The Role of Design in PLG: Embracing Quality and Non-Linear Paths with David Hoang (ex-Webflow, VP at Replit)

Quick update 🥳 Now the Growthmates newsletter and my other posts will be sent on Tuesdays (inboxes are packed with newsletters sent on Sundays). Hope you will enjoy the episode and listen to it throughout the week!Welcome to Growthmates — the place to connect with inspiring leaders to help you grow yourself and your product. Here you can learn how companies like Dropbox, Adobe, Amplitude, Canva, and many more are building excellent products and growth culture. Subscribe to get all episodes right to your inbox on katesyuma.substack.com.Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube (new!).This time I talked to David Hoang, a VP of Design and Marketing at Replit, previously Head of Design and Weblow. David currently is an Executive focused on Design, Marketing, and Growth (sounds like a dream job!  )We started by discussing non-linear career trajectories, and how David combines all these disciplines as an executive. Then we talked about the importance of design in the future of Product-Led Growth, how to leverage templates for Growth and practical examples from Webflow, and finally how to align the whole company around quality.I loved how David emphasized the need to prioritize craft for product growth. I hope that by the end of this episode, you will feel the same way, and will take away some inspiration on building a non-linear career and advice to uplift the quality bar for your product.If you find this show valuable, please share it with one of your colleagues or friends — it gives huge support to continue creating it. To receive all episodes right in your inbox — subscribe to katesyuma.substack.com This episode is supported by Appcues — the platform that helps you design, deploy, and test captivating onboarding experiences.Appcues created the Product Adoption Academy to help you level up your product adoption for free. Check out the template that I created to help companies uncover meaningful improvements. Find an example of Dropbox Onboarding inside and apply it to review any growth flows: appcues.com/growthmatesKey highlights from this episode:* Merge Design with Marketing for Customer Insight: David Hoang, as VP of Design and Marketing, underscores that combining these fields focuses on optimizing the customer experience and adding value. Treat this intersection as a strategic asset to guide customer journey improvements.* Value Nonlinear Career Paths in Design: Embrace diverse career trajectories in design to enhance versatility and innovation within your team. This approach enables designers to contribute uniquely to various aspects of the business, particularly in product-led growth.* Foster Collaboration Between Teams: Effective growth requires seamless collaboration between growth and core teams. Prioritize end-to-end customer experience management, using cross-functional teamwork to identify and address customer friction points.* Utilize Community and Templates Strategically: Leverage community-led initiatives and templates to accelerate user acquisition, activation, and monetization. Recognize these tools as essential components for scalable growth strategies.* Commit to High-Quality Design Standards: Establish non-negotiable quality principles for design, ensuring it's ready for general availability. Incorporate design critiques as a regular practice to uphold quality, align the team, and foster continuous improvement over perfectionism.Listen now and subscribe on your favorite platforms — Apple, Spotify, or watch on YouTube (new!).For the 1st year of Growthmates, we’ve collected from dozens of leaders from Dropbox, Amplitude, Canva, Coda, Atlassian, and now I need your take.👉 Take a 7-min survey and get the first copy of “The PLG Playbook“🎁Follow Growthmates updates on:* Substack Newsletter (for instant inbox delivery): https://katesyuma.substack.com/podcast* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/growthmates-podcast/* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growthmates_/Where to find Kate Syuma, Growth Advisor (ex-Miro):* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ekaterina-syuma/* Newsletter: katesyuma.substack.com* X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/kate_syumaWhere to find , VP of Design and Marketing at Replit (ex-Weblow):* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhoang2/* Newsletter: www.proofofconcept.pub* Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidhoangWhat we’ve covered in this episode:00:00 Nonlinear Career Trajectories03:52 Role of a VP of Design and Marketing07:35 Nonlinear Career Trajectories for Designers10:31 Design as the Future of Product-Led Growth20:10 End-to-End Experiences and Horizontal Focus23:46 Collaboration between Growth and Core Teams26:10 Leveraging Templates for Growth29:28 Community-Led Growth29:55 The Role of Design in Growth30:59 Defining Quality and Making it Actionable32:28 Emphasizing Craft and Quality33:21 The Stigma Against Growth Designers36:00 Non-Negotiable Quality Principles38:41 Treating Design as if it's Going to GA40:18 Defining Quality Standards41:37 Design Crit as a Space for Quality Discussions44:08 Aligning the Whole Company Around Quality46:38 Companies that Execute High-Quality47:11 Quality Principle: Iteration over Perfectionism48:47 Quality Principle: Iterate Smart51:25 Recommended Guests for the ShowReferenced:* David’s Newsletter: www.proofofconcept.pub* The Future of PLG is Design: www.proofofconcept.pub/p/the-future-of-plg-is-design* "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems" by Jef Raskin: https://www.amazon.com/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-Interactive* "Org Design for Design Orgs: Building and Managing In-House Design Teams" by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner: https://www.amazon.com/Org-Design-Design-Orgs-ManagingIf you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to share it with your colleagues and like-minded friends. For sponsorship and other inquiries reach out to ekaterinasyuma@gmail.com.Subscribe to get more episodes right in your inbox: katesyuma.substack.comThanks for reading Kate's Syuma Newsletter & Growthmates! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit katesyuma.substack.com