Master this Mindset

Introduction

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Welcome, Adrian.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Merci. Thank you.

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
So you're here for the Momentum Tour?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Yes.

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Can you just speak about that tour? What is it?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Absolutely. At Webflow, we saw an amazing opportunity across the world with incredible customers. We've seen so much growth across the European business, with customers like Spotify, monday.com, and Anytime Fitness.

We really wanted to go on the road with our customers and partners to talk about how the world is changing and what we're seeing in the web space. It was an opportunity to learn from them while also sharing what we’re seeing across our 300,000 customers so we can meet this moment together, because so much is changing so quickly.

Recording a First English Podcast

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
For my audience, this is the first time they’ve heard me speak English, so apologies if I make mistakes. This is my first time recording a podcast in English, so I’m glad to do it with you.

Today, Adrian, you’re the CRO of Webflow and you’ve been there for about nine months. I’d like to understand your onboarding and your first 90 days. At this level of responsibility, those first months are critical to making an impact. How did you approach them?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
When I joined Webflow, the world was already changing quickly in the web industry, but I never imagined how fast AI would reshape discovery and search.

In my first 90 days, I focused on understanding three perspectives:

• What our customers say about us
• What our partners say about us
• What our employees say about us

I wanted to understand our place in the market, our impact, and where the future was heading.

Since I oversee sales, marketing, support, and customer success, I also spent significant time understanding where revenue comes from, how it evolves, and how we could build a vision for the future alongside our customers, agencies, and partners.

Biggest Surprise After Joining Webflow

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
What surprised you the most when you arrived?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
The biggest surprise was how quickly people’s behavior around information consumption changed.

Back in early 2025, AI-assisted search existed, but it wasn’t yet materially different for most people. Depending on where you lived, AI web search was still limited.

What surprised me was how quickly the world changed in the way it consumes information online.

There are now major conversations happening around:

• What is the role of the website in an AI-first world?
• What happens in six months, one year, or two years?
• How does discovery change when AI answers questions directly?

On a positive note, one of the most rewarding surprises has been seeing what agencies and customers build. The creativity, visual quality, and immersive experiences they create are incredible.

Transitioning from Salesforce and Tableau to Webflow

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
You come from Salesforce and Tableau, which are more traditional B2B environments. Webflow has a much stronger design and creative culture. What changed in your role?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
The mission at Webflow is to bring developer superpowers to everyone.

That means helping customers make creativity their competitive edge.

The biggest shift is prioritization. At Webflow, creativity is central:

• How do we help customers express creativity?
• How do we create beautiful experiences?
• How do we maintain a design-first culture internally?

Because we’re a design-first company, there’s a higher bar for delivering excellent experiences.

For example, relaunching Webflow.com brought pressure to meet those expectations—and I enjoy that challenge.

Creativity Inside Teams

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Do you have more creative people in your teams compared to previous companies?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I wouldn’t necessarily say more creative people.

The difference is that creativity becomes a top priority.

Creativity shows up in many forms:

• Design
• Problem-solving
• Strategy
• Innovation

At Webflow, it’s simply much more front-of-mind.

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
How do you encourage that creativity?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I push people to be bold.

I often tell my team:

“I want you to make me uncomfortable with your idea.”

If an idea makes me uncomfortable, it usually means we’re pushing toward the edge of what’s possible.

We’re operating in a rapidly evolving world, and creativity matters not only for humans anymore—but for AI as well.

We now design for:

• Humans
• AI systems consuming websites

That requires a different philosophy.

Managing Sales, Marketing, Success, and Support Together

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
As CRO, you oversee sales, marketing, support, and success. How do you balance optimizing individual functions while keeping the revenue engine aligned?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I think about this as rows and columns.

Imagine a spreadsheet:

• Rows represent products
• Columns represent functions like sales or marketing

Each row and column has an owner.

The key is ensuring alignment across functions so nobody works in isolation.

I often tell the team:

“We win together, and we never lose alone.”

That means:

• No initiative should exist without cross-functional ownership
• Teams should have shared accountability
• Collaboration must be structurally built into the organization

Where Revenue Engines Usually Break

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Where do revenue engines usually fail?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Most businesses spend too much time diagnosing the past.

Instead of traditional business reviews focused only on what happened, I run a process called “Plan to Make Plan.”

Rather than asking:

• “What happened last month?”

We ask:

• “What did we learn?”
• “What will we do differently?”
• “Who will partner with us to execute?”

Revenue engines become harder to manage when:

• Multiple lead sources exist
• Product-led growth combines with sales-led growth
• Funnel complexity increases

The goal is to diagnose quickly and adapt before momentum is lost.

Team Operating Rhythm

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
What routines do you use to manage this?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
At the start of every month, every leader runs a “Plan to Make Plan” review.

It includes cross-functional partners.

We also run:

• Weekly forecast calls
• Cross-functional revenue reviews
• Monthly alignment conversations

The rhythm matters because consistency creates accountability.

Dashboard and Metrics

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
What data do you monitor daily?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I built my own dashboard called “State of the Union.”

I monitor:

• Revenue by source
• Geographic performance
• Pipeline creation
• Inbound vs outbound performance
• Partner-generated revenue
• Product-led vs sales-led motion

I also log into Webflow daily to understand:

• Traffic trends
• Homepage performance
• Pricing page engagement
• Product page engagement
• Referral sources

Staying Close to Customers

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
How deeply do you go into customer conversations?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
As deep as necessary.

I strongly believe you don’t truly understand something until you talk to customers.

When I create a messaging hypothesis, I’ll test it directly with customers within 24 hours.

That prevents strategy from becoming overly academic.

The Momentum Tour has been valuable because conversations in Paris, London, and Dubai continuously reshape the messaging based on what customers are experiencing.

Why Smaller Events Matter

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
I was surprised to see you attending smaller events. It feels unusual for someone in your role.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Smaller events often produce higher-quality conversations.

Right now, there’s no better place to understand change than by bringing leaders together and learning how they are adapting.

International Expansion and Local Presence

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
We saw an opportunity to create more success by bringing our teams closer to customers.

Being close to customers is how you:

• Learn faster
• Collaborate better
• Build trust

We’ve expanded teams across:

• London
• France
• Germany
• Nordic regions

Research we conducted showed that 91% of marketers identified their website as their most valuable marketing asset.

Because websites drive revenue, it’s important for us to support customers not just technologically—but strategically and locally.

Global Standards vs Local Innovation

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
How do you draw the line between global and local teams?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I like the phrase:

“Global standards, local innovation.”

The idea is:

• Create consistent global frameworks
• Allow local teams to adapt to market realities

For example, data about AI trends may be global—but how you communicate that message should be shaped by local customer conversations.

AI Differences Across Countries

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Different countries are experiencing AI differently. France doesn’t yet have AI Overviews in Google.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Exactly.

Some countries are already testing AI-native search experiences, while others are earlier in adoption.

That’s why local market understanding matters.

You need to think not only about where the market is today, but where it will be:

• In 3 months
• In 6 months
• In 12 months

Support, Marketing, and Local Expertise

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Do you approach global/local structure differently across marketing, support, and success?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Support is global and operates 24/7.

AI has improved support efficiency because it allows faster multilingual responses.

Marketing is more centralized, but revenue ownership requires local alignment.

For example:

• A sales leader for Europe must have marketing alignment
• Customer success requires regional expertise
• Solutions architects often need local specialization

Customers want to speak with people who understand their market realities.

Partnerships as a Growth Lever

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Partnerships seem to work especially well at Webflow. How do you think about them?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Agencies are not just software implementers.

They are strategic partners.

In a rapidly changing market, agencies provide:

• Specialized expertise
• Creative thinking
• Strategic guidance
• Technical execution

As AI evolves, implementation becomes easier—but creativity and strategy become more valuable.

We’ve built partnership success into:

• Team incentives
• Organizational structure
• Executive prioritization

That’s why partnerships are a strategic investment.

AI’s Impact on the Web

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
You sit on a lot of data. What do you see happening with AI and websites?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
One thing is becoming clear:

Websites are no longer built for humans alone.

We’ve seen:

• A 125% increase in AI crawler activity
• A 6× increase in conversion from LLM-driven traffic

This suggests users arriving from AI are more informed and further down the funnel.

The challenge becomes:

• How do we structure content for AI understanding?
• How do we create differentiated human experiences?
• How do we adapt websites for both audiences?

AI Strategy Framework

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
We think about AI through two lenses:

1. Owning the Answer

This includes:

• Authority
• Measurement
• Content
• Technical setup

2. Converting the Traffic

This means creating immersive experiences once users arrive.

Websites need to feel:

• Relevant
• Personalized
• Interactive
• Visually engaging

Why Wikipedia Became Less Relevant

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I realized recently that I don’t visit Wikipedia anymore.

The information still exists—but the experience hasn’t evolved.

AI provides answers faster.

This illustrates a broader truth:

Information alone is no longer enough.

Experience matters.

Are Websites Dead?

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
There’s a debate that websites are dying because of zero-click content. What’s your view?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
For websites to disappear entirely, you’d need a world where:

• AI no longer needs websites to learn
• Synthetic data replaces real web content
• Brands no longer need owned experiences

We’re far from that reality.

AI still depends on websites for understanding brands, products, and positioning.

What changes is the role of the website.

The website becomes:

• A structured source of truth for AI
• A branded experience for humans
• A dynamic environment for engagement

The Future of Marketing and Website Design

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Marketing is returning to first principles.

Clear messaging matters again.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
I agree.

The future rewards:

• Clear communication
• Strong user experiences
• Practical messaging
• Better digital design

AI will force companies to become more intentional.

Adrian’s Biggest Challenge

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
What is your biggest challenge today?

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Helping customers adapt to rapid change.

The rules are changing quickly.

Customers need help understanding:

• How LLM changes affect discoverability
• How websites should evolve
• How to structure content for AI

My focus is helping customers navigate uncertainty while remaining competitive.

Closing

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
Thank you very much, Adrian.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Thank you.

For anyone interested, we also created an AEO maturity model that benchmarks your website against trends we’re seeing across customers.

It provides practical recommendations and is freely available.

host—JORDAN CHENEVIER-TRUCHET:
I’ll include the link in the description.

guest—ADRIAN ROSENKRANZ—CRO at Webflow:
Perfect.