Jason Cohen

Founder and CEO at WP Engine

Four-time founder including two unicorns, most notably WP Engine, who has been sharing product and business wisdom at asmartbear.com for almost 20 years, known for his deeply actionable framework for diagnosing and fixing stalled product growth.

The Growth Architect The Growth Scientist

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 75%

Execution & Craft 60%

Data & Experimentation 55%

Growth & Distribution 80%

Team & Leadership 30%

User Empathy & Research 55%

Key Themes

diagnosing stalled product growth churn as priority zero growth problem pricing too low as hidden growth killer channel saturation awareness questioning whether you need to grow writing quality over quantity

Episode Summary

Jason Cohen walks through his diagnostic framework for stalled product growth, starting with churn (the most emotionally compelling problem because customers went through a gauntlet to buy and still left), then pricing (almost certainly too low because you guessed), then channel saturation, and finally the contrarian question of whether you actually need to grow at all. His approach is notable for being both highly actionable and for challenging growth-at-all-costs assumptions.

Leadership Principles

→ When growth stalls, first ask if customers are leaving — think about the gauntlet they went through to buy your product and realize how terrible it is that they still said goodbye
→ Your prices are probably way too low because you guessed and never changed them — a company with a thousand employees sees $2/month and thinks it can't be good enough
→ Do you know right now which channels are saturated and which aren't? You can't just rely on marketing forever — adding one little feature and flogging AdWords is not going to work

Notable Quotes

"Think about the gauntlet they went through to get to the product. How did they even find out about me? They didn't bounce off the homepage. They got to the pricing page. They actually bought the stupid thing. And after all of that, they're like, 'No, bye.' Just on an emotional level, you got to go, 'Wait a minute, that's terrible.'"
— On why churn should be the first thing you investigate when growth stalls

"Your prices are way too low because you just guessed and you haven't changed them. A company with a thousand employees sees a product that's $2 a month and the thought is, that can't be good enough."
— On how underpricing signals low quality and kills growth

"Do you know right now which channels are saturated and which aren't? You can't just rely on marketing forever. Just adding one little feature and then hoping we can flog AdWords is not going to work."
— On the importance of channel awareness in diagnosing growth problems

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