When and how to invest in new acquisition channels | Adam Grenier (Uber, MasterClass)
September 15, 2022
AI Summary
5 min readAdam Grenier, former head of growth at Uber and VP of marketing at MasterClass, shares frameworks for testing new acquisition channels, the evolving role of marketing leaders in product-led companies, improv techniques for collaboration, and personal experiences distinguishing burnout from depression.
Improv lessons for collaboration and creativity
Grenier applies improv principles like "Yes, and..."—accepting ideas before building on them—to cross-functional work, such as aligning central and local teams at Uber, fostering rapport and progress over denial. The "gift of details" involves adding specifics to spark richer responses, useful in marketing positioning (e.g., framing MasterClass content as solving curiosities like a biography). He recommends improv classes for anyone to build adaptability and openness, or publicly committing to the skill with teams for accountability, even without performance goals.
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What you'll learn
- 1 `* (00:00) **Economic Shifts Require Revalidating PMF**`
- 2 `* (05:34) **Improv Lessons for Business: "Yes, And..." and Gift of Details**`
- 3 `* (11:25) **Building Improv Skills for Teams**`
- 4 `* (14:38) **Framework for Emerging Channels: 3 Ingredients**`
- 5 `* (25:40) **Testing Emerging Channels: Timeframes and Signals**`
- 6 `* (30:17) **Current Emerging Channels to Watch**`
- 7 `* (38:26) **From Early Adopters to Broad Market (Crossing the Chasm)**`
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Adam Grenier is the former Head of Growth Marketing and Innovation at Uber, where he helped build Uber’s growth infrastructure from the ground up. He is also the former VP of Product and Marketing at LambdaSchool, and former VP of Marketing at Masterclass. These days, Adam is a growth and marketing advisor to many companies, as well as a teacher through Reforge. In today’s episode, Adam shares how to determine whether a new channel is worth exploring, the rise of the growth CMO, and how improv classes can improve team bonding and create a more positive ‘yes’ culture. He also speaks candidly about his own struggles with burnout and depression and shares some incredible tools that have helped him along the way.
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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/when-to-invest-in-new-acquisition
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Where to find Adam Grenier:• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AKGrenier• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akgrenier/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:• Whimsical: https://whimsical.com/lenny• Coda: http://coda.io/lenny• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/—Referenced:• OOT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-top_media_service• Grin: https://grin.co/• Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers: https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123•Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Marketing-Practices-Smarter-Innovative/dp/1119183170• Adam’s twitter thread about burnout: https://twitter.com/akgrenier/status/1285275433282359296•Why Budd
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