#GrowthDeck - Brian Balfour AMA by GrowthHackers

@_alexgu
So you have lots of experience on
growth, what are the most common
mistakes startups make on growth?
#GrowthMistakes
Presents
Brian Balfour on Growth
#GrowthDeck
VP of Growth @ Hubspot

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@_alexgu
@marcopetkovski
Question:
What are some of the most overrated
growth metrics being used today and
what are some of the most
underrated?
#GrowthMetric

A “North Star” Metric isn't one size fits all
across companies.
#GrowthMetric
@bbalfour

• Any metric not taking into account engagement or retention
is complete bullshit. i.e. Registrations, downloads, views, etc.
• Metrics like WAU, DAU, MRR, etc. are much better. However,
define the “active” part carefully.
• After you have a great North Star Metric, focus your
analytical power on figuring out all the inputs impacting the
North Star Metric and how you can influence them.
#GrowthMetric
@bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@slanoue
Question:
What advice would you give to your 25
year old self about getting started in the
field of customer acquisition and
growth?
#GrowthCareer

“Probably the number one piece of advice I would
give myself is to focus. Like a lot of curious
people I think I spread myself too thin”
# GrowthCareer
@bbalfour

So I would recommend three things:
1. Find a focus
2. Create and facilitate a "mastermind group”
3. Find an environment with a great coach, team and
set of resources that allow you to practice
#GrowthCareer
@bbalfour
“I think there is only so much practice you can do on
your own until you hit a ceiling. You need to be within
a company environment that lets you do that.”

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@ jsmith
Question:
If there was one thing a young startup
should focus on during its early growth,
what would you recommend them to
focus on?
#EarlyGrowth

“Without a doubt....RETENTION.”
“Retention is your growth foundation. You can't
build something great with a shaky foundation.”
# EarlyGrowth
@bbalfour

• The acquisition goal for early start up should be
to drive just enough traffic to validate retention
• If there was a second thing: think about Product
Channel fit. Because:
– Most high growth products scale from 1 or 2 channels
– Products are uniquely designed to fit for a specific
channel, i.e. Quora or Tripadvisor fit with search
#EarlyGrowth
@ bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@Kris_Kayyal
Question:
What lessons, learnings or a-ha
moments truly changed your entire
perspective on growth?
#GrowthMindset

“A conversation years ago with Andy Johns
when he said almost every company can be
expressed as a simple math equation”
“I always understood how to build pieces of the
equation but when he said that something clicked
and it brought together so many things I was
thinking about and already doing”
#GrowthMindset
@bbalfour

“The Why, How, What framework by Simon Sinek.”
“I use that framework in so many places. Landing
page design, copy for emails, content marketing
strategy, the list goes on.”
#GrowthMindset
@bbalfour

“AARRR framework by McClure. “
“After so many years I still use it on almost a daily
basis. Talk about long lasting impact!”
#GrowthMindset
@bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@amcinnes
Question:
I want to join a growth team where I
can learn from. What growth teams do
you think highly of in this regard in the
SF Bay Area?
#GrowthCareer

Some of the best growth teams in my opinion:
• Wealthfront
• Pinterest
• AirBnB
• Atlassian
#GrowthCareer
@bbalfour
• Uber
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Dropbox

Question:
What do you think is the biggest challenge
companies need to overcome when
implementing a growth team?
What is your recommendation for
overcoming it?
@SeanEllis
#GrowthTeam

I think the biggest challenges are:
1. Defining roles
2. Team structure
3. Ownership lines
#GrowthTeam
“The concept of ‘growth’ is still in its infancy. Most
organizations are still structured in the ‘old way’
where everything that touches growth lives in silos
vs being one cohesive unit.”

Three things to overcome challenges:
1. Buy in from CEO
2. Recruit from within
3. Give enough ownership to establish
momentum
#GrowthTeam
@bbalfour
“I unfortunately see so many cases where people
starting growth teams are starting from a point of
inevitable failure.”

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@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
Question:
Not every growth project is going to
be a home run, how have you been
successful in getting executive buy-in
and budget approval for the bigger
projects?
@acapland
#GrowthTeam

• Buy yourself months of time to make meaningful
impact
• Set expectations that there will be a lot of failures
but the important thing is about learning
• Get enough resources (people/money) to give
yourself a decent chance
• Get the ownership to influence the things you need
to influence
• Being ruthless about prioritization and finding early
wins.
#GrowthTeam
@ bbalfour

@morgan
Question:
How do you organize your
team/effort/time around tackling
different parts of the retention curve?
#GrowthTeam

#GrowthTeam
@bbalfour
“Ownership lines are never 100% clean. There is
always grey area.”

1. Our New User Experience team own everything from
"register" to activation during onboarding – Defined as the
“Aha Moment”
– This team is extremely important. A 1% improvement here typically
has bigger ROI than other areas.
2. Different product teams own product improvements that
drive Mid-Term and Long-Term retention
3. “Outgoing" channel teams (email, push, etc) are pulled out
of the product teams. It’s more of a marketing mindset in
the long term. These span all pieces of the retention curve.
#GrowthTeam
@bbalfour
But a few things...

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@luke__duncan
Question:
When you are deciding what key
metrics to focus on, what are some
criteria you use to select them?
#GrowthMetric

3 Steps to define Weekly Active User (WAU)
Step 1: Pick Unit of Value
Is your product built for a user, a company or a team?
Step 2: Decide Timeframe
How often does your audience need to use your product to get
the value you are trying to deliver, daily, weekly, monthly?
Step 3: Define "Active”
What action a user/team/company would take that indicates
your product is delivering real value?
In addition to WAU, also define a "Depth" metric, such as
actions per active user.
#GrowthMetric
@bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
@Ben_Slater
Question:
How far can we go with Content as a driver
of growth?
#ContentMarketing

#ContentMarketing
@bbalfour
“It Really Really Really Depends”
“For HubSpot content marketing deserves
most of the credit for getting us to the IPO”

Key factors why content worked for Hubspot:
1. The audience was right
– Our audience are marketers who consume and
share a ton of content. This is Product Channel fit.
2. The economics were aligned
– Content could generate enough leads to get us to
a $100M business. This won't work for Facebook
or a strict Enterprise company whose price points
are very different.
#ContentMarketing
@bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
Question:
What would you say to people who are
randomly seeking one magical
"growth hack"?
@paulmboyce
#GrowthMyths

“Growth is more about a new approach/mindset
and the implications on how you approach things
like roles, team structure, goal setting, etc.”
#GrowthMyths
@bbalfour

@_alexgu
#GrowthMistakes
Come join the conversation and find
more great AMA’s like Brian’s on:
www.GrowthHackers.com
@GrowthHackers
Growth Hackers

#GrowthDeck - Brian Balfour AMA by GrowthHackers

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#GrowthDeck - Brian Balfour AMA by GrowthHackers