a16z Live

Sales–Product Tension, the Secret to Segment’s Success


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Sales wants more features. Product gets bogged down with one-off requests. Progress and growth grinds to a halt. It's a familiar story. How Segment turned the sales-product tension into a successful $3.2B acquisition, as told by the former CRO Joe Morrissey and former chief product development officer Tido Carriero.

[00:01:29] Joe's start as CRO

[00:03:40] The low point: annual planning

[00:07:59] Building a more focused product roadmap

[00:10:57] Why GTM feedback is essential to building great product

[00:13:04] Identifying value drivers in 48 hours

[00:19:11] How technical should sales be?

[00:20:44] How annual planning changed day-to-day operations

[00:22:57] Segment's Lighthouse program

[00:24:54] Reorging to deliver on new product priorities

[00:27:14] How engineering helped develop the product roadmap

[00:29:18] Leading a platform initiative

This conversation was recorded at ELC 2023. To read a transcript of this conversation, click here. For more about value-based selling and moving upmarket, check out Getting Ready to Move Upmarket and The Key to Selling in a Downturn. 

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a16z LiveBy Andreessen Horowitz

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