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Just because you do product-led growth doesn’t mean you have to be product-led.
Dovetail is case in point.
Benjamin Humphrey, Dovetail’s founder and CEO, was a growth designer at Atlassian.
Today, he unpacks how he has lead his product team to customers like Google, Notion, and Shopify—all the way from Australia.
We cover:
How Dovetail combines design-led growth and user-centricity to win in SaaS
The philosophy of prioritizing quality over speed for long-term impact
Why Dovetail doesn’t rely on outbound sales and how the product sell itself
Empowering engineers and designers to think like founders and own problems
Here are the Key Lessons
Here were my favorite lessons:
1. Three Types of Features
Dovetail doesn’t aim to release every feature they can think of. They categorize efforts into “show stoppers,” “differentiators,” and “table stakes” to stay focused on what truly matters.
Instead of building flashy features, they focused on refining Magic Search—a tool researchers use daily—into a game-changer by iterating on AI accuracy and usability.
Your product doesn’t need everything; it needs the right things.
Focus on features that matter most to your users.
2. Delighting Users is the Perfect PLG Strategy
Instead of relying on outbound sales, their PLG strategy is built around creating tools that researchers, designers, and teams find indispensable.
By centralizing feedback and offering an intuitive design, Dovetail naturally scales across organizations.
Teams at big companies like Shopify, Cisco, and Notion champion Dovetail within their companies, driving organic growth.
3. Product Designers and Engineers
Dovetail hires engineers and designers with a product mindset, encouraging them to engage with customers and take full ownership of problems:
Instead of simply following pre-written requirements, Dovetail’s teams collaborate directly with customers and iterate in real time, ensuring every decision aligns with user needs.
Hire people who care about your product as much as you do.
For more details, listen to the full episode now!
Referenced
Book: "Sprint" by Jake Knapp — A step-by-step guide for running five-day sprints to solve big problems and test new ideas.
Strategies/Frameworks:
Where to find Benjamin
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Up Next
We have some great podcasts coming from Thibault Louis-Lucas, Melissa Perri, and Colin Lernell. I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
In the newsletter, check out this week’s latest piece if you haven’t yet: Storytelling: The Product Manager's Superpower
And look out for these pieces up next:
The Criteria for Director + Roles in Big Tech
How to Move Geographies as a PM
How to Build an Empowered Team
I think you’re going to love what’s coming up,
Aakash
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