Three mistakes I made in February

& a user research request 🤙

Read online here

February was wild - plenty of highs, but also some lows. Growth slowed, my open rate dropped, and I lost momentum. This issue goes through what I got wrong - and how I’m fixing it.

In the midst of it all, I published three essays:

• ​How Slack drives activation with empty states
• ​UX research from Slack, ChatGPT & Grammarly​
• ​Gemini's (annoying) launch into Gsuite​

Outside of writing, I made time for life: I enjoyed sunshine in London 🌞 ran 4 growth workshops for Techscaler ⚙️ did a handstand workshop 🤸‍♀️ went to the sauna 🧖‍♀️ and swam in a 7-degree sea 🌊.

But afterwards, I felt like I lacked something. Some momentum, some motivation.

Why?

I think it was part intrinsic (within me), part extrinsic (from external factors).

First, I saw my open rate drop 10% since January from 70% to 60%. Subscriber growth also slowed to around a third of the pre-2025 rate.

I tried to fix the open rate by sending an email to the disengaged users asking if I could unsubscribe them, and got a mere 7.1% open rate. Ouch 😂

Secondly, I realised that I lacked the enjoyment I felt when I started writing. Reading Lenny's 1 million post, and then re-reading his 500K post reminded me of a few things that are important as a writer:

1. Following your energy
2. Enjoying what you write
3. Learning & growing at the same time

I originally started writing to clarify my thinking. To get things down on paper so I could refer back to them later. I loved it.

Once you start however, it's easy to start writing what you think others' will like. To get caught up in the hamster wheel of social posting and writing.

So, this week I had a hard look at how I've been approaching things and noticed three big mistakes I've made this year that I want to course correct.

Here goes:

Mistake 1: optimising for efficiency not quality

If I had a second middle name it would be efficiency.

I optimise everything - even which tube door gets me to the escalator first.

And this translated to my writing.

I was optimising for speed, not depth. I celebrated finishing fast instead of asking did I learn with this piece? Did I go deep enough? Did I add something new?

I'd leave it to the day of posting and write the whole thing in two hours. Whilst being an impressive word-per-minute rate, it turned into a slog.

I'm a person who needs a deadline. However the excessive rush sapped the enjoyment out of the task itself. I meandered less, had shallower thoughts and became less creative.

I realise I was optimising for the wrong thing. Going forward, I want to spend double the time on each newsletter (from 2-4 hours, to 8 minimum) and optimising for depth and quality over speed.

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Lesson 2: write what gives you energy and ignore the rest

As Lenny puts it, 'writing consistently is a grind'. You have to enjoy it, else you end up resenting it.

It's easy to get trapped in hypes and what 'works' on different social channels and for other creators. Chasing trends is exhausting. Algorithms shift, and the latest tricks never last.

That's why going back to first principles is important.

Originally, I didn't care about hype. I wrote about what delighted/surprised/angered me; something new, nice onboarding flows, weird pricing structures.

Any moment I felt my inner geek coming through, I wrote. It flowed, it energised me and I enjoyed it. And I think it showed in the writing.

Once I started to get traction, it was harder to listen to my gut about what I wanted to write about.

For instance, I've been meaning to write about the Royal Mail app for ages (it's surprisingly good) but I hesitated as I didn't think the app was 'big' enough.

I knew that anything I write on Spotify, Duolingo or other 'big' companies works well but zooming out that information is unhelpful. What matters is my inner geek and gut because that's where my energy comes from.

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Lesson 3: I stopped listening and reading to others' work

If my creativity had a last breath, this is where it died.

I used to listen to podcasts a lot. I used to read. And then... I stopped.

Instead, I compartmentalised my time between clients, writing and hobbies. I aimed for deep work and ignored everything else in the meantime. Having an OFF/ON approach to work ignored the messy middle of perusing through content.

But in my incessant need to focus on one thing, I stamped out curiosity; no ambling through articles or podcasts, no ruminating on ideas, no 100s of tabs open. Instead, I closed all my tabs and got to work.

What I know now is: how you spend your time shapes your output.

I scheduled no time for thinking, reading or listening. As a result, my ideas bank dried up.

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So, what's next?

My goal is to write about what I love (product, growth, UX) and provide you something valuable enough that you actively want to share it.

Specifically, my job is to help you build great products; products that do right by the user and also drive business value.

Looking back, it's not all mistakes. I am proud that I've managed to consistently write an original essay each Friday. I'm also proud of the engaged audience I've built: you 1,260 people on this list 🫶 you da best.

But now I know that curiosity, quality and my old nerdy self needs to be higher on my priority list.

Out with Rosie Efficiency Hoggmascall and in with Rosie Curiosity Hoggmascall 🫡

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On a final note, I'd love to chat 🤙

Does this resonate with you?

What are you hoping to get from Growth Dives? What do you like, what could be better?

I'd love to chat to readers to find out more about your goals, aims, desires, frustrations.

If you're up for it, here's a link to book a call. If you prefer async, feel free to email me by replying to this email (rosie@growthdives.com).

Chat soon and if not I still appreciate your support <3

'till next week,

Rosie 🕺

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