scripod.com
5 questions to ask when your product stops growing | Jason Cohen (2x unicorn founder)

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

5 questions to ask when your product stops growing | Jason Cohen (2x unicorn founder)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Jan 25
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Jan 25
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Jason Cohen is a four-time founder (including two unicorns, one being WP Engine) and an investor in over 60 startups, and has been sharing his lessons on company building at A Smart Bear for nearly 20 years. In this episode, Jason shares his methodical fiv...

Highlights

In this episode, Jason Cohen—a seasoned founder and growth strategist—breaks down why products stall and how teams can systematically diagnose and reverse growth plateaus.
00:00
Stalled growth is rarely due to lack of effort—it's usually caused by undiagnosed structural issues in churn, pricing, positioning, or channels.
05:22
Jason has written about 150–200 posts he's proud of over 18 years
13:11
Cancellations grow automatically as the company grows, often overtaking marketing, like a leaky bucket
18:18
Asking 'what made you cancel' instead of 'why did you cancel' increases usable responses
20:27
Customers who made a purchase already found the price acceptable, so 'too expensive' is rarely the real reason for cancellation
26:54
Small changes in onboarding can significantly reduce cancellations
34:13
Focus on differences between good and bad customers, not just commonalities, to reduce churn
38:11
Raising prices can increase sign-ups by selecting a higher-quality market
46:59
Saving time and money has a price cap, while delivering more of the value customers already perceive can have a much higher cap
47:52
Pricing can't be adjusted independently of strategy as new customers may have different demands
54:38
A percentage loss requires a greater percentage gain to return to the original value
1:02:55
The rules based on business finance mechanics apply everywhere
1:04:34
Duolingo achieves high consumer Net Revenue Retention through diversified paid features like Super and Max subscriptions
1:06:47
Marketing channels decline following an 'elephant curve' due to audience saturation, not an S-curve
1:09:42
Relying solely on marketing and adding features while flogging existing channels won't work
1:12:06
Products that sell well through direct sales may not do well with SEO and social, and vice versa
1:18:34
Growing through those with an existing audience is a high-leverage growth lever
1:24:03
For bootstrap founders, it's an option to be content with stable revenue, though psychologically, it's hard to accept if growth stops.
1:28:16
Probability and expected value don't work for decisions like quitting, moving, marriage, or company launch
1:29:28
The common thread in growth is ensuring customers get value from the product
1:33:22
Gemini converts images of charts into tables that can be pasted into Google Sheets
1:34:35
Even Shopify, with a skilled team, faces issues where the effects of A-B testing can disappear, and they need to double-check results
1:42:36
'Be yourself. Everyone else is taken' was not originally said by Oscar Wilde

Chapters

Introduction to Jason Cohen
00:00
Jason’s writing journey
05:19
Questions to ask when your product stops growing
08:25
Getting real customer feedback
18:17
Analyzing cancellation reasons
20:27
Onboarding and activation
26:54
Quick summary
29:35
Revisiting pricing strategies
35:46
Positioning strategies
41:46
Why pricing is inseparable from your strategy
47:52
The importance of net revenue retention (NRR)
52:06
Asking whether or not this is good for the customer
1:00:25
Leveraging existing customers
1:04:34
Are your acquisition channels saturated? The “elephant curve”
1:06:42
Why all marketing channels eventually decline
1:09:41
Direct vs. indirect marketing channels
1:12:04
Getting creative with new channels
1:13:36
Do you actually need to grow?
1:19:04
Deciding when to quit
1:25:57
Book announcement
1:29:27
AI corner
1:33:21
Contrarian corner
1:34:35
Lightning round and final thoughts
1:37:43

Transcript

Lenny Rachitsky: A lot of product teams, a lot of founders built something. It starts to show some success and then all of a sudden it just stops growing. Jason Cohen: There's a series of questions that I asked to diagnose. Why is growth slowing? The firs...