Ramli John

Author of Product-Led Onboarding (+30K copies sold) | First Round Fast Track Mentor | Content Director at Appcues.

⭐️ Follow me for helpful tips to onboard, delight, and keep your customers coming back to your product.
📔 Author of Amazon #1 bestselling book "Product-Led Onboarding." 👉 𝙎𝙀𝘼𝙉 𝙀𝙇𝙇𝙄𝙎, Founder of GrowthHackers.com: "Product-Led Onboarding is 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 embarking on the critical activity of improving their user onboarding." 


⚡️ I use my multi-disciplinary skills in marketing, design, and software development to help product-led SaaS companies analyze their whole customer's journey and funnel to identify growth opportunities to 2-3X their MRR. 

Often, that means designing and implementing experiments to increase activation rate (trial-to-paid or free-to-paid conversions), decrease churn rate, or increase average revenue per user (ARPU)

If you asked my friends and colleagues how they would describe me, they'd say I'm resourceful, proactive, and entrepreneurial

►► CONTACT INFO
▷ Send a connection request
▷ Write me a note at ramli [at] ramlijohn.com

Founder

A weekly show and newsletter for marketers looking to level up their marketing and career. I interview world-class marketers to uncover the secrets, strategies, and frameworks behind their wins. In each episode, guests reveal three things:  (1) a marketing power-up,  (2) a real-world example of that in action, and (3) a power-up that’s helped them take their career to the next level.

Ramli "RJ" John

I just hired my first full-time employee. Not an assistant. A Chief of Staff. And it's my wife, Joanna Ruth! Here's why:

For 1.5 years, I resisted hiring. I wanted to stay solo as long as possible—full control, no coordination costs, just me and clients.

Then I wrote down the job description for what Delight Path actually needs this year.

Someone who can:
→ Create content and community systems
→ Bring the vision to life (not just execute tasks)
→ Scale the impact for product leaders I had in mind

I realized: this isn't an assistant role. It's 2nd in command.

And Joanna is perfect for it:

1. She's built more than I have!

Joanna's self-published over 47 Montessori education books (I need to catch up)! She's a proven system-builder, not just an idea person.

2. She follows instructions when I wing it (let's talk about building IKEA furniture!) 

Joanna forced me to create SOPs for everything. She's started documenting processes I've been running on instinct. Business became transferable, not just in my head.

3. She connects deeper to people than I do

People call me emotionless sometimes (fair). She cares about people on a level I don't naturally access. It's why she studied early childhood education focused on autism and behavioral science. 

Community needs that energy, not just my frameworks

Transitioning Delight Path from 100% consulting revenue to 50% media + community requires coordination I can't do alone.

Before hiring, I asked:
→ Am I hiring for tasks or for leverage?
→ Can this person make decisions without me?
→ Will this free me to do what only I can do?

If it's not yes to all three, it's an assistant role (nothing wrong with that, but not what I needed).

What's Next:

Joanna starts immediately with partnerships and community for Product Leaders Lab. As we scale, she moves into the Integrator (EOS) role, and I move into the Visionary role.

The onboarding forced me to document everything—SOPs for content, client work, and community management. Business became a system, not just me.
I'm excited to build something meaningful together again (we organized a large youth church conference before we got married).

Please join me in welcoming Joanna to Delight Path.

What's been your experience bringing someone into your solo business?

PS. If you're thinking about staying solo versus hiring, Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell has been super helpful. Changed how I think about the business.

Building a community for product leaders (VP and Director-level). Founder @ Delight Path. 2x best-selling author. New book “Eureka” now available. Author of “Product-Led Onboarding” (+40K copies sold).

Most podcasts are interview-style. That won't cut it in 2026! It's why I'm doing a high-production narrative format for my new show: Product Leaders Lab (coming in Feb).

I turned my living room into a recording studio this Monday. Shot the intro and teaser with my creative producers, Carlo and Justine. 

Here's how it works:

Two veteran product leaders. Same impossible scenario. Completely different approaches.

One episode breaks down their decisions, what worked, what didn't, and the lessons that actually matter.

Episode 1 premieres February 24th: "The AI Adoption Pressure"

Netali (VP of Product) and Greg Leach (Senior Director of New Business) faced the same problem: their teams were drowning in prompt engineering.

Netali's solution? She created a new role, "Prompt Ops," to centralize AI expertise and protect PM capacity.

Greg's approach? He became the chair of the company's AI committee to remove red tape and encourage the adoption of internal AI tools. Over 100 people attended the first demo (out of 230 employees).

Two leaders. Two strategies. Both worked.

I've already recorded:

→ Christine Itwaru (VP of Product at Userflow): "The Launch Recovery" - How protecting her team after a launch disaster became her defining leadership moment.
→ Michelle Green (Director of Product at Coley): "The Strategy Misalignment" - When customer success and product saw the same problem completely differently.
→ Nesrine Changuel, PhD (Author of "Product Delight," former PM at Google, Spotify, Skype): "The Competitive Moment" - How she became Google Meet's first PM for Delight during the pandemic and chose benchmark against, "If we were all in a physical room, how would the experience be better?"

I'm scheduled to record with other amazing product leaders:
Betsy Shaak, Joseph King, Chris Downey, Jason Knight, Gabrielle Bufrem, Lauren Schuman, Deepti Pradeep, Angela Sze, Lilach Yaniv, Warren Dombowsky, Nick Cust, Purnima Bihari, and Aakash Gupta.

I'm looking for more VPs, Directors, or Heads of Product who want to share their defining leadership moments.

DM me or tag someone below.

PS. Bookmark this for when you're stuck on an impossible decision and need to see how other leaders navigated it. First episode drops February 24th.

2025: The year I learned focus has a price tag. Turned 40. Ran my first half marathon. Doubled my income while working fewer hours.

But here's what nobody tells you about Year 1 of consulting:

The wins are incredible. The valleys are brutal.

Some months hit $50K. Others dipped to $2K. I got ghosted after proposals. Had deals go sideways. Watched summer dry up completely.

Before I left my job, April Dunford told me: "Don't try to do too many things at once. Focus on one thing and get REALLY good at it."

So I said no to:
→ Newsletter sponsorships (even when I needed the money)
→ Course launches
→ Content creation I actually loved

The result? My biggest deal ever—with a Fortune 100 company.

But it came at a cost: I didn't create anything I'm truly proud of last year. No podcasts. No creative projects. Just focused execution.

That changes in 2026.

I'm launching Product Leaders Lab—a community + media brand for VPs, Directors, and Heads of Product. Already have 22 founding members and $60K in sponsorships locked.

Also launching a documentary-style podcast: One impossible scenario. Three veteran product leaders. Three completely different approaches. 20-25 minutes, not 60+ minute rambling.

First episode launched in Feb 2026: "The AI Ambush" - Your CEO announces an AI pivot without telling you. Product team panics. Board meeting in 48 hours. What do you do?

And I'm also running the Chicago Marathon in October to raise $2,500 for a close friend fighting stage 4 cancer.

2025 was depth. 2026 is reach.

What's one thing you're most proud of from 2025?

PS. Full year-in-review in the newsletter.

2025 has been the most transformative year of my life. Not just professionally, but personally, emotionally, and physically. Just like my review of 20

Open article: 2025 in review: the year everything changed by Ramli John • 9 min read

2025 in review: the year everything changed

In this live workshop, Becki Floyd will share how to turn user feedback into working AI prototypes within a day.  

Engineers can now use AI to ship in hours, not weeks. If UX can't keep pace, product decisions happen without user input.

Becki redesigned her entire UX process to work at AI speed:

✅ Async video research + AI analysis = user insights in hours (not weeks)
✅ Morning feedback → afternoon prototypes using Replit and ChatGPT
✅ High-fidelity prototypes that developers can ship immediately
✅ Process that keeps UX leading when speed matters most

This isn't about adding more tools to your stack. It's about rebuilding how UX works when AI-powered devs are shipping code faster than traditional research cycles allow.

This is her framework:

1. Gather insights in hours (async video + AI synthesis)
2. Build working prototypes the same day (tools that compress design-to-dev)
3. Lead product direction at AI speed (process over perfection)

We kick off the workshop tomorrow (Wednesday, January 21) at 9 AM ET

Bring your PMs, designers, and developers. This is for teams trying to stay user-led when everything moves faster.

Register: https://luma.com/9bwpea6x

What's your biggest challenge in keeping UX involved when dev cycles get compressed?

Appcues

VP, Marketing & Sales

VP, Marketing

Zaius

*Acquired by Optimizely in 2021*
Built marketing and sales programs from the ground up. Once repeatable, narrowed focus to marketing and scaled the team to include content, product marketing, brand, operations, and demand generation functions. In three years we brought the product to a new market, grew customer count 100x and revenues 35x, and raised over $43M.

Kantar Millward Brown

Restored growth of Kantar Millward Brown's SaaS Products suite (including Compete PRO) and increased profitability overall by productizing service-based solutions. Oversaw product, marketing, customer success, support, and inside sales. Reported to COO.

VP, SaaS Products

Led the adoption of digital marketing strategies across Kantar Millward Brown. Reported to CMO.

Director of Marketing

Compete, Inc.

*Acquired by Kantar Millward Brown in 2013*
Owned self-serve revenue and lead generation targets. Optimized the website, freemium product, and acquisition model to increase monthly self-serve revenue by 75% and sales leads by 100%, all while reducing marketing spend by 80%. Also led the adoption of inbound marketing and marketing automation. Reported to VP.

*2012 AdAge Power 150 Blog: Top 50*
*2011 AdAge Power 150 Blog: Top 50*

Digital Marketing Manager

Zoom Information

Worked directly with CEO to grow the company’s top data-improvement initiative, in the form of a freemium SaaS product. Under my leadership, new membership grew by 220% in just over six months. 

Additionally, managed marketing for a vertical accounting for half of the company’s revenue. Budgeted, planned and executed multi-channel marketing campaigns, including email, social media, SEM, direct mail and content-based demand generation. Highlights include increasing website lead conversion by 150% and marketing-generated revenue by at least 35% each quarter in 2010, exceeding vertical goals by 88%. Reported to VP.

*2010 Eloqua Markie Finalist for Best Customer Lifecycle Program*

Marketing Manager

Owned lead targets. End-to-end management of email, webinars, whitepapers, and case studies. Refined messaging and overhauled customer and prospect email nurture programs and newsletters, landing pages and forms. Restructured internal sales/marketing process to revive a struggling revenue stream, increasing qualified leads by 174%. Reported to GM.

Marketing Specialist

Sonicbids

#88 - 2007 Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America

Led customer acquisition for subscriber-based SaaS product via lead generation and ecommerce optimization, email nurture programs, partnership development and management, social media campaigns, retargeting and behavioral advertising, affiliate programs, search marketing, as well as print advertising. Worked closely with Sales, Product and Engineering to establish cross-functional production efficiency. Reported to VP.

Acquisition Marketing

Q Division Music Services

Planned and executed grassroots marketing campaigns and national mainstream and college radio promotions for new music releases. Managed internship program. Reported to General Manager.

Marketing Coordinator

B2B SaaS go-to-market strategist, team builder, and company steward. Teacher and student of product-led growth. Always keeping an eye on metrics and an ear to customers. Above all, a level-headed team player.

Eric Keating

"I didn't love you at that moment, but in retrospect, that's when I knew we made the right hire."

A founder said that to me a year after I criticized his product's UI in front of the entire leadership team. I was a week or two into the job. I wasn't trying to be bold. I was just doing what had always worked.

But that confidence came from a lesson I almost learned the hard way.
Years earlier, at a different company, I made the opposite mistake. 

My first leadership team meeting, I didn't say a word. Told myself I was "listening and learning." My boss saw through it. He pulled me aside and said something that explains why, years later, I'd walk into a room full of founders and do the opposite.

This is the kind of lesson I'm writing about now. Not marketing tactics or growth frameworks. The messier stuff. Earning credibility at the leadership table. Navigating the politics of cross-functional work. Finding your footing when the stakes get higher. Twenty years of learning these lessons, mostly by getting things wrong first.

I just launched a newsletter called Presence. 

The first post tells both stories: what my boss actually said, why it stuck, and how it showed up years later in that room full of founders.

If this resonates, subscribe. I'm going to keep writing like this.

VP Marketing at Cloud Capital | Founder, Product-Led Growth Collective | GTM leader | AI native | Ex-ZoomInfo, Appcues, Compete

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