Growth requires big bets, not just optimization

In this football analogy, "passes" represent big strategic bets or major product changes, while "running" represents incremental optimization and testing.

Think of conversion and growth optimization as like running a football down a field and think of these big leaps as passes. You should probably be doing 80% passes, 20% running the ball down the field, and a lot of companies that do 80% running down the ball down the field and 20% passes.

The best growth product leaders and growth minds that I've worked with over the years or have had the privilege of learning from over the years, I think the thing that I noticed about them is they're almost ambivalent to the solution and certainly ambivalent to how complex a solution may or may not be. And taking little to no pleasure or pride in the complexity of a solution so long that it delivers the outcome that the business and your customers need.

I think if building the next super sophisticated widget is the thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, growth might not be for you, I think the best growth product leaders and growth minds that I've worked with over the years or have had the privilege of learning from over the years, I think the thing that I noticed about them is they're almost ambivalent to the solution and certainly ambivalent to how complex a solution may or may not be.

"Vibe coding" appears to be Elena's informal term for trendy AI coding tools or platforms, based on the context of needing to stay competitive.

I feel like only 30 to 40% of what I've learned in the last 15 to 20 years of being in growth transfers here because we just need to invest in such bigger bets, and innovate, and create new growth loops here, everybody and their mother is starting a vibe coding business nowadays, and we need to figure out how to be ahead of them.

I'd say probably 60% successful, 40% you should turn off. But within that 60%, I think there's a hidden cost to the experiment, which is that you're futzing around with something small. You could have used your time on something bigger and more meaningful... There's a laziness that can creep in where you're just finding a lot of little things because they're easier to come up with and they're easier to design and think about.