How to build a high-performing growth team | Adam Fishman (Patreon, Lyft, Imperfect Foods)

Adam Fishman has decades of experience building and scaling some incredible businesses, like Lyft, Patreon, and Imperfect Foods. He is currently an Executive in Residence at Reforge and an advisor to numerous companies on growth, product, strategy, and company building. In today’s episode, Adam shares his growth PM competency model to help founders identify specific skills when hiring growth leaders, how to structure feedback, and how to identify gaps in your growth team. He also discusses the role of onboarding in retention and how to evaluate a company as a prospective employee.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-a-high-performing-growth

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Where to find Adam Fishman:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/fishmanaf

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjfishman/

• Website: https://www.adamfishman.com/

• Adam’s newsletter: https://www.fishmanafnewsletter.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Linear: https://linear.app/lenny

• Coda: http://coda.io/lenny

• Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/

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Referenced:

• Stream Super Pumped on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/super-pumped

• Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber: https://www.amazon.com/Super-Pumped-Battle-Mike-Isaac/dp/0393652246

• HitRecord: https://hitrecord.org/

• Adam’s growth competency model: https://www.reforge.com/blog/the-growth-competency-model

• Adam’s LinkedIn series: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adamjfishman_ive-now-published-my-complete-series-on-activity-6979198793992802305-VtCu/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:18) Adam’s background

(06:16) Lyft’s launch press release

(09:56) Adam’s newsletter and growth competency framework

(10:34) Myths and mistakes founders make

(15:12) The growth competency model

(18:47) Customer knowledge and user psychology

(21:23) Why strategy and communication are more advanced competencies

(25:45) Why to hire a junior-level growth executive and how to support them

(31:20) Why Adam skews toward internal hiring

(33:25) Generalists vs. specialists

(35:59) The importance of onboarding

(41:49) Opinionated defaults

(45:03) Balancing conversion and retention with successful onboarding

(48:46) Guidelines for redesigning onboarding

(52:22) The PMF criteria for candidates

(57:57) What Adam would have done differently at Imperfect Foods

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