Don’t let your growth hire fail

Hi there 👋,

I’ve started noticing a unfortunate trend among growth hires… they tend not to last more than 6 - 18 months in a growth role. 

18 months is considered a long stint. Those who have managed to cling on that long are often revered in the company.

What’s your secret? How have you managed to avoid the curse of the growth hire? 

Rosie Hoggmascall, a fellow growth lead, and I got curious about this trend:- Why is this happening?- Where is it going wrong?

I had already explored some of the reasons in my article, “Why Head of Growth Hires go Wrong”. This partly comes down to poorly written job vacancies: vague, broad vacancies that lead to the wrong hire. 

It also stems from poor timing; growth hires are often hired at the wrong time, e.g. too early when the focus needs to be more on product-market fit. 

But we felt something more was missing… So we put on our detective hats and played Sherlock Holmes with some user interviews 🕵️.

Big shoutout to Rosie who conducted the majority of these interviews.

We spoke to 53 founders and growth leads to understand what was happening…and we think we found another crucial problem.

Here’s what we learned

A trend swiftly emerged that set apart the successful and unsuccessful hires:

Onboarding

Those that were successful either had:

1. A strong onboarding

2. Clear expectations for growth and their role

This wasn’t about just growth knowledge, but knowing the conversations to have, how to set things up and get those first wins.

Knowing how to avoid being pulled into the day-to-day fire-fighting, and instead work out what to do.

Knowing how to to build strong relationships and influence change, instead of pushing for everything to change too early.

So how can you solve this?

1. Founders: Set your onboarding up correctly

Take the time to design a strong onboarding for your new growth hire, this involves:

1. Getting the right meetings in place with key stakeholders

2. Organising existing learnings and data into one place

3. Not pushing too quickly for short-term growth but rather aiming for a clear growth strategy after 3-4 weeks 

There is more to it than that, but those are the three key starting points. A little bit of time upfront will save you hours down the line.

2. Growth hires: Make your own plan

Don’t assume you’ll get an organised onboarding, especially at a startup. Let’s be optimistic but also realistic. Before you start, consider:

1. What information you need to be successful

2. What questions to ask your new team members to understand their learnings and how to build relationships

3. How to balance building trust through a few quick wins whilst determining how to setup the organisation for long-term success

Come prepared with this list to avoid miscommunication down the line.

It’s too easy to dive straight in the weeds and realise too late that the measurement setup isn’t where it needs to be or that you are pushing something that has been tested before.

Recommendation

In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related resource to check out related to the week's topic.

As a founder, you’ll likely feel conflicted as you want to give your new hire a strong onboarding, but lack the time to figure it out extensively.

As a new growth hire, you want to be successful, but there is so much to do. What’s the priority? What’s the best road to follow first?

You’re not the only one feeling this way. That’s exactly why Rosie and I have created a 12-week onboarding checklist to cover those crucial first three months.

We outline what to do each week to remove all the noise and focus on what matters.

As a founder, you can give it to your new growth hire (or use it yourself!). As a growth hire, you can use it yourself to come prepared for success.

It’s just £29 with a 365-day money-back guarantee. Our goal is really to help new hires be successful.

If you have any questions about the Growth Onboarding Checklist, just hit reply.

Rosie and I poured over 100 hours of research, creation and feedback into it, so we’re excited to see what you think.

My approach to growth is always that focusing on the right foundational areas defines your success. 

Your growth lead is a key part of that, so don’t set them up for failure.

Daphne