💜 Your Growthmates November Recap: 2 years in solo-business, AI is shaping PLG, and more.
Industry news, solopreneurship stories, featured resources — wrapped in one place to fuel your growth.
Hello everyone 👋 I’m Kate Syuma, and welcome to Growthmates.news — the newsletter where we explore growth stories to inspire your professional and personal growth. Join the community of 7,200+ Product, Design, and Growth people from companies like Amplitude, Intercom, Miro, Atlassian, Grammarly, Framer, and more.
November always arrives with this soft, almost cinematic energy. The last month of autumn before the world lights up with winter holidays. A little mysterious, a little magical ✨.
For me, November became a blend of deep thinking about solopreneurship, shaping the next chapter of Growthmates, and exploring how AI continues to reshape the way we build and grow products.
Here’s everything that unfolded this November, wrapped up in one place 👇
🚀 Growthmates Recap: Top of November
If you’re reading this newsletter — thank you 💜 With everything moving so fast in our industry, I truly hope this space feels like a pause — a place where you can slow down, reflect, and get inspired, rather than overwhelmed.
Before we dive in… Meet Growthmates Partners 🚀
I curate the Growthmates Bundle to share not just ideas — but the tools I trust and use in my own work. Each one is a handpicked #1 tool for a key product area, and I’m proud to have them supporting this newsletter 🖤
Best way to support Growthmates? Explore these fantastic tools below 👇
Framer — the fastest way to design and publish stunning websites (Growthmates.club is built on it).
Mobbin — the largest UX & UI reference library for deep product inspiration.
Obi by Cor — AI-powered onboarding voice assistant, I truly recommend.
Now, let’s dive into today’s November Recap 👇
💫 Personal highlights of last month:
This month I shared one of my most personal reflections on solopreneurship — how building solo is really an ongoing experiment in who you’re becoming. I opened up about the identity crisis that it provoked in me.
Also, I revisited the story of how “Head of Growth Design” once felt like the right path — until it didn’t, and how I officially stopped chasing titles. I also shared how I almost took a relocation offer to New York, and why I eventually chose to buy back my time and redefine success on my own terms. Two years later, I’m still grateful for that decision. It sparked a big conversation about whether hustle culture still serves us. I didn’t expect that it would resonate with 555 people (a nice number 😉 and a ton of thoughtful comments).
I also shared the story behind The Creator’s Path — a newsletter series that’s now becoming a new podcast season 🚀. It all started with a quiet question: “Is this path still mine, or am I just following the norm?”
In the new season of Growthmates podcast: The Creator’s Path 🎙️, I explore this with people who intentionally shaped their own path — creators, founders, and product leaders. If you’re feeling that pull toward something of your own, this season might be your permission slip.
Meet my first guests:
Michael Riddering — from creating courses to building companies
Nad Chishtie (Lovable) — why self-made generalists will shape the future
Ioana Teleanu — how to become a creator and pivot your career
(Lovable) — about lifelong “creator mindset” over job titles
Catt Small (Dropbox) — creating courses, books, advising with FT job
Can’t wait to start sharing with you these episodes in January ❄️
📬 Featured Growthmates Articles you might miss:
Why users try your AI once, but don’t come back — why the biggest challenge of 2025 isn’t AI launches, but behavioral integration, and how “Visibility → Activation → Adoption” drives repeat value.
5 AI Onboarding Tools That Will Redefine 2026 — a deep dive into voice agents, video assistants, interactive demos, and conversational UIs, the new generation of onboarding that removes friction and scales guidance.
3 Moves That Helped Me Land First Clients as a Solopreneur — a personal reflection on how visibility, relationships, and one strong proof-of-value turned into the early momentum for my independent work.
🚀 Featured LinkedIn posts:
AI success isn’t about more features (AI is about habits) — Most teams focus on launching, but real growth comes when AI changes user behavior. I break down the 3-step journey (Visibility → Activation → Adoption) where most AI products break.
Onboarding isn’t UI anymore — it’s human guidance — Tooltips and checklists won’t cut it in 2026. I highlight 5 AI onboarding tools that guide users like a real person, helping them learn faster, activate deeper, and reach value sooner.
Canva’s upgrade flow shows the power of earned momentum — Instead of pressuring users, Canva’s trial nudges guide them naturally to say “yes.” I made a full teardown public — emotional triggers, visual hierarchy, and behavior-based nudges included.
Most SaaS websites lose users in the first 3 seconds — The problem isn’t the product, it’s the copy. I share 5 websites that get it right, and what you can steal to make your product instantly understandable and irresistible.
13 truths about scaling fast without losing product quality — After leading growth & design at Miro and recently speaking at Autodesk, I distilled the core principles behind PLG that actually scale.
AI that talks you through onboarding — Obi by Cor shows the future: an in-product voice assistant that guides users in real time and removes friction at the moment of action.
📣 Would you like to share your product story or co-create valuable content together? I’m opening a calendar and planning sponsored engagements 👉 Send your request to hello@growthmates.club.
💡 Solopreneurship milestones:
Welcoming Obi by Cor as our newest partner — a voice-based AI onboarding assistant that actually guides users through action, not just instruction ⚡️.
Kicked off the new season of Growthmates podcast 🎙️, talking to creators, founders, and leaders who built careers intentionally. First guests include Michael Riddering, Nad Chishtie, Ioana Teleanu , Felix Haas , and Catt Small — more to come!
Shared a public talk about scaling fast without losing product quality with 200+ Autodesk folks — from culture and UX to leadership lessons in PLG.
P.S. I appreciate how my solopreneurship stories on LinkedIn were well received — I really didn’t expect that resonance, and I truly enjoyed answering each comment and sharing real life stories.
⚡️ Join my updated course “User-centric PLG in the AI era“ — 6/10 spots left with a discount.
I’m working on 15 new video lessons to watch asynchronously between live sessions, plus fresh AI tools for growth teams and updated frameworks to make your PLG practice even more actionable. If you’ve been thinking about leveling up your product growth skills, now’s the perfect time.
And as a Growthmates reader, you also get an exclusive discount — consider it a little nudge to finally join us 💜
📣 Growthmates reading radar — check this out:
The Brand Positioning Workflow for the AI era — by Sara & Diandra: Stop guessing. This strategic workflow turns positioning “gut feel” into a measurable scorecard, helping you outmaneuver competitors in a crowded market. Steal this playbook.
Traffic is no longer a reliable growth metric — by Kyle Poyar: How Webflow adapts to AI search: 10% of their signups now come from LLMs, and ChatGPT traffic converts 6x higher than Google. A must-read on the future of customer discovery.
6 months at Lovable and why I had to throw out most of my playbook — by Elena Verna: A reality check on growth in the AI era, and why traditional marketing levers are weakening and the lines between product, growth, and engineering are blurring.
Living everywhere except the now — by Justin Welsh: A powerful essay on escaping to the past or future when the present feels heavy, and the real cost of not being fully here.
Lovable Crash Course — by Xinran Ma: A detailed walkthrough of Lovable’s core and advanced features. Bookmark this if you’re using (or considering) AI-powered prototyping tools.
The Most Promising AI Startups — by Ollie Forsyth: Who’s scaling fastest and what they’re building. A look at the valuable and under-the-radar teams breaking out ahead of the new year.
Practical AI Agents for PMs: Tool Guide — by Aakash Gupta: A brutally honest review of the top AI agents for Product Managers. Get the definitive list of practical use cases and the best tool for each, so you can stop testing and start building.
🤝 More ways I can be useful to you:
User-centric Growth Course — 6/10 discounted spots left for January ❄️.
If these frameworks sparked new ideas — imagine working through your actual product challenge with my feedback, templates, and a dedicated community (AI will be there as well). This week, you can save 300$ for the enhanced program.
👉 Join with 150$ off → (promo “growthmates” for dear readers)
Onboarding Design Sprint 🏃♀️ or PLG Advising (only 2 slots for Q1 🚀)
I will work closely with your team to help you fix your product growth challenges and improve the first user experience that can drive x2 uplift on your Activation.
👉 Work with me →
Brand Partnerships 📩
Let’s tell your product story to a trusted audience of 29,000+ product, design, and growth leaders — and co-create meaningful content that inspires the wider product and design community.
👉 Request content partnership: hello@growthmates.club
Premium Edition 💎
If you’re getting value from this newsletter, there are more frameworks, teardowns, and exclusive content on PLG, Activation, AI, and how to build meaningful products that delight users.
👉 Upgrade to Premium and get full access.
💬 Quote of the month:
“Speed is irrelevant if you are going in the wrong direction.”
MAHATMA GANDHI
This is all for today, dear readers. If you find this newsletter valuable, share it with a friend or another creative builder 💜 It would give huge support for me to continue creating this!
What topics or stories would you want to explore next? Share your thoughts and requests in the comments!
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Connect with me on LinkedIn and learn more about my work on Growthmates.club.
Grab a pumpkin latte and enjoy the last days of this November 🍁
Kate Syuma
Thank you, dear Kate!
Thanks for the mention :)