Relentless curiosity, radical accountability, and HubSpot’s winning growth formula | Chris Miller

... like the actual s- really small initial growth team. We really had an aggressive mentality, an aggressive approach. And what that looked like was, at the time, a very small percentage of, I think, HubSpot's subscription revenue would be described as like self-service. So we approached the team who owned it and we were like, "Are y'all working on this?" Right? And they were like, "No, we're working on a bunch of other stuff." We were like, "Can we, can we take this?" And they were like, "Sure, if you want it." And so we took it and, like, immediately blew it up. And so that attitude of sort of saying that like every problem is our problem, and, and like radical accountability and like ownership mentality helped us find opportunities that maybe the business wasn't explicitly asking us to solve, but we were able to triangulate why it might be important for the business for us to solve it. And when you do that, like we, we look hungry, so let's keep feeding us, right?

(Instrumental music) Welcome to Lenny's Podcast, where I interview world class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today my guest is Chris Miller. Chris is VP of product for growth and AI at HubSpot. Chris started as an IC PM at HubSpot where he helped create their early growth team, and as you'll hear, shifted HubSpot towards one of the most successful product-led growth businesses in history. Seven years later, he leads both their growth and AI teams, and advises founders on product-led growth and growth strategy in general. In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover what it takes to become a successful product leader in tech, what skills the most successful PMs need to build, how to find mentors, why you need to scrape your knees as an early PM, also a lot of great stories and insights about what HubSpot figured out about growth across content, sales, product, market segments, and growth loops. I so enjoyed this conversation, and we could have gone for another hour if I didn't cut myself off, and so I'm really excited for you to listen to this conversation. With that, I bring you Chris Miller after a short word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Vanta, helping you streamline your security compliance to accelerate your growth. Thousands of fast-growing companies like Gusto, Calm, Quora, and Modern Treasury trust Vanta to help build, scale, manage, and demonstrate their security and compliance programs, and get ready for audits in weeks, not months. By offering the most in-demand security and privacy frameworks such as SOC2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, and many more, Vanta helps companies obtain the reports they need to accelerate growth, build efficient compliance processes, mitigate risks to their businesses, and build trust with external stakeholders. Over 5,000 fast-growing companies use Vanta to automate up to 90% of the work involved with SOC2 and these other frameworks. For a limited time, Lenny's Podcast listeners get $1,000 off Vanta. Go to vanta.com/lenny. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash Lenny to learn more and to claim your discounts. Get started today. This episode is brought to you by Sidebar. Are you looking to land your next big career move or start your own thing? One of the most effective ways to create a big leap in your career, and something that worked really well for me a few years ago, is to create a personal board of directors, a trusted peer group where you can discuss challenges you're having, get career advice, and just kind of gut check how you're thinking about your work, your career, and your life. This has been a big trajectory changer for me, but it's hard to build this trusted group. With Sidebar, senior leaders are matched with highly vetted, private, supportive peer groups to lean on for unbiased opinions, diverse perspectives, and raw feedback. Everyone has their own zone of genius, so together we're better prepared to navigate professional pitfalls, leading to more responsibility, faster promotions. And bigger impact. Guided by world class programming and facilitation, Sidebar enables you to get focused, tactical feedback at every step of your journey. If you're a listener of this podcast, you're likely already driven and committed to growth. A Sidebar personal board of directors is the missing piece to catalyze that journey. Why spend a decade finding your people when you could meet them at Sidebar today? Jump the growing wait list of thousands of leaders from top tech companies by visiting sidebar.com/lenny to learn more. That's sidebar.com/lenny. Chris, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the podcast.