Growth Dives
Each week I reverse engineer the products of leading tech companies. Get one annotated teardown every Friday.
Growth Dives: How LinkedIn passed $2bn in subscription revenue
How LinkedIn passed $2bn in subscription revenue And they're still missing out on their potential View online or download as PDF. This year, LinkedIn hit a record $2 billion in Premium subscriptions revenue — a 50% increase in just two years. Not only that, but the free platform is performing strong, with 1 billion users across 200 countries and an increasing engagement year on year - comments alone are up 37%. Why this is interesting: for many companies, mature = plateaued. But LinkedIn’s...
Growth Dives: How Duolingo drives subscription conversion
How Duolingo drives subscription conversion A review of Duo’s post-purchase UX that got them to 10M subs Read online here or download as PDF With as many as a third of new subscribers cancelling within just a few days, converting users is only half the battle. I recently revisited Duolingo (a product that’s grown fast despite being well-established) and what stood out wasn’t just how they drive subscriptions, but how deliberately they reinforce the value after you’ve signed up. I’d abandoned...
Growth Dives: What Strava can teach you about survey design
How to write surveys that actually work: lessons from Strava This is what good survey design looks like 😎 Read online here or download as PDF With 150 million users, a 4.8-star rating on iOS and over 12 billion activities posted, Strava is one of the most popular fitness apps in the world. There’s even a Language Network Effect with the verb ‘to Strava’: Hey, did you Strava it? And, as the saying goes: If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen They also have a super strong Data Network Effect...
Growth Dive Mini (1-min read) 🐣 Miro’s satisfaction survey
Growth Dive Mini (1-min read) 🐣 Miro’s satisfaction survey Thanks for the feedback from my last mini dive — big success! Here’s another 60-second read: one insight, 300 words, super fast 🏎️ Read online here or download as a PDF. Last week, we covered content loops and — whilst this is mainly about Miro — this week it’s your job to spot another one 👀 So, keep your eyes peeled. I was working on email flows with a client in Miro when I saw a banner across the bottom of my desktop screen: How...
Growth Dives: How Runna turned the London Marathon into a content loop
How Runna turned the London Marathon into a content loop What this clever wrap-up reveals about creating shareable product moments This is the only deep dive I’ve ever done without testing the product, which made it all the more interesting to see things from the outside 🪟 Read online here or download as PDF here. Last Sunday, I stood near my house watching the London Marathon go past — cheering on a lobster, a slinky and someone dressed as Big Ben. Later, while checking out finish times on...
Growth Dive Mini (1-min read) 🐣 How Notion nails invites
Growth Dive Mini (1-min read) 🐣 How Notion nails invites Trying a 60-second read this week. One insight, 300 words, super fast 🏎️ If you like it (or don’t!), hit reply — I’m testing this format for the busier weeks 🐇 🐣 Download as a PDF here or read online here. Last week we covered Slack’s invite flow, and — thanks to confirmation bias 🧠 — I’ve been noticing details on invite flows everywhere since 🙄 So, this week we’re covering Notion. I was wrapping up a project on Q1 learnings for a...
Growth Dives: What Slack's invite flow teaches us about virality
What Slack's invite flow teaches us about virality A closer look at the mechanics behind Slack's PLG growth loop Read online here Slack was the fastest startup to hit a $1 billion valuation after launching in 2013. Today, it has over 42 million daily active users — including 77% of Fortune 100 companies — with paid users spending about 90 minutes actively working in Slack. Huge volumes. High engagement. And a product that’s expanded well beyond self-serve PLG into enterprise B2B (i.e. big boi...
Growth Dives: the underdog app no one is talking about
The 500-year-old underdog no one is talking about What Royal Mail teaches us about using illustrations and empathy-first design Join in the conversation on LinkedIn and read online here Last year, I forgot to send my gran a birthday present. I felt crap. Partly, I didn’t realise how fast April flew by. But mostly, I dreaded the faff of posting a parcel. I once queued so long to send one that the line went round the block. The UK postal experience. Source: Guardian As a result, parcels pile up...
Growth Dives March recap
Growth Dives March recap Lessons from stepping back on LinkedIn, leaning into user feedback and building better habits. Stanley and me up Hellvelyn, Lake District Hello to all 1,279 of you wonderful subscribers. What a month it’s been. Last time I checked, it was February. And now somehow it’s April. What happened? Over the last 30 days, I reached 10K followers on LinkedIn, posted three articles, celebrated my birthday 🎈, did some Growth Dive user interviews and went on the most incredible...
Growth Dives: Designing on thin ice
Designing on thin ice What the Scottish Avalanche App reveals about the stakes of product design While this is a story about app UI, it intersects with impostor syndrome in male-dominated spaces, cognitive biases in the mountains and more. Expect something different today ⛰️ Read online here Not my photo, weather was terrible 😂 (Source) What are the risks of bad product design? Churn. Frustrated users. A flood of 1-star reviews. In the grand scheme of things, not much. Few apps are truly life...
Each week I reverse engineer the products of leading tech companies. Get one annotated teardown every Friday.