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How to scrappily hire for, measure, and unlock growth | Crystal Widjaja, Gojek and Kumu

How to scrappily hire for, measure, and unlock growth | Crystal Widjaja, Gojek and Kumu

49 segments available

You don't need lots of employees to achieve impressive growth, but you do need a unique approach to hiring and measuring what matters most. Crystal Widjaja has used scrappy tactics to unlock massive success for Gojek (a wildly successful ride-share app in South East Asia) and is currently the Chief Product Officer at Kumu. In this episode, she shares the exact strategies she’s used as a product leader to hack growth, hire the best, and perfect data collection. Join us. Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-hire-for-measure-and-unlock — Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible: • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • Flatfile: https://www.flatfile.com/lenny • Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/ — Where to find Crystal: • Website: https://www.crissyw.com/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/crystalwidjaja • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystalwidjaja/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — Referenced: • Generation Girl: https://www.generationgirl.org/ • Experiment Design Question Example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tSrEGpvg19OMKrRg45HGvsZBGz8BkeVc/edit#gid=1841057518 — In this episode, we cover: [00:00] Crystal's path to product [09:40] How Crystal decided to join a risky startup [11:31] Why haven't super apps emerged in the U.S.? [13:15] What startups in the U.S. can learn from companies in Asia [16:35] How to get intentionally scrappier in your organization [18:28] How to get and utilize scrappy and small data sets [21:26] How to increase retention [22:28] What does and doesn't work in growth? [25:01] The conversion rates Crytsal looks for to determine viability and success [28:03] How founders should think about approaching growth [32:44] Figuring out how to grow and the resources you have at your disposal [34:53] Optimizing the funnel to make growth happen faster [37:40] Crystal's biggest lessons on unlocking growth [40:07] Why most analytics efforts fail and how to avoid failure [44:24] Signs your organization is getting analytics wrong [46:17] The best resources for figuring out how to do analytics right [47:05] Crystal's recommendations for metric tracking stacks. [48:37] How you should set up your growth team originally [51:38] Integrating growth teams or separating them? [52:43] Who should be the first growth hire? [53:55] How to hire a great growth person for your organization [56:55] How to help women and young girls get into STEM (a non-profit that you started) [1:02:07] Where to reach Crystal

Segments Timeline

1
0:00 - 0:22
0:22 duration75 words

Crystal's Journey to Gojek

Crystal Widjaja shares her unconventional path to becoming a product leader in Southeast Asia, detailing her transition from investment banking to leading growth teams at Gojek. She highlights the rapid growth of Gojek, which now surpasses Lyft in rides and Grubhub in food deliveries, emphasizing the unique opportunities in the Southeast Asian market.

"i felt like it was a problem that was very solvable and we ended up renting a stadium to just hire like 60 000 drivers in a couple of weeks so i think looking back it was certainly a risk like when i ..."

2
0:22 - 0:43
0:20 duration65 words

Gojek's Massive Scale

Crystal discusses the scale of Gojek, now known as GoTo, and its merger with Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform. She explains how Gojek operates as a super app, offering over 20 services, and how it has become a dominant player in Southeast Asia, serving 170 million users across various sectors.

"even at that small scale of like 4 000 orders per day crystal wajaya has been leading product and growth teams at some of the largest consumer businesses in southeast asia including kumu where she's c..."

3
0:43 - 1:06
0:23 duration78 words

The Super App Concept

Crystal contrasts the super app model in Southeast Asia with the app ecosystem in the U.S. She explains how cultural trust in conglomerates and the leap to mobile technology have shaped user behavior, leading to the success of super apps like Gojek and Kumu, which serve multiple needs within a single platform.

"the largest super app in southeast asia to put this in context gojek completes more rights per day than lyft and more food deliveries than grubhub ubereats and doordash combined and it's the number on..."

4
1:06 - 1:30
0:23 duration73 words

Why Super Apps Haven't Emerged in the U.S.

Crystal provides insights into why super apps have not gained traction in the U.S. market. She discusses the differences in consumer sentiment towards conglomerates and the technological landscape, highlighting how the need for multifunctional apps is driven by limited device storage in Southeast Asia.

"our conversation we cover the biggest growth unlocks that crystal has seen across the company she's worked at what growth investments usually pay off and which often don't we dig into growth models a ..."

5
1:30 - 1:49
0:19 duration58 words

The Risk of Joining Startups

Crystal reflects on her decision to join Gojek, emphasizing the calculated risks involved. She discusses the importance of understanding the market and product value proposition, particularly in a rapidly growing environment like Indonesia, where traffic congestion creates a demand for innovative solutions.

"young women get into stem called generation girl crystal is such a star and i hope that you enjoyed this episode as much as i did and with that i bring you crystal or jaya if you're setting up your an..."

6
1:49 - 2:06
0:16 duration41 words

Innovative Hiring Strategies

Crystal recounts the bold hiring strategy employed by Gojek, where they rented a stadium to recruit 60,000 drivers in a short time. She emphasizes the importance of being scrappy and innovative in recruitment to meet the demands of rapid growth.

"analytics solution in the world used by both big companies like shopify instacart and atlassian and also most tech startups amplitude has everything you need including a powerful and fully self-servic..."

7
2:06 - 2:29
0:23 duration51 words

Lessons from Gojek's Growth

Crystal shares key lessons learned from driving growth at Gojek, including the significance of understanding user needs and the market landscape. She highlights the importance of being adaptable and willing to take risks in a startup environment.

"platform to help you understand your users like never before give your teams self-service product data to understand your users drive conversions and increase engagement growth and revenue ditch your ..."

8
2:29 - 2:49
0:20 duration64 words

The Importance of Data in Growth

Crystal discusses how data played a crucial role in Gojek's growth strategy. She explains how building a data team helped identify fraud and optimize performance marketing, ultimately leading to successful scaling of the business.

"[Music] hey ashley head of marketing at flat file how many b2b sas companies would you estimate need to import csv files from their customers at least 40 and how many of them screw that up and what ha..."

9
2:49 - 3:06
0:16 duration38 words

Building a Growth Team

Crystal elaborates on the process of building a growth team at Gojek, emphasizing the need for a strong data foundation. She shares insights on how to structure a team that can effectively drive growth and adapt to changing market conditions.

"onboarding so if your csv importer doesn't work right which is super common considering customer files are full of unexpected data and formatting they'll leave i am zero percent surprised to hear that..."

10
3:06 - 3:29
0:23 duration67 words

The Role of Analytics in Startups

Crystal addresses the common pitfalls of analytics efforts in startups. She provides advice on how to avoid failure in analytics by focusing on actionable insights and ensuring that data collection aligns with business goals.

"onboarding is one of the highest leverage opportunities for both sign up conversion and increasing long-term retention getting people to your aha moment more quickly and reliably is so incredibly impo..."

11
3:29 - 3:49
0:20 duration52 words

Hiring for Growth

Crystal shares her thoughts on the qualities to look for when hiring for growth roles in startups. She emphasizes the importance of finding individuals who are adaptable, innovative, and willing to take risks to drive success.

"and their customers where they need to go faster if you'd like to learn more or get started check out flat file at flat file dot com slash lenny crystal thank you so much for being here i've read a bu..."

12
3:49 - 4:06
0:16 duration68 words

Encouraging Women in STEM

Crystal discusses her non-profit initiative, Generation Girl, aimed at encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM. She highlights the importance of representation and support for women in technology and entrepreneurship.

"tweets but that's the first time that we're actually chatting for real and i'm really excited to yeah i'm excited to learn from you and for folks to learn about you we may have like cross paths on clu..."

13
12:53 - 13:21
0:27 duration92 words

The Super App Concept

Crystal Widjaja discusses the concept of super apps, emphasizing that they don't need to excel at everything but must perform adequately across various functions. She highlights the unique strategies employed by Gojek to rapidly scale their driver base, suggesting that U.S. startups can learn from these unconventional approaches.

"basically the super app doesn't have to be the best at everything the fact that it does enough and everything good enough wow amazing okay that's super interesting okay so transitioning a bit to growt..."

14
13:21 - 14:03
0:42 duration136 words

Crazy Hiring Tactics

Crystal shares the unconventional hiring tactics used at Gojek, such as renting a stadium for a massive job fair. She explains how these scrappy methods helped them hire thousands of drivers quickly, showcasing the importance of bold, innovative strategies in recruitment.

"in terms of yeah so we did kind of crazy things right like if someone told you in the us that they were gonna rent out a stadium pre-load a bunch of mobile devices market that driver should come here ..."

15
14:03 - 15:01
0:57 duration179 words

Scrappy Testing Methods

In this segment, Crystal describes how Gojek utilized scrappy testing methods to validate new features. By leveraging WhatsApp groups and simple backend systems, they were able to test subscription features without extensive engineering resources, demonstrating the power of low-cost experimentation.

"simple as wanting to test a subscription feature which was just released in singapore a couple weeks ago we ended up saying we have this voucher system that we can distribute vouchers in the back end ..."

16
15:01 - 16:02
1:01 duration186 words

Rapid Prototyping for Growth

Crystal explains the importance of rapid prototyping in product development. She shares how Gojek created mockups for new onboarding screens and tested them through in-app messages, emphasizing the need for quick iterations to enhance user experience and drive growth.

"bunch of interns and we were able to validate some of the value prop and conversion rates that we would expect in a subscription service when we wanted to do a new onboarding screen but turns out we h..."

17
16:02 - 17:05
1:02 duration199 words

The Value of Early Experiments

Crystal discusses the significance of running experiments even with small sample sizes. She argues that early data, even from just 30 users, can provide valuable insights into user behavior and trends, encouraging startups to embrace experimentation from the outset.

"so it's really just like what is the user experience that we want to create how do we manifest that as quickly as possible let's just try that first going back to the stadium example i knew you said t..."

18
17:05 - 18:10
1:05 duration168 words

Understanding User Decisions

In this segment, Crystal emphasizes the importance of understanding the user decision-making process. She explains how identifying the steps leading to conversion can help startups optimize their user journeys and improve retention rates.

"to the model but you could have weird consumer sentiments like not everyone is a rational actor so testing the actual experience and seeing how people respond to it that's the best possible data pulli..."

19
18:10 - 19:01
0:50 duration151 words

Building Trust for Conversion

Crystal shares insights on how to build trust with users to facilitate conversions. She illustrates this with an example from Gojek, where they used social proof from friends' purchases to encourage users to try new merchants, effectively increasing conversion rates.

"fascinating so contrarian running experiments at 30 people i love that you have to i mean like every idea is so cheap at that scale like you could do things that don't scale dramatically better with 3..."

20
19:01 - 20:14
1:13 duration205 words

The Importance of Retention Metrics

Crystal discusses the significance of retention metrics and how they should be approached. She advises against viewing retention as a standalone goal, instead suggesting that startups focus on specific user actions that lead to retention, enhancing their overall growth strategy.

"things that have to be done so we're always looking for what is a specific reason that this user might have converted for things like go food it would be things like when does a user try a new merchan..."

21
20:14 - 21:35
1:20 duration219 words

Optimizing User Experience

In this segment, Crystal highlights the need for optimizing user experience to improve retention. She discusses how simplifying user processes and reducing friction can significantly enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

"but it solved a different problem before and how do i convert it was how do i solve for trust how do i break the barrier of facilitating that decision making process that aha moment by fixing the setu..."

22
21:35 - 22:56
1:20 duration226 words

Identifying Growth Opportunities

Crystal shares her insights on identifying effective growth investments. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on proven strategies and optimizing existing features rather than chasing new, untested ideas, which can lead to wasted resources.

"if they aren't sure like why the user opens the app or they aren't sure why the user got to this checkout page it's often some like copy or the pack has been ineffective in some way i'd like to see fo..."

23
22:56 - 24:47
1:51 duration308 words

Conversion Rate Insights

Crystal provides a framework for evaluating conversion rates. She discusses the importance of understanding user paths and identifying pain points in the conversion process, offering practical advice for startups looking to improve their metrics.

"this will make things work but they don't have any wizard of oz test they haven't proven that people want to do that they don't have any data of users currently trying to do that and that's a that's a..."

24
24:47 - 26:00
1:12 duration253 words

Retention Benchmarks for Startups

Crystal outlines key retention benchmarks for startups, suggesting that free products should aim for a 60% retention rate in the first week. She explains how these metrics can guide startups in assessing their product-market fit and overall success.

"indefinite potential win so we try to layer these definite wins with like crazy bets of like brand new feature with no data at least run an experiment if you can but i always try to layer in these sur..."

25
26:00 - 27:54
1:54 duration386 words

Learning from Early Adopters

In this segment, Crystal discusses the importance of learning from early adopters. She emphasizes that high retention rates among initial users can indicate a product's potential success, urging startups to focus on delivering value to their most engaged users.

"a startup it's only going to go down because your kind of early adopters are more excited and and they'll be more excited about coming back and so yeah so you want to start really high i mean don't ma..."

26
27:14 - 28:38
1:23 duration266 words

Framework for Growth Strategy

Crystal shares her approach to developing a growth strategy for startups, emphasizing the need to understand market constraints and the physics of the product. She outlines a logical process for founders to identify growth drivers, using Gojek as an example to illustrate how to leverage existing resources and avoid overcomplicating growth strategies.

"around sixty percent for a free product that's kind of that's actually what we saw at gojek early days it was like 60 70 retention rates because people were using this product that really solved a hug..."

27
28:38 - 30:01
1:22 duration249 words

Leveraging Real-World Marketing

In this segment, Crystal explains how Gojek utilized real-world visibility to drive growth. She discusses the importance of drivers as marketing agents and how their presence in the community helped increase brand awareness and user acquisition. This strategy highlights the significance of physical presence in marketing for tech products.

"in all of these scenarios and they're like oh so you're mean you're doing this step one step two and i was like yes actually how did you figure that out so i don't really think in frameworks like this..."

28
30:01 - 31:48
1:47 duration291 words

Optimizing Growth Through Small Changes

Crystal emphasizes the importance of making incremental changes to optimize growth funnels. She discusses how Gojek carefully adjusted their growth strategies by testing small changes rather than overhauling their entire approach. This method allowed them to identify effective strategies without risking their existing model.

"all of gojek's growth as it expanded to new cities so step one is what are the physics step two is when you think about loops and growth funnels and the quantitative inputs to each loop does that fit ..."

29
31:48 - 33:40
1:51 duration314 words

Creating Incentives for User Adoption

Crystal shares a creative strategy used by Gojek to drive adoption of their Gopay product. By incentivizing drivers to promote Gopay to customers during rides, they effectively turned drivers into salespeople. This innovative approach significantly boosted user acquisition and demonstrates the power of leveraging existing resources for growth.

"so step one just to cover this is figure out how you're growing in gojek's case it was partly real world people just seeing seeing gojek riding around i think it's it's both figure out how you're grow..."

30
33:40 - 35:01
1:20 duration248 words

Identifying Growth Constraints

In this segment, Crystal discusses the importance of identifying growth constraints within a startup. She advises founders to focus on existing successful elements and optimize them rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. This practical approach helps startups to effectively allocate resources and drive growth.

"explaining it to them directly so it was one small there was no change to the physics it was a lever usage what a devious strategy it was huge it was like 60 of acquisition once we released that oh my..."

31
35:01 - 36:34
1:33 duration279 words

Understanding User Engagement at Kumu

Crystal reflects on the complexities of user engagement at Kumu, contrasting it with Gojek's straightforward transactional model. She explains the need for creating friction in user onboarding to better understand user intentions and engagement levels, highlighting the importance of differentiating between casual users and those seeking deeper community connections.

"love that maybe um as another example if something comes to mind with kumu how do you think of kumu through this lens yeah i'm always very hesitant to talk about kamuka as there's so much competition ..."

32
36:34 - 38:00
1:25 duration264 words

Leveraging Familiarity for Growth

Crystal shares insights on how Gojek used familiar concepts to drive user adoption of their digital wallet. By visually tying the digital wallet to a traditional credit card, they made the concept more relatable to users. This strategy illustrates the importance of aligning new products with existing consumer mental models to facilitate understanding and adoption.

"to be able to identify those paths awesome while we're on the topic of these two companies just maybe for inspiration to founders who are thinking of ways to drive growth what were a couple of the big..."

33
38:00 - 39:15
1:14 duration204 words

Addressing Subscription Churn

Crystal discusses a successful strategy implemented for a D2C brand to reduce subscription churn. By introducing a pause feature for subscriptions, they addressed user concerns about excess inventory, demonstrating how small adjustments can significantly impact user retention and satisfaction.

"acquisition that way and that was a go check yep is there anything else maybe since you don't want to talk too much about kumu any other like advisorships or companies examples of something that ended..."

34
39:15 - 40:43
1:28 duration279 words

Common Pitfalls in Analytics

Crystal Widjaja shares her insights on why most analytics efforts fail within organizations. She emphasizes the need for actionable insights rather than just tracking metrics. This segment provides valuable advice for teams looking to improve their analytics processes and avoid common mistakes.

"reacquire back so that was one fix where we looked at the again physics of the model like we're not going to create new changes to the product or create one-time buys or like reactivation emails will ..."

35
41:19 - 42:43
1:24 duration232 words

From Data to Insights

Crystal explains the critical distinction between data points and actionable insights. Using relatable examples, she illustrates how mere observations can lead to incorrect assumptions if not contextualized properly. This segment underscores the necessity of understanding the 'why' behind data to inform better business strategies and decisions.

"entertainment like it's not there for you to be like oh that's interesting how novel and then not act on it so real news is information that changes what you do in the real world and if you don't chan..."

36
42:43 - 44:01
1:17 duration184 words

Effective Instrumentation for Growth

This segment focuses on the importance of proper instrumentation in analytics. Crystal discusses how to set up effective tracking that captures meaningful user interactions. She stresses the need for detailed event properties to gain insights into user behavior, which can inform marketing strategies and improve conversion rates.

"answered why is this person doing this thing here's why and then you are going to act differently so for our purposes if we look at a goat food user will transact and is more likely to use a voucher t..."

37
44:01 - 45:30
1:29 duration249 words

Identifying Signs of Bad Data Tracking

Crystal highlights the symptoms of ineffective data tracking practices. She explains how to recognize when a team is failing in their analytics efforts by examining their instrumentation specifications. This segment provides actionable tips for teams to improve their data collection methods and ensure they are capturing the right information.

"observation test that hypothesis and then you get some causal representation of whether or not that hypothesis was right so it sounds like a lot of the root of the issue is setting up the wrong metric..."

38
45:30 - 46:58
1:27 duration281 words

Mapping User Experiences for Better Insights

In this segment, Crystal discusses the importance of mapping user experiences to improve data insights. She emphasizes the need to ask the right questions about user behavior and to track relevant properties that can lead to actionable insights. This approach helps teams understand user interactions and optimize their products effectively.

"experience and the context that can help you look at hey when a user only sees two drivers on the screen they're much less likely to convert than a user who sees five drivers on a screen now we can lo..."

39
46:58 - 48:20
1:22 duration243 words

Choosing the Right Metric Stack

Crystal shares her recommendations for selecting a metric stack based on the stage of a startup. She discusses various tools and platforms that can help founders track their data effectively, from Google Data Studio to more advanced options like Amplitude and Eppo. This segment provides valuable guidance for startups looking to establish a solid analytics foundation.

"in my user properties so it's really just like sitting down and mapping out the experience speaking of amplitude and other data tools do you have a default recommended metric stack for founders just t..."

40
48:20 - 49:56
1:35 duration279 words

Setting Up a Growth Team

Crystal outlines best practices for establishing a growth team, drawing from her experience at Gojek. She explains the importance of identifying gaps in the product and how growth teams can fill those gaps to enhance user experience. This segment emphasizes the need for growth teams to be integrated into the core product development process.

"flow awesome i think we're both small investors in appo uh big fans but a little bit biased but yeah it's a next airbnb team that built it so it's cool shifting a bit from metrics and data to just gro..."

41
49:56 - 51:10
1:14 duration248 words

Finding the Right Growth Hire

In this segment, Crystal discusses the qualities to look for when hiring the first growth person for a startup. She emphasizes the importance of having someone who understands the data and can identify opportunities for growth rather than just a flashy resume. This advice is crucial for founders looking to build a strong growth strategy.

"how go-jek worked when maybe they didn't and so the we knew that the protocol was that a power user would know they would make an order and they would just wait they would wait somewhere they would ke..."

42
51:10 - 52:43
1:32 duration298 words

Integrating Growth into Product Teams

Crystal shares her perspective on whether growth teams should be integrated into product teams or operate separately. She discusses the benefits of embedding growth PMs within core teams to ensure alignment and effective collaboration. This segment provides insights into structuring teams for optimal growth outcomes.

"you've seen it exactly i think it's just setting the bar like too high to expect someone to come in and model everything like again there are physics in place it's very hard to move everything so it's..."

43
52:43 - 54:14
1:30 duration273 words

Evaluating Candidates for Growth Roles

In this final segment, Crystal explains how to evaluate candidates for growth roles. She suggests using case studies to assess their analytical thinking and ability to design experiments. This practical approach helps founders identify candidates who can contribute effectively to their growth strategies.

"they're hiring an early growth person is that what you find just stats data kind of person yep you have to have someone who knows how to run the numbers right if you're looking at ratios of conversion..."

44
54:00 - 55:01
1:00 duration196 words

Evaluating Candidates: The Experiment Design Challenge

Crystal explains her approach to evaluating candidates for growth roles through case studies and experiment design challenges. She looks for candidates who can demonstrate a methodical approach to problem-solving and understand the importance of random sampling and avoiding biases in their analyses.

"yep i actually look for that first principle bias so i'll give people case studies of like here's what we see how do you know that this is true and then i have them set up an experiment design i want ..."

45
55:01 - 56:17
1:15 duration250 words

The Cost of Time in Growth Initiatives

Crystal highlights the opportunity cost associated with growth initiatives, stressing the importance of quick, effective solutions. She shares an example from Gojek where a simple Python script significantly improved driver acceptance rates, illustrating how rapid experimentation can lead to impactful results.

"time was to connect a quick python script to the twilio api that we had access to and we smsed a bunch of drivers through a csv that we uploaded that said like hey your acceptance rate is really low y..."

46
56:17 - 57:14
0:56 duration198 words

Generation Girl: Empowering Women in STEM

Crystal introduces Generation Girl, a non-profit she co-founded to empower women and girls in STEM fields. She discusses the organization's mission to combat stereotypes and provide opportunities for young women to explore their interests in technology and engineering, emphasizing the importance of representation and support.

"here full time so give them those four hours we want to see like do they google if they can't figure it out right now like let's see them google it we'll ask them like what approaches they took how do..."

47
57:14 - 1:00:11
2:57 duration501 words

Impact and Initiatives of Generation Girl

In this segment, Crystal shares the impact of Generation Girl, detailing the number of students reached through their programs and partnerships with tech companies. She highlights their efforts to provide resources for teachers and create a supportive environment for girls interested in STEM, aiming to change the narrative around women in technology.

"doing absolutely yes generation girl is very near and dear to my heart so i co-founded this with a couple of amazing women who were also at gojek but are now full-time at generation girl so this reall..."

48
1:00:11 - 1:01:49
1:38 duration266 words

Challenges Facing Women in STEM

Crystal discusses the ongoing challenges women face in STEM education and careers, including biases in early education and the lack of support for female students. She references studies showing that women are often underrepresented in introductory STEM classes, which contributes to their lower graduation rates in computer science.

"it's incredible it's currently just in southeast asia is that right only in indonesia because frankly this is where this is where everyone needs the most support i mean globally stem is not well recei..."

49
1:01:49 - 1:02:13
0:24 duration73 words

Supporting Generation Girl: How to Get Involved

Crystal invites listeners to support Generation Girl through donations and by spreading awareness. She emphasizes the importance of teaching STEM skills to young girls and the need for community involvement to help change the landscape of technology education for women.

"so it's really setting them up for success if folks want to help you said that there's a paypal page is there any other sort of action people can take yes enterprise software we love to teach ios deve..."