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In this week’s episode of the Breakout Growth Podcast, Ethan Garr and Sean Ellis chat with Mark Tan, Director of Product, Platform & Community at Wyze, a smart home tech startup offering affordable cameras, lighting, sensors, and other devices to more than 5 million customers. But this conversation goes well beyond just the Wyze growth story. Mark is a leader in the growing Community-Led Growth movement, so it’s through that lens that we look to understand how companies are leveraging their own audiences of passionate users to achieve success. 

Over our 50 episode history, we have noticed that many of the world's fastest-growing companies leverage the strength of their own communities to drive outcomes. Glowforge showed us how a passionate userbase literally crowdsourced the company’s 3D laser printer into existence. EVBox credits its customer advocacy efforts as a major reason why the company has been able to lead an entire industry. But is Community-Led Growth an actionable approach or just new packaging for good product management? 

Mark explains that CLG is a real discipline that when executed with intentionality drives significant value. He has used it to power growth at Wyze, and in his former role at Amazon Video Games. He acknowledges that there are challenges in tracking community impact, but he explains how he and his team are using this approach to deliver value for their audiences. 

So let’s dive in with Mark Tan of Wyze and find out more about Community-Led Growth, a powerful mechanism for reflecting customer empathy into your products.

We discussed:

* (11:40) Measuring the impact of community-led growth efforts on overall growth rate.

* (20:26) Why direct feedback from customers isn't enough. There is a lot more honesty when customers talk to each other.

* (21:17) Why detractors in your community can actually be beneficial. 

* (23:20) Why hardware companies must embrace community-led growth to remain competitive.

* (30:36) How to organize your team for more effective community-led growth efforts.

* (49:02) The most important new thing that Mark has learned about growth in the last couple of years.

And much, much, more . . .