Adam Long

🌲 Lessons from Nature: The Blue Spruce I've been in the Revenue universe for a long time, but that wasn't always the plan. 20 years ago, I was sitting in a design studio at K-State, trying to understand why some communities prospered and others didn't. While my work took a different path, that deep connection to nature and placemaking remains a big part of how I meet the world. My recent move to a new house brought with it a surprising metaphor: a struggling blue spruce in the yard. For many years, the blue spruce was a highly-coveted ornamental tree to plant in neighborhoods for its blue-green, Christmas tree-like form. But the blue spruce needs specific conditions to thrive, and many of these trees struggle to survive in the warmer climates they find themselves planted. Strategic planning in our modern world sometimes feels like looking at Pinterest pictures of someone else's yard and choosing the trees we like best. My struggling blue spruce reminds me the shiny thing is only sometimes the best thing. 🌱 Right Conditions for Growth: Just as plants thrive under the right conditions, business strategies need to account for the specific environment in which they operate. Some rigor is required to select the best path. 💪 Adaptation and Resilience: When we plant a tree, we tend to its ongoing needs to help it get a foothold and thrive. We should expect our initiatives to require the same kind of active relationship from us, adapting and cultivating the conditions that will help them succeed. Your investment in a foundation of operational excellence pays early and often, giving you the blueprint to operate and the language to understand progress, challenges, and opportunities. ❓ Embracing Uncertainty: One of the biggest (and most important) takeaways is that control is an illusion. Just as plants are part of a larger ecosystem over which we have little power, so too are the markets and environments in which our businesses operate. The key is to focus on controlling what we can. It's not an easy moment to be in this line of work--there are a lot of struggling blue spruces out there. Success now more than ever requires us to get back basics. I don't have the answers, but I do know that a blend of resilience, adaptability, and a measure of strategic foresight is the recipe that will help all of us manage the complexities of modern business landscapes. 🔄 Have you encountered similar lessons from unexpected places? How do you ensure your business strategies are well-suited to their environments and adaptable to the inevitable changes? Let’s discuss. #BusinessGrowth #RevenueGrowth #MarketingStrategy #LeadershipLessons #B2BSaaS

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Two things I’ve seen the best PMs do really well: 1. Creating hype: They get everyone in the organization excited about any initiative and align xfn teams. 2. Open-mindedness: They don’t get too attached to a specific idea. Instead, they take a step back, view things objectively, and obsessively gather feedback from as many people as possible. Kevin Anderson is one such awesome PM who has a genuine curiosity and infectious passion for Experimentation. I had a fireside chat with Kevin last week hosted by Statsig, where we discussed various topics, including the latest trends in experimentation, build vs. buy, reducing friction, measuring success, and so many insightful anecdotes that you can check out here: https://lnkd.in/gRgi4KDd #productmanagement #experimentation #data

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Since Lindsay Cope has officially name-checked me for being a browser extension nerd, might as well lean in! One of the reasons I love a good browser extension—aside from the obviously lovable: efficient, convenient, productivity-boosting—is... design 🎨 There's no playbook on designing the perfect extension, no go-to best practice guide or white paper like you'd find for web or mobile or email... it's kind of the wild west 🤠 AND it's full of interesting UX tensions to consider: - Easy-access but unobtrusive - Powerful but simple - Small real estate to work with (like mobile) but big functionality expectations (like desktop) And, in the case of Calendly's new extension, it has to add unique & specific value, otherwise risking redundancy with our web app. I'm super proud of the new & improved extension we launched yesterday which lets you: - View + take action on your meetings—join, cancel, reschedule, or mark someone a no-show in 2 seconds flat (give or take your wifi connection) - Share your scheduling link (duh) OR book a meeting in real time (ooh!) - Keep track of contacts + meeting history so you're never sweating the "who am I about to meet with? have we spoken before?" It replaces at least 4 tabs I used to have open round-the-clock, and for that, I am grateful 🙏 Try it out yourself ( 👀 ⬇ ) and let me know what you think! What's your favorite feature? What's on your wishlist?

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It's been Product Vision week at Metro Retro this week. Here's a screenshot of "the middle step" that we're currently at. This is the step between: "WTF are we making, who for, and why are we making it?" and "Hello target audience, here's why you should buy Metro Retro for your team." This week's workshops all expertly marshalled by Steven Moseley, in probably the most neatly-organized boards I've seen in a long while 👏 (I'll probably get him to make these as templates for Metro Retro users, they're that good). From this process we will end up with a tighter product roadmap and better-positioned marketing.

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Two posts I shared with my team this week about LLM's impact on SaaS. SaaS has always been about solving a problem. Engineers I interview often ask me "Why spend so much time on the LLM stuff?". Aka, "Why are we working on all the hard stuff that is barely working, when there's plenty of problems to be solved the old way?". Brett Queener's tweet about the UI. He talks about a world where most of a software product's user interface will be a prompt or a recommendation. "..its far better user experience than forcing people to hunt and peck across your tabs, list views, form views and dashboard for them to get done what they want to. It also means that what you used to compete on / differentiate on traditionally (I have these capabilities / better easier to use screens / yada yada yada) are kinda irrelevant" Matt Turck's LinkedIn post, "Is SaaS dead?" SaaS vendors are currently perceived as “last generation” despite best efforts to add AI quickly. Customers trying to build themselves, since it's pretty easy to get started. He says what happens next: "* customers realize that “build” is a headache, not always good * OpenAI / Azure etc can’t / doesn’t want to build hundreds of problem specific/ vertical specific apps * Takes time, but legacy and new SaaS companies truly become AI-first (not just marketing), abstract away complexity of deploying LLMs * macro environment eventually rebounds * AIaaS becomes the new SaaS - what is old is new" Both are linked in the comments. #who-moved-my-cheese

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Hey LinkedIn 👋, Kevin Newsum got me on the hot seat 🔥, and tomorrow I’m about to get grilled in an AMA session! This session is perfect for Sequence users, both old and new, and for anyone who's Sequence-curious 🤔 or has questions about building a startup 🚀, fintech 💳, or anything else you'd like to ask me. 📅 Registration link is in the comments. Looking forward to your questions!

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I think Parker Conrad of Rippling is an all time great product builder and visionary. But I think he was dead wrong last week when he said "I don't think anyone wants to chat with their HR software". We use Rippling at Optech, and when I needed to pull copies of employment agreements for due diligence, I really wanted to just tell support "find and send me copies of our employment agreements". Instead I spent an hour trying to navigate a thicket of slow and complex UIs. The promise of AI in customer support extends beyond resolving the questions your customers have today. It doesn't matter if you make something self serve in your product *in theory*: if customers don't need to use it often, they're not going to find it buried in your menus, and they're going to contact support anyway. When they do ask support, they don't want an explainer of where to self serve it, they just want the solution. That's where Optech's customers are already going: when AI makes support powerful, scalable and chaper, then we can use it to help customers the way they want to be helped, instead of sending them into UI mazes. We're excited to talk to more forward-thinking support and product teams who want to see how conversational AI can supercharge product value as well as supercharging support.

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Just met with a client and was reminded of some sage advice I once got from a veteran founder. "If you want to make better decisions as founders, you need to clearly define your core values." In the early days of starting a company/ building a product you have a TON of decisions to make. - What should we charge for this? - How should we talk about this? - Should we have a free tier? - Should we prioritize this feature? Often we spend a lot of time debating and weighing outcomes (future-tripping) for these decisions. You could literally spend months debating and end up where you started. So how do you make these crucial decisions *quickly* with as much confidence as possible? You need to define your core values. At Twilio in the first years, we had a core value of "empower others" so we didn't hesitate to help a developer build with a competitor. We just knew it was what any other Twilion would do. One of my clients has a core value to "stop taxing businesses with core enterprise features" which means the free tier HAS to have SSO as an offering. Not much to debate there. If you find yourself debating a lot of these crucial decisions, go back to your core values and see if there is a compass their to point you in the right direction. If there isn't you might need another value ;)

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Today on Homebase, we cover the founding story of Kapwing: The Video Editing Powerhouse Serving 3M Monthly Users, currently profitable and $12.7 million in funding in the bag🎥 Founded by Julia Enthoven and Eric Lu, Kapwing has: ✅ Achieved profitability through organic growth ✅ Developed an AI-powered video editing arsenal ✅ Innovated with features like Smart B-roll and Premium Text-to-Speech Learn how this team went from a simple web app to a robust, user-friendly platform that helps users create 10x more video content. Discover how they: - Filled a gap in the user-friendly video tool space - Grew organically with minimal ad spend - Embraced a remote-first approach - Prioritized real user feedback over theoretical market studies Read the full story of Kapwing's journey to profitability and success here: https://lnkd.in/gZPhpNKd

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Last year at LMN, we meticulously researched, designed, and developed an app for the landscaping industry called “Crew.” It’s no secret that I’m extremely proud of the work and team that created it; it's some of the best work I've ever been a part of.    Why do I love this app? 1. The Crew App at its core is a well-designed 💪 job & time management app experience for Crew Leads. What it enables however is even more important.  Who would have thought that providing information and data on how to be successful, along with empowering people through goal-setting and insights, could boost performance and transform team culture? We did. How? See #2. 2. The user-centered design process, again, is the key to making products that are useful, valuable, and a delight to use. Through countless hours of research and testing, our customer was with us all along the way. -We listened, learned, and empathized—and designed with our customers' needs and goals in mind. -We developed a visual design language to enhance usability for non-English speakers and individuals with lower literacy levels. -We established consistent user flows and interactions to ensure an easy user experience. We focused on the people behind the screens. Why? Because it's about making lives easier and better first!  Do that, and everything else falls into place. FYI, I need to acknowledge the landscape industry and how easy and fun they make research. I’ve never met a more welcoming group of hardworking people.  👈 🤝 Well, besides that cult I joined once 👀 but, we aren't supposed to talk about that.

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After a brief hiatus, we have another exciting Velt (YC W22) release notes video! We weren't able to put one out last week because the team was at Google Next. But we are back and better then ever! This week we are excited to announce: - Option to hide Comments from appearing on certain Locations - Option to remove the Recording countdown - Option to remove the Recording summary - Option to pause the SDK features - More file type support on Comment attachments Full link in the comments! #buildinpublic #releasenotes #docs

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This week, LinearB launched a new GTM strategy centered on modern software engineering challenges. I.e. we rebranded our website 😁 https://linearb.io/ Typically, it's easy for those of us in Developer Advocacy / Relations to sit on the sidelines for these types of projects since they often take place deep within the realm of marketing, design, and growth optimization. But, LinearB needed our brand to reflect the reality of what it takes for modern software engineering initiatives to be successful: they require buy-in at all levels of the organization, from the executive team down to the individual developer. Developers are under constant pressure to improve productivity, deliver code on a predictable schedule, and justify investments in the things that improve their lives. This is not to mention the uncertain future of the paradigm shift that's occurring as we transition toward GPT-driven software development. It's no wonder that engineering leaders are looking for solutions to better understand how to navigate these complexities. Early in this process, I unexpectedly found myself at the center of solving how we communicate our position to engineering organizations. This has been an extraordinary growth opportunity from which I've learned a bunch, and I couldn't be more proud of what we pulled together for this launch. Of course, none of it would be possible without all of the incredible people we have at LinearB.

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Wow! The energy at the Financial Brand Forum is out of this world! Amber Robinson and I are pumped to have you join us at our LIVE DEMO session today at 3:00 PM in Starvine 10, "DON'T BANK ON LUCK: HIT THE JACKPOT WITH DATA INSIGHTS FROM KLARIVIS." We're bringing you a game-changing experience where KlariVis offers better odds than the casino! Join us for a firsthand look at how KlariVis can transform your institution and increase your chances of winning big. Attend our session to unlock exclusive insights and a special code for our lockbox and your shot at winning $500! KlariVis' data analytics platform isn't just about numbers – it's about empowering your team, optimizing efficiency, and driving growth. Let's revolutionize the way you do banking together! Plus, get a sneak peek at our upcoming features that are guaranteed to elevate your institution. Don't miss out on this opportunity to turn your data into the jackpot with KlariVis. #FinancialBrandForum #KlariVis #DataDriven #VegasMagic

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Based on Ron Jacobson's feedback: Many of the business leaders I speak with want to make decisions based on data insights, yet the data is often inaccurate and the metrics are too complex. That is why MaaS Marketing build our customer data platform - Orbit CX! In one single pane of glass, you can quickly see: - Which acquisition channels are performing the best - Who your customers are and where they come from - Impact to inventory based on real-time analysis We only use metrics that matter. No more confusing jargon and paralysis by analysis! Shoot me a message if you'd like me to sign you up for a first look at our new platform. Coming soon! #MaaSMarketing #OrbitCX #CDP #InsightsIntoAction

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👀 Hidden jobs! 👀 (Sorry/NotSorry for the clickbait title) 😎 I recently learned that there are many VC (Venture Capital) firms out there that maintain their own job boards for open positions at the companies that they invest in. This is a great resource to find openings at startups (and some pretty well established companies, too) that may not be listed here on LinkedIn or other boards. I thought it would be useful to put together a list of the ones I have found so far. If you are looking for work, check out my list! (A work in progress, but please repost and share). https://lnkd.in/gnQsb3H8 Oh and did I mention that I am #opentowork and looking for a new role in Engineering Management? Check out my profile and HMU if you've got something interesting! 🙏 Thanks!

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I'm bootstrapping a B2B media company called Exit Five (if you haven't heard). Here are some updates from last week as we build: • NEW BRAND: Finalized new designs for the website, rolled out our rebrand inside of the community, and prepared to hit publish on the public rebrand this week - you'll see a new logo, colors, and overall branding from Exit Five. Eli and his team at No Boring Design did an amazing job helping us level up the Exit Five branding; I can't wait to show you later in the week. • EVENT: Closed sponsors for our first event in September - we've had inbound from some of the best B2B SaaS brands and it's been fun to decide who to work with. We're 2 weeks away from launching the event, telling you the name, dates, speakers, and letting you buy tickets if you want to join us in Vermont this fall • TRIALS: Trials are back; after a slow(er) month in April, we had a our best week for trials in months. There's a 7 day free trial to join the Exit Five community; it's a private space for B2B marketers to get feedback, ask questions, and get recommendations from peers. We just crossed 3,500 members. We had 3,500 members a year ago, but had bunch of churn moving off of Facebook. This was a big bet I had; I knew it would be painful and there would be churn and some complaints, but 1 year later we are in a *much* better position. • MAU: We have 38% MAU in our community, which would make us one of the highest engaged communities on Circle based on their benchmark data for communities of our size (3,500 members). The average MAU for communities with 1000 - 5000 members is 28%. • PODCAST: We had a record number of podcast downloads for April too. We'll cross 140 episodes this week. The podcast is hard to control, but there's an incredible long tail once you get going... • JASON LEMKIN: I sat down with Jason Lemkin to record an episode of the Exit Five podcast. I've been a long time SaaStr fan (since it started as a blog and newsletter) but this is the first time we met and Jason over delivered. He recorded an incredible 1 hour interview for the podcast covering what a great VP Marketing in SaaS does, lessons from building SaaStr, and I got him to dive into his personal content creation process. But here's what's even cooler: after the podcast, he stuck around and gave me 30 minutes to just chat through what we're doing with Exit Five off the record and helped me a bunch with the vision, strategy, and validating a lot of our ideas. It was pretty damn cool. Thanks for reading this week's Exit Five update. We're bootstrapping this B2B media business and writing in public about what we're doing helps grow (and it's fun to do). Also we're hiring soon...

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"I LOVE using our call recorder because it helps me prove that AEs don't actually need the feature they said they needed." I recently heard a PM say this, and it's a pretty common (and unfortunate) sentiment among product teams. Frankly, it's a shitty mindset. It's certainly true that a major responsibility of PMs is to drive focus and prioritization, but I think their primary focus should be enabling Account Executives and Account Managers to generate revenue in a healthy manner That means working with reps and leveraging the conversations they're having to identify the most impactful initiatives for revenue—not looking for reasons to shut down their asks and ideas. To date, call intelligence has not been built to bridge the gap between GTM and R&D. Oftentimes, it doesn't even bridge the gaps within GTM organizations (specifically, enabling Product Marketing and Marketing to understand the voice of the customer). If you want to do more with the conversations your team is already having, shoot me a DM 💪

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🎙 We launched Episode 1 of "Next Gen Builders" TODAY— take a listen. Please rate it, leave comments, and share it with your friends. Details are linked in the blog below. Today, I told our CPO Francois Ajenstat that he could quit his day job and go all-in on hosting podcasts if he wanted to. For the record, I'm not really encouraging him to quit. He simply impressed me, and I'm a tough critic. For context, he has an impressive 25+ year career and tenure leading and working on big-name products like Tableau, SQL, and Office. On paper, he's exactly the caliber of "big deal" that I knew we'd want for our next CPO. Though he's too humble to say it that way himself. I shouldn't have been surprised. To be fair, Francois started just as I was headed out the door on leave, and I hadn't had the chance to interface with him before I left. I'll be completely honest...he's a pretty big data guy. So, I was nervous he was going to be a boring podcast host. But he's not! He's a natural. Aside from his hosting ability, what struck me most about our brief conversation was that when I told him how great he was, he admitted something to me. He's nervous about hosting. At that moment, I felt reassured. It's refreshing to hear vulnerability from someone who's "made it" to the top. Leaders are typically so buttoned and pressed. Earning stripes takes confidence. So when someone whose career I admire shows me the opposite—it makes that C-suite feel so much more approachable. And that's the same mentality that makes Next Gen Builders special! There's so much openness and vulnerability about how the most successful builders broke through and the hard-earned lessons along the way. It's inspiring. In Episode 1, he speaks with Sarah Franklin CEO of Lattice (and former CMO of Salesforce). Did you know she created the Trailhead/Trailblazer concept at SFDC? And before that? She was once in the middle of a company taking risks, trying to find fulfillment in her job. That speaks to me. And we hope it speaks to you, too. There's a few lessons in this short story: 1️⃣ Great work happens outside of our comfort zones. 2️⃣ Great leaders practice vulnerability. 3️⃣ And, great podcasts happen at Amplitude. Be sure to listen!

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The MotherDuck Pricing Calculator is live!! I'm especially proud of this one. Let me explain. What's the user problem? A customer who is unfamiliar with your infrastructure product wants to have a ballpark estimate of the overall cost. They know very little about your product. They know a lot about their own workloads and use cases. Where most pricing calculators fail is they ask users questions users are not ready to answer. How many CPUs do I need? For how long? How many hours per week would I need to use this product for? People don't know... and a pricing calculator that multiplies X by Y and spits out Z is just not that interesting. We at MotherDuck decided to meet customers halfway. We're asking them, what workloads do you intend on running with us? We know from aggregate telemetry and decades' worth of experiences the impact of the various workload archetypes on infrastructure and we came up with a ballpark but very simple heuristic that helps get a feel for costs. Try it out here! https://lnkd.in/g7EVcc8J And we trust that if you know you'll need 1000 core-hours with MotherDuck, you're capable of multiplying that by $0.40 :)

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