reading time: 2 minutes

We see this happening at our companies all the time. We pour money into acquisition when we have retention problems. We place all our bets on recovering users that are unhappy beyond repair when we should be improving our UX and customer support.

Deep down we know that the right thing would be to figure out the root causes of the problem first. Still, who would have the courage and expertise to debate with the CEO that our acquisition problem is actually an engagement problem?

And it’s more complicated than that because it doesn’t seem like too much of a problem at first. People know that if they hammer a wall hard enough a hole will be open anyway. So why not just do that?

So we open a big, messy, ugly, not-so-useful hole.

Still, the target was achieved. Everyone got their bonus. Shareholders were happy. Everything looks great – except we’ve all hooked on bad behavior now.

Then next year arrives and a new, ambitious target is set.

“Because we were so successful last year, we believe we can deliver twice as many holes this year.”

So the work starts. People start to see cracks here and there, then everywhere. They start wondering how long can they continue before our wall gets so damaged to the point where it becomes useless.

Doesn’t matter, it’s past half-year already. We don’t have the data or research budget to find a better pathway now. We can’t afford to stop. It’s literally hammer time now.

An infinite loop of stale growth has started. At some point, negative compounding effects will start to kick in.

But it can still be saved. If could only we admit we’re wrong. If only we could create the headspace to learn about the marvels of drilling machines, this could all be different.

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📕 What I’ve been reading

This Won’t Scale: this book was recommended by a friend (Rafael Coda) and I’m really glad he did. It’s not a technical book by any means. It doesn’t provide a linear step-by-step guide. But, it can open your eyes to unconventional ways to market a product. I believe this book can be especially useful for people working on B2B SaaS, Product Marketers, or people who are working on companies who didn’t launch their product yet. It’s also a quick read, I was able to re-read a couple of parts of it on the same night I read the whole thing.

Como criar uma máquina de testar ofertas: beyond being fun people to be around, Jorge and João are also great marketers. In this 8,000-word-long essay, they describe how to create a machine to test your offers from awareness to conversion and retention. It’s so dense and filled with details that it could easily be a 2-day bootcamp. If you’re struggling with building your own conversion machine, then this is the article for you.