The mistakes I made becoming a new leader - with Kate Syuma (Growth Advisor ex Miro)
How the former MIRO IC-turned leader worked to juggle authenticity and performance — for herself and her team
Presented by Navattic. The next chapter of PLG is about LEADING with product value. Letting users see and interact with your product directly on your website. Not gating the entire experience behind a signup form.
Navattic’s no-code editor helps B2B SaaS companies create interactive product demos. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.
And by Appcues. Want to level-up your product adoption chops - for free? Check out the Product Adoption Academy. (which has courses, templates, and examples) to help you step-up your game.
My Value First Onboarding Course (which lives in the Academy) outlines the 6-step playbook my team used to activate and engage hundreds of thousands of new users.
“Being a leader is tough. The psychological complexity is extremely high, and sometimes we underestimate that workload.”
A few years into her time at Miro, Kate Syuma was a high-powered IC with an overwhelming workload. She wanted to become a Design and Growth leader at the company, but felt stuck.
Like many of us in the growth world - there was no defined career track for her to follow.
Kate worked hard and eventually grew into a leadership position. But quickly realized that landing the job wasn’t a destination … It was the beginning of a new chapter of hard work.
“One of the toughest pieces of early feedback came from one of my first direct reports,” Kate shared during our convo. “She felt unable to express herself authentically. She felt like I was trying to make her fit a specific role model. This was pretty tough to hear because it was never my intention to prevent someone from being themselves.”
In her reflections from this experience, Kate admits that she’s still working out the best way to balance supporting individual authenticity with managing against standardized performance models.
The irony of the situation is that, like many ICs stepping into leadership roles for the first time, Kate has her share of moments when she feels the push and pull between her authentic self and who she thinks people expect her to be as a leader.
“Sometimes, I don’t feel like myself,” Kate says. “I don’t feel as if I’m behaving as ‘authentic Kate’ when I’m in conversation with other leaders or senior stakeholders.”
It’s a common struggle that most of us can relate to.
Kate and I covered this, and explored some other career challenges in our conversation, including:
The time she shared an outside job offer with her current manager and why she ultimately stayed in her role.
The moment she realized that her impulse to solve problems at the speed of light wasn’t her superpower, but rather her Kryptonite.
How ignoring her intuition led to a hiring mistake that became one of the biggest regrets of her early career.
Watch or listen below 👇
Interested in sponsoring the pod? Let’s chat! sponsor@deliveringvalue.co
PS - before ya go!
After an incredible 6 weeks off, I'm back from parental leave!
I wrapped a few client engagements right before leave and have openings for 2 new advising opportunities and 1 coaching client.
My coaching program is perfect for Heads of Growth/ Directors of Growth who:
Want to fully "step into" the role, but aren't sure how - and want help
Are leading their capability, but need help navigating some speedbumps
Work at a winner and need to level-up so the opportunity doesn't outgrow their skills
Going through a transition (new role, new company, new boss, etc)
Advising is a great fit for PLG teams who are:
In the building/ optimizing stages of their PLG motion
Focused on improving user activation, retention, and conversion to paid
Looking for someone with extensive PLG experience to guide their team
Want help identifying opportunities, stress-testing their roadmap, guiding their approach, and help avoiding the most common speed bumps along the way
Interested in working together? Let's chat!
Or, if you have tips to help my newborn sleep longer then 3 hours? I'll take those too!