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SaaS Stories
SaaS Stories is my not-so-secret quest to learn what it truly takes to succeed in the world of SaaS—and I’m inviting you along for the ride! I have the pleasure of sitting down with brilliant minds and industry trailblazers to explore their journeys, uncovering the secrets behind their growth, the gaps they spotted in the market, and what really drives them.
It’s not all smooth sailing—there are challenges, unexpected turns, and moments of reflection where they share what they’d love to change about their journey. Think of it as a candid, insider’s look into the world of SaaS, with just the right amount of curiosity, empathy, and wit.
Join me as I dive deep, selfishly soak up all the insights, and hopefully share a little inspiration with you along the way—one SaaS story at a time.
SaaS Stories
Don’t Build What They Ask For, Build What They Need: Driving Product-Led Growth Through Customer Insight
In this episode of SaaS Stories, Leah Rankin, Chief Product Officer at SightMinder, shares how deep customer insight—not just feature requests—drives meaningful product innovation in hospitality tech.
Leah shares how a chance meeting at Telstra sparked her career in tech, the early disruptor days of cloud-based hospitality solutions, and what it really means to drive product-led growth in a fast-evolving industry. We explore how SightMinder matches the right guests with the right hotels, the power of data and AI in shaping guest experiences, and how to build high-performing, diverse, and collaborative teams.
From leadership philosophies to the future of hospitality tech, this episode is packed with insight, candour, and inspiration for anyone navigating the ever-changing world of SaaS.
If you're navigating product strategy, team leadership, or the future of SaaS in a data-driven world—this one’s for you.
Key Takeaways:
💡 Product-Led Growth: Why the best SaaS platforms are intuitive, self-serve, and built with adoption, upsell, and retention baked in.
🏨 Smart Hospitality: How SightMinder helps hoteliers match with the right guests (not just more guests)—and why it’s like “dating” for hotels.
📊 Data Strategy: Why data is the new oil in hospitality tech—and how SightMinder is investing in AI and a Chief Data Officer to lead the charge.
🚀 Innovation Culture: Hackathons, discovery squads, and giving everyone space to contribute big ideas—how innovation is embedded across teams.
🧠 Servant Leadership: Leah’s leadership philosophy on trust, active listening, and creating an environment where people can be their true selves.
🕰️ Pacing Change: Why patience matters—even in fast-moving SaaS—and how bringing others on the journey can lead to more sustainable transformation.
Welcome everybody to another episode of SaaS Stories Today. I'm super excited I'm joined by a local Northern Beaches person like myself. I don't usually come across that many of us in the world of SaaS, but Leah Rankin, chief Product Officer of SightMinder, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's a real pleasure to be here and to meet a fellow Northern Beaches folk. That's always a pleasure.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about your SAS journey, your life story. How did you get into the world of SAS?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 2:I actually went to university and did a Bachelor of Arts degree, which certainly doesn't suggest SAS or tech by any stretch which certainly doesn't suggest SAS or tech by any stretch.
Speaker 2:But I actually was working at Telstra, which was a role I took on not long after finishing university, and I actually just happened to be asked to join a meeting where I was asked to take notes, and it was a meeting that was held between IBM and Telstra talking about one of their new technology solutions, and I, of course, was taking notes and not being one to kind of not speak up. At times I realized that one of the conversations they were having was leading down the wrong path. They were talking about this possible implementation of a solution, so integrating one tech solution to another, and because I'd been recently in training and learned how that worked manually, so through human intervention, I realized that what they were talking about may not work. So I piped up and decided to just offer some thoughts in a constructive and somewhat sheepish way, but that actually led me to being part of that project team and led me into my world of tech and, obviously, onto SAS, as SAS became obviously a very much a prominent piece of tech for the future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think I did that same arts degree first of all. So I don't think it's strange to end up in SAS after arts. There's always an opportunity and I mean, just look at how far AI has come and we don't know what jobs are going to exist in the future and where we'll end up. So it's exciting and so eventually, from that role you know in Telstra, you ended up at Siteminder. Tell us a little bit about Siteminder and ended up at Sightminder. Tell us a little bit about Sightminder and what are some of the key factors that they specialize in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I'd probably describe Sightminder, as let's call them, the pioneer of a tech in the hospitality space. You know, behind 125 million reservations per year that flow through our platform, and that platform essentially provides our customers, the hotelier, the opportunity to access more of the right guests through the right channel, which ultimately, of course, drives more revenue into their business. So really, we're helping provide that solution by, you know, mixing together sort of data, the distribution capability, which is very much accessing online channels as well as direct channels where guests are searching and booking, and bringing that all together to optimize revenue in the platform. So, in a nutshell, that's sort of who we are and what we do. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and tell me a little bit about the hospitality industry, like, does the right guests make all the difference? Because I would have thought that they would just want as many guests as possible.
Speaker 2:That's an awesome question and this comes up quite a lot and in fact it's part of some of the innovation that we're doing in the platform today is really making sure that we can profile not just the hotel to really understand what the needs are of that hotel. And, for an example, you might have a hotel that is very much looking for corporate guests you know, business guests versus one that perhaps is very family friendly, and so when you're thinking about profiling that and then profiling the guest as well, making that match, you know it's almost like dating, but making that match is really important because if you think about your experience as a guest and I'm sure we've all had this experience where you've perhaps chosen a hotel because you're at somewhere for a work conference, you're doing a bit of work, you've got kids playing in the pool, you've got kids running up and down the hallway the two of those don't necessarily always work together. So that match is actually more important than you might think and I actually think, moving forward, it becomes even more important.
Speaker 1:Now, absolutely Now that you said it, it makes so much sense. I mean, it's like the basic principle of marketing is know your niche, who is your target market and obviously cater to them, because you know when you're focused on everybody, the message just gets lost. When you're focused on your specific audience, that's when you get them coming to you Absolutely. As the Chief Product Officer, what were some of the initial challenges you faced with?
Speaker 2:SightMinder. So I've been with the company now six years, so maybe I'll kind of go back a little further just to talk a little bit about SightMinder as a company and how they even entered into this space, and then we'll kind of fast forward to my time if that works for you, and then we'll kind of fast forward to my time if that works for you Absolutely, because I do think it's an important story. I think if you go back to 2006, when SightMinder first became a thing and came into the world, you know SaaS was not really a thing. It was very new. In fact, cloud solutions were also not very common, and so actually, sightminder came in as a cloud-based solution from the get-go, which was quite disruptive and quite innovative.
Speaker 2:At that time, hotels had what were called on-prem solutions or on-premises solutions, so essentially, as the name suggests, the tech would sit in the property and be installed in the property and actually be ran and maintained from the property itself. So having this cloud-based solution obviously was quite disruptive, but also offered an opportunity to be a lot more accessible, cheaper, because you don't have that upfront capital for the install and the investment that you need for an on-prem solution. So that was something that, I think, was really at the heart of who Siteminder was as a disruptor at the beginning. In addition to that, the nature of the solution was also quite disruptive. So what I mean by that is, if you go back before Siteminder, hotels to get their inventory essentially their rooms and rates out to guests would have to go into online travel agents individually. So these are your Bookingcom, expedia, the goaders of the world. They would go in, update their inventory and then, as a booking comes in, they would have to go back in and manually edit each of those systems to make sure they didn't get double bookings.
Speaker 2:So our founders, mike and Mike, who came up with this opportunity back in 2006, saw this as a bit to build what is called a channel manager. That is essentially one platform where you can maintain and manage all of that inventory and not only giving you loads of time back, obviously, as I'm sure you can imagine, but also removes that manual error or that that error of double bookings, which is obviously a cost to the business and drives a really poor guest experience. So that's kind of where we came from, which I think is sort of our foundations, but obviously, as time has moved forward, you know really thinking about how we can continue to be that disruptor, that innovator, is really at the heart of who we are and certainly joining SightMinder. Six years ago I actually joined as chief customer in the customer space and eventually moved into a chief customer officer role before moving back into product and tech, and I think that allowed me to really truly understand the needs of the customer, which obviously is so important when you're delivering software solutions, particularly in the SaaS space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. You mentioned two words there which intrigued me disruptor and innovator. And of course you know I think of all the famous brands when you say that. But why is it so important to be a disruptor and innovator in the SaaS space?
Speaker 2:I think it's important. Well, number one, we have to stay ahead of the game. Right, we have to be competitive. This industry you know there's so much tech out there, particularly in the hospitality space, but in any industry, that is true. You know the world as it's evolving and you touched on it in the intro with AI, no podcast is a podcast without talking about AI these days. But, honestly, the world's changing, you know, you mentioned it yourself and it's so true, and so it means that building solutions is becoming so much easier. You know coming smart, smart, smart people coming together to build solutions for you know, problems and solving, solving problems and creating opportunities. You know that's becoming easier and easier to do. You know APIs are becoming easier and that means integration is easier.
Speaker 2:The world is, you know, world is changing dynamically and rapidly. So certainly for any tech company or any company, you have to stay ahead of the game, and I think it's really important and certainly we really, truly believe we've got to be thinking ahead and thinking forward. We know that customers don't always know what they want, so we've got to stay close to our customers to really, I guess, think about what they want before they even know they need it, which, of course, is very much important in any place where you're building and solving a solution for a customer. But to do that in an innovative way is really important and for us, you know, we've got a lot of data, as mentioned, that goes through the platform. So, thinking about how we can leverage that, we've just appointed a new chief data officer just to really, I guess, capitalise on what we can do with our data, particularly in this world of AI, which is fast emerging and very exciting.
Speaker 1:But it is. I love that you just said that Chief Data Officer, because I've been saying I've been actually quoting someone who would say this data is the new oil, and if you don't know how to read it, you know you're falling behind. Become easier API integrations, coding even AI can do that for us. What are some of the key skills, aside from a data officer, that you're looking for in the organization?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. Obviously, you're looking for people who are enthusiastic, are keen to learn. I always say attitude and aptitude are the most important things. You know the world changes so quickly that you know, as we even just touched on jobs, there are new jobs emerging all of the time that we don't even know what's coming. So having people that are willing to learn, having people who are smart, can keep up with the pace, I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:You know, in a world where you know we are an ASX 200 company, we've got very high growth targets, as we should and that brings with it a lot of pressure. So, you know, having people that can really thrive in that environment I think is important. But as much as AI is going to change the game and can do a lot of the tasks and help automate a lot of those manual tasks, it doesn't take away the creativity. In fact it makes the creative space even more important. And so I think that's where you know looking and finding people then, and that can really fill that gap, to drive and empower. I guess this new world of AI, I think, is also really, really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that sounds really interesting actually, because you know, you always wonder as a human, what's going to be my place in the future? And creativity I have heard a number of tech companies mention this and the way that they, you know, encourage creativity in their organization is just by allowing people to have ideas and not being afraid to fail or get their ideas rejected. Just, they say, the best way to get to a great idea is to have many ideas and then at least one of them will work Exactly, no, definitely creating that space and headspace and capacity to do that.
Speaker 2:That's why I think AI is really exciting, because you know some people find it a bit fearful, or you know it's a bit scary because people think it will, you know, replace them. But the way to look at it the way I certainly look at it is you know it creates the space. You know, if you're getting rid of some of the mundane tasks, it can actually create the space for you to be more creative and to be able to think differently. I mean, everyone complains they don't have enough head space, right. So that's where I think we can really like lean in, which I think is pretty exciting. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so true. So you mentioned you were a customer officer and now a product officer, and something we talk a lot about on this podcast is like customer-led growth versus product-led growth versus, you know, sales-led growth. What's your take on that? Like with site minder, what's been the instrumental growth factors that you've seen?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, this is a topic that's very close to my heart actually. Um, look, I I think, first and foremost, your customer is at the centre of everything you do. It has to be right. The customer is who you're building for. The customer is who you're selling to. The customer is who you're using, is using your product. So, of course, they are at the centre of everything.
Speaker 2:But I am a really big believer that everything should be very much product led.
Speaker 2:And I say that because if you think about building a solution, you really need to be building it in a way that it is intuitive, that it is easy to use, obviously, that it meets a need or creates an opportunity for a customer.
Speaker 2:But you know as much as you know being able to pick up the phone and talk to someone.
Speaker 2:Certainly, in our industry, a lot of our customers being in the hospitality space love that they shouldn't need to to be able to use your system.
Speaker 2:So this is where making sure that you can build out that all the capability in the platform in a way that makes it easy to use, but also that all of the self-serve capabilities there, and so that the you know if someone is, if someone doesn't know what they need to do. You can actually give them the answer as and when they need it, potentially even provide recommendations and other tasks, which again is becoming more and more and more available through new technologies. But actually really helping the customer through that journey, but certainly making it very much so that that growth, but actually, you know, really helping the customer through that journey, but certainly making it very much so that that growth, the adoption, even upsell capability, you know, adding on new capabilities, new features, should all be done within the product, so that you're not reliant on people, you're not reliant on a sales team although sales still has an important role to play, obviously but I really am quite passionate about sort of that product-led growth as part of the platform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really good point actually having the product sell itself and, you know, being able to determine when it can sell itself based on people's journeys within the product.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and it almost goes. It almost perpetuates even better knowledge and growth within the platform. And why I say that is if you've got more activity happening in the platform. So if everything's happening in your platform, you've got more data, you've got more insights, you know more about your customer, which, in turn, can provide better experiences, and so it really just can, kind of you know really grow in value, which is another reason why I think it's so important. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:What about from a marketing perspective? Are there any specific? I mean, you've got a very niched audience, it's the hospitality industry, it's maybe it's like specific ones in mind. What are some of the marketing campaigns that work really well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so look, our platform is obviously all about getting the inventory or, as I said, rooms and rates out to guests through the right channel. So certainly there's an element of being able to understand what the right channel is. You know, let's take the direct channel for an example so your own website, your own booking engine, so being able to help customers with understanding what might attract the right guests and a lot of that we do through data, obviously, understanding trends, understanding what's happening in source markets. As an example, we might know through our platform that actually there's a lot of guests who are looking in India at traveling to Australia at a particular time. So being able to marry those two things together and you turn that into an opportunity for a marketing campaign might be something that we can sort of enable through the platform.
Speaker 2:So I think all of it, everything's marketing. Really, when you think about it, we're all in the business of marketing because we're trying to make sure we get our guests connected with the hotel and our hotels more exposure to the right guests, as mentioned. So that's kind of how we sort of see it tied together. Of course, we work with a lot of other platforms and solutions that can obviously plug in and help our customers with some additional functionality as well. But that's sort of from an ecosystem perspective how we see it all come together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. You said that Everyone's in charge of marketing. It's so true, and everyone's in charge of selling. But I think, unfortunately, a lot of organizations have split those departments up and they're like you know, you do this and you do that, and I think that's where it goes wrong actually.
Speaker 2:I totally agree, do that, and that's.
Speaker 1:I think that's where it goes wrong. Actually, I totally agree. I totally agree. Yeah, it sounds like SiteMind has been really good at, you know, adapting to industry complexities. What advice would you give to other founders of SaaS that you know are wanting to do the same thing in their industry?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I think you know, as a chief product officer, of course I would say stay close to your customer, that's obvious, and and you can do that, not in many of course I would say stay close to your customer, that's obvious, and you can do that in many ways. Of course, you know, through data, through, actually you know, physically visiting your customer, making sure you're talking to them regularly. So that's really, really important. But I think you know just also, as I said before, staying on top of what's happening in the industry, being able to understand how you can fill those gaps and those solutions and, of course, understanding and really thinking about how you can capitalize on some of the technologies that are out there. So I think it's a combination of those factors that I think are really important to deliver a great SaaS solution, no matter what sort of industry that you're in.
Speaker 1:And product roadmap as well. I'm sure there's so much you want to do to the platform, but obviously a limited amount of resources, time. You know what do you focus on and you know there's also a balance of what customers are asking for versus what should we listen to, because some of it might not, you know, match with the company's values and plans. So how do you tackle that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm smiling because we quite literally had another debate about this just yesterday, but it's a huge challenge, and it's a huge challenge in any organisation building software, because it is about getting the balance right. I think, to ensure that you're delivering those intuitive experiences. You must continuously improve the experience. That's so important, and that's often the really small things that need to change.
Speaker 2:You know whether it's a UX tweak, whether it's a, you know, a change to a feature or a function, and it's really hard sometimes to balance that against the new shiny thing, which, of course, to innovate and to stay ahead of the game, you have to, of course, to innovate and to stay ahead of the game, you have to, of course, be continuing to move your product forward. But that balancing act is actually critical, and I mean, add to that the tech work that needs to happen to make sure that your platform is scalable, that it can support your growth ambitions, to make sure that you're compliant. You know there's compliance, there's all sorts of regulations that you need to look after, data security. All of these aspects need to be taken into consideration. So, look, I don't know that I could sit here and say that we've cracked it, but we're continually having that discussion and trying to get that balance right. I think it's really important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't think anyone has cracked it. If they have, please let me know. But I don't think even the big tech companies have. No, it's always a fine balance, and I mean all of that changes in a heartbeat, so you need to keep, keep on top of it all. Do you have like a percentage of your product team that is specifically focused on just innovating and nothing else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, we've bounced around on this topic actually like do you have an innovation hub, you know, do you just let everyone kind of have some time to innovate? We do have a regular hackathon event that we have internally that does kind of create this space for everyone to kind of come with any idea. You know there's no often we have a theme, but it's pretty open. So that's one way for us to kind of make sure that everyone's included, because often having an innovation hub, whilst it's really important to ring fence some capacity and some people to be able to focus in that space, often you know you can cause this effect of oh but why can't I innovate, or does that mean no one else is innovating, which is certainly not the case when it's really supposed to be in your DNA. So for us it's a bit of a combination of both.
Speaker 2:We do have some people that are kind of ring fenced at doing more of the discovery and innovation and thinking, you know, quite differently about how we might solve things, looking at different markets that we might enter, or looking at different ways to solve or to take our product in a different direction. But certainly from a team perspective, we really encourage everyone to be thinking creatively about how we can solve the problem and thinking as well about how we can solve it in a way that is smart for all of our customers and that can be really challenging when we have a broad customer base yes, they're all hoteliers, but you know a hotelier for a way that's not only innovative but is a smart solution that can scale to both of those scenarios and both of those users is also something that we really try to try to encourage and embed in the organization, which is not easy, but it's something we're keen to encourage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's really good points there, Just as you were talking about. You know, we kind of encourage everybody as well to innovate. I was listening to a recent podcast by the Snapchat CEO and he was saying he's got a very small team of nine people that are focused on innovating. And I remember listening and just thinking like, oh God, if I wanted a job like I would want to be in those nine people. I wouldn't want to be in the other teams. Exactly, I know it's good to give that to yeah, so sorry, it's.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's just, it's so true because we've, you know, we, we have this problem. It's the same, as you know, in some cases and I've been in companies where there's one team that just deals with tech debt. You know one team that's just dealing with, you know, customer, you know customer issues, but that becomes quite painful and laborious over time as well. So, in the same vein, I think it's good to have a mixture or give people an opportunity to play to their strengths, because also, not everyone does, you know, have that next big idea or wants to be in that space, but certainly not ring fencing or boxing people in. I think is important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you never know where the great ideas are going to come from at the end of the day. Moving away from product and a little bit about people and leadership style, you obviously manage a team of people. Any leadership tips, philosophies that have really helped shape the culture and the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I really lean into what's called servant leadership and I don't know if you've used to find that for me. Yes, I shall, I shall Look. It's really about, as the name sort of suggests, it's about serving your team. So it's really about empowering your team and supporting them in a way that is very much. You know very much the opposite end of kind of coming in and dictating and sort of being you know the old school leader of the times of past where you had your corner office and you kind of barked your orders at the team and shut your door and got on with your day job.
Speaker 2:It's very much about making sure that you are closely connected to your team. There's openness, there's trust, there's empathy that you have. You know, you practice things like active listening, which some of my team might say I still talk too much, but it's still about that connection and, you know, making sure you're really listening and hearing what your team need to be successful and that collaboration so that when you're making decisions your team are part of that decision making. You know, not making a decision, you know, in isolation, which of course you know doesn't help anyone and makes people feel quite confronted and challenged. So I'm a big believer of creating that kind of environment which, honestly it's also creates a world where people can feel like they can be more themselves, which is so important, you know, brings an element of trust, and all of that equals, ultimately, more creativity and more motivation, more productivity. So I think that's probably the biggest, I suppose, framework or something that I probably really that really resonated with me when I learned about it many moons ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I definitely agree. It's very much relatable to my leadership style as well. I suppose I'm just going to play devil advocate for a second, because where I've seen it go wrong slightly is where you're so open and you're so kind that they kind of think they can come to you with everything and anything and they almost start depending on you a little bit too much, to the point where they're not feeling empowered to execute on tasks. Have you, have you found that happened at all, and how do you get past it?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's a great challenge. And then you're absolutely right, there is a fine balance because you know being you're also as much as I very much see my, my team and my peers, and you know everyone at SightMinder as part of my family. I really truly do. It might sound a a little corny but I do, but there is. You're also still there to do a job. You're in there to run a business and to make that business successful. So it is a fine balance. I think you know.
Speaker 2:I think the balance is is about having enough of that, having enough of that empathy and that kindness, but still setting clear boundaries and making it really clear when you've got certain outcomes that need to be delivered. Making it really clear. Amazing how often that doesn't happen and the communication is, you know, misconstrued or it's lost. So you know, I think it doesn't always work, but I do find that making sure you're really crisp and clear with what the expectations are, being clear with roles and responsibilities, you know as far as from a day-to-day what's expected of you, I think also helps. So really, then, overlaying that with that kind of openness really should enhance that and give people a clearer understanding, but it is one you still need to be mindful of.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes people do say to me oh, you're too kind. Does that mean you can't make hard decisions? And you know that I don't think is such a thing as being too kind number one, but it doesn't mean you can't make hard decisions. I mean I've certainly had to make some very hard and very you know, very painful at times. You know decisions that impact people's lives when it comes to, you know, company reorgs or changes that need to be made in a business. But if you can do that with empathy and with thoughtfulness and, you know, with clear communication, even that becomes an easier message to land. At least that's what I hope and I believe.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I definitely agree with that.
Speaker 1:Key ingredients for building high performing collaborative teams.
Speaker 2:Any advice Key ingredients, right, well, I would say, yeah, look number one, like I mentioned, right? Well, I would say, yeah, look number one. Like I mentioned, communication trust. I think building relationships is really, really key. You know, I don't I'm a big believer in team. You know, a big believer in, you know, figuring out what. What equals high performing team is actually something that really excites me, which sounds a bit nerdy, but it actually like when you can look at the skills you have in a team and quite often different skills, of course, will complement one another and so, you know, recognising that and being able to bring those ingredients and those skills and capabilities together and figure out how that whole team then can uplift one another. You know, rather than having you know one standout superstar who's kind of doing all the work and is kind of elevating, it's about kind of getting the right ingredients in the team to elevate everyone and ultimately then you get to that sort of high performing status. I think that's really, really important. Yeah, what?
Speaker 1:about culture Because I've seen you know a lot of organizations when they hire for culture, they end up accidentally hiring people that are just very similar. So they always just agree with each other. There's no one challenging anybody else, and maybe that can be a downfall.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think if you have everyone, that's the same, I don't think that works very well. You know, I think diversity, you know, inclusion, all of these things become so important and it's certainly something that we're very passionate about, and I'm certainly very passionate about making sure that we have that mix. I mean, even building software right, You're building software for many different types of people, so how would that possibly work if you are building it just with one type of person? You know, if you're? I think it's interesting when you know companies like Volvo recognize that they were building cars and you know it's been an all male design team, but actually most of their cars were targeted at women and at a particular point. So they recognize that and made a shift. I think you know that's a one tiny example of what you might need to do with the right mix within your team, which, of course, then creates the right culture, and certainly having that diversity, I think, is so important. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think it's important to be able to challenge. You know specific ideas and ways of doing things, rather than just being agreeable and I guess you know, becoming a bit more complacent that way yeah that's that fosters innovation as well.
Speaker 2:right, if you're coming from different backgrounds and got different experiences, then that just brings a different type of conversation to the floor, so I think that's healthy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, looking to the future, what are some of the trends that you think are going to break the SaaS industry or rock the SaaS industry? I mean, AI is one I think we've been chatting about for a while, but what are some other things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I think I mean, yeah, absolutely AI. Of course it's going to change the game. I think moving from generative AI to sort of the agentic AI space is super interesting. So I definitely think there's something there that's going to be very interesting in how we interact with products in the future and how products are created and how we service products as well. I think you know just even the nature of kind of where the connectivity landscape is going, and what I mean by that is you know the fact that, I think because, as I said earlier, it's becoming easier, you know, to bring people together and start a tech company.
Speaker 2:Let's say, you know a small startup can move very quickly, and you know we still have a startup mentality, but we're not a small company anymore. We, you know, we've got a thousand employees and so we are, you know, not as nimble as perhaps we would like to be, but that actually can have its advantages as well, because it means that you don't need to build everything. You know, if you have smart APIs, if you know how that data can flow in a smart way, then you can have smarter integrations and you can partner and have more opportunities, which also means you don't have to be all the things for all the different customer needs, which is also something that trips a lot of companies up, because you know they're always saying you know, not one customer is really the same. Yes, there's similarities, yes, we profile them and put them in buckets, but actually, when it comes down to even users within that kind of customer group, there's so many differences. So I think that's a really important piece for people to get their head around for the future.
Speaker 2:And obviously, just data. You know data it's all about data Like, and it sort of leans into the AI story as well. But you know, the more data you have and that's something we're excited about that you know thinking about how we can harness that and do more with it in smart ways. You know, and, of course, people often get a little scared about that too, but you know you've got more of my data. I mean, everyone's also witnessed what happens when your phone starts recommending things you've been talking about so, um, so there's scary ways to quite like that, actually.
Speaker 1:Well, I actually don't find that myself.
Speaker 2:I have to say but um, but it's not for everyone. Um but um, but I think there's really smart ways you can use that data to provide smarter solutions for your customer. So I guess the three areas that are probably top of mind for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely I think that you're spot on. Yeah, I've had so many people freak out when they talk and it's like Alexa's hurt them or Google's hurt them and then on their phones they're seeing ads for it. But I mean, in my case I'm like oh great, someone's listening, you know. I want personalised experiences yeah it's really interesting.
Speaker 2:I actually use Facebook now more for finding products that I'm looking for than connecting with my friends, which is a really interesting pivot for them because their algorithm is pretty good. You know they are a powerhouse for a reason but but you know some may see that as a negative, but it is an interesting kind of slant on on kind of how you can use that data and how you can kind of bubble up different things for your customers' needs.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, absolutely. You mentioned 1,000 employees. I'm curious do you have a hybrid model? Is it completely remote? How do you tackle that? Because a lot of organisations are now saying you know, we want them back five days a week, just like it used to be, and everyone's freaking out about that. They're like I can't do that again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we too are freaking out about it. Look, we have a hybrid model, so we have a combination. We have some people who are fully remote and then we have some who come into the office two days a week, or at least two days a week. We, you know that obviously pleases some. There are some that definitely are still not very keen on that, particularly when we still have within a team. In most instances, the team, the makeup of the team, is hybrid, meaning you could be talking to someone in the Philippines, you might be talking to someone in Europe, you might have someone in your team, you know, in India. So we're very global and with that, you know, means that people are having to adapt and be flexible with their work time. But also a lot of it's done, like this, online.
Speaker 2:So there, is a resistance still, I think, for the coming back to the office, but we really believe in the power of connection, the power of people. I was only talking to one of my team just today who has got a new starter who has come into the office, and he said just that, banter, you know, with some of you know his new peers and he's learning obviously just by being there and by having the conversation. You know with some of you know his new peers and he's learning obviously just by being there and by having the conversation. You know the water cooler conversations. So you know what's going on and and also I think it's still I don't know there's something about coming into the office that also helps with the empathy and with the connection, the personal connection and the relationship that you can build with your peers, and I think that's, you know, so important.
Speaker 2:You know we're all human. We spend a lot of time at work. You know, I think that the old days of having work over here and life over here, you know that's that's just not realistic and it's not where we're at. You know the two are very blended and so I think we need to be able to, you know, respond to that. So it's a tricky one. It's a yeah for sure. I think we need to be able to, you know, respond to that. So it's a tricky one.
Speaker 1:It's a tricky one, yeah for sure. I think, definitely with new hires, it makes sense to go more rather than less until you've got those relationships built and then you feel comfortable reaching out to other channels like Zoom, slack, teams, whatever that may be. I think there's also something about being next to people and just being able to ask the most absurd, random, stupid questions, which you would never do via email or Slack or Teams.
Speaker 2:Correct? No, exactly. Even just by nature of sending a Slack, you feel like you're number one interrupting someone you know, thinking you second guessed yourself. Oh, that's a stupid question. So yeah, you're absolutely right that just being able to sort of sit there and have that conversation maybe it's just, you know, as you say even over a lunch and in the, in the lunch area or something, it becomes much more natural and much easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Leah. My last question for you is if you could go back in times to six years ago, when you first started at SightMinder, what bit of advice would you give yourself? Oh, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2:What bit of advice would I give myself? Look, I think I would probably say be patient, meaning, you know, certainly joining a company that moves at a fast pace. That might sound like a silly thing to say, but also, you know, sometimes things do take time, change takes time, and we're constantly looking at how we can change and evolve, not just internally but for our customers. And you know, sometimes, you know I can be very impatient, and certainly have been in in times of past. But but recognizing that that it sometimes like you, I mean I'm very open to change, I love change, I change things constantly.
Speaker 2:My husband hates it, but I change things constantly, but that's not for everyone as well. So maybe that's the other bit of advice is also recognize that you know, sometimes, whilst you want to move faster, you know you need to kind of bring others on that journey and be able to kind of, you know, encourage them and give them the space to take their time, and it will happen, and I've seen that happen. We've made so much change over the last years and a lot more to come. But yeah, that would be my advice to a younger me.
Speaker 1:Patience yes.
Speaker 2:Embrace change yes, and recognise it might take time. You know that others might not be at the same spot or the same. You know same point in time as you. So, yeah, that would be it, love that.
Speaker 1:Love that. Leah, thank you so much for being on the show. Really appreciate it. I think we've got some really good insights in terms of you know what we can do with product led growth, what we can do. You know about listening to customers and also people as well. I think we touched quite a bit on that, which was which was really cool. So thank you so much for all the tips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, was really cool. So thank you so much for all the tips. Yeah, no, thank you. I've really enjoyed the conversation, so I hope there's something out there that for your listeners um that, um that that they're interested in and that that helps, because, um, yeah, that's what these conversations are all about. So, thank you absolutely. Thank you so much.
