Pause/Rewind: 2019 on the Inside Intercom podcast
This year has been a really busy one for us on the podcast. In 2019, we released over 57 episodes on everything from growth and sales to product and marketing.
We had over 750,000 downloads and celebrated surpassing 2 million downloads – making it a record year for us. So this week, we’re bringing you a roundup of some of our favorite conversations from over the year.
As you can imagine, there are too many great guests for us to include in one compilation, so keep an eye on our social channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) across the holidays. As part of our “Podvent Calendar,” we’re re-releasing an episode each day as curated by the Intercom Content Team. Speaking of which, be sure to check out this great post from Lead Editor Davin O’Dwyer where he invited members of the team to give their Intercom content highlights from the year that was.
In this roundup of the year’s greatest hits, you’ll hear from:
- Ryan Bonnici, Chief Marketing Officer at G2.com
- Ceci Stallsmith, Director of Platform Marketing at Slack
- Michael Tannenbaum, Chief Financial Officer at Brex
- Des Traynor and Paul Adams, Intercom on Product
- Jonathon Colman, Senior Design Manager at Intercom
- Lean UX author Jeff Gothelf
- Collin Cadmus, VP of Sales at Aircall, and Patrick FitzGerald, Director of Sales at Glofox
If one of these particularly piques your interest, you can listen to the full episode below. Make sure you don’t miss any 2020 highlights by subscribing on iTunes, streaming on Spotify, or grabbing the RSS feed in your player of choice.
G2.com’s Ryan Bonnici on selling to educated customers
Customers are better informed than ever. That’s why companies need to do a better job of articulating the value their product provides instead of just recapping functions and features.
One of the ways that buyers are educating themselves is with review sites like G2.com. G2’s CMO Ryan Bonnici shared how that impacts the way marketing and sales teams interact – considering customers are landing on their site with a lot more information.
Slack’s Ceci Stallsmith on marketing your product platform
What’s a platform? Well, Bill Gates defines it as the point when the value of the stuff built on top of your product surpasses the value of your product on its own. Intercom’s Group Product Marketing Manager Jasmine Jaume was joined by Ceci Stallsmith, Slack’s Director of Platform Marketing, to discuss how to know if you’re ready to become a platform of your own.
Brex’s Michael Tannenbaum on fintech growth strategies
Brex CFO Michael Tannenbaum and his team created a lucrative reward system for startups, which they were able to do through group purchasing (taking advantage of a vertical that allowed them to buy software packages). Tara Larson, Intercom’s manager for our Early Stage Program, chatted with Michael about some of their more creative approaches to advertising – and the benefits of acting bigger than you are.
Intercom on Product: The rise of the keyboard first generation
2019 saw us launch 3 new series on the podcast – Scale, The Sales Summit, and Intercom on Product. This last one has hugely resonated with audiences – and why wouldn’t it? It’s their chance to hear Intercom co-founder Des Traynor and our SVP of Product Paul Adams discuss everything from what our product building principles are to how to unlock the power of feedback. In episode 5, Des and Paul discussed the dreaded product “bloat.”
Intercom’s Jonathon Colman on why content designers should do less
Content design is a relatively young discipline and the ways in which it’s practiced change so often that people are inventing new rules, tools, and approaches all the time. That helps everyone innovate, especially when they share them out. Here, I chatted with Intercom’s own Senior Design Manager Jonathon Colman about what people often misunderstand about this emerging discipline.
Lean UX author Jeff Gothelf on why design must have a seat at the table
Back in July I spoke to Lean UX author Jeff Gothelf about why failure to adapt to your changing environment can break your business. He advised us to always test your assumptions. He also shared a fascinating story about a human cannonball who was badly injured when circus employees followed the same old process they always had, even though conditions had changed.
Aircall’s Collin Cadmus & Glofox’s Patrick FitzGerald on scaling efficiently
2019 marked the release of our book Intercom on Sales, to celebrate this we decided to have a bit of fun with our usual podcast format. The Sales Summit series brought together sales leaders from Intercom and partners for panel discussions. In this episode, Intercom’s Sales Manager Will Holden sat down with Aircall’s Collin Cadmus and Glofox’s Patrick FitzGerald to uncover their secrets to scaling revenue.
We hope you enjoyed this year on the podcast as much as we did. Over the past 12 months, we’ve dug deep into everything from building platforms to rewards programs. We’ve heard why designers deserve a larger seat at the table. We’ve explored how and when to freshen up your sales strategy and so much more.
Looking ahead to 2020, we’ve got some exciting interviews in the works – including the conclusion of the second season of Scale, Intercom’s series about moving from startup to scale-up. Stay tuned in the new year to hear from from Udemy’s Yvonne Chen, ChartMogul’s Nick Franklin, and more.
We hope you’ll join us.
