Kate Syuma

Growthmates

Growthmates is a platform and an advising practice that guides companies in growing meaningful products by leveraging PLG and enhancing UX quality, together.

Growthmates podcast, newsletter, and industry reports featured leaders from companies like:
— Dropbox
— Canva 
— HubSpot
— Adobe
— Amplitude

Clients are coming from companies like:
— Intercom 
— Loom
— Mentimeter
— Beautiful.ai
…and more

Explore collaboration options →  growthmates.club

Founder | Growth Advisor | PLG, Activation, UX

Maven

— NEW course: User-centric Product Growth: Build your Roadmap
— Created the "Self-serve User Onboarding" course
— Course passed 50+ people from Intercom, Gramamrly, Wistia, and more
— Featured on Maven TOP-100 courses in Product Category

Partner | Growth Product

Manychat

Supported the Growth Motion at Manychat by:
— forming and up-skilling the Growth team
— providing advice to the Growth team to inform ongoing Growth initiatives 
— uncovering opportunities for PLG Activation (in-product flows and lifecycle communications)

Growth Advisor

Antler

Supported 10+ startups worldwide as a part of the Antler advisory community. Provided advice on:
— PLG (Product Led Growth): introducing PLG strategy and opportunities for business growth
— Product Discovery and User Research: finding the right methods to inform the product strategy
— Product-led Acquisition, Activation, Engagement, Monetisation: finding relevant leverages and combining them with clean UX to grow the business
— Onboarding flow: uncovering opportunities to uplift Activation
— Business model design: finding the right model for Monetisation (e.g. Free Trial, Freemium)

Advisor

Miro

Supported the Growth at Miro through the stages of a startup to hyper-growth, and business at scale: 50→1800+ employees, 1→50 mln users, 1→11 hubs globally, 3→55 designers, 5→170+ people in the Growth stream. Now Miro is a high-performing B2B SaaS with a $17.5B valuation (January 2022), 99% of the Fortune 100 trust Miro.

📌 Key results:

[1] Co-led and strategized the initiatives in the Growth stream, covering Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Monetisation, and Community Platforms that led to sustainable business and ARR growth. Supported the scale of the Growth stream at Miro from 1 team to a business unit of 5 sub-streams (170+ individuals). 

[2] Scaled the team from 1 to 11 diverse Product and Content designers in the Growth stream.

[3] Led and strategized design efforts for “0 to 1” strategic initiatives, such as Miroverse, Self-serve Monetisation, and Onboarding experience. 

[4] Redesigned the Business model to launch Freemium as a foundation for sustainable PLG (Product-led Growth). 

[5] Established the design processes for effective collaboration: Experiments reflections, Growth Design Jams, Growth Design Sprint, UXR, and Design discovery.  

[6] Co-led the launch of the Localisation program to help Miro become global. 

[7] Established Career development frameworks and improved the calibration process for the 55+ designer org.

Head of Growth Product Design

After combining design leadership with the IC role for a while, I took the responsibility of building the Growth Design Team at Miro from scratch.

📌 Key results:

[1] Scaled and up-skilled the design team from 1 to 7 Product designers (Middle and Senior ICs) for the Growth stream: Acquisition, Retention, Monetisation, Community Platforms, and Professional Services. 

[2] Led the designers across 5 sub-streams to deliver solutions for Product Acquisition, Sharing Experience, Activation, Onboarding experience, Visual Learning Center, Templates experience, Monetisation CR triggers, etc.

[3] Co-led and established the Hiring Framework for the entire Design organisation. 

[4] Co-created with Growth Product Leaders new strategies: Pre-products, Community-led Growth, Viral loops, and Templates. 

[5] Led Miro.design project as a reflection of Miro design team and culture.

Product Design Manager, Growth

📌 Key results: 

[1] Led design efforts for Product Acquisition, Sharing Experience, Activation, Onboarding experience, Visual Learning Center, Templates experience, Monetisation, etc.

[2] Introduced User Research process at Miro to discover and validate experiences for Mind Map, Visual Notes, Smart search, and Notifications. 

[3] Designed end-to-end and launched the first version of Miroverse that became a standalone platform for Community-led Growth.

[4] Designed 100+ experiments with end-to-end experience in Acquisition, Activation, Engagement, Monetization, and Hand-raisers teams

[5] Redesigned the Business model to launch Freemium as a foundation for sustainable PLG (Product-led Growth).

[6] Established the Onboarding process for new designers to support the growth of the design team

Lead Product Designer (Growth and User Research) 

📌 Key results:

[1] As a founding designer in the Growth team and 3rd designer at Miro, covered the end-to-end design for 3 strategic domains: Growth, Enterprise, and Design System. 

[2] Designed end-to-end experience for Pricing & Billing to introduce the Self-serve model.

[3] Designed end-to-end experience for Advanced User Management, Integrations, and Settings panel to improve the experience for Enterprise customers.

[4] Led the design and engineering effort for the first version of the Design system at Miro.

Product Designer (Growth, Enterprise and Design System)

Maugry

Maugry is an IT consulting agency focused on creating mobile applications for new technological projects. 

I was responsible for creating an end-to-end experience for a mobile app (iOS and Android) for the Historical Regional Museum. As a result, I covered CJM, Navigation patterns, Design system, and Visual language and provided the final deliverables to the client.

User Experience Designer

Vitamin Group

Vitamin Group is a design agency focused on creating mobile and web applications for various business needs.

I was doing an internship project focused on UX audit, navigation, and IA improvements for the Business & Data Analytics platform. As a result, I uncovered multiple UI and UX improvements to level up the platform's usability to make it ready for "go-to-market".

UX Designer

Freelance

Partnered with startup founders to design the UI/UX for various mobile apps (iOS and Android).

UI/UX designer

Marketing boutique agency

As a Digital designer, I was working in a boutique marketing agency and focused on creating visual identities, branding, and marketing materials for various companies.

Digital Designer 

Kate Syuma is a Growth Advisor, ex-Miro Head of Growth Design, where she started as a founding member in a Growth Team, and passed through hypergrowth from Startup (50 people) to Series C Unicorn (≈2000 people, $17.5B valuation). 

Currently, as a Founder at Growthmates, Kate creates a platform for learning from industry leaders and an advising practice that guides companies in growing meaningful products by leveraging PLG and enhancing UX quality, together.

Learn more on growthmates.club

Steal Canva’s reverse trial flow for your next launch (costs $0) ↓

For the last 6 years - from leading Growth Product & Design at Miro to reviewing 100+ trials and activation journeys, I’ve noticed a consistent pattern.

Most teams build upgrade paths that try to convince people.
Very few build ones that make users say “yes” on their own.

But there’s one product that gets this right every single time.

Canva.

Their trial and upgrade flow doesn’t pressure you. It shows you.

I analysed their entire upgrade experience across every entry point: paywalls, comparisons, features, in-product nudges. 

And today, I’m making the complete teardown public for FREE.

📌 Want the full Teardown?

- Like + Comment TEARDOWN and I’ll send it over.
- Repost to skip the queue and get priority access.

Here’s what’s inside:

- Emotional vs functional triggers
- Visual hierarchy that reduces hesitation
- How Canva uses earned momentum to sell Pro
- Behaviour-based nudges that don’t interrupt flow
- My notes on what you can use and what you should avoid
- Smart paywall patterns and why they work from Riverside, Dovetail, Loom, Tally, Miro

If you work in PLG, product, growth, UX, or design, this is the closest you’ll get to peeking under the hood of one of the most effective upgrade engines online.
___

P.S. This teardown is a small preview from my User-Centric PLG course.

As it’s Maven Fast Track Week, I’m offering a 25% discount. When you join, you’ll get the complete asset + dozens of advanced PLG frameworks, product breakdowns, onboarding models and user psychology lessons that I’ve never shared publicly: https://lnkd.in/ev7JBdRr

♻️ Repost to help more people learn from Canva.

#productgrowth #plg #activation #ux #industryexamples

Growth Advisor, ex-Miro | Founder at Growthmates | Speaker · Creator | PLG · Activation · UX

onboarding with tooltips is officially over. it’s no longer about UI.
in 2026, it will be about guiding users like a real human would

we often celebrate feature releases, but the real experience starts when users try it for the first time.

and here’s the truth I keep seeing in product teams: 
if we still rely on tooltips and checklists - we’re falling behind.

AI onboarding is evolving much faster than we think.
I’m not saying about hype and prompts now - but real tools that help users learn faster, activate deeper, and reach value sooner.

here are the tools I’m most excited about:

1. Obi by Cor: AI voice assistant

- guides users right when they get stuck through voice
- no searching docs. no guessing the next step
- perfect for complex SaaS where onboarding depends on user decisions
📌try it: when you work on complex B2B SaaS

(thanks Kyle Poyar for pointing me to this tool)

2. pyne: AI video assistant

- users follow a human face, not a checklist
- activation becomes more confident and more successful
- some teams already see faster time-to-value and higher trial → purchase conversion
📌try it: when you want to turn your CEO into a host of the first session

(it was a pressure to work with Roman Geugelin and the team - and this solution helped to x2 activation for TheyDo - Journey Management)

3. Navattic Copilot: AI-powered interactive demos

- a guided sandbox users can safely explore
- AI adapts its narration to what users do inside the product
- great for showcasing complex workflows early
📌try it: when you want to start activating BEFORE sign-up

… and I break down all 5 new onboarding tools like assistant-ui (YC W25) and Clueso (YC W23) 

more in my recent Growthmates newsletter (join 7k+ who already receive weekly updates from me): https://lnkd.in/ezWrENkj

—

which one of these 5 tools are you most excited about for 2026? 

#AI #growth #onboarding #startups

5 new AI Tools for Onboarding

Last week, an ex-colleague from Miro saw me and said:

“Kate, you look really fresh.”
I laughed and replied, “I feel that. I don’t even wear makeup anymore.”

But what I didn’t say out loud was the truth:
I’ve never felt this clear, this rested, or this “me” before.

2 years ago, I left my FT job. And everything I thought I knew about myself began to fall apart.

Here are 6 things I used to hide from the world (and myself):

1. I’m an omnivert. I can show up confident around people but I need 4–5 hours of silence every day just to feel like myself again.

2. I’m a hyper-control freak when it comes to money, so I quit my full-time job to face that fear head-on.

3. I used to panic at the idea of slowing down. Pauses, stillness, “doing nothing” made me feel like I was falling behind. Now I’m learning to sit in it without rushing to fill the space.

4. I was a perfectionist until it pushed me into burnout that took 6 months to recover from.

5. I’m hyper-anxious and psychosomatic. so I’ve been doing therapy weekly for 5 years.

6. I’m an overachiever and a recovering workaholic. now my success metric is how I feel inside, not external validation.

The more I walked away from what I thought I had to be, the closer I got to who I really am.

I didn’t quit my job to just “build a brand” or “scale a business.”

I quit because I was tired of hiding behind a version of myself that made other people comfortable.

Most people aren’t burned out because they’re weak.
They’re burned out because they’re trying to survive inside a system that punishes softness, slowness, and truth.

If you’re afraid of making a big change - leaving a job, taking a pause, starting your own thing, I hope this reminds you:

Not everything is about money, the biggest gain is getting closer to yourself. 💜

P.S. I share more about my solopreneurship journey on Growthmates - my weekly newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eNjv8Y-C

This product is a masterclass in emotional-first onboarding 👇

I recently explored animations on Mobbin and rediscovered mymind, Inc. onboarding, and it’s one of the most delightful experiences I’ve seen this year.

The founder, Tobias van Schneider, comes from a design background - and it SHOWS.

Here’s why their onboarding is exceptional:

1] Positioning that clicks instantly

“mymind is the extension for your mind.”
No explaining or convincing. I immediately want to explore more.

2] The website tells the story before the product does

It taps into a universal tension:
- We want our life organised.
- We don’t want to organise it.

This is clear in their promise: Remember everything. Organize nothing.

3] Calm as a design choice

Complete privacy, no ads, no distractions. The moment I enter, I feel calmer.
Even the CTA - “I love this” 💜 - feels so human.

4] Show the desired outcome first

Before a single input is asked, they paint the vision: “Imagine all your favourite things in one beautiful place.” I already know how I’ll feel using it.

5] Referrals done with intention

Invite friends and earn more cards to save more things. A soft introduction to the “credits” dynamic without making it feel salesy.

When a design-founder builds a product, the execution feels different. We’ve seen this with Airbnb, Linear… and now mymind.

Mobbin helped me discover the patterns behind the magic:

→ Inspiring onboarding sequences
→ High-quality animations and flows
→ Real examples from lovable products

What’s the most delightful onboarding you’ve experienced lately?

♻️ Share this with someone who obsesses over product experience like you do.

#plg #onboarding #startups

Thinking of making your product PLG in 2026? Read this.

After working with 20+ PLG companies and leading Growth at Miro, I’ve learned one thing: 

PLG isn’t just an 'add on'. 
It’s something you build for from day one. 

So here’s a mini masterclass of 5 things you need to get right from day 0: 

1. Positioning is everything

↳ You can’t force new behavior.
↳ You have to build on top of habits that already exist.
↳ Make the user think, “I already do this, now it’s easier.”

Framer works because it redefined itself. It shifted from a heavy niche prototyping tool to a scalable website builder, now positioned as: “Build better sites, faster.” That pivot made it accessible - and it paid off.

2. The product must be self-servable and super simple

↳ If someone needs a guide, they’re already gone.
↳ The product experience should feel obvious.
↳ If UX is clunky, PLG won’t work.

Tally launched with clean UX, zero fluff, and instant value. They bootstrapped to $4M ARR with a tiny (but focused) team.

3. Build a community before you need one

↳ You don’t need 1,000 beta testers.
↳ You need 10 people who care enough to tell others.
↳ Bring users in early. Let them shape the product.

Lovable enables community, influencers, hackathons - all of it. Their early adopters became their loudest advocates.

4. Give value for FREE

↳ Freemium, free trial, reverse trial - doesn’t matter.
↳ What matters is: can someone feel the win without paying?

Mobbin started because the founder was tired of screenshotting mobile UIs. He built a public gallery to solve his own problem. Turns out, a lot of people had the same one.

5. Collect data from day 1

↳ No data = no clarity on what’s working.
↳ You can’t improve activation or retention if you don’t segment.

Ask 4-5 simple onboarding questions:
- Company size
- Industry
- Role
- How they found you
- What they’re trying to achieve

ElevenLabs does this with clean UX and low drop-off.

PLG is not something you “add” later.
It’s something you design for from day 0.

If you’re building now, build with this in mind.
If you’ve already launched, be honest about whether your product is truly self-serve.

Which of these 5 do you think most teams get wrong?

P.S. This breakdown is a teaser from inside my User-Centric PLG course.
The full course goes far deeper into such UX patterns. 
It’s Maven Fast Track Week (last day) - get 25% off today: https://lnkd.in/ev7JBdRr

#plg #industryexamples

5 Foundations for PLG → 

I can’t believe how fast PLG (and everything) is changing. 

learning how to “unlearn” is my new motto - but how do we adapt?

1. Onboarding isn’t UI anymore - it’s human guidance.
tooltips are dying. the future is voice agents and interactive demos that act like a real coach.

2. AI success isn’t about more features. It’s about habits.
most AI products break between visibility, activation, or adoption. the winner will be the one that changes user behavior.

3. Traffic is no longer a reliable growth metric.
seeing Webflow get 6x higher conversion from ChatGPT than Google is a wake-up call. customer discovery is changing fast.

4. Titles don’t matter anymore. Make yourself unique.
I didn’t expect my post on the identity shifts to resonate with 555+ people, but it did. Building solo sparked the most genuine conversations. Vulnerability builds connection.

here’s what people I trust shared last month:
(all links are collected in one place - see comments)

→ Kyle Poyar – traffic is no longer a reliable metric: why old playbooks are breaking
→ Elena Verna –  an honest take on why growth needs new rules after 6 months at Lovable
→ Ollie Forsyth – the most promising AI startups: sharp breakdown of who’s scaling fastest
→ Aakash Gupta – practical AI agents for PMs: tool guide
→ Justin Welsh – living everywhere except the now
→ Sara Stella Lattanzio & Diandra Escobar – the brand positioning workflow for the AI era
→ Xinran Ma – lovable crash course

what else happened this month that I forgot to mention?

P.S. 🔗 All these resources and more in Growthmates November Recap: https://lnkd.in/eqFKUnB5

Most SaaS websites lose users in the first 3 seconds.

Not because the product is weak but because the copy doesn’t help users understand the point. They:

- Randomly start highlighting features
- Hide the outcome
- Use jargon users don’t speak

Here are 5 websites that nail copy and what you can steal:

1. Play

A collaborative design tool.

- Headline copy is scannable in seconds.
- Visuals support the message instead of competing with it.
- Microcopy reinforces speed and teamwork.

What you can steal:
- If you solve a workflow problem, show the flow.
- Let visuals do half the explaining.

2. Yuna Stories

An app that helps parents track their child’s story.

- Warm, emotional copy instead of feature speak.
- Tone makes it clear who it’s for: modern parents.
- Every word has purpose, not noise.

What you can steal:
- Emotional product → emotional language.
- Don’t hide the heart behind the tech.

3. Scribe Mail

A SaaS tool for newsletters.

- The hero shows the result, not the tool.
- Outcome-focused language (“higher open rates”).
- Value blocks answer the only question that matters: why should I care?

What you can steal:
- Lead with a metric your audience already wants.
- Make the benefit easy to imagine.

4. Wone

An AI productivity tool for recruiting.

- Opens with a clear category: “AI for [X].”
- Benefits are tied to time saved.
- Doesn’t explain how the AI works, only what it improves.

What you can steal:
- Say what your product is so users don’t guess.
- Make it sound like it does the heavy lifting.

5. Cartesia

- AI-generated voiceovers that sound real.
- Bold, expressive hero promise.
- Clean, conversational copy.
- Product demos show the result instantly.

What you can steal:
- If the product is technical, the copy shouldn’t be.
- Explain it like you would to a friend.

And the best part? All 5 were built in Framer.

If you’re an early-stage startup, Framer gives you speed, polish, and copy-first design so you don’t lose users in the first 3 seconds.

Framer for Startups gives you the pro plan for free for 1 year (more info in comments).

♻️ Share this with someone building a SaaS product.

#ux #industryexamples #FramerPartner

 5 Websites that Nail Copy → 

I advise PLG teams every week, and these are the 6 AI shifts I focus on with them:

1. make growth the core experience

for years, teams celebrated how many experiments they shipped. but quantity isn’t the metric anymore - the first AI output is. users judge you on the depth, clarity, and relevance of that first result.

2. build distribution around people, not channels

users trust micro-influencers, niche operators, and community leaders far more than brand accounts. even the CEO of Gamma recently shared how enabling 1,000+ micro-influencers across niches outperformed traditional distribution. word of mouth is becoming the strongest growth engine.

3. let product and engineering drive the aha moment

AI agents are the new growth feature. when the product gives users a shortcut to understanding, they convert without being pushed. the aha moment is no longer a tour of the UI- it’s the moment the product executes meaningfully.

4. stop overpromising and start delivering

churn is high because teams position themselves as “ai-first” but ship mediocre agents. discounts can’t fix misalignment. honest positioning, clearer expectations, and real user research can.

5. know your users better than you know yourself

data shows what happened; users explain why. their workflows and decision criteria shift daily. constant conversation with users is the only way to stay relevant in markets this fast.

6. track the market like a sport

new products launch every day. creators and analysts are becoming the shortcuts for teams trying to keep up. staying visible, informed, and on the radar is a real competitive advantage now.

speed-to-understanding is the new standard for how modern products earn trust.

which of these 6 shifts feels most urgent for your team right now?

#PLG #AI #onboarding

The 6 AI Shifts in PLG Products

Growth Advisor, ex-Miro | Founder at Growthmates | Speaker · Creator | PLG · Onboarding · UX

at some point in my career, I heard a quiet question:
is this path still mine - or am I just following the “norm”?

for me, this shift happened long before I officially became a solopreneur.

it started as a tiny curiosity, then a pull, then the realization that I wanted more creativity, more freedom, and work that felt like mine.

leaving the corporate world didn’t happen overnight.
it was a long internal transition, not a dramatic leap.

and honestly? most of that journey had nothing to do with strategy - it was about identity.

that’s how my monthly newsletter rubric “The Creator’s Path” was born.

now, I’m transforming it into Growthmates podcast new season. 
from questions I kept asking myself, I now ask the people I interview:

what actually happens when someone decides to build their own path?
what shifts? What breaks? What opens?

in the new season, I speak with creators, founders, and leaders who built careers with intention - not existing templates. meet my first guests:

Michael Riddering - from creating courses to building companies
Nad Chishtie (Lovable) - why self-made generalists will shape the future
Ioana Teleanu - how to become a creator and pivot your career
Felix Haas (Lovable) - about lifelong “creator mindset” over job titles
🐱 Catt Small 👩🏾‍💻 Small (Dropbox) - creating courses, books, with FT job
…and more to come

if you’re feeling that subtle pull toward something of your own, this season might be the permission you didn’t know you needed.

Coming in January.

until then, I’m sharing weekly reflections in my newsletter and new articles inside my rubric “The Creator Path”: all about solopreneurship, identity, and building a life that feels like yours 

Check it here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e58Rh4MW

what question would you love me to ask these guests?

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