Growth is a key component of what we do at the Studio. Loosely defined, Growth is the entirety of product, marketing and sales tactics to grow and retain the audience/users/payers of a given product over time. It is a new discipline that is central to the success of a startup, so consider it your job from now on. The internal process at OSS for growth is deeply iterative, as all things should be. Aim for a typical iteration of 2 to 3 weeks maximum, and all main deliverables up to date at any moment. All according to the plan, the Revenue part of your startup should never end, strategies and tools should be refined over time. Still, iteration must remain queen.
You will find lots of templates in this section that you can use - PLEASE DUPLICATE THEM AND MOVE IT TO YOUR PROPER NOTION SPACE BEFORE USING 🙂
It's not what you are, it's not what you do, it's the impact you have.
Nobody gives a damn about your feature coverage and your life story. What problem are you solving, and what value are you creating.
If you have data, we will decide according to the data. If you have an opinion, we will decide according to my opinion.
Only data is worth something. Everything is positional. Act accordingly, starting with having data.
It's a science, and it's also art. Talk to humans.
Automation matters. Technique matters. Human relationship and empathy skills matter even more. Be mindful of how you interact with your potential buyer and take great care of what they say to you. Be client centric, don’t fall in love with ideas, fall in love with solving problems for your customer.
Empathy beats suits and ties.
Nobody gives a damn about which school you were at, and your track record. Who's your buyer, and what does he want. Do not teach, sell. Do not patronize. Your buyer is someone who has real issues and problems and is dying for you to solve it.
Failing an experiment is fine. Failing to experiment is not.
Growth is highly dependent on context and advanced growth tactics are discovered before crafted. Do not copy and paste cute tricks. Experiment constantly and what was true before can be false after.
It's never too early to sell.
Do not be that engineer guy waiting to have everything perfect to start the growth journey of your startup. It's never too early to start and nurture growth, and as a rule of thumb it's always too late. Also : sell. Don’t “partner”, “free until (...)” or things like that. Sell.
Iteration beats planification for breakfast.
Stop overthinking everything. Just do iterations and stop complaining about lack of time / not mature enough product / whatever. Fill that pipe and be human about it. Also, strategies and tricks are only hypotheses until they work.
It's not the intern's job. It's your job.
Growth is your job as much as product and HR. It's an integral part of your company journey, so own it. No, you're not an expert, but starting now you are expected to become one. At least for the first million euro of your company. And no, you won’t “hire someone senior to do the sales”. It’s your job.
Sound beats fancy every day of the week.
Cute "growth hack" tricks from linkedin marketers selling their trainings could sound nice, but those guys are selling themselves, not impact. Your experiments are your experiments, not copy/pastes. There's no silver bullet and there's no substitute for thinking and experimenting. Do the work and try simple first.