I have a fascination with how SaaS products actually get made—especially those that become institutions in the software landscape.

As users, we become deeply familiar with these products, the nitty-gritty of how they work, and what it's like to live inside them. People base entire careers on these platforms.

What we usually DON'T see is the backstory:

• How do these great products get designed?
• What were the decisions and trade-offs along the way?
• How do they catch on?
• How do you create lovable features?
• What causes great products to often stagnate?

Today's guest is a legendary product leader and innovator. As the first employee of Marketo, Glen Lipka led the product team during a critical early phase, building many of its still most-beloved features.

This episode is packed with Marketo lore, product design insights, and lessons about how to build a product that users love.

Many thanks to the sponsor of this episode - Knak.

If you don't know them (you should), Knak is an amazing email and landing page builder that integrates directly with your marketing automation platform.

You set the brand guidelines and then give your users a building experience that’s slick, modern and beautiful. When they’re done, everything goes to your MAP at the push of a button.

What's more, it supports global teams, approval workflows, and it’s got your integrations. Click the link below to get a special offer just for my listeners.

Try Knak

Glen Lipka is a 25+ year veteran of product innovation and design. As Chief Design Officer and first employee at Marketo, he built the flagship product. He has held numerous other product leadership roles and is currently VP of Product Design for Crowdstrike.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenlipka/

• [00:00] - Introduction
• [01:14] - Glen’s start at Marketo
• [02:56] - Marketo’s first features
• [13:36] - Product differentiation
• [20:37] - Developing the concept of marketing automation
• [26:00] - Why great products start to suck
• [40:46] - Hubspot as a product company
• [44:19] - AI

• Glen's series of retrospective articles on building Marketo
• Glen's personal blog

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