The Agile Rebrand Protocol
by Barbra Gago • Founder & CEO (Pando), former CMO (Miro) at Pando
Expert in B2B SaaS hyper-growth, formerly VP Marketing at Greenhouse and Head of Marketing at CultureAmp. Led Miro's global rebrand and category creation.
🎙️ Episode Context
Barbra Gago joins Lenny to discuss the mechanics of category creation, the strategic process of rebranding a hyper-growth company, and the philosophy of building 'opinionated software' that enforces best practices to solve systemic business problems.
Problem It Solves
Mitigates the high risk of rebranding by ensuring organizational alignment and customer buy-in before the public launch.
Framework Overview
A rebranding framework that treats brand evolution as a product development process, utilizing agile sprints, cross-functional squads, and user feedback loops.
⚡ Step-by-Step Framework
Brand as Product: Use agile sprints and tickets.
Cross-functional Ownership: Involve legal, product, and sales early.
Customer Inclusion: Test logos and concepts with users.
Luck & Faith: Prepare for the unexpected during the cutover.
Brand as Product: Use agile sprints and tickets.
Cross-functional Ownership: Involve legal, product, and sales early.
Customer Inclusion: Test logos and concepts with users.
Luck & Faith: Prepare for the unexpected during the cutover.
When to Use
When a company's name or brand identity limits its perceived scope or potential (e.g., 'RealtimeBoard' sounding like a feature rather than a platform).
Common Mistakes
Letting marketing silo the process, failing to bring the whole company along, or ignoring the equity of the legacy brand.
Real World Example
Miro's transition from 'RealtimeBoard', involving a hot pink vs yellow logo debate where they kept the yellow to honor the legacy 'sticky note' brand equity.
With the rebrand at Miro, it was very much rebrand as a product approach... sprint teams and agile... it really required everybody in some way to be involved.
— Barbra Gago