Product

3 Things We Learned from Season 10 of the OV BUILD Podcast

June 15, 2021

We just wrapped season 10 of OV BUILD, our podcast about building products, teams, and companies. Executives from Atlassian, Zeplin, Mailchimp, Stripe, and more joined us to discuss everything from cybersecurity to how to win Product Hunt. Picking a favorite episode is way too hard, but we wanted to share three of our favorite lessons from this season.

We’re already hard at work on season 11, so subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to be the first to know when a new episode drops.

1. Selling to developers? Community is your superpower

Episode 4: Snyk’s Francesca Krihely on marketing to developers
Francesca Krihely knows developers. Many VCs and startup pundits suggest that the key to success is simply winning the “hearts and minds” of this community. One problem? Developers are allergic to traditional marketing. As Senior Director of Developer Experience at Snyk, Francesca wrote the developer experience playbook—and she shared her best practices with us.
Key takeaway: Before launching a developer-focused product, think about two things: 1. What do the first five minutes of using the product feel like? If you can make your product easier and more enjoyable than what developers are used to, you’re going to win. 2. You must have amazing documentation. If you don’t invest in your docs, you’re cutting your growth.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or below.

Episode 8: Twilio’s Leandra Fishman on enterprise vs. product-led sales
When Leandra Fishman was VP of Growth Sales at Twilio, she learned to let developers build—you can’t be overly prescriptive when you’re selling building blocks.
Key takeaway: The most important trait of a sales leader in a developer-focused company like Twilio: Customers first and developers first, and allowing the developer to have their experience that they want to have. After all, they’re the ones creating and building.
Listen on Apple PodcastsSpotify, or below.

2. The path to founder or CEO isn’t linear

Episode 10: Carrd’s AJ on being an accidental founder
AJ never meant to start Carrd. He was building websites as a freelancer, but was frustrated with the popular options. Hear his advice on what to do when your side project takes off with users.
Key takeaway: Want to cut through all of the noise on Product Hunt? Make it to where your product is extremely easy to get into so people can just jump right in and start using it.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or below.

Episode 21: Puppet’s Yvonne Wassenaar on the path to CEO
CEO Yvonne Wassenaar credits three fundamental attributes for leading a company: curiosity, connection, and agility. Find out how she went from CIO to CEO.
Key takeaway: In the future, the winning software companies will have diverse teams. It’s how you get the best thinking—and with technology advancing so quickly, you’re going to need every possible advantage.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or below.

3. Your team is everything

Episode 30: MURAL’s Lauren Schuman on better collaboration between growth and marketing
From scaling Mailchimp’s growth team from scratch, Lauren Schuman learned that growth is a game of influence—and her secret weapon was her background as a marketer.
Key takeaway: Product and marketing teams must work together, and all too often the thing that prevents them from doing so is painfully simple: misalignment. These teams can set themselves up for success by discussing their goals and objectives together. From there, both marketers and product folks should try solving a shared problem together.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or below.

Episode 36: Atlassian’s Jürgen Spangl on how to have better meetings
A leader at Atlassian since 2012, Jürgen Spangl is now their Chief Experience Officer. He shares some pro tips for managing two cross-functional meeting types: Journey Mapping and Sparring.
Key takeaway: In meetings—especially ones with a lot of people in attendance—it’s often hard to tell who’s actually making decisions. So get clear on who the decision-maker is and how this person will make their decision.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or below.

More from season 10 of OV BUILD

OpenView, the expansion stage venture firm, helps build software companies into market leaders. Through our Expansion Platform, we help companies hire the best talent, acquire and retain the right customers and partner with industry leaders so they can dominate their markets. Our focus on the expansion stage makes us uniquely suited to provide truly tailored operational support to our portfolio companies. Learn more about OpenView at openviewpartners.com.