Cultivating a growth practice with Mural's Lauren Schuman
Summary:
This week on How to Win: Lauren Schuman, VP of Product Growth at Mural. Founded in 2011, Mural was valued at $2B after their Series C funding round in 2021. Before joining Mural, Lauren served as Senior Director of Product Insights and Growth at Mailchimp.
In this episode, Lauren breaks down how she has steered Mural and Mailchimp toward cultivating a growth practice. We discuss finding the right problem to solve, the importance of experimentation, and why she hires curious people. I weigh in on the benefits of gathering qualitative data, why marketing is a game of attention, and the diverse potential of growth teams.
Key Points:
- Why is nailing your ICP the most important part of building growth? (01:24)
- How does Lauren find the 'right problem to solve'? (02:43)
- How did Lauren use quantitative data models to make strategic decisions? (04:17)
- I weigh in on the benefits of qualitative data gathering with a quote from Attentive's Brian Long (07:11)
- Lauren talks about how Mural differentiates itself from the competition (09:22)
- How has Lauren been using copy testing to improve Mural's website messaging? (12:36)
- I discuss why marketing is a game of attention (13:35)
- Lauren reflects on the importance of onboarding in a product-led tool (16:41)
- I explain why motivation is more powerful than friction (19:49)
- Lauren breaks down how Mural uses onboarding to increase customer understanding and motivation (20:26)
- What is a painted door test? With a quote from Carta's Shubhi Nigam (22:46)
- What did Lauren learn about building a growth team at Mailchimp? (23:45)
- I weigh in on creating a growth team that excels with a quote from RockBoost's former founder and managing director Chris Out (26:34)
- Why does Lauren look for curious people at the hiring stage? (27:52)
- Wrap-up (29:39)
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