Cross Functional and Friendly: Recent Episodes
Kristen Habacht, Nikita Miller, Stella Garber
Can Sales, Marketing and Product really get along? We are here to show you that it’s possible! Join the Cross Functional and Friendly trio as we explore all things tech, startup, leadership and of course life.
So you’ve made those crucial first hires, built the right team, and set clear goals. In this episode, the trio unpacks the next vital step: managing performance.
If the sales team isn’t performing, should the product team be held accountable? Great products sell themselves right? Or is it marketing’s fault for not positioning the product correctly? Or maybe they’re actually doing fine but the sales lead you hired isn’t that great after all.
Evaluating whether your teams have reached their goals is deceptively simple in theory, but increasingly complicated when you have to do it across functions.
Tune in as the trio pair actionable advice with their own experiences over the years!
In this episode, Stella, Nikita, and Kristen weigh in on how goal setting works across teams—how they change based on product, marketing, and sales objectives, and more importantly: how they can coalesce around a broader organisational goal.
Are OKRs actually effective? Are monthly reviews better than quarterly ones? If these are the questions you’re dealing with as a founder or cross-functional leader, this episode is for you. Tune in!
The trio talks about how sales, product, and marketing teams should be built, and how to set up systems that enable cross-functional (and friendly!) collaboration between them. If you're a founder grappling with these issues, this conversation acts as a definitive guide.
The trio explores how founders should think about making their first Marketing, Sales, and Product hires. They also unpack the immediate (and highly crucial) next step—how those early hires should interact with their cross functional peers. This is really critical for startups—if Sales and Marketing aren’t aligned, things are going to get very ugly, very fast. Stick around till the end for actionable best practices!
The final episode of our first season. Oji walks us through his path to working with some of the best startups and tech companies in the world
Join the trio as we discuss Sonia's journey into venture and why it ended up being the perfect career path for her
The second episode in our series on career transitions, the team discusses what's new in their careers
The public and private markets are in a state of flux. The trio talk about what that means for start up life. We walk through some VC funding 101, why things are changing suddenly and what to ask before you join a start up
Join the team as they talk with long time friend and Chief People Officer, Liz Hall. Liz has led teams at Fog Creek, Trello and most recently Splash
Join the cross functional team as we explore what “exactly” is PLG. We are joined by one of the founding father’s of PLG himself, Michael Pryor, former CEO and Cofounder of Trello.
The final deep dive of the trio's background brings us to Stella Garber. Stella is a lifelong entrepreneur and she takes us through how her immigrant background influenced her pivot from a traditional career in medicine to a love of startups and tech. Stella tells us more about how she is balancing entrepreneurship, angel investing and family.
The cross functional friends are back with episode 2. Our first three episodes focus on getting to know the trio, and episode 2 is all about Nikita Miller. Nikita takes us through her background from coming to America at age 8 from Jamaica to attending Cornell for Industrial Labor Relations and how that all made for a natural path to leadership in product orgs of all shapes and sizes.
The cross functional friends first podcast! We all met at Trello but what were the paths that brought us there and what have we done since. Our first three episodes focus on getting to know the trio, and episode 1 is all about Kristen Habacht. Find out how a Theatre major with no tech background ends up building a career as a successful tech sales leader.