Mamet is a Chief Product Officer and leadership coach with over 25 years of experience helping software companies like TripAdvisor, Pearson, and EnergySage scale and innovate. With two successful exits under his belt, he specializes in growth strategy and guiding teams to the next level of operational efficiency and scale. In our conversation, Matthew talks about unlocking growth and transitioning an organization from a startup to a scale-up. He discusses how founders and CEOs often have different needs when making their first product hire, and how he works with them to turn their visions into reality. Matthew also shares how he’s helped companies launch products in new sectors. Leading teams through change Throughout your career, you’ve hired and developed teams of PMs and designers. What do you look for when you’re building these teams? Typically, I like to join companies and teams that are in a period of great change. In my most recent role at EnergySage, we were acquired by a Fortune 100 company and moved from startup to scaling mode. Before that, I worked at a company that had recently IPO’d. The hallmarks of these kinds of moments for an organization involve things getting very complicated very quickly, as well as a need to change what’s worked well on a small scale. It requires a different mindset for people on the team. With that context in mind, I love bringing people who are builders and doers onto a team. These are people who run toward change and into the fire, so to speak. That usually attracts people who have seen it and done it before. We’re all human, and these types of things get much easier the second time you do it. Bringing in change agents is important — people who can help the team institute better processes and implement responsible change at a steady pace. Are there any specific qualities that you look for, particularly in people who are trying to navigate everyone through change? Grit and perseverance are important traits. If it was easy, everyone would just do it. Some of the changes I’m referring to take quarters or years to implement. This is where perseverance in leadership and being able to set long-term objectives and continually work toward them is important. Also, I look for the ability to build a case that’s impossible to ignore or refute that their plans are the right move for the team or the business to make. This specific component typically requires a mix of data fluency and being able to make the point that a change is required with the data that they have access to. Creating a value exchange When transitioning your organization from a startup to a scale-up, how have you scaled your product team accordingly? What types of new processes did you introduce along the way? When teams go from a version of their R&D organiz

🚀 Exciting News for Design and Product Teams! 🚀 We're thrilled to unveil our latest article: "Magnifying Creativity: Effective Strategies for Scaling Design and Product Teams." Dive into an insightful exploration of maintaining creativity and cohesion as your team embarks on a journey of growth and innovation. 🌟 What's Inside? 🛠️ Evolve your organizational structure for maximum efficiency. 🎨 Integrate effective design and collaboration tools. 💡 Maintain creativity through structured flexibility. 🔍 Align team scaling efforts with your product roadmap for strategic growth. Whether you're a startup ready to scale or an established company seeking to inject fresh energy into your product and design teams, this guide is your roadmap to success. We've packed it with practical tips, grounded in real-world applications, to help you navigate the challenges of team expansion without losing sight of your creative essence. 👉 Why Read It? Stay ahead with a business-lifestyle voice resonating with industry insiders. Seamlessly blend strategic thinking with empathetic leadership. Cultivate a scalable ecosystem where innovation propels your product forward. 🌈 Transform your team's growth into an opportunity for unprecedented creativity and success. Let's reshape the future of design and product development together! https://hubs.li/Q02pBSnZ0

More “Setting the Record Straight” on “Founders Mode” directly from Brian Chesky. Video below where Brian speaks out directly. He says he never called it Founders Mode and his original talk was supposed to be “Off the Record”. 3 Key Takeaways from Brian’s update 🔑 “Every CEO should be the Chief Product Officer” 🔑 “Every CEO should partner with the leaders they hire” 🔑“Every CEO should be in the details” My own Cook’s PlayBooks Key Frameworks - my Substack Blog: 🥇Every Leader should be the “CEO of their Product” 🥈 Every Leader should partner with their “Customer” (a.k.a. other Leaders) 🥉”Write It Down!” as the best way to be in the details during Scaling Mode I believe Brian would call it “Details Mode” while I call it “Scaling Mode”. I believe Brian would call it “Partnership Mode” while I call it “Leadership Mode”. One thing is true. Brian and I remain aligned and I’m glad he went on the record to set his own record straight. Link in the 1st comment to my Cook’s PlayBooks Substack and my original post on “Setting the Record Straight on Founders Mode” if you want to ensure the record is always set straight!

🚀 How do you make a successful first hire for your product team? We spoke with Breanne Hargreaves, Strategy & Growth Director at Evolving Web, for expert advice on choosing the right product leader for your startup and building a high-performing product and design team. 📈 Check out her key insights! 👇 #ProductManagement #Startup #TeamBuilding #Leadership #Hiring #GrowthStrategy

🚀 How do you make a successful first hire for your product team? We spoke with Breanne Hargreaves, Strategy & Growth Director at Evolving Web, for expert advice on choosing the right product leader for your startup and building a high-performing product and design team. 📈 Check out her key insights! 👇 #ProductManagement #Startup #TeamBuilding #Leadership #Hiring #GrowthStrategy

Planning out your week? Stop by Panobi's Panorama, happening from 10am to 4pm on Tuesday, Pacific time to level up how you think about growth. We're hosting a casual and fun series of talks with incredible leaders that have experience at every stage of growth. Each of these talks with end with a live Q&A through Zoom. 10AM: Andrew Chen and I will talk about games, investing, and the role of growth teams at consumer and media companies. 11AM:💗 Sally Carson will delve into how designers, product managers, and marketers can grow their careers. How should you use data to create the right goals for yourself? What questions can you ask your manager (and your skip levels) to ensure that you're working on the most important thing for the company? 12N: I will be sharing frameworks and questions to ask yourself and your team as you start to work on growth – whether you're the founder, a growth hire, or (like me Slack) someone with a background in product, marketing, engineering or data science and high agency who's been tasked with setting up a growth team. 1P: Jay Simons and Jana Messerschmidt will join me to talk about the investor and board-level view of growth. How do growth-stage investors like Jay and BOND Capital think about growing and funding companies at or past Series B investment? How do execs and angel investors like Jana think about setting those teams up for outstanding growth? What do VCs *really* want from their growth teams? 2PM : Wes Kao will share some her hard won wisdom about influencing the first and most important audience you have: your colleagues. 3P: Ayush Sood, who leads engineering for Monetization & Growth Figma, will pull back on the curtain on one of Silicon Valley's most low key but super effective growth teams. What's next for this iconic team? How have they adapted to the New Normal? What perspective do engineering leaders uniquely have on growth? Between the sessions we'll open up the floor for people to chat with each other.