10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, SurveyMonkey)

Elena Verna is one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after growth advisors and operators. She previously led growth at companies like Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey and is currently doing full-time advising for high-growth tech companies. In our conversation, Elena and I discuss: • 10 growth tactics that never work • Her 3 favorite growth frameworks • How to increase your career optionality — Brought to you by: • Sinch—Build messaging, email, and calling into your product: https://sinch.com/lenny • Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny • OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/10-growth-tactics-that-never-work-elena-verna Where to find Elena Verna: • Newsletter: https://www.elenaverna.com/ • X: https://x.com/elenaverna • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Welcome back, Elena! (06:02) Common mistakes growth teams make (08:31) #1: Hiring for growth roles too soon (15:09) #2: Hiring a head of growth to fix your problems (19:20) #3: Doing a rebrand to drive growth (25:11) #4: Obsessing over your competition (34:00) #5: Believing that your problems are unique (42:32) #6: Prioritizing other growth channels above earned channels (50:55) #7: Failing to evolve your growth model (01:01:06) #8: Not hiring advisors (01:05:55) #9: Over experimenting (01:10:44) #10: Color optimizations, third-party signups, one email wonders, and removing friction (01:15:00) Elena’s favorite growth frameworks (01:18:50) Contrarian corner: full-time jobs (01:26:05) Lightning round and final thoughts Referenced: • Elena Verna on how B2B growth is changing, product-led growth, product-led sales, why you should go freemium not trial, what features to make free,