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Kieran Flanagan Kieran Flanagan is an Influencer

CMO at Zapier | ex SVP Marketing at HubSpot | Sequoia Scout | Advisor

B2B companies like Miro, Loom, and Calendly are growing fast with over 42 million users between them. Something they have in common is a magic metric that's rarely mentioned, so let's talk about it :) That metric is the 'immediate time to value' for invited users.  Let's step back first; time to value is how long it takes someone to realize the value they're expecting from your product or service.  Immediate time to value means it happens quickly and with little friction. For example,  - On Airbnb, I can search for locations to stay - On SimilarWeb, I can search for data about a website,  All without needing to create an account.  Optimizing for this metric will help companies grow fast. But, it's having an immediate time to value for invited users that helps companies grow exponentially. Some examples: - With Loom, the user you send a video to gets immediate value. They can watch the video, comment, and add emojis without needing to sign up. - With Miro, the user you send the board to gets immediate value. They can leave comments and instantly start collaborating with you without needing to sign up. - With Calendly, the user you send your calendar link to gets immediate value. They can see available times and book time with you without needing to sign up. In each case, the user receiving the Loom video, Miro board, or Calendly invite has to do very little to get immediate value.   It's that ratio that means many of those users will signup for their own account. They'll send the product to others, and the cycle repeats. It's why when deciding if I'll invest in a company, I think a lot about their unfair advantages around distribution—a loop like this is such a differentiator.

Kieran Flanagan

CMO at Zapier | ex SVP Marketing at HubSpot | Sequoia Scout | Advisor

2y

I should have added this much earlier, but my newsletter covers content like this :) >> https://www.kieranflanagan.io/newsletter

Timoté Geimer

CEO @ dualoop | Public Speaker | Product Coach | Product Discovery Coach |CPO ad interim | Product Management

2y

This is so true! I'm always surprised that so many people try to protect their most valuable features / experiences under an expensive paywall arguing that it would reduce the perceived value of their product if it was available to anyone. 100% of the time it ends up in a situation where no one actually experiences that "aha!" moment. Then these companies try to over-engineer their marketing actions and endlessly revamp their landing page arguing that the issue lies there. 😅

Eric Greenberg

Higher Ed Marketing Operations Leader | CRM, Web, & Marketing Automation Consultant & Coach | Analytics & Marketing Insights

2y

I love the idea of a Time to Value metric. In the case you presented, the time to value was based on a new potential user (they saw the value quickly and would consider using it themselves). Why do you think about the idea of Time to Realized Value of platforms from the POV of the organization that purchased it? For example: TRV for someone using MailChimp for email marketing is vastly different than someone purchasing one of the Marketing Clouds out there where it may take years to see a return once you factor in base platform costs, unused user licenses costs, etc. Just thinking on metrics…

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Samyak Tripathi📊

ABM | Demand Generation | Paid Media

2y

Yep, creating the Aha moment faster is one of the key aspects of self-serve or PLG businesses. Although, I think it matters on the complexity and market segment of your product... What do you say Kieran?🤔

Andrew Constable, MBA, LSSBB

I Help Companies Grow and Create Competitive Advantage Through Winning Business Models, Impactful Strategy, and Execution - Plain and Simple! | LinkedIn & Thinkers360 Top Voice | Learn more in my ABOUT section below 👇

2y

Kieran Flanagan 🤘SVP Marketing at HubSpot Yes "Time to value" is important. It's amazing that a lot of products have the "Valuable" feature way down the timeline of the product, thus they never experience it and their value hypothesis is blown out of the water.

Andrew Capland

Coach for heads of growth | PLG advisor | 2x growth leader (Wistia, Postscript) | Publishing at media.deliveringvalue.co

2y

Allowing users to experience the value before installing is something more folks should try. Too many folks are scared to see their install numbers dip in the short term. It’s a shame.

Fede Caballero

Payflow (YC S21) | Empleados felices, Empresas felices | IESE MBA

2y

Benoit Menardo Benjamin August Luisa Bergel Avinash Sukhwani Interesting! How could we apply this concept when doing referrals or sign ups? I have experienced that when you receive a Loom video or a Miro board you feel the product is so amazing right away.

Irving Frydman

PR, Writer, Content Marketing. I've walked in your tech marketing shoes for miles. Now sprinting and evangelizing Brand Salience.

2y

Another way of looking at this is through the lens of Network Effects. As more users are invited onto the platform, we see more participants, creating additional value for everyone. Immediate Time to Value still needs to be experienced or else no one signs up, upgrades to paid, or pays for premium features. And of course, the dreaded Churn may take place. It's also important to identify who are your customers. If you're selling an AI-based video recruitment #SaaS platform, for example, HR leadership is obvious, but don't neglect the product experience of the job seeker being interviewed. Immediate Time to Value is key for all participants.

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Jason Goodman

Decentralized Design Thinker

2y

This is definitely the evolution of from freemium products to products that don’t even require an account at all in order to achieve time to value. I think collaboration products as a category are well positioned to take advantage of this. As for other SAAS products - as always it’s never a “one size fits all” kinda solution, but - keeping speed/time to value as a design principle is a great place to start

Vaibhav Chawla

Co-Founder at Wherehouse.io

2y

Quite fascinating. It's always intriguing to play around with the "investment vs reward" cycle while designing the user flow. Instant gratification is a great hook to get someone started and nudge them to invest in the platform/product. Interestingly in all the three companies you mentioned, there is strong perpetual investment vs reward cycle that makes the customer go back again and again and be delighted every time. I am sure their drop off(churn) rates would be less after one cycle of investment and reward.

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