Product-Led Growth for Subscriptions, Using Examples from Medium, LinkedIn and The Athletic with Caitlin Roman

Episode 51 November 30, 2022 00:35:37
Product-Led Growth for Subscriptions, Using Examples from Medium, LinkedIn and The Athletic with Caitlin Roman
Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches
Product-Led Growth for Subscriptions, Using Examples from Medium, LinkedIn and The Athletic with Caitlin Roman

Nov 30 2022 | 00:35:37

/

Show Notes

Everyone’s talking about “product-led growth” in the subscription world right now. Companies are seeing the connection between the way the product is designed and how effective the company is at acquiring, engaging and retaining customers—and even driving referrals.

To do product-led growth well, product managers need to think like business leaders, as well as thinking like product builders.

It isn’t easy and not everyone has the right skills. My guest today, Caitlin Roman, has led product teams at three great subscription-first organizations, LinkedIn, Medium and most recently The Athletic, which was acquired in January of 2022 by the New York Times, for about $550Million.

I’m excited to talk to her, because she has developed pattern recognition about what it takes to build great products that actually help grow the business.

In today’s conversation, Caitlin and I talk about best practices learned at LinkedIn, Medium and The Athletic, the skills needed to drive product-led growth, and how to partner with data analytics teams to make better, faster decisions.

Excerpt:

"If you have real value behind your content, you can confidently charge for it." Caitlin Roman has led product teams at LinkedIn, Medium, and most recently, The Athletic. She sits down with Robbie to share the best practices she has learned working in these companies, putting product development into the spotlight to generate tangible business growth. She also talks about building an effective product team that can work alongside the data analytics team to make better and quicker decisions. 

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

Join the Subscription Stories Community today:

Other Episodes

Episode 3

August 05, 2020 00:33:58
Episode Cover

Thrive Global’s Jennifer Mazzon: Building a Forever Transaction through Subscription Products

A good product manager “meets customer needs and solves customer problems and fuels the business”. Jennifer Mazzon, Chief Product Officer at Thrive Global, joins...

Listen

Episode 13

October 14, 2020 00:34:54
Episode Cover

Vena’s Hunter Madeley on Driving Engagement in a B2B Subscription Business

Vena CEO Hunter Madeley joins Robbie to share best practices learned working at multiple B2B SaaS success stories. They discuss when it does and...

Listen

Episode 41

February 23, 2022 00:36:12
Episode Cover

Getting Good at Goodbyes: Optimizing for Retention from Hello with Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell

Most subscription-based businesses focus too much on acquisition and not enough on retention. But actually retention improvements are usually more effective, both for total...

Listen