A lesson in what not to do with CRM strategy and monetisation — I used to love Calm. It’s no secret that working in tech can be stressful-as-hell. I’ve had panic attacks, I’ve been in tears, I’ve lost weight from stress. In those moments, I used to turn to Calm. I’d pick up my phone, open the app and make a beeline to…

Driving growth with network effects, CRM and UX — In the last article, we looked at how Loom uses email to drive retention and repeat engagement with their product. Helping them growth as they retain users over time. However, Loom didn’t grow 42X in 5 years with retention alone…. Enter, acquisition growth loops. Growth loops come in two main…

Countdowns, discounts, social proof. They’ve got it all. — Last year online purchases on Black Friday reached over $9 billion for the first time — that’s 20% of all sales in the year on one day. Wild. Who knows what it will be this year. But what we do know is brands are at the ready. Someone told me…

And why I chose Wise instead — I started out as a freelancer this year and I’m ashamed to say that I’m still getting through my backlog of admin like expenses, setting up my website and setting up my pension... So, last Sunday I sat down to bash through my freelancer admin, starting with setting up a…

How do get your assumptions tested? Here’s how. — Too many product teams think they do enough user research when they don’t. They keep launching features that have no impact. Then they do it over and over again until you have a product with loads of features but no significant user growth. One way to stop this is to…

A case study of new feature adoption and product-led growth — Last week, Spotify announced it returned to profitability for the first time since 2021. With an income of $34 million and 2 million more users than forecast, they really smashed it out the park. Monthly Active Users (MAU) hit 574 million, up 26% on the last quarter representing their 2nd…

A 10/10 example of a retention loop — Founded in 2015, Loom now has 21 million users and 350,000 companies using their video recording platform. 5 million Loom videos are created every month. After a $130 Series C in May 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $1.53 billion valuation, the company just announced it would be acquired…

I’ve never felt more seen in my life — In Q2 2023, TechCrunch reported that Spotify had passed the half a billion user mark. Now, with 515 million active users, Spotify is one of the most popular, most-loved apps worldwide. The tech giant generated €11.72 billion revenue in 2022. Looking at their numbers more closely, their subscriber growth was…

A story of pricing, trial retention and purchase UX flows — With 100 million people, a 4.8-star rating (iOS) and a huge 8 billion activities posted, it is no surprise that Strava is one of the most popular fitness apps in the world. They even have a Language Network Effect with the verb ‘To Strava’: Hey, did you Strava it? And…