What it means to be Design-Led, with Benjamin Humphrey (Former Growth Designer at Atlassian, CEO at Dovetail)

In this episode, Benjamin Humphrey, CEO and founder of Dovetail, takes us inside the methods that have propelled his company to become a $970M platform, trusted by industry giants like Google, Shopify, and Notion.

Benjamin unpacks the philosophy behind design-led growth, emphasizing the power of intuitive, user-centric products and how his team prioritizes pushing features to 100% completion.

In today's episode, we cover:

Why Dovetail Was Built – 00:00:10

The Consumerization of Enterprise Software – 00:02:45

Dovetail’s PLG Philosophy: Building for End Users – 00:05:01

Building Teams That Own Problems – 00:14:30

When Founders Should Hire PMs – 00:18:05

What It Means to Be Design-Led and Product-Led – 00:21:10

Balancing Speed and Quality in Product Development – 00:24:20

Planning with Design Vision Workshops – 00:27:00

Scaling Without Outbound Sales – 00:30:40

The PLG Iceberg Explained – 00:34:05

Driving User Activation – 00:37:50

Turning Users Into Advocates – 00:42:15

Pricing and Packaging as a Growth Lever – 00:46:05

Integrating AI Thoughtfully – 00:50:30

Common AI Feature Design Mistakes – 00:55:10

Refining Features for Impact – 00:59:25

Staying Ahead in the AI Space – 01:03:15

Lessons from Features That Didn’t Work – 01:07:10

Collaborating Between PMs and Designers – 01:12:45

Replacing PRDs with Storytelling – 01:17:30

Figma’s Role in Collaboration – 01:21:20

Productivity Systems of a CEO – 01:25:15

Using AI Tools Like ChatGPT – 01:28:40

Lessons from the Jira Growth Team – 01:34:25

The Future of Product Management – 01:40:10

Advice for Aspiring Founders – 01:43:00

Lightning Round: Favorite Tools and Lessons – 01:45:20

Why Product Quality Always Wins – 01:47:15

Brought to you by:

Zeda.io: Discovery platform to turn your Voice of Customer into product insights

Dovetail: The Fastest Way to Understand Your Customer

SectaLabs:

Where to find Benjamin

LinkedIn

Website

To advertise in the podcast, email productgrowthppp at gmail dot com.

We have some great podcasts coming Thibault Louis-Lucas, aMelissa Perri, and Colin Lernell. I’m so excited to share them with all of you.