3-month Growthmates recap — Don't miss a thing 💫
Free resources, behavioral insights, and best practices from Canva, Duolingo, Figma, and 20+ more PLG SaaS.
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 7,500+ Product, Design, and Growth people from companies like Amplitude, Intercom, Miro, Atlassian, Grammarly, Framer, and more.
If it feels like we haven’t properly paused together in a while — you’re right. Winter was full. Full of projects, shifts, new beginnings, long-term decisions, and a bit of quiet magic in between ✨
Some seasons are loud, some are reflective and this one felt like both. Between launching a new podcast season, stepping into a new advisory role, refreshing courses, working deeply with clients, and navigating a very personal life transition — the last few months moved fast.
And just in case you missed something during this winter season of building, reflecting, and becoming — I wrapped everything up for you in one cozy recap ❄️👇
🚀 Growthmates Recap: Top of Winter
If you’re reading this newsletter, thank you truly. Winter always makes me slow down and zoom out a little. It’s the season where the outside world gets quieter — and the internal one gets louder. This winter felt like a real transition moment for me and for Growthmates.
There were new projects, new responsibilities, new collaborations and a few life changes that reshaped how I think about work, energy, and the future. We relaunched the Growthmates podcast with a fresh focus on The Creator Path — inviting builders who are designing leverage instead of trading time for money. We refreshed and relaunched our onboarding course with Viktoria, making it more practical and accessible than ever.
I joined 4 new clients as a PLG Advisor, including Autodesk — my first Fortune-500 client, and Dealfront — stepping into product at scale again, but from a different lens.
And personally… this winter brought something even more transformative. More on that below 💜 It’s been intense, beautiful, defining. Here are the highlights from this winter season 👇
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.
Magic Patterns — The fastest way to prototype and test new features with AI.
💫 Highlights of last quarter:
A new season of Growthmates podcast - The Creator Path — This winter we relaunched the Growthmates podcast with a clearer focus on The Creator Path — conversations with builders who choose leverage over linear careers. I had the joy of speaking with Nad Chishtie, Ioana Teleanu, and Michael Riddering about long-term thinking, discipline, and the courage to articulate your ideas publicly. One idea that stayed with me: when you share your thinking consistently, you don’t just post — you attract the right people over time. More thoughtful episodes are coming soon ✨
A personal new chapter — This winter also brought a deeply personal shift for me. Two years ago, in a full-time leadership role, I couldn’t imagine how motherhood could fit into a life built around intensity and constant meetings. After two years of building Growthmates and learning to trust myself beyond corporate stability, everything feels different — more grounded, more intentional, more sustainable. For the first time, this new chapter feels possible, and I wanted to share that with you 💜
Joining Dealfront as PLG advisor — This quarter, I joined Dealfront as a PLG Advisor — a step that feels like a natural continuation of my work across activation, onboarding, and user-centric growth. We’re shaping a more unified and scalable approach to Product-Led Growth by aligning product, design, and GTM as one system. I’m grateful for the trust and excited to build at a global scale again — and yes, we’re growing the team.
Growthmates is becoming truly global — This quarter I paused and realized that Growthmates has now reached professionals across 21 countries and 50+ cities, with 3,000+ students joining the journey through my classes and lightning lessons 🔥. From day one, I chose to build globally rather than locally, even when it felt harder. Seeing students from companies I deeply admire join the course reminded me that thinking beyond geography compounds in powerful ways.
📬 Featured Articles & Resources:
The Creator’s Path episode with Nad — Nad Chishtie on dropping out at 18, the power of generalists, and why AI removes the limits of digital creation;
The Creator’s Path episode with Ioana — Ioana Teleanu on burnout, identity loss, art as resistance, and why optimizing for humanity matters more than speed;
The Creator’s Path episode with Michael — Michael Ridd on building leverage, turning a school into a podcast, raising a round, and why creators will become the next generation of founders;
The 3 PLG experiments that grew Mobbin’s expansion revenue +20% — Quick wins, meaningful shifts, and one big bet that transformed their user journey (with exact tactics you can steal);
15 bitter truths about Growth: how to scale without sacrificing quality — A short, practical list of what truly drives sustainable product growth — without breaking experience;
PLG 2025 Rewind: Biggest trends and major updates — How onboarding evolved, what actually moved PLG, how AI reshaped UX, and more;
3 AI tools that can surprise your Growth team — Figma Make, Magic Patterns, Obi by Cor — AI tools that can boost your growth;
Why users get lost in your product — If users can’t understand how your product is structured, they can’t discover value on their own. Lessons from HubSpot, Asana, Vercel, Calendly, and Pitch;
Your product should prove its value in under 60 seconds — A strong signal of value matters more than a full “aha” — examples from Duolingo, Miro, Notion, and Foldspace.
📣 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.
🖤 Personal stories on Creator & Founder Path:
Year 2 of solopreneurship felt different. Not louder — deeper. I focused less on chasing milestones and more on building with ease, intuition, and scale as guiding principles.
Growthmates quietly expanded: 15 company collaborations (including Autodesk, Monday, Amplitude, Framer), 5 long-term brand partners, 80+ students in the PLG course, and LinkedIn growing from 10K to 24K+ this year. From the outside it looked “fast” — inside it felt intentional.
I learned that you can’t build everything at once. Curiosity works better than pressure. And feeling at ease is not laziness — it’s often the foundation for better work.
2025 felt like integration. 2026 feels like a transformation, and I’m looking forward to what it’s going to unpack ✨
I'm hiking in Madeira
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.
🚀 Featured LinkedIn posts & Industry buzz:
Steal 20+ behavioural UX animations for FREE 🔥 — I analysed delightful micro-interactions from products like Slack, Airbnb, Duolingo, and Claude, breaking down the behavioural psychology behind habit-forming animations that turn simple actions into momentum.
Duolingo’s onboarding = Activation masterclass — A step-by-step breakdown of how Duolingo removes friction, builds confidence in under 60 seconds, and makes users feel progress before asking for commitment.
Duolingo breakdown on LinkedIn The most damaging PLG myth — Why chasing more experiments no longer drives sustainable growth, and why improving the core product experience now creates far stronger system-level impact than endless A/B tests.
In 2026, there are zero excuses left — A reflection on launching ideas before feeling “ready” and why the new Creator’s Path podcast season is my tribute to builders who start before they have permission.
The ultimate growth flow collection (25 Best examples) 🚀 — A curated board of onboarding, activation, sharing, and upgrade flows from Canva, Notion, Figma, Loom and more — built to inspire your 2026 roadmap.
25 animated Growth Flows Sign-up ss the most expensive assumption in B2B SaaS 💸 — A practical breakdown of why early profiling shapes activation success, plus a 10-minute AI-powered prototype process teams can test before Q1 planning.
4 PLG truths before entering 2026 — Lessons from training 60+ people at monday.com on why growth happens in loops, AI adoption starts with emotional safety, and user psychology still beats feature velocity.
Steal Canva’s reverse trial flow — A deep teardown of how Canva turns upgrades into earned momentum instead of pressure, and why showing value always converts better than convincing.
📣 Growthmates reading radar — check this out:
40 AI x GTM plays that actually drive pipeline — 30 GTM leaders share 40 proven AI workflows across content, prospecting, ABM, and sales — all runnable with standard LLMs and no tech background by Kyle Poyar
Turn 320 podcast episodes into AI mentors in Notion — How to transform Lenny’s podcast transcripts into searchable AI personas inside Notion for instant, contextual advice.
8 Battle-tested prompt frameworks for PMs — A ready-to-use library of AI prompt frameworks to ship PRDs, docs, analysis, and exec updates faster by Aakash Gupta
Prediction: Websites are disappearing — Why AI-era winners replace static landing pages with instant, interactive product experiences by Felix Haas
I Built my Own executive coach in ChatGPT — A solopreneur story about replacing chaos with clarity by designing a personal AI coach for focus, revenue, and reset before 2026 by Lena Kul
🤝 More ways I can be useful to you:
Onboarding Design Sprint 🏃♀️
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 → (only 1 slot till April 🔥)
PLG Advising for your company 🧠
Hands-on, in-depth advising across product, UX, and growth to build a scalable, sustainable PLG system that will last for years.
👉 Work with me → (fully booked, available from November 📆)
PLG Training for your team 🎓
A structured PLG training using the same frameworks I’ve taught teams at Grammarly, Autodesk, Monday.com, Intercom, Atlassian, and more.
👉 Work with me → (1 slot till April 🔥)
Brand Partnerships 📩
Let’s tell your product story to a trusted audience of 30,000+ product, design, and growth leaders — and co-create meaningful content that inspires the wider product and design community.
👉 Send an inquiry to hello@growthmates.club (1 slots till May 🔥)
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💬 Quote of the month:
“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while you work.”
HENRI MATISSE
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!
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Connect with me on LinkedIn and learn more about my work on Growthmates.club.
With best regards,
Kate Syuma