The goal of any company with a valuable product is to scale adoption by qualified customers. This generally requires establishing a "north star metric" and managing growth against that metric. These slides show how you can build a core growth team that coordinates the efforts of the full company to drive sustainable growth. It is important that every idea be treated as a test. The more tests you run the more learning you gain for growing the company. But running a lot of tests requires a process that is explained in the slides.

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The Growth Team
Building the Ultimate Full Company Growth Team
Sean Ellis
Founder & CEO GrowthHackers
November 3, 2015

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Scaling Growth is Function of Process and Team
Team
Process

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But Many Products Not Yet Growth Worthy

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Sustainable Growth Requires “Must Have” Product
“How would you feel if you could no longer use this product?”
Very disappointed (40%+)
Somewhat disappointed
Not disappointed
N/A – I already stopped using

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Measure Growth with a North Star Metric
Reflects value delivered to your prospects/customers
Provides lens for measuring real growth and evaluating tests
Examples: Airbnb nights booked, Facebook MAU (monthly active users)
Captures several metrics (i.e. retention reflected in MRR and MAU)

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Everyone Impacts Growth
Marketing
& PR
External
Channels
Promise
1st Experience
Ongoing Experience
Sales
& BD
Acquisition
Activation
Revenue
Retention
Referral
Support &
Account
Mgmt
Product &
Dev

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Core Growth Team Drives Testing
Marketing
& PR
External
Channels
Promise
1st Experience
Ongoing Experience
Sales
& BD
Acquisition
Activation
Revenue
Retention
Referral
Support &
Account
Mgmt
Product &
Dev
Core
Growth
Team

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Building Core Growth Team
Start with a dedicated PM Growth
Rest of core growth team can
initially be ad hoc
Add other dedicated people as
needed to hit temp goals
Example roles: growth engineering,
designers, analysts, VP Prod, CEO

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Testing Drives Growth
Day 1 – No certainty how you will grow
More Testing = More Discovery
Rapid testing across all vectors
Acquisition Referral
Activation Revenue
Retention Resurrection

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Example: Twitter Accelerated Testing 2011

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Growth Team Needs an Effective Process
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning

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Unbridled Ideation
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning

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Grow a Large Backlog of Ideas

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Idea Inputs from External and Internal Experts
External Experts
Internal Experts
Ideas Tests Results
Core Growth Team Drives Process

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Prioritize Backlog
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning

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Formalize Ideas in an Experiment Document
Keep general contributor
ideas simple (no ICE)

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Compare Ideas by ICE Score

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Launch Tests
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
Tests
Capture
learning

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Weekly Growth Sprint Meeting Agenda
15 min: KPI review (how/why is north star metric trending?)
10 min: Review last week’s testing sprint (any issues?)
15 min: Key lessons learned from analyzed tests
15 min: Select tests for this week’s sprint
5 min: Check growth of idea backlog

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Choosing Right Tests to Launch
• Core growth team each nominate 2-3 tests
• Members pitch their nominated idea (30 seconds)
• Discuss, shortlist and choose tests

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Capture Learning
Unbridled
Ideation
Prioritize
backlog
Launch
tests
Capture
learning

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Capture Learning in Knowledge Base
Every test leads to learning
Organize learning for easy access

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Share Learning with Team and Participating Experts
External Experts
Internal Experts
Ideas Tests Results
Core Growth Team Drives Process

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Recap
• Goal: Sustainable growth of North Star Metric
• Engage full internal team for insights and ideas
• Include external experts for unique channel insights
• Test at high tempo, capture/share learning

25. @SeanEllis
Join GH Projects Private Beta
at Projects.GrowthHackers.com
Purpose-Built Growth Collaboration System:
1) Team Ideation 2) Prioritize Testing 3) Capture Learning